Dr Paul Allen

Although it is common for my Calvinist, non-charismatic friends to point to church history in support of their cessationist position, it’s really a mistake for them to do so. A big mistake. Church history actually works against them. The first reason is the most obvious. Reformed cessationists, like me, are in the Protestant, rather than Catholic, camp of the church. That means that we believe that, in some very fundamental ways, much of the church lost its way through history, because of which a massive reformation was needed. Many Reformed Christians even argue that Roman Catholics are not Christians at all, meaning that roughly half of all professing Christians today are de facto disqualified. On what basis, then, does a Reformed cessationist appeal to church history, when so much of that history is rejected from the outset? If the argument is that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit which were normative in New Testament times gradually disappeared from church history, what do these

The clear teaching of the New Testament is that God gives spiritual gifts to the church for the common good of the saints ( 1 Corinthians 12:7) and to empower her mission to evangelize the world (Luke 24:48–49; Acts 4:29–31; 1 Corinthians 14:24–25). The most familiar lists of these gifts are in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4. But the Corinthians list includes the most controversial gifts of the Spirit : healing, miracles, prophecy, tongues and their interpretation (1 Corinthians 12:9–10). And it’s in the context of teaching on these gifts — particularly the two most controversial gifts, prophecy and tongues — that Paul twice tells us to “earnestly desire” them, adding, “especially that [we] may prophesy” (1 Corinthians 12:31; 14:1). He leaves us no room to wiggle out of pursuing uncomfortable gifts. I know that some wonderful, sincere Christians believe that these most controversial gifts did not extend beyond the closing of the New Testament canon. I am not here go