Cessationism versus continuationism

 ( Cessationism ) 

Although the original formulation of cessationism arose in response to claims of healing and miracles in the Catholic Church, cessationists now divide into four viewpoints based on their views about the possibility of miracles among Christians today.

In the 1830s–1850s, the Shakers, an offshoot of the Quakers, had a spiritual revival in the United States known as the Era of Manifestations. This period involved the expression of spiritual gifts, such as visions, revelation and ecstatic experiences. Prior to this revival, Quakers believed that everyone had access to the Inward light, which was often connected to the gifts and Fruit of the Holy Spirit, such as the "Word of Wisdom." Personal use of the Inward light was further emphasized by American Quaker minister Elias Hicks in the 1840s and lead to the "Hicksite" (Liberal) branch of Quakerism.Revelating Hicksites and Prophesying Seventh-day Adventists: Individual Religious Experiences and Community Ethics in Antebellum America - Ozanne, Rachel Lauren - 2013

A second major influence to Warfield was the Enlightenment epistemology of Scottish Common Sense philosophy.

1. Miracles are of such a nature and performed in such a manner as would necessarily inject suspicion of fraud and delusion.

2. The cures and beneficial effect of miracles were either false, imaginary, or accidental.

3. Miracles tend to confirm the idlest of all errors and superstitions.

4. The integrity of witnesses to miracles is either highly questionable or their credulity renders them unworthy of any credit.

5. Some miracles are so trifling as to excite nothing but contempt.

Warfield used a two-leg approach in his defense of cessationism in which he attempted to perform a critical analysis based on a 'historical leg' and a 'scriptural leg'.

In his fight against liberals who rationalised and de-mythologised or allegorised New Testament miracles, Warfield had a faith-oriented, super-naturalistic and subjective position. However, critics have argued that Warfield took a common-sense, naturalistic, objective and scientific approach to post-Biblical miracles. Randy Clark said that in Warfield's attempt to protect Christian orthodoxy against the errors of liberalism and rationalism, his own biases blinded him from the reality of the New Covenant Spirit in the post-Biblical era.

Later, Pentecostalism along with the charismatic movement in historic Christian Churches taught a baptism of the Holy Spirit (though different than the Methodist doctrine) accompanied by glossolalia. Holiness Pentecostals, who started the movement, taught that it was the third work of grace. Fundamental to the charismatic movement that arose in historic Christian Churches is the experience of baptism with the Holy Spirit and the use of ( ).

Several responses can be made to Warfield's argument. Firstly, Warfield's argument that the gifts can only be imparted by the laying on of the hands of apostles is an argument from silence. Warfield argues that all cases of impartation of miracle-working powers come from the laying on of hands of the apostles, but in many cases, the Bible does not tell us who prayed for whom to impart the gifts or the Holy Spirit, and it should thus be no surprise that the apostles are recorded as doing so in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Moreover, Ruthven points out that Ananias, not himself an apostle, prayed for Paul with the laying on of hands in Acts 9:17. Ruthven writes:

Secondly, if the office of apostle never ceased, then Warfield's argument fails for that reason too. Ruthven, among others, argues that the belief that the gift of apostleship was limited to the 12 apostles plus Paul is itself a post-Reformation doctrine that needs re-evaluation, and he lists nine arguments as to why apostleship continues within the church. However, as he notes, this is not the view of all continuationists. For instance, Ruthven notes that Dan Carson argues that the gift of apostleship alone is time-limited.

The principal reason for the cessationist denial of the continuation of the gifts is their appeal to the closure of the canon of scripture (that is, the completion of the Bible). Implicit in their appeal is their understanding that the closure of the canon marked the end of the manifestation of spiritual gifts. However, the main continuationist objection is that the Bible does not offer any clear (explicit) text that would support cessationism. Some cessationists, such as Robert L. Thomas and Walter J. Chantry, appeal to the text of 1 Corinthians 13:8–12 as a proof-text for cessationism. Therefore, the question is how both camps in the dispute understand 1 Corinthians 13:8–12. In this context, the issue is how to interpret the expression in v. 10, "when that which is perfect is come," which speaks about an event associated with the cessation of the gifts.

