03.03. The Cessationist View

THE CESSATIONIST VIEW

Miracles characterized the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. These supernatural events credentialed their teaching. Mark 16:17-18 records Jesus as declaring, These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Mark 16:20 then reports the experience of these first generation Christians And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.

Even if these verses were not in the original text (there is strong evidence that they were not) 6 the fact that they were added (possibly as early as the Third Century) reflects a general understanding that this is what had happened among the early believers.

Clearly, the apostles could bestow miraculous gifts on believers, through the laying on of the apostles’ hands. However, those to whom the apostles passed on miraculous gifts were not able to pass them on to the next generation. These gifts were just for the First Century when it was necessary to have the miraculous as credentials. They were intended for obsolescence. We now have the Bible whereby one is credentialed. The question today is not, “Do miracles attend his ministry,” but “Is his teaching faithful to the Word?”

Cessationist argument from Acts 8:1-40 Prior to Acts 6:1-15, only the apostles are described as working miracles after Pentecost (Acts 5:12).

Philip, along with Stephen and the other deacons had received a miraculous ministry through the laying on of the apostles’ hands (Acts 6:1-15). When the church was scattered, Philip went to Samaria and preached the Gospel with signs following (Acts 8:6-7) and many were saved.

Because he was a second generation miracle worker, Philip was not able to pass on the miraculous Gift of the Holy Spirit, and the miraculous power that attended this gift. Only apostles could do this. Two apostles, Peter and John, came from Jerusalem and accomplished the impartation. Philip could not execute this impartation, or he would have done so.

6 Acts 8:9-20 are not contained in the oldest manuscripts. Four different endings of Mark are found in various manuscript families.7 Cessationist argument from 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 states that the miraculous manifestations are temporary and will pass away Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

Prophecy, tongues, and supernatural knowledge will cease when God’s full revelation is given. The full revelation described in this passage is the Bible.

Here is how one cessationist presents this portion of the argument. His presentation is a very common one offered by those of this persuasion.

1 Corinthians 13:9 speaks about that which is partial, but in contrast, 1 Corinthians 13:10 speaks about that which is complete. In showing this contrast, the best way to translate teleios in 1 Corinthians 13:10 is “complete.” Since revelation, at the time Paul wrote I Corinthians, was only partial, through the miraculous gifts of knowledge and prophecy, the perfect must refer to the finished and complete revelation of God. In other words, at that time the Christians had pieces and parts of God’s revelation, but Paul was saying that there was a time coming when they would have the total…prophecies, tongues, knowledge – and all the rest of the gifts shall pass away when the “perfect” is come, namely, the gospel fully revealed and the church fully instructed. The gifts came in with the apostles and went out with them…Every other time this word [teleios] appears in the New Testament in the neuter gender, it refers to the will of God or the law of God (Romans 12:2; James 1:25). Thus, it is not unusual for God’s revelation to be called perfect (teleion) 7 Here is the argument, · Miraculous knowledge, prophecy, tongues, etc, will be done away when the perfect comes.

· The Greek term translated, the perfect, is in the neuter gender.

· This term is used in the neuter only two other times in Scripture, and in both instances it refers to the will of God or the law of God (Romans 12:2; James 1:25).

· Thus, the term refers to the Gospel fully revealed and the Church fully instructed, i.e, the completion of the canon.

7 Robert B. Blazek, “The Perfect Has Come,” The Christian Standard, July 17, 1977, page 9-108 Cessationist argument from Church History The absence of the mention of the charismata is noteworthy in all of the post-biblical literature.

None of the apostolic fathers mention them. Not until the writing of Tertullian, sometime after 200 AD, do we find any hint of charismata. Tertullian was a member of an heretical group, the Montanists, so his description cannot be construed as meaning that this is what the church at large experienced. Not only that, Tertullian’s description of a prophetic manifestation does not in any way resemble Paul’s 1 Corinthians 14:1-40 description of the charismata.