“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city… to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy….”
Dan. 9:24
“And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel… Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples…. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
Isa. 8:14,16,20
“And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount [Mt. 17]. We have also a more sure word of prophecy… knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.”
2 Pet. 1:18-20
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Subsections
Offices of Apostles, Prophets & Evangelists
Prophecy
Nature of the Prophets in 1 Cor. 14 & Expositing the Scriptures as “Prophesying”
Speaking in Tongues
7 Sacraments of Romanism on Confirmation & Extreme Unction
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Order of Contents
Charismatic Gifts Generally
Cessation of Charismatic Gifts
. Articles
. Books
. Quotes
. Book of Acts
. Acts 8:14-17
. 1 Corinthians
. 1 Cor. 13:8-13
. Latin
. Biblios
Miracles
History
. Early Church
. Montanism
. Reformation
. Westminster & Puritans
. Scottish Continuationism?
. Quotes
Webpages 3
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On the Charismatic Gifts Generally
Encyclopedias & Dictionaries
ed. McClintock & Strong – ‘Gifts, Spiritual’ in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (1867-1887)
ed. Hastings – ‘Charismata’ in Encyclopaedia of Religion & Ethics, vol. 3 (1908-1927)
Not every interpretation in the article is recommended, but it has a lot of detailed, helpful information.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia – ‘Spiritual Gifts’
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Articles
1600’s
Carter, William – ‘Manifestations of God unto his People in the Last Days’ being pp. 67-90 of The Covenant of God with Abraham, Opened. Wherein 1. The Duty of Infant-Baptism is Cleared. 2. Something Added Concerning the Sabbath, and the Nature & Increase of the Kingdom of Christ. Together with a Short Discourse Concerning the Manifestations of God unto his People in the Last Days. Wherein is Showed the Manner of the Spirit’s Work Therein to be in the Use of Ordinary Gifts, not by Extraordinary Revelations (1654)
Owen, John – ‘Extraordinary Spiritual Gifts, 1 Cor. 12:4-11’ in A Discourse of Spiritual Gifts in Works, vol. 4
van Mastricht, Peter – vol. 1, bk. 1, ch 2, section 33 of Theoretical-Practical Theology (RHB)
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1700’s
Barrington, John Shute – Essay 1, ‘On the Teaching & Witness of the Holy Spirit’ (†1734) 255 pp. in Theological Works, vol. 1
Barrington (1678–1734) was an Anglican who was friendly to presbyterians. His discussion of the particular spiritual gifts begins on p. 23. The work is not polemical but seeks to organize and explain the Biblical data on the spiritual gifts, their uses, purposes, etc.
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1800’s
Henderson, Ebenezer – Lecture 4, ‘The Gifts of Inspiration’ in Divine Inspiration, pp. 175-234 (1836) See especially where the various gifts are individually treated on p. 186 ff.
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The Cessation of the Charismatic Gifts
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Articles
1600’s
Rutherford, Samuel – ch. 7, ‘Of Revelations & Inspirations’ in A Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist (London, 1648), part 1
Owen, John
‘The Original, Duration, Use & End of Extraordinary Spiritual Gifts’ in A Discourse of Spiritual Gifts in Works, vol. 4
pp. 248-9 & 282 of Commentary on Hebrews, ch. 2:4
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1800’s
Smeaton, George – ‘On the Extraordinary Gifts’ 3 paragraphs
Smeaton was a professor in the Free Church of Scotland.
Dabney, Robert
pp. 227-55 of ‘Prelacy a Blunder’ in Discussions, vol. 2
Prelacy has sometimes taken the ‘charismata’ to be a gifting and anointing of the Holy Spirit conferred by the laying on of hands in ordination, in order to justify apostolic succession, etc.
Dabney, on the contrary, shows that it certainly does not mean this, but is to be taken for the extraordinary spiritual giftings of the Holy Spirit, conveyed by the laying on of the apostles hands, which hence has ceased with the apostles. He also discusses the unique nature of the Biblical evangelists. His discussion is important and very insightful.
‘Spurious Religious Excitements’ in Discussions, vol. 3, p. 456 ff.
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1900’s
Warfield, B.B.
