The title of this week’s Sabbath School lesson, covering gifts for an apostolic church, got my attention. Astonishing options always grab my eyes. What a grace to offer infinity to a spiritual people in troubling, notably constricted, times. This is not the first time God has reached out with rationally impossible offers. In fact, the Love who rules the universe makes a habit of such offers. In a devastated Eden, Yahweh reached out with a rescue designed to transcend time and death. In a midnight promise to an old man with no children, far away from the land of his birth, God said, “You will have descendants as the stars of this sky.” To a very young virgin in a backwater village, Heaven offered the opportunity to birth the Rescuer whose task had been set aside before time began. And to people designed to be the spiritual descendants of Abraham, God offers us the opportunity to work together in a loving, cared-for unit that will, by our lives and by our words, represent Heaven. We are promised that there will be no end to the beneficent results of our lives if we choose Heaven’s values and make the choices made by Heaven’s residents and those of the unfallen worlds.
I noted your comment and here is The short version:
Lu 3:38 “Adam, which was [the son] of God.”
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it” (Job 1:6-7).
From the context the other sons of God that presented themselves at this gathering were not from the earth.
If you take the position that these “sons of God” were angels, then they would also qualify as coming from “unfallen worlds”
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:7-9).
By removing Statn and his angels, The character of Heaven was preserved as an unfallen world.
The Pentacostical and Adventist churches have incorporated the gift of tongues (Pentacostal) and the gift of prophesy (Adventist) into their systems of belief in ways that other Christian churches haven’t, but it is unfair to claim that they are the only gifts recognised. Perhaps there is a defensiveness, or maybe it’s pride at being chosen, that may cause each to emphasize their “special” gifts in a too exclusive way. Certainly they do not openly or consciously contradict scripture and deny the existence of the other “gifts of the spirit.”
Unfortunately, this parable has been inaccurately portrayed historically and the current author continues in that miscarriage. The term ‘talent’ as an indication of personal capabilities or skill did not come into play definitionally until mid-15th century. In biblical times, including the OT and NT, it was a term denoting currency or legal tender. It was a weight…a measurement. And the ‘tell’ in the parable, is that the Master distributed the talents according to the servants’ abilities, which is why differing amounts were awarded. Stated another way, why would the Master distribute ‘abilities’ in proportion to ‘abilities’…ridiculous!
Contextually, a better interpretation would be that the talents represent ‘opportunities’ to use our abilities. Note that Ephesians 2:10 says in part…‘He created us anew…so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago’.