Ministry is about service. Service is about people. Harvest Bible Church believes in serving people. We believe that all who profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior have been granted at least one spiritual gift by which God works through to bring about His Own glory. We picture the Christian life inside and outside the church walls as a car with parts. Each part serves its purpose, and without the smallest of parts the car doesn’t perform properly. So it is in the Christian life. All Christians have gifts in which to serve, and when they all serve together it is a finely tuned and well-oiled machine. We believe that each Christian must find his/her gift and use it faithfully to serve the Lord God.

There are three categories of spiritual gifts in the Bible: the speaking gifts, the gifts of service, and the sign gifts.

Speaking Gifts – First Peter 4:11 places the speaking gifts under the general heading of "prophecy." This gift does not necessarily mean predicting the future but proclaiming the truth. According to 1 Corinthians 14:3, the one with the gift of prophecy "edifies, exhorts, and consoles." The speaking gifts, as a minimum, include the following:

1. Teaching: This is simply to communicate in a clear and defined way so as to portray God’s Word with the goal of producing an understanding and love for God’s Truth. Teaching is to clarify God’s Word (1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11).
2. Exhortation: To argue God’s case before men with the goal of motivating them to obey the truth and to encourage them in their obedience. Exhortation is application of the truth that came through teaching (Romans 12:8; 1 Cor. 14:3).
3. Consolation: To give hope and comfort to others in settings such as small groups and/or one on one counseling (1 Corinthians 14:3).
4. Evangelism: Making the core message of salvation, Jesus Christ, clear to the unsaved. This gift is given in abundance to some as some see much more fruit than others, but it is the responsibility of all Christians (Ephesians 4:11; 2 Timothy 4:4).

Gifts of Service – Serving the Lord is not something that is just done by preachers and evangelists, those whom everyone sees. Ministry is not complete, nor is it completely possible, without those who work behind the scenes. Gifts of Service is the second gift mentioned in 1 Peter 4:11, and people who work with these gifts are known as "deacons" or "ministers." Both words mean "one who serves." What this means is that all who call themselves Christians are ministers – not just the preacher. First Peter 4:10 says that all Christians are called to be ministers. These gifts include:

1. Faith: This is a special gift of insight and trust beyond that common to all Christians. It might be characterized by living consistently on the frontier of God’s promises and seeing abundant fruit in prayer (1 Cor. 12:9).
2. Helps: This is the ability to discern needs without being told and a strong desire to lend a helping hand in physical tasks for the sake of the body of believers and individuals (1 Cor. 12:28).
3. Mercy: This is characterized by and extraordinary love and compassion for those who are unlovely or unlovable as it were. This gift comes with a self-sacrificing desire to help these kinds of individuals through any and all circumstances in their lives (Romans 12:28).
4. Giving: The ability to see a financial need and a strong desire to share in one’s material possessions for the sake of God’s Kingdom. It typifies the "going above the call of duty" with no ulterior or selfish motives (Romans 12:8).
5. Administration: This is the ability to work in harmony with others even when others don’t work at the same pace or under the same guidelines. It is the ability to organize efficiently the workings of the church and is practiced diligently so that the work of the church is not done in a haphazard way (1 Cor. 12:28; Romans 12:8).

Sign Gifts – This is a category of gifts that were especially related to the accreditation of the apostles who were the first ministers of the good news about Jesus Christ to a skeptical and unbelieving world. The Apostle Paul says that through him were done the "signs of the Apostles" (2 Cor. 12:12), and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews claims that when the Gospel had been brought to his readers from the first generation of believers, it had been accompanied by "signs and wonders and by various miracles and by distributions of the Holy Spirit according to His own will" (Hebrews 2:4). These gifts can be divided into two categories:

1. The Gifts of Indirect Power. These gifts confirmed the one giving the message and the message itself that he preached.

