Summary
If you could gather four of the most thoughtful scholars in the gifts debate around a single table and let them make their best case, challenge each other's arguments, and respond to the pushback -- that is exactly what Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? delivers. Part of Zondervan's respected Counterpoints series, this book presents four distinct positions on whether and how the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit operate today, each defended by a scholar who actually holds that view. The result is the single best resource for understanding the breadth of serious Christian thought on one of the most divisive questions in the church.
The four views are: cessationist, open but cautious, third wave, and Pentecostal/charismatic. Each contributor writes a substantive essay presenting his position, and then each of the other three contributors writes a response. This format means that every argument faces cross-examination from scholars who disagree -- and the quality of interaction is remarkably high. The book does not just present positions in isolation; it forces them into conversation.
The Cessationist View: Richard B. Gaffin Jr.
Richard Gaffin, a respected Reformed theologian from Westminster Theological Seminary, presents the cessationist case with philosophical precision and exegetical care. Gaffin's argument is not the populist cessationism of pulpit polemics but the careful, nuanced position of a biblical theologian who takes the text seriously and reaches his conclusions through sustained engagement with the redemptive-historical framework.
Gaffin's core argument is that the miraculous gifts -- particularly prophecy, tongues, and healing -- were tied to the foundational era of the church. He draws heavily on Ephesians 2:20, which describes the church as built on the foundation of apostles and prophets, with Christ as the cornerstone. A foundation, Gaffin notes, is laid once. The apostles and prophets served a unique, unrepeatable role in establishing the church and producing the New Testament canon. The gifts that accompanied their ministry were signs of their apostolic authority, and once that authority was established and the canon was complete, the signs were no longer needed.
Gaffin also engages 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 carefully. He argues that while "the perfect" likely refers to the eschaton (Christ's return), the cessation of the gifts is not a sudden event at the Second Coming but a gradual process that began with the close of the apostolic era. He distinguishes between the Spirit's ongoing work (illumination, sanctification, assurance) and the extraordinary gifts that served the foundational period. His cessationism is not a denial of the Spirit's activity but a claim about the specific modality of that activity.
The Open But Cautious View: Robert L. Saucy
Robert Saucy of Talbot School of Theology presents a position that many evangelicals privately hold but few articulate with this kind of clarity. Saucy is not a cessationist -- he does not believe the Bible teaches that miraculous gifts have permanently ceased. But neither is he a thoroughgoing continuationist. He believes that God can and does work miraculously today, that the Spirit can give prophetic impressions and healing, but that the church should approach these phenomena with significant caution.
Saucy's caution stems from several concerns. First, he observes that the New Testament miraculous gifts were closely associated with the apostolic ministry and the authentication of new revelation. While he does not draw as hard a line as Gaffin, he believes that the gifts may function differently in the post-apostolic era than they did in the foundational period. Second, he is concerned about the practical effects of an uncritical embrace of the gifts. He has seen churches torn apart by claims of prophecy, tongues, and healing that proved to be false, manipulative, or divisive.
Saucy's position is essentially pastoral. He argues that the best approach is a humble openness to whatever God wants to do, combined with a rigorous commitment to testing all things by Scripture, maintaining doctrinal priorities, and not making the gifts the centerpiece of church identity. He wants churches that are neither cessationist fortresses nor charismatic free-for-alls but mature, discerning communities that hold truth and experience in tension.
The Third Wave View: C. Samuel Storms
Sam Storms presents the third wave position, which he describes as a full continuationism grounded in Reformed theology. The "third wave" label, originally coined by C. Peter Wagner, refers to a renewal movement that embraces the continuation of all spiritual gifts but distinguishes itself from both classical Pentecostalism and the mainline charismatic renewal. Third wave believers do not typically hold to a distinct "baptism of the Holy Spirit" as a second experience after conversion, and they tend to emphasize the integration of gifts with robust theology rather than treating the gifts as an end in themselves.
Storms argues that there is no exegetical basis for cessationism. He examines the key cessationist proof texts -- 1 Corinthians 13:8-10, Ephesians 2:20, and Hebrews 2:3-4 -- and argues that none of them actually teach the cessation of gifts. He engages with Gaffin's redemptive-historical argument and contends that it proves too much: if the foundational nature of the apostolic era means that gifts cease, it should also mean that other features of apostolic church life (prayer, worship, evangelism, suffering) are equally unrepeatable, which nobody argues.
Storms builds a positive case for continuationism on several pillars: the lack of any biblical text predicting cessation, the expectation of gifts continuing until Christ's return (1 Corinthians 1:7), the universal distribution of the Spirit to all believers (not just apostles), and the testimony of church history, which includes reports of miraculous phenomena in every century.
The Pentecostal/Charismatic View: Douglas A. Oss
Douglas Oss presents the classical Pentecostal position, which goes beyond the third wave view in one critical respect: the doctrine of a distinct baptism in the Holy Spirit subsequent to conversion, typically evidenced by speaking in tongues. This is the position of the Assemblies of God, the Church of God in Christ, and other Pentecostal denominations that have shaped the largest and fastest-growing segment of global Christianity.
Oss argues that the book of Acts presents a pattern in which believers receive the Spirit at conversion but then experience a subsequent filling or empowerment of the Spirit that is accompanied by tongues and other manifestations. He points to Acts 2 (Pentecost), Acts 8 (the Samaritan believers), Acts 10 (Cornelius), and Acts 19 (the Ephesian disciples) as establishing this pattern. He contends that the Pentecostal experience is not a second-class spiritual event but a normative part of the Christian life that empowers believers for witness and service.
The interaction between Oss and the other contributors is illuminating. Storms agrees with Oss on most points but pushes back on the idea that tongues is the necessary initial evidence of Spirit baptism. Saucy expresses sympathy for the experiential dimension of Oss's theology but worries about the subjectivism it can invite. Gaffin provides a thorough cessationist rebuttal, arguing that the Acts passages describe unique, unrepeatable events in salvation history rather than a normative pattern for all believers.
The Value of the Four-Views Format
What makes this book indispensable is not any single essay but the conversation between them. Each contributor is forced to engage with the strongest version of the opposing argument, not a straw man. The reader sees where the positions genuinely differ and where they surprisingly overlap. All four contributors affirm the authority of Scripture. All four believe in the reality of the spiritual realm. All four want the church to be faithful to God's Word. They disagree -- sometimes sharply -- about what faithfulness looks like in practice, but the disagreement is conducted with mutual respect and exegetical seriousness.
For pastors and church leaders, this book provides something rare: a map of the entire theological landscape on the gifts question. After reading it, you may not have changed your position, but you will understand the other positions far better than before -- and you will be better equipped to lead your congregation through one of the most persistent and consequential debates in church life.