{"id":19750,"date":"2000-04-04T04:44:23","date_gmt":"2000-04-04T04:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/answering-the-cessationists-case-against-continuing-spiritual-gifts\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T00:19:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T00:19:51","slug":"answering-the-cessationists-case-against-continuing-spiritual-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/answering-the-cessationists-case-against-continuing-spiritual-gifts\/","title":{"rendered":"Answering the Cessationists\u2019 Case against Continuing Spiritual Gifts"},"content":{"rendered":"Pneuma Review Spring 2000<\/a>\n

In the preceding article, we left our friend, George, the novice charismatic whose excited testimony ran into a wall of biblical-sounding arguments from his pastor, a cessationist.1<\/sup> This article offered a kind of pocket guide of \u201cpro\u201d charismatic arguments which George (or you, gentle reader) can photocopy and send to your cessationist friends for comment. We now offer George some responses to a couple of prominent arguments he is likely to hear from his cessationist pastor and others like him.<\/p>\n

The most thorough catalog of cessationist arguments\u2014and answers\u2014appears in these pages in Wayne Grudem\u2019s four-part article<\/a>, a reprint of chapter 2 in an excellent book by Gary Greig and Kevin Springer, editors of The Kingdom and the Power: Are Healing and the Spiritual Gifts Used by Jesus and the Apostles and the Early Church Meant for the Church Today? <\/i>published by Regal Books in 1993.<\/p>\n

This present article seeks to supplement that chapter with answers to two prominent objections to continuing spiritual gifts:\u00a0 1) \u201cHistory shows that miraculous spiritual gifts have ceased,\u201d or, in a variation of that objection: \u201cIf miracles and spiritual gifts have continued, then why don\u2019t we see them as widespread and obvious today as in New Testament times?\u201d\u00a0 2) \u201cEphesians 2:20 shows that the \u2018foundational gifts\u2019 of apostle and prophet have ceased.\u201d In my experience, these are two of the most common cessationist arguments in use today which are worth examining.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>\u201cHistory shows that miraculous spiritual gifts have ceased.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Following Benjamin Warfield\u2019s classic cessationist work, Counterfeit Miracles <\/i>published in 1918, many today appeal to history to show the cessation of miraculous gifts. Warfield insisted that his book stood on \u201ctwo legs\u201d: biblical and historical proofs. But his \u201clegs\u201d were grossly disproportional: probably 97% of his book stood on the historical leg, while his biblical arguments were haphazardly scattered through his pages, responding only to the biblical arguments of his opponents.<\/p>\n

Older Pentecostals and charismatics find this odd, since our critics have often said that we base our \u201ctheology\u201d on \u201cexperience\u201d rather than on the word of God. Yet an appeal to \u201chistory\u201d is actually an appeal to \u201cexperiences\u201d\u2014at least to those in the past. These days, the shoe is very much on the other foot: cessationists increasingly appeal to \u201cexperience\u201d (history) while charismatics, like Jack Deere, Gordon Fee, Wayne Grudem, Gary Greig, Max Turner and John Wimber are building increasingly sophisticated biblical<\/i> arguments.2<\/sup><\/p>\n

The cessationists\u2019 ad hominum<\/em> argument does not deal with the issue: according to Scripture, are charismatic manifestations a normative part of the Christian life today?<\/div>Cessationists often cite horror stories in connection with charismatic manifestations, as for example, Hank Hanegraaff in his book, Counterfeit Revival<\/i>3<\/sup> or John MacArthur in Charismatic Chaos<\/i>. Certainly the Pentecostal\/charismatic movement has had its share of weirdoes. But the cessationists\u2019 ad hominum <\/i>argument (against individuals rather than against the proposition) does not deal with the issue: according to Scripture, are charismatic manifestations a normative<\/i> part of the Christian life today?<\/p>\n

We have all heard the story of a Chinese missionary overhearing a Pentecostal person \u201ccursing Christ\u201d while speaking in tongues in Chinese, repeated like an urban legend (the poodle in the microwave; the alligators in the sewer; the disappearing hitch-hiker, etc.<\/i>) for decades. The \u201cChinese curser\u201d seems to be a story recycled from Alma White, Demons and Tongues.<\/i>4<\/sup> Such negative stories can more than be matched, however, by such works as Ralph Harris\u2019s popular paperback, Spoken by the Spirit: Documented Accounts of \u201cOther Tongues\u201d from Arabic to Zulu<\/i> (Springfield, Mo.: Gospel Pub. House, 1973) or Albert J. Hebert, Raised from the Dead: True Stories of 400 Resurrection Miracles<\/i> (Rockford, IL: TAN Publications, 1986) and numerous others.5<\/sup><\/p>\n

