The When Question (Part 1)
January 15th, 2007
(By Nathan Busenitz)
Last week, I suggested that the continuationist/cessationist debate revolves around two primary questions: the when question (regarding the duration of the miraculous gifts) and the what question (regarding the nature of the miraculous gifts). For the next few days, I’d like to focus on the key texts involved in the when question.
Does the New Testament indicate when the miraculous will cease? And if so, when?
In interacting with this question, I believe that the following six texts (at least) must be addressed. Over the next few days we’ll take a look at these texts and consider their import regarding when the miraculous gifts did/will cease.
Acts 2:14–21: But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. “For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel:
‘AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says,
‘THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND;
AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY,
AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS,
AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS;
EVEN ON MY BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN,
I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT
And they shall prophesy.
‘AND I WILL GRANT WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE
AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BELOW,
BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND VAPOR OF SMOKE.
‘THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS
AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD,
BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME.
‘AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’
1 Cor. 1:4–8: I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Cor. 13:8–13: 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 like a child, think like a child, reason like 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 will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Eph. 2:19–22: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
Eph. 4:11–13: And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Heb. 2:2–4: For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.
If I may mention also Daniel 9:24 ff., which is a prophecy about Jesus and his confirming of the New Covenant (not of some future 7 year Trip). Here, the OT tells us there will be an end, a “sealing up,” of vision and prophecy after Messiah’s time. As Matt. Henry puts it:
“He came to seal up the vision and prophecy, all the prophetical visions of the Old Testament, which had reference to the Messiah. He sealed them up, that is, he accomplished them, answered to them to a tittle; all things that were written in the law, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning the Messiah, were fulfilled in him. Thus he confirmed the truth of them as well as his own mission. He sealed them up, that is, he put an end to that method of God’s discovering his mind and will, and took another course by completing the scripture-canon in the New Testament, which is the more sure word of prophecy than that by vision, 2 Pet. 1:19; Heb. 1:1.”
This is a powerful and oft overlooked cessationist passage.
“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets”
“For all the prophets and the law prophesied UNTIL John.
And if you will receive it, this is Elias, who was to come.
He that has ears to hear, let him hear.” Matt. 11:13-15
I think all camps would agree that the Holy Bible is complete, and we better not add to it.
Does that suggest that God cannot endow some of His saints with these special gifts? I’m not quite sure.
Also 70 A.D. is a significant day of fulfillment. The OT temple is removed, so that not one stone stands. And the NT temple is being built, as you have noted with your Scripture referrence: Eph. 2:19-22.
Eph 4:13: “until [mechri] we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God”
The gifts that are operative “until” this event include both types of gifts. If the “unity of the faith” is still future, does that not imply that all the gifts mentioned continue?
In I Cor. 13:8ff, it says that prophecy and knowledge will cease. It seems that this would be speaking of prophecy and knoweldge in regards to the spiritual gifts. If that is the context in which they are spoken of, it would seem to point to a ceasing after the second coming of Christ. We will not need “supernatural knowledge” of the Holy Spirit because we will “know”. We will not need “prophecy” (the forth-telling of God’s will) because Christ will rule with an iron scepter.
Also, I don’t believe that the reasons for which the gifts were given have ceased. I think they are just as needed in our day as in the days of Acts, if not more. However, as a Pentecostal, I would be the first to admit that EVERY claim of a “genuine manifestation” of the Holy Spirit is NOT genuine.
And finally, I think that if there was a time for the gifts to cease it would be addressed a lot more clearly and definitively.
I am intrigued and look forward to the discussion of these texts.
I apologize for using this comment section for this question. I am looking for Pastor MacArthur’s message(s) on “Why I Love The Church” – which I read on some other blogs that he had posted on his blog. I can’t find it. I first heard him preach on this in the mid 1990’s at Moody Bible Institute (many of my friends said it was the greatest sermon they’d ever heard). I am trying to find it. Is it on here?
Thanks for doing this blog.
Christ’s,
Tim
JSB wrote:
If I may mention also Daniel 9:24 ff., which is a prophecy about Jesus and his confirming of the New Covenant (not of some future 7 year Trip). Here, the OT tells us there will be an end, a “sealing up,” of vision and prophecy after Messiah’s time.
Riley:
This quotation refers to Danials prophecy of the severty weeks.
Dan 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
M.Henry’s quote notwithstanding I think there’s enough ambiguity and controversy about the fulfillment of this scripture that it’s difficult to use it as a proof text one way or the other.
To do so is to plunge into a discussion of various escatological systems way beyond the scope of this forum.
Personally I think the 70 weeks refers primarily to the Jews and Jerusalem. (“upon thy people (Jews)and upon thy holy city (Jerusalem)) And will be completed with a 7 year tribulation period ending with the return of Jesus. That will certainly put an end to many things. As for prophey ceasing or being sealed up in the first century around 70AD. I’m not a preterist so that doesn’t work for me. (Did Jesus come back with every eye seeing him and shining from East to West? Did we miss it somehow?I don’t think so.)
Yours in Christ,
Riley
I really appreciate your systematic and overtly Biblical way of approaching this debate. Too often this debate is filled with platitudes and caricatures of the other side. Cessationists and continuationists alike would do well to note that this question (as all other questions) can be be met with the word of God. There is no need or warrant to stand on other ground.
Tim, Try BIBLEBB.COM. bOB S
Hi Riley,
You said “I think there’s enough ambiguity and controversy about the fulfillment of this scripture that it’s difficult to use it as a proof text one way or the other.”
Why do you think some people find such “ambiguity” so difficult to accept?
There are John MacArthur sermons on 1 Corinthians 13 that I’ve been reading at the Bible Bulletin Board that add to this discussion(Chapter 12 may be helpful, too). Thought I’d share.
http://www.biblebb.com/brefindex/1co.htm
oops, make that first part read 1 Corinthians 13 & 14.
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