I continue my odyssey to locate a cogent, scriptural explanation of cessationism. The author brings up a couple of things I have not seen before, thus this post.
However, he will never quote or even reference Scripture. It's astonishing that a person can write an article about rejecting a particular doctrine and never quote the Bible.
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Today I come to the end of the series I’ve titled “Why I Am Not…” The purpose of this series has been to take a look at the things I do not believe and all along it has been my desire to explain rather than persuade. So far I have told why I am not atheist, Roman Catholic, liberal, Arminian, paedobaptist, dispensational, or egalitarian. Today I want to explain why I am not continuationist or, if you prefer, charismatic. (I don't like the word continuationist, so I will use the word charismatic.)
Once again we need to begin with definitions. “Continuationism is the belief that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit taught in the Bible—such as prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, healings, and miracles—have not ceased and are available for the believer today. Continuationism is the opposite of cessationism which teaches that supernatural gifts have ceased either when the canon of Scripture was completed or at the death of the last apostle.”* (This is interesting in that cessationists are generally pretty uniformly in the camp of "death of the last apostle." I don't believe I've ever seen a cessationist try to claim that the supernatural gifts ceased at the completion of the canon. In fact, it would be an odd claim to make, since the completion of the canon is a historical event that would have happened AFTER all Scripture had been written, but BEFORE the gifts had supposedly ceased.
At some point, years after the elements of the N.T. were written, the Church circulated those documents. Eventually they became the recognized, authoritative word as delivered to various men by God. How long this took is anyone's guess, but it could be a few years up to a decade or more.
It's odd because cessationists claim that there was no further need of the supernatural gifts after all revelation had been delivered via the Apostles. The last book to be written was Revelation, around A.D. 90, with its author, John, dying shortly thereafter. But the canon wasn't officially recognized until A.D. 397.
So between A.D. 90 and the official canon would have still had the supernatural gifts in operation for some unknown reason, if the sole reason for the gifts was to validate the Apostles' ministry.
So those who would claim cessation at the completion of the canon would need to admit the supernatural gifts continued past the apostles, a difficult claim to make.)
In other words, this is a matter of whether certain miraculous gifts that were active at one time are still active today. I believe those miraculous gifts have ceased.
Once again, my beliefs on this matter are not easily separated from my background. Growing up in conservative, Reformed churches I knew no continuationists. (Hmm, maybe those churches did have charismatics, but were not brave enough to reveal their inclinations due to the possibility of withering criticism of cessationists.
But what I find most interesting is the admission that the author knew no charismatics growing up, which speaks to the author's biases, arising during his formative years. It's akin to growing up in a white neighborhood and being surprised to learn there are black people. There would be no experiential basis for being able to consider such a thing. It would be alien.
Only by having exposure to black people, spending time with them, interacting with them, and coming to know them would a person be able to accurately ascertain what they're about. I would be willing to bet the author still doesn't know any charismatics, even avoiding them, and thus maintains his bias against them. As a result he is unable to accurately assess their positions.)
I knew that such people existed only when I heard my parents speak sheepishly about their early introduction to Pentecostalism. (Pentecostals are a subset of charismatics, but the author here attempts to use them to generalize about all charismatics.)
They told us of their attempts to receive the gift and their growing acknowledgement that their tongues-speaking friends were simply uttering repetitive, nonsensical phrases. It was not until I was in my mid-twenties and a baptist that I first encountered tongues. The band at a worship conference entered into a time of “spontaneous worship” and immediately many of the people around me began to make strange sounds. It took me a few minutes to understand what was happening.
A more formal introduction to continuationism came when I encountered Sovereign Grace Ministries. I had first become aware of this ministry through online connections and then through C.J. Mahaney’s books. I attended one of their worship conferences and here I saw what they called prophecy—prophetic songs meant to communicate divine truth to people in the audience. (“The Holy Spirit is giving me a song. I believe this song is for all the people here named Katie. If your name is Katie, please come to the front as the Holy Spirit has something to say to you.”) What I found at that conference and in these churches were people who were godly and kind and committed to Reformed theology, yet also firmly charismatic.
Though I was certainly underwhelmed by this example of prophecy, I was so taken by the people, by their love for the Lord, and by their excitement in worship that I returned home wondering whether my family should find a way of joining them. (Ah, so he has had some connections with charismatics. And those people, it turns out, have a genuine and compelling love of God and exhibit a living faith that impressed the author. He doesn't take the time to explore why this might be the case, and never postulates that their zeal might be connected to their charismatic beliefs, or the fact they might actually be real Christians.
