George could feel his face growing red and hot. He was embarrassed—utterly stymied and tongue-tied. His excited story about his recent filling with the Spirit and his healing was met with a long, Bible-based refutation by his pastor and friend.

“George,” he concluded, “the Bible says these experiences of yours cannot be valid. True miracles no longer occur today because God gave them only to establish New Testament doctrine. You can’t go against the teaching of God’s Word just because of your experiences and feelings.” The pastor continues, “‘Ordinary’ spiritual gifts like evangelism, hospitality and teaching, of course, continue, but the ‘miraculous’ gifts have ceased.”

George certainly did not need to be discouraged, however. These days, even among conservative Evangelical scholars, the tide is definitely turning against his pastor-friend’s “cessationism.” Cessationism is a doctrine, mostly found in Protestant fundamentalism, that spiritual gifts (the “charismata,” such as listed in 1 Corinthians 12:7-10, 28) existed only to prove the validity of New Testament doctrine or accredit the apostles. This teaching also says that that the “miraculous” or “extraordinary” gifts died with the apostles, or with the writing of the last New Testament book sometime in the first century.

George needed a kind of pocket guide, like this article, for him to answer his friend’s overwhelming, Biblical-sounding arguments. This article will very briefly summarize an enormous Biblical case that can be made for spiritual gifts continuing today. The second part will examine the most common “cessationist” argu­ments George, and you, would likely hear.

The Case for Continuing Spiritual Gifts

Before we begin, let us look at the central problem with the “cessationist” argument, above. It claims that because spiritual gifts can be used as proof of doctrine, then the gifts must cease when the need for that proof is fulfilled (that is, when the New Testament was written). Should a medical doctor use that same logic? When he uses your heartbeat to prove you are alive, does this mean your heart must cease beating simply because he just removed his stethoscope and no longer needed proof? It is highly doubtful that the New Testament ever intended spiritual gifts to be used as proof, but even if it did, the New Testament itself shows many other, clearly-stated and necessary functions for spiritual gifts, which, by the same logic, should demand their continuation!

Let us now review some passages of Scripture that makes this case.

1. Romans 11:29 makes a universal statement about the continuation of the “charismata.”

“The gifts [charismata] and calling of God are irrevocable [not called back].” Cessationism precisely contradicts this verse. Cessationists may object, though, that this verse applies only to the offer of salvation to the Jews and not to the gifts of the Spirit.

Should we expect the Holy Spirit to work in powerful, miraculous ways in connection with the preaching of the gospel and the life of the Church today? This has been the claim of John Wimber and the Vineyard movement, and of others within what is called the “third wave” of renewal by the Holy Spirit.¹  Similar claims have been made for years by Christians within the Pentecostal and charismatic movements. But other evangelicals have differed with this claim, and have raised several objections. In this series, I want to consider some of the most frequent objections and propose some answers from Scripture.

1. Doesn’t Jesus say, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 16:4)?²  Doesn’t this mean we should not seek miracles today—rather, we should look to “the sign of Jonah,” which means the resurrection of Christ, and emphasize that when we talk about miracles?³

The mistake made in this objection is a failure to look at the context and find whom Jesus was talking to. In the context of Matthew 16, it is the Pharisees and Sadducees who came, “and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven” (Matthew 16:1). Similarly, it was the hostile scribes and Pharisees who came in Matthew 12:38-45, the Pharisees who began to argue with him “to test him” in Mark 8:11-12, and skeptics who came “to test him” and seek a sign from heaven in Luke 11:16. (The only passage that doesn’t specify that the comment was directed against hostile unbelievers is Luke 11:29, but the parallel passage in Matthew 12:39-42 does specify that it was specifically the scribes and Pharisees against whom this word was directed.)

So in every instance the rebuke for seeking signs is addressed to hostile unbelievers. Jesus is rebuking Jewish leaders who had hard hearts and were simply seeking a pretext for criticizing Him. In no case are such rebukes addressed to genuine followers of Jesus who sought a miracle for physical healing or deliverance for themselves or others, either out of compassion for others or out of a desire to advance the gospel and see God’s name glorified. These warning verses, taken in the original contexts, apply to unbelievers, and therefore to use them to apply to genuine Christians is an illegitimate application. No New Testament passages warn against the use of miracles by genuine Christians.

