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Critical Analysis of Enns' section on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

1.      Introduction

According to 1 Corinthians 12:11, gifts of the Holy Spirit are defined as gifts that are given to individuals by the Holy Spirit at their conversion time for the purpose of glorifying God[1]. Within the Systematic Theology section, Enns clarifies more about these gifts of the Holy Spirit covering several of them. I will thus examine the conclusion made by Enns about spiritual gifts and later give my opinion about that conclusion.

2. A Brief Critical Analysis about Enns’ Conclusion on the gifts of the Holy Spirit

While referring to spiritual gifts, Enns considers apostle, healing, administration, discerning spirits, miracles, service, tongues, giving, evangelism, helps, faith, prophet, pastor-teacher, showing mercy, exhortation, wisdom, interpretation of tongues and knowledge as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. On these, Enns presents that apostle, wisdom miracles, healing, tongues, prophet, interpretation of tongues, discerning spirits and knowledge have ceased to be given to individuals by the Holy Spirit upon their conversion[2]. By a closer examination, it is notable that these gifts that Enn argues have stopped are what he designates as the signs of gifts, a concept referred to as cessationism. In his discussion, he tries to bring to light whether these sign gifts ceased during the era of the first century church or they are still existing to this 21^st century. On this, I disagree since by Jesus word in Matthew 28:19 and Joel 2: 23 talk of the Holy Spirit being manifested in the latter years of the world.

 Going by his personal conclusion about cessationism, it would be hard to look at every sign gift and infer that one exists while another is non-existent. This is because one could debate that nearly all these sign gifts are together linked by either being tied to revelation or the first century church’s foundation or the canon or they are not. For example, if they are dependent upon or linked to historical evidences, then it is possible to conclude that these sign gifts have ceased however, if they are not dependent on those historical evidences then chances are that these sign gifts are existent to-date[3].

Expounding about these sign gifts, Enns presents that these gifts are dependent upon each other and that they are related to church foundation in the first century. This implies that there is no need for prophecy. I don’t agree to the fact that there is no need of prophecy when in Revelation 1, the bible says that it is through the word of prophecy that people get to know what is about to happen and the biddings of Christ o how we can prepare ourselves before and during such times.  However, while Enns makes this conclusion, he always avoids the argument of the non-cessationalist just as he did about the gift of Apostle. Regarding this case, Enns states: The word apostle is applied in a broad sense of a messenger in Christ’s cause. This sabotages his own argument[4]. Clearly, there might have been a difference if he discussed from both sides of the argument about cessationalist, nonetheless he chose the cessation side. By this statement, it is possible to redefine sign gifts and how they were manifested after the first century. This makes it very hard to agree or disagree with Enns’ opinions on cessationism.

3.      Conclusion

 Going by the substantiation presented, I would conclude that I agree, though partly, with the conclusions by Enns. For one reason, for every conclusion that he made, he had adequate scriptural support. For example, since it is not possible to tell where these sign gifts were after the first century, there is high probability to conclude that they had ceased. Paul, in Ephesians 2:20, states that upon the foundation of the prophets and apostle was the apostolic church built, which Enns’ arguments agrees with. Further, Augustine several centuries ago, after the first century, concluded that speaking in tongues was suitable for the early church, nonetheless it was never manifested during his time[5]. Thus it can be concluded that those who claim the manifestation of the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit after the first century have always been on the borders of orthodoxy.

Taking into consideration the Christians concerned about God’s sovereignty, by concluding that these sign gifts stopped after the first century subtracts naught from the majesty and power of God. Enns states that miracles still exist in the today’s world[6]. Even though they are never performed by persons, they are revealed via the power of the Holy Spirit through the prayers by persons. Additionally, it would be easy to debate that those who have belief on these gifts are still present and  believe so through a re-defining of the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit in just slightly different way from that of a cessationalist. This may necessitate an in-depth understanding of the books of 1 Corinthians and Romans. Either way, God’s capability to perform miracles has not ceased except that the media that He uses may be different.

[1] Gaffin, Richard B. Perspectives on Pentecost: Studies in New Testament Teaching on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co, 1979.

[2] Corder, Susanna. Reasons Why Christian Women Should Exercise the Gifts of the Holy Spirit Particularly in Reference to the Ministry of the Gospel. Lindfield: Printed by W. Eade, 1839.

[3] Ketterling, Oliver Raymond. A New Testament Study of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit with Special Reference to the Wesleyan Doctrine of Entire Sanctification. 1951.

[4] Gaffin, Richard B. Perspectives on Pentecost: Studies in New Testament Teaching on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co, 1979.

[5] Jenson, Robert W. Systematic Theology. Volume 2 Volume 2. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

[6] Ketterling, Oliver Raymond. A New Testament Study of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit with Special Reference to the Wesleyan Doctrine of Entire Sanctification. 1951.