Every single cessationist false argument in one handy guide

We have assembled the false teaching of cessationists into one place, and we have provided links to our detailed explanations. We also refer the reader to our post, 12 Scriptures cessationists misinterpret, which deals with the most popular cessationist proof texts, and also to our Cessationism Series.

Lastly, our complete body of commentary regarding cessationism is found here.

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1) Using Invented, Pejorative, Contradictory Terminology That Assumes the Premise

• "Sign gifts" (Healing, prophecy, speaking in tongues, for validating the apostles. Discussed here.) 
• "Authenticating signs" (For validating the apostles.)
• "Apostolic sign gifts" (For validating the apostles.)
• "Special authenticating signs" (Healings and wonders.)
• "Revelatory gifts" (Visions, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, and prophecy.) 
• "Sign and wonder gifts" (the "supernatural gifts" which have passed away.)
• "Service gifts" (Non-miraculous gifts for the average Christian today.)
• "New special revelation" (Prophecy. Discussed here.)
• "Additional revelation" (Prophecy.)
• "Private revelation" (Prophecy.)
• "Extra-biblical revelation" (Prophecy.)
• "Direct revelation" (Prophecy.)
• "Continuous revelation" (Prophecy.)
• "Unidentified promptings" (Prophecy.)
• "Supplementary revelation" (Prophecy.)
• "Charismaniac" (Someone who believes in all the spiritual gifts.)
• "Mindless utterance" (Tongues.)
• "irrational babble." (Tongues.)
• "irrational tongues" (Tongues.)
• "Sola Scriptura" (discussed here.)
  

Battling Against Five Dumb Reasons for Female Preachers - BY NEWS DIVISION

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author has his agenda, and alternately abandons or misrepresents what Scripture has to say about the issues he raises. In addition, we are extremely disappointed in the author for not documenting his statements. In fact, he barely manages to quote Scripture at all.

Most disconcerting, however, is his penchant for making unbiblical statements.

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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

Cessationism, Episode 5: Extra-biblical reasons

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.
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The Problems with Personal Words - From God How People Become False Prophets to Themselves - by Bob DeWaay

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author operates according to some preconceptions. He lays out an elaborate, confusing train of "logic" that is based on these preconceptions. He leaps to assumptions and makes several undocumented claims, eventually winding up all twisted in a knot. 

We had hoped for an actual biblical case for the author's beliefs, but he never gets there. We must consider this Bad Bible Teaching.

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Did Tongues Cease or Not? - by Phil Johnson

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This frustrating article is just short of 4000 words, yet the author manages to quote only a little bit of the Bible, and none of it bolsters any of the author's claims.

But he has a lot to say about what people historically believed, or what the Bible does not say, or what contemporary Christians do or don't do. These are logical fallacies which have nothing to do with the biblical case. We will identify each of these fallacies as they come up by identifying them with the phrase "an Appeal To...." or "an Argument From..." There will be an astounding 38 of them. 

We will also highlight in red the author's text that employs these techniques. The reader will see that precious little remains.

Further, the author never actually discusses the answer to the question contained in the title.

Lastly, the author continually presumes his premises via the terminology he employs. For example, "apostolic gifts." The matter to be demonstrated is whether or not the gifts were indeed apostolic. But of course, the author never does explain or document these presumptions.

We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching. Very bad.

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Cessationism - by Robert Rothwell

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author doesn't quote a single Scripture. Not one. It is astonishing to us that a supposed Bible teacher does not quote any Bible verses. No wonder his errant presentation is so easy to slip by a typical believer, for if one actually opens a Bible to consult the relevant Scriptures one would find a completely different story.

We have come to intensely dislike these pretenders who have a veneer of thoughtful Bible scholarship but are in actual fact liars. They are avoid Scripture because Scripture testifies against them. That makes them false teachers.

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Touch Not My Anointed? - by Michelle Lesley

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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There's a lot of bad teaching here. Ms. Lesley misrepresents anointing, leaves out crucial facts, and completely omits the Holy Spirit's role in setting apart people for His purposes.

And a critical junctures her documentation completely disappears. Frankly, it reads like Ms. Lesley simply copied the major points of some Bible teacher that she agreed with.

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The Apostles healed everyone, but the gift was fading?

Recently we've been reconsidering many of the things we thought we understood regarding doctrine and faith. We have begun to question certain beliefs, church structures, and practices of the western church. Too often we have discovered unbiblical doctrines and activities. This causes us concern. We have deemed this our “Rethink.”

