An Argument for Cessationism

 Cessationism is often caricatured as an anitsupernatural sentiment inherited from the Enlightenment tendency toward naturalism, and subsequently, a practical deism where the world merely functions as a natural machine overseen from a distance by its Creator. However, let me say at the outset that many continuationists don't understand cessationism if this their critique. I, for one, as a cessationist, believe that God can do anything and performs miracles in the world on a daily basis, the most normative of miracles being the regeneration of fallen people and the continual transformation of these sinners into saints who are miraculously being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. 

On top of this, God heals, nudges His people, orchestrates their lives in such a way so as to continually renew their minds and lifestyles, and speaks to them through His Word so that these healings and orchestrations orient them in the direction He wishes them to go. 

On top of this, God is fully capable and may on occasion still give a person a supernatural ability to speak or be understood in another language and/or prophesy something to a person. 

But what I want to say today is that not only is this not a gift of tongues or prophecy but that specifically the gift of prophecy isn't often seen in either cessationist or continuationist churches.

We continually hear the mantra that cessationists need to engage in all sorts of theological acrobatics in order to argue that those miraculous outpourings are no longer happening today. This is usually stated because continuationists are looking for specific prooftexts that give a time limitation on the gifts. Of course, what is often assumed in all of this is that these periods of miraculous outpourings are not themselves understood as having a time limit given to them by the biblical pattern itself. 

What seems to be missed in the discussion is that these sorts of outpourings do not continually occur throughout the Bible. They only show up in three places: at the establishment and verification of the Law through Moses and Joshua, at the establishment and verification of the Prophets through Elijah and Elisha, and the establishment of the New Testament through Jesus Christ and His apostles. See, for instance, the statement in 1 Samuel 3:1, where it says that "in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon." There is no continuationism even after Moses and Joshua.

Miraculous and supernatural things do exist throughout the Bible, as they do today, but they do not exist in massive outpourings such as when you have the authority of Scripture being established or verified. And, as in the verse above, prophesy is even very rare throughout the Bible (that's why prophets were of note--if everyone was prophesying it would become a common thing).

However, that is not the argument I wish to make today. What I wish to point out today is that prophecy specifically is almost unheard of in the modern day even among charismatic/continuationist churches. By "prophecy" I do not mean merely the act of proclamation but the act of receiving what is proclaimed, as it is commonly used in this debate. Furthermore, by "prophecy" I am referring to the gift of prophecy, not an occasional instance of it. Prophecy in this sense is largely unseen in the church today.

You might say, "Not true, I hear it claimed all of the time." The problem with this statement is that those claiming it and those hearing it are calling something prophecy that isn't. If continuationists want to be faithful to Scripture, and that's why they're continuationists, and they don't like the "acrobatics" of their theological opposition, then they should not commit them themselves. If the gift of prophecy continues today then that means that the biblical version of prophecy must continue today. It cannot be some other thing that one is merely calling "prophecy." 

Hence, it becomes important to note not what prophecy is in some generic sense, i.e., revelation from God, since revelation from God can be in the form of the natural world, the Bible, in gifts of knowledge and discernment, etc. Rather, it is important to note what prophecy is in terms of how one receives it in the Bible. 

One can argue that he is continuing to get revelation from God through the urim and thummim all he wants but if his manner in continuing it is flipping a coin then he is not continuing to get revelation through the urim and thummim. He may want to argue that he is getting revelation through something entirely new but that in no way is his continuing the biblical means of receiving revelation, and he, therefore, is not a continuationist, as innovation is not continuation.

What I see everywhere in these churches is the claim that God spoke to this person or that person and said this or that but when questioned as to the means of receiving this revelation they describe things that are either belonging to intuition, emotional, thoughts that pop into their heads, voices they hear, etc., none of which describe the means God uses to communicate throughout the Bible.

Can God communicate through all of these means? Sure. But it would be a new thing to call them prophecy since this is not how prophecy is received in the Bible.

Throughout the Scripture, it is very clear that in order to receive communication from God, one must either have God manifest Himself in this world by becoming something physical (e.g., a theophany, angel, incarnation, etc.) or we must disconnect from our world in order to connect to the unseen realm by either going into a trance or going to sleep. Once this is done, one can receive a vision while in a trance or a dream while sleeping. God can then communicate to the individual.

