{"id":19924,"date":"2002-03-20T07:22:09","date_gmt":"2002-03-20T07:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/upon-this-foundation-ephesians-220-and-the-gift-of-prophecy-by-jon-m-ruthven\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T00:19:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T00:19:50","slug":"upon-this-foundation-ephesians-220-and-the-gift-of-prophecy-by-jon-m-ruthven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/upon-this-foundation-ephesians-220-and-the-gift-of-prophecy-by-jon-m-ruthven\/","title":{"rendered":"Upon This Foundation: Ephesians 2:20 and the Gift of Prophecy, by Jon M. Ruthven"},"content":{"rendered":"From Pneuma Review<\/em> Winter 2002<\/a>\n

Introduction<\/b><\/p>\n

Cessationists,1<\/sup> those who argue that certain gifts of the Spirit have ceased, are increasingly using an argument-from-analogy from Paul\u2019s epistle to the believers in Ephesus.<\/p>\n

This paper offers a biblical rebuttal to the cessationist use of Ephesians 2:20 as an argument for the cessation of prophecy, and, by extension, the other so-called \u201cmiraculous\u201d gifts of the Holy Spirit. After a statement of the issue itself, this paper examines the only significant \u201canti-cessationist\u201d response offered so far, that of Wayne Grudem, and then goes on to offer some alternative responses of its own.<\/p>\n

Ephesians 2:19-22 [<\/b>NKJV]<\/b>
\nNow, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.<\/i><\/p>\n

Status of the Problem<\/b><\/p>\n

One of the few remaining New Testament texts to which cessationists appeal for support of their position is Eph 2:20.2<\/sup> The argument-by-analogy is along these lines: since apostles and prophets appear as the \u201cfoundation\u201d of the \u201ctemple\u201d or church, and since each course of stones in this temple metaphorically represent successive generations of believers throughout church history, then these \u201cfoundation\u201d gifts necessarily passed away before the second generation of Christianity.3<\/sup><\/p>\n

From the frequency and extent this argument is made in cessationist circles,4<\/sup> one would assume that there would be a serious reply from their theological dialogue partners, the Pentecostals and charismatics. Pentecostal or charismatic scholars generally have failed to adequately treat this cessationist argument to any significant degree.5<\/sup><\/p>\n

Wayne Grudem\u2019s Rebuttal to the Cessationist Use of Ephesians 2:20<\/b><\/p>\n

Wayne Grudem is the only non-cessationist scholar I can discover who deals with the cessationist argument from Eph 2:20 in any detail.6<\/sup> Quite reasonably, then, Grudem\u2019s response stands as the default Pentecostal\/charismatic position recognized by cessationists,7<\/sup> along with their perceptions about its strengths and weaknesses.<\/p>\n

Though he presents his position as an attempt to mediate between charismatics and cessationists, it appears that Grudem\u2019s defense on this point shares traditional cessationist presuppositions about the nature of apostles and of the \u201cfoundation\u201d in Ephesians 2:20. Grudem seems to agree with cessationists who argue against the continuation of the gift of prophecy in that the gift is somehow identical with the first generation (\u201cfoundation level\u201d) of Christian prophets: that necessarily when these particular prophets died, the gift of prophecy died with them. The same, he would also agree, would be true of apostles.<\/p>\n

Grudem, however, ingeniously tries to deny the death of prophecy by claiming that only a special category of prophets is described in Eph. 2:20, namely, that they are \u201cfoundational,\u201d and hence, cease because these particular prophets are in fact, apostles! He also offers an alternate possibility that perhaps these \u201cfoundational\u201d prophets were an elite group that received and uttered apostolic-level revelation. He agrees, then, with cessationists that apostles, at least the original twelve (or thirteen, depending on how Paul is included) stood to be unique in that they are seen as the authoritative bearers of foundational Christian doctrine, which they wrote into scripture. Accordingly, Grudem sees the apostle\/prophets of Eph 2:20 as the equivalent of the canonical prophets of the Old Testament, whose pronouncements and writings also held ultimate religious authority in that they later became scripture.8<\/sup><\/p>\n

On this view, and to preserve the continuation of Christian prophecy, Grudem must then define NT prophecy in two categories. 1) Agreeing with traditional cessationists, the first class of prophecy, which was to cease within the first generation, was a kind of interim canon awaiting its written form, while, 2) the second class of prophecy was represented by the \u201cless authoritative type of prophecy indicated in 1 Corinthians.\u201d9<\/sup><\/p>\n

Understandably, this novel defense has received a heated response from cessationists, who wish to deny any \u201ctwo-level\u201d gift of prophecy that Grudem describes.10<\/sup> Without going into their argument in detail, they seek to prove that all manifestations of the gift of prophecy in the first generation will cease together, since prophecy is divine revelation, and such revelation must necessarily be enscripturated.11<\/sup><\/p>\n

Grudem therefore finds himself in an interesting dilemma. On the one hand, it is crucial to restrict this class of men to the \u201cfoundational\u201d and unrepeatable. This is because he sees apostles (and this first class of NT prophets) as the New Testament counterparts of Old Testament prophets. Therefore they \u201cwere able to speak and write words that had absolute divine authority,\u201d12<\/sup> that is, in the canon of scripture. Because of the central apostolic role as scripture writers, and because the canon of the NT is closed, the gift or \u201coffice\u201d of apostleship must necessarily cease.13<\/sup> On the other hand, \u201capostleship\u201d is seamlessly listed along with the other \u201cmiraculous\u201d spiritual gifts in 1 Cor 12:28 and Eph 4:11, gifts which Grudem insists must continue in the church! In short, Grudem\u2019s views of apostleship, prophecy, revelation and scripture leave him vulnerable to the charge that he is fatally inconsistent in his defense of continuing spiritual gifts.
\nBut does scripture itself view the NT apostles and prophets this way? Did they themselves understand they were repositories of unwritten or uncanonized scripture? Or is this notion of these biblical figures held by Grudem and his cessationist counterparts a misrepresentation of scripture?<\/p>\n

