Health warning: this post refers to real-life cessationists and charismatics, and does not implicate any of the blogging cessationists in its sweeping generalisations! I can only speak from conversations I've had with cessationists I know....I was asked this question yesterday by a good friend, and it made me think. I know that for many of us knowing where we stand on these issues directly influences our choice of church, and even the nature of our relationship with God. But for a moment the amount of time and energy which has been invested into the debate seemed futile. Why do we pursue conversation on such issue when neither side has any intention of changing their viewpoint on the issue?
Cessationism is like a recessive gene. I would accept it as true if
1) I felt that's what scripture teaches, and
2) It was backed up by my experience
Please don't hear what I'm
not saying. I'm not saying that our theology should be dictated to by our excperience. But surely, if the cessationists are right then our experience of the Spirit would prove nothing. But the fact that people receive spiritual gifts backs up (
not proves) the argument that the Spirit is indeed still at work today, giving gifts in the same way as he did for the early church. If cessationists are right, why does this happen? But the very factg that it does genuinely happen surely discredits the cessationist argument? Just like a brown-eye gene overrides a blue-eye one?
I was delighted to find out when I returned to uni in September that a christian friend of mine had received the gift of tongues. What I love about her story is that she was just praying in her room, and suddenly she started speaking in tongues rather than English! This was someone who didn't really know much about how the Holy Spirit worked today, and most definitely wasn't asking for this gift. Ironically, she would probably more naturally fallen on the cessationist side of the argument! Personally I find this hilarious.
So since then she has been finding out more about this stuff as she had never really been taught about the gifts or how they might function in church life. She's spoken with the leaders of her "the-Spirit-may-do-stuff-today-but-we-certainly-don't-expect-it-here" church. They duly told her that although some people may experience what she has, that such an experience shouldn't be elevated to the level of salvation. I agree. But the sense was that even mentioning the work of the Holy Spirit in church on a Sunday would be committing this heinous heresy!
I have to say this is a brand of cessationism which is most contemptable. If you're going to be a cessationist, put everyone's minds at rest and throw the charismatics out of your church. But if you're going to acknowledge the gifts of the Spirit at work today as a legitimate and valid part of church life, and concede that the Bible allows (dare I say instructs?) us to expect them, why would you be so apathetic about the whole thing? Either go for it, or don't. But don;t try and find some meet-you-in-the-middle answer to fob off both sides.
Again, we come back to the fact that it is the cessationists who are letting their experience dictate their theology and/or practice. Or, at least the ones I know. A reformed charismatic is a charismatic because of what scripture says first, and this is usually (although not always straight away) followed up by experience, as a confirmation (
not proof). There is a difference. There was a preceding generation who experienced the gifts of the Spirit before gaining a "sound" theology on them. But for my generation it is the other way round. I eagerly desire these gifts because scriptures tell me to, and my experience backs up, rather than dictates, my theology.
If you think about it, assuming God does want to change the expression of christianity in our nation and the nations, there was no other way it could have worked. He could have simply opened a man's eyes to the truth about these gifts and then have him seek them, but how like God to shame those who are ignorant/doubters by pouring these gifts out on them, and then pointing them back to scripture to find out what was happening! I love it!
So, in conclusion, my plea to cessationists and practising cessationists is this: decide what you believe from scripture first, then seek God to back up His Word with power, which he loves to do. My prayer though, is that whatever you settle on, that God would pour out the gifts of His Spirit on you anyway! May you suddenly burst forth in tongues in your prayer time, charismatic or not!!!
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