Proclaiming the Gospel with Miraculous Gifts in the Postbiblical Early Church

Cessationists also have chosen to overlook the record of both Roman Catholic and Eastern Christian traditions. Any honest inquiry into the history of spirituality in both Roman and Eastern traditions leads the scholar to conclude that the Holy Spirit invested the post-Apostolic Church with the same gifts and charismatic vitality experienced during the first century.³

Protestant cessationists have been influenced by the Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, which has led many to deny the validity of anything in Christian history which falls outside accepted categories of rationality. This has resulted in a “cleaning up” of religious history, purging it of any taint of “enthusiasm” or nonrational behavior and all reports of the supernatural. The result has been what I call a “demythologizing” of the saints—an attempt to deny the many stories in the Christian tradition which are filled with charismatic giftings, miracles, signs and wonders.

In the twentieth century, Pentecostals have unwittingly added to the confusion by teaching that the Holy Spirit was somehow “deistically absent” in the eighteen hundred years between A.D. 100 and 1900, and that the second coming of the Holy Spirit occurred among them at the very beginning of the current century. This fit into their understanding of Joel’s prophecy of a former and a latter rain. In typical restorationist fashion, Pentecostals showed little appreciation for earlier waves of Christian renewal. The result of all this is that we have missed an entire chapter in the history of Christianity—namely, the story of post-apostolic Christians witnessing with power to the unconverted, with their proclamation accented and given credibility by confirming supernatural events.

 

Spirit-Empowered Ministry in the Post-Apostolic Church

It is quite clear that the Holy Spirit’s activity in the Christian Church did not change dramatically after AD 100. As with any other wave of renewal, the time immediately following that of the apostles saw a modest waning of charismatic vitality. But prophets continued to function openly in the Church in the second century, and in fringe groups, such as the Montanists, from that time onwards.

There was no cessation of miracles or signs and wonders in this period either, despite occasional claims to the contrary by a few Church Fathers, including Origen.⁴ Both the Roman church and Eastern churches have an entire genre of literature known as hagiography, or lives of the saints, which give innumerable examples of the dynamic evangelistic outreach of individuals empowered by the divine Spirit. To be sure, we must treat these accounts with a critical, even skeptical eye, given the tendency of the period not to be critical. The fact remains, however, that miracles, signs and wonders were an expected part of Christian life—at least for the spiritually elite who reached beyond their contemporaries in holy living and devotion to God. To insist that none of these accounts are credible, while at the same assuming that similar stories from the first century Church given in Scripture are believable, suggests that we are imposing our own presuppositions on the data.

Tags: church, early, featured, gifts, gospel, miraculous, postbiblical, proclaiming

Category: Church History, Summer 2008