How does God work in the world today? Should we all be speaking in tongues, or has that manifestation of the Spirit been "stilled" at this point?
One of the cornerstone passages of scripture in the cessation debate is 1 Corinthians 13, in which Paul states (among other things), "But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away." Many people take this to mean that Spirit-manifested prophecy, tongues, and knowledge no longer occur today.
I lovingly disagree on several bases.
First, Paul uses the future tense--"will cease," "will be stilled," "will pass away"--and the tense carries through from the Greek to the English. He does not specify the future time to which he refers. Most cessationists claim that he is referring to the canonization of the New Testament, at which point they say "the perfect has come" so there is no longer any need for these particular spiritual gifts. But Paul had no concept of the New Testament canon; in fact, every reference to "scripture" in the New Testament refers to the Hebrew scriptures (essentially our Old Testament). There is no mention of the New Testament canon, even in part. Paul, and the other epistolic writers, were simply communicating the truths of the Logos (Christ the Word of God) to those who were in Christ.
To a man, the authors of the New Testament believed that Christ's return was imminent, so if we are to assume that Paul was indeed referring to a definite future point at which the gifts would cease, it is far more logical to assume that point being the second coming of Christ, not the canonization of the New Testament. The "perfect" to which Paul refers is not the New Testament canon, but the Living Word of God, and specifically His perfecting grace working in and on our lives. When we are made perfect--i.e., when the physical ultimately succumbs to the spiritual reality of God's kingdom--then the gifts will naturally "cease" because they will be completely fulfilled in the New Jerusalem. Christ will fulfill in us the knowledge of all things (Col 2:2-3), the tongues of "men and angels"--apparently there are various heavenly in addition to human languages--will become as one voice praising God (Rev 4), and of course all prophecy will have been fulfilled.
Second, in this passage Paul is not discussing the existence or dispensation of the gifts, nor is he giving an exhaustive list of the gifts. Rather, he is declaring the preeminence of love as the greatest of all manifestations of the Spirit. In this context, 1 Corinthians 13:8 could simply be Paul's method of saying, "Compared to love, these gifts are as nothing," which in fact would be a logical extension of Paul's train of thought within the context of the passage. See Ephesians 3:16-19 for a similar expression. Paul burns a lot of ink, in this epistle and others, discussing various gifts and their appropriate expression in the body of Christ; it would hardly seem worth Paul's while to spend so much time on gifts that would soon disappear.
It is worth emphasizing here that spiritual gifts have nothing to do with salvation. They are simply a natural result of the outpouring of the Spirit as He fills the believer as a result of salvation, through grace alone, by faith alone (which itself comes from God) in Christ alone. Speaking in tongues does not make one saved. Being saved may, or may not, result in one speaking in tongues. Being saved will result in some sort of clear manifestation of the indwelling Spirit as God works out His purposes in the life of the believer; these manifestations take many various forms as each one comprises a unique part of the body of Christ.
Third, there is no question that the Spirit of God still manifests Himself through prophecy, tongues, and knowledge today. I have personally witnessed many such manifestations, such that even the 1 John 4:1 cynic in me has been completely convinced that it is indeed the Spirit of God at work. The fact that many people counterfeit or otherwise abuse these manifestations does not imply that the gifts themselves are illegitimate, merely that those who abuse them are either disobedient servants or false prophets--who will be revealed as such by the Author of the gifts they abuse.
All manifestations of the Spirit are testable--and should be tested--by the Scripture, but the Scripture simply does not state that any particular gifts "have ceased." To claim otherwise requires several key assumptions that are tenuous at best when tested by the whole of Scripture. This is dangerous ground to tread, because it can cause us to miss, ignore, or deliberately dismiss dynamic manifestations of God's power and presence among us.
"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." (1 Peter 4:8)