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.

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Cessationism - Proving Charismatic Gifts have Ceased - by Dr Peter Masters

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Followers of this blog know that we are continually searching for someone who can explain the biblical basis for cessationism. We have simple criteria:

1) Appealing to contemporary behaviors of charismatics is not relevant to the biblical case

2) Appealing to the silence of the Bible or history is not relevant to the biblical case

3) Suppositions or inferences about what biblical words mean is not the same thing as making the biblical case

Thus it falls to the defenders of cessationism to simply show from the Bible that the "supernatural" gifts of the Spirit ceased.

Here is the next contender, a Dr. Peter Masters. We were unable to locate a biography, but apparently he pastors a church in London. We don't know what his doctorate is in. Perhaps he can bring some light to the cessationism position. We will quickly discover our search to be in vain.

This is a long article. The author makes all sorts of a-biblical assertions. They mount up to the point where by the end we must call into question his competence as a teacher of the Bible.

We simply want the biblical case for cessationism. The author does not supply us with one.

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Cessationism - Episode 7: There were only limited periods of miracles

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.
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SPEAKING IN TONGUES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT - JOHN A. BATTLE

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This is a typical cessationist presentation regarding tongues, but there are a couple of twists we had not heard before.

This is a long article, almost 4000 words, so we request the reader bear with us.

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When Did the Gift of Tongues Cease? - by Pastor Dennis Kiszonas

Found here. My comments in bold.

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In our continuing quest to find a biblical defense of the cessation of the "charismatic" gifts, we turn to this missive by Pastor Kiszonas.

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No one was more “charismatic” than the Apostle Paul. He wrote to the Corinthian church that “they came behind no other church” when it came to the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 1:7)—no church had more of the gifts of the Holy Spirit than the Corinthian church, yet Paul says that he spoke in tongues more than all of them (1 Cor. 14:18)!

No one was more charismatic than Paul, yet the Lord revealed to him that those sign gifts (Emphasis added. The author will use the phrase "sign gift" 25 times. It is a pejorative characterization, designed to prejudice the reader with the author's preconceptions. 

The phrase is not found in the Bible.)

were going to cease:

“whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away” (1 Cor. 13:8). 1

Here Paul writes of the gift of tongues, the gift of prophecy and the gift of knowledge (see 1 Cor. 13:1-2) and states that the Lord Jesus had revealed to him (1 Cor. 11:23; 15:3; Gal. 1:11,12) that a time was coming when these sign gifts were going to cease to operate. (Ok, at this point he supplies three Scriptural references, but does not quote them. It is left to us to actually do so:

1 Cor. 11:23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread...

1Co. 15:3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures...

Gal. 1:11,12 want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather,
I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

that a time was coming when these sign gifts were going to cease to operate. (A conclusion irrelevant to the three Scriptures. One might assume that he was supplying these to bolster his point that certain gifts were going to cease. If so, the assumption would be incorrect.

Nevertheless, we agree that these will cease at some point. The debate, of course, is when.)

The question has always been: when? When would these gifts cease?

This study focuses on that question—when did the sign gifts cease? (Argh. "Sign gifts." Will the author answer this central question? We will see.)

Arranging Paul’s letters in the order that he wrote them

(Now comes a long and tangentially related explanation of the chronological arrangement of Paul's letters, for the purpose of demonstrating that the lack of supernatural occurrences mentioned in the later letters means that the supernatural was fading. 

The lack of mention is not an affirmative argument. It is nothing more than an Argument From Silence.

Regeneration: A glorious rear-view-mirror doctrine - teddmathisdotcom

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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We find it strange how the reformationists use terminology. Apparently phraseology like "born again" or "new life in Christ" are, what, too ordinary? So they glom onto the term "regeneration" as if it's more biblical. But we think the term is not only cumbersome, but also less useful. 

What does regeneration mean to the average person? Well, nothing. It obscures the meaning of Christ's sacrificial death and resurrection behind a two dollar word. 

