ON THIS PAGE Is God still speaking to His church through Direct Revelation?
Are Prophets still operational in the body of Christ today?
Are Miracles still occurring in the church?
Do people still speak in Tongues? Introduction The body of Christ is very divided on these issues with the vast majority (those who have given it any thought at all) taking completely contrasting sides. The ever-growing Charismatic movement (a twentieth-century phenomenon) emphasizes the baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, prophecy, the gift of healing and on ‘personal experience’, all of which are contributing factors to the movement’s popularity. Many orthodox Christians, on the other hand, believe that tongues, prophecy and faith healing ceased after the completion of the New Testament canon. However while it is true that growth and popularity cannot be used as a test for truth-claims, because various cults (e.g., Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons) and false religions (e.g., Islam, Eastern mysticism) have also witnessed great popularity and expansion, it is equally true that orthodox Christianity’s view that once the Early Church was established the sign gifts ceased because they were no longer needed is indefensible. [Although some Cessationists consider that the miraculous does sometimes appear in unreached areas, as an aid to spreading the Gospel]. Cessationists largely use 1Corinthians 13:10 and Ephesians 2:19-22 to ‘prove’ that the gifts were foundational and temporary but neither verse can be construed to absolutely establish their standpoint. Cessationists see God as working only through the structures set in place by the early church and that He no longer directly intervenes in our affairs . This is a far cry from the Biblical image of a living God, who not only upholds the world day by day through his sovereign power, but who also listens to the prayers of his people, and works all things for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28). [TOP OF PAGE] Prophecy In both the Old and New Testaments, prophecy is a miraculous gift involving the direct reception of revelatory information from God, which separates it from other forms of proclamation and preaching. The prophet does not declare what he has taken from tradition or what he has thought up himself or what he imagines to be true. He does not speak ‘merely human words’ that could be ‘mistaken’ or accepted and rejected by the congregation on a "take it or leave it" basis. He declares what has been revealed to him and could not be known through ordinary human means. The prophet was the spokesperson for the Lord and had several primary functions in both Old and New Testament. To proclaim or announce the will of God to the people Prediction of future events
(It is questionable as to whether revelation, whether it involved immediate guidance to the church or other canonical matter, can be considered to be an office of a prophet, but this is an irrelevant issue at the moment). However to equate prophecy with mere comfort, admonishment, or encouragement is erroneous and springs from a elemental misunderstanding of 1Corinthians 14:3 .. "one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation." However, Paul, in this verse was not defining prophesy but saying that prophecy results in edification, exhortation, and encouragement and had an edifying effect on the whole group, including the speaker (1 Cor. 14:4). God is very clear when He defined the office of a prophet in Holy Writ. Deuteronomy 18:20-22 tells us that a true prophet speaks the very words of God and ONLY what God has commanded him to speak. The prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?”— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him (Deut. 18:20-22).
A prophet must speak in the name of the true God and whatever the prophet prophecies must come to pass with 100% accuracy or the be condemned to death by stoning. What gave the Old Testament prophets unique authority was the fact that they made specific unambiguous statements, which truly came to pass. Therefore the only test of someone claiming to have the gift of prophecy is whether that prophecy comes true or not. The test of a prophet is not whether he is sometimes right but whether he is ever wrong. If the prophet never gives a specific prophecy which can be objectively tested, we have absolutely no reason to believe, leave alone fear, that so called “prophet.” In the modern church there are literally thousands of so called prophets who constantly blurt out non-specific prophecies, which cannot be tested objectively and could be made up by any Christian on the spot. Additionally there are well-advertised and well-known self-proclaimed ‘prophets’ who make many specific prophecies that are never tested, some of which are even made on national T.V. It is a sad reflection on the church when Christians have become so used to hearing these people’s ‘thus saith the Lord’ that it seems by the time the next service rolls around everyone has totally forgotten what was said the week, or even the day before. These false prophets not only do untold harm to God's people but also make the church look very foolish in the eyes of unbelievers. (See False Prophets) However in an effort to refute the claims of false prophets we are in danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Much has been said about prophecy having ceased after the death of the apostles and the close of the canon... One argument centers around I Corinthians 13:8-12 where Paul says: “Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known”.
Everyone agrees that 1 Corinthians 13:10 indicates that gifts such as prophecy, tongues, and knowledge are temporary, but are in complete disagreement as to when the gifts cease. The crux of the argument revolves around the word “perfect”. But is difficult to ‘prove’ the cessation of the gifts by taking the word perfect (teleion) to refer to a completion of the canon. (Where teleion is taken as meaning "mature" or "complete", as in the church reaching a level of maturity and in no need of special gifts). That idea is totally unconnected to the context. In a number of contexts the Greek words related to teleion, such as telos and teleo are used in relation to the second coming of Christ. Therefore it is entirely more plausible to understand teleion in V. 10 as referring to the Second Coming. Some argue that the second view ("maturity") is the more viable.. Why? Because it backs their point of view perhaps? A second argument is based on Ephesians 2:19-22 to ‘prove’ that the office of prophet was foundational and temporary; “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit”.