But does in fact an examination of history show that spiritual gifts and miracles ceased in the post-apostolic era<\/i>? Recently, a friend of mine who taught in a traditionally cessationist seminary set out to prove that Warfield was right: that the gift of prophecy ceased after the apostles died. When he carefully examined the literature, however, he came to publish exactly the opposite conclusion!6<\/sup> At my suggestion, he wrote another excellent piece of research showing that the early church fathers actually used 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 as proof that prophecy would continue in all the church until the end of the age<\/i>.7<\/sup> In no case<\/i>, did he find that the fathers ever<\/i> used 1 Cor 13:8-12 as a text to indicate the closing of the canon or the \u201cmaturity\u201d of the church as modern cessationists have tried to do. In fact, he shows that it was the heretics<\/i> who tried to use 1 Cor 13 in this way!<\/p>\n

Many good books have been produced showing the frequent outbreak of miracles and spiritual gifts throughout church history (See also the excellent series by Richard Riss entitled \u201cTongues and Other Miraculous Gifts from the 2nd to 19th Centuries\u201d which appeared in the first five issue of the Pneuma Review<\/i>, Fall 1998 (Vol 1 No 1) through Fall 1999 (Vol 2, No 4)). We will offer only three seldom-quoted examples of many hundreds available. Chapter 22 of St. Augustine\u2019s City of God<\/i> is devoted to the story of how Augustine himself became a full blown \u201ccharismatic\u201d after being a bit of a theological cessationist. He repudiates his previous position, and provides examples of over seventy miracles he recorded in and around his churches. Augustine complains in section 22,8 that contemporary miracles are relatively unknown not because they no longer occur, but simply because of bad communication and because people are conditioned to disbelieve them.8<\/sup> Pope Gregory VI in writing about the successful evangelism of Britain enthused: \u201c\u2026<\/b>great miracles imitate powers of the apostles in the signs they [perform].\u201d9<\/sup> Much later, Luther seems to have undergone a similar conversion to that of Augustine toward the end of his life.<\/p>\n

The early church fathers actually used 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 as proof that prophecy would continue in all the church until the end of the age.<\/div>Martin Luther was never a shrinking violet, but at one point he sounds bolder than Kenneth Hagin! After snatching his friend, Melanchthon \u201cfrom death\u2019s arms,\u201d Luther describes his incredibly aggressive prayer: \u201cIn this instance our Lord God had to pay me<\/i>; for I threw the bag of concerns before his door and I dinned his ears with all of his promises as to how he desired to favorably hear our prayer\u2014promises which I well knew how to document in Scripture! I put it to him that he had to grant my request if he expected me to continue to trust his promises!\u201d10<\/sup><\/p>\n

Until recently, as in Augustine\u2019s time, most Christians in the West have been conditioned, even by church leaders, to disbelieve and discount any contemporary miracle stories. Now, with the advent of primarily charismatic television ministries and a knee-jerk reaction against the sterile Enlightenment rationalism that has dominated Western thought, many more Americans are believing in the power of God. Thirty percent of American adults reported that they had experienced \u201ca remarkable healing\u201d in their lives11<\/sup>, while a total of 78% of Americans either \u201cbelieve\u201d (27%) or \u2018strongly believe\u201d (51%) that \u201ceven today miracles are performed by the power of God,\u201d only 15% somewhat disagreed or 6% strongly disagreed!12<\/sup><\/p>\n

We turn now to probably the most prominent biblical<\/i> argument used by cessationists today.<\/p>\n

2. \u201cEphesians 2:20 shows that the \u2018foundational gifts\u2019 of apostle and prophet have ceased.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

