Notice that in the current debate about spiritual gifts many in the charismatic movement (but probably not most Pentecostals) agree that apostles – in the sense of those who are “first” among the gifts given to the Church, like the 12 and Paul – are not present in the Church today. In that respect, at least, whether or not they care to think of themselves as such, the large majority of today’s charismatics are in fact “cessationists.”

Cessationism is a term that carries a lot of baggage. By itself it’s negative, suggesting what no longer exists or, in current debate about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, what one is against. So at the outset, certain misconceptions about the “cessationist” viewpoint need to be addressed.

It’s not that today God’s Spirit is no longer at work in dynamic and dramatic ways. What, for instance, could be more powerful and impressive, even miraculous, than the 180-degree reversal in walk that occurs when the Spirit transforms those dead in their sins into those alive for good works? This, Paul says, involves nothing less than a work of resurrection, of (re-) creation (Eph. 2:1-10). Awesome indeed!

Nor is the point that all spiritual gifts have ceased and are no longer present in the Church today. As will become clear, at issue is the cessation of a limited number of such gifts; the continuation of the large remainder is not in dispute.

People sometimes tell me, “You’re putting the Holy Spirit in a box.” In response at least two things come to mind. First, I take this response to heart. Unduly limiting our expectations of the Spirit’s work by our theologizing is by no means an imaginary danger. We may never lose sight of the incalculability factor noted by Jesus in John 3:8 (like an unpredictable wind). A mark of any sound doctrine of the Spirit’s work is that it will be content with an unaccounted for remainder, an area of mystery. Secondly, however, the Spirit himself, “speaking in the Scripture” (Westminster Confession of Faith, 1:10), as I will try to show, puts his activity “in a box,” if you will, a box of his own sovereign making. The Bible knows nothing of a pure whimsy of the Spirit. The Spirit is indeed the Spirit of ardor but also, and no less, the Spirit of order (1 Cor. 14: 33, 40-note, particularly in the matter of spiritual gifts). A perennial challenge to the Church is to seek and see maintained this ordered ardor or, if you prefer, ardor-infused order of the Spirit.

Apostolic Foundation Laying

According to the Nicene Creed, the “one holy catholic” Church is also “apostolic.” What does that mean? What constitutes the apostolicity of the Church? Answering that question biblically is the important first step in the case for the cessation of certain gifts of the Spirit. Here the focus will be on those gifts whose cessation is perhaps most contested today, namely prophecy and tongues.

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(Editor’s Note:  HT to Pilgrimage to Geneva Blog)