A Case for Cessationism

Tim Challies recently blogged the Strange Fire Conference that happened at John MacArthur's church. You can read his synopsis of each session by visiting his blog www.challies.com and searching "Strange Fire."

One session, by Tom Pennington, laid out the case for cessationism. Perhaps you wondering what that word means. It deals with the topic of spiritual gifts. Cessationism means the Spirit no longer gives believers miraculous spiritual gifts (tongues, healing, etc.) as a normative Christian experience as it was for the apostles. Continuationism by contrast is the view that all the miraculous gifts are still given by the Spirit.  Note that neither position argues that God has ceased doing the miraculous. The question is do these miraculous gifts still exist within the church.

Pennington gives 7 biblical arguments for cessationism (rather than continuationism).

1. The unique role of miracles in the Bible
2. The end of the gift of apostleship
3. The foundational nature of the NT apostles and prophets
4. The nature of the miraculous gifts in the NT doesn't seem to match current "manifestations" of them
5. The testimony of church history is that the these gifts ceased
6. The sufficiency of Scripture argues against the subjective and ongoing messages people claim to receive from God today.
7. The NT governed the use of miraculous gifts but the modern exercise often ignores NT regulations on the exercise of such gifts. 

Obviously there is much more substance to each of these points. I encourage you to read Challies helpful (and more detailed) outline.