So the author's preconceptions and biases win out over his actual experience.)
For the first time I saw that continuationism was not necessarily opposed to sound doctrine. (John MacArthur would disagree. Most cessationists view charismatic beliefs as heresy, or worse, cultishness. They are generally viewed by cessationists as an embarrassment, a deviation, a collection of emotion-driven, superficial believers, if they are Christians at all.
Further, the author appears to think that at least some charismatics are opposed to sound doctrine, most likely because of the caricature constructed by cessationists. Lacking any evidence besides that which is promulgated by cessationists, the author was happy to draw conclusions based on stereotypes.)
It was at this time and in this context that I began to read, that I began to ponder, and that I began to search the Bible to see what it says about the continuation or cessation of the miraculous gifts. I read defenses of continuationism written by the theologians of the charismatic movement: Wayne Grudem and Sam Storms come to mind. I saw leaders I admire profess their view that the gifts continue to be operative today. I also read MacArthur’s Charismatic Chaos, interviewed Sam Waldron, and read a number of critiques of continuationism. Through it all I became increasingly convinced that the miraculous gifts have ceased. I could not be continuationist.
I am not continuationist because of my understanding of the Bible. (His understanding, filtered through preconceptions, biases, and experiences.)
I see that those miraculous gifts were given for a specific time and purpose—they were given to accredit the message of the gospel when it was first going forth and before the Bible had been completed. (That is only one reason for the supernatural gifts. The Apostle Paul had a different view, however. He writes to the Corinthian church this admonition: "Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church." 1Co. 14:12 You'll note that Paul makes no mention here of validating the Apostles.)
As that time and purpose drew to a close, so too did the gifts. (An errant conclusion based on an incomplete assessment of the reason for the gifts.)
This is easily seen when we read the New Testament with an eye to when the different books were written. While an early book like 1 Corinthians has a lot to say about miraculous gifts, later books have far less to say. In fact, by the time Paul is writing to Timothy he is not expecting that Timothy will experience a miracle and not instructing him to pursue one, but rather prescribing a very ordinary cure for an ailment—“have a little wine for the sake of your stomach.” Paul himself suffered with physical pain but was unable to receive a miraculous cure. As we read through the New Testament we see these gifts slow and cease over the course of decades. (No, we do not. The author is inferring from silence, not evidence. A casual examination of the other epistles reveals they are written for other purposes with other emphases. Why, for example, would Paul write to Timothy about the operation of the spiritual gifts when his purpose was to instruct Timothy on how to lead the church? Paul deals with the matter at hand, depending on the need, and there is no need for him to discuss things other than that.)
The miraculous gifts I see and hear in the charismatic movement have only the barest resemblance to the New Testament gifts. (Which is completely irrelevant. Current practice does not speak to the biblical case.)
First, then, I am not continuationist for biblical reasons. (A Bible he does not quote or even reference.)
But second, I am not continuationist for reasons related to observation and experience. The miraculous gifts I see and hear in the charismatic movement have only the barest resemblance to the New Testament gifts. The miracles are internal and unverifiable, the tongues angelic rather than actual, the prophecy fallible. I know of no credible accounts of the kind of dramatic miracles we see described in the New Testament—a limb regenerating, a dead and decaying man being raised. (The author uses his ignorance as evidence?)
Whatever “miracles” I hear of today are nowhere near as dramatic, visible, and instantaneous as the ones we see described in the ministry of Jesus and his Apostles. (Perhaps the author could provide us with the Scripture that indicates that this must be so?)
I know of no Christian who has been able to preach the gospel in a language he does not know. (Another appeal to his ignorance.)
A number of times I have had well-meaning people prophecy to or about me but these have always been vague impressions more than authoritative words from God. Even as we discuss continuationism, we need to acknowledge that what has continued is, at best, a mere shadow of what the Bible describes. (Perhaps, but does this speak to God's intent, or rather to a general apostasy over the centuries?)
I am not continuationist and do not believe that my experience of the Christian faith and life suffer on that basis. Instead of focusing on the drama of the miraculous I find joy in the beauty of God’s ordinary providence. ("Focus on the drama" is a spurious characterization. And the author offers us a false binary choice. It's not an either/or.)
The great drama unfolding in, through, and around us is foremost a story of God working through his careful, constant providence, his moment-by-moment means of bringing about his will.
