The Duration of Prophecy: How Long Will Prophecy Be Used in the Church? (Part 1) by Wayne A. Grudem

Part 1 of Professor Grudem’s exegetical study of 1 Corinthians 13. The Duration of Prophecy: How Long Will Prophecy Be Used in the Church?

Introduction

Many people reading this study have never seen the gift of prophecy functioning in their local church. In fact, outside of the charismatic movement and certain traditionally Pentecostal denominations, this gift is not now used and has not been used in recent history—for many churches, it has not been used in the history of their denominations.

Why not?

Is the non-use of this gift part of God’s plan for the church? Was this gift only to be used during the New Testament time, then to fade away? Or is this gift still valid for use today, still valuable for the church—and perhaps even necessary if the church is to function the way God intends it to function?

This is the question of the duration of prophecy. Can we solve this question by examining the New Testament? In the New Testament itself, are there indications of how long God expected prophecy to function in the church?

On the one side of this question are charismatic and Pentecostal Christians who continue to use this gift, and who say it is valid for the entire church age.

On the other side are some Reformed and dispensational Christians who say that prophecy was one of the special gifts associated with the foundation of the church at the time of the apostles, and that it was expected to cease functioning at a very early date, either around the time of the deaths of the last apostles or at the time that the writing of the books of New Testament Scripture was complete. Their view is commonly called the cessationist view.

Probably in the middle are most contemporary evangelicals—neither charismatics nor cessationists but still undecided about this question, and wondering if it can be decided clearly.

The discussion of this question turns on two main points: (1) the meaning of 1 Corinthians 13:8-13, and (2) the theological question of the relationship between the gift of prophecy and the written Scriptures of the New Testament. We shall examine these two points in order.

The Interpretation of 1 Corinthians 13:8-13

This passage is important to the discussion because in it Paul mentions the gift of prophecy as something that is “imperfect,” and then says that what is “imperfect” will “pass away” (1 Cor. 13:10). He even says when this will happen. It will happen “when the perfect comes.” But when is that? And even if we can determine when that is, does that mean Paul had in mind something that would answer this “cessation” question for the church today?

We can begin by reading the passage again in full:

(8) Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. (9) For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; (10) but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. (11) When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. (12) For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. (13) So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:8-13, RSV).

The purpose of 1 Corinthians 13:8-13

Our earlier analysis of the structure of 1 Corinthians 12–14 [Editor’s Note: Please see The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, Revised Edition by Wayne A. Grudem.] showed that Paul interrupts his discussion of spiritual gifts with chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians, in which he intends to put the entire discussion of gifts in proper perspective. It is not enough simply to “seek the greater gifts” (1 Cor. 12:31a). One must also “seek after love” (1 Cor. 14:1), thus coupling proper goals with proper motives. Without love, the gifts are without value (1 Cor. 13:1-3). In fact, Paul argues, love is superior to all the gifts and therefore it is more important to act in love than to have any of the gifts.

In order to show the superiority of love, Paul argues that it lasts forever, whereas the gifts are all temporary (1 Cor. 13:8). Verses 9-12 further explain why the gifts are temporary. Our present knowledge and prophesying are partial and imperfect (v. 9), but someday something perfect will come to replace them (v. 10). This is explained by the analogy of a child who gives up childish thought and speech for the thought and speech of an adult (v. 11). Paul then elaborates further on verses 9-10 by explaining that our present perception and knowledge are indirect and imperfect, but that someday they will be direct and perfect (v. 12).

In this argument Paul connects the function of prophecy with the time of its cessation. It fills a certain need now, but does so only imperfectly. When “the perfect” comes, that function will be better fulfilled by something else, and prophecy will cease because it will be made obsolete or useless (this is the probable nuance of the Greek term katargeō, “pass away,” used here in verses 8 and 10).

So the overall function of 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 is to show that love is superior to gifts such as prophecy because those gifts will pass away but love will not pass away.