• Healings (1 Cor. 12:9) The restoration of the sick back to health. This gift is selectively practiced even within the New Testament. It seems to have gradually faded away even during the life of the Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 4:20; 1 Tim. 5:23; 2 Corinthians 12:7-8).
• Miracles (1 Cor. 12:28) This gifts includes works of power, even the raising of the dead (Acts 20:9-12).

1. Gifts of Direct Revelation: These gifts made known the will of God before the completion of the New Testament which completed the Word of God for today (Rev. 22:18; Hebrews 1:1-2).

• Knowledge: (1 Cor. 12:8) This is the insight into truths directly ministered by the Holy Spirit, and
• Wisdom: (1 Cor. 12:8) This is the application of those truths to life. These two gifts may be what Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 13:2 in relationship to the understanding of mysteries which had hitherto been unrevealed. For believers today, James 1:5 promises wisdom to anyone who asks for it.
• Prophecy: (1 Cor. 12:10) This is prediction of the future and the revelation of a direct message from God. There was a class of prophets in the NT who served as God’s spokesmen (Eph. 4:11), but Ephesians 2:20 suggests that this class of men passed from the scene along with the Apostles, for when the canon of the NT was complete God’s prophecy was complete. This is why Revelation 22:18 specifically forbids adding to the prophecies of that book, and the book of Revelation covers the period of time from the end of the first century to the age of eternity.
• Tongues: (1 Cor. 14:22) This is the ability to speak in a n unlearned language as a sing to the unsaved. The apostle here specifically calls tongues a sign, and the pattern for its use was unveiled on the Day of Pentecost: "Each one heard in his own dialect (Acts 2:6). The Apostle concedes in 1 Cor. 14 that the Corinthians are using tongues differently, but this chapter is not a prescription for the use of tongues but a proscription for the misuse of tongues. The purpose of tongues is not to bring a believer closer to God, rather, it is a sign to the unsaved, just as all of the gifts are given for the "common good" (1 Cor. 12:7), none simply for the individual good.
• Interpretation: (1 Cor. 12:30) This gift is the ability to translate unlearned languages. Translations can be checked by the normal rules of grammar for any language. When God spoke to men His message was clear and intelligible, and the content was the same for all who heard or read and understood the language.

*** Note on Tongues: The gift of tongues is called a sign (1 Cor. 14:22). The Lord Jesus said that the necessity of signs was due to disbelief (Matt. 11:39, 1 Cor. 1:22), and the gift of tongues was predicted specifically as a sign resulting from and directed toward the unbelief of Israel (1 Cor. 14:21; Isaiah 28:11).

Tongues were not meant to minister to believers but to unbelievers (1 Cor. 14:22), and the tongues given on the Day of Pentecost were foreign languages (Acts 2:8) not ecstatic utterances that only God could understand. In the book of Acts, tongues were given only in the presence of the Jews (Acts 2, 10:46, 19:6). Even at that time tongues were not for all believers (1 Cor. 12:30) just as miracles and healings were not required of all believers. The gift of tongues as God gave it on the Day of Pentecost was an incontrovertible miracle, unexplained by psychological phenomena, whereas that which sometimes passes for tongues today is an experience common to all non-Christian sects and non-Christian religions.

Finally, tongues is one the gifts that was labeled as temporary along with prophecy and knowledge (1 Cor. 13:8). However, the text does not state at what time they should cease. The original language (Greek) of that verse, however, does say that tongues would die out of its own accord, whereas the other two gifts would be cut off. A closer look at the Greek text is very insightful.

First Corinthians 13:8 in the English text reads, "Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, the will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away." The entire context of the passage at hand deals with love, and love is said to never fail. The word for "fail" has the basic meaning of falling, like a tree that loses its leaves. They fall to the ground, wither and die. "Never" refers to time, and the idea conveyed here is that at no time ever will love fall, wither, and die. It simply won’t ever happen. This makes sense in the context of God because the very essence of God is love. Since God is eternal, and He is love, then love cannot fail or pass away.

