1.02. Guarding the Treasure Entrusted to Us

Chapter Two:

Guarding the Treasure Entrusted to Us Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.” 2 Timothy 1:14 Montanism -- The Fountainhead of Christian Ecstasy The Phrygian region of Asia Minor was known in its pre-Christian days as “the home of a sensuously mystic and dreamy nature-religion.”11 Given this backdrop, it is perhaps not surprising that Montanism, Christianity’s first schismatic movement, first broke out there.

Montanism was a “prophetic movement” that began around 172 A.D.12 Its founder, Montanus, was a former “mutilated priest of Cybele.”13 Closely connected with Montanus were two “prophetesses,” Priscilla and Maximilla. The Montanists insisted upon the continuation of the gift of prophesy and the use of ecstatic utterances.14

Montanus, Priscilla and Maximilla proclaimed a “New Prophecy,” which foretold that Christ would return to Pepuza, a small village of Phrygia, upon which the new Jerusalem was to come down.15

Recognition of the Holy Spirit in the New Prophecy was the touchstone of authority for the Montanists; they claimed that the New Prophecy claimed for itself a special place in salvation history.16 The followers of Montanus believed that the Holy Spirit spoke to them in the first person through his prophetic mouthpieces.17 As Henry Chadwick described it, Montanus, together with Priscilla and Maximilla delivered utterances of the Paraclete in a state of ‘ecstasy’, i.e. not being in possession of his faculties. It was the peculiar form of these utterances to which other Christians objected: this kind of ecstatic prophecy was not, like that of the biblical prophets, delivered in the third person, but was direct speech by the Spirit himself using the prophet’s mouth as his instrument.18

Indeed, Montanus said that a person in spiritual ecstasy was like a musical instrument on which the Holy Spirit plays his melodies: “Behold, the man is as a lyre, and I sweep over him as a plectrum. The man sleeps; I wake.”19 Thus, Montanus plainly taught that the close of the biblical canon was not the end of God’s special revelation to man.

Montanus taught that the Holy Spirit spoke through him in the same way as He spoke through the writings of Scripture. In Bruner’s words, he “fell into somnambulistic ecstasies, and considered himself the inspired organ of the promised Paraclete or Advocate, the Helper and Comforter in these last times of distress.”20 Eusebius records that Montanus “was filled with spiritual excitement and suddenly fell into a kind of trance and unnatural ecstasy. He raved, and began to chatter and talk nonsense. . . . Of those who listened at that time to his sham utterances, some where annoyed, regarding him as possessed, a demoniac in the grip of a spirit of error, a disturber of the masses.”21 In connection with its holdings on continuating revelation, Montanism sought a “forced continuance” of the miraculous gifts of the apostolic age. As Chadwick noted, “The Montanists did not expect all the Lord’s people to be prophets, but rather required their fellow-Christians to ‘acknowledge’ the supernatural nature of the utterances of the Paraclete’s chosen three: to reject them was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.”22

Montanism attracted a wide following for a time -- including the first significant Latin theologian Tertullian, who became a Montanist in his last few years. As the preeminent apologist for the movement, he was careful to affirm orthodox notions of God and Christ. Nevertheless, echoing Montanus, he conceived of Christianity as organic in nature, developing in four stages of growth, each superior to the preceding stage: (1) natural religion; (2) the legal religion of the Old Testament; (3) the gospel during the earthly life of Christ; and (4) the revelation of the Paraclete; that is, the spiritual religion of the Montanists.23 In essence, the Montanists were the first charismatics. Frederick Bruner rightly called Montanism “the fountainhead of all the enthusiastic or pneumatic movements in Christian history.”24 Its basic tenets have been recycled throughout church history by ecstatic sects, including today’s charismatic movement. Bruner noted the following central characteristics of Montanism that recur in today’s charismatic movement:

1. A fervent belief that the last period of revelation has commenced;

2. A distinctive emphasis on the Holy Spirit;

3. Generally orthodox tendencies apart from their doctrine of the Spirit;

4. An ardent expectation of the impending return of Christ; and 5. A strict morality.25

Hence, Bruner declared Montanism to be “the prototype of almost everything Pentecostalism seeks to represent.”26