The argument by analogy based on the metaphor of apostles and prophets as <\/i>foundational to the church (Eph. 2.20 and 3.5) does not support the cessation of <\/i>\u201cmiraculous<\/i>\u201d spiritual gifts.<\/i> Some cessationists have approached Eph. 2.20 as the <\/i>authoritative flow chart of the universal church. The apostles and prophets serve as a \u201cfoundation\u201d in the sense that they collectively represent a kind of oral \u201cinterim New Testament,\u201d their gifts and functions being extinguished when normative doctrine is set down in writing within the first generation or two of the church.13<\/sup> Generally, this argument is framed against the mindset of Reformation\u2011era polemics and Enlightenment rationalism, with unexamined premises about Popes, apostolic succession and authority, miracles, \u201cordinary and extraordinary\u201d spiritual gifts, and even the essential nature of the gospel itself. There are at least four premises in this argument.<\/p>\n

1. The metaphor of \u201cfoundation,\u201d to support cessationism, requires that the distinctive function<\/i> of apostles and prophets is to establish the parameters of church doctrine<\/i>, particularly as it appears in the New Testament. Hence, when their collective function is complete, the gifts of apostleship and prophecy necessarily pass from the scene.<\/p>\n

Recent advocates of cessationism are sensitive to charges that this argument is anachronistic, that it reads much later theological ideas back into the New Testament. They also recognize that it is unlikely that the \u201cfoundational\u201d apostles and prophets involved were at all aware of their role as an interim New Testament. Nevertheless, the argument remains essentially unaltered: these \u201cfoundational\u201d gifts are strictly limited to this brief, transitional function.<\/p>\n

Augustine complained that contemporary miracles were relatively unknown not because they no longer occurred, but simply because of bad communication and because people were conditioned to disbelieve them.<\/div>The problem with this view is that not only does the New Testament nowhere explicitly state that this is the only <\/i>role for apostles and prophets, it does not even state that this is one <\/i>of their roles. In Ephesians, the explicit roles given for apostles and prophets are that they are to work in concert with evangelists, pastors and teachers in equipping the saints until<\/i> ultimate unity and Christian maturity is achieved in all. If the duration of the gifts is necessarily connected with their function, as these cessationists argue, then clearly the task of apostles and prophets is not complete until every single member of the church reaches the same level of Christian maturity as Christ himself (Eph. 4.13). Most cessationists would agree with St. Paul (Phil. 3.12) who does not have the audacity to make the claim that he has attained that level. Certainly we have not yet reached \u201cunity of the faith\u201d even on the issue of cessationism. To claim that the only <\/i>function of apostles and prophets in the New Testament is to formulate doctrine for inclusion in the Bible is in itself unbiblical. But if there are other roles for them, then the \u201cfoundational\u201d argument fails.<\/p>\n

2. If the charismata were only for \u201cfoundational\u201d purposes, then the apostles and prophets were Protestant Popes.<\/i> That is, they served as the unique receivers and articulators of Christian revelation, a role that no one may subsequently share. However, it can be argued that the New Testament sees these gifts as first and definitive, but certainly not un-<\/i>repeatable.<\/p>\n

These \u2018foundational gifts\u2019 actually serve as prototypes, or as role models for others to follow.<\/div>These \u201cfoundational gifts\u201d actually serve as prototypes, or as role models for others to follow<\/i>. It is true that the original experience of Christ\u2019s revelation is \u201cepochal,\u201d or \u201cpioneering.\u201d It is also true that these experiences are offered as a model for others to follow. Just as Lindberg\u2019s crossing of the Atlantic was \u201cfoundational\u201d or \u201cepochal\u201d it was so only because<\/i> other similar flights followed; Lindberg opened a new era of a repeatable <\/i>action.<\/p>\n

For the church, then, the apostolic and prophetic gift is \u201cfoundational\u201d not only in the sense that the apostles and prophets first announced the gospel in some areas, but that all further revelation about Christ is delineated, articulated, qualified, and offered for reduplication<\/i> by its original receivers. Hence, this passage shows not that the gifts of apostleship and prophecy ceased, but rather that since these people\u2019s experience is \u201cfoundational\u201d and archetypal, their experience and functions therefore must continue<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Ephesians 2:20 shows not that the gifts of apostleship and prophecy ceased, but rather that since these people\u2019s experience is \u2018foundational\u2019 their experience and functions therefore must continue.<\/div>Most importantly we must remember that the apostles and prophets only communicated their revelations; they did not create them, ex cathedra.<\/i> They were not, after all, God. Hence their lives, experiences with Christ and ministries are, to the extent that they followed Christ, necessarily exemplary and repeatable, inviting rabbinic pedagogical imitation as do Jesus and Paul.14<\/sup><\/p>\n