Continuationists understand the expression "that which is perfect to come" as referring to either the death of the Christian or else to the Second Coming of Christ. Thus, the timing of the cessation of the gifts is associated with the resurrection from the dead and the eschatological event of Christ's return. An argument for such interpretation is that human knowledge, v. 9, is in a state of imperfection ("in part") because "that which is perfect" has not yet come, but when it does come, the believer's knowledge will cease to be imperfect ("which is in part shall be done away"). Since the event of Christ's Second Coming will bring forth the completion of the believer's knowledge, Dan Carson, among others, argues that Christ's Second Coming is the phenomenon that best fits the description of the expression "the coming of that which is perfect". He also avers that the expression "face to face" most likely refers to the state of heavenly glory.

This argument is widely disseminated in cessationist literature, expressing the view that new prophecies and revelations are by definition additions to the canon.

Robert L. Thomas' discussion on this subject in Understanding Spiritual Gifts is summed up when he says, "During the church's foundational days in the first-century era, prophecy furnished its own basis for instruction through revelations from God to the prophet. But those direct revelations are no longer happening, so the only existing basis of authority is Scripture, which has already been revealed."

Richard B. Gaffin makes a similar observation on the extent of a prophetic authority when he says, "The issue is the inspired, Spirit-worked origin of prophecy and its correlative authority. The words of the prophet are the words of God and are to be received and responded to as such."

In the Lutheran tradition, the New Testament gift of prophecy was viewed in terms as not being on the same level of inspiration as Scripture. For example, the 17th century Lutheran theologian, John Quenstedt urged a humble approach to claiming and sharing prophetic revelations:

We must distinguish between revelations which pertain to, or attack, an article of faith, and those which concern the state of the Church or the State, social life, and future events; the first we repudiate; the latter, however, some hold, are not to be urged with any necessity of believing, nevertheless are not to be rashly rejected. (Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Vol. 1, p. 211)

"...if the Spirit of God did move them and give them revelation what the Spirit revealed to them, the theme which he suggested to them, they discussed in a free manner, in their own words. So it could easily happen that in their prophecy they let their own and erring thoughts enter,... Therefore, the apostle admonishes the Christians to judge and test the prophecy... (George Stoeckhardt, Commentary on Romans, Koehlinger Translation, page 172)

Wayne Grudem, a continuationist, agrees with cessationists that the modern Church no longer has foundational ministries such as the apostolic and prophetic ministries, as referenced in Ephesians 2:20. These ministries ended at the beginning of the second century. Nevertheless, Grudem and others argue that the gift of prophecy is still in operation, and that this differs from the foundational office of a prophet. The Bible shows, in this view, that not all possessors of the gift of prophecy had the foundational ministry of a prophet. The gift of prophecy was noted for people whose prophecies are not recorded. Thus, there is a distinction in this line of reasoning between foundational and non-foundational prophetic ministries. A non-foundational prophetic ministry would not involve prophecies containing new doctrine and, as such, would not undermine the foundation of the Church.

Some continuationists, such as Craig Simonian, make a similar distinction between canonical and noncanonical prophets. They would maintain that not all prophets have a "canonical authority" by observing two strands of prophets in the Old Testament and that this pattern continued in the New Testament. For instance, where it is written in Acts of people who prophesied but whose prophecies are not recorded. e.g.,

This distinction is significant in the dispute because a continuationist can avoid the conclusion that modern prophecies may have content with new doctrinal import. Only foundational prophets could devise prophecies with new doctrinal import that serve as the foundation of the Church. Thus continuationalists can agree that the foundational prophetic ministries are gone, without denying the possibility of prophecy in the other sense and without contravening the principle of sola scriptura.

Simonian cites several biblical observations supporting the distinction between canonical (foundational) and noncanonical (nonfoundational) prophets. Some of these biblical observations are reports of people who began prophesying after the Spirit of God had fallen upon them: e.g. Numbers 11:25, when elders started to prophesy; and 1 Samuel 10, when Saul prophesied. In these biblical reports, it is observed that people spontaneously prophesied when the Spirit of God had fallen upon them, although they were not ordinarily prophets. Simonian notes that "what Saul prophesied was not recorded that day and it is likely that his prophesies lacked any lasting significance".

