The Holy Spirit, Spiritual Gifts, and Discernment — Unit 10: Continuationism and Cessationism: The Four Views Fairly Stated

Key Verse

"Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues." (1 Corinthians 14:39, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Define continuationism and cessationism and say what the two sides agree on.

2. State four views fairly: cessationist, open but cautious, Third Wave, and Pentecostal.

3. Explain three ways of reading "when that which is perfect has come" in 1 Corinthians 13:8-10.

4. Give at least five reasons why Pentecostals hold that the gifts continue.

5. Describe how a Pentecostal pastor treats Christians who disagree.

The Voice of This Unit

This unit is written from inside the classical Pentecostal tradition, for students who belong to it. It is conservative and Trinitarian. Its first half states four views as their holders would state them. Its second half argues for continuationism from the Pentecostal side. We do this openly, because a student should know where the writer stands. Spirit baptism and initial evidence are taught in Course 2, Units 4 and 5, and the history of the Third Wave in Course 1, Unit 9, so we do not repeat them here.

What the Question Is

Cessationism is the view that some or all of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit ended when the apostolic age ended. The gifts usually named are tongues, interpretation, prophecy, healing and miracles. Continuationism is the view that these gifts have not ended and are still given by the Spirit to the church.

Before we describe the four views, note how much both sides share. Cessationists and continuationists agree that Jesus Christ is Lord and that He rose from the dead. They agree that the Bible is God's inspired and final Word. Most cessationists also believe that God still answers prayer for the sick, still saves, and still guides His people. They deny not that God is powerful but that the particular gifts listed above were meant to continue. This is a disagreement between brothers and sisters. It is not a division between believers and unbelievers.

The Four Views

Wayne Grudem edited a book in 1996 called Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views. It sets out the same four positions we study here, and it is a good place to read them in the words of their own defenders.

1. The cessationist view

Cessationists hold that the miraculous gifts, or at least the revelatory ones such as prophecy and tongues, were given to the apostolic church for a particular time and then ceased. B. B. Warfield argued this in Counterfeit Miracles (1918). Richard Gaffin presented a careful form of it in Perspectives on Pentecost (1979) and in the Grudem volume.

Their main arguments are these.

• The signs confirmed the apostles and their message. Hebrews 2:3-4 says that the message was confirmed by those who heard the Lord, with God bearing witness by signs and wonders. Paul calls "the signs of an apostle" signs and wonders and mighty deeds (2 Corinthians 12:12). When the apostles died, their confirming signs passed with them.

• The church is built on "the foundation of the apostles and prophets" (Ephesians 2:20), and a foundation is laid once. So the revelatory gifts belonged to the foundation period.

• The Scriptures are complete and sufficient. If prophecy still gave God's word, it would threaten the sufficiency of the Bible.

• First Corinthians 13:8-10 says the gifts will pass away "when that which is perfect has come." Many cessationists take "perfect" to mean the completed Scriptures.

• Warfield and others held that claims of miracles after the apostolic age were weak, mixed with legend and error.

Their concern is one we share: the authority and sufficiency of Scripture, and the protection of God's people from fraud and error. Cessationists have often been good teachers of the Bible, and we have learned from them.

2. The open but cautious view

Some evangelicals, among them Robert Saucy in the Grudem volume, hold that Scripture does not teach a clear end to the gifts, and so one cannot say they have ceased. But they are careful about the claims made in the name of the gifts today. They want every claim tested, they are wary of anyone who says "God told me" with great authority, and they usually do not seek the gifts as a normal part of church life. Many Baptist and other evangelical pastors are here.

Their strength is humility and a strong respect for the sufficiency of Scripture. They stand between the cessationist and the continuationist and do not belong fully to either camp.

3. The Third Wave view

The "Third Wave" is the name given to evangelicals who came to accept and practice the gifts from the 1980s, as a movement after classical Pentecostalism (the first wave) and the charismatic renewal (the second wave). It is linked with John Wimber and the Vineyard churches and with Fuller Theological Seminary. Sam Storms defended it in the Grudem volume, and Jack Deere, a former Old Testament professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, told in Surprised by the Power of the Spirit (1993) how he moved from cessationism to belief in the gifts.

