Cessationism - Episode 11 - What about Impressions?

Our next Episode in the cessationism series.

Additional Episodes:

• Episode 1, the Perfect.
• Episode 2, the apostles.
• Episode 3, prophecy.
• Episode 4, the closed canon.
• Episode 5, extra biblical reasons.
• Episode 6, only the apostles had all truth.
• Episode 7, there were only limited periods of miracles.
• Episode 8, tongues.
• Episode 9, the work of the Holy Spirit.
• Episode 10, does God speak only through the Scriptures?
• Episode 11, what about impressions?
• Episode 12, what is discernment? 
• Episode 13, the sufficiency of Scripture.
• Episode 14, Was the purpose of miracles restricted to the authentication of the apostles?
• Episode 15, Is revival excluded because of apostasy?
• Episode 16, is prophecy subjective?
• Episode 17, Could only the apostles confer miraculous powers or gifts?
• Episode 18, are charismatics functional cessationists?

Our criteria for the cessationism debate is that the argument must

1. be from the Bible
2. Not appeal to contemporary expressions of charismata
3. Not appeal to silence
4. Not appeal to events or practices of history

That is, any defense of cessationism must be Sola Scriptura.
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Introduction

A cessationist is a Christian who believes that the "supernatural" gifts of the Spirit, including prophecy, tongues, words of knowledge, as well as signs and wonders, did not continue after the death of the last apostle. This is contrasted with a charismatic, or perhaps, a continuationist, who is a Christian who believes the Bible's descriptions of the "supernatural" gifts of the Spirit apply to today's church and should be embraced.

Cessationists also believe that the supernatural existed largely or solely to validate the apostle's ministries, so that their teaching, eventually contained in the NT, would be attested to. With the completed canon of the Bible, there would be no longer a need for these supernatural validations, and thus these things ceased. The reason, they say, is that since signs and wonders had the sole purpose of validating the ministries of the apostles, they are no longer needed because the apostles are gone and we have the completed Bible.

From this they conclude that the Bible is the complete and final revelation of God, and thus He speaks only through the Scriptures today.

Part of the reason they make this claim is if they can restrict the supernatural only to the apostles' ministry, they can invalidate the idea that the supernatural persists to present day.

This series will examine these and other claims.

Impressions

Previously we examined the many ways God speaks, one of which we asserted was through impressions. However, cessationists believe that for the contemporary Christian, God's voice is found only in the Scriptures. So the prophetic, which definitionally would include impressions, has ceased. John MacArthur is one prominent pastor among many who teaches this.

This isn't universally true among cessationists, however. Tom Schreiner admits the Christian can receive impressions. He simply says that impressions are not prophetic. But if an impression is divine information, it must be prophetic.

Nevertheless, a cessationist must dismiss any sort of impression, message, or prompting as being either fleshly or of the devil.

We concede there is a certain kind of safety in this position, in that if one is settled in one's interpretation of the Bible, then it isn't necessary to consider or pay attention to these sort of promptings. They would say that one need only to consult the Bible. Of course, this would be the Bible as filtered through the cessationist doctrinal template.

We would boldly suggest this means someone who embraces this cannot be impacted by the truth, absent an intervention by the Holy Spirit. We recognize this assertion is a severe statement. However, if we believe the Apostle John that the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth (Jn. 16:13), it seems clear to us that being a cessationist means He is largely silenced.

So we will examine this claim that God does not speak via impressions.

The Biblical Record on Impressions

Let's start with king David. We shall first establish that Scripture describes him as a prophet:

Ac. 2:29-30 Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 

It probably isn't necessary for us to chronicle David's credentials, but for the sake of thoroughness we need to understand he was a prophet.

Pursuant to that, we find that David nevertheless relied on an impression:

1Ch. 13:1-2 David conferred with each of his officers, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. 2 He then said to the whole assembly of Israel, “If it seems good to you and if it is the will of the LORD our God, let us send word far and wide to the rest of our brothers...

Here David, who quite often had the inside track regarding revelation from God, nevertheless communicated to the whole nation of Israel regarding an impression as to the will of the Lord.

Fast forward hundreds of years to Luke as he begins his gospel account:

Lk. 1:3 Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus...

Luke, who wrote this gospel and the book of Acts, felt it to be a good idea to commit to the written word what would become Scripture. The word "seemed" is dokeó to have an opinion, to seem; I think, seem, appear, it seems. Luke simply was of the opinion that writing to Theophilus was a good idea. It would be strange to a cessationist that a writer of Scripture did so because of an impression, but that's what Luke did.

We now turn to Acts 13, where Luke was writing of an event in Antioch that happened in a church gathering:

Ac. 13:1-2 In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'” 

Was there an audible voice booming from heaven, heard by everyone? We would think not. Most likely this direction from the Holy Spirit was discerned and not audible, but we don't know. The context is a meeting where God's direction was being sought. There were were a number of prophets in the meeting, and any one of them could have brought forth this message.