The Protestant Tradition and Its Bearing on the \u201cFoundation of the Apostles and Prophets\u201d in Evangelical Interpretation<\/b><\/p>\n

While we may lay out several responses, a brief review of the historically conditioned origin of \u201cfoundational\u201d cessationist doctrine may be illuminating. It appears that this Evangelical cessationist tradition underlying this view of Eph 2:20 has been uncritically passed down from the polemics of the Reformers against the Papacy.<\/p>\n

To undercut Papal claims to ultimate religious authority via apostolic succession,14<\/sup> the Reformers failed to examine adequately the NT roles of apostle and prophet. Rather they assumed the premises of Rome and simply transferred the crown and the authority of the 16th century Pope to the first century apostles! The apostles, then on this view, the receivers of unique divine revelation, canonized their ultimate ecclesiastical and doctrinal authority, not in papal encyclicals, but in the New Testament. The Reformers, and particularly the scholastic theologians who followed them, further protected the \u201cPapal\u201d authority of the New Testament by denying any additional divine revelation based implicitly on the \u201cfoundational\u201d role of prophets in Eph 2:20.<\/p>\n

Since this is the historical backdrop, it is not surprising that Protestants have rejected the notion of a continuing gift of apostleship, or a gift of divine prophetic revelation. The gift of apostleship represents the specter of apostolic succession and the Papacy. The latter has been thought to imply the claim to ultimate, but constantly evolving and increasingly contaminated, ex cathedra<\/i> doctrinal authority over the Church. For this reason, and not for biblical reasons, have the cessation of apostles and prophets become a \u201cfoundational\u201d doctrine for traditional Protestant theology. The application of this polemic, then, could be easily and uncritically transferred to anyone advocating the continuation of spiritual gifts. Cessationistic Protestantism becomes particularly explosive when arguing against proponents who advocate contemporary apostles and prophets.<\/p>\n

An Alternative View of the \u201cFoundation of the Apostles and Prophets\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

If this Evangelical tradition fails to reflect an adequate interpretation of Ephesians 2:20, then what alternative can be offered? We would argue that, \u201cthe foundation\u201d of Eph 2:20 represents the recurring apostolic and prophetically-inspired \u201cfoundational confession,\u201d as Peter\u2019s \u201cgreat confession\u201d (Mt 16:16-19), which is revealed to and confessed by all Christians at all times. Peter\u2019s confession is universally considered to be both paradigmatic and parenetic.<\/p>\n

It is likely that the earlier Christian tradition of Peter\u2019s confession shaped the Eph 2:20 metaphor in that both share at least four key elements: 1) the prophetic revelation from the Father was stressed as the means by which Peter knew that, 2) Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (the central point of the discussion); 3) the \u201cfoundation\u201d language of building Christ\u2019s church \u201con this rock\u201d; 4) the archetypal role of Peter results from his prophetic confession: a) the play on words for \u201crock,\u201d connecting his prophetic confession to the \u201cfoundation\u201d and building of the church; b) the fact that he was given the keys to the kingdom: not only that he had access himself at that point, but also the role he had in unlocking the kingdom to the Christo-centric prophetic experiences of the Samaritans in Acts 8 and Gentiles in Acts 10.<\/p>\n

The debate on the precise meaning of this last phrase is historic: what does \u201crock\u201d mean? Peter\u2019s leadership? Peter\u2019s confession, which somehow \u201cunlocked\u201d the kingdom to all, and could \u201cbind\u201d and \u201cloose\u201d sins? That Peter\u2019s confession was a paradigm for all to confess, thereby unlocking the kingdom and being built into the church? Was the rock Christ himself (\u201cthis petra,\u201d distinguished from Petros<\/i>)? If the latter, then how are the revelation, the confession and the keys related to the rock\/foundation and the building?<\/p>\n

What seems clear from all of this, however, is that since this story is written in canonical scripture, it has some claim upon the reader other than to relay historical information. It would seem that Peter\u2019s prophetic confession is in some sense paradigmatic and archetypal for all who would be believers in Christ. The pericope would also seem to suggest that this revealed confession unlocks the kingdom to the confessor, and that the whole assembly of confessors, the church, would rest and be built up on the rock\u2014either this confession about Christ, or Christ himself (Rom 15:20; 1 Cor 3:11), or both.<\/p>\n

Ephesians 2:20 relates to Peter\u2019s confession along the four points above. 1) The \u201capostles and prophets\u201d (those who receive and confess revelation) parallel \u201cPeter\u201d and the importance of his \u201crevelation\u201d about 2) Christ, the \u201ccornerstone\u201d (chief of the \u201cfoundation\u201d). 3) The temple is then \u201cbuilt\u201d upon this foundation \u201cin Him.\u201d \u201cI [Christ] will build my church.\u201d 4) The archetypal (\u201cfoundational\u201d) roles of the apostles and prophets result from their prophetic confession: a) the play on words for \u201crock\u201d (\u201ccornerstone\u201d), connecting their prophetic confession to the \u201cfoundation,\u201d b) just as Peter now may unlock the kingdom because of his revelation, so now, also both Jew and Gentile have access \u201cby one Spirit\u201d (Eph 2:18). Note that the Gentiles once were \u201cexcluded from citizenship in Israel\u201d (2:12) but now are \u201cno longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God\u2019s people\u201d (2:19).<\/p>\n