It seems to me that the New Testament encourages us to believe God and seek answers to prayer in many ways, including miraculous answers to prayer. (See Acts 4:30; 1 Corinthians 14:1; Galatians 3:5 [implicitly], see also the entire pattern of gospel proclamation plus miraculous demonstration in the evangelism carried on in Acts 3:6, 12ff.; 4:29, 30; 5:12-16, 20, 21, 28, 42; 6:8 10; 8:4-7, 12; 9:17, 18 [cf. 22:13] 34, 35; 14:3, 8-10, 15ff.; 15:12, 36; 18:5, 11 [cf. 2 Corinthians 12:12, 1 Corinthians 2:4-5]; 19:8-12; compare Hebrews 2:4; James 5:13-18).

The fifth chapter of the Praying in the Spirit Series.

Robert W. Graves wrote Praying in the Spirit (Chosen Books) in 1987, when it received great reviews from a number of Pentecostal/charismatic scholars and leaders including John Sherrill, Dr. Vinson Synan, Dr. Gordon Fee, Dr. William Menzies, Dr. Howard Ervin, Dr. Walter Martin, and Dr. Stanley Horton. It is the great privilege of the Pneuma Review to republish it here.

“You Pentecostals think you’re better than anyone else, don’t you?” The question startled the young Florida pastor attending his first ministerial association meeting. He stammered briefly and then with wisdom replied, “No, not at all. I am simply better than I was before.” The question of spiritual pride has found its way into the minds of many non-charismatic Christians and, unfortunately, has become a great stumbling block.

“One characteristic of the modem tongues-movement,” writes Ronald Baxter, “is that of spiritual pride. The impression often given is, ‘I’ve got it and you haven’t. I’m sorry for you!’” (pp. 22-23). The first chapter of John F. MacArthur, Jr.’s, The Charismatics is titled “Are You One of the Have-Nots?” And according to Michael Griffiths, Pentecostals and charismatics “claim a monopoly of the Holy Spirit’s operation” (Three Men, p. 25). Merrill Unger, longtime critic of Pentecostalism, writes that Pentecostals believe the outsiders are “ordinary believers” and they are the “Spirit-baptized super-saints” (Baptism, p.36).

If Pentecostals and charismatics have done nothing more, it seems that they have convinced some non-Pentecostals that they believe themselves to be superior because they have spoken in tongues. Indeed, spiritual elitism, counting one’s own beliefs as sole “correct” theology, could be a temptation for all Christians, but especially those within revivals or renewals. The nature of renewal demands that some portion of the Church be moving in a different stream than the remainder, and the tendency to see oneself in a different light than one sees the others (no matter which group you are in) is a natural byproduct.

The Fall Festivals of God: prophetic rehearsals with relevance for today. Part of the Messianic Foundations series.

In the epistle of Romans, our teacher Paul speaks to the non-Jewish believers reminding them that they have been grafted-in. “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you” (Romans 11:17-18, NAS).

Messianic Foundations
Artwork by Steve Grier © 1997 RBC Ministries. Used by permission.

Much has been said about this “root,” and many theories bantered about as to Paul’s intent. It is not likely that we will achieve consensus in this article, but Paul is clear that the root supports the non-Jewish believer. Biblically, Israel is referred to as an olive tree in Jeremiah 11:15-17 and Hosea 14:6, so the Scriptural precedent indicates that Paul intends the reader to understand the tree to be the believing remnant of Israel. By personal experience and an ever-widening understanding of the Scriptures, this author agrees with Paul, that this root is our ancient Biblical heritage—an inheritance with its origins in faithful Judaism¹.

Theologians discuss “progressive revelation,” and find the pages of the Bible replete with an ongoing, ever expanding and consistent manifestation of the character of God. Such Biblical understanding is often crucial in effective evangelism and apologetics, drawing the plan of the Almighty out like a treasure map for the explorer to find.

By searching through the treasures waiting us in our own Biblical heritage, in this case the Fall Feasts of Leviticus 23, untold riches can be found. Some may have been taught that Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot, are “Jewish” festivals and therefore “dead” in a modern faith expression. If the observance of these appointed times were strictly ethnic, such teaching would certainly be true and any application empty legalism. But in a strictly Biblical context, the only context we should concern ourselves with, and the heritage that is ours to claim, this wholesale rejection of the feast days is both unfair and unscriptural. It denies believers of every denominational creed their own God-given heritage.