‘The Cessation of the Charismata’ (1918) 32 paragraphs This is the most important section of Warfield’s book, Counterfeit Miracles, being ch. 1.
‘Can Dreams Convey a Revelation?’ in The Bible Student. Continuing the Bible Student & Religious Outlook. vol. 4, New Series, (Nov. 1901), no. 5, pp. 241-50
Edgar, Thomas – ‘The Cessation of the Sign Gifts’ 1988 50 paragraphs
Edgar has been a professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis at Capital Bible Seminary, Lanham, Maryland.
Masters, Peter – ‘Cessationism — Proving Charismatic Gifts have Ceased’
Stewart, Angus – ‘The Three Waves of Charismatic Christianity’
Allen, Matthew – ‘Excited Utterances: A Historical Perspective On Prophesy, Tongues and Other Manifestations of Spiritual Ecstasy’ (2004)
Macleod, Donald – ‘The Cessation of the Charismatic Gifts with the Apostolic Age’ in The Baptism of the Spirit & the Charismatic Gifts
Schwertley, Brian – ‘The Charismatic Movement: a Biblical Critique’ 85 paragraphs
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Books
1700’s
Warburton, William – The Doctrine of Grace, or the Office & Operations of the Holy Spirit Vindicated from the Insults of infidelity & the abuses of Fanaticism (1763) 270 pp.
“Officers in the apostolic church were of two kinds, extraordinary and ordinary. See Eph. 4:11; 1 Cor. 12:28, and compare, for the grounds upon which the extraordinary are defined to be temporary, 1 Cor. 13:10, etc., with Warburton’s exposition of the passage in his ‘Doctrine of Grace’ [Bk. 2, ch. 2].” – Thomas Peck
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1800’s
Shearer, John – Modern Mysticism; or the Covenants of the Spirit, their Scope & Limitations (Richmond, 1905) ToC
Shearer (1832-1919) was a confessional presbyterian minister and the eighth president of Davidson College, NC. He wrote numerous good and orthodox books.
“We do not profess to teach anything new. We consider the teaching of the Westminster Confession of Faith and other standards of the Reformed Churches to be absolutely true and sufficient, as they set forth the gracious operations of the Holy Spirit in redemption.
We do hope, however, to set up and maintain the traditional view as taught in them, by treating the subject from a different point of view, and in refutation of heresies that were not prominently before the minds of those who formulated these standards.
…
Our aim is to ascertain and classify all the works of the Holy Spirit in all ages and dispensations, and to differentiate them one from the other by accurate definition; and also to determine, from the Scriptures, which have been permanent and universal and will be till the end of time, and which were limited and temporary. So far
as we know, this ground has not been traversed, nor indeed has its importance been appreciated.
Having accomplished this, as we hope and believe, we then bring the more popular claims of Modern Mysticism to the test of ascertained principles, and then consider their special pleas based on the Scriptures.
…
The thoughtful reader may perhaps find it profitable to read ‘Summary I’ at the close before reading the discussion.”
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1900’s
Ward, Rowland
Spiritual Gifts in the Apostolic Church: Their Nature, Function & Cessation in the Light of the New Testament Evidence Buy (1972)
Blessed by the Presence of the Spirit: The Authentic Charismatic Church Ref (New Melbourne Press, 1997) 96 pp.
“A careful cessationist case with exposition of relevant Scripture.”
Chantry, Walter – Signs of the Apostles: Observations on Pentacostalism Old & New Buy (1973) 131 pp.
Gaffin Jr., Richard – Perspectives on Pentecost Buy (1979) 122 pp.
Judisch, Douglas – An Evaluation of Claims to the Charismatic Gifts Buy (Baker & Concordia Seminary Press, 1985) 96 pp.
Judisch is a Lutheran
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2000’s
Budgen, Victor – The Charismatics & the Word of God Buy (2001) 316 pp.
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Quotes
More similar quotes may be found in William Whitaker’s Disputation on Holy Scripture (pp. 297, 333, 337, 346, 355, 358, 445, 577) & Robert Baillie’s Dissuasive from the Errors of the Time by searching for ‘revelation’.
