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{"id":329,"date":"2013-07-27T16:36:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-27T20:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionqanda\/?p=329"},"modified":"2015-03-13T22:08:18","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T02:08:18","slug":"spirit-wars-cessationists-vs-pentecostalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionqanda\/2013\/07\/spirit-wars-cessationists-vs-pentecostalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Spirit wars: “Cessationists” vs. Pentecostalists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

BEV ASKS:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been running into people who are cessationist [aligned with conservatives like] John MacArthur, who calls those who believe in the supernatural gifts chaotic, heretics, apostates, and not part of the true church. So, what are your thoughts?<\/p>\n

THE GUY SAYS:<\/p>\n

The cessationist movement opposes practices in Pentecostal<\/a> and \u201cCharismatic\u201d churches that have\u00a0prospered during the past century. Even celebrities Katy Perry and Megan Fox have provoked buzz by recalling Pentecostal experiences and there\u2019s vigorous online debate among Protestants. As usual, The Guy won\u2019t\u00a0share personal opinions but explain matters journalistically.<\/p>\n

Cessationists (mentioned in\u00a0a July 19 \u201cReligion Q and A\u201d posting) say the \u201cgifts\u201d of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament were special phenomena that God gave to help establish the Christian church but appropriately died away. It\u2019s wise to subject any\u00a0expressions and claims of\u00a0spiritual \u201cgifts\u201d to careful scrutiny, but cessationism goes further, saying in principle they shouldn\u2019t occur in the first place.<\/p>\n

The Apostle Paul\u2019s New Testament list\u00a0in I Corinthians 12:8-11 includes non-controversial wisdom and faith along with items in dispute: \u201cgifts of healing,\u201d \u201cthe working of miracles,\u201d \u201cprophecy,\u201d \u201cvarious kinds of tongues,\u201d and \u201cthe interpretation of tongues.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Christians believe in and pray for miracles, especially healings, but Pentecostalism<\/a> makes this a distinct ministry, often through specially gifted workers of miracles. \u201cProphecy\u201d is understood as oracles spoken at church meetings that are direct revelations from God. Critics say this improperly adds to the Bible, God\u2019s final revelation, and MacArthur contends the New Testament word means ordinary teaching and preaching. \u201cTongues\u201d refers to glossolalia, prayer language consisting of spoken syllables unrelated to known languages. MacArthur, however, thinks New Testament \u201ctongues\u201d refers to miraculous ability to use actual foreign languages unknown to the speaker, which was clearly the case on the Day of Pentecost depicted in Acts 2:1-12.<\/p>\n

John Calvin (1509-1564), the French lawyer-turned-theologian and founder of Presbyterian and Reformed Protestanism, wrote this cessationist dictum: \u201cThe gift of healing disappeared with the other miraculous powers which the Lord was pleased to give for a time that it might render the new preaching of the Gospel forever wonderful\u201d (Institutes of the Christian Religion,<\/em> IV\u00a019:18). \u00a0Likewise, the statement of faith at The Master\u2019s Seminary in California, led by MacArthur: \u201cSpeaking in tongues and the working of sign miracles in the beginning days of the church were for the purpose of pointing to and authenticating the apostles as revealers of divine truth, and were never intended to be characteristic of the lives of believers.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacArthur is indeed an outspoken\u00a0cessationist, with books like Charismatic Chaos<\/em> (1992) and the forthcoming Strange Fire<\/em>. That second title is a hostile reference to Leviticus 10:1-2, where false worshippers were consumed by the flames.\u00a0 Promotional material for the new book depicts the Charismatic movement<\/a> as \u201ca breeding ground for scandal, greed, bad doctrine, and all kinds of spiritual chicanery\u201d that exchanges \u201ctrue worship for chaotic fits of mindless ecstasy.\u201d MacArthur will host an October conference, already sold out, to rouse fellow evangelicals to more fervent cessationism.<\/p>\n

Among other things, cessationists cite I Corinthians 13:8, which says prophecies and tongues shall cease whereas \u201clove never ends.\u201d They also note that Paul cites gifts of miraculous tongues and healings only in I Corinthians, an early epistle, and not when he treats Holy Spirit gifts in later writings, nor do Peter or James mention tongues. Another argument is that tongues-speaking mostly disappeared throughout the rest of church history and its occasional appearances involved unorthodox groups.<\/p>\n

The Pentecostal \u201ccontinuationists\u201d reply that Paul never\u00a0suggested any distinction between temporary and permanent spiritual gifts, and taught that all the cited gifts are part of the proper functioning of Christian fellowships. For a full continuationist case, see:<\/p>\n

www.renewaltheology.net\/A_Theological_Pilgrimmage\/tp13.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

For a summary of MacArthur\u2019s thinking, see:<\/p>\n

www.gty.org\/resources\/distinctives\/dd06\/the-gift-of-tongues<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"