Short Case for Cessationism
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(Originally before how gifts work)
(Originally before how gifts work)
Cessationism
Cessationism
But when you read the lists, we also need to clear up some major confusion in the church today.
And that’s dealing with a relatively new stream of Christian theology, and that is Charismatic Christianity.
This is the belief that the miraculous sign gifts are still operative today. Things like tongues, the gift of healing, prophecy, and the working of miracles.
And while this is not an orthodoxy issue, meaning people that hold this position are not automatically non-Christian, I believe that, biblically, the miraculous gifts ceased with the time of the Apostles.
This is what is known as cessationism. Now why do I believe that? If you want a full theology of cessationism and the biblical merits of it, I would point you to two resources from John MacArthur.
One is a book called Strange Fire, the other is the Strange Fire Conference his ministry put on when that book came out.
But here’s the big idea. The sign gifts were just that, signs.
It was God’s way of authenticating his message and messengers. Even Jesus’ miracles were called signs God used to say this is the Messiah.
And the early church had these gifts to verify with power, the new revelation, the new message, that Jesus Christ died and rose again to save sinners.
So the miraculous gifts were either revelatory gifts where God spoke to his people or sign gifts to authenticate those messengers and their preaching of the gospel.
Now that doesn’t mean we don’t believe God doesn’t still work miracles. Every time a sinner gets saved, a resurrection happens. That’s a miracle. An explosion of God’s divine power and grace.
Nor does it mean we don’t believe God still heals people. We are commanded to pray for healing. We just don’t believe there are faith healers. Individuals who still have that gift and the power to heal as they see fit.
What we are saying is that once, the NT Scriptures were complete, which was during the Age of the Apostles, there was no more need to authenticate any new message or messenger because God had spoken once and for all in his Word.
However, the rest of the gifts, all those not associated with revelation, are normative and continue today.
Now having said that, let me clear up some other confusion about the gifts no one disagrees about so that you can see how God has gifted you and fan into flame your gifts to serve the Great Commission.