But how are both Jews and Gentiles brought into this citizenship\/kingdom, or what activity is involved to enter? Through the work of Christ all have \u201caccess to the Father by one Spirit\u201d (2:18). In the NT era \u201cSpirit\u201d was virtually synonymous with \u201cprophecy.\u201d The next verse continues on about inclusion into God\u2019s household, which is \u201cbuilt on the foundation of the apostles and prophets (personifications of revelation, as Peter\u2019s \u201cfoundational\u201d confession), with Christ as the chief cornerstone\u201d (also implied in the Peter\u2019s confession pericope). Here the metaphor changes slightly where all are being built \u201cin Him,\u201d \u201cin the Lord,\u201d \u201cin Him,\u201d (thrice: vv. 21 and 22, clearly a \u201crevelatory\u201d state as we know Him \u201caccording to the Spirit\u201d) and finally, \u201cbeing built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit\u201d (another revelatory reference).
\nOn this suggestion, then, that the \u201cfoundation\u201d of apostles and prophets represents a parallel expression of Peter\u2019s confession with the subsequent inclusion of the Gentiles, we offer an interpretation of Eph 2:20. Contrary to the cessationist or exclusionist notion that a certain type of revelation accredited the status of apostles and prophets, a much deeper dynamic is portrayed in this passage: that the \u201cfoundation of the apostles and prophets\u201d symbolizes a way by which everyone on earth may enter into God\u2019s temple\/kingdom\/covenant\/citizenship\/household, that is, by the Spirit-revealed confession of Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n

The passage exists not to prove the Papal authority and uniqueness of the apostles and prophets, but rather to express the \u201cfoundational\u201d means of entering divine fellowship: \u201cNo one can confess \u2018Jesus is Lord!\u2019 except by the Spirit.\u201d This confession, then, is the \u201cfoundation of the apostles and prophets!\u201d15<\/sup><\/p>\n

Certainly this apostolic and prophetic revelation is not limited to this group in Eph 2:20, unless of course, Paul is speaking of all believers as being \u201cfoundational!\u201d In 1:15-23 Paul\u2019s goal for the reader (and not merely for first century Ephesians if this book is to be regarded as canonical for the church), via his prayer, is that \u201cthe Father may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know [\u201cexperience first hand\u201d] Him better.\u201d Paul continues by further describing \u201cwisdom and revelation\u201d: \u201cthat the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know [\u201cexperience first hand\u201d] the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power [dunamis<\/i>\u2014most often in the NT, \u201cmiracle working power\u201d],\u201d which is like God\u2019s resurrection power. Paul wishes the revelation to the reader to move to the extent that they know that Christ is exalted above all powers and nations using the language of Psalm 2. Paul then, seems to be setting the goal for revelation of the inclusion of all nations under Christ, who in the church \u201cfills everything in every way.\u201d In other words, it is clear that both canonically and therefore normatively, all believers are to share in the \u201crevelation\u201d of the Gentile inclusion in the church. Paul does not pray that the reader be given the \u201cNew Testament\u201d of \u201cwisdom and revelation,\u201d but the \u201cSpirit of wisdom and revelation,\u201d the content of which is both clear and propositional.<\/p>\n

Another passage, 3:14-19, illustrates the normative, shared and continuing revelation expected for all believers. Again, Paul prays, indicating the ideal for the readers, that the Father \u201cmay strengthen you with power [dunamis<\/i>, again] through His Spirit [of revelation and wisdom] in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts [center of spiritual perception] through faith [not in this passage through the NT, but via a subjective awareness\/assurance] … that being rooted and established in love [for the Jews or Gentiles?] you may have power together with all the saints to grasp [the extent] of the love of Christ [again, the unity of Jew and Gentile?] … that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.\u201d Cessationists restrict this kind of outpouring only for the \u201cfoundation gifts\u201d of apostles and prophets.<\/p>\n

Unpacking the Metaphor, \u201cThe Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

In what sense is the \u201cfoundation\u201d comprised of apostles and prophets? For the cessationist argument to work it must prove that when this \u201cfoundation\u201d group died, their scripture-creating authority and gifts necessarily died with them. Several responses are in order.<\/p>\n

First, a general observation. Even if the parallel between the archetypal and paradigmatic Petrine confession to the Eph 2:20 passage is denied, and the apostles and prophets are seen as human deposits of Scripture, it remains to be proven that no one could replace them or that their revelatory gifts belong exclusively to them and not to the Holy Spirit. However, the fatal exception to the cessationist argument-by-analogy is the presence of Christ Jesus as the main element in the \u201cfoundation.\u201d
\nLet us lay out the cessationist logic in this argument-by-analogy.<\/p>\n

Premise #1<\/b>: The term, \u201cfoundation\u201d is necessarily a descriptor of a limited period of time, i.e., a \u201cgeneration.\u201d Necessarily, then, this \u201cfoundation\u201d cannot indicate an \u201carchetypal event\u201d shared by all believers, like a confession, nor can it refer to a normative, replicable \u201cpattern,\u201d say, of ministry. Moreover, \u201cfoundation\u201d cannot be a metonymy for the building as a whole.16<\/sup><\/p>\n

