Combating Cessationist Theory
Labels:
Important messages
Is the doctrine of the cessation
of spiritual gifts
biblical?
The doctrine of cessation of
supernatural gifts has become popular among many evangelicals these days. I could
wish that I had the audience to effectively combat it, but at least, I will do
what I can on my blogspots, Spanish and English, on Facebook, and through my
radio broadcasts and live radio programs in Spanish. I believe that this doctrine
is contributing heavily in guiding the church on the road to apostasy.
Unfortunately,
the doctrine of the gifts of the Spirit, as it is presented in the Bible, does
not receive much help from those, who argue in its favor, but have very little personal
experience in the exercise of these gifts (with the possible exception of
speaking in tongues). They also have become accustomed to move within the realm
of human possibilities in the day-by-day walk of life, as well as in the issues
of the church. In meetings, everything is well-organized by men and follows
traditional rituals in a totally predictable fashion. Of course, it does no
good to vary the order of service, but what is sadly lacking is the direction
of Christ, as the Head of the church. We see little evidence in practice of
Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 14:24-26.
Do
we understand that, when we are expressing a desire to be a witness, in order to win people to Christ, we are speaking of the
life of Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever, being manifested
through us? Jesus prayed to the Father: “As You, Father, are in Me, and I in You;
that they also may be one in Us, that the
world may believe that you sent Me” (Jn.17:21).
The
love that is seen through that life is not human love, but the same that is
seen between the Father and the Son. I can't tell here the whole story of Jake
DeShazer, but as a prisioner of war in a Japanese prison, he hated the
Japanese. He was converted and, overnight, love took the place of hatred and,
after returning from the war, he became a missionary to Japan. He said that the
love of God is miraculous. His peace and His joy are to be seen through our
lives. After our daughter was crippled in a car accident, her doctor asked me, "Explain this to me: When I told your
daughter, she would never walk again, she smiled at me." I said, "Jesus lives in her. That's the peace
of Christ." That's a miracle. And the joy of Christ is joy unspeakable and full of glory. It’s all
supernatural!
Paul
places the doctrine of the gifts of the Spirit in the context of the body of
Christ, which is the church, in I Corinthians 12:12-31, and he continues in
chapter 14. His concern is for the effective edification of the body of Christ
through the proper use of the gifts of the Spirit. He does not sway from that
same purpose in Ephesians 4:11-16. Therefore, if supernatural gifts have
ceased, then serious consideration must be given, as to what has taken their
place for the edification of the church. What further biblical provision, given
to take their place, will provide for the continuation of its growth? If the
Bible gives no other functions, apart from spiritual gifts, then they are
absolutely necessary towards the proper development of Christ’s will through
the church.
At
the beginning of 1 Corinthians 12, Paul uses a single word, spirituals, to title the subject that we
are studying. He is concerned that the Corinthians and, through the Holy
Spirit, the church today should not be ignorant of these spirituals. The church is entirely a spiritual entity and cannot
operate through human resources. Whatever can function, by means of human,
natural principle and organization, cannot even be termed the church. It requires spiritual input, through people, who are
led, not by the supposedly proper channels of training, nor by their own
experience, but directly by the Holy Spirit.
In
verse 4, Paul first uses the term gifts. This
is his theme throughout the chapter, mentioning them also in chapter 13, and
correcting some misuse of gifts in chapter 14. The original Greek word for gifts is charisma, and from the Greek comes the title for the Charismatic Movement. It is sometimes
called Neo-pentecostalism. As far as
I am concerned, because of the sensational, strange and unbiblical
demonstrations often associated with the movement, I tend to distance myself
from the term. On the other hand, I want my heart to totally respond to Paul’s
command in 12:31 and repeated in 14:1 to earnestly desire spiritual gifts.
While
we are dealing with titles of movements, Perhaps it is not of prime importance,
but I have always felt that the title, Pentecostal,
is unfortunate. It is named after the Feast of Pentecost in the Old Testament,
before it found its fulfillment in Acts, chapter 2. Do you know of a Christian
movement titled after the Feast of Passover? No, we no longer participate in
Old Testament shadows, of which the body is Christ (Heb.10:1). He is the fulfillment of the Passover, by means of
His cross, and the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of Pentecost. I want to strongly affirm that the gifts
of the Spirit have not come to us through the Pentecostals or the Charismatics,
but through the Word of God and they continue throughout the history of the
church, before anything that happened in the 20th Century.