I would like to direct you to two recent resources that have been helpful to me. The first is an exchange between Sam Storms and Thomas Schreiner. Schreiner explains Why I Am a Cessationist and Storms explains Why I Am a Continuationist. Both men explain their position and I suppose you can easily guess which I found more compelling. The second resource is this excellent lecture from Phil Johnson in which in his inimitable way he explains Why I Am Cessationist. (I did not address this specific video from Mr. Johnson, but I examined an article he had written here. His presentation was less than compelling.)
Once again we need to begin with definitions. “Continuationism is the belief that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit taught in the Bible—such as prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, healings, and miracles—have not ceased and are available for the believer today. Continuationism is the opposite of cessationism which teaches that supernatural gifts have ceased either when the canon of Scripture was completed or at the death of the last apostle.”* (This is interesting in that cessationists are generally pretty uniformly in the camp of "death of the last apostle." I don't believe I've ever seen a cessationist try to claim that the supernatural gifts ceased at the completion of the canon. In fact, it would be an odd claim to make, since the completion of the canon is a historical event that would have happened AFTER all Scripture had been written, but BEFORE the gifts had supposedly ceased.
At some point, years after the elements of the N.T. were written, the Church circulated those documents. Eventually they became the recognized, authoritative word as delivered to various men by God. How long this took is anyone's guess, but it could be a few years up to a decade or more.
So between A.D. 90 and the official canon would have still had the supernatural gifts in operation for some unknown reason, if the sole reason for the gifts was to validate the Apostles' ministry.
So those who would claim cessation at the completion of the canon would need to admit the supernatural gifts continued past the apostles, a difficult claim to make.)
In other words, this is a matter of whether certain miraculous gifts that were active at one time are still active today. I believe those miraculous gifts have ceased.
Once again, my beliefs on this matter are not easily separated from my background. Growing up in conservative, Reformed churches I knew no continuationists. (Hmm, maybe those churches did have charismatics, but were not brave enough to reveal their inclinations due to the possibility of withering criticism of cessationists.
But what I find most interesting is the admission that the author knew no charismatics growing up, which speaks to the author's biases, arising during his formative years. It's akin to growing up in a white neighborhood and being surprised to learn there are black people. There would be no experiential basis for being able to consider such a thing. It would be alien.
Only by having exposure to black people, spending time with them, interacting with them, and coming to know them would a person be able to accurately ascertain what they're about. I would be willing to bet the author still doesn't know any charismatics, even avoiding them, and thus maintains his bias against them. As a result he is unable to accurately assess their positions.)
I knew that such people existed only when I heard my parents speak sheepishly about their early introduction to Pentecostalism. (Pentecostals are a subset of charismatics, but the author here attempts to use them to generalize about all charismatics.)
They told us of their attempts to receive the gift and their growing acknowledgement that their tongues-speaking friends were simply uttering repetitive, nonsensical phrases. It was not until I was in my mid-twenties and a baptist that I first encountered tongues. The band at a worship conference entered into a time of “spontaneous worship” and immediately many of the people around me began to make strange sounds. It took me a few minutes to understand what was happening.
A more formal introduction to continuationism came when I encountered Sovereign Grace Ministries. I had first become aware of this ministry through online connections and then through C.J. Mahaney’s books. I attended one of their worship conferences and here I saw what they called prophecy—prophetic songs meant to communicate divine truth to people in the audience. (“The Holy Spirit is giving me a song. I believe this song is for all the people here named Katie. If your name is Katie, please come to the front as the Holy Spirit has something to say to you.”) What I found at that conference and in these churches were people who were godly and kind and committed to Reformed theology, yet also firmly charismatic.
Though I was certainly underwhelmed by this example of prophecy, I was so taken by the people, by their love for the Lord, and by their excitement in worship that I returned home wondering whether my family should find a way of joining them. (Ah, so he has had some connections with charismatics. And those people, it turns out, have a genuine and compelling love of God and exhibit a living faith that impressed the author. He doesn't take the time to explore why this might be the case, and never postulates that their zeal might be connected to their charismatic beliefs, or the fact they might actually be real Christians.
So the author's preconceptions and biases win out over his actual experience.)
For the first time I saw that continuationism was not necessarily opposed to sound doctrine. (John MacArthur would disagree. Most cessationists view charismatic beliefs as heresy, or worse, cultishness. They are generally viewed by cessationists as an embarrassment, a deviation, a collection of emotion-driven, superficial believers, if they are Christians at all.