The LORD spoke again to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD’S appointed times which you shall proclaim …” (Lev 23:1, 2).

God calls them His appointed times. At no point does the Architect of our faith refer to them as the “Feast of Israel,” or the “Jewish High Holy days.” To do so takes them out of Scriptural context, improperly transfers them into an ethnic context, and in our innocence creates a sense of distance that makes us feel they have no place in our Christian faith. This steals the treasures that God intended for His faithful remnant to have; it robs them of their inheritance, and hinders our understanding of the Bible.

Paul Cain and R. T. Kendall, The Word and the Spirit: Reclaiming Your Covenant with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God (Eastbourne, E. Sussex: Kingsway Publications, 1996; Orlando, Florida: Creation House, 1998), xviii + 87 pages, ISBN 9780884195443.

In 1992, Paul Cain and R.T. Kendall together gave six addresses at the Wembley Conference Center in London. This book is a compilation of those messages, reissuing the perennial challenge for the Church to “marry” the Word and the Spirit. I say “perennial” because since the time of Tertullian and Irenaeus, there has been a tendency toward either Word-Christianity or Spirit-Christianity. It seems that either one or the other of these “two hands of the Father” have held prominence, but never quite both at once.

The history of the church has seen the pendulum swing to and fro from dry institutionalism on one side—with its hierarchy, authoritarianism, and hyper-orthodoxy—to radical and subjective Spirit movements on the other side. The balance of Word and Spirit has been a strikingly elusive goal and ideal for those following the Christian way. All the more importantly then, the authors insist, that such a balance should be sought today.

To that end, Cain and Kendall released these sermons as words of exhortation to the contemporary Church and in anticipation of the next—perhaps even final—move of God in and through the Church. Clearly, as the rhetoric of the book indicates, their message is addressed primarily to Pentecostals, charismatics, and those in the broad range of Third Wave and other renewal and prophetic movements. These are the individuals and groups who are most susceptible to either a neglect of the Word, or a subordination of the Word to the Spirit. It is for this reason that Kendall—whose prior fame has been as a Biblical expositor—and Cain both emphasize the importance of returning to the Word, re-emphasizing the Word, or being further grounded in Scripture. Their objective, however, is not only to call attention to the Word, but to present the conjunction of Word and Spirit as an imperative for Christians. With this in mind the authors include practical suggestions as to how this remarriage of Word and Spirit can be enabled, such as discussions of “how to obtain power” (Kendall, pp. 12-17), and the elements of Spirit-filled living (Cain, Ch. 3). Kendall’s “The Preaching of the Word and the Spirit” (Ch. 4) also provides explicit guidance on how to allow the sermon to be a medium for the Spirit’s presence and activity rather than for the preacher’s.

As I read through The Word and the Spirit, however, I could not help but think that the authors are aware not only of the gargantuan task confronting the Church on this matter, but also of its truly revolutionary implications. Let me make a few brief comments on that task in order to lead into a look at these implications.

Lewis Smedes, Standing on the Promises (Thomas Nelson, 1998), 196 pages, ISBN 9780785270089.

I have liked Lewis Smedes for the past 15 years or so. I only know him through his books but that’s enough for me. The first Smedes’ book I read way back those years ago was on forgiving and through that book I forgave a man who I thought had violated me in the business world. I found that by adopting and following what Smedes wrote about forgiving permitted me to become the head and no longer the tail, a delightful turn of events I assure you.

With that experience in mind, I have continued to read much of what Smedes has written over the intervening years and when I saw Standing on the Promises in the Fuller Seminary bookstore, I took one home. Smedes has the ability to say a great deal in a few words so his books are not overwhelming in their size.

I soon found myself thinking about Hope in ways that I had never thought to think until Smedes led me there. His treatise is presented in three points with each point divided into ten short subsets, each with a point of its own.

His entry view of hope prescribed the elements of hope and what was needed for hope to exist. We need life for hope and hope for life. From there he teaches how to prioritize our hopes and finally how to see the hand of God in making our hopes reality or closing the door on what was never to be. As an example of this closure, our daughter lost her husband to cancer early this year. We had all prayed and hoped for five years that he would conquer this terrible disease. He did not and that hope is gone.