Premise #2<\/b>: Anyone constituting this \u201cfoundation\u201d necessarily cannot function past this \u201cfoundational\u201d time-frame, either as a person, or as a class of activity that is essentially and characteristically associated with that person, e.g., apostleship or prophecy. The death of those constituting the \u201cfoundation\u201d necessarily demands the death of their characteristic gifts, which then, in some sense, are transmuted into a body of enscripturated doctrine.17<\/sup><\/p>\n

Premise #3<\/b>: Jesus Christ is a constituent part, as the \u201cchief cornerstone,\u201d indeed the very essence, of this \u201cfoundation (1 Cor 3:11).\u201d18<\/sup><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/b>: Therefore, if the \u201cfoundation\u201d is necessarily limited to the first century, then the life and the essential and characteristic \u201cJesus-class\u201d activities (such as regeneration, justification and sanctification), have necessarily ceased and have been reduced to a body of enscripturated doctrine. On the other hand, if Christ is alive and active in His ministry in the Holy Spirit, then the \u201cfoundation\u201d must be stretched to include the present time.19<\/sup> If either is the case, the cessationist interpretation of Eph 2:20 fails.<\/p>\n

Two further difficulties derive from the cessationist argument-by-analogy. 1) The \u201cjoining\u201d of all elements of the building\/temple in Christ who is the foundation. 2) The clear references to Christ as being the last or final stone in the building\/temple.<\/p>\n

1) If verses 21 and 22 are normative and canonical for all the church, then the cessationist argument becomes untenable, in that the argument demands that whole church is necessarily limited to the generation of the apostles and prophets. As the text states: \u201cin whom [Christ the cornerstone] all the building is being fitted together (sunarmologoumene<\/i>) and \u201cin whom [Christ the cornerstone] you also are being built together (sunoikodomeisthe<\/i>). The metaphor is about the connection of the building growing into a holy temple \u201cin the Lord.\u201d The \u201cfoundation,\u201d then, cannot represent a limited time or a generation if \u201cthe whole building\u201d is so categorically and individually \u201cin Christ,\u201d \u201cin the Spirit.\u201d If Christ is limited to the first-century \u201cfoundation,\u201d then how can subsequent generations of Christians, indeed the whole church, be so emphatically \u201cin Christ\u201d\u2014a typical Pauline expression, which is a characteristic of each and every believer?<\/p>\n

2) This insight is further supported by the use of the term, \u201ccornerstone\u201d for Christ in this and in other contexts. Considerable debate20<\/sup> continues over the placement of the cornerstone, whether as part of the foundation, as the cessationists would insist, or as the high \u201ccapstone\u201d21<\/sup> or \u201cstringer\u201d\u2014a long stone at the corner of a building which holds two walls together as interlacing fingers, that is, the two \u201cwalls\u201d of Jew and Gentile.22<\/sup><\/p>\n

Where the NT writers cite Ps 118:22, \u201cThe stone which the builders rejected has now become the head of the corner<\/i> (kephale gonias<\/i>)\u201d (Mt 21:42; Mk 12:10; Lk 20:17; See also: Acts 4:11; 1 Pt 4:7), it seems abundantly clear that the position is exalted or high and not a part of the \u201cfoundation.\u201d The contrast is drawn, on the one hand, between a rejected stone, not included in the building, but likely lying undetectable, on the ground (perhaps hidden in weeds), as a \u201cstone of stumbling\u201d (Isa 8:14, cited in 1 Pt. 2:8, cf. Mt 21:44\/\/Lk 20:18), and on the other hand, as later being chosen to be exalted at the \u201chead of the corner.\u201d23<\/sup><\/p>\n

The cessationist metaphor is hereby faced with a difficulty. Even if we concede that Christ is the \u201cfoundation\u201d of the church in Eph 2:20 and 1 Cor 3:11, perhaps derived from Peter\u2019s confession, we also have a Christ who is clearly placed as the \u201ccapstone\u201d or \u201chead of the corner.\u201d Since the cessationist argument depends wholly on its understanding of the building stones as persons whose temporally-limited, characteristic gifts and activities die with them, what are we to make of Christ\u2019s appearance at the very \u201cend\u201d of the church\u2019s time-span? Would not the cessationist \u201cfoundational\u201d metaphor demand that Christ\u2019s characteristic gifts and activities continue to the end of the church period? If this is true, and if Christ is the most essential element of the \u201cfoundation,\u201d then what does that say about the other members of the foundation? Does not this necessarily demand that their \u201cfoundational\u201d gifts also continue until the same time? If not, why not?
\n3) A final observation involves the historical point of view of the apostolic writer of this metaphor himself, St. Paul, a fact which renders the cessationist interpretation of this passage impossible. In verse 20 Paul says that the Ephesian church was built upon the apostles and prophets, past tense. That being the case, according to this cessationist view, apostleship and prophecy, gifts that cessationists rigidly tie to the canon of scripture, could no longer be in operation at the time of Paul\u2019s writing to the Ephesians, for Paul is clear that the incorporation of the Jews and Gentiles has already taken place. At least one level of stones had been laid on the completed \u201cfoundation.\u201d How, then can Paul continue to receive and transmit divine revelation, or even call himself an apostle? Even if we deny the Pauline authorship of Ephesians, someone with \u201cscripture-level authority\u201d wrote Ephesians after a generation of stones had been laid on the \u201cfoundation.\u201d If the cessationist interpretation of Ephesians 2:20 is correct, Paul did not have the authority to say that apostleship and prophecy no longer existed, for he himself would no longer be an apostle.24<\/sup><\/p>\n