Without going into too many details the core of the cessation case is that The offices of apostles and prophets were necessary for the church before the completion of the canon. After the foundation of the church was laid on the apostles and prophets (with Christ being the chief cornerstone) the gifts were no longer essential and were done away with.
It is said that since Paul was referring to the universal church in Ephesians 2:20 and the apostles and prophets laid the church's foundation by receiving and transmitting revelation the strong implication is that Once the church was established, the gift would be discontinued That the building illustration clearly ‘seems’ to indicate the idea of the cessation of such gifts.
However these conclusions are assumptions, educated assumptions maybe, but still assumptions. No one abhors the appalling antics of the false prophets more than I do. I think they are an abomination to the Lord and a blot on His name. It is enough to cause me to shudder when I think of what their end will be in the hands of an exceedingly angry God. (Apparently they haven’t given that much thought). It is true that with all the hoopla that surrounds self proclaimed ‘prophets’ and (in some cases) their screaming and jumping around on national television, one is inclined to take a very dim view of their prophecies that never come true.. But all the arguments that the gift of prophecy no longer exist, which are based on ‘indications’, ‘assumptions’, and ‘what seems to be the case’ are totally negated if one comes across one single honest to goodness, genuine prophet (spokesperson) of the Lord. I have not met just one of these people, but two, neither of whom called themselves a prophet. It is highly unlikely that either of them even thought of themselves as such. Both their messages were very specific to the situation I found myself in, both were delivered with quiet confidence, both were preceded by the statement ... ‘The Lord said to tell you”, and both incidents happened in a city far away from home where neither they nor almost anyone else knew me. The first man certainly had never seen me before therefore what he said to me was something he could not have possibly have known through any human agency. The second incident (in the same city) came about through the pastor of the church I had temporarily attended. In this case neither the pastor nor I really understood what the Lord was talking about and I even thought (at the time) that he must have been mistaken, as circumstances seemed to indicate exactly the opposite of what he said. I soon found out differently. For details see Ryfka’s Miracle and I Will Be Your Support in the ‘Who We Are’ section of the site. Are there still prophets of the Lord alive today. Yes! There are. Testing prophecy A word of wisdom from Gregory Koukl of ‘Stand To Reason Ministries’. (Excerpted from Do Not Despise Prophecy, But...) …. when a prophecy is given, if we are to test prophecies, what that means is, at least minimally, that you have got to write the prophecy down and pray about it a little bit. How many churches do you know that give prophecies regularly that have a log of the prophetic words uttered in their services--or the alleged prophetic words--so that they can pray about them and test them to see if they are from God, or if it is prophetic in a futuristic sense, to wait and see if it actually comes true? I have never heard of a single church that did that. I wonder why they don't do it….. …. I think we should also put the name of the person who gave the prophecy in parenthesis at the end of the prophecy. Put down their address and phone number, too. Most people don't even know whether a prophecy is fulfilled because they don't write it down; they just forget about it next week because it doesn't matter what God says in a congregation from week to week the way most people treat prophecy. It doesn't really matter. We just say, Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Glory. Then everybody forgets about it. If we wrote it down we wouldn't forget about it, and six months later we would find out that it was bogus. [TOP OF PAGE]
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Miracles Again it is a large group of Charismatics and Evangelists that have done more than their fair share to discredit Christianity as a whole and the gifts of the Spirit in particular. The miracles alleged to have taken place by modern ‘faith healers’ bear no resemblance to the healing miracles in the Bible which took place in public places in front of ‘unbelievers’, There were no ‘healing services’ and no need for the ‘right atmosphere’. Christ and the apostles healed people right out on the street and healed people who were generally known to be suffering from illness. Peter healed a man lame from birth who had to be carried to the gate of the temple so he could beg alms. Afterward, the people “knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what happened to him” (Acts. 3:10). Christ healed a man who couldn’t walk for thirty-eight years, who lay daily by the pool of Bethesda (John. 5:2-15). Christ restored a man’s hand that was lifeless and withered; the “hand was restored as whole as the other” right in front of Christ’s enemies (Luke. 6:10). They could not reject the miracle. On another occasion, Jesus restored a man’s ear that had been cut off, in front of the chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders, (Luke. 22:51-52). Jesus and the apostles healed many people with a word or touch (e.g., Mt. 8:6-7; Ac. 9:32-35). They healed instantaneously (Matt. 8:13; Mark 5:29; Acts 3:2-8). They healed totally, not partially (John 9:7; Ac. 9:34). They were able to heal everyone who believed (Luke 4:40; Acts 5:12-16; 28:9). They were able to heal serious organic disease, crippled bodies and birth defects (Luke. 6:6, 17; John 9:7; Acts 3:6-8; 5:16; 8:7). They cast out demons (Luke 13:32; 10:17; Acts 10:38) and raised the dead (Luke 7:11-16; Mark 5:22-24, 35-43; John. 11:43-44; Acts 9:26-42; 20:9-12). When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the miracle was seen by “many of the Jews” who then “believed on him”. In Luke 7 Jesus literally interrupted a funeral procession and raised the son of a widow who was obviously already dead. In Mark 5 He raised the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue. Paul raised the young man Eutychus who had fallen out of a window and died (Acts 20:9-12). The Apostle Peter raised the widow Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-42). All these were very public miracles. One has to wonder why the modern faith healers never heal anyone in a mall or a public library, but carefully set the stage (and the atmosphere) with much ‘Rah-rah’ to get the level of hype up, before the ‘healings’ can actually take place. It always has to be in a controlled environment and according to the ‘healer’s’ schedule. Why? Modern faith healers do not do what Christ and the apostles did and perform a public healing on someone that everyone knows is crippled? Nor have they ever openly walked up to a coffin at a funeral and simply spoken words of life to the dead. (There have been stories on Christian television shows of those who supposedly died and then came back to life, but these stories cannot be verified.) Most, if not all, ‘faith-healers’ use the ‘word of knowledge’ where they will stand on stage and say that there is someone in the back of the auditorium who has been suffering from some form of ‘breathing problems’. They will then tell the person to come forward and/or ‘receive’ their miracle. There are two main problems with this ‘technique’. 1) There is not a shred of evidence to show that any of the miracles that took place in the Bible were based on a ‘word of knowledge’. 2) The ‘word of knowledge’ is very non-specific. What are the odds that in an auditorium, that holds thousands of people, there will not be at least one with ‘breathing problems’ of one kind of another. However I would not go as far as to say that a miracle never takes place at one of these ‘healing services’, but for the most part the ‘faith healers’ have very slipshod and often un-Biblical theology and teach very heretical doctrines. Many of them have made much money from their “healing crusades’ and live lavish life-styles. It is impossible that the Lord would grant men such as these real gifts of the Spirit. The Spirit of truth does not authenticate heretics, which leads one to wonder how the occasional ‘miracle’ (whether real or imagined) happens. I do not doubt for a moment that Satan is quite capable of a few miracles of his own. It would serve his purpose very well to dole out the occasional highly publicized healing just to keep the ball rolling. After all it does ‘prove’ that the faith healer is ‘genuine’ and a real ‘man of God’, therefore any heresy that comes out of his mouth is accepted as gospel truth. An excellent strategy (from Satan’s point of view). See Deut 13:2 and Matthew 24:24. On the other hand for someone to state (as B.B. Warfield did) that they have made a historical study of miracles and conclude that they ceased after the death of the apostles is absurd. He seems to have used Catholic superstition as one base for this conclusion, which is illogical. Not everyone who has experienced a miracle has placed a Eucharist on their forehead or touched a piece of the ‘actual cross’. Fundamentalists claim on the one hand that miracles have ceased, yet on the other hand they say that they believe that Jesus can and does heal people, by which they often mean healing by Supernatural means. . . Supernatural healing called miracles. Biblical History Of Miracles ….Some authors have suggested that the biblical picture is one of clusters of miracles, centered around the times of Moses, the prophets, and the first and second coming of Christ. However, we should note that this clustering applies to recorded miracles, and it would be wrong to conclude from this that miracles did not occur during those periods about which the Bible is largely silent. The testimony of the prophet Jeremiah is interesting in this regard: You performed miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt and have continued them to this day, both in Israel and among all mankind, and have gained the renown that is still yours. (Jer 32:20).
