Sermon Notes

The Best Arguments for Continuationism

Spiritual Gifts Today?

Session 1: The Best Arguments

Two Views

  • Continuationism: All or most of the spiritual gifts we see practiced in the New Testament should still be practiced in the church today.
  • Cessationism: Some of the of the spiritual gifts we see practiced in the New Testament have ceased.

 

Theological Triage

  1. Die
  2. Divide
  3. Debate Where differing views on spiritual gifts lands.
  4. Decide

 

Qualifications:

  • Not all species of Cessationism and Continuationism would fall under this 3rd tier definition.
    • For instance, asserting that one must speak in tongues to give evidence on the baptism of the Spirit. Or, assuming that any miraculous work is necessarily demonic or false.

 

The Best Arguments for Continuationism


  1.  The NT Nowhere Teaches the Gifts Will Cease
  • 1 Cor 13:8 does claim that prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will cease, but only when “the perfect” comes, which is most likely the 2nd coming of Christ.
  • If the gifts were to cease shortly after the apostles, why would we have so much teaching in the NT on spiritual gifts?

  1. There Is Good Evidence that the Gifts Will Continue
  • 1 Cor 13:8-12 provides good reason for assuming the gifts will continue until Jesus returns.
  • At Pentecost, Peter cites Joel 2:28-32, which claims that “in the last days” God pours out His Spirit on all flesh, manifested by prophecy, visions, and dreams. The “last days” in the Bible is period of time between Jesus’ first and second coming (ex. Heb 1:2). Therefore, we should assume that gifts like prophecy and speaking in tongues should still take place today.

  1. Jesus Promised We Would Perform Signs and Wonders
  • “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father,” (John 14:12).
  • See Matt 10:1; Mark 3:15; 6:7; Luke 9:1
  • Note: one did not have to be one of the twelve apostles to perform these kinds of signs and wonders.
    • The seventy-two in Luke 10 “heal the sick” (Luke 10:9).
    • Philip (Acts 6:7) performs signs, great miracles, casts out demons, and heals the sick (Acts 8:5-7,13).

  1. Paul Warns Us of Restricting the Spirit
  • “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies,” (1 Thess 5:19-20)
  • “…do not forbid speaking in tongues,” (1 Cor 14:39b)

  1. Paul Encourages Us to “Earnestly Desire the Higher Gifts”
  • “…earnestly desire the higher gifts” (1 Cor 12:31)
  • “…earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy” (1 Cor 14:1)
  • “…earnestly desire to prophesy” (1 Cor 14:39)
  • “Now, I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy” (1 Cor 14:5)

 

The Best Arguments for Cessationism

 

  1. The NT Nowhere Teaches that all Gifts Will Continue
  • What about 1 Cor 13:8-12?
    • “As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Cor 13:8-12)
    • Paul assumes that Jesus is likely going to return at any point—he does not have the concept of several thousands of years of waiting in mind.
    • It is possible the gifts of prophecy and tongues—likely brought up here because of the abuses surrounding these gifts in chs. 12-14—are incidental to Paul’s argument. The main point is that the partial knowledge—which the prophecy and tongues mediate--will one day be remedied. But prophecy and tongues are not the only mediums of partial knowledge—we experience this today, even though we have a complete canon of Scripture. Prophecy and tongues could cease prior to the 2nd coming without compromising Paul’s main point—limited knowledge will one day be fixed.
  • What about “the last days” of Joel from Acts 2:16-21?
    • The “last days” could be inaugurated by the manifestation of prophecy/tongues, but that does not mean that it will persist through the duration of the last days.
    • Just like the conclusion of the “last days” will be marked by “wonders in the heaven above”, but the entire scope of time will not be filled with “blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun…turned to darkness and the moon to blood.”

 

  1. There is Good Evidence that Some Gifts Cease
  • Why are we told so little about what some spiritual gifts are or how they function?
    • What are “words of knowledge” and “words of wisdom” (1 Cor 12:8)?
    • How is the spiritual gift of “faith” (1 Cor 12:9) different than saving faith?
    • How does one know if they possess the spiritual gift of interpreting tongues?
    • If gifts like healing, miracles, and exorcising demons were to be normative in the life of the church, why are we not given more detailed instructions on how one uses such gifts?
  • Why is there no mention of spiritual gifts—aside from the prophecy made about Timothy (1 Tim 1:18; 4:14)—in the manuals Paul writes for young pastors leading churches: the Pastoral Letters.
    • But what about the Lord’s Supper? That is only mentioned in 1 Cor 11 in all of Paul’s letters.
  • Perhaps God did not intend to provide more detail because He did not intend us to have the same experience of certain spiritual gifts that the early church did.

  1. The Gift of Apostleship Has Ceased
  • “Apostles” is a spiritual gift (1 Cor 12:28; Eph 4:8, 11)
  • What were the requirements of an apostle?
    • Someone who was an eyewitness to the resurrected Christ (1 Cor 9:1; 15:5-8; Acts 1:21-22).
    • Someone who was commissioned by Christ Himself (Luke 6:12-16; Acts 1:21-26; 9:1-19; Rom. 1:1).
    • Someone who manifested the miraculous “signs of an apostle” (2 Cor 12:2; Acts 2:43; Matt 10:1).
  • “Since no one today can meet the qualification of having seen the risen Christ with his own eyes, there are no apostles today,” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 941).
  • Paul seemed to allude to the fact that he was the final apostle: “Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God,” (1 Cor 15:7-9).
  • We see no attempt to replace the apostles when they die (eg. Acts 12:1-2) the way that Judas is replaced in Acts 1:21-26.
  • In the Pastoral Letters (1, 2 Timothy, Titus), written towards the end of Paul’s life, he does not mention apostolic leadership in the church. Richard Gaffin explains, “Timothy, as much as anyone, is fairly seen as Paul’s direct, personal successor (cf. Phil 2:20-22), but Paul never calls him an apostle.” (Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? 48).

 

  1. The Church is Built on the Foundation of Apostles and Prophets
  • The church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,” (Eph 2:20)
  • What do “apostles and prophets” do? They provide authoritative revelation (see Eph 3:3-6).
  • Remember: the early church does not have the New Testament, it is still being written! So God provided the church with special gifted individuals—apostles and prophets—to authoritatively declare God’s word to the church. This is the foundation, the “deposit” (1 Tim 6:20), the church is built on.
  • The very image of a foundation implies something laid once, and then consecutively built upon.
    • 1 Cor 3:10-11
  • If the gift of apostleship has ceased, and apostleship is linked with prophecy, then there may be reason to believe that prophecy likewise ceased.

 

  1. The Rarity and Purpose of Miracles
  • The working of miracles was rare in the Bible, clustered around three distinct periods of time: Moses and Joshua; Elijah and Elisha; Jesus and the Apostles. If these were rare in the Bible, why would we anticipate they would be common today?
  • The purpose of miracles: to attest to and identify the authority of a messenger from God.
    • “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” (John 3:2)
    • “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” 21 In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. 22 And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.” (Luke 7:20-22)
    • “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me,” (John 10:25)
    • “Even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father,” (John 10:38)
    • “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know,” (Acts 2:22)
    • See also: John 2:11; 2:23; 3:2; 4:48; 4:54; 6:2; 6:14; 7:31; 9:16; 12:18