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Thomas Edwards
The First & Second Part of Gangræna, or, A Catalogue & Discovery of Many of the Errors, Heresies, Blasphemies & Pernicious Practices of the Sectaries of this Time… (London, 1646), pp. 15, 28
“The Catalogue of the Errors, Heresies, Blasphemies, is as follows:
…
144. That there are revelations and visions in these times, yea to some they are more ordinary, and shall be to the people of God, generally within a while.
145. That the gift of miracles is not ceased in these times, but that some of the sectaries have wrought miracles, and miracles have accompanied them in their baptism, etc. and the people of God shall have power of miracles shortly.
146. That anointing the sick with oil by the Elders praying over them, with laying on of hands [James 5], is a Church-ordinance for Church-members that are sick, for their recovery.
147. ‘Tis ordinary for Christians now in these days, with Paul to be rapt up to the third Heavens, and to hear words unutterable, and they cannot well have assurance of being Christians, that have not found and had experience of this.”
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Samuel Rutherford
The Due Right of Presbyteries (1644), pt. 2, p. 301
“3. Multitude of prophets may consist with the time when seers and foretellers of things revealed in visions were beginnings to cease, even as the gifts of the Holy Ghost given abundantly at the Pentecost, Acts 2:17-18; Joel 2:28, did consist with the time when things concerning Christ must now have an end, Lk. 22:37; 24:44.”
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On the Book of Acts
See also many more commentaries on Acts.
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Bruner, Frederick Dale – A Theology of the Holy Spirit: The Pentecostal Experience & the New Testament Witness Buy (1970) 350 pp.
Dr. Bruner was a graduate of Princeton Seminary and the University of Hamburg.
The first half of the book is a description of the Pentecostal movement and experience from their primary sources. The second half of the book (why you need to buy it) is the best exegetical consideration available of the key primary texts throughout Acts that relate to modern Pentecostal issues. Brunner even-handedly argues from the text that the ‘tongues’ of Acts were real languages, argues for cessationism and that Pentecostal theology and practice is not reflective of the experience and teaching of the book of Acts. His treatment of Acts 2 and 1 Cor. 14 is masterly.
“Haled by reviewers, this book is one of the best analyses of Pentecostalism written in the twentieth century. Dr. Gordon Clark called it ‘masterly’, ‘exceedingly well researched’, ‘superb’, and a ‘penetrating analysis’. No one, whether sympathetic or unsympathetic to the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement, should be without it.” – The Trinity Foundation
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On Acts 8:14-17, that Conferring Miraculous Gifts to Others was a Prerogative of the Apostles
See especially Warfield.
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1600’s
Lightfoot, John – pp. 125-28 of Commentary on Acts in Works, vol. 8
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1800’s
Meyer, Heinrich – Commentary on Acts 8:14-17
Gloag, Paton J. – p. 289 of A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Acts
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1900’s
Warfield, B.B. – pp. 21-25 of Counterfeit Miracles
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On 1st Corinthians
See also many more commentaries on 1 Corinthians.
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1800’s
Hodge, Charles
‘The Nature of Tongues’ from his Commentary on 1 Corinthians, 12:10, five paragraphs
Argues for the traditional interpretation that Biblical “tongues” were real, intelligible, foreign languages, not unintelligible babble.
An Exposition of 1 Corinthians Buy (1860) Reformed, Princeton
*** “The more we use Hodge, the more we value him. This applies to all his commentaries.” – Spurgeon
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1900’s
Clark, Gordon – First Corinthians Buy
Clark was reformed, focuses on exegesis, is very clear and is sometimes humorous. Clark is very good on rightly understanding the charismatic phenomenon from the text.
Thomas, Robert – Understanding Spiritual Gifts: A Verse-by-Verse Study of 1 Corinthians 12-14 Buy (1998) 304 pp.
Thomas was a professor of New Testament at The Master’s Seminary and is a dispensationalist (which system of interpretation is highly not-recommended, though they get cessationism right).
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1 Cor. 13:8-13
‘The perfect’ that is to come (v. 10), which will do away with the temporary and partial miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, has often, or perhaps usually, been taken by historic, reformed commentators as Christ in his revelatory 2nd coming, such interpreters still holding to cessationism for exegetical and systematic reasons from other passages of Scripture.
