So why were some gifts in operation before Pentecost and some after?

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Hi, my original reaction – even after thinking for a while – was “I haven’t the faintest idea!”

However, perhaps some background study will enable us to work towards an understanding.

I’m going to reject the view which I have found which is that Tongues were only ever intended to function from around AD 30 to AD 70 as a “sign” to Jews that judgment had arrived (“Through men of strange tongues…” Isaiah 28:12 quoted in 1 Corinthians 14:21. I find it unconvincing that all the gifts were to stop after the Apostles, which inspires a rather head-in-the-sand argument.

I am also going to reject the notion that the primary purpose of Tongues was to be able to preach the gospel in all the world. It is true that the disciples were understood while praising God, but there are no recorded instances in Scripture of Christians using the Gift of Tongues to preach the Gospel.

One interesting association we could make it that in the OT days, the world was divided into peoples of different “tongues” as a sign of judgment, as they were gradually starting to put themselves in God’s place at the Tower of Babel.

In some way, the speaking in Tongues of the NT reverses that, which is interesting.

The fact that the Holy Spirit enabled Old Testament characters to perform supernatural actions is fascinating.

You have the miracles of Moses, the healings of Elijah and Elisha, the widespread prophetic gift – at one time including Saul. These were part of the lives of several characters, and at no point were they deemed inappropriate in Scripture.

However, please always make the distinction between the Holy Spirit coming ‘in’ (rarely recorded before the time of Jesus) and the Holy Spirit coming ‘on’ which  is frequent in both the OT and the NT, and is always associated with miraculous outworkings of one kind or another. The difference is that in the OT, the pouring out ‘upon’ of the Holy Spirit was sporadic and reversible, and in the NT, when the ‘Baptism in the Holy Spirit’ became available to all believers, it seems to be a permanent anointing. (Again, look at the life of Saul, who had the Spirit descend and lift.)

The difference? The death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, after which he promises to send the Holy Spirit to all believers.

He did.