Now the Apostle Paul compares love’s permanence with the impermanence of three spiritual gifts, namely, prophecy, tongues, and knowledge. These three will eventually disappear while love will always remain. However, of these three gifts there are two distinct verbs used to express their cessation. For prophecy and knowledge, they will be done away; for tongues, they will cease. It should be noted here with such a controversial topic that when topics are this controversial it should go without saying that we take our view simply from what the Bible teaches. In this case the English text does not help and only brings confusion. Therefore, the doctrine must be explained using the Greek text in the form in which the New Testament was originally written.

When the text says that knowledge and prophecy will be "done away" the Greek verb behind this is katargeo. It simply means to "reduce to inactivity" or to "abolish." What this ultimately says is that these two gifts will one day be made inoperative. The fact that they will "be made" inoperative in keeping with the passive verb form of these two words. The passive form of the verb means that something or someone will cause them to stop. Verse 10 tells us that that thing is "the perfect." When the perfect appears these two gifts will be "done away."

When the text says that tongues will "cease" it comes from the verb pauo which means to "stop, come to an end." Unlike the previous verbs in the passive voice this verb is in the middle voice, and when it is used of persons it indicates an intentional and voluntary action upon oneself. When used of inanimate objects it indicates a reflexive and self-causing action. In this case it would stop from within. Tongues, therefore, have a built-in stopping place. That gift will "stop by itself" Paul says. It’s like a tank of gas in one’s car. When it runs out of gas, it is out. So, prophecy and knowledge will be stopped by someone or something, but tongues will stop itself.

Now the question becomes as to when will these gifts actually end. Prophecy and knowledge will end when the perfect comes (v. 10), and the perfect has not come. Therefore these two gifts are still in place. Tongues, however, is not mentioned with reference to when the "perfect comes." They will cease prior to the other two as they are not stopped by the same thing that stops tongues. Given that tongues are a sign gift for unbelievers (1 Cor. 14:22) prior to the writing of the New Testament, it is evident that they were meant to solidify the message of the apostles. They gave their message credibility because they were miraculous in their nature. Simply put, they were useful in that time because the apostles had no written revelation to back their claims about Christ and His resurrection. Today, the Bible represents what Christ said, and it is the authoritative message we use to convince would-be believers about his Lordship. Tongues are simply not needed as signs of the testimony of Christ.

MacArthur lists six reasons why he believes the gift of tongues has ceased completely. First, as a sign gift, along with healing and miracles, tongues ceased to operate following the completion of the New Testament. God still performs miracles, but the Bible records only three periods in history where miracles actually occurred. The first of those periods was during the time of Moses and Joshua (circa 1400 BC), the second during the time of Elijah and Elisha (circa 850 BC), and the third during the time of Jesus and the apostles. Each period lasted about 70 years and then abruptly ended. The only other age of miracles will be during the millennial kingdom, and the miracles described during this time period are "the powers of the age to come" (Hebrews 6:5). The last miracle recorded in the Bible where God worked directly through one individual occurred around the year AD 58 (Acts 28:8). From that time until around AD 96, when John completed the New Testament (the writing of Revelation), not a single miracle of that sort is mentioned.

The time period when the New Testament was being written was a time period for confirmation of the Word as given by Jesus to his disciples, of offering the Kingdom to Israel, and of giving a taste of that Kingdom to all. When Israel rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ and his Kingdom it was "impossible to renew them again to repentance" (Heb. 6:6). Consequently, the gospel was then offered to the Gentiles. Christ’s teaching had been confirmed to all through the giving of signs and miracles – gifts of the Holy Spirit (Heb. 2:3-4). Now the Hebrews epistle was written sometime around AD 68, and the writer speaks of this confirmation (the giving of gifts by the Holy Spirit) in the past tense. This means that to him the signs, wonders, and miracles had ceased as they were uniquely tied to the apostles. This makes sense because once the apostles died the firsthand knowledge of Christ’s words died with them. It was therefore necessary for it to be written down for future generations. This is why we believe their writings, the Scriptures, are inspired – God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16). They are trustworthy in that they were not only written by eyewitnesses but inspired by God’s Holy Spirit. There is now therefore no need for further revelation from men, for we have all we need with the Scriptures.

