Our questions include, how did we arrive at our doctrines? Does the Bible really teach what we think it teaches? Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched?
It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves.
Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.
We should note that we are not Bible scholars, but we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to understand the Word of God.
Introduction
It is particularly ironic that cessationists claim the apostles healed everyone and want to impose that standard on contemporary charismatics, but simultaneously assert the power was fading because Paul supposedly couldn't heal everyone. Cessationists want to have it both ways.
So which is it, was Paul an apostle by virtue of the fact he healed everyone, or was he a victim of the fading power to heal?
The Argument is From Silence
As we have noted in many of our other posts, the lack of mention in the text is nothing more than an Argument from Silence. What writers did not write is not evidence. The writers of the epistles cover a wide range of topics, specific to their purposes for writing, therefore there is no requirement that any of them mention various topics like healing, as required by cessationists.
After all, Paul does not mention the cross in Romans, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus. Does this mean that Paul thought the cross was unimportant, or that he no longer need to preach the cross? Of course not.
But this is a key component of the cessationist argument, the lack of mention means things weren't happening, were fading away, or were no longer important.
Apostolic Signs
John MacArthur writes:
It is a simple fact of history that the true signs of an apostle diminished and faded from use before the canon of Scripture was even complete. Nothing is said about miraculous gifts in any of the later epistles of Paul. In the NT, people with the gift of healing healed everyone.
No Scriptural reference is supplied for this assertion. No wonder, since it is false. Ac. 5:16 says all were healed:
Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.However, in Ac. 8:7 we read,
With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed.Many, not all.
With an irony of which cessationists seem unaware, they claim that the supposed increasing incidents of unhealed people is an indicator that the signs and wonders were diminishing even before the Apostles' deaths.
Further, there is no biblical evidence that these were apostolic signs. Stephen was described as performing signs and wonders but never was identified as an apostle. Ananias healed Paul's eyes but he wasn't an apostle. And there was a man who was casting out demons:
Mark 9: 38-40 John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone else driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not accompany us.”
39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus replied. “For no one who performs a miracle in My name can turn around and speak evil of Me. 40 For whoever is not against us is for us.
Conclusion
Doctrines cannot be formed from supposition or inference where the Bible is silent. And especially, one should not make contradictory claims to support one's doctrines.
The Bible does not teach the cessation of the "supernatural" gifts.
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