Apostles, Prophets and Scripture<\/b><\/p>\n

The cessationist model of apostles and prophets as essentially serving as repositories of unwritten scripture is a caricature. The connection between these gifts and the NT canon is simply not as explicit in scripture itself as the cessationists would have us believe. For example, when one actually adds up the number of words in the NT written by apostles, as opposed to non-apostles, the ratio is an astonishing 49%-51% respectively! Apostles, even by the most conservative Evangelical attribution of NT authorship,25<\/sup> have written less than one-half of the New Testament! Moreover, if the circle of apostleship is so closely guarded, remember that Paul who was not a member of the original twelve wrote 43 % of the \u201capostolic\u201d 49%! The Acts account records the heavy emphasis the eleven made on the physical presence with Jesus.26<\/sup> The apostleship of Paul breaks this physical link,27<\/sup> which by implication, tends to universalize the exclusive apostolic contact with Jesus. He insists that \u201cwe no longer know (experience) Christ according to the flesh (via weak, human capacities)\u201d (2 Cor 5:16), but now according to the Spirit (2 Cor 3:17). The central point, here, however, is that NT scripture itself is unaware that a new \u201ccanon\u201d is being produced by the apostles, and in no case is it stated that even one task of an apostle was to write scripture!<\/p>\n

Moreover, the apostolic \u201cauthority\u201d is far from clear. Most of Paul\u2019s references to apostles are negative and critical (e.g., 2 Cor 10-12; Gal 1-2); he finds he must spend strenuous effort even to defend his own apostleship, which seems generally contested, and unrecognized even by some of his own churches! On the other hand, the \u201csuper-apostles\u201d (2 Cor 11:5) opposed the major message of Ephesians, the reconciliation with the Gentiles by faith and not the law. Were these apostles from James in Jerusalem (Gal 2:12), who intimidated even Peter to withdraw from his mission to the Gentiles? At least two of the three \u201cpillars\u201d of the Jerusalem church seem to have also turned against this mission! The pattern of apostolic commitment to sound doctrine, then, seems scattered at best. Certainly four apostles had a hand in writing the NT, but many more did not.<\/p>\n

The relationship between NT prophets to the NT canon is even more obscure. It is true that the Spirit is seen to inspire prophetically the scriptures some ten times,28<\/sup> the same Spirit reveals and causes prophetic utterances of other kinds 153 times! While one can show that the Revelator regarded his book as \u201cprophecy\u201d (Rev 22:18-19), it is a great leap to assume, therefore, that all NT prophecy must be oral scripture!29<\/sup> Indeed, the specific functions of NT prophecy are explicitly written: to praise and glorify God (Acts 2:14), for edification, exhortation and consolation (1 Cor 14:3, cf. Acts 15:32) and the equipping of believers toward ultimate spiritual goals (Eph 4:12-13). One hypothetical case of prophecy offered by Paul (1 Cor 14:24-25) shows prophecy revealing the secrets of the heart to lead toward repentance. Certainly none of these explicit purposes of prophecy hints at the writing of a NT document!<\/p>\n

Moreover, the examples of prophecy in Acts show utterly different purposes for their expression than that of accumulating an oral reservoir of scripture! Agabus informs the Antioch church of an impending famine, motivating a charitable contribution for needy believers in Judea (Acts 11:27-30). Antioch prophets commission Paul and Barnabas for a mission outreach (Acts 11:1-3). Judas and Silas \u201cencouraged and strengthened\u201d the Gentile churches with an unrecorded prophetic message after the Jerusalem Conference (Acts 15:32-33). Ephesian converts prophesied, but nothing is recorded of the content (Acts 19:6). The Tyrean disciples \u201cthrough the Spirit\u201d urged Paul not to go to Jerusalem (Acts 21:3-4). Philip had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses (Acts 21:9). Agabus prophetically warns Paul that he would be arrested and bound if he went to Jerusalem (Acts 21:10-11). In no case do any of these prophets or the narrator of these texts indicate that any prophetic utterance was intended as a \u201cfoundational doctrine\u201d on which the church would be built! Certainly and obviously these cases of prophecy were recorded in scripture, but there is no indication from these texts whatsoever that the essential function of prophecy was to serve as oral scripture until it could be reduced to writing. If, indeed, the function of the gifts determine their duration, then it is clear that demanding the cessation of apostles and prophets because of their input into the process of writing scripture is based on the most tenuous NT indications. The strong and explicit functions of these gifts seem to evidence, rather, their continuation until their tasks are complete at the parousia. Ephesians continues its description of apostles and prophets in 4:11-13 where it describes the gifts being given to the church until (mechri<\/i>) we all enter the eschatological state of \u201cattaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.\u201d
\nConcluding Statement<\/b><\/p>\n

The most unsettling premise of the \u2018foundational\u2019 argument is the notion employed of what ultimately is the \u2018foundation\u2019\u2014the most important element or core value\u2014of the church. Some cessationists appear to be insisting that the \u2018foundation\u2019 is the established doctrine of the NT 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, 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 on words, but on \u201ca demonstration of the Spirit\u2019s power\u201d (1 Cor. 2.14). This strongly suggests that normatively, a system of propositions, however true they may be, is not the basis for faith; rather it is Christ himself, through the activity of the Spirit of Christ, with a strong overtone of revelation, that characterizes this foundation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

