John Calvin on Continuation of spiritual gifts
No, they ceased with the apostolic age
The Lord, doubtless, is present with his people in all ages, and cures their sicknesses as often as there is need, not less than formerly; and yet he does not exert those manifest powers, nor dispense miracles by the hands of apostles, because that gift was temporary, and owing, in some measure, to the ingratitude of men, immediately ceased.
THE POSITION
Calvin says the miraculous gift ceased, and says why. Of the five offices of Ephesians 4:11 only pastor and teacher are ordinary; apostles, prophets and evangelists 'were not instituted in the Church to be perpetual' but for founding churches where none existed (Institutes IV.iii.4), and of prophets specifically, 'none such now exist, or they are less manifest.' On healing he is blunter: the manifest powers dispensed by apostolic hands were temporary and 'immediately ceased,' which is why Rome's claim to the gift of healing through anointing 'makes themselves ridiculous.' In the letter to Francis I he answers the demand for miracles not by saying they have stopped but by saying the Reformers need none, since miracles are seals of a gospel and 'we have not coined some new gospel.'
11 And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
7 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Reformer of Geneva and the most systematic of the first-generation Reformers. This entry rests on the 1559 Institutes of the Christian Religion in Henry Beveridge's translation, checked section by section, with Calvin's own commentaries on 1 John, John, the Harmony of the Evangelists, the Psalms and the Harmony of the Law used where the Institutes are thin.
Cite this page
"John Calvin on Continuation of spiritual gifts", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/calvin/spiritual-gifts (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/calvin/spiritual-gifts).