9th June 2026 Question box

OK, tonight’s question is a two-parter.

When did the apostolic age end? If it did end, what spiritual gifts carried over?

I’m going to give a two minute answer, but it’s the kind of question that probably needs quite bit longer to answer fully! Part of it depends on what you mean by “ the apostolic age.”

Jesus appointed 12 men, whom he designated Apostles, and their authoritative teaching has been kept for us as the New Testament. The last of these 12 apostles was the apostle John, who died in about 100 AD. And so you could say that this is when the “Apostolic age” ended (apostolic with a capital “A”).

However the word apostle is actually just a Greek word that we’ve never bothered to translate. It means mean “someone who is sent” (it’s where we get our English word “postal” from). Now, if wanted, we could actually translate it into English, because there is an English word for “someone who is sent.” In a secular context we have the word “emissary” and in a religious context we have the word “missionary.” And the missionary age (what we might, “the apostolic age” with a lowercase “a”) will not come to an end until Jesus returns.

Now what about spiritual gifts? The emergence of what we call “the charismatic movement” in the last 100 years has brought the issue of miraculous spiritual gifts to the forefront. Generally speaking, among bible believing Christians there are three views:

1. The charismatic movement says that miraculous spiritual gifts are normative, that is if you are trusting Christ and serving in the power of the Spirit then miracles should be a part of this.
2. At the other extreme is what we might call a Cessationist view. You might have come across someone like John MacArthur online, he argues that miraculous spiritual gifts ceased with the end of the Apostolic age (apostolic with a capital “A”).
3. And then there are people like Don Carson who describe themselves as “open but cautious.” Open to the possibility of God doing miraculous things, but not considering it a necessary part of church life. It extra-ordinary.

Now to figure out where we should land, there’s a number of passages that need to be examined, but perhaps lets just look at Hebrews 2:3-4, which says: “This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” One thing we see in this verse is that one of functions of miracles in the ministry of the 12 apostles was to affirm that their teaching really was from God. Which explains why there was a flurry of miracles during the lifetime of the apostles.

But what about today? We don’t have Apostles with a capital “a,” whose teaching needs to be affirmed. Though what about when missionaries go into new areas who have never heard before? Could it be that God sometimes does something extraordinary? Or could there be other times when God does an extraordinary work as he brings the gospel back to a new generation that hasn’t heard it? I’m happy to leave those as open questions.

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This question was originally answered in our evening service on 29 March 2026. I’ll aim to post another question and answer next week. You can read about how our question box works here.