1<\/sup> For the purposes of this paper, the term, \u201ccessationist\u201d designates one who asserts the demise of the so-called \u201csign-\u201d or \u201cmiraculous\u201d gifts of the Holy Spirit, usually connected with the death of the apostles or completion of the NT writings. For the various descriptions and times of this termination by cessationist writers see R. W. Graves, \u201cTongues Shall Cease: A Critical Study of the Supposed Cessation of the Charismata,\u201d Paraclete<\/i> 17\/4 (Fall 1983): 20-28.By contrast, Pentecostal or charismatic Christians believe that all the so-called \u201cmiraculous\u201d gifts of the Spirit have continued in the church. Many in this latter group, however, deny the continuing gift of apostleship.
\n2<\/sup> E.g., 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): 93-116;R. L. Thomas, \u201cProphecy Rediscovered? A Review of The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today<\/i>,\u201d BibSac<\/i> 149\/593 (Jan-Mar 1992): 83-96; K. L. 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): 303-20; and F.D. Farnell, \u201cIs the Gift of Prophecy for Today?\u201d BibSac<\/i> 149\/595 (July-September 1992), 277-303; 149\/596 (October-December 1992), 387-410; 150\/597 (January-March 1993), 62-88; 150\/598, (April-June 1993), 171-202. This latter series derives from the author\u2019s doctoral work, \u201cThe New Testament Prophetic Gift: Its Nature and Duration,\u201d (Th.D. dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1990). Richard D. Kelso, \u201cAn Evaluation of the Biblical Support Presented by Wayne Grudem regarding the Nature, Role and Exercise of Non-Apostolic Prophecy in the New Testament and Today\u201d (M. A. Thesis, Columbia Biblical Seminary and Graduate School of Missions, 1999).R. Fowler White, \u201cReflections on Wayne Grudem\u2019s ETS 1992 Presentation, \u2018The New Testament Gift of Prophecy: A Response to My Friends.\u2019\u201d TREN, 1993.
\n3<\/sup> This historicist interpretation of the Eph 2:20 \u201ccornerstone\u201d (akrogone<\/i>) metaphor has only the most tenuous roots in church history. For example, of about 101 references discovered by the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae CD-ROM<\/i>, version D, virtually all of the references to the \u201ccornerstone\u201d of Ephesians 2:20, which offer sufficient context to discern its location, show that the \u201ccornerstone\u201d appears as the \u201ccapstone,\u201d \u201ckeystone,\u201d or the most prominent and highest stone in the building\u2014usually the \u201cfinal\u201d stone to be placed, completing the structure. One may find a possible exception in the Shepherd of Hermas <\/i>ANF, II: 49 \u201c\u2018And the stones, sir,\u2019 I said, \u2018which were taken out of the pit and fitted into the building: what are they?\u2019 \u2018The first,\u2019 he said, \u2018the ten, viz., that were placed as a foundation, are the first generation, and the twenty-five the second generation, of righteous men; and the thirty-five are the prophets of God and His ministers; and the forty are the apostles and teachers of the preaching of the Son of God.\u2019\u201d This hardly offers a coherent basis for the cessationist metaphor from Eph 2:20, since the last stones mentioned, apparently the fourth (!) generation represent apostles!
\n4<\/sup> Gaffin appeals to a \u201ccanon-within-a-canon\u201d argument. \u201cThe decisive, controlling significance of Ephesians 2:20 (in its context) needs to be appreciated\u2026.I Corinthians 14 \u2026 has a relatively narrow focus and is confined to the particular situation at Corinth. Ephesians, on the other hand, may well be a circular letter, originally intended by Paul for a wider audience than the congregation at Ephesus. More importantly, 2:20 is part of a section that surveys the church as a whole in a most sweeping and comprehensive fashion. Ephesians 2:20 stands back, views the whole building, and notes the place of prophecy in it (as part of the foundation); I Corinthians and the other passages on prophecy examine one of the parts from within. Ephesians 2:20, then, with its broad scope ought to have a pivotal and governing role in seeking to understand other NT statements on prophecy with a narrower, more particular and detailed focus\u2026\u201d Perspectives on Pentecost<\/i>. p. 96. \u201cEphesians 2:20 figures prominently in this debate.\u201d Charles E. Powell, Dallas Theological Seminary, at the 48th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jackson, MS, November 1996. http:\/\/www.bible.org\/docs\/theology\/pneuma\/giftques.htm<\/a>
\n5<\/sup> For example, in Jack Deere\u2019s influential work, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit<\/i> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993) there is a brief treatment (p. 248) with the promise of a plan to discuss Eph 2:20 in detail \u201cin my next book.\u201d If Surprised by the Voice of God<\/i> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996) is that next book, the passage does not appear in the scripture index, nor am I able to discover any discussion of it. Similarly, in another major work Gary S. Greig and Kevin N. Springer (eds.), The Kingdom and the Power: Are Healing and the Spiritual Gifts Used by Jesus and the Early Church Meant for the Church Today?<\/i> (Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 1993), one page is devoted to Eph 2:20 in a chapter by Wayne Grudem (see below). J. Rodman Williams does not treat the cessationist view of Eph 2:20, but rather seems to affirm it, at least with respect to the \u201coriginal\u201d 13, including Paul (as opposed to \u201ccontinuing\u201d) apostles. Renewal Theology <\/i>(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 173. No real critique of the \u201cfoundational\u201d argument appears in the extended discussion in Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?<\/i> Ed., Wayne Grudem (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996).
\n6<\/sup> First in the adaptation of his Cambridge Ph.D. dissertation, The Gift of Prophecy in 1 Corinthians <\/i>(Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1982), 82-105.
\n7<\/sup> Note 2, above.
\n8<\/sup> \u201cWe all (some of Grudem\u2019s cessationist critics and himself) agree that these<\/i> [italics his] prophets are ones who provided the foundation of the church, and therefore these are prophets who spoke infallible words of God. . . . Whether we say this group was only the apostles, or was a small group of prophets closely associated with the apostles who spoke Scripture-quality words, we are still left with a picture of a very small and unique group of people who provide this foundation for the church universal.\u201d Systematic Theology<\/i> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 1051, n. 4.
\n9<\/sup> Gift of Prophecy in 1 Corinthians<\/i>, 105. Also, his The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today<\/i> (Westchester, Ill.: 1989), 45-63 and his Systematic Theology <\/i>(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 1051.
\n10<\/sup> E.g., by F. David Farnell, \u201cFallible New Testament Prophecy\/Prophets? A Critique of Wayne Grudem\u2019s Hypothesis,\u201d The Master\u2019s Seminary Journal<\/i> 2:2 (Fall 1991), 165-77.
\n11<\/sup> Michael Moriarty states this position clearly. God placed prophets in the apostolic churches to \u201cprovide doctrinal insights\u201d only during an \u201cinterim period\u201d in which churches \u201chad only portions of the Bible.\u201d The New Charismatics<\/i> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 231. Farnell, ibid., 167. Gaffin appears to hold this view. He writes:<\/p>\n