There are many areas of
deception in the church, which should trouble us in these end times. Jesus put
deception at the head of the list of last day events in Matthew 24. I have
already referred to the ridiculously weird demonstrations, which have no
precedent in the Bible. In Matthew 7:22, He warned of those who prophesied,
cast out demons and did miracles, yet practiced lawlessness. The working of
miracles in a ministry should never be seen as a sign of authenticity. Be
advised! I am even more concerned about the popular teaching, even presented to
children, in almost all evangelical churches about self-love and self-esteem.
However, my greatest fear
concerns the fulfillment of Paul’s warning to Timothy, involving Christianity,
which he states clearly as a sign of the last days. “In the last days {exceedingly fierce} (same Greek word as in Mt. 8:28, defining the Gadarene demoniacs) times will come, because men will be
lovers of their own selves (Isn’t that precisely self-love and self-esteem?)... having a form of godliness, but denying
the power (Gr. dunamis=supernatural
power) thereof" (2 Ti.3:1,
2, 5).
“They shall cast out
demons”, or if not, how are we to combat Satanic power
 |
| Native American cemeteries still exist (photo by my dad) |
Because
of my many years, ever since childhood, on the mission field, I have seen the
reality of demonic power and manifestations. Evil spirits are not scared off,
much less defeated, by doctrinal debates or clever and eloquent arguments, but
only by the manifestation of a power, which is greater than theirs.
I
see no evidence that the devil has relinquished any of his supernatural power. On
the contrary, there is an increase of diabolical activity in many forms, even
open worship in Satanic temples. Much has been said about Ouija boards,
horoscopes, and Halloween. Witchcraft abounds around the world, witch doctors
and medicine men perform amazing feats, and there are many documented cases of
people, possessed by demons. At the same time that we observe the evil power of
the devil manifested as never before, popular Bible teachers deny the need for
supernatural power in the church, some not only preaching the cessation of
spiritual gifts, but any form of the miraculous in general. Don’t you think, more than ever, we need the miraculous presence of God among us?
 |
| Canadian native sweat lodges for exorcism (my dad's photo) |
The
powerless lives of modern Christians are defined by 2 Timothy 3:2 and are accompanied now by a doctrine to match… the doctrine of cessation of spiritual gifts. Many have fallen under this
deception, but the fact that it is popular in the 20th and 21st
Centuries, does not give it validity. The opinion of the masses favoring the
Theory of Evolution proves nothing and neither does the adherence to powerless
Christianity.
The
erroneous doctrine of the cessation of spiritual gifts is not difficult to
refute. In fact it is quite weak, based almost entirely of a misinterpretation
of six verses in 1 Corinthians 13. It starts in verse 8 and
continues to the end of the chapter. The argument claims that prophecies,
tongues, and knowledge have ceased, because they were only necessary during the
time of the apostles, before the New Testament, that is, the entire canon of
Scripture, was completed.
Perfection awaits us in heaven, not in
the canon
 |
| Click for larger letters |
The great majority of
commentaries, to which I refer, are from the 17th to the 19th
Centuries. They are all by respected men of God from various backgrounds, such
as Matthew Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Albert Barnes, Adam Clarke, and others,
None of them even hint that 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 have anything to do with the
canon of Scripture. Rather they are seen, as it is especially indicated in
verse 10, "When that which is
perfect has come" and in verse 12, "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in
part, but then I shall know just as I also am known", that they refer
to heaven and the eternal state of a Christian.
Down through the centuries,
when believers picked up their Bibles, that was the obvious conclusion to the
text. I assure you that simple believers in the word of God, including you and
I, would arrive at the same conclusion, as well, if no one taught us otherwise.