Montanism eventually was condemned by synods of bishops in Asia and elsewhere.27 The church was clearly bothered by the movement’s ecstatic exercises, as demonstrated by Hippolytus’s declaration that “the supreme miracle is conversion and therefore every believer alike has the gifts of the Spirit; the supernatural is discerned in the normal ministry of word and sacrament, not in irrational ecstacies which lead to pride and censoriousness.”28 The orthodox church also declared the new prophesy “the work of demons.”29 In this respect, the repudiation of Montanism was especially significant. “It was the occasion for establishing the truth that the Scriptures were closed, that the work of the Spirit was illumination of the Scriptures rather than bestowing a new revelation apart from the Scriptures.”30 In condemning the Montanists, “the church early took its stand ‘that extraordinary gifts were never promised to the Church as a permanent inheritance.’“31 The “prophesies” of the Phrygian prophets were condemned as heretical because they were given “an importance which interfered with the sufficiency of the Scriptures.”32 Thus, Chadwick could say: The chief effect of Montanism on the Catholic Church was greatly to enforce the conviction that revelation had come to an end with the apostolic age, and so to foster the creation of a closed Canon of the New Testament. Irenaeus is the last writer who can still think of himself as belonging to the eschatological age of miracle and revelation.33 The early church’s condemnation of Montanism heresy is under severe attack today. Pentecostals, charismatics, and adherents of the “Third Wave” all challenge the conclusion that the revelatory gifts of the Holy Spirit have ceased. In addition, even non-charismatics are beginning to espouse the view that God still speaks today apart from the Bible, through dreams, visions, and the like. In essence, proponents of these views reject the historical Christian conclusion that God has chosen no longer to speak to man through direct special revelation apart from Scripture, and they thereby must reject the church’s judgment on the Montanists. The Cessation of the Revelatory Gifts

Space does not permit a full-orbed exposition of why the revelatory gifts have ceased. Nevertheless, the following points are in order:

(1) Jesus is the cornerstone of the church and the foundation upon which the church is laid (Ephesians 2:20; 1 Corinthians 3:11). Jesus is also the culmination and completion of God’s revelation to man (Hebrews 1:1-2).

(2) Apostles and prophets were raised up in the 1st century as New Testament witnesses to Christ, appointed by Him to bear authentic witness to his resurrection and redemption of man (Acts 1:2, Acts 1:8, Acts 1:21-26; 1 Corinthians 9:1, 1 Corinthians 9:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 1 Corinthians 15:8-11; Galatians 1:1, Galatians 1:15-16). Compared to Jesus, apostles were the foundation of the church only in a secondary and inferior sense. (Ephesians 2:20).

(3) Apostles were directly commissioned by Jesus for a unique missionary work (Mark 3:14-15; Acts 1:21-26; Romans 1:1; 2 Corinthians 11:5; 2 Corinthians 12:11-12; Galatians 1:1). As a unique office and gift, apostleship ended in the first century A.D. (Cf. Matthew 19:28; Acts 12:2).

(4) In the 1st century, the gift of prophecy was closely related to the gift of apostleship (2 Corinthians 12:12). The purpose of prophesy in the New Testament was to edify and strengthen the early church (1 Corinthians 14:3-4; 1 Corinthians 14:22).

(5) In essence, then, prophesy served the church as a specific witness to Jesus Christ at a time when it lacked the written revelation of Jesus Christ in the form of the New Testament.34 As Gaffin has stated, “With this foundational revelation completed, and so too their foundational role as witnesses, the apostles and, along with them, the prophets and other associated revelatory word gifts, pass from the life of the church.”35 (6) Several Scriptural passages make this point: a. Jude 1:3 says, “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” The word “faith” refers to the body of truths taught by the apostles or the “things believed.”36 (See also Galatians 1:23; 1 Timothy 4:1). It is a reference to the propositional truth of the gospel -- a truth now found only in the written pages of Scripture. The word “entrusted” (paradidonai) is the word used for handing down authorized tradition in Israel.37 (Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:1-3; 2 Thessalonians 3:6). Moreover, the phrase “once for all” (hapax) indicates that the faith -- the objective content of Christianity -- was entrusted to the saints one time, conclusively.38 Once this process was completed, there was no further need for additional revelation beyond the apostolic age. b. Jesus promised his disciples that, after His departure, the Holy Spirit would give them “all truth” (John 14:26; John 16:12-13). 2 Peter 1:21 amplifies the method by which the Holy Spirit would give the apostles truth; Scripture is the result of the Holy Spirit’s carrying the authors along as they wrote. c. The apostle John said that anyone who adds to the words of the book of Revelation would be cursed (Revelation 22:18). While his words apply specifically to the revelation given to him as recorded in the last book of the New Testament, inferentially, they equally apply to the canon of Scripture as a whole. In sum, because prophecy and other “revelatory” gifts have fulfilled their purpose and are no longer necessary to provide a witness to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, they have thereby ceased to exist; it is Scripture that now takes their place as God’s special revelation regarding salvation. It is now the written Word of God that is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, in short for life, to equip man for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16). The view that God directly speaks to man today through the continuation of revelatory gifts seriously undermines this principle. The Sufficiency of Scripture