I should emphasize that, during the foundational, apostolic period of the church, its \u201ccanon\u201d (i.e., where I find God\u2019s word and revealed will for my life) was a fluid, evolving entity, made up of three factors: (1) a completed Old Testament; (2) an eventual New Testament and other inspired documents no longer extant (e.g., the letter mentioned in 1 Cor 5:9), as each was written and then circulated (cf. Col 4:16); and (3) an oral apostolic and prophetic voice (\u201cwhether by word of mouth or by letter\u201d [2 Thess 2:15] points to this authoritative mix of oral and written). The church at that time lived by a \u201cScripture plus\u201d principle of authority and guidance; by the nature of the case, it could not yet be committed, as a formal principle, to sola Scriptura<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Cessationist View,\u201d in Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?<\/i> ed. Wayne A. Grudem, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 45-46 fn. 50.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What Gaffin has essentially done is redefine the canon for the NT church. For them it contains revelation not included in the Scriptures. But now, after the completion of the NT, the canon is simply the Bible. This simply will not do. The canon is either Scripture only or all revelation. It cannot be both; one for the apostolic church and the other for the post-apostolic church. Gaffin\u2019s argument seems to be a desperate expedient to preserve both the completion of the canon and cessationism.
\n12<\/sup> Systematic Theology<\/i>, 1050.
\n13<\/sup> It is interesting that when choosing the four dialogue partners for the book Grudem edited, Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views<\/i> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), neither of the charismatic or Pentecostal participants affirmed the continuation of one of the spiritual gifts: apostleship! See my review in Pneuma Review <\/i>of Wayne Grudem (ed.), Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views<\/i>. Zondervan, 1996 in Pneuma<\/i> 21:1 (Spring 1999), 155-58. Also in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society<\/i> 42:3 (September 1999), 531-32.
\n14<\/sup> Even today, Roman Catholic apologists appeal to Eph 2:20 as a proof text for Papal authority. Anthony Saldarini, \u201cChapter 2, Interpretation: Part One: The Biblical Period,\u201d in Papal Infallibility: An Application of Lonergan\u2019s Theological Method<\/i>, ed. T. J. Teikppe (Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1983), 18.
\n15<\/sup> Marcus Barth takes a related view of this \u201cconfession-as-foundation.\u201d \u201cMost likely the term \u2018foundation\u2019 in 2:20 is more fully explicated by 4:7, 11; 6:19-20, i.e., by those verses in Ephesians that speak of the preaching, exhorting and warning activity of the spokesmen of God assigned to the church by Christ.\u201d Ephesians<\/i>, <\/i>ABC (New York: Doubleday, 1974), 315-16.
\n16<\/sup> A premise contradicted by K. L. Schmidt, \u201cthemelios,\u201d TDNT<\/i>, III:63.
\n17<\/sup> On \u201cfoundation\u201d as a deposit of doctrine, see W. Schmithals, The Office of Apostle in the Early Church<\/i> (Nashville: Abingdon, 1969), 43, esp. n. 91.
\n18<\/sup> E.g., E. Fowler White, \u201cGaffin and Grudem on Ephesians 2:20,\u201d 304 n.6. \u201cStrictly speaking, for Gaffin the foundation of the church consists of Christ (Eph 2:20b; 1 Cor 3:11) and the apostles and prophets. The laying of the foundation (Isa 28:16) began with Christ (e.g., Matt 21:42-44) [sic!] and concluded with the apostles and prophets as witnesses to Christ (e.g., Luke 24:44-48).\u201d So Gaffin, Perspectives on Pentecost<\/i>, 91-93, 107-08.
\n19<\/sup> A cessationist response to this syllogism might be that there is a sense in which \u201cJesus-class\u201d activities might well have \u201cceased\u201d in one of two ways. First, Jesus\u2019 earthly ministry was \u201cfoundational,\u201d since at his ascension and reign, His ministry changed in fundamental ways. So, the analogy would run, apostles and prophets would have an earthly ministry, receiving and issuing \u201cscripture-quality\u201d revelation during the \u201cfoundational\u201d period, but after their death, their ministry would continue in their scriptures.<\/p>\n