It is typical of deception, that it needs something extra-biblical, in order to
capture people in its claws. The proof is in the existence of millions of
cultists, who have been swayed from the Scriptures by the teaching, including
the literature, of their founders... Joseph Smith, Charles Russell, and Helen
White, for example. I have often told them that they could have never come to
such conclusions on their own.
The beloved, blind
hymnwriter, Fanny Crosby, looked forward to a time, when her eyes would open in
heaven, and she expressed it in her hymn,
"And I shall see Him face to face, and tell the story saved by
grace." The apostle John added, very similarly to the words in verse
12, "then I shall know just as I
also am known", in 1 John 3:2, "We
know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He
is." No serious theologian sees John's statement as referring to the
completion of the canon.
The great theologian and
pastor, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, effectively and forcefully debunks the
cessationists' arguments. A. W. Tozer, so universally read and respected, was
by no means a cessationist, and neither are John Piper and Paul Washer, to name
a couple men of our times.
Once the cessationist
argument from 1 Corinthians 13 is destroyed, as it is so easily done, then the
rest of its premises can be cast aside with little difficulty. That is because,
simply, we are not dealing with a biblical doctrine, but the invention of
well-known churchmen, who put intellect above the understanding of the heart.
Their followers are impressed by their intelligence and their ability to
express themselves, and thereby esteem these men over the clear teaching of the
Holy Spirit.
To say that I have
absolutely no respect for their position would be an understatement. There is
nothing so clearly taught throughout the pages of Scripture than the
supernatural essence of everything, Old Testament and New, which has to do with
God. Personally, I will back up my understanding of Scripture by many crisis
experiences on the mission field. Many a missionary has proven that the Book of
Acts is just as real and active today, as it ever was. Those who sit in their
comfortable offices and work out their theories, have never put them in the
test tube of life-and-death experience.
Followers of men and sects
How do we explain the
popularity of such a weak claim? Let me express it this way... Suppose I start
my ministry fresh out of Bible School and seminary, and add some years of
pastoral experience to it. I see little evidence of the supernatural and
nothing of the gifts of the Spirit in my life and pastorate; nothing, actually,
beyond my natural talents and abilities. Certainly there is nothing that
compares to the Book of Acts.
Two choices are before me: 1)
I can humbly confess that there is something lacking in my ministry (many have
done this and received help from God), or 2) I can arrogantly conclude, that
something has changed since Bible times and God no longer backs the preaching
of His word with signs and wonders. Certainly, my doctrine cannot be
questioned; it is the purest to be found (I write with tongue-in-cheek). My
church ranks spiritually above everything else that I see around me. So, if the
gifts of the Spirit were still available, God would certainly favor me and my
people with them (Have you noticed that few church members can see that their
particular choice of churches comes in second place to any other?).
Before I became a teenager,
the Holy Spirit moved with power in the region where I lived with my parents. I
remember that my father, who held a position in the Christian and Missionary
Alliance testify, “We prayed fervently for months that God would manifest Himself
among us, and we assumed that He would
begin to move through us, also.” But it was not to be, because the Lord
raised up some Mennonites, filled with the Spirit, to shake up Christians of
many denominations and to save lost sinners in our area. God hates sectarianism
and He will always denounce it!
So, because of our pride and
unwillingness to face the fact of our powerless condition, the fancy footwork
begins, trying to find a reason why we are not really walking in the power of
the New Testament. I think this particularly characteristic is true, especially
among the hyper-calvinistic, deterministic and fatalistic evangelicals. They can
easily accept the lack of power, as the sovereign will of God. I've been around
for decades of ministry, 56 years to be exact, and this is what I have found to
be the case. Too many do not have an open heart to do anything, but argue their
point. You waste your time, trying to point out Scripture that counters their
logic. Pride fills the heart and honesty has taken flight! They will only wait
for you to stop speaking, so they can start, or they may well interrupt you. So,
I'm writing to people, who are hungry for God and the
moving of His Spirit in these days.
To see such denominational
or positional pride given its rightful place, you might want to look up the
sermons of Dr. Bob Utley, a Baptist professor of the New Testament. Or just
continue to cherry-pick your favorites, who entertain you and make you
comfortable. In the long run, you will be the product of whom you choose to
believe.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Recommended Books
Post a Comment