Nailing the Coffin Shut on the Revelatory Gifts of the Spirit: I am Now a Convinced Cessationist

I admit it: I grew up thinking charismatics were weird or worse lunatics, but after getting to know some of my Pentecostal brothers and sisters hearing their scriptural defense and testimony, I later changed my mind. However, after many years of considering myself a continuationist, I am now a convinced cessationist. I just believe charismatics are wrong because of either ignorance or neglect of good hermeneutical principles.  Now after nearly 50 years as a believer and 30 years in ministry and studying God's word, I no longer believer charismatic are weird or lunatics. I just think they are wrong. 

For the sake of clarity some definitions: A continuationist believes that the Holy Spirit will continue his revelation of himself, and divine truth in the same ways he has throughout scripture. In fact, Pentecost, means he has come in full measure and is active and available in full measure. Although the frequency of manifestations of the so called revelatory and sign gifts have from time to time waned, they appeared at least sporadically throughout history, and there manifestation and experience in the life of a Christian is always possible. They believe that it is at least possible that those who experience the charismatic gifts are experiencing the continuation of what God did at Pentecost. Continuationist believe that to deny the possibility that miraculous sign gifts exist is to deny the evident work of the Spirit and to diminish and stifle the work of the Spirit in a believer's life. We can be cautious, but we must be open.

A cessasionist believes that the Pentecost event was a defining event. There are examples of specific events and actions God has taken that we have no reason to expect he will ever do them again. There was only one Creation, only one Passover, only one Exodus, and Captivity. Only one incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection. Cessationist consider Pentecost to have been a climactic and conclusive event, that ushered in a brief period of transition completing the Old Covenant and establishing the New, and that some of the gifts associated with Pentecost, apostleship, prophecy, miracles, healing, tongues, and perhaps discernment were no longer needed and ceased activity within a few years of Pentecost. The inactivity of those gifts was permanent and intentional and re-embracing them denies the finality and completion of Christ atoning work, the sufficiency of scripture, and attempts to add a human element on to what God has provided. For most of my Christian life I was a continuationist, however, I am now a convinced cessationist. 

I came to Christ at the end of my senior year in High School. Soon after starting college, I went to a church where most of the student who participated in the same campus ministry that I did attend. I now know that the church was a premillennial dispensational church. It was a great church. Christ was honored and the Word taught, and I grew there and had many friends. They taught  cessationism, as a matter of fact the doctrinal statement of the church equated the charismatic gifts with demonic activity. My experience with charismatic believers at the university, though, made if difficult for me to accept that charismatic activity was "demonic." Most of the charismatics I knew were dedicated Christ-followers, who loved God, his Son and His Word, while Satan can come as angle of light when I tested the Spirits by the criterion in 1 John 4:1, I concluded that most charismatics I knew were godly spirit filled men and women. 

Because of that I began to question the church's dispensational views (I recognize that not all dispensationalists would associate charismatic activity with demonic activity). By the time I went to seminary four years later, I had abandoned dispensational biblical theology altogether. By the time I left seminary I had fully embraced covenant theology, I became convinced that the charismatic gifts of prophecy, knowledge and tongues had been given to the church as a sign that the Old Covenant had passed away and the New Covenant had been initiated, and God's continued revelation was found in the work of Jesus Christ and the Canon of Scripture. The gifts of apostleship, miracles, healings were given to those who had Apostolic authority to confirm their authority principally to enable the writing and canonization of scripture. Once the Canon was complete those gifts also passed away, or at least I thought. 

To me it was evident by the record of the book of Acts, the history of the 1st century church and doctrinal texts of the New Testament that the charismatic gifts had passes away and would not return. This was the position I held when I was ordained to ministry in the Evangelical Free Church of America in 1982. At my ordination council most of the examiners challenged my cessationist views, ardently. These challenges were rooted more in a concern for my ministerial practice that over my doctrinal position on gifts. The Evangelical Free Church values being open to "the non-essential." There are many issues that other denominations would consider vital, that the EFCA believes are secondary issues that should not divide believers. The gifts of the Spirit are in that category. That, however, does not mean that individual clergy do not have doctrinal positions which they espouse about those matters. Many in the EFCA (by know means all) especially in the 1980's were dispensationalist and cessationist. The council was more concerned about whether I would be conciliatory and "open" to charismatic believers in the churches. My position fit within the doctrinal boundaries of the EFCA. I passed the council and was ordained, so I must have sufficiently satisfied their concerns. However the push back on my views caused me to reconsider them. 

Not that I sought to accommodate my theology for the purpose of succeeding in ordination. But when challenged to defend my theology biblically, I realized that I had not thoroughly studied the issue enough to be certain about what scripture taught, and had had little experience actually interacting with will versed continuationists, whether in the EFCA or without.   So from that point on I called myself a continuationist, because I was now open but cautious about the use of gifts. And frankly, since it was never a divisive issue in any church I served  I also never fully examined the issue; All that changed after I became a hospital chaplain

In April of 2013 after completing the necessary training I became a chaplain at a large metropolitan trauma one hospital where I had to interact and provide spiritual care and support for people of all belief systems. During the 8-years that I served on the spiritual care staff at the hospital I became convinced that the charismatic understanding of the healing that is found in the atonement of Christ was one of the most destructive uncompassionate belief systems that I encountered. And because the gift of healing and the teaching associated with it was an important aspect of charismatic theology, I questioned the legitimacy of the modern healing movement. I began to seriously re-examine my view on the charismata. 

 I have now become convinced that the Old Covenant system ended with the death of John the Baptist. "16] “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. [17] But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void." (Luke 16:16–17ESV) Many of the thing events recorded in the gospels and Acts after his death were a transitional event that climaxed at Pentecost. They were concluding the Old Covenant and bringing in the New Covenant reality.  I am now convinced that some of the Spiritual gifts, prophecy, knowledge, tongues, miracles (and possibly discernment) were essentially unique signs given that the old had passed and the new had come and no will never again function actively in believers lives, since the New Covenant promises have been fully realized with the completion of the New Testament canon. 

I've come full circle in my understanding of the revelatory and sign gifts of the Holy Spirit; I am now a fully convinced cessationist. I am so convinced that these gifts have passed away that were I on the ordination council of the EFCA today I would assert my commitment to graciousness and tolerance to those who disagreed, and my commitment to amicable fellowship with them, but I would now be able to defend unequivocably the biblical, theological and historical evidence for the cessationist position. And I would assert the evidence so strong that the burden of proof lies with the continuationist. In other words, I believe scripture, the  practice of gifts in the modern charismatic experience as well as church history belie that the modern charismata are a contiunation of the first century experience, nor do I see any basis for expecting a continuation. So, now that you know my biases, I will make the case for cessationism in the next few posts beginning with the biblical case, then proceeding to the the theological case, then nailing the coffin shut on continuationism with the historical argument.