Anonymous Asks (351)

“If cessationism is true, then why does God seem to continue to work through Pentecostal churches?”

For anyone unfamiliar with the term, “cessationism” is the teaching that the Holy Spirit of God no longer gives some of the spiritual gifts he gave in the early days of the church, the most comprehensive lists of which may be found in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. Cessationists believe the Lord intended certain gifts only to operate in the churches for a short time until the fall of Jerusalem in AD70, and until the completion of the canon of scripture.

Anyway, you’re asking the right person. I happen to be a cessationist, though I don’t usually use the term. My reasons for believing certain gifts are no longer being given may be found here, here and here.

Seeking the Supernatural

All the gifts the Holy Spirit is apparently no longer giving to new believers have this in common: a prominent supernatural aspect not only in their origin (because all spiritual gifts are by definition supernatural), but also in their manifestation. The gifts of administration or helps may operate without calling attention to themselves. Genuine prophecy, miracles, healing, tongues and other sign gifts cannot. They are spectacles. The Lord intended them to draw eyeballs and produce awe and conviction.

The Pentecostals are not the only denomination that rejects cessationism and whose gatherings are infamous for what I believe are ersatz versions of these first century spectacles (the Charismatic movement, I am always told, is large and growing), but they are certainly the most prominent. This should not surprise us. Excitement draws people like moths to a flame, and Christians are not immune to its attractions. Every once in a while, someone in a local church I am attending will mention the need for a little more enthusiasm, fearful that perhaps we are just a little too staid in our practices. There is no danger of finding Christians too laid back for their own good in Charismatic gatherings.

Logic Requires …

But logic requires we acknowledge that if the doctrine of cessationism accurately reflects the teaching of the New Testament, then Pentecostals are deceived in the belief that the Holy Spirit is producing signs and wonders of various sorts among them. If cessationism is correct, these are not in fact works of the Holy Spirit at all. Some critics speculate they are the deceptions of demons, which we cannot safely rule out. Others conjecture that they are manifestations of mass hysteria, wishful thinking or other psychological quirks for which we can find documentary evidence.

If so, then why does God continue to use Pentecostalism and other Charismatic churches notwithstanding the major doctrinal and practical errors involved? Because it certainly appears he does. Believing you are exercising a nonexistent gift may produce its share of weird side effects, and yet I will never argue that the vast majority of Pentecostals are not indeed my brothers and sisters in Christ. God is at work in their hearts to produce conformity to the character of the Lord Jesus just as he is at work among believers more orthodox in their understanding of the spiritual gifts. Pentecostals who search the scriptures will continue to grow in their faith, and some will ultimately outgrow the false teachings in which they have been raised. I’ve seen it, and I expect to see it again.

The One Who is Not Against Us

We may find the best answer to today’s question in the grace of God observable in many other areas of life: God works through imperfect people, immature people and sometimes even deluded people. He produces godly children through less-than-ideal parents. He brings genuine salvation to men and women through the teaching of charlatans, because the scripture they are misusing to their own financial advantage is the living truth of God. He has ministered to me over the years through people who know the tiniest fraction of what I know about scripture, or whose Christian walks were quite seriously defective in one way or another.

We also find evidence of such Divine generosity in scripture. When the Lord’s disciples wanted to restrain a man they didn’t know from driving out demons in the name of Jesus, the Lord responded, “The one who is not against us is for us.” Observing insincere men proclaiming Christ out of selfish ambition, envy, or rivalry, Paul wrote, “In every way, whether in pretense or truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.”

The Perfect and the Good

The perfect is the enemy of the good. It’s not scripture, but the saying has a sound principle at its core. All churches preach and practice a mixture of truth and error. The mix may be 60/40 or 90/10, but we would be naïve to deny that all denominations and even those outside the denominations are subject to the danger of inaccurately interpreting scripture. The doctrinal and practical errors of the Charismatic movement are big and obvious. The characteristic errors of our own gatherings may not draw so much attention. Yet the Lord works among his failing people notwithstanding our various shortcomings, big and small.

What we need to remember is that God is not working because of our errors, but in spite of them.