For those of you who are new to this, sometime ago Adrian Warnock and I decided to engage in a debate about Cessationism and Charismaticism, which is basically a debate on whether or not certain of the more spectacular gifts are still in existence today.
I started this post and got into it, but basically ran out of time before I posted anything of substance. I wanted to start this with a recap of where we have been and the positions we are taking for anyone who hasn't been following the debate, but by the time I finished the recap I ran out of time. So, I'm going to offer you this recap for now and I'll do my best to post something of substance by the weekend.
Adrian has given the most recent post in the debate and its my turn to reply. There's a couple of reasons I haven't responded to yet. One is that real life has gotten in the way of my blogging a bit, but also I've been sidetracked once I got back to blogging. I've been blogging lately about some other issues that kind of stick in my craw, like postmodernism and things like that which I consider to be real dangers to the church. The fact is that I'm just not angry at, or worried about Adrian and the Charismatics, so I've kind of gotten sidetracked on these things that really bother me. I'm worried about the fringe charismatics, but so is Adrian, and he's not on the fringe. Plus, in my prior posts I kind of shot my wad and felt like I said about all I could say. But, there are some questions and issues Adrian raised in his last post that I do need to respond to. So, apologies to my brother Adrian for not getting back sooner - sorry but I just haven't been aggravated enough toward you to post lately.
Here's the recap on where we've been.
I'm taking the Cessationist position which, contrary to what some may think is not the idea that the Holy Spirit ceased working with the passing of the apostles. It is the position that there were certain gifts which were revelatory in nature and were designed to authenticate the ministry of Jesus and the apostleship of the twelve disciples. With the passing of the apostles and the completion of the canon, those gifts ceased. Most of us cessationists put tongues and prophecy in this category, those are the big two.
Adrian is taking the charismatic position, that those gifts continue and are useful in the church today. Actually, as I say that, Adrian and I really haven't addressed any one gift in particular, although the issue of prophecy has crept into our discussions. What we have really been talking mostly about is the presence of the supernatural and the subjective in the life of the Christian. As we have debated this thing back and forth we have seen that cessationists do acknowledge a place for the supernatural and subjective in the Christian life and the charismatics don't give the subjective a higher place than the Word of God. To be sure, we both have extremists in our own camps, but Adrian sums it up well:
There is no doubt that we have clearly demonstrated two things, just in the nature of this conversation. Firstly not every cessationist denies the validity of any experience of God. Secondly not every charismatic denies the primacy of biblical authority over subjective impressions.
In case you've missed the debate and want to wade through what has gone on before here's a sequence of posts.
Adrian and I started with a discussion the validity of subjective impressions in discerning the will of God. Then he did a post titled: Cessationists and Hearing the Voice of God.
That post turned the course of our debate toward a discussion on cessationism vs. charismaticism and I responded with a post titled: Cessationism and Charismaticism.
On May 12th & 13th, Adrian put up posts titled: What Would C. H. Spurgeon have made of Charismatics? , Matthew Henry and the Cessationist/Charismatic debate. and Martin Lloyd Jones, Hearing from God and the Charismatics.
My next post on the topic, which was again called Cessationism and Charismaticism, was posted on May 17th.
Adrian responded with a post also titled Cessationism and Charismaticism on May 20th. The debate has stood still since then, waiting on my response.
So, that's the sequence if you care to do any catching up, I'll try to get into it this weekend. I know I promised that last weekend, but this time I mean it.
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