At this point, however, the analogy would be quite shaky. The ascension of Jesus\u2014the end of his \u201cfoundational\u201d period–precipitated a profusion of miraculous, revelatory Spiritual gifts, which then encountered another terminating \u201cfoundational\u201d period: that of the apostles and prophets. The \u201cfoundations\u201d are neither congruent temporally, nor conceptually. Moreover, the point of the cessationist analogy is that the apostles and prophets were, in and of themselves, the gifts of apostleship and prophecy. On this reasoning, Jesus Christ is, in and of Himself, a gift of salvation, which would die when He physically died.<\/p>\n

But these apostles and prophets in no sense continue personally to participate in the lives of believers today via the Spirit as Christ does. Moreover, Christ\u2019s gift does not die with Him, but rather is made viable only in His death. These points open up such a serious disjunction between the foundational members that one must seek another interpretation of the metaphor.<\/p>\n

A better analogy would be: the church is founded on a blended metaphor of Christ Himself and the Spirit-revealed confession of Christ, the Son of the Living God, a confession like that of the apostles and prophets, i.e., a revelatory experience, which, like the present ministry of Christ, continues through the Holy Spirit. This calls to mind the maxim from the Book of Revelation: \u201cThe Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.\u201d The Spirit of prophecy cannot be simply equated with the unfinished canon of the New Testament!<\/p>\n

A second cessationist rejoinder might be to insist that there is an analogy between the apostles\/prophets and Jesus, in that both spoke scripture-quality words until the end of \u201cfoundational\u201d period, when the canon was completed.<\/p>\n

Again, for the cessationist \u201cfoundation\u201d metaphor to hold, it must treat Christ, as part of that foundation, in identical ways as the apostles and prophets: the central and characterizing expression of Christ, certainly involving the gift of Salvation itself, would need to cease at His death\u2014a position flatly contradicted by the very Scripture cessationism purports to defend. \u201cMy message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit\u2019s power, so that your faith not be based on men\u2019s wisdom, but on God\u2019s power\u201d (1 Cor 2:4-5).
\n20<\/sup> See the summary in A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians<\/i>. Word Biblical Commentary, 42 (Dallas: Word, 1990), 154.
\n21<\/sup> G. W. H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon<\/i> (Oxford: Clarendon, 1961), 66: \u201cThe top-most angle or point of a pyramid, obelisk, etc.\u201d
\n22<\/sup> So Cyril, Is.3.2 (2.397E) and John of Damascus, Hom<\/i>. 4.30 (MPG 96.632c).
\n23<\/sup> Elwell expresses a common misconception in that he seems to feel that it is difficult to have a \u201cstone of stumbling\u201d if placed in the foundation as a cornerstone, \u201cbut metaphors can be stretched.\u201d The point of two of our passages (Mt 21 and Lk 20) is that the stone cannot be in the building at all if it is indeed, \u201crejected!\u201d24<\/sup> I owe this observation to Robert Graves, \u201cThat Glorious Day,\u201d Pneuma Review<\/i> 3:2 (Spring 2000), 45.
\n25<\/sup> Assuming here that Hebrews is not written by an apostle. Few Evangelicals today believe this book to be written by Paul! For our purposes the books written by apostles are: Matthew, John, the Pauline corpus, including Ephesians and the Pastorals, 1,2 Peter, 1,2,3 John, Revelation.
\n26<\/sup> \u201cTherefore it is necessary to choose on of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John\u2019s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us<\/i>\u201d [NIV, italics mine].
\n27<\/sup> As the events of Pentecost appear to do also, since the filling up of the \u201c12\u201d seems to have been actualized, not with the election of Matthias, who is never heard from again, but rather in the 120 as the symbolic community of the New Israel comprised of prophets.
\n28<\/sup> Mt. 22:43; Mk. 12:36; Acts 1:16; 28:25; Heb. 3:7; 9:8; 10:15; 1 Pt. 1:11,12; 2 Pt. 1:21.
\n29<\/sup> Robert L. Thomas, \u201cThe Correlation of Revelatory Spiritual Gifts and NT Canonicity,\u201d Master\u2019s Seminary Journal<\/i>, 8 (Spr 1997), 5-28.<\/p>\n

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Introduction Cessationists,1 those who argue that certain gifts of the Spirit have ceased, are increasingly using an argument-from-analogy from Paul\u2019s epistle to the believers in Ephesus. This paper offers a biblical rebuttal to the cessationist use of Ephesians 2:20 as an argument for the cessation of prophecy, and, by extension, the other so-called \u201cmiraculous\u201d gifts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2875,"featured_media":19925,"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":[12,1,3330],"tags":[2716,5019,5020,2748,3270,4147,4917,2684],"ppma_author":[4623],"class_list":["post-19924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biblical-studies","category-pneuma-review","category-winter-2002","tag-apostles","tag-apostleship","tag-ephesians","tag-featured","tag-foundation","tag-gift","tag-office-gifts","tag-prophecy","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\/19924","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=19924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24086,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19924\/revisions\/24086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19924"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=19924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}