Rev. Phil Kayser notes that if the passage does refer to the second coming there is still plenty of exegetical reason from the passage itself to believe that the gifts would expire to cessation shortly after the apostolic period much before the 2nd Coming. See pp. 46-50 of The Canon of Scripture.
However, the immediate and dominant context of 1 Cor. 12-14 is that of inspired, special revelation for the Church for its upbuilding, and not the coming of Christ, which notion is otherwise absent. Hence, against this strong background of piecemeal, localized, temporary and ephemeral revelatory gifts, there is strong prima facie reason to understand the ‘perfect’ as the full, completed, permanent canon of Scripture, as the Word of God is called in Scirpture ‘perfect’ (Ps. 19:7; 119:96; James 1:25), a glass that shows us the glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:15-18) and a mirror that shows us as we truly are (James 1:23-35).
Scripture also gives a perfect understanding of all that is good and spiritually necessary for us to walk before the Lord (Lk.1:3; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Acts 18:26; 22:3; Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:6; 2 Cor. 7:1; 2 Cor. 13:9,11; Gal. 3:3; Eph. 4:11-13; Phil. 3:15; Col. 1:28; Col. 4:12; 1 Thess. 3:10; Heb. 6:1; 13:21; James 1:4,17; 3:2; 1 Pet. 5:10; 1 John 2:5), it being sufficient and able to make us ‘perfect’ through every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
With this in mind, the cessationist reading of 1 Cor. 13 deserves full consideration. Budgen’s treatment is one of the best.
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1700’s
Warburton, William – bk. 2, ch. 2, ‘An Explanation of 1 Cor. 13:8, showing, from the express declaration of the apostle, that the extraordinary or miraculous operations of the Holy Spirit were to Cease with the First Ages’ (1763) 10 pp. in The Doctrine of Grace, or the Office & Operations of the Holy Spirit Vindicated from the Insults of infidelity & the abuses of Fanaticism, pp. 70-80
“Officers in the apostolic church were of two kinds, extraordinary and ordinary. See Eph. 4:11; 1 Cor. 12:28, and compare, for the grounds upon which the extraordinary are defined to be temporary, 1 Cor. 13:10, etc., with Warburton’s exposition of the passage in his Doctrine of Grace.” – Thomas Peck
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1800’s
Henderson, Ebenezer – Concluding Lecture, ‘The Cessation of Revelation, 1 Cor 13:8’ in Divine Inspiration (1836), pp. 510-42
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Contemporary
Budgen, Victor – Ch. 5, ‘When do the Gifts Cease’ (2001) 16 pp. in The Charismatics & the Word of God, pp. 73-89 Buy
Very helpful exegesis.
McDougall, Donald – ‘Cessationism in 1 Cor. 13:8-12’ Master’s Theological Seminary 14/2 (Fall 2003), pp. 177-213
Compton, R. Bruce – ‘1 Cor. 13:8-13 & the Cessation of Miraculous Gifts’ (2004) 48 pp.
Compton is a professor at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.
Woods, Andy – “The Meaning of ‘The Perfect’ in 1 Cor. 13:8-13” (2012) 69 paragraphs
Dr. Woods is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary.
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Latin
1600’s
Voet, Gisbert – Select Theological Disputations (Utrecht: Waesberg, 1655), vol. 2
69. ‘Of Spiritual Gifts [Charismatis]’, pp. 1086-110
70. ‘On the Testing of Spirits’, pp. 1100-33
71. Pt. 2, pp. 1133-41
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Bibliographies
Swanson, Dennis – ‘Bibliography of Works on Cessationism’ 17 pp., 5 sections
Swanson is a librarian for The Master’s Seminary. The bibliography includes numerous general works and works that are pro-Continuationism, as well as about the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements generally.
