The underlying word suggests 'complete', and points to quantity, rather than the quality.......
When 'the PERFECT(complete) Law of Liberty' is here, these 'partial' things will cease..........
HEB 9 the way into the Holy Place is hindered as long as the tabernacle is standing..........
We have the perfect Law of Liberty, the gifts are no longer needed.......
What ever the gifts provide, if they continue, is either more than Scripture, Less than Scripture, or the same as Scripture........ whichever, they are no longer needed....
Paul says 'we have been given everything pertaining to life and Godliness', in the first century... but the temple was still a hindrance in some fashion....
Christians are indeed the Temple of GOD, and HE with the Spirit dwells in us.........
But, I have yet to meet a man that has or possesses the miraculous gifts of the Spirit....... though several have claimed to.
...Faith without hearing
...Knowledge without study
...and any of the other miraculous gifts
IMHU
Thanks for taking time to answer my question. What do you say about Ephesians 4:11-13
"And He gave some apostles, and some prophets and some evangelists, and some pastors and teacher for the equipping of the holy ones for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ."?
From AD30 to 70, or there abouts, the church was 'under construction', beginning on Pentecost and 'fully formed' by the destruction of the Temple.
For the first 20 years +/- Truth was laid out by the miraculous, Apostles, prophets, and likely possessed in some measure by the remainder.
IMHO, beginning with the letter sent out from the Jerusalem Conference, roughly 50AD, and contained in Acts 15, Truth began to be written down, and preserved, to the point where the miraculous would no longer be necessary....
I know of only one sect that claims to have present day apostles, there are many that claim to have prophets, and some that claim revelations, presumably of 'new' truth, there are certainly evangelists and teachers in all.
Paul lays out in Titus and Timothy the need for elders or pastors, shepherds..... and that without them the church is 'lacking, or not in order'........ their duty and work is shown in several passages...
If the written word is authoritative and complete, the miraculous is no longer necessary..... And Paul points out a time when that would be, though not a specific 'date and time'.....
As an aside I believe the letter, contained in Acts 15, to be the first NT pen to paper Scripture. It doesn't matter whether it was first or not, I just think it was....
In the 7 churches I think we see mature churches..... problems???? Absolutely. And shortly after, the destruction of the temple, there was no 'going back'............
IMHU....
"...A man's rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box..." Frederick Douglass, 1867