The Greek word paliggenesia is found only twice in the NT, Mt. 19:28 and Tit. 3:5. 

paliggenesia ("renewal, rebirth") is used twice in the NT referring to: a) the re-birth of physical creation at Christ's return (Advent), which inaugurates His millennial kingdom (Mt 19:28; cf. Ro 8:18-25); and b) the re-birth all believers experience at conversion (Tit 3:5). https://biblehub.com/greek/3824.htm

The first occurrence:

Mt. 19:28 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

The other text:

Tit. 3:5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit... (ESV)

So it turns out this one verse is where reformationists get their terminology. They will use other, more plainly stated verses at times, but nevertheless insist in describing the new creation as regeneration. Some of these other verses not mentioned by Mr. Mathis: 

Ac. 5:20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people the full message of this new life.”

Ro. 6:4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

2Co. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Ga. 6:15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. 

Ep. 4:22-24 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Col. 3:9-10 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

With all this in mind, let's consider the author's presentation.

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Last Crusade: The View from Nowhere - John C. Wright

Found here. Another devastating assessment of the leftist mind.

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If you were the Devil’s Advocate, you would advise the Father of Lies to silence any opposition unheard, because even a soft, still voice of truth is deadly to the hopes of the Devil’s Party.

One way to silence opposition is to claim that matters of private opinion are neither right nor wrong, true nor false, but questions of taste and personal conviction, which must be kept private. The accusation here is that any dissent from established opinion acts to impose private religious conviction on the unwilling, merely by speaking.

The accusation here is that to ask a question is to enact an inquisition.

This is a type of strawman argument, since the truth a speaker supports is always supported on the grounds that it is truth, never on the grounds that the speaker who speaks it is convinced.

Of course he is convinced: the question is whether his reasons for being convinced are sound.

And yet this, out of all weak reasons to silence debate, is the one to which the conservative movement has proven itself unable and unwilling to laugh to scorn.

THE CLAIM TO FEMALE APOSTLESHIP - by Lovesickscribe

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Other than the opening Scripture the author does not quote a single verse. Not one. How is it possible to be regarded as a Bible teacher without quoting the Bible?

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APOSTLES AND PROPHETS TODAY - Let us Reason Ministries (part 1)

Found here. Part 2 is here. My comments in bold.
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This is a long and inelegantly constructed article, with muddled prose and many unsupported assertions and undeveloped ideas. The author rarely quotes Scripture, which is a typical, though perplexing tendency in the defenses of cessationism we have read.

Many of the points presented have been dealt with at length elsewhere in our blog, so for those we will simply provide links. Our article on the apostles in particular addresses most of these points.

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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There are those who claim to be apostles and prophets by their own word. Others claim it by showing their signs, wonders and miracles. This so-called signs and wonders movement is part of an effort to restore what they understood to be the five-fold ministry described in Ephesians 4:11. The proliferators of the movement claim that these dynamics are what is necessary for the church to have power. In actuality, those who lay claim to this ministry today are operating under a misunderstanding of apostles and prophets of the Bible. (Appeals to contemporary expressions.)

The Lord confirmed His signs to the apostles' words to show a transition of authority from Israel and its priesthood to the apostles who were laying down the foundation for the church, a new entity. This unique anointing testified to Israel and to the gentiles a new order of leadership, the demonstration of spiritual authority was transferred to the church Christ body. (We hope the author demonstrates these undocumented assertions.)

Becoming aware of what the Bible says about these positions in the early church can help us guard against misleading teachings in the church today.

Validated by signs and miracles, the apostles deemed the faith for the whole Church and established the written word by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Once the scriptures were completed, the Church had all that was necessary in the area of revelational truth. (More undocumented assertions.)

The apostles' instructions were in words, then put to paper for all succeeding generations on how to live in obedience to the faith.

Once a foundation is laid down and a house is built, we don't rebuild the foundation.(Eph.2:20) Neither should we rip apart the house that the Lord has built.

A true apostle would point out the false ones. (More undocumented assertions.)

Yet today, not only do those who claim to be apostles fail to do so, but there are threats and manipulations for those who do not go along with what they are trying to portray. 'Jezebel,' 'Antichrist,' and 'Blasphemer of the Holy Spirit' are common terms used for those who speak against them.

Alarmingly, these impostor’s (sic) claim to be exclusively without error in their interpretations and teachings on these matters. They are to be questioned by no one. (The author continues to assert things as if they were self-evident.)

In reading the letter of Jude, we find him exhorting the believers to contend for their faith among apostates in the church. More specifically, verse 17 reminds the church of the apostles' warnings of mockers coming in the last days that are natural men not having the Spirit. Today we find those who claim to have more of it than others. (What is this "it?" The Holy Spirit is not an "it.")

Nowhere do we find the apostles preaching they are anointed (This is false. 

