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away with (kata gethesetai, shall be superseded, rendered unnecessary and meaningless,
because no longer needed and so shall be cancelled and done away with)" (Merril Unger,
New Testament Teaching on Tongues).
There are problems with this view. What does he mean by the completed and final
New Testament Scriptures? Does he mean once the last writer of the N.T. had been
inspired and committed the message to paper? That is dated, traditionally about 90A.D.
but J. A. T. Robinson argues sensibly for a date pre-70A.D. Or is Unger referring to
when the canon of Scripture was eventually decided upon, some 200 or so years later? It
is clear from the writers of the second and third centuries A.D. that the miracles of the
Acts period were not in abundance but we reject this view by what is recorded in
Scripture. Not only do we find no reference to any of the Acts period's miraculous signs
in the later epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon)
but it is evident that immediate, universal healing had ceased (Phil. 2: 26, 27; ITim.v.23;
II Tim. 4: 20). When imprisoned in Acts, Peter was miraculously freed (Acts 12: 6-11)
but after, Paul spent years chained to a Roman guard. The gift of knowledge (Acts.iv.13)
ceased, to be replaced by the command to study (II Tim. 2: 15). The conclusion must be
that prophecies, tongues and knowledge, as well as the other Acts period miracles ceased
before the completion of the N.T., let alone before the canon was settled. Miracles and
displays of power finished before the last books of the N.T. were written.
(4)
"That which is perfect" refers to
"the mystery" of Eph. 3: 9.
At Gen. 12:, the Lord took Abram and promised that he would be the father of a
great nation which was to take the message of salvation to the other nations of the world.
There was to be a kingdom upon the earth with miraculous physical blessings. For the
next 2,000 years this people were the centre of the Lord's attention but their rejection of
Christ and their refusal to repent at the call of Peter and Paul in the Acts period caused
the judgment of Acts 28: 25-27 to be announced. But what was God going to do
next? He revealed a mystery, the secret which he had hidden in Himself (Eph. 3: 9). He
would go direct to the Gentiles (Acts 28: 28): there would be spiritual blessings
(Ephesians 1: 3) with eternal life in the heavenly places (Eph. 2: 6). The Jews would no
longer have special privileges (Eph. 2: 12-17). The Jews and the Gentiles would be
fellowheirs (Eph. 3: 6). The substance of this secret (mystery) is found in Eph. 1:, 2:, 3:
and Col. 1:, where Paul wrote:
". . . . . the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the Word of God;
even the mystery (secret) which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is
made manifest to the saints" (Col. 1: 25, 26).
The view of some is that the expression "that which is perfect" refers to the
revelation of this secret (mystery) as the miracles ceased at the rejection of Israel at
Acts.xxviii.25-27, which was when this revelation was given to Paul in his Roman
prison. There can be no doubt about the fact that the evidential miracles and external
displays of power were signs for the Jews and that when they were, as a nation, set aside
by God at the end of the Acts, such tokens were no longer needed. However, it was
impossible for Paul to have had this secret in his mind at that time simply because he