The second evidence that tongues ended with the death of the apostles according to MacArthur is that its purpose as a judicial sign of Israel’s judgment ceased to apply at that time. The Jews have been judged already, and tongues were a sign to them as unbelievers. When the Roman General Titus destroyed the Jewish Temple in AD 70 he destroyed Judaism. The Jews were longer able to carry out their sacrifices, and the Jewish priesthood was destroyed. Given this, from that day to the present the Jews have been unable to fulfill the requirements of the Old Covenant. When this occurred it was no longer necessary for God to carry out this judicial sign, namely, speaking in tongues. It no longer had any value, and there continues to be no need for this sign today that God is moving from Israel to the world.

Third, the gift of tongues ceased because they were an inferior means of edification. When performed properly they had the ability to edify in a limited way (1 Cor. 14:5; 12-13; 27-28). First Corinthians 14 shows that tongues were an inferior means of communication (vv. 1-12), an inferior means of praise (vv. 13-19), and an inferior means of evangelism (vv. 20-25). Though tongues was an inferior method, prophecy was superior in every way (vv. 1, 3-6, 24, 29, 31, 39). Five words that are spoken in an intelligent way are far more valuable than "ten thousand words spoken in a tongue" (v. 19).

Fourth, the gift of tongues has ceased because its purpose as a confirming sign of apostolic authority and doctrine ended when the NT was completed. Genuine tongues-speaking involved direct revelation of God to the speaker, though it was veiled revelation that always needed translation or interpretation, often even to the speaker himself (1 Cor. 14:27-28). Revelation of God's Word was completed, however, when the NT was completed, and to that nothing is to be added or subtracted (Rev. 22:18-19). The confirming purpose of tongues was completed.

Fifth, the gift of tongues has evidently ceased because, since the apostolic age, it has reappeared only spasmodically and questionably throughout nineteen centuries of church history. There is nothing written about tongues by the early church Fathers, and Clement of Rome wrote a letter to the Corinthian church in the year AD 95 – four decades after Paul had originally written them. Clement makes no mention of tongues in speaking of the problems in the church which might indicate that both the use and misuse of that gift had ceased. Further, Justin Martyr in all his voluminous writings makes no mention of tongues, and he even has several lists of the spiritual gifts in his writings. The great theologian, Origin, who lived during the third century makes no mention of tongues, and in his great polemic against Celsus he explicitly argues that the sign gifts of the apostolic age were temporary and not practiced by Christians in his day. John Chrysostom, who was among the greatest post NT writers and preachers, (347-407) when writing about 1 Corinthians 12, states that tongues and the other miraculous gifts not only had ceased but could not even be accurately defined. Even St. Augustine in commenting on Acts 2:4 wrote, "In the earliest times the Holy Spirit fell on them that believed and they spoke with tongues. These were signs adapted to that time, for there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit. That thing was done for the betokening, and it passed away."

The historians and theologians of the early church were unanimous in their assessment of the place of tongues: they ceased to exist after the death of the apostles. The one exception was a man named Montanus, a second century heretic who believed that divine revelation continued on through him beyond the New Testament.

So we can see that both exegetically and historically the gift of tongues has not only run its course and ceased, it simply has no use in modern day. In sum, and as the policy of Harvest Bible Church, we maintain that the gift of tongues has ceased, it has run its course. There is simply no reliable evidence today, either biblically or historically, of the miraculous gift of speaking in foreign and unlearned languages as evidence of being baptized by the Holy Spirit. Whatever is labeled as tongues by those who propose to have the gift is not what the biblical record consistently labels as the gift of tongues.