Third Wave teachers hold that the gifts, including healing and prophecy, are for the church today and should accompany the preaching of the gospel. They usually teach that every believer is baptized in the Spirit at conversion, and that later experiences are fresh fillings, and they do not require tongues as the sign of Spirit baptism. Course 2, Unit 9 describes their teaching more fully. We rejoice in their hunger for the Spirit, and we differ on subsequence and initial evidence.

4. The Pentecostal and charismatic view

Classical Pentecostals hold that all the gifts of the Spirit listed in the New Testament are for the church until the Lord returns. Most also teach that Spirit baptism is an experience of power for witness that follows conversion, and many hold that tongues are its first sign. Douglas Oss defended a Pentecostal and charismatic view in the Grudem volume. Pentecostal scholars do not agree on every detail, and Gordon Fee, an Assemblies of God scholar, has questioned whether tongues should be taught as a necessary first sign. On the question of this unit, however, we are agreed: the gifts continue.

Key Texts in Dispute

1 Corinthians 13:8-10

Paul writes, "whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. . . . But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away." Interpreters give three main answers about the time "when the perfect has come."

1. The completed Scriptures, as many cessationists teach.

2. The maturity of the church, as some interpreters teach.

3. The return of Christ and the life to come, as most Pentecostals teach.

We give three reasons for the third reading. First, Paul goes on, "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face" (13:12). Seeing "face to face" and knowing "just as I also am known" sound like the meeting with Christ and not like the closing of a book. Second, Paul lists three things that end together: prophecy, tongues and knowledge. If the gifts of prophecy and tongues ended when the New Testament was finished, knowledge would have ended too, and no one believes that. Third, the Corinthians could hardly have understood a reference to a New Testament that did not yet exist in complete form. We hold this reading humbly, since godly interpreters differ.

Hebrews 2:3-4 and 2 Corinthians 12:12

These texts show that signs confirmed the apostles' message. We agree. But they do not say that signs were limited to the apostles or that the signs would stop. Stephen and Philip were not apostles, yet they did signs and wonders (Acts 6:8; 8:6-7). The Galatians, who were ordinary believers, experienced miracles among them (Galatians 3:5). Paul speaks of "the signs of an apostle" because he is defending his own office against rivals. He does not say that no one else may have signs.

Ephesians 2:20

The apostles and prophets are the foundation. We agree that the Twelve and Paul had a unique place as eyewitnesses and foundation-layers, and that their writings are Scripture. But the New Testament also describes congregational prophets whose words are to be judged by others (1 Corinthians 14:29). This is why testing is a major theme of this course (Unit 8). Prophecy that is tested and subject to Scripture does not add to the Bible.

The Pentecostal Case for Continuationism

Having stated the views, we now say where we stand and why. We offer seven reasons.

1. The Bible never says the gifts would end before the Lord returns. Our final authority is Scripture, not experience. If the New Testament had said, "These gifts will stop when the last apostle dies," we would believe it. It does not. Paul commands the church to seek the gifts and tells them not to forbid tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1, 39). He gives no time limit. The burden of proof lies on those who add one.

2. The last days include our days. Peter says that Joel's promise is fulfilled at Pentecost: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh" (Acts 2:17). The last days began at Pentecost and continue until Christ returns. Then he says, "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call" (Acts 2:39). "Afar off" reaches across both distance and time.

3. The gifts were given to build up the whole body. Paul says the manifestation of the Spirit is for "the profit of all" (1 Corinthians 12:7). Prophecy builds up, encourages and comforts (14:3). The gifts were not given merely to prove the apostles. Ephesians 4:11-13 says the Lord gave His servants to equip the saints "till we all come to the unity of the faith." That goal has not yet been reached, and the Spirit's equipping has not finished.

4. Ordinary believers used the gifts. In the New Testament the gifts are found among believers who were not apostles: Stephen, Philip, Ananias of Damascus, the prophet Agabus (Acts 11:28; 21:10-11), the Corinthian church, and the Galatians. If the gifts belonged only to the apostles, this would be hard to explain.