At least three points support this. First, Paul lays stress on the \u201cconnection\u201d of Jews and Gentiles via access to the Father, not simply through a funnel of apostolic authority, but \u201cthrough [Christ]… by one Spirit\u201d <\/i>(the Revealer) in Eph. 2.18. Secondly, just as Paul received by revelation his gospel of reconciliation between God, Jews and Gentiles (3.3), so now the whole church<\/i>, by reading (3.3\u20114) and by revelation<\/i> by the power of the Spirit<\/i> (3.1-18) is similarly to grasp the scope of God\u2019s love (inter alia,<\/i> the inclusion of the Gentiles). Thirdly, and most explicitly, Christ gave<\/i>15<\/sup> <\/i>these apostles and prophets until<\/i> (mechri<\/i>) ultimate, eschatological goals of Christian upbuilding and maturity are achieved (4.13) \u201cthat we all<\/i> attain to the unity of the faith\u201d (this has happened?!); that we all attain to<\/i> the knowledge of the Son of God (but to what extent?) to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ<\/i> (has this happened to all Christians<\/i>?). These goals can only be attained in heaven! Until then, apostles and prophets (however the church may have later labeled them) are envisioned to be continuously at work until<\/i> these goals are met\u2014only in heaven.<\/p>\n

As one committed to the infallibility and inerrancy of Scripture, I would never seek to minimize the central significance of the Bible for faith. Nevertheless, the Bible in general, and Ephesians in particular, does not identify itself as the foundational core of the church. Rather, this \u2018foundational core\u2019 is the ongoing series of revelatory encounters with Christ, which open our hearts to the Scriptures. The disclosure experience of Christ, within its biblical framework, is truly the foundation of the church.<\/div>Two profound ironies on this point appear: 1) despite the insistence on the integrity of the immutable doctrinal \u201cfoundation,\u201d conservative Protestants willingly accept the drastic reshaping of doctrines away from their biblical emphases. Oddly enough, this reshaping has happened through the acceptance of now discredited Greek philosophical premises and the evolution of systematic theology over two millennia. For proof of this, contrast the biblical emphases on the doctrines of the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God against systematic theology of Protestant orthodoxy. Since we have been raised with <\/i>these grotesque distortions of emphasis, we remain comfortable with them.<\/p>\n

2) Moreover, conservative Protestants in practice<\/i> hold to a continuing apostleship insofar as they cite as the final authority their denominational and traditional leaders such as Luther, Calvin and Wesley. In many writings, the teachings of\u00a0 these leaders appear with greater frequency and authority than even the apostles of the New Testament itself.<\/p>\n

3. To preserve the argument claiming that the <\/i>\u201cfoundation<\/i>\u201d is the first generation of the Church, Christ as <\/i>\u201ccornerstone<\/i>\u201d must lie at the same chronological level as the apostles and prophets.\u00a0 That is, Christ must be part of the first generation <\/i>\u201cfoundation<\/i>\u201d.<\/i>16<\/sup> Hence, the cessationist argument-by-analogy collapses if Christ is not limited to the <\/i>\u201cfoundation<\/i>\u201d in Eph. 2.20.<\/i><\/p>\n

The foundation metaphor probably echoes the tradition of Jesus about Peter\u2019s revelation\/confession: \u201cYou are Peter (Petros<\/i>) and upon this rock [petra<\/i>] (the <\/i>revelation about Christ) I will build my church\u201d (Mt. 16.18). This \u201crock\u201d seems to consist of a revelatory process and its content\u2014a revelation of Christ and his significance. Hence in Eph. 2.20 apostles and prophets represent the \u201cfoundation\u201d of the church, of which Christ Jesus is the \u201ccornerstone,\u201d \u201ckey\u2011stone\u201d or \u201chead of the corner,\u201d who, via the Spirit, continually and individually reveals<\/i> Himself, holds the structure together, both from above and from below (I Cor. 3.11).17<\/sup> Since Christ seems to be portrayed not only as a foundation <\/i>stone but also as a final <\/i>stone in the temple of God, Eph. 2.20 argues against the cessationist chronological schema of successive generations of believers (courses of stones) being built on the deposit of doctrine represented by the apostles and prophets.<\/p>\n

