“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” Matt. 23: 13.

Finalizing our 3-part series on the ‘Dispensation of Christ”, we’ll focus our attention on the catastrophic error of Cessationism. Cessationism, that presumptive scientific theorem cum heresy, fits into the dispensation discussion because if it were true it would create yet another dispensation, that being, as it is errantly termed, the “Apostolic age”.

Cessationists, as the name implies, believe that the manifestation of the supernatural acts of the Spirit of God in the church, specifically the miraculous (sign) gifts of the Spirit, “ceased” with the passing the the twelve original apostles. Their primary evidence for such an assertion lies in the “scientific observation” of the absence of any significant miraculous phenomena which could be classified as a gift of the Spirit, now or historically, amongst themselves. Of course, this egocentric presumption prompts the following scriptural passages, “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” Matt. 13:58, and “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2) For men shall be… (5) Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:” IITim. 3: 1-5.

However, serving also to reinforce the modern day cessationist’s disbelief in the biblical gifts of the Spirit is the misguided, self-driven (not gift-given) individual who has entirely missed the “gifts of the Spirit” plot altogether. Like Simon the sorcerer who “thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money” (Acts 8: 18-19), or the seven sons of Sceva who spectacularly failed in their attempt to cast out evil spirits (Acts 19: 13-16), there are those today with carnal motivations who ignorantly err or forthrightly counterfeit the true gifts of the Spirit bringing disrepute to these otherwise holy things of God. Of course, these spectacles are the examples that cessationists point to when attempting to justify their own error dismissing the gifts of the Spirit today. Ever in contention, cessationists and “charismaniacs” are opposite sides of the same errant coin.

While appraising the vast body of denominational Christianity today, a lack of belief might not be the first thing that comes to one’s mind, as faith is the core driver and central tenet of the Christian ethic (Heb. 11:6). However, in many if not most christio-religious circles, genuine belief has given way to a pseudo-Christianity: a christian flavored intellectualism, a christio-philosophy, a “christianology”. In this setting the Bible is approached as a legal document or a textbook, but there is no Spirit, no Holy Ghost, no Teacher (Jn. 14:26), and if there is no teacher the students come up with their own answers. Here, participants mentally accede to christian ideals not unlike the Chinese do to Confucianism or Muslims do to Islam, but there’s no Spirit, no power, no Holy Ghost; their “fellowship with the Spirit” is imaginary, an exclusively intellectual enterprise. Cessationism is not a bible doctrine or teaching, it is an errant assertion based on human deductive reasoning and presumption.

In my book “5 Steps to Salvation, a Doctrinal Overview”, I wrote the following, “…easy-believers (cessationists, protestants) do not directly quarrel with clear biblical testimony concerning receiving the Holy Ghost. It would be an unwinnable argument for them, as the sheer volume of scriptures and overall spiritual nature of Christianity does testify to its self-evident truth. In fact, easy-believers agree with these scriptures (about receiving the Holy Ghost), but only in a non-literal, ethereal sense, not as experiential truth. For instance, when Paul says “…the spirit of God dwelleth in you” as he does in ICor. 3:16, or “Christ in you” Col. 1:27, easy believers accept these statements conceptually, not literally as the scriptures do demonstrate.”

(Cont. from the book) “Christio-religious easy-believers, ever dismissing biblical validation (tongues), claim to have received the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, but just how and when this event happens for them is subject to some uncertainty. There is no uncertainty however in the Bible as to when someone receives the Holy Ghost, for when the Spirit of God descends, he voices his arrival…

“For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. (12) To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.” Isa. 28: 11-12, ICor. 14: 21. (End of quote)

When studying the miraculous events performed by Jesus, and others in the New Testament where said phenomena can be classified as a gift, successful performance appears to be reliant on an atmosphere of cooperation demonstrated by faith (Matt. 9:28 “…Believe ye that I am able to do this?”, Mk. 5:36 “…Be not afraid, only believe.”, Mk. 9:23 “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”, “Mk. 16:17 “And these signs shall follow them that believe…”, Lk. 8:50 “…Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.”, Jn. 11:40 “…Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”, Acts 14:9 “perceiving that he had faith to be healed…”, Gal 3:5 “He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?, Jam. 5:15 “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick”, etc.). Conversely, doubt has a diminishing effect on the work of the Spirit (Again, “And he (Jesus) did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” Matt. 13: 58).

