Duration of the Gifts of the Spirit: Gifts Ended Shortly After the End of the Apostles
The apostles had the power to lay hands on other saints to receive a measure of the Spirit (spiritual gifts). We have looked at this in other posts,noting that the promise of the Spirit in Acts 2:38 and Acts 5:32 was not automatic, but was given by the laying on of the apostle’s hands. Two examples demonstrate this are the Samaritans of Acts 8 where Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was granted though the laying on the hands of Peter and John and Acts 19 when Paul laid his hands on men in Ephesus who had been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
Their work was also the channel through which other saints might receive a measure of the Spirit (spiritual gifts). If we are to apply the gifts of the Spirit today as it existed then, then we must also apply the means of receiving Him. The fact is that the first century saints received their gift through the laying on of the hands of the apostles. Their presence was required as when Peter and John traveled to Samaria. Since there is no evidence that this power was granted to anyone else, the only way anyone today receives the gift(s) of the Spirit is in the same way. It would require the presence of an apostle of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, the qualifications for the selection of an apostles is given in Acts 1 when Matthias was chosen to replace Judas. Peter says,
“So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22, ESV).
Who among us today accompanied Jesus from the baptism of John to Jesus’ ascension? Who among us can serve as an eye-witness to His resurrection? Who among us were commissioned as an apostle of Jesus Christ? The conclusion is unmistakable. No apostles are physically present today to lay hands on anyone.
Consequently, if no apostle is laying hands on anyone today, and they were the ones passing the gift to others, a duration point is established. The passing on of the spiritual gifts were channeled though them and, therefore, ended with their passing on the earth.