1950 This Means Everlasting Life - A2Z.org

OPERATIONS AND GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT 169
So the twelve apostles of the Lamb were gobetweens
for the bestowal of the spirit's gifts .
8 Since this is so, it follows that when the apostles
passed off the earthly stage, the imparting of
miraculous gifts of the spirit passed away with
them . Paul called attention to this. He showed that
these miraculous gifts marked the infancy of the
Christian congregation . They were necessary for
its establishment, to prove that God's favor and
power had turned away from the unfaithful house
of natural Israel and now rested upon the Christian
congregation as the "Israel of God" . When
the congregation of spiritual Israel had become
firmly established on the twelve apostolic foundations
and had grown to maturity, the miraculous
gifts of its infancy would be needed no more and
would be put away. "But whether there are gifts
of prophesying, they will be done away with ;
whether there are tongues, they will cease ; whether
there is knowledge, it will be done away with .
For we have partial knowledge and we prophesy
partially; but when that which is complete arrives,
that which is partial will be done away with .
When I was a babe, I used to speak as a babe, to
think as a babe, to reason as a babe ; but now that
I have become a man, I have done away with the
traits of a babe." 1 Corinthians 13 :8-11, NW
This accounts for it that miraculous gifts of the
spirit are not bestowed upon the remnant today
of members of Christ's body .
8 . Why are its miraculous gifts not bestowed now?
9.
What deception does this knowledge put us on guard
against?