Cessationism - Episode 19 - Hebrews chapter one and the cessation of the sign gifts

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?
• Episode 19 - Hebrews chapter one and the cessation of the sign gifts.

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.

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" gifts persist to present day.

Our cessationism series will examine these and other claims.

The Passage

He. 1:1-3 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

Greek Grammar And "Spoken"

One of the support verses for cessationist doctrine is the above passage. But grammatically speaking, this verse does not tell us what cessationists think it does. Bible.org, ironically a cessationist website, tells us about what the word "spoken"(he has spoken to us by his Son) means:

The aorist indicative means “it happened,” but we cannot legitimately extrapolate from that a meaning, “and it doesn’t happen now.” The aorist can’t be used to state a negative in the present time.

In other words, the Greek tense does not support translating it "spoken." It ought to be "speaks." Bible.org continues: 

However, the context often is sufficiently clear that one can extrapolate from the author’s overall meaning a once-for-all idea. Does not Paul say “Christ died for our sins”? Does not the author of Hebrews argue that “God has spoken to us in Son in these last days”?

Hmmm. Because Bible.org is cessationist, they immediately equivocate because their doctrine overrides the actual meaning of the word. "It must be past tense because it would otherwise violate our beliefs."

Context

Bible.org appeals to "context," that is, how the verse should be interpreted according to another concept that is not related to the verse: "Christ died for our sins" (1 Cor. 15:3 by the way). Our approach, however, is that we shall appeal to the context of the actual verses.

First, what is the context? The writer of Hebrews wants to establish the high position of the Son. God previously communicated to His people indirectly through a very few men (prophets), but now the Son speaks directly to His people. He is the apex of God speaking. The writer of Hebrews continues in this vein through the entire chapter and even in to chapter two. 

In actual fact, the entire book of Hebrews is about the better Word, the better sacrifice, the better rest, the better priest, the better covenant, all culminating with the better faith as evidenced by certain men who looked to the better promise they never saw, but which we have inherited.

The writer's purpose, therefore, is not to explain that something ceased, but rather, thar Jesus is something better. In fact, verse three contradicts cessation entirely:

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

The Son, the direct speaker of God's Word, still speaks today to sustain the universe. If the Son ever stopped speaking, the universe would fall apart. This is how high He is.

Hebrews 2:3-4

This is the danger of proof-testing, the yanking of the text from its context, constructing a doctrine and then looking for support for it. That is the case with cessationism. The doctrine was developed to conform with a pre-conception, and verses were subsequently sought out in an effort to support it. We discuss twelve such verses here, including a discussion of today's verse from another perspective.

This is why we need to understand the writer of Hebrew's intention to establish and explain the high position of the Son. So let's consider the continuation of the thought:

He. 2:3-4 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

This is key for the writer of Hebrews. Having established the pinnacle of God's communication to man, the message spoken by the Son therefore cannot be ignored. It (this salvation) was attested to by eyewitness accounts, first hand testimony (which we have today in the form of the Bible), signs, wonders, and miracles (The early church was known for the marvelous operations of God's power), and by widely distributed gifts of the Spirit. Does the reader see how the attestation expands from the natural to the supernatural? From a small band of apostles to glorious miracles and spiritual gifts?

The attestation is not regarding the persons, but rather the message. The message is confirmed by the testimony. So, since the spiritual gifts also attest to the gospel message, how can we say they any of them have ceased? How do we arrive at the conclusion that the Gospel message used to have supernatural attestation but no longer does?

Such a claim, if true, is one of great import. The purpose of our series on cessationism is to examine these claims and their scriptural basis. We have concluded that the cessationist case is slim indeed.

Conclusion

We have found that the book of Hebrews was not written to establish the end of the supernatural in the Church. Such a thing would be nonsensical to the first century reader. Rather, the writer of Hebrews was combining all that was known about the Son's fulfillment of the grand purpose of God. In every respect, Jesus is better. Jesus is higher. Jesus is more. 

This was an important letter from the standpoint of the Jewish Christians. They had intimate knowledge of the law and the prophets, thus they certainly benefitted by the connections made by the writer.

And we benefit as well, if we don't impose our preconceptions on it.