2Co. 1:21-22 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

"Anointed" is χρίω (chrió), which means to anoint by rubbing or pouring olive oil on someone to represent the flow (empowering) of the Holy Spirit. Anointing (literally) involved rubbing olive oil on the head, etc., especially to present someone as divinely-authorized (appointed by God) to serve as prophet, priest or king... Essentially, chosen. Which ironically is exactly what the author will assert later as being a unique characteristic of the twelve apostles.

And, we wonder what the point is about the apostles claiming or not claiming to be "anointed." To what is this relevant?)

and certainly did not imply they were more so than others.

Ac. 9:15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 

2Co. 12:11 I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the “super-apostles”, even though I am nothing.

Though the author doesn't want the apostles to be important at this point, later he will make a claim of superiority about the Twelve.)

A Word from the Lord? Evaluating the Modern Gift of Prophecy - by Nathan Busenitz

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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As we've noted many times, we are in search of a biblical explanation of cessationism, including the cessation of the gift of prophecy. Let's see how Mr. Busenitz does. A commentary on another of his articles is here.

This is a long article. We've deleted the introduction and several irrelevant passages.
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(...)

The Bible articulates three criteria for identifying a false prophet. (The author is unable to cite the Scriptures that articulate these three criteria.)

And Tom Pennington hit on these quickly in his seminar just this morning. These three tests, I’m just going to state them briefly and then we’ll go through them in more detail. The first would be the test of doctrinal orthodoxy. (We would counter with biblical orthodoxy. "Things that agree with my doctrine" is not the same as "things that agree with the Bible.")

God’s true prophets proclaim doctrines that are right and true. New Revelation is always consistent with previous revealed truth.

Second, moral integrity. God’s true prophets are characterized by personal holiness. Those who claim to speak for God must also live out that truth in their lives.

And then thirdly, predictive accuracy…predictive accuracy. God’s true prophets foretell future events or reveal hidden things with 100 percent accuracy. (We have a quibble with this, so we will skip the first two criteria and move right to this one.)

How were the Spiritual Gifts Transmitted [Part 2] Doug Kutilek

Found here. My commentary on part one is here.


The second half to Doug Kutilek’s article on the apostolic transmission of the charismata, or spiritual gifts. For introduction and background, see PART 1.
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Paul

Before leaving Acts, the conversion of Paul must be addressed. Though there are three accounts of his conversion (Acts chapters 9, 22 and 26), only two (9 and 22) record the coming of Ananias to see him while he was yet blind, and only one, chapter 9, records the imposition of Ananias’ hands on Paul. God explains to Ananias before He sends him on his mission of contacting Saul/Paul: “and [he, i.e., Saul] hath seen a man named Ananias coming in, and laying his hands on him, that he might receive his sight,” (v. 12). The going of Ananias is recorded in vv. 17,18:

“And Ananias departed, and entered into the house; and laying his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way which thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And straightway there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight; and he arose and was baptized;”

The instructions given by the Lord are clear: the imposition of Ananias’ hands on Saul was for the sake of healing his blinded eyes, which in fact occurred. We also read that Ananias, in conveying the Lord’s message in addition mentions as an apparent purpose of the imposition of hands “and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” These words spoken by Ananias (no more a case of “adding to God’s word” than Eve’s addition to the recorded words of God, “neither shall you touch it” in Genesis 3:3) may be appealed to by some as proof that the charismata could be conveyed by other than Apostolic hands. To this objection, we respond, first, that no sign-gift (Emphasis added. As mentioned in my prior commentary, this phrase is employed pejoratively to convey a definition that confirms the author's biases. The phrase "sign gift" does not appear in the Bible.)

God Told Me: The Pentecostalization of Evangelical Theology - by SCOTT ANIOL

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author makes some astonishing claims as he presumes his premises. Problem is, one must accept these undocumented premises in order for any of this to make sense. It's a logical and Scriptural nightmare.

But this is what we have too often found as we have examined some of his other articles.

The author will his best to bias the reader by his use of language. Thus he agendizes his explanation to tilt the debate to his perspective.

This is over 2600 words, including quotes. And it takes the author over 1000 words for the author to finally quote Scripture. Then when he finally does quote it in defense of his assertions he misrepresents it.

We don't like being lied to, so we must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.

Let's quote the entire passage, since the author never does: 

2Pe. 1:16-21 We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 

18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. 19 And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

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