7-1. Under the New Testament, our Lord at first collected His people out of different nations, and united them to the household of faith by the ministry of extraordinary officers who received extraordinary gifts of the Spirit and who were agents by whom God completed His revelation to His Church. Such officers and gifts related to new revelation have no successors since God completed His revelation at the conclusion of the Apostolic Age.

[DIGEST: The current PCA text dates to 1974 and the wording of this paragraph is that which was proposed by the Ad-Interim Committee on Charismatic Gifts. See M2GA, 2-28, p. 43.]

BACKGROUND & COMPARISON:
PCA 1973, Adopted text, as printed in the Minutes of General Assembly,
["This paragraph was not acted upon by the Assembly, but left blank. A special committee was appointed to study the whole question of the charismatic gifts, and to bring suggested language for this paragraph to the Second General Assembly." See The Pastoral Letter on Spiritual Gifts (1974).]

Continuing Presbyterian Church 1973, Proposed text,
PCUS 1933, VIII, § 30
PCUS 1925, VIII, § 30
Under the New Testament, our Lord at first collected his people out of different nations, and united them to the household of faith by the mission of extraordinary officers, endued with miraculous gifts, which have long since ceased.

PCUS 1879, IV-1-1
Under the New Testament, our Lord at first collected His people out of different nations, and united them to the household of faith by the mission of extraordinary officers, endued with miraculous gifts, which have long since ceased.

PCUS 1869 draft, IV-1-1
Under the New Testament, our blessed Lord at first collected His people out of different nations and formed them into one body, by the mission of extraordinary officers, endued with miraculous gifts, which have long since ceased.

PCUS 1867 draft, IV-1-1
Under the new dispensation, our blessed Lord at first collected his people out of different nations, and formed them into one body by the mission of extraordinary officers, endued with miraculous gifts, which have long since ceased.

PCUSA 1789, III-1
Our blessed Lord, at first, collected his church out of different nations,[1] and formed it into one body,[2] by the mission of men endued with miraculous gifts, which have, long since, ceased.[3]
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[1] Ps. 2:8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Rev. 7:9 After this I beheld, and lo a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.
[2] 1 Cor. 10:17 For we being many are one bread, and one body : for we are all partakers of that one bread. See also, Eph. 4:16; Col. 1:18.
[3] Matt. 10:1, 7, 8. And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease.

COMMENTARY:
F.P. Ramsay, Exposition of the Book of Church Order (1898, p. 44), on IV-1-1 :
Enlarging upon paragraph 4, this chapter has a preliminary section on the classification of these officers, followed by three sections on the three classes of officers.
Section 1 -- Of their General Classification.
There are three paragraphs : one on extraordinary officers that have ceased ; another on the permanent officers ; and a third against assuming any titles or functions beyond what the Scripture assigns.
32.--I. Under the New Testament,
it being assumed here that the order of the Church under the previous dispensation does not now obtain except so far as it continued into and through the change from that dispensation to this,
our Lord at first collected his people out of different nations, and united them to the household of faith by the mission of extraordinary officers, endued by miraculous gifts, which have long since ceased.
And since the miraculous gifts have ceased, all classes of officers having functions that require miraculous gifts have also ceased.