Proponents of continuing revelation have moved beyond “tongues” and “prophecy” to say that God speaks directly to man today through dreams, visions, audible voices and other ways as well. A rapidly spreading teaching is that God speaks to his people today apart from the Bible, even though he never speaks in contradiction to it. In other words, proponents of this view assert the existence of “plus factors” -- God speaks directly to man through the Bible plus. For example, in his book, The Word of God With Power, Jack Taylor has written that it is a mistake to believe that we have in the Bible all the revelation we will ever need.39 Although he readily acknowledges that the canon of Scripture “is complete and will never require addition,” he effectively contradicts himself (in the very same sentence) by declaring that God continues to directly speak to individuals through “impressions, messages, dreams and visions.”40 The Holy Spirit, in his view, “will use the written Scripture, but He is not bound to its pages in the issue of making His will known to us.”41 In his book, Surprised By the Power of the Spirit, Jack Deere similarly states that “God does indeed speak apart from the Bible, though never in contradiction to it.”42 Deere believes that God “speaks to all of his children” and “in amazing detail,” through audible voices, impressions, visions, dreams, and through angels.43 Deere has even gone so far as to say that “one of his [Satan’s] most successful attacks has been to develop a doctrine that teaches God no longer speaks to us except through the written word” and “this doctrine is demonic.”44

Yet the Bible tells us, in explicit language, that God, through his divine power “has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness” that we need (2 Peter 1:3). Taylor and Deere and others like them are engaged in a frontal assault on the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. In effect, they seek to reopen the canon of Scripture by postulating a continuing form of special revelation. In order to understand the gravity of their error, we must review the concepts of revelation, inspiration, illumination and Holy Spirit guidance, for the “Bible plus” teachings inappropriate confuses these distinct works of the Holy Spirit. The word “revelation” means an uncovering, a removal of the veil, a disclosure of what was previously unknown.45 Accordingly, in theological usage, revelation is the communication of divine truth from God to man.46 It is God’s message to man. There are two basic types of revelation. Through general revelation (creation, the universe, nature), God reveals his character generally to mankind, though not sufficiently for man to find salvation. Everyone (at least in this debate) agrees that God still speaks to all humanity through general revelation. Special revelation, in contrast, does not come to all people. In the Old Testament, God revealed himself to specific people through dreams, visions, theophanies, angels, prophets, the lot, and the Urim and Thummim.47 In the New Testament, asa noted above, the incarnation of Jesus Christ as Savior was the culmination of God’s special revelation to man. The incarnation is “[t]he pinnacle of the acts of God.”48 As the author of Hebrews wrote: “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” (Hebrews 1:1-2).

Inspiration is the means of God’s communication of his written revelation to man. The word “inspiration” is a translation of theopneustos, which literally means “God-breathed.”49 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is the primary witness of the Bible to its own inspiration: “All Scripture is God-breathed (i.e., inspired) and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” In other words, God “breathed-out” what the sacred writers communicated in the biblical writings.50 In this sense, inspiration was completed when the canon of Scripture was closed.

Illumination, on the other hand, is fundamentally different from both revelation and inspiration. As Charles Ryrie has cautioned: “The experience of ‘illumination’ is not be ‘direct revelation.’ The canon is closed. The Spirit illumines the meaning of that closed canon, and He does so through study and meditation.”51 Taylor, at least, fails to appreciate this important distinction.52 The Holy Spirit’s leading and conviction ministries are also fundamentally distinct from revelation and illumination. John Murray has written wisely in this regard:

We must rely upon the Holy Spirit to direct and guide us in the understanding and application of God’s will as revealed in Scripture, and we must be constantly conscious of our need of the Holy Spirit to apply the Word effectively to us in each situation. The function of the Holy Spirit in such matters is that of illumination as to what the will of the Lord is, and of imparting to us the willingness and strength to do that will. . . . as we are the subjects of this illumination and are responsive to it, and as the Holy Spirit is operative in us to the doings of God’s will, we shall have feelings, impressions, convictions, urges, inhibitions, impulses, burdens, resolutions.53

Yet Murray cautions, “The moment we desire or expect or think that a state of our consciousness is the effect of a direct intimation to us of the Holy Spirit’s will, or consists in such an intimation and is therefore in the category of special direction from him, then we have given way to the notion of special, direct, detached communication from the Holy Spirit. And this . . . belongs to the same category as belief in special revelation.”54

Hence, “though the Spirit’s illumination and guidance may sometimes focus on phenomena such as promptings or impressions, those phenomena are not specifically interpreted as involving the biblical ministry-gifts of revelation, such as prophesy and tongues or their correlates (e.g., visions, dreams, auditions).55 God has finally and completely spoken to man through Jesus Christ His Son. He has accomplished his salvific purpose. As White has stated: “With the completion of salvation in Christ comes the cessation of revelation. Consequently, the church now lives by a ‘Scripture only’ principle of authority.”56