George Whitefield on Continuation of spiritual gifts
No, they ceased with the apostolic age
Perhaps it cannot be proved, that God ever interposed in this extraordinary manner, but when some new revelation was to be established, as at the first settling of the Mosaic and gospel dispensation: and as for my own part, I cannot but suspect the spirit of those who insist upon a repetition of such miracles at this time.
THE POSITION
Miraculous gifts attended the founding of a new revelation, at Moses and at the apostles, and he is suspicious of anyone demanding them again: now that the world is "nominally Christian" there is no need of outward miracles, "but only an inward co-operation of the Holy Spirit with the word." What every believer must receive is the Spirit's sanctifying graces, "as really as they did" — and that, he says, continues to the end of the world. He hedges the historical claim with "perhaps it cannot be proved," which is why the state is leans-toward rather than affirms.
39 He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
8 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Anglican priest and field preacher of the Evangelical Revival and the First Great Awakening, who crossed the Atlantic seven times and died on his last American tour. Wesley's Oxford companion and, from his 1740 letter answering Free Grace, his public opponent on election — the Calvinist half of the Methodist split, set here beside Wesley and Edwards. This entry rests on that letter and eleven of the sermons printed in the standard selected editions.
Cite this page
"George Whitefield on Continuation of spiritual gifts", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/whitefield/spiritual-gifts (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/whitefield/spiritual-gifts).