To Be Continued?: Are the Miraculous Gifts for Today?

Dr. Waldron is a respectful and good Christian scholar, but this work was not written for the big scholars, but was written for the lay Christian who is interested in topic of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.I liked the book and I thought that it was a pretty good case for cessationism. He tried to interact for example with Grudem on some points.The argument is basically:1. There are no apostles2. Therefore there are no prophets3. Therefore there are no tongue-speaks4. Therefore there are no miracle-workers1. ApostlesFirst of all, by the use of Ephesians 4:9-11 he spends a paragraph or two to say that the apostolate was a gift. The word for gift in verse 9 is not the usual charismata. He does not interact with those who do not accept that the apostolate was a (spiritual) gift, but rather a ministry or an office. This in my opinion is the biggest flaw in his argument.The Cascade Argument is built around and based upon the point that the greatest "gift" -- the apostolate has ceased in the first century. He in fact makes a good case on the cessation of the apostolate, but does not make a convincing case that it was a spiritual gift like those mentioned in 1Cor 12:7-10 for example. Therefore, his Cascading Argument becomes weak.The argument basically starts with, if the greatest gift has ceased, it is therefore possible that the other "miraculous" gifts have also ceased.2. ProphetsHe demonstrates from the OT that a prophet was simply the mouth of God to the people (Ex 4:10-17; 7:1-2). Also, what the prophets said had to be 100% accurate according to the regulations of Deuteronomy 13:1-5 and 18:15-22. Therefore he proceeds to the New Testament with the same definition of prophecy and this is understandable.He first considers few passages used in support of continuationism including Ephesians 4:11-13; 1 Cor 13:8-13 and the case of Agabus.On Ephesians 4 he says that if we maintain that everything in verse 11 is needed for our maturity and unity in the faith then we are proving too much. If we follow that, then we must also say that the apostolate must continue, but we have proven that it in fact did not continue. Therefore he says that the apostles must refer to the writings and teaching of the apostles that we have in the New Testament and prophets or prophecy refers to the book of Revelation. He does not dispute if we have prophecy (i.e. the book of Revelation), rather if we have ongoing or new prophecy.I don't that the putting of Revelation under the category of "prophets" is right. John was not writing as a prophet, but was writing with the authority of an Apostle, that is the case for every NT book. It was either written by an apostle or an associate. I know of no book whose author was an Apostle.Therefore, I do indeed agree that we have the apostles in their writings, but I know of nothing that we have from prophets, therefore it would seem that they would be necessary for the building up and achieving the unity of faith. (I don't know how this practically looks, but I just want to understand what the passage is teaching)On 1Cor 13:8-13 contrary to some cessationist Dr. Waldron does not believe that the verse is speaking about the closing of the canon, rather it refers to the state after the coming of Christ when we will have "face to face" knowledge of God. But he says that the passage does not specify the time of the cessation of prophecy and tongues. So this question is undecided by this verse. On page he says "The conclusion must be that Paul is teaching the doing away of partial knowledge in favor of perfect knowledge in verse ten. He says nothing about when the gifts of prophecy and tongues pass away. He only refers to the passing of the present partial knowledge that was conveyed through those gifts. He leaves open the question of the time of the passing of the gifts of prophecy and tongues."He tries to interact with Grudem on Agabus, but I don't believe that he sufficiently refuted Grudem. Basically, Grudem with the words of Richard Gaffin was accused of requiring "pedantic precision" on Agabus (p. 67).Since according to Dr. Waldron's survey of the OT prophecy is simply the forthtelling of what God has put into the prophet's mouth and this principle he says also in the par excellence the Lord Jesus, therefore prophecy cannot exist. The canon is closed and even continuationists admit that their prophecies are not infallible.3. TonguesHis discussion on tongues was interesting and short. Like other cessationists, he argued that tongues were always human languages. He starts with Pentecost in Acts 2 and carries that conclusion to every other text. So for example when we come to 1Cor 13:1 and read about "tongues of angels" there it means either that Paul was using a hyperbole or using the claim of his opponents (pp. 85-86).On 1Cor 14:13, 26-28 he argues that because Paul called for the tongues-speakers to seek to interpret this meant that these were human languages. I don't find that too persuasive. Why doesn't he say pray to translate or find someone who could understand this foreign language?He also thinks that tongues was a sign of judgment on the Jews according to 1Cor 14:21. It seems very improbable to me that the Corinthians had in their congregation unbelieving Jews for whom this would have been a sign. But rather, tongues without interpretation is a sign of judgment to the unbelieving in general as it would drive them away from the church and would give them the idea that these people are out of their minds. In this way it is a sign of judgment upon the unbelieving. It is a sign of judgment in its misuse, not in its proper use.He identifies tongues-speaking with prophecy by