Jones, Charles Edwin
Guide to the Study of the Pentecostal Movement, 2 vols. Buy (Scarecrow 1983)
The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement: A Comprehensive Guide Buy ATLA Bibliography Series
The Charismatic Movement: A Guide to the Study of the NeoPentecostalism with Emphasis on Anglo-American Sources, 2 vols. Buy (Scarecrow, 1995)
Black Holiness: A Guide to the Study of Black Participation in Wesleyan Perfectionist & Glossolalic Pentecostal Movements Buy Atla Bibliography Series
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On Miracles
Articles
1600’s
Baxter, Richard
Question 162, ‘May we not look for miracles hereafter?’ in A Christian Directory: a Sum of Practical Theology and Cases of Conscience Buy (1673), pt. 3, Christian Ecclesiastics
pp. 11-45 of The Unreasonableness of Infidelity, Manifested in Four Discourses (London, 1655)
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1800’s
Newman, John Henry – Essay 1, ‘The Miracles of Scripture’ (1824) 93 pp.
This was when Newman was a protestant. On this work, see Warfield, pp. 54-55
Atwater, Lyman – ‘Miracles & their Counterfeits’ in The Biblical Repertory & Princeton Review (1856), p. 255 ff.
Atwater was an old-school presbyterian.
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1900’s
Stewart, Angus – ‘Eight Facts Regarding Biblical Healings’
Excellent.
Pine, Leonard – ‘The Gift of Healing in the Scriptural Record’ (2007) 7 pp. in the Western Reformed Seminary Journal
Schwertley, Brian – ‘Miracles-Healings’
Zaspel, Fred – ‘The Gifts of Miracles & Healings Today?’
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Books
Abbott, Edwin – Philomythus: an Antidote Against Credulity; a Discussion of Cardinal Newman’s Essay on Ecclesiastical Miracles (1891) 360 pp. ToC
See Warfield, pp. 60-61.
Warfield, B.B. – Counterfeit Miracles (1918) 320 pp. The most important section of the book is ch. 1.
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Latin Articles
Voet, Gisbert – Select Theological Disputations (Utrecht: Waesberg, 1655), vol. 2
61. ‘Of Miracles’, 1st part, pp. 964-79
62. 2nd part, pp. 979-84
63. Appendix: ‘On the Faith of Miracles’, pp. 984-93
64. 3rd part, pp. 993-1012
65. 4th part, pp. 1012-31
66. Appendix: ‘On the Girl of Aurelia’, pp. 1031-36
…
72. ‘A Narration of the Wonderful Acts of the Spirit ad Posonium Gestae‘ [an RC book from 1643, on WorldCat & GB, including accounts of the Virgin Mary appearing from Purgatory], pp. 1141-93
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History
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On the Early Church
Articles
Kaye, John – pp. 88-102 & ‘Appendix to Ch. 2’ of The Ecclesiastical History of the Second and Third Centuries: Illustrated from the Writings of Tertullian (1845)
Bernard, J.H. – ‘The Miraculous in Early Christian Literature’ (1891) 43 pp
Busenitz, Nathan – ‘The Gift Of Tongues: Comparing the Church Fathers with Contemporary’ Masters Seminary Journal 17, no. 1 (Spring 2006), pp. 61-78
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Books
Middleton, Conyers
Abridged: A Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers which are Supposed to have Subsisted in the Christian Church, from the earliest ages through several successive centuries upon the authority of the primitive fathers (1749) 180 pp. Unabridged 405 pp.
Middleton (1683-1759) was an Anglican clergyman.
“After a century and a half the book remains unrefuted, and, indeed, despite the faults arising from the writer’s spirit and the limitations inseparable from the state of scholarship in his day, its main contention seems to b put beyond dispute.” – B.B. Warfield
See Warfield, Counterfit Miracles, pp. 28-31 for more background to these works.
A Vindication of the Free Inquiry… from the objections of Dr. Dodwell & Dr. Church (1751) 98 pp.
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Montanism – Early Church
Articles
ed. McClintock & Strong – ‘Montanists’ in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological & Ecclesiastical Literature (1867-1887)
Stewart, Angus – ‘Was the Church Right to Condemn Montanism?’
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On the Reformation
Pak, G. Sujin – The Reformation of Prophecy: Early Modern Interpretations of the Prophet & Old Testament Prophecy Pre (Oxford University Press, 2018) 365 pp. ToC
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On Westminster & the Puritans
Milne, Garnet – The Westminster Confession of Faith and the Cessation of Special Revelation: the Majority Puritan Viewpoint on Whether Extra-Biblical Prophecy is Still Possible Buy (2007) 362 pp.
