For those interested only - On Cessationism.

HEADER FOR Expressions

(Click picture to go back to Table of Contents)

Welcome

Enjoy... But remember
"Don't give in to winning the argument
and losing one of your eternal crowns..."

God bless you...

For those interested only - On Cessationism.

Forum: Theological Expressions
Re:

"Impartation" theology
Date: 2001, Jun 27
From: Christopher Yip CKHY

Dear Pilgrim,
I do wish you all the best in your pilgrimage but I simply cannot let a discussion go on without providing the other side of the story. As such, don't feel pressured to respond because this posting is not an attempt to start a debate with you. You can simply ignore this.
I will, however, be glad to debate those who wish to respond. Here are some notes on the cessation of the sign gifts.
Charles E. Powell, from Dallas Theological Seminary, said the following:
http://www.bible.org/docs/theology/pneuma/giftques.htm
In Jack Deere's intriguing book, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, he suggests the following hypothetical situation and result: "If you were to lock a brand-new Christian in a room with a Bible and tell him to study what the Scriptures have to say about healing and miracles, he would never come out of the room a cessationist." Elsewhere he writes,
"No one ever just picked up the Bible, started reading, and then came to the conclusion that God was not doing signs and wonders anymore and that the gifts of the Holy Spirit had passed away. The doctrine of cessationism did not originate from a careful study of the Scriptures. The doctrine of cessationism originated in experience."
Deere may have a point, but a person reading the Bible and studying miracles and healing may also have several questions about these things. Why do the epistles have little discussion about them? Why does Paul leave people sick (Phil 2:26-27; 1 Tim 5:23; 2 Tim 4:20)? Why does James have the sick call the elders and not one with the gift of healing (James 5:14-16)? Why do I not see miracles and healing?
Deere may be correct in that the doctrine of cessationism originates in experience but that does not mean it is not true. One could hardly affirm cessationism if miracles and healing are happening all about him. Experience is the confirming factor in the case of either continuation or cessationism. Ultimately, the Bible must affirm (i.e., either affirm it as true or false) or allow our experience. It cannot contradict it (i.e., say it cannot happen).
Whatever the case may be Deere raises the issue of putting the doctrine of cessationism to a biblical examination. Are cessationists asking questions of the Bible that will only affirm their conclusion? Or are they being honest and letting the text speak for itself, not forcing it into a prescribed theological framework? There are several texts that need to be discussed. Noncessationists argue that 1 Corinthians 1:4-8; Ephesians 4:7-13; as well as other passages affirm continuation. Cessationists insist that 2 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 2:20; 3:5; and Hebrews 2:1-4 suggest that the miraculous and revelatory gifts have ceased. Both cessationists and noncessationists use 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 to defend their view. In addition to these texts are the passages concerning the miraculous and revelatory gifts themselves, their nature, purpose and use. These texts will also be examined. Finally, some conclusions shall be made concerning these issues as well as how certain questions influence our doctrine of miraculous gifts.
(Questions Cessationists Should Ask: A Biblical Examination of Cessationism. 48th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jackson, MS)
http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/history/1_CH10.HTM
CHAPTER X.
ORGANIZATION OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH.
§ 60. Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists.
The ministry originally coincided with the apostolate; as the church was at first identical with the congregation of Jerusalem. No other officers are mentioned in the Gospels and the first five chapters of the Acts. But when the believers began to number thousands, the apostles could not possibly perform all the functions of teaching, conducting worship, and administering discipline; they were obliged to create new offices for the ordinary wants of the congregations, while they devoted themselves to the general supervision and the further extension of the gospel. Thus arose gradually, out of the needs of the Christian church, though partly at the suggestion of the existing organization of the Jewish synagogue, the various general and congregational offices in the church. As these all have their common root in the apostolate, so they partake also, in different degrees, of its divine origin, authority, privileges, and responsibilities.
We notice first, those offices which were not limited to any one congregation, but extended over the whole church, or at least over a great part of it. These are apostles, prophets, and evangelists. Paul mentions them together in this order (In Eph. 4:11, he adds "pastors and teachers." In 1 Cor. 12:28 he enumerates first, apostles; secondly, prophets; thirdly, teachers; then powers, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, kinds of tongues. Neither list is intended to be strictly methodical and exhaustive). But the prophecy was a gift and function rather than an office, and the evangelists were temporary officers charged with a particular mission under the direction of the apostles. All three are usually regarded as extraordinary officers and confined to the apostolic age; but from time to time God raises extraordinary missionaries (as Patrick, Columba, Boniface, Ansgar), divines (as Augustin, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Luther, Melancthon, Calvin), and revival preachers (as Bernard, Knox, Baxter, Wesley, Whitefield), who may well be called apostles, prophets, and evangelists of their age and nation.
(Note: So Calvin, Inst. IV. ch. 3, § 4:
"Secundum hanc interpretationem (qua mihi et verbis et sententiae Pauli consentanea videtur) tres iliae functiones [Apostoli, Prophetae, Evangelisttae]non ideo intitutae in ecclesia fuerunt, ut perpetuae forent, sed ad id modo tempus quo erigendae erant ecclesiae, ubi nullae ante fuerant, vel certe a Mose ad Christum traducendae. Quanquam non nego quin Apostolos postea quoque, vel saltem eorum loco Evangelistas interdum excitarit Deus, ut nostro tempore factum est."
"According to this interpretation, which appears to me consonant both to the words and the meaning of Paul, those three functions (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists) were not instituted in the Church to be perpetual, but only to endure so long as churches were to be formed where none previously existed, or at least where churches were to be transferred from Moses to Christ; although I deny not, that afterward God occasionally raised up Apostles, or at least Evangelists, in their stead, as has been done in our time."
Most Protestant historians hold substantially the same view. The followers of the "Catholic Apostolic Church," usually called "Irvingites," claim to have apostles, prophets, evangelists raised up by the Lord himself in these last days preparatory to his Advent; but these "apostles" died one by one, and their places remain vacant. See my Hist. of the Ap. Church, pp. 516 sqq., and Creeds of Christendom, I. 905 sqq. In a very substantial sense the original apostles survive in their teaching, and need and can have no successors or substitutes.)
Christopher