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Oct 2023 30 Oct 30, 2023
5

In this article I’ll briefly address three issues that came up in the film. First, at one point in the film Justin Peters criticizes prophetic ministry by asserting that all charismatic prophets “failed to prophesy Covid coming.” He evidently thinks that this discredits the reality of prophetic ministry in our day. But where did he ever get the idea that a person could prophesy at will? The reason no one prophesied the coming of the Covid pandemic is s...Read More

Oct 2023 27 Oct 27, 2023

A primary target of the cessationists in this film is the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. As is true of virtually all cessationists, they insist that all tongues speech is a human language spoken somewhere in the world but unknown to the one who has received this gift. Of course, this is undoubtedly what we find in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. But why must we assume that Acts 2 sets the standard for what all tongues speech should be? Is there evidence elsewhere...Read More

Oct 2023 25 Oct 25, 2023
2

On several occasions in the film, reference is made to the incident recorded in Acts 21. Cessationists typically insist that Agabus was correct in his prophetic word about Paul. Let’s look at the text. And when we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on...Read More

Oct 2023 23 Oct 23, 2023

Yet another argument in the film, “Cessationist,” is that when miracles or revelatory gifts occurred, they were always performed in the presence of apostles. People other than the apostles were empowered to exercise miraculous gifts only because the apostles themselves laid their hands on them. Since there are no apostles today, those gifts associated with them have ceased. Does the NT actually say this? Is there a verse in the NT that says one can only perf...Read More

Oct 2023 20 Oct 20, 2023
3

A common refrain in the film concerns the charge by cessationists that to believe in the contemporary validity of revelatory and miraculous gifts of the Spirit would undermine the sufficiency and authority of Scripture. For example, here are just a few statements made in the film: “To believe in Sola Scriptura is to be a cessationist.” We should not expect God to speak “because we have the sufficient Word, the Bible.” “To believe in Sola ...Read More

Oct 2023 18 Oct 18, 2023
1

In this ongoing response to the film, “Cessationist,” I want to turn momentarily from the multiple biblical errors made by those who contributed to look at the claims made about spiritual gifts in church history. Let’s begin with Sam Waldron’s claim that “in the second century the church rejected charismatic gifts.” Really? Let’s take a brief look at what the leading theologians and church fathers during that period of time said...Read More

Oct 2023 16 Oct 16, 2023
1

At one point in the film an appeal is made to Mattew 16:4 to prove that seeking signs and wonders is sinful. In addition, the statement is made that the Bible does not tell us to seek signs and wonders. Here is the text in question. “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah” (Matt. 16:4a). In years past, when I was a cessationist, I believed that it was a sign of spiritual immaturity to...Read More

Oct 2023 13 Oct 13, 2023

This is the seventh installment in my series of articles responding to the film, “Cessationist.” Here I want to address comments made about Hebrews 2:3-4. At one point in the film, a contributor claims that the author of Hebrews says in chapter two, “I’m not working miracles now.” Really? I’ve read and re-read this passage, and I don’t see the author of Hebrews ever saying that, anywhere. What, then, does he say? The author of H...Read More

Oct 2023 11 Oct 11, 2023

I often refer to Ephesians 2:20 as the cessationist’s “go-to” text. There we read that the “household of God,” that is, the Church, is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.” Although he does not appear in the film, my friend Tom Schreiner speaks for most (if not all) cessationists when he says that Ephesians 2:20 is a reference to all prophets and that they “have...Read More

Oct 2023 9 Oct 9, 2023

Those in the film Cessationist appeal to 2 Corinthians 12:12 where Paul says that “the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.” If these latter phenomena were “the signs of a true apostle,” designed to confirm, attest, and authenticate the apostles as representatives of Christ, it would only make sense that once the apostles were themselves no longer present, the supernatural ...Read More

Oct 2023 6 Oct 6, 2023
2

Here I continue with my response to the arguments that were put forth in the film, “Cessationist.” If you haven’t already read the first three in this series, I encourage you to go back and do so. One point made several times in the film is that the “gift” of miracles was designed to “confirm that the individual was a spokesman and representative of God.” This was certainly true in the OT, as a quick look at 1 Kings 17:24 will d...Read More

Oct 2023 4 Oct 4, 2023
1

In this third installment of my response to the film, Cessationist, I want to address an argument to which virtually all cessationists appeal. It goes by different names, but I refer to it as the “cluster” argument. I can honestly say that of all the arguments made by cessationists, this is without question the weakest and least biblical of them. So, what is the “cluster” argument and why is it so weak? According to the cluster argument, miraculo...Read More

Oct 2023 2 Oct 2, 2023
2

This is the second installment in a series of articles in which I respond, point by point, to the arguments made in the recent film, Cessationist. One of the more bewildering arguments made in the film is that there is no mention of miraculous gifts in the NT after the latter half of 1 Corinthians. Yet again, another contributor to the film asserted that there is no reference to miraculous gifts in the pastoral epistles. What should we make of this? In the first place,...Read More