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Articles
Owen, John – pp. 450-453 of ‘Of Gifts and Offices extraordinary; and First of Offices’ in A Discourse of Spiritual Gifts in Works, vol. 4
Rutherford, Samuel – pp. 248-255 of Ch. 16, ‘Where also the question about public prophesying of such gifted men as are not in office, is discussed against the tenent of Separatists’ in A Peacable and Temperate Plea 1642
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 Independants 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?
See the other subsection for more.
Dissertation on Westminster Confession and Cessationism
Articles against Grudem, etc.
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1 Cor 14:29, “Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.”
This verse is often claimed to teach, in order to justify modern charismatic phenomenon, that NT prophecy was subject to error. Gillespie demonstrates in detail that this is not the case.
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Gillespie, George – Objections 5 & 7 on pp. 35-36 of 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
Dickson, David – Commentary on 1 Cor. 14:32
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Scottish Continuationism?
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Related Pages