The death of Christ does not spell the end of his work in the church via the Spirit (and His gifts). If He continues to be \u201cfitted into\u201d each person in the temple who exists \u201cin Him\u201d or \u201cin the Lord,\u201d then the implications for this continuing activity for the other parts of the \u201cfoundation\u201d are interesting indeed. Do we not have here the same idea as in Eph. 1.21\u201122, where Christ permeates the church \u201cnot only in the present age, but also in the one to come\u201d? The pattern here suggests that the activity and presence of Christ is not limited to an initiatory period in this age, followed by inactivity, followed by more of His presence in the age to come, as Warfield suggested.18<\/sup> Like Christ, the presence and activity of apostles and prophets are continuous in this present age.<\/p>\n

4. The most unsettling premise of the \u201cfoundational\u201d argument is the notion employed of what ultimately is the \u201cfoundation\u201d\u2014the most important element or core value\u2014of the church. Some cessationists appear to be insisting that the \u201cfoundation\u201d is the established doctrine of the New Testament documents. As one committed to the infallibility and inerrancy of Scripture, I would never seek to minimize the central significance of the Bible for faith. Nevertheless, the Bible in general, and Ephesians in particular, does not identify itself as the foundational core of the church. Rather, this \u201cfoundational core\u201d is the ongoing series of revelatory encounters with Christ, which open our hearts to the Scriptures. The disclosure experience of Christ, although within its biblical framework, is truly the foundation of the church. St. Paul was concerned that Christians\u2019 faith rested not <\/i>on words, <\/i>but on \u201ca demonstration of the Spirit\u2019s power\u201d (I Cor. 2.14).<\/p>\n

Christian cessationist Fundamentalism lies close to the rabbinic tradition of \u201cit is not in heaven\u201d\u2014meaning that the Torah was given once and for all\u2014and that ultimate religious authority now rests with the interpretive abilities of the scribes, as against any further miraculous or revelatory experience. Cessationists tend to model their salvation-history after the dubious rabbinic doctrine that after the last book in the Tanakh (Old Testament) God would send no more prophets.19<\/sup> Cessationists may counter that they still uphold the doctrine of illumination, the view that the Spirit continues its \u201crevelatory\u201d work in the clarification and application of Scripture. This is a sound and biblical position, but one that is often ignored in practice.20<\/sup> In any case, the doctrine of illumination is no substitute for the life\u2011changing spiritual encounter with Christ or His continuing revelatory gifts of the Spirit, though they do work together.<\/p>\n

A central aspect of the Messiah\u2019s coming was to inaugurate the age of the (prophetic) Spirit,21<\/sup> to fulfill the Law; to move the center of perceiving God\u2019s mind and will into the heart (the spiritual center of perception), away from the external coercion of the Law. The scribal suppression of the Spirit\u2019s revelatory presence prompted Jesus to say, \u201cYou know [in the sense of \u201cdivinely understand\u201d] neither the Scriptures nor the power of God!\u201d The loss of one necessarily indicated the loss of both. It was against this Judaizing tendency among the Galatians that an exasperated Paul asked, \u201cHaving begun in the [revelatory, miracle\u2011working] Spirit, will you now be completed in the [Godless human abilities] of the flesh?\u201d<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/b><\/p>\n

Our friend George need not fear. Cessationism is an increasingly beleaguered position represented by three concentric circles. Many strongest defenders of cessationism in the inner circle are defecting to more modern \u201cmediator\u201d positions, who can see both sides and respect the arguments of charismatics, but still resist personal change. But this second circle in turn is losing defectors to the outer circle of the \u201copen-but-cautious\u201d position. It may well be that if present trends continue, and we speak the truth in love, that our friend George will one day discover that cessationism has taken its rightful place in the Museum of Theological Curiosities beside the \u201cgap theory\u201d of creation, the bodily ascension of Mary, and the doctrine that Mussolini is the antichrist.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PR<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Notes<\/b><\/p>\n

