Do preterists believe that certain gifts were for the 1st century church only and have since ceased?
I think that most preterists are cessationists when it comes to the gifts of prophecy, tongues and knowledge, i.e., the “revelatory gifts.” (I Cor. 13:8-13) The cessationist interpretation of I Cor. 13:8-13 is that the revelatory gifts were abolished when the Church became the perfected Temple of God through the sanctifying work of the Spirit. This happened at the “fulfillment of all things written,” when Christ came to indwell His Church in the consummation of the old-covenant age. I take this position in my two articles, The Gift of Tongues and That Which is Perfect and With Unveiled Face: A Response. I’ve seen two “continuationist” explanations of I Cor. 13:8-13: 1. I Cor. 13:8-13 teaches only that spiritual gifts are “made useless” or unprofitable whenever immature Christians misuse them through a lack of love. In this view, the passage says nothing of any abolition or cessation of any gifts, and all the gifts continue today exactly as they did in the 1st century. This is the view