As I worked my way through the book I thought of my own hopes, intimate personal things like hoping that my 20 year long obligation to pay alimony to my former wife would end, that my 21 year old grandson would be saved and that I could find a publisher in the religious marketplace. I have other hopes too—I would like to have several million dollars at my disposal and I hope that happens soon—but not all of my hopes have the same intensity.

Smedes shares his hopes as the book winds its way to its end. He is ten years older than I and his hopes relate to his health and that of his wife. His hopes are grander and much more noble than mine. He hopes for a world that rises above the behavior and strife that ours faces each day. I enjoyed the hope he expressed for the future of our world.

Eugene H. Peterson, “Eat This Book: The Holy Community at Table with Holy Scripture,” Theology Today (April 1999), pages 5-17.

Does the Bible really have anything to say to us today? If so, how do we find out what it says? Eugene Peterson—best known for his earthy translation of the Scriptures, The Message—offers a fresh challenge to take the Bible as the singular rule for living the Christian life. He challenges Christians to feed on the Word of God wherein our spiritual lives are formed as the Holy Spirit makes the Word real to us.

Eugene Peterson

This former pastor and a retired professor of Regent College (Vancouver) makes his point eloquently, so much so that nearly every paragraph has a statement so quotable one could fill an office with plaques. “Christians feed on Scripture. Holy Scripture nurtures the Holy Community as food nurtures the human body” (p. 6). “God does not put us in charge of forming our personal spiritualities. We grow in accordance with the revealed Word implanted in us by the Spirit” (p. 5). “It is the very nature of language to form rather than inform. When language is personal, which it is at its best, it reveals; and revelation is always formative—we don’t know more, we become more.” (p. 7). “Exegesis is foundational to Christian spirituality.” (p. 9). “Exegesis is loving God enough to stop and listen carefully.” (p. 10). “Scripture is the revelation of a world that is vast, far larger than the sin-stunted, self-constricted world that we construct for ourselves out of a garage-sale assemblage of texts” (p. 12).

For us to feed on Scripture, Peterson says, we must understand that Scripture is God’s revelation to us. Scripture is our text and our form. This revelation is not just informational but formational. The Word must not be merely studied technically but it must be assimilated into our very beings. Likewise, the “meta-narrative” of Scripture is the story about Jesus and the form for us to follow Him.

Peterson’s challenge to return to reading and doing the Word is one to be heeded. If God’s revelation of Himself to us is not our only basis of trust and life, then we will have a flawed and ultimately destructive manner of life. In an absolute sense, only God’s revelation of Himself is true. Therefore, if we remake the Scriptures to fit our preconceived ideas, is it any wonder that we will only end up deceiving ourselves and others?

Books and Culture is a periodical published by the Christianity Today Inc. group that keeps watch on what is taking place in American secular and religious culture by commentating on what is being published in books. The September/October issue’s “Science Pages” focuses on the debate regarding evolution and the new creationism. The editors say, “One of the purposes of ‘The Science Pages’ is to correct the notion that to talk about ‘science’ is to talk about Darwinian evolution, pro or con. At the same time, one can hardly give sustained attention to science without addressing, on occasion, the various Darwinian claims that provide the interpretive framework for work in so many fields today (including much of the work being done by scientists who are also Christians)” (p. 30).

This issue’s “Science Pages” allows two opponents in this debate the opportunity to critique each other’s recent work and respond in their defense. The book Tower of Babel: The Evidence Against the New Creationism (MIT Press, 1999) by Robert Pennock is a polemic against the Intelligent Design movement. Phillip Johnson was given the opportunity to respond to Pennock’s book in Books and Culture, with a rejoinder from Pennock.