1 Corinthians 13:10: The cessation of prophecy when Christ returns

Paul writes in verse 10, “But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away” (1 Cor. 13:10, rsv). The phrase “the imperfect” (Greek ek merous, “partial, imperfect”) refers most clearly to knowing and prophesying, the two activities that are said to be done partially, imperfectly in verse 9 (also using in both cases the same Greek phrase, ek merous). To bring out this connection, we could translate,

(8) Love never fails. Whether there be prophecies, they will pass away; whether there be tongues, they will cease; whether there be knowledge it will pass away.

(9) This is because we know imperfectly and we prophesy imperfectly—(10) but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.

Thus, the strong links between the statements are made clear by the repetition of two key terms, “pass away” and “imperfect.”

No doubt Paul also intended tongues to be included in the sense of verse 9 as among those activities that are “imperfect,” but he omitted overly pedantic repetition for stylistic reasons. Yet tongues must be understood as part of the sense of verse 9, for verse 9 is the reason for verse 8, as the word “for” (Greek gar) shows. Thus verse 9 must give the reason why tongues, as well as knowledge and prophecy, will cease. In fact, the repeated “whether . . . whether . . . whether” in verse 8 suggests that Paul could have listed more gifts here (wisdom, healing, interpretation?) if he had wished. But for our purposes it is sufficient that “the imperfect” in verse 10 clearly includes the gift of prophecy. (As we saw in chapter 5, Paul considers prophecy to be imperfect [ek merous] because it gives only partial knowledge of the subjects it treats, because the revelation a prophet receives is indirect and limited, and because the revelation is often difficult to understand or interpret.)

So 1 Corinthians 13:10 means, “When the perfect is come prophecy will pass away.” The only remaining problem is to determine what time is meant by the word “when.” Several factors in the context argue that the time of the Lord’s return is the time Paul has in mind.

(a) First, the word “then” (Greek tote) in verse 12 refers to the time “when the perfect is come” in verse 10. This is evident from looking at the verse: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know even as I have been known” (1 Cor. 13:12).

When shall we see “face to face”? When shall we know “even as we have been fully known”? These events can only happen when the Lord returns.

The phrase “see face to face” is used several times in the Old Testament to refer to seeing God personally. See, for example, Genesis 32:30 and Judges 6:22 (exactly the same Greek wording as 1 Cor. 13:12); Deuteronomy 5:4; 34:10; Ezekiel 20:35 (very similar wording); Exodus 33:11 (same concept, and same wording as some of the preceding passages in Hebrew, but different wording this time in the Greek translation of the Septuagint). So the phrase “face to face” is used in the Old Testament to speak of seeing God personally—not fully or exhaustively, for no finite creature can ever do that, but personally and truly nonetheless. So when Paul says, “But then [we shall see] face to face,” he clearly means, “Then we shall see God face to face.” Indeed, that will be the greatest blessing of heaven and our greatest joy for all eternity (Rev. 22:4, rsv: “They shall see his face”).

The second half of 1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “Now I know in part; then I shall know even as I have been known.” The second and third word for “know”—the one for “then I shall know even as I have been known”—is a somewhat stronger word for knowing (Greek epiginōskō), but certainly does not imply infinite knowledge or omniscience. Paul does not expect to know all things, and he does not say, “Then I shall know all things,” which would have been easy in Greek.¹ Rather, he means that when the Lord returns, Paul expects to be freed from the misconceptions and inabilities to understand (especially to understand God and his work) that are part of this present life. His knowledge will resemble God’s present knowledge of him because it will contain no false impressions and will not be limited to what is perceivable in this age. But such knowledge will only occur when the Lord returns.

In conclusion, Paul says in verse 12, in effect,

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then, when Christ returns, we shall see God face to face; now I know in part, but then, when Christ returns, I shall know even as I have been known.

