Martin Luther on Continuation of spiritual gifts
Open in principle, cautious in practice
Therefore, we must allow these words to remain and not gloss them away, as some have done who said that these signs were manifestations of the Spirit in the beginning of the Christian era and that now they have ceased. That is not right; for the same power is in the church still.
THE POSITION
Preaching on Mark 16:17-18, Luther takes up the view that the signs belonged to the apostolic era and have since stopped, names it, and rejects it: the power remains in the church. What has changed is the need. The signs were given to confirm the preached Word to unbelievers; that work is done, so the signs are not exercised — but "if it were necessary and conducive to the spreading of the Gospel, we could do easily the signs." He says the same in the earlier sermon on the same text: "where there is a Christian, there is still the power to work these signs if it is necessary," and "if need should arise, and men were to denounce and antagonize the Gospel, then we verily should have to employ wonder-working."
17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well.”
4 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Augustinian friar whose protest over indulgences opened the Reformation, and the theologian for whom justification by faith and the bondage of the will are the whole of the gospel. This entry rests on his own writings only — The Bondage of the Will (1525), the Smalcald Articles (1537), the Large and Small Catechisms (1529), Concerning Christian Liberty (1520), the Heidelberg Disputation (1518), the Church Postil and his biblical prefaces — and deliberately excludes the Augsburg Confession and the Formula of Concord, which are not his.
Cite this page
"Martin Luther on Continuation of spiritual gifts", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/luther/spiritual-gifts (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/luther/spiritual-gifts).