Unintended Consequences
Here are just a few of the arguments used to support Cessationism, along with the logical consequence for believers, the Body of Christ, and ultimately the world.
Argument: Miracles and Healing are not gifts that are given to believers today.
Effect on the Body: People will not seek healing or deliverance from physical or spiritual problems, and will therefore remain stuck in disease and bondage.
Argument: Miraculous gifts such as prophecy, knowledge and wisdom are not needed because we have Scripture (God’s complete Word for us).
Effect on the Body: On-time words that God would use to encourage, challenge or confirm an internal leading of the Spirit are never given. It removes the opportunity for God to speak to specific things and to show Himself to be a personal God.
This argument could also be used against belief that the Holy Spirit would lead in a way not specifically mentioned in the Bible. “I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to take my children out of public school” – not in the Bible? Then it’s not a valid reason!
Argument: These gifts were only for the formation of the church and are not needed to prove the validity of the disciples and thus the truth of Christianity.
Effect on the Body: Perpetuates the idea that God is far off and no longer wishes to be involved in our lives personally. It’s unbelievable to people that God would go to all that effort and then step off stage. It also ignores the other parts of the world where signs and wonders are more common.
Argument: Signs and wonders are only desired if people are immature and seeking sensationalism.
Effect on the Body: Without the hope of miracles, people do not seek them, and don’t see God as a provider of help or rescue. He just doesn’t appear interested.
Argument: If we have prophets today, that undermines the authority of Scripture.
Effect on the Body: This is a sign of ignorance about what the gift of prophecy is, and is not a serious response. Anyone, whether a prophet or high school teacher, who claims their message takes precedence over the Bible should be questioned. But the actual definition of prophecy allows it to be even used to describe teachers, pastors or worship leaders.
This argument also denies a large section of scripture that one would have to basically ignore in order to believe this. (1Corinthians 14)
Argument: We don’t see them in the same frequency and intensity as in the biblical narratives.
Effect on the Body: This is arrogant. As if because you don’t know about them they don’t exist. And it also displays arrogance of believing that you know why God is or isn’t displaying this now. Could it be because of our disdain for the spiritual gifts? Doesn’t the word tell us that Faith is the evidence of things unseen and the hope of what we don’t yet have? How does this argument coexist with faith in anything supernatural that cannot be seen? “Heaven? Jesus? Don’t see them? They must not be real.” This response does not hold up either.
Argument: Different historical periods have different patterns of miracles.
Perhaps, but that is assuming that one knows about every miracle that happened, when in all likelihood many things, miracle or otherwise, are lost to us because we have some books that cover the history of the world, and there is more missing than available. Additionally, who makes up these time periods? And how many other things are we asked to believe that are entirely constructed by men?
Argument: The time period of the Acts/early church was a foundational time, and the narrative is about this specific season of the church, and when that period ended, so did these miraculous gifts.
If so, this is something that literally no scripture author says. We are not given this information, and so it is therefore a theory. If it is a foundational time that is separate, who is to say that miracles don’t exist in the current one?
In summary, it is hard to reconcile an argument that claims “only the Bible is necessary” that ignores explicit Bible verses that explain the gifts, while creating doctrine that has little or no Bible support. We have created church environments that elevate doctrine over actual scripture.
Which brings me to this conclusion. Many people, including young adults, are looking outside their evangelical upbringing for spiritual direction, while many of their parents’ generation are increasingly apathetic about spiritual growth, even though they may continue to be traditionally evangelical in their church attendance. However something is shifting. I believe that God is opening our eyes to the fact that we are unsatisfied, unmotivated and uninspired by our church experience, because we’ve been participating in a counterfeit movement, rather than the ekklesia that Jesus declared.