Cessationism?

[Tyler47]

What warrants the belief?

 

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Edited October 7, 2013 by OneLight

[OneLight]

cessation - a temporary or complete stopping; discontinuance: a cessation of hostilities.

 

What belief do you mean?  Are you asking why people cease believing? Or, do you mean Sensationalism?

[kwikphilly]

Blessings to you Emissary!

    I am afraid I do not understand the question either?What warrants the belief in what?And I don't understand why the subject is titled Cessationism.......if you care to elaborate I am sure I would participate!

                                                                                                           With love,in Christ-Kwik

[Guest ninhao]

Cessationism, in Christian theology, is the view that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, such as healing, tongues, and prophetic revelation, pertained to the apostolic era only, served a purpose that was unique to establishing the early church, and passed away before the canon of Scripture was closed (comp. 1 Cor. 13:8-12 with Heb. 2:3-4). It is contrasted with continuationism, which is the view that the miraculous gifts are normative, have not ceased, and are available for the believer today.

 

http://www.theopedia.com/Cessationism

[Guest]

Miracles

 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. John 14:12

 

Never Cease

 

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8

[Tyler47]

Cessationism being the belief that Gods gifts stopped being practiced in the apostolic era..  Im not sure how many ways I can ask the question.  So..  Being someone that belives in Gods Gifts still existing, I guess I dont understand how someone can come to the conclusion that Gods gifts no longer exist.  Does the bible say the gifts of tongues, visions, prophecy, wisdom, among others, only existed until about 100ad?  If so where?  Where do they warrant the belief they dont exist?

[Willa]

When the church loses its first love and no longer performs the works it did in the beginning, it starts to believe in cessationism because it no longer sees the gifts in action. Just a guess.

[Addai]

To the OP

 

I'm not a Cessationist.   But from personal experience its two things.

 

1) Official church teaching.   I was originally taught Cessationism in the Lutheran church that I was catechized in even though as far as I know it was not a historic teaching of Martin Luther.   Saint Augustine in one of his writings speculates that miracles and other supernatural gifts might be waning.   (Perhaps they were only intended to help the early church get its start), but he never proposed a formal doctrine of it.    John Calvin however did.   He found himself debating a Catholic apologist who brought the issue up "that there were no miracles that could be claimed by Protestants" of the day, but Catholics did have various saints that had them therefore that proves that God is on the side of Catholics and not Protestants.   But to that claim, Calvin answered back that Protestants did not have any miracles "because they went away with the death of the last apostle"  (He took Augustine's tenative hypothesis and turned it into a full blown teaching).

 

 

2) Personal experience.   Lots of folks don't see any miracles etc. and this can reinforce the teachings of Cessianism.    I will also add that while I am Charismatic or at least open to that sort of thing.   Not everything that is claimed to be by the Holy Spirit is.   I'm not even talking about demons (though that is an issue), but just things like placebo affects, altered states of consciousness, psychosomatic illness etc.    For a number of years I had my own doubts about the legitimacy of supernatural gifts.   I thought charismatics etc, "read a lot into things" and imagine a lot of things because a lot of the Pentecostals and others I met seemed a bit squirrelly.

Edited October 8, 2013 by Addai

[Tyler47]

I can see believing in the decreasing existance in Gods gifts.  Naturally the more wicked the world gets and the further people grow from God the less you will see of them.  And I can also see imitations or faking prophecy being a possibility.  But to be so close minded as to call anyone that has a vision or tongues a liar, such as John MacArthur, without biblical support just blows my mind.  Not trying to offend anyone and I do apologize if I do in advance. 

[SDAinFLA]

We believe in cessation because we don't see miracles. Why speak in tongues among those that believe? Why do we need miracles to show that Jesus is the Messiah?

Most of us have access to God's Word and more than enough other materials...we don't need someone to perform a miracle to believe in God.

 

However in other countries that may not have the same access that most have (ie Middle East, Africa, Asia) still see miracles. They still speak with other tongues, and people are still healed...etc.

 

Just my thoughts, I haven't done any research to confirm this, it's just what my position is on this currently is, but I'm open to correction.