This is an excellent, exhaustive historical defense of the cessationism of the Westminster Confession and Assembly, in light of some who believe the Confession allows for “Reformed Charismatics.” Milne proves the historical claims of Wayne Grudem, regarding reformed history and continuationism (especially with regard to the reformers and Scottish puritans), wrong. The book also explores the interesting variety of expressions and nuances of the cessationist doctrine amongst the puritans, for which it is chiefly valuable.
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Scottish Continuationism?
Contemporary
Milne, Garnet – Ch. 6, ‘Prophecy and the Scots’ (2007) 37 pp. in The Westminster Confession of Faith & the Cessation of Special Revelation: the Majority Puritan Viewpoint on Whether Extra-Biblical Prophecy is Still Possible, pp. 219-56 Buy
This is the best and most detailed treatment of the topic.
“The durability of the view that Reformation and post-Reformation ‘prophecy’ was mediate revelation as an application of Scripture to providence by the leading of the Spirit is seen most clearly where Westminster theology took hold and had its greatest success…”
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1600’s
Gillespie, George
ch. 5, ‘Whether these prophets and prophesyings in the primitive church, 1 Cor. 14; 12:28; eph. 4:11; were extraordinary and not so to continue; or whether they are precedents for the preaching or prophesying of such as are neither ordained ministers nor probationers for the ministry’ in A Treatise of Miscellany Questions
Gillespie is arguing against the Independents who claimed that their practice of unordained lay-preaching was warranted from the ‘prophets’ and ‘prophesying’ of the NT,, which they took to include gifted, non-ordained lay-persons.
In the midst of the discussion, Gillespie expresses his belief that the NT prophets were extraordinary and inspired, and that at the Reformation and afterwards such persons, whom he in part names in a list, were raised up with gifts greater than that of ordinary pastors. He does not express though, that ‘prophet’ is a continuing office in the church or ordinary thereto, or fallible.
As Gillespie regards the phenomenon as extraordinary and ceased in most periods of the church, his view is very different than that of most Continuationists. Gillespie, while using the NT verses of ‘prophets’ as proof-texts for cessationism in other parts of his writings, wonders here whether these Scriptures may bear the additional nuance of including the non-inspired, modern, Reformation ‘prophets’ that Gillespie cites:
“and upon what Scripture can we pitch for such extraordinary prophets, if not upon those Scriptures…?”
Gillespie’s implicit premise seems to be: Finding the accounts of the Reformation ‘prophets’ to be self-evidently true, he seeks Scriptural warrant for them, for it would be strange for God to give ‘prophets’ to his continuing Church, and yet for Scripture not to mention such at all. Therefore, perhaps this modern phenomenon may be grounded in these specific Scriptures?
Garnet Milne, p. 247:
“Thus a careful analysis of Gillespie’s wider thought brings Gillspie far more nearly into line with his cessationist colleagues at the Assembly than may have been supposed by recent scholars such as Berends. Nothing that Gillespie concludes necessarily separates him from the majority view of the Reformed orthodox. He appeals to the same texts which others applied earlier to immediately-inspired prophets, but these texts, as we have seen, can also be used to justify a later non-miraculous though otherwise analogous gift of the Holy Spirit, as John Own and other Westminster divines maintained. Neither does anything Gillespie says preclude an explanation like Rutherford’s of the Knoxian foretellers- namely that modern ‘prophets’ were applying Scripture principles to providential circumstances under the leading of the Holy Spirit.
None of the Scottish commissioners, including Blair and Gillespie, therefore, needs to be understood as a proponent of a continuing immediate revelation. Indeed, there is insufficient evidence to allow that conclusion concerning any of them.”
ch. 7, ‘Of Prophets & Evangelists: in what Sense their work & vocation might be Called Extraordinary, & in what sense Ordinary’ in A Treatise of Miscellany Questions
Gillespie takes’prophets and evangelists’ as having both extraordinary and ordinary aspects and functions. The offices are not ordinary to the continuing Christian church, but upon extraordinary occasions, ecclesiastical assemblies may commission persons for the ordinary work of messengers to make communications with other assemblies.