We think the Holy Spirit impressed the prophets with this message, and one of them spoke it, rather than there being a voice from heaven. The passage does not tell us which it was, and we most certainly do not desire to argue from the silence of Scripture. Nevertheless the Word of the Lord did come to them. 

Later, in Acts chapter 15 there was a discussion about what instructions should be given to the gentiles, to be sent in a letter, concerning what is permitted and not permitted. They concluded

Ac. 15:28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements..." 

Was the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking audibly here, in a manner that He "seemed" (dokeó) to say this? Again this appears to be a matter of discerning a direction. And again, we are faced with a situation outside the parameters of cessationist understanding.

In Acts chapter 20, Paul is telling the elders of the Miletus church about what he had experienced:

Ac. 20:23 "I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me." 

Again we ask, is this audible speech by the Holy Spirit? Or was it an impression?

Agabus, the only NT prophet who actually had a prophecy quoted, had a message for Paul:

Ac. 21:10-11 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, `In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’" 

Did Agabus hear an audible voice, or did he speak from an impression?

In Romans, Paul appeals to his conscience regarding the message he was bringing:

Ro. 9:1 "I speak the truth in Christ — I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit..." 

This is clearly not an audible voice. The conscience can only be an inner prompting.

Once we begin examining the Scriptural record with an open mind, we find the Bible is replete with various statements about inner promptings. So let's provide additional Scriptural examples:

2Co. 8:16 "I thank God, who put into the heart of Titus the same concern I have for you."

Ep. 1:18 "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you..."

Ep. 3:17-19 "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God."

2Th. 3:5 "May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance."

He. 3:7-8 "So, as the Holy Spirit says: 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion...'"

1Jn. 3:19-22 "This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him."

Objection One, Pre-Canon Revelation

One objection the cessationist might make is that all these references come from a time before the canon of Scripture. But the issue we are considering is the cessationist assertion that God does not speak via impressions. Clearly He does. We have demonstrated this.

So this is in fact is an objection which actually advances us to the next step. The Holy Spirit did speak with impressions, but does He speak to the believer in any form at all today?

We think so. Having thoroughly covered this question in Episode three, prophecy, and Episode four, the closed canon, we concluded that since the prophetic gift is for today's church, which means impressions, as a subset of prophecy, logically would also be for today's church. We therefore deem the objection to be invalid.

Objection Two, Impressions are Unverifiable

Simply having an inner prompting does not mean it is automatically the Holy Spirit. Whether or not the impression is of God is another matter. 

John MacArthur again precipitates our discussion. He views inner promptings as unreliable subjective experiences, with no way to objectively validate them. He writes, Once objective criteria are cast aside, there is no way to know the difference between truth and falsehood.

We are very nearly astonished at this assertion. Dr. MacArthur seems to think that impressions are irredeemably divorced from reality, that they are worthless and cannot be tested. This is false. 

1 Corinthians 2:14-15:

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things...

"Spiritual" is pneumatikos, which means spiritual; relating to the realm of spirit, i.e. the invisible sphere in which the Holy Spirit imparts faith, reveals Christ, etc.

It takes a man with insight into "the invisible sphere" to understand.

The Bible is very clear about the "irrational" means of the Holy Spirit:

Ep. 1:17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

Pr. 20:27 The lamp of the LORD searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being.

Ps. 51:6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

1Co. 2:7-10 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” — [Isaiah 64:4] 10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

Jn. 14:16-17 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you for ever — 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

We discuss this topic here.

Conclusion: Some Valuable Principles

We should like to summarize with four valuable principles that are useful in discerning the truth of a prophetic word or impression. 

1. Is this prophecy biblical?

This is the first and most obvious guide to understanding a prophetic word. If that word doesn’t line up with scripture in some way, either with specific Bible verses, or relating to a biblical theme, then it may not be from God.

2. Is there a witness of the Holy Spirit that this is true?

Sometimes, we just “know” that a word is from God. If you’re like most people, you probably feel this kind of understanding happens only infrequently. The secret to experiencing it more often is to practice listening to God all the time: engaging in a lifestyle of listening. The more you practice, the easier it becomes.

3. Is this prophetic word confirming what is already heard or known?

If a word is something completely new and unexpected to the recipient, then it may not be from the Lord. Many prophetic words, but (importantly) not all, confirm something the Lord has already been saying. There are exceptions to this, but I don’t have space to expand on it here (let me know if you’d like to hear more about this subject).

4. Do I feel any sense of unease about this message?

This question can be a powerful indicator. Sometimes, the answers to most, or even all of the other questions may seem to be a “yes”, but there’s something about the message that doesn’t sit quite right with you, in your spirit. This may be an indication that it’s wrong, but it can also mean that there are certain aspects or details of the message that are incomplete.

We would desire that our churches attain a maturity and level of discernment that we might be able to hear, receive, evaluate, and implement the things God is saying to us. Let us establish a new safety, where we learn to keep in step with the Spirit (Ga. 5:25).