1<\/sup> For our purposes, a \u201ccessationist\u201d is one who believes that miracles or \u201cmiraculous\u201d spiritual gifts accredited the new doctrine inscripturated in the New Testament, and therefore they ceased when either the apostles died or the New Testament was written.
\n2<\/sup> Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit<\/i> (Zondervan, 1993), Surprised by the Voice of God<\/i> (Zondervan, 1996); Gordon Fee, God\u2019s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul<\/i> (Hendrickson, 1994); Wayne Grudem, Power and Truth<\/i> (Assoc. Vineyard Churches, 1993), Systematic Theology<\/i> (Zondervan, 1994); Gary Greig (above); Max Turner, The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts <\/i>(Hendrickson, 1996); John Wimber (with Kevin Springer) Power Healing<\/i> (Harper, 1987); and my own On the Cessation of the Charismata<\/i> (Sheffield Acad. Pr., 1993).
\n3<\/sup> See my review article of Counterfeit Revival<\/i>, \u201cWas Jesus also a Heretic?\u201d Charisma <\/i>(July 1997).
\n4<\/sup> (Zarephath, N.J.: Pillar of Fire Publishers, [1936] 1949), 92. You can see another variation of this on the internet: http:\/\/www.hopeint.org\/off\/9611-04.htm<\/a>. http:\/\/www.tebidine.com\/bethany\/guestbook\/guestbook.html<\/a>.
\n5<\/sup> Stanley M. Burgess, The Holy Spirit: Ancient Christian Traditions<\/i> (formerly titled The Spirit and the Church: Antiquity<\/i> (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1984)), Ronald N. Kydd, Charismatic Gifts in the Early Church: An Exploration into the Gifts of the Spirit in the First Three Centuries of the Christian Church<\/i> (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1984), Johan C. Beker, \u201cProphecy and the Spirit in the Apostolic Fathers,\u201d (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1955); George Williams and Edith Waldvogel, \u201cA History of Speaking in Tongues and Related Gifts,\u201d in The Charismatic Movement<\/i>, edited by Michael P. Hamilton (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1975), 61\u2011113; Ted A. Campbell, \u201cCharismata in the Christian Communities of the Second Century,\u201d Wesleyan Theological Journal<\/i> 17 (Fall 1982): 7\u201125; Darling, Frank C. Christian healing in the Middle Ages and Beyond <\/i>(Boulder, Colo.: Vista Publications, 1990); idem, The Restoration of Christian Healing: New Freedom in the Church since the Reformation<\/i> (Boulder Colo.: Vista Publications, 1992); H. M. Evans, \u201cTertullian: Pentecostal of Carthage,\u201d Paraclete<\/i> 9 (Fall 1975): 17\u201121; Andrew T. Floris, \u201cTwo Fourth Century Witnesses on the Charismata,\u201d Paraclete<\/i> 4 (Fall 1970): 17\u201122; \u201cChrysostom and the Charismata,\u201d Paraclete<\/i> 5 (Winter 1971): 17\u201122; Harold Hunter, \u201cTongues\u2011speech: A Patristic Analysis,\u201d Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society<\/i> 23 (June 1980): 125\u201137; Morton Kelsey, Healing and Christianity<\/i> (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), 135\u201199; Jean LaPorte, \u201cThe Holy Spirit, Source of Life and Activity according to the Early Church,\u201d In Perspectives on Charismatic Renewal<\/i>, ed. Edward D. O\u2019Connor (South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1975): 57\u201199; Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., \u201cVisions and Prophecy in the Writings of Cyprian,\u201d Paraclete<\/i> 16 (Summer 1982): 21\u201125; Hermann Schlingensiepen, Die Wunder des Neuen Testament: Wege und Abwege bis zur Mitte des fnften Jahrhunderts <\/i>(Gttersloh: Verlag I. Bertlesmann, 1933); Hendrik F. Stander, \u201cMiraculous Charisms in Eusebius\u2019s Time,\u201d Paraclete<\/i> 21 (Fall 1982): 11\u201114; Jacques Serr, \u201cLes charisms dans la vie de l\u2019 eglise; temoinanges patristiques,\u201d Foi et Vie<\/i> 72, no. 1 (1973): 33\u201142 and Eusebius A. Stephanou, \u201cThe Charismata in the Early Church Fathers,\u201d The Greek Orthodox Theological Review <\/i>21 (Summer 1976): 125\u201146, among others.
\n6<\/sup> Gary S. Shogren, \u201cChristian Prophecy and Canon in the 2nd<\/sup> Century: A Response to B. B. Warfield,\u201d Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society<\/i> 40\/4 (Dec 1997), 609-26.
\n7<\/sup> Gary S. Shogren, \u201cWhen and How Does \u201cthe Perfect\u201d Come? 1 Cor 13:8-12 in Patristic Exegesis,\u201d forthcoming in Journal of Pentecostal Studies<\/i>.
\n8<\/sup> NPF<\/i>, 1st ser., I: 485.
\n9<\/sup> See note 4, above. Gregory VI? Epistle XXX, PNF <\/i>12.2, 1163.<\/b>
\n10<\/sup> Cited in Th. Jungkunz, \u201cCharismatic Renewal,\u201d Concordia Theological Monthly <\/i>42\/1 (1971), 5-23.<\/p>\n

