While it is quite true that the spiritual gifts did decline and ceased in the established church after the 4th Century, and this is shown through Church history, the controversy are the divergent views on why they ceased. If we read Church history, and the writings of the Church fathers, we get the distinct impression that the gifts declined because the level of commitment to Christ and the walking in holiness before the Lord declined, and the free ministry of the Holy Spirit was replaced by the administration and authority of the bishops. Because of the Arianism, Gnosticism, and Doetism heresies rampant in the Church, an educated clergy was instituted to give "sound doctrinal teaching", and therefore, church members had less and less opportunity to share in services. Also, as the Church went into formalism, programme liturgical services, and ritual, the free input of the Holy Spirit through rank and file members declined and ceased, resulting in the "one man band" type of church ministry we have right to our present day.
An example of formalism, ceremony and ritual is how the Lord's Supper, which was a fellowship meal in the early church, developed into the "Lord's snack" consisting of a wafer or small square of bread and a small shot glass of grape juice or wine. Jesus' instruction, "As often as you eat together, remember my death until I come" changed into "as often as you have this small square of bread and a sip of grape juice, remember", etc. The original Lord's supper observance was informal and the only thing that was said was, "we remember the Lord's death until He comes", and everyone would say "amen", and then they would enjoy the meal.
Prophecy was replaced by the priest's homily. Tongues were ridiculed. Healing became "divine unction" for someone at the point of death. Words of knowledge, wisdom, discerning of spirits became man's knowledge, wisdom and discernment. Faith was changed into faith in the "mother church and the Pope". Revelation became new doctrine the pope dreamed up, and miracles became the silly "miracles" such as bleeding statues, apparitions of Mary, stigmata, and other "supernatural" occurrences that had nothing to do with the type of signs and wonders that characterised Paul's preaching of the Gospel.
All this can be gained by just reading Church history and the writings of the church fathers.
The cessationist doctrine arose in the Reformed theology, initially in response to claims of Roman Catholic miracles. Writing in 1918, Benjamin Warfield, a Presbyterian theologian, reasserted the view that the gifts ceased with the death of the last of the apostles, arguing that only the apostles could confer the gifts upon other Christians.
The problem with Warfield's cessationist doctrine is that he could not quote any Scriptural reference to back up his claim. This is the paradox that exists with Reformed doctrine. Those in the Reformed movement (mainly Calvinist) depend on Sola Scriptura, in that everything has to be tested by the written Scriptures. Yet, they are adamant that the spiritual gifts ceased when the last Apostle died, without any direct Scripture to validate that dependence. Therefore, it seems that the Calvinists, and Warfield say that everything must be soundly proved by Scripture, except the doctrine of Cessationism which they imply that the doctrine is true in spite of the silence of Scripture on it. This seems to me to be a two-faced approach to their view of doctrine, that they can ignore the silence of Scripture when it suits them to promulgate a doctrine that they are committed to.
