Debunking the Myths: How Continuationists Misrepresent Cessationism

Criticism of the doctrine of cessationism is hardly a novel phenomenon coming from the charismatic wing of professing Christendom. Yet in recent years, a concerning shift has become increasingly evident. Hostility towards this doctrine has intensified, crossing the line into personal attacks on people who hold to cessationism, and most often by people who misrepresent what cessationists actually believe and teach. Here's just one recent example that I saw on social media earlier today.

This aggressiveness has moved far beyond merely a matter of spirited debate and it reflects a deeper issue that has plagued the Church for centuries. Interestingly, the vast majority of theological heresies that have infiltrated Christian doctrine over the ages have come through the conduit of continuationism. From Montanism in the early church—a movement that claimed new revelation through ecstatic prophecies—to the modern prosperity gospel that often relies on so-called "new revelations" to justify its teachings, the pattern is hard to ignore.

These movements, while seemingly distinct, share a common thread. They rely on the continuationist belief in modern-day "prophecy", or extra-biblical revelation, which is often packaged as miraculous gifts of the Spirit. At the heart of these heresies is the precarious belief that people can continue to receive direct, divine revelation apart from Scripture. This opens the floodgates for any number of distortions and deviations since it subverts the authority and sufficiency of the Bible. The idea that God is speaking new truths outside of His completed revelation creates an unstable foundation, prone to the illusions of fallible human interpretation. This is no piddling matter, it strikes at the very core of biblical Christian orthodoxy.

Such a landscape provides fertile ground for the escalating attacks on cessationism, which ultimately aim to undermine the foundational truth that God has spoken definitively and completely through His Word. It's against this backdrop that the crescendo of attacks against cessationism should concern any biblically-minded Christian. The bottom line is this: if you want to debate the merits of cessationism, at least make an attempt to represent cessationism properly. Otherwise, you're merely a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, clamoring about that which you do not know or understand. The next sections will delve deeper into the cessationist doctrine, its biblical foundation, and why this theological position is not only warranted but essential for preserving the integrity of Christian belief.

Cessationism—a term that sparks intense debates within the Christian community, often misunderstood and misconstrued. Yet, this doctrine deserves a fair examination, especially against the sweeping accusations that cessationists are skeptics of God's ongoing work. This notion couldn't be further from the truth.