11<\/sup> Gallup Religion Data. http:\/\/www.prrc.com\/data.html#3 IN 10
\n12<\/sup> George Gallup, Jr., and Sara Jones, 100 Questions and Answers: Religion in America<\/i> (Princeton: Hermitage Press, 1989), 10.
\n13<\/sup> For example by R. B. Gaffin, Jr., Perspectives on Pentecost: Studies in New Testament Teaching on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit <\/i>(Phillipsburg: PA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishers, 1979), pp. 93\u2011116; R. L. Thomas, \u201cProphecy Rediscovered? A Review of The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today,\u201d BS <\/i>149 (January\u2011March 1922), pp. 83\u201196; K1. Gentry, The Charismatic Gift of Prophecy: A Reformed Response to Wayne Grudem <\/i>(Memphis: Footstool, 1989); R.F. White, \u201cGaffin and Grudem on Eph. 2:20: In Defense of Gaffin\u2019s Cessationist Exegesis,\u201d WJT<\/i> 54 (1992), pp. 303\u201120; and F.D. Farnell, \u201cThe Gift of Prophecy in the Old and New Testaments,\u201d BS <\/i>149\/596 (October\u2011December 1992), pp. 407\u201110.
\n14<\/sup> See my article, \u201cThe \u2018Imitation of Christ\u2019 in Christian Tradition: Its Missing Charismatic Emphasis,\u201d forthcoming in The Journal of Pentecostal Theology, where I argue that a central mission of Jesus was to provide a rabbinic \u201cpattern-to-follow\u201d for his disciples: that Jesus\u2019 life was to be duplicated exactly in terms of charismatic ministry.
\n15<\/sup> \u201cGave\u201d (edoken<\/i>\u2014aorist tense) need not mean that Christ gave these gifts once and for all never to repeat them in any other generation. Otherwise, today we would have no claim to the gifts given as evangelists, pastors and teachers, which are here listed seamlessly with apostles and prophets. It is reasonable to ascribe to this tense the eternal view of Christ in the same sense that He \u201cchose us before the foundation of the world\u201d (Eph. 1.3). In this same context \u201cHe lavished [his grace] on us with all <\/i>wisdom and understanding\u201d (1.8).
\n16<\/sup> For example by Farnell, \u201cIs the Gift of Prophecy for Today?,\u201d p. 409.
\n17<\/sup> I cannot improve on the argument for this by Barth, Ephesians <\/i>1\u20113 Anchor Bible Commentary, pp. 317\u201119.
\n18<\/sup> Counterfeit Miracles<\/i>, 27.
\n19<\/sup> See Greenspahn, \u201cWhy Prophecy Ceased,\u201d pp. 37\u201139.
\n20<\/sup> C. Pinnock, \u201cThe Work of the Holy Spirit in Hermeneutics,\u201d JPT<\/i> 2 (1993), pp. 3\u201123.
\n21<\/sup> The thesis of Roger Stronstad, The Prophethood of All Believers<\/i> (Sheffield: Sheffield Univ. Acad. Pr, 1999).<\/p>\n

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

In the preceding article, we left our friend, George, the novice charismatic whose excited testimony ran into a wall of biblical-sounding arguments from his pastor, a cessationist.1 This article offered a kind of pocket guide of \u201cpro\u201d charismatic arguments which George (or you, gentle reader) can photocopy and send to your cessationist friends for comment….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2875,"featured_media":19751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,15,4239],"tags":[4268,3951,4269,4270,3562,4267,2707],"ppma_author":[4623],"class_list":["post-19750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pneuma-review","category-thespirit","category-spring-2000","tag-answering","tag-case","tag-cessationists","tag-continuing","tag-gifts","tag-jon-ruthven","tag-spiritual","author-jonmruthven"],"authors":[{"term_id":4623,"user_id":2875,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jonmruthven","display_name":"Jon Ruthven","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/JonRuthven_email201510-202x202-150x150.png","url2x":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/JonRuthven_email201510-202x202-150x150.png"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24105,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19750\/revisions\/24105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19750"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=19750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}