His word “then” has to refer back to something in the previous verses which he has been explaining. We look first to verse 11, but see that nothing in verse 11 can be a future time Paul refers to as “then”: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1 Cor. 13:11, rsv). All of this refers to the past, not the future. It speaks of past events in Paul’s life by way of providing a natural human illustration of what he has said in verse 10. But nothing in the verse speaks of a future time when something will happen.

So we look back to verse 10: “But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away” (1 Cor. 13:10, rsv). Here is a statement about the future. At some point in the future, Paul says “the perfect” will come, and “the imperfect” will pass away, will be “made useless.”

When will this happen? This is what is explained by verse 12. Then, at the time the perfect comes, we shall see “face to face” and know “even as we are known.”

This means that the time when “the perfect” comes must be the time of Christ’s return.²

Therefore, we can paraphrase verse 10: “But when Christ returns, the imperfect will pass away.”³

Or, to use our conclusion above that “the imperfect” certainly included prophecy, we can paraphrase, “But when Christ returns, prophecy will pass away.”

Here, then, we find a definite statement about the time of the cessation of imperfect gifts such as prophecy. They will “be made useless” or “pass away” when Christ returns. And this would imply that they will continue to exist and be useful for the church all through the church age, including today, and right up to the day when Christ returns.

(b) Another reason why the time when “the perfect” comes is the time when Christ returns is also evident from the purpose of the passage. Paul is attempting to prove the greatness of love, and in so doing he wants to establish that “love never ends” (1 Cor. 13:8, rsv). To do so, he argues that it will last beyond the time when the Lord returns, unlike present spiritual gifts. This makes a convincing argument: Love is so fundamental to God’s plans for the universe that it will last beyond the transition from this age to the age to come—it will continue for eternity.

(c) A third reason why this passage refers to the time of the Lord’s return can be found in a more general statement from Paul about the purpose of spiritual gifts in the New Testament age. In 1 Corinthians 1:7 Paul ties the possession of spiritual gifts (Greek charismata) to the activity of waiting for the Lord’s return: “You are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This suggests that Paul saw the gifts as a temporary provision made to equip believers for ministry until the Lord returned. So this verse provides a close parallel to the thought of 1 Corinthians 13:8-13, where prophecy and knowledge (and no doubt tongues) are seen, similarly, as necessary until Christ’s return but unnecessary beyond that time.

1 Corinthians 13:10, therefore, refers to the time of Christ’s return and says that prophecy will last among believers until that time. This means that we have a clear biblical statement that Paul expected the gift of prophecy to continue through the entire church age and to function for the benefit of the church until the Lord returns.

 

PR

 

Next Issue: Part 2: Objections to This Interpretation

Future Issues:

The Relationship between the Gift of Prophecy and Scripture

Spiritual Gifts as Characteristic of the New Covenant Age

Application for Today  

Notes

1. Greek epignosōmai ta panta would say, “I shall know all things.”
2. I have stated it this way because, more precisely, “the perfect” in 1 Corinthians 13:10 is not Christ himself, but is a method of acquiring knowledge which is so superior to present knowledge and prophecy that it makes these two obsolete. For when this “perfect” comes it renders the imperfect useless. But only the kind of knowledge Paul expected in the final consummation of all things could be so qualitatively different from present knowledge that it could provide this kind of contrast and be called “the perfect” as opposed to “the imperfect.”
3. D. A. Carson, Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12–14 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1987), 70-72, gives several similar reasons why the time “when the perfect comes” must be the time of Christ’s return (with references to other views, and to the literature).Among “cessationists” (those who hold that gifts such as prophecy have “ceased” and are not valid for today) some, but not all, agree that the time “when the perfect comes” must be the time of Christ’s return. See John F. MacArthur, Jr., The Charismatics: A Doctrinal Perspective (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1978), 165-166; and Richard B. Gaffin, Perspectives on Pentecost (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1979), 109.

 

“The Duration of Prophecy” is Chapter 12 of The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today by Wayne A. Grudem, Copyright © 1988, 2000, Revised Edition, Pp. 400. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois 60187. Publisher’s page.