We see this throughout the Scripture. Novices, who are not prophets, get things in dreams (e.g., Joseph and Pharaoh in Genesis, Samuel sleeping in the temple as a child, Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, Joseph in Matthew, Pilate's wife, etc.). A prophet, however, has the ability to put himself into a trance, and therefore, can go into a dreamlike state with his eyes open.

This state is described a few times in Scripture. In Numbers 24:4 and 16, it is repeated twice of Balaam who is a prophet of YHWH (22:18).

 
"This is the utterance of him who hears the words of God, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Who falls down, with eyes wide open" (24:4)

"This is the prophecy of one who hears the words of God, who has knowledge from the Most High, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who falling down, has his eyes wide open" (v. 16)

In 1 Samuel 19:24, Saul is laying on the ground while he prophesies. This is because one disconnects from this world in order to receive revelation from the other. 

In Zechariah 4:1, the prophet says that the angel who had speaking to him woke him up as if from sleeping, although this passage may indicate an angelic messenger turning Zechariah from a novice who gets revelation in a dream into a prophet who can get revelation from now on in a vision. 

This is why Paul can tell the prophets to speak in order. The spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets because they can choose when to go into a trance in order to perhaps receive revelation (1 Cor 14:26-32).

To reiterate, God can put thoughts in your head, nudge you emotionally, direct your steps, give you knowledge and discernment, etc. but this isn't prophecy and it certainly isn't a gift of it where you can exercise it at will. In fact, the very fact that it is a gift means that you can exercise it at will but how is this being done if prophecy is just a reference to whenever God chooses to give you revelation? It prophecy includes the ability to go into a trance in order to get that revelation, however, then the spirit of the prophets is truly subject to him (which is also why people can inquire of a prophet to go before the Lord for them).

This is indicated in all of the other prophets who get their prophecies through visions, not direct correspondence with God (Isa 1:1; Ezek 1:1; Amos 1:1; Obad 1:1; Nah 1:1). Dreams themselves, when revelatory, are described as visions while on the bed (Dan 4:13). Even when it is not explicitly laid out, as in Jeremiah's opening prophecy, it is clear that it is a vision that he is seeing (Jer 1; Zech 1). It is clear that the variant expression "the word of the Lord came through X" that this refers to visions as well, and is interpreted as such in places like Hosea 12:10, "I spoke to the prophets, i.e., gave them many visions and told parables through them" (also see Amos 1:1). All of the words indicating that the prophet is seeing (חזה) are connected to the חזון "vision" (Micah 1:1; Isa 13:1; Hab 1:1). These are dreams that one has while either in a trance or sleeping. They are not a voice in one's head, a voice heard elsewhere, thoughts, emotions, intuitions, etc. So "the word of the Lord came to X" means it came through a vision or dream unless an angel or theophany are noted.

In fact, God speaks to all of the prophets, except Moses, through either visions and dreams or through angels, and sometimes angels in visions and dreams but never directly while the person is still connected to this world. That happens only when God takes on physicality through theophany or incarnation. 

 I see very little if any of this today. And if the argument is that God has changed what prophecy looks like then one must argue that he is not practicing the prophecy of the Bible but rather something new. This is not continuationism. 

Hence, the admission that the "prophets" of one's church are not actually receiving revelation as the prophets of the Bible received it is an admission that cessationism is true even by those who call themselves continuationists. It is something new, an innovation, and I would chalk it up to a mislabeling of some things that may be God working in the lives of his people and the rest of it to the Enlightenment idea that God speaks to us directly without mediation. The latter is the idea that I don't need a theophany, an angel, a dream or vision, or a Bible for God to speak to me. He does so directly and unmediated. Hence, He can do so while I eat chips on the couch watching TV or when I am in the middle of sermon wide awake and in no dreamlike state at all. 

And the outpouring of this sort of thing isn't happening because the Law and the Prophets and the New Testament Scripture has already been established and verified. Hence, if it is happening at all, as in the days of Samuel, it is happening with such rarity that it cannot be described as existing in a gift or even as something normative for the churches. Hence, the prophetic gift has ceased.