Further, the author appears to think that at least some charismatics are opposed to sound doctrine, most likely because of the caricature constructed by cessationists. Lacking any evidence besides that which is promulgated by cessationists, the author was happy to draw conclusions based on stereotypes.)
It was at this time and in this context that I began to read, that I began to ponder, and that I began to search the Bible to see what it says about the continuation or cessation of the miraculous gifts. I read defenses of continuationism written by the theologians of the charismatic movement: Wayne Grudem and Sam Storms come to mind. I saw leaders I admire profess their view that the gifts continue to be operative today. I also read MacArthur’s Charismatic Chaos, interviewed Sam Waldron, and read a number of critiques of continuationism. Through it all I became increasingly convinced that the miraculous gifts have ceased. I could not be continuationist.
I am not continuationist because of my understanding of the Bible. (His understanding, filtered through preconceptions, biases, and experiences.)
I see that those miraculous gifts were given for a specific time and purpose—they were given to accredit the message of the gospel when it was first going forth and before the Bible had been completed. (That is only one reason for the supernatural gifts. The Apostle Paul had a different view, however. He writes to the Corinthian church this admonition: "Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church." 1Co. 14:12 You'll note that Paul makes no mention here of validating the Apostles.)
As that time and purpose drew to a close, so too did the gifts. (An errant conclusion based on an incomplete assessment of the reason for the gifts.)
This is easily seen when we read the New Testament with an eye to when the different books were written. While an early book like 1 Corinthians has a lot to say about miraculous gifts, later books have far less to say. In fact, by the time Paul is writing to Timothy he is not expecting that Timothy will experience a miracle and not instructing him to pursue one, but rather prescribing a very ordinary cure for an ailment—“have a little wine for the sake of your stomach.” Paul himself suffered with physical pain but was unable to receive a miraculous cure. As we read through the New Testament we see these gifts slow and cease over the course of decades. (No, we do not. The author is inferring from silence, not evidence. A casual examination of the other epistles reveals they are written for other purposes with other emphases. Why, for example, would Paul write to Timothy about the operation of the spiritual gifts when his purpose was to instruct Timothy on how to lead the church? Paul deals with the matter at hand, depending on the need, and there is no need for him to discuss things other than that.)
The miraculous gifts I see and hear in the charismatic movement have only the barest resemblance to the New Testament gifts. (Which is completely irrelevant. Current practice does not speak to the biblical case.)
First, then, I am not continuationist for biblical reasons. (A Bible he does not quote or even reference.)
But second, I am not continuationist for reasons related to observation and experience. The miraculous gifts I see and hear in the charismatic movement have only the barest resemblance to the New Testament gifts. The miracles are internal and unverifiable, the tongues angelic rather than actual, the prophecy fallible. I know of no credible accounts of the kind of dramatic miracles we see described in the New Testament—a limb regenerating, a dead and decaying man being raised. (The author uses his ignorance as evidence?)
Whatever “miracles” I hear of today are nowhere near as dramatic, visible, and instantaneous as the ones we see described in the ministry of Jesus and his Apostles. (Perhaps the author could provide us with the Scripture that indicates that this must be so?)
I know of no Christian who has been able to preach the gospel in a language he does not know. (Another appeal to his ignorance.)
A number of times I have had well-meaning people prophecy to or about me but these have always been vague impressions more than authoritative words from God. Even as we discuss continuationism, we need to acknowledge that what has continued is, at best, a mere shadow of what the Bible describes. (Perhaps, but does this speak to God's intent, or rather to a general apostasy over the centuries?)
I am not continuationist and do not believe that my experience of the Christian faith and life suffer on that basis. Instead of focusing on the drama of the miraculous I find joy in the beauty of God’s ordinary providence. ("Focus on the drama" is a spurious characterization. And the author offers us a false binary choice. It's not an either/or.)
The great drama unfolding in, through, and around us is foremost a story of God working through his careful, constant providence, his moment-by-moment means of bringing about his will.
I would like to direct you to two recent resources that have been helpful to me. The first is an exchange between Sam Storms and Thomas Schreiner. Schreiner explains Why I Am a Cessationist and Storms explains Why I Am a Continuationist. Both men explain their position and I suppose you can easily guess which I found more compelling. The second resource is this excellent lecture from Phil Johnson in which in his inimitable way he explains Why I Am Cessationist. (I did not address this specific video from Mr. Johnson, but I examined an article he had written here. His presentation was less than compelling.)
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