Note that Jeremiah does not limit God's working of miracles to a specific time or a specific people. The Hebrew words `ad hayôm hazzeh indicate that miracles took place right up to the time of the prophet's writing. We have hints of God's miraculous works in the time of the judges and the kings, not only within Israel, but also in the wider world. Thus non-Israelites, like Eliphaz, Job, and Nebuchadnezzar, praise God for his miracles (Job 5:9; 9:10; Dan. 4:2). While the Scriptures are in the main concerned with those miracles that were a part of the revealed salvation history, there appears to be no good reason to limit God's wondrous works to the specific periods or places dealt with in the Scriptures…. (Willem Berends. ‘Cessationism’) It certainly seems that the gift of miracles, in the sense of being able to command miracles to happen, is no longer present in the church, nor is there occurrence in today’s world that even remotely resembles the kind of “signs” that are common to the New Testament record. But there is little doubt that God can and does use human agents to do wondrous works in extraordinary circumstances. (See Miracles)
[TOP OF PAGE] Direct Revelation Or what has been called a ‘hotline to God’. As with both the issues discussed above this one also has spawned two completely conflicting viewpoints. It is exceedingly common to hear ‘Jesus told me to” do this or that, and “The Holy Spirit led me to….”. Unfortunately great deceptions have occurred as many people have been ‘led’ to do something that is totally unbiblical such as leave their wives or get a divorce. The leading of the Holy Spirit can never contradict clear Bible principles and any one who believes that their circumstances are ‘special’ is vastly deluded. On the other hand the biblical image of a living God who hears the prayers of His people and cares about them does not support the view that with the establishment of the early church, God the Father and God the Son went into temporary retirement, waiting for the time for the Son to come back to earth. Again it is forgotten that it was not everyone in ancient Israel who directly heard from God. The nation obeyed the voice of God through the few prophets who had heard directly from Him. While the vast majority of people were tootling off to the temple with their turtledoves, Isaiah saw the Lord “high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple”. (Isaiah 6.) Again many orthodox Christians are attempting to put God in a box and reject any form of communication between Him and ordinary man, while many Evangelicals and Charismatics give us the impression that they have lengthy conversations with Him on a regular basis, a privilege that wasn’t granted to a single person in the Bible, except the Son of man. Are we to believe that the Lord walks into a room and says “Hey! Jesse! (According to Jesse Duplantis), yet the prophet Isaiah said “Woe is me for I have seen the Lord” and Daniel, a man greatly beloved, fell on his face at the sight of an angel. It is well to remember that the Lord only spoke directly to a very few select people, for His own purposes, but speak He did and still does. [TOP OF PAGE] Tongues The argument for and against tongues is basically the same as the argument for and against the other sign gifts. A large number of Charismatics and Pentecostals have taken a completely lop-sided view of speaking in tongues with the Fundamentalists claiming that no one speaks in Tongues today. For an in-depth look at this issue please refer to the section on Tongues. However there is no doubt that Tongues is still a sign to unbelievers (1 Cor. 14:22), just as on the day of Pentecost. Sue Bohlin of Probe Ministries relates the following two accounts of Tongues being used by the Lord to accomplish His purpose. “For instance, I know a lady whose sister had cerebral palsy, which has impacted her ability to speak clearly. One day this (second) lady found herself on her feet in church speaking forth something she didn't understand. Fluidly, without any of the problems that CP caused when she normally spoke, God bypassed her brain damage to speak from her spirit through her lips. There was no public interpretation of what she said (which I believe is unscriptural--1 Cor. 14:27), but afterwards a woman came up to her and said, "Did you know you were speaking Italian? You were addressing my father, who was sitting next to me, and you told him he only had two years left before he dies, and he needed to trust Christ. He was profoundly shaken by it." Interestingly, about two years later, this man's father came up to the lady who had spoken in tongues and said, "My dad died recently, but he became a Christian, and it was because of what you said." “I recently came across the story of a missionary who prayed with a lady she had met, but because she didn't know the language well enough, she said "I'm going to pray in English." When she finished praying, the other lady said, "You said you were going to pray in English, but you were praying in my language!" The missionary wasn't aware of anything being different as she prayed; it had to be a supernatural work of God.”
She then adds “People can talk themselves into speaking gibberish that is nothing more than flesh-generated nonsense. It seems to me that in the presence of true tongues, there is a sense of the holiness and glory of God among those who speak them, those who interpret them, and those who hear. I used to believe that tongues weren't for today, until I kept coming across evidence that God is still pouring Himself out through them. It's just not every time someone stands up and speaks in an unfamiliar language.” [TOP OF PAGE]
Conclusion Many cessationists say that the evidence demands the view that the New Testament prophetic gift ceased its operation very early in the history of the church. That although no one single argument alone demonstrates this, the combined weight of the total evidence decisively points to this conclusion. They add that the Body Of Christ should soundly reject any and all claims to prophecy and other ‘sign gifts’. A larger portion of the Fundamentalist argument is based on what other Christian writers have said. (Men such as Calvin, William Perkins, George Gillespie etc). However it is far from wise to refer to the wisdom of very fallible man to prove a point. The ‘evidence’ presented from Scripture itself is far from convincing and none of the quoted verses proves their case. On the other hand the flamboyant claims of the Charismatics are beyond tolerance and have succeeded in leading Christians to seek the ‘gifts’ rather than the ‘Giver’ and has probably already done untold harm to the people of God. The Truth lies in between the two camps. | 
Index To Section 8B... 