Phillip Johnson is a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, and has written a number of books presenting and defending the Intelligent Design movement. Johnson says this about Pennock’s book, “Here is where the debate stands, as I see it. The IDM [Intelligent Design Movement] aims to transform the evolution/creation debate by focusing on the main issue and pushing the details to the background. The main issue is the scientific naturalist claim that the origin and development of life can be explained employing only unintelligent natural causes like chance, chemical laws, and natural selection. This claim is as important for philosophy and theology as it is for science. The neo-Darwinian theory was discovered by a science that was committed a priori to methodological naturalism, the principle that research should always be guided by a commitment to discover strictly natural causes for all phenomena. Most educated people today have been taught to regard the theory as unassailably confirmed by objective scientific testing. Many think that it follows that the success of the theory provides a powerful justification for basing research in all fields, including even biblical studies, on methodological naturalism. Darwinism (i.e., naturalistic evolution) is thus not just a scientific theory but a creation story so culturally dominant that it is even protected by judge-made law from criticism in the public schools” (p. 30).

Pennock fires back, “Readers should thus beware when Johnson says IDCs [Intelligent Design Creationists] want to resolve issues by ‘unbiased scientific testing,’ for theirs is not science as ordinarily understood, but rather something that would be taught in a special ‘department of theological science.’ The revolutionary ‘theory of knowledge’ that this yet-to-be-developed theistic science will follow rests on what Johnson describes in Reason in the Balance as ‘the essential, bedrock position of Christian theism about creation,’ namely, the opening lines of the Gospel of John (1:1–3). According to Johnson, when the Bible says that in the beginning was ‘the Word,’ it speaks of ‘information,’ and ‘plainly says that creation was by a force that was (and is) intelligent and personal.’ However, knowledgeable readers will recognize that IDCs’ references to complexity and information theory are no more than designer window dressing on a basic God-of-the-gaps argument” (p. 32).

Jim Dettmann in June 2005.

The Pneuma Foundation has come into being for the purpose of providing Biblical resources and information with the intent of expounding and defending the work of God the Holy Spirit and His gifts. These resources are for ministers and lay workers. We want to help local churches equip the saints and defend the Pentecostal/charismatic movement as having a great deal to contribute to the body of Christ.

Pentecostals and charismatics have caused a resurgence in the gifts of the Spirit for today. This movement has brought to the fore-front such issues as divine healing, power confrontations with he kingdom of darkness, the prayer of faith, New Testament prophecy, praying in tongues, the five-fold ministry, and the ministry of the miraculous. These issues are often taught without a strong Biblical foundation. This has led to error, extremes, and a weakened witness to other evangelicals. Therefore, our purpose is to help provide a balanced, non-denominational, Scriptural foundation for the gifts of the Spirit. We also desire to promote dialogue with non-charismatic evangelicals in the hopes of bringing us together in greater unity and practice.

The Pneuma Review, our quarterly journal, is designed along with other resources to assist in this vision.

James M. Dettmann President, Pneuma Foundation  

Thanks to you, Pneuma Foundation members and friends, for assisting us financially in seeing this vision become a reality.

“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent; the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not is strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” ( Romans 13:11-14 NKJV)

Paul emphasizes to the believers at Rome that they must have a high standard of moral conduct. The reason: Jesus is coming soon. Paul lived with the view and hope of the soon return of the Lord. He challenges his readers to do the same.

I have been thinking about what Paul was saying to believers in AD 56, and asking myself what would he would be saying today, 1,944 years later? Here we are at the dawn of a new millenium. Christ’s coming is 1,944 years closer than it was in AD 56. I believe he would be looking at the spiritual sleepiness that is present in many believers and congregations, even many ministers of the gospel.

We need to cultivate an appropriate view of awakeness. The soldier who sleeps at his post will bring his own death. He could be court martialed, or if the enemy attacked while he was sleeping he would be killed. In ancient Rome, a soldier who slept on duty would be executed on the spot. We praise God that Jesus already took that judgement for us. We do not have to live in fear of failure. We are in a battle, however. If we desire to be effective, we must be spiritually awake.

The attack that seems to be the most severe for us is the attack that Satan makes on the mind. He wants to lure us asleep. When our mind gets dull then works of darkness will prey upon us. When we have not gotten the proper amount of rest, we become targets of giving into temptations.

So then, Paul gives us the antidote. “Let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12 NKJV). The way we dispel the darkness in a room is to turn the light switch on. The darkness disappears when the light comes on. Paul is saying to us, put on the “armor of light” to “cast off the works of darkness.” Putting on the armor is putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ will make us sensitive to guarding the appetites of the flesh. The command is not to make any provision for the flesh. If we are submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, how are we going to be comfortable making provision (fostering sensual desires) for the flesh?