Explaining my requirements in the cessationism debate

We set forth these requirements when considering the claims of cessationists:

1. Biblically-based
2. No appeals to contemporary expressions of charismata
3. No appeals to silence
4. No appeals to events or practices of history

1) Biblically-based - When a claim is made such as "the supernatural gifts ceased with the death of the last apostle," it is a statement of doctrine. It is a claim about our faith. It is a significant assertion about the way God does things and the way the Church operates.

More than that, it is a belief that something earth-shaking happened in church history so noteworthy that it changed everything as compared to the practices of the early church. Such a spectacular claim must therefore be well-established in and by Scripture.

That shouldn't be too hard, should it? However, we have not found a single commentator, scholar, or critic who has simply laid out their persuasive case from the Bible and it alone. No one. You may read about everyone we have considered here.

2) Contemporary charismatic expressions - Why would we reject contemporary charismatic expressions as evidence? Surely it is valuable to discern the propriety and correctness of those expressions (and excesses), right? Yes, of course. But that is a far different matter than using them to make your cessationist case. Why? Because false things do not speak to or establish what is true. Our doctrines come from the Bible, not from what people are doing. 

It should be obvious that even if you document every charismatic tongues as errant, every charismatic prophecy as false; every charismatic healing as a flimflam, you still have not made the affirmative case for cessationism.

One would think that to be a simple idea, but large portions of cessationist discourse is devoted to chronicling the excesses of televangelists and faith healers as if it bolsters their cessationism.

3) Appeals to silence - When someone argues from silence, they are inferring something significant as to what is not said. We see such arguments from the political Left all the time: "Jesus never condemned gay marriage." "Jesus never talked about abortion." So, from Jesus' silence regarding certain issues, these folks think Jesus was not opposed to them.

We who believe the Bible reject such spurious assertions, and rightly so. Or do we? Jesus listed nine of the Ten Commandments, so from that it has been asserted that keeping the Sabbath holy is no longer valid. We should note that we do not intend to suggest that we should keep the Sabbath, we only note that this is an argument from silence.

More significantly, do we argue that giving offerings should no longer happen today, since the Bible never says it should continue? Do we argue the Holy Spirit no longer indwells people, since the Scriptures never tell us He will do so? Do we suggest that evangelism is no longer important since there is no command to continue in it?

You know, in actual fact, each of these things may have scriptural backing. We offer them as they came to mind because they are key beliefs of Christianity. But what did you do when we you read them? Well, you probably rushed to your Bibles to defend biblical truth, didn't you? You didn't appeal to history, and you didn't infer from silence. You went to the Bible.

So we require cessationists to do the same.

4) Appeals to history - Cessationists claim the miraculous ceased with the death of the last apostle. Let's assume that the cessationist is able to examine the entirety of history and were to definitively document the complete absence of miraculous occurrence in the post apostolic church. Throughout history there hasn't been a single real charismatic expression. The evidence fits the presumption. 

That doesn't make cessationism true. History and traditional practices are not determiners for our faith. Sometimes these things can be helpful, but they are not the determiners of doctrine. Only the Bible does that. You would still be left with the need to establish your cessationist belief from the Bible.

Our cry is Sola Scriptura. Make the case from the Bible. And especially, make the case from what the Bible says, not what you think it says or what you have been taught it says.

You may wish to review everything we've written in response to cessationism. And, you may wish to review our cessationism series.