Yet Gillespie does not see the office of evangelist as having a permanent place in the church or that there is warrant for them having a distinct ordination, and what he describes as their continuing functions takes place in historically reformed denominations already, such as the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), which, from the Second Reformation in Scotland, never inherited an office of the NT evangelist.
Rutherford, Samuel
p. 126 of A Peaceable and Temperate Plea, Ch. 10 (1642)
pp. 138 (bot)-141 of The Covenant of Life Opened (1655)
ch. 7, ‘Of Revelations & Inspirations’ in A Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, part 1. Quote from pp. 42-44:
“There is a third [category of] revelation of some particular men, who have foretold things to come… as John Hus, Wyclif, Luther, have foretold things to come, and they certainly fell out, and in our nation of Scotland, Mr. George Wishart… Mr. Knox… Mr. John Davidson… [and] diverse holy and mortified preachers in England have done the like… now the differences… I place in these:
1. These worthy reformers did tie no man to believe their prophecies as Scriptures, we are to give faith to the predictions of prophets and apostles, foretelling facts to come, as to the very word of God; they never gave themselves out as organs immediately inspired by the Holy Ghost, as the prophets do, and as Paul did… yea they never denounced judgment against those that believe not their predictions, of these particular events and facts as they are such particular events & facts, as the prophets and apostles did…
2. The events revealed to godly and sound witnesses of Christ are not contrary to the Word… They had a general rule going along that ‘evil shall hunt the wicked man’: only a secret harmless, but an extraordinary strong impulsion of a Scripture-spirit leading them, carried them to apply a general rule of divine justice, in their predictions to particular godless men, they themselves only being foretellers not copartners of the act.
3. They were men sound in the faith opposite to Popery, Prelacy Socinianism, Papism, Lawless Enthusiasm, Antinomianism, Arminianism, Arianism, and what else is contrary to sound doctrine, all these being wanting in such as hold this fourth sort of revelations we cannot judge them but Satanical having these characters. 1 They are not pure and harmless; but thrust men on upon bloody and wicked practices forbidden by God…”
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Quotes
John Knox
Works, vol. 3, pp. 168-9
“My assurances are not the Marvels of Merlin, nor yet the dark sentences of profane prophesies, but:
1. the plain truth of God’s Word;
2. the invincible justice of the everlasting God, and
3. the ordinary course of his punishments and plagues from the beginning are my assurance and grounds. God’s Word threatens destruction to all unobedient; his immutable justice must require the same. The ordinary punishments and plagues show examples.”
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Samuel Rutherford
A Survey of the Survey of that Sum of Church Discipline (London, 1658), p. 472
“Mr. Hooker [a congregationalist]: ‘If government by independent congregations be insufficient because it authorizes not persons to be pastors over pagans, government by synods is sick of the same disease.’
[Rutherford’s] Answer: [1.] We judge the essence of a pastor not to stand in the call and choice of those to whom they are pastors; for it makes Paul, Barnabas and the apostles to be no pastors to the gentiles and to the heathen, to whom they preach, and [it] makes the apostles as apostles to be no pastors.
[Margin Note:] Evangelists are now ceased as well as apostles.
2. Synods from Acts 15 and Acts 13 may lend men, authorized with pastoral power, to heathens to spread the Gospel; and private men as no pastors, but as private men, are intruders [though] authorized by Mr. Hooker, for they have no promise, such as pastors have by Mt. 28:19-20; Mk. 16:15-17; Jer. 1:6,17-18, to plant Churches among the heathens; nor is there a warrant to say that evangelists are ordinary officers left by Christ to plant Churches.
If Richard Hooker have any ground from Eusebius or Scripture for evangelists now, or in Trajan’s time, he must show that they have the gift of tongues: for how could evangelists be fellow-helpers to preach the Gospel to the Churches planted by the apostles if they were not an extraordinary office only? See those divines in the margin, and my learned and dear brother, Mr. George Gillespie, Miscellaneous Questions, ch. 7. If the Church should send any to the heathen any way rip[…] for the Gospel, these could be no other than ordinary pastors to them.
