Yesterday I tried to establish that of the eighteen spiritual gifts listed in Romans and 1 Corinthians, at least half seem to
have gone missing in our churches somewhere in the last two millennia.
Most Christian commentators agree this is at least partially
true. We may argue about how to recognize the various supernatural abilities on
the Holy Spirit’s gift list and about the nuances of a few of the Greek terms Paul
uses. But in the end, most Christians acknowledge that unless we describe the
gifts of tongues or prophecy very differently from the way we see them
occurring in the book of Acts, or wildly dilute the concepts of miracles and
healings, some of the Holy Spirit’s gifts are unaccountably absent today.
Very well then, let’s do some accounting.