Bible readers will know that New Testament contentions with the miraculous demonstration of God’s Spirit started with the religious institutions of the Scribes and Pharisees as Jesus set his countryside on fire (metaphorically speaking) with the power of God. Jesus’ campaign of wonder challenged the Pharisee’s hold on the religious allegiance of the masses, triggering their envy (Matt. 27:18, Mk. 15:10). Just like today, the “established church institution”, firmly under the control of its blind guides, is not fertile ground for the authentic “move” of the Spirit.

As the early church sprang forth, the apostle Paul warned of spiritual subversives who, while donning the mantle of Christian leadership, sought to deceitfully build their own kingdoms…

“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. (30) Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20: 29-30.

The apostle Peter called them “false teachers…

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. (2) And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. (3) And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you:” IIPet. 2: 1-3.

Grievous wolves, perverse things, false prophets, damnable heresies, denying the Lord, etc.; these terms and phrases do not describe a ministry, culture or atmosphere where the Spirit of God, nor his gifts would be functioning. Even Christian lukewarmness prevents the edifying move of God (Rev. 3:16), how much more would christio-religious flavored corruption and debauchery do so.

If the primitive church, founded by the Cornerstone Jesus and established upon the Foundation of the apostles and prophets (Eph. 2:20) endured such an ongoing menace, certainly the church going forward would not be immune to its share of insidious and destructive forces, in fact it would only get worse. At its best God’s church serves as his holy body in the world, bringing him glory while working to retrieve lost humanity, but at its worst, when the wolves prevail, it becomes a hierarchal body-politic feeding lusts for power, wealth, control, and self-aggrandizement, subsequently becoming a factory of false teachings and spurious doctrines.

By the time the first church council of Nicaea rolled around in 325AD, I’m convinced that the true church that Jesus and the apostles founded was nowhere near Nicaea. As such, citing extra-biblical “church” history as an authority for today’s worship is a prescription for trouble and error. Yet, for today’s cessationists, the canons, creeds and decrees generated by the historical catholic (universal, ecumenical) church councils (Nicaea, Constantinople, Lateran, etc.) and so-called church “fathers” (which later established outlandish heresies such as the veneration of Mary and of religious statues, transubstantiation, papal infallibility, celibacy for “priests”, etc.) OVERRIDE the Bible and specifically the book of Acts when it comes to referencing church history for guidance in their churches today. This duplicity exposes the hypocritical heralds of “Sola Scriptura”.

In a previous article I mentioned that most of today’s protestant movement, though recalcitrant, abides as the wayward offspring of its mother, the Roman Catholic Church. Protestantism’s allegiance to, and use of the historic church councils to diminish the truth as set forth in the Bibles book of Acts (and ICorinthians), with specific regard to the manifestation of tongues and the gifts of the Spirit and more importantly the doctrine of salvation, feeds the religious imagination to concoct eisegetic heresies such as cessationism (i.e. “Easy believe-ism”, “Once saved always saved”, etc.), which spring up in that ever fertile field of doubt – human reasoning.

Cessationists, and to a wider extent Protestants, are not the spiritual offspring of Jesus, of Peter, James and John, and of the scriptures, of Pentecost and Paul, but they are the religious, historical, and philosophical descendants of the christio-political church councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, and Ephesus, etc.

Cessationism’s collateral damage

Relegating the Book of Acts to being simply an historical record of a bygone era (the so-called Apostolic age), thus giving it marginal relevance, cessationists cast a shadow on its wider content. This is a calamitous error, as not only does the book of Acts record the miraculous works and gifting of the apostles (and others), but documenting the birth and early days of the church, it contains content essential for salvation.

Not only does the keyholder (Matt. 16: 17-19) and apostle Peter open the door of salvation to the Jews in Acts chapter 2, he does the same for everybody else (gentiles) in Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 8 records significant conversion events in Samaria while Acts chapter 19 clearly demonstrates Paul’s conversion message in Ephesus. From a doctrinal standpoint, these conversion/salvation events (and others) all maintain a consistent pattern to include water baptism in the name of Jesus and the infilling of the Holy Ghost evidenced by speaking in other tongues, the rebirth (Jn. 3: 3-7), the Acts 2:38 salvation schematic. However, Cessationists, being the Spirit-phobic christio-religionists that they are, consign the “signs and wonders” laden book of Acts to the dustbin of ancient history, leap-frogging over it into another dispensation (of Christ), errantly soliciting the the thief-on-the-cross for their salvation doctrine (Lk. 23: 42-43).

GS