5. A closed Bible does not close the Spirit's work. We hold as firmly as cessationists that Scripture is complete and final. Every prophecy must be tested by it, and no prophecy is equal to it. A tested, Scripture-bound gift does not threaten sufficiency. It serves the same Word. In fact, the same Spirit who inspired the Bible is the one who applies it to hearts today.

6. Church history does not show a clear end. Church fathers such as Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, in the second century, speak of spiritual gifts continuing among Christians. Augustine, in The City of God, tells of healings that he knew about. Montanism in the second century shows that there were abuses very early, and the church was right to test them. Warfield doubted these records, and historians continue to debate how to read them. We say that history does not give us a date when the gifts ended, and where the gifts were quiet we think the cause was often unbelief, formalism and fear and not any withdrawal by God.

7. The witness of the global church confirms what Scripture teaches. We do not build doctrine on experience. But in Africa, Latin America and Asia, millions of believers testify to healing, deliverance and the gifts in their own lives, as Course 1 describes. Cessationists rightly warn that some claims are false, and we agree that these claims must be tested. Yet the size and the spread of the testimony deserves a hearing. It fits what Scripture promises about the character of God: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).

Two further objections

"If the gifts continue, why not apostles?" Scripture uses "apostle" in two ways. The Twelve and Paul were witnesses of the risen Lord and laid the foundation, and they have no successors in that sense. But Barnabas, too, is called an apostle (Acts 14:14), and the word can mean "one sent out." Many Pentecostal churches use it in this second sense for missionaries and church planters, and some do not use the term. We do not claim new Scripture or an authority that stands over the apostles.

"If God heals today, why are not all healed?" We admit that we do not know why. Units 5 and 6 treat this question with care.

How We Treat Those Who Disagree

The Lord did not give us our doctrine as a weapon. Paul teaches that the gifts are worthless without love (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). A Pentecostal pastor should hold his conviction firmly and treat other believers kindly. We should not say that a brother who is a cessationist is cold, or has no Spirit, or is not saved. He has the Spirit, as every believer does. We should not argue to win, and we should listen for what is true in his concern. Many cessationists have protected churches from real harm. At the same time, we ask the same courtesy from them. We follow Paul's balance: do not forbid tongues, and also let everything be done in order. Unity in the gospel is greater than agreement on this subject.

Pastoral Application

A young woman in the church tells her pastor that her uncle, a pastor in another church, said that tongues and prophecy ended with the apostles and that her church is mistaken. She asks, "Is my faith wrong?"

The pastor thanks her for asking. He asks first what her uncle actually said and what he was afraid of. He reminds her that her uncle is a brother who loves the Bible. Then he opens the Bible with her. They read Acts 2:17 and 2:39, and 1 Corinthians 14:1 and 14:39. They read 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 slowly and ask who the passage says will see face to face. He explains the cessationist reading of the passage honestly and gives the reasons we read it differently. He also tells her that the question is not a test of salvation. Finally he encourages her to write to her uncle with respect, to thank him, and to say what she has seen and learned.

Summary

Cessationists hold that the miraculous gifts ended with the apostolic age. They appeal to the signs of an apostle, the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the sufficiency of Scripture, and 1 Corinthians 13:8-10. The open-but-cautious view finds no clear biblical end but is careful about present claims. The Third Wave teaches the gifts for today without Spirit baptism after conversion or tongues as the first sign. Classical Pentecostals hold that all the gifts continue until Christ returns. We give seven reasons: no text ends them, the last days continue, the gifts build up the whole body, ordinary believers used them, a closed Bible does not close the Spirit's work, history shows no clear end, and the global church bears witness. We hold our view with conviction and treat those who differ as brothers and sisters.

Further Reading

• Wayne Grudem, ed., Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views (1996).

• Richard B. Gaffin Jr., Perspectives on Pentecost (1979), a cessationist study.

• B. B. Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles (1918), a cessationist argument.

• Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit (1993).

• Gordon D. Fee, God's Empowering Presence (1994).

• Max Turner, The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts (1996).

Submit Exam & Check Pass Reset