[Margin Note:] Tilen, Syntagma, dis. 19, th. 38, Apostolorum vice, ubi res poscebat, fungebantur. Professors of Leided, in Synopsis of Pure Theology, dis. […], thesis 17, p. 605; Bucan, in loc., Com. 42, q. 45; Calvin, Commentary on Eph. 4, Apostolis proximi erant Evangelistae, & munus affine habebant. Bullinger, ibid., In plebe potissimum e […]udienda; Zanchi, Com. ibid. Apostolorum Comites—non immediate mi […]—sed assumebantur. Dr. Robert Boyd from Trochoregia, Commentary on Eph. 4, p. 493, Apostolorum Comites modo huc, modo illuc missi, modo re vocati ab Apostolis, extraordinarii.”
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Thomas M’Crie, The Story of the Scottish Church, pp. 20-23. See also Robert Blair’s opinion on p. 123.
“…[George] Wishart was basely betrayed into the hands of the cardinal by the earl of Bothwell, under a pledge of personal safety… and after a mock trial, during which he was grossly insulted, mocked, and even spit upon by his judges, he was condemned to the stake as an obstinate heretic. The crimes of which he was accused were, such as denying… inventions of the Romish Church; and he defended himself with great meekness and fidelity…
He was fixed to the stake with a heavy chain. The fire was lighted… ‘This flame hath scorched my body,’ said the sufferer,
‘yet hath it not daunted my spirit. But he who from yonder high place beholdeth us with such pride, shall, within a few days, lie in the same as ignominiously as now he is seen proudly to rest himself.’
This happened on the 1st day of March, 1546. Nothing could be more unlikely, at the time Wishart uttered this memorable prediction, than that it should be fulfilled. The cardinal himself paid no regard to it; he dwelt securely in his fortified castle; the people of the town were at his command; and he had so powerful friends throughout the country.
A late writer is so perfectly sure that our ancestors could, in no instance, receive premonitions of future events, that he maintains it to be ‘more probable’ that Wishart was privy to some conspiracy against the cardinal, ‘than that he should be endowed with the spirit of prophecy.’
But is there anything inconsistent with reason or religion in supposing that God may, on special occasions, such as in times of hot persecution, have granted to his faithful and prayerful servants premonitions and forewarnings of coming events, beyond what could be discovered even by ‘an extraordinary degree of sagacious foresight?’ ‘That the Supreme Being,’ says Dr. Cook, ‘may, in seasons of difficulty, thus enlighten his servants, cannot b doubted.’
To hold that this opinion is inconsistent with the perfection of the Holy Scriptures, is to mistake the matter entirely. Our worthies never pretended to be endowed with the spirit of prophecy, in the sense in which this is true of the ancient prophets; thy did not lay claim to inspiration, nor require implicit faith to be placed in their sayings as divine; thy did not propose them as rules of duty, nor appeal to them as miraculous evidences of the doctrines thy taught. But they regarded such presentiments as gracious intimations of the will of God, granted to them in answer to prayer, for their own encouragement or direction; and they delivered them as warnings to others, leaving the truth of them to be ascertained and proved by the event…
The truth is… [regarding] the cardinal… his assassination was the result of a more private conspiracy which was formed some time after Wishart’s death… not exceeding twelve persons in all. early on the morning of Saturday, 29th May, 1546, this small band… burst into the chamber of the cardinal, and after upbraiding him with his perfidy and cruelty, fell upon him with their swords… and the conspirators… exposed his dead body on the very tower from which he had, a few months before, in savage pomp, witnessed the execution of George Wishart.”
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Quotes
at Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
‘The Church Fathers on Speaking in Tongues’
Calvin, John – 3 Quotes
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Webpages with Further Resources
The Highway.com: The Charismatic Movement 23 articles
The Ultimate Cessationism Resource
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“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”
3rd Commandment
“But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak… even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?’ When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously…”
Dt. 18:20-22
“In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David… for sin and for uncleanness. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that… I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, ‘Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord’: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied… But he shall say, ‘I am no prophet…'”
Zech. 13:1-5
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Related Pages
On the Nature of the Prophets in 1 Cor. 14 & Expositing the Scriptures as “Prophesying”