A continuationist will further state that the Bible is an indispensable guide for the verification of prophecies. Verification in this context means an evaluative conclusion by some reliable test that something is true. Falsification, on the other hand, means an evaluative conclusion by some reliable test that something is false.

Also, most continuationists would further contend that a prophecy given by a non-foundational prophet can contain both true and false elements, and for that reason the Scriptures command Christians to test prophecies (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:29; 1 Thessalonians 5:20).

The above problem concerns the question of whether new prophecies would enjoy the same authority as the canonical prophecies of the Bible. According to cessationists, the canon would be open if the gift of prophecy was still in operation. Some continuationists misconstrue the cessationist appeal to the closure of the canon as if cessationists do not acknowledge noncanonical revelations and, then, try to show that the Bible makes clear of the existence of noncanonical revelations.

Thus, the dispute concerning the implication of the closure of the canon revolves around two related issues regarding noncanonical revelation:

1. The validity of continuationist differentiation of degrees of prophetic authority.
2. The validity of the cessationist thesis of the uniform authority of prophecies.

From the cessationist perspective, however, it is odd to say that a prophecy given by a genuine prophet, i.e., a prophet who was inspired by God's Spirit, can be a mixture of both false and true statements. A cessationist would question the intelligibility of such a notion of true prophecy. Especially, it would be highly problematic, if not self-contradictory, that a prophet would be entitled to declare "and so says the Lord" and utter false statements, as if the Lord's words were deceptive.

C. Samuel Storms explains how prophecies can be fallible owing to human fallibility:

Problems raised with this interpretation are:

Firstly, Deuteronomy 18:20–22 teaches that a false prophet, who speaks presumptuously in the name of the Lord, is exposed by discovering falsehoods in his prophetic predictions. Deuteronomy 18 concerns oral prophecies, and thus, it is about noncanonical prophecies. If it is allowed that true prophecies contain error, a cessationist contends that it would not be possible to distinguish true prophets from false prophets who presumptuously speak in the name of the Lord.

Secondly, there is no ground for restricting the continuationist theory of inspiration only to noncanonical prophecies. Consequently, canonical prophecies might be fallible as well. If fallibility of canonical prophecies is allowed, a cessationist would point out that the continuationist theory of inspiration would thus violate the principle of sola scriptura because sola scriptura teaches that the Scriptures are the only infallible authority for the Church.

The non-revelatory gifts do not violate the principle of sola scriptura in any formulation of the doctrine. From a cessationist perspective, healings and miracles were always signs associated with the divine confirmation of the genuineness of a prophet in periods when God revealed new truths concerning the doctrine, a view not shared by continuationists. Within a cessationist framework, miracles and healing are signs of apostleship and prophethood, and, thus, are seen in the context of the formation of new doctrines, cf. Acts 2:43, 2 Corinthians 12:12.

• Calvinism
• Charismatic movement
• Deus otiosus
• Pentecostal
• Reformation
• Renewal theologian

• Bouyer, Louis. "Some Charismatic Manifestations in the History of the Church". Perspectives on Charismatic Renewal. Edited by Edward O'Connor. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1975
• Grudem, Wayne, ed. Are Miraculous Gifts for Today: Four Views. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996 (Richard M. Gaffin, Jr., R.L.Saucy, C.Samuel Storms, Douglas A. Oss)
• Hyatt, Eddie L. "2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity". Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2002
• Lee, James A. Reformed Continuationism. Seattle: KD Publishing, 2019.
• Walker, D. P. "The Cessation of Miracles". In Hermeticism and the Renaissance: Intellectual History and the Occult in Early Modern Europe. Edited by Ingrid Merkel and Allen G. Debus. Washington, DC: Folger Books, 1988. pp. 111–124
• Williams, George and Waldvogel, Edith. "A History of Speaking in Tongues and Related Gifts". The Charismatic Movement. Edited by Michael P. Hamilton. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975.