using two passages Acts 2:14-18 and 1Cor 14:5.Acts 2 was interesting as the crowd is hearing the disciples speaking in foreign human languages which they understand their wondering what is happening. Then Peter says that "this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel" (v. 16). The question for me is does the "this" refer to the prophesying mentioned in verses 17-18 or does it only refer to "I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh"? If tongues was prophecy, what did they infallibly foretold? The crowd says that "we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." (v. 11) There is here no mention of prophecy. But they were merely inspired by the speech to tell the mighty deeds of God in all kinds of languages.As a side note, I was disappointed that this passage especially with the connection with "the last days" was not brought up in the discussion about prophecy.The next passage he uses is 1Cor 14:5 where he claims that "1 Corinthians 14:5 asserts functional equivalence of tongues-speaking with prophecy--provided that someone interprets what is said." (p. 89)Amen, I agree. But I don't agree with what he means by prophecy. Prophecy is specifically defined for us in verse 3. It is not about telling the future or infallibly speaking the very words of God, rather "the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation." Therefore, if tongues is interpreted it has the same function for upbuilding and encouragement as prophecy is.Since he argued in the previous part that prophecy ceased and now argued that tongues was a form of prophecy, the logical step for the waterfall is that tongues also ceased.4. Miracle-WorkersHe does not spend much time on miracles. What he is arguing against is miracle workers, not miracles per se. He tries to establish the distinction from 1 Cor 12:28-29.Then he goes on to define miracle. Broadly speaking a miracle is "any unusual exhibition of the extraordinary providence or supernatural power of God." And he adds "In this broad sense, I am happy to affirm that God does miracles today." (p. 99) However, there is also a strict definition of miracles which he believes do not happen anymore. "A miracle is redemptive, revelatory, extraordinary, external, astonishing manifestation of the power of God." (p. 100) On the "revelatory" part he says that it is "a sign done by a prophet or apostle to attest the divine origin of his message" (p. 100) and he later gives a few reference were miracles were used for attestation. But I don't believe that miracles were restricted to attestation, though that is a major part. That I cannot deny. Rather, I believe that the stress in 1Cor 12-14 is laid upon the local church and the believers building each other up.Then there is the question "what about those who where neither apostles nor prophets and worked miracles?" I don't believe that the answer which usually goes along the lines of "they were associated with the Apostles" in a book called the Acts of the APOSTLES is satisfying. Everyone there is in someway associated with them. What about those in Corinth to what authority they were attesting WITHIN the congregation?But this point among others in the strict definition of miracle becomes an occasion in which strict miracle are associated with revelation, but since infallible and biblical revelation ceased with the Apostles, therefore these kinds of miracles and miracle-workers also ceased.ConclusionI actually really enjoyed reading this book. Dr. Waldron is a great a great teacher and writer. He challenged me and I've learned a lot from him in different areas of theology. I believe that this was a gracious and good defense of cessationism.He doesn't go into the craziness of the charismatic movement, but rather goes simply against "continuationism" and tries to make the case that the miraculous gifts ("apostles", prophecy, tongues and miracles) have ceased.

I found the arguments presented in this book to be specific and direct, and a most responsible and reputable statement for cessationism. Here is a relevant citation from the text that gives a broad overview and introduction:My form of Cessationism argues that miraculous gifts, on the one hand, and miracles, on the other hand, are distinct and that the Bible teaches the cessation of the miraculous gifts, but not all miracles. God did not lock Himself out of the world when the last Apostle of Christ died or when the last book of the canon of Scripture was written. He is still perfectly able to do miracles in the world. I believe He occasionally does so. This, however, is a different thing than saying He still gives miraculous gifts - miraculously gifted people - to the church. ... Paul’s example ... [justifies] my speaking in this book of the gifts of apostles, prophets, tongues-speakers, and miracle-workers. They also justify the distinction between miracle-workers and miracles assumed in the following pages. A miracle-worker is a person permanently gifted to do miracles. God may do miracles without doing them through miracle-workers. Hence, there may be miracles in the world today without there being miracle-workers. For instance, the church may gather to pray for a brother with a terminal cancer. ... It is crucial for many reasons that this distinction be made between the church of the New Testament and the church of later periods. When this line is drawn, it will greatly assist us in seeing why we need not think that the miraculous or extraordinary gifts are for today. Unfortunately, the prominence and distinctiveness of the apostolate in the New Testament is not generally recognized. Many passages and promises addressed first or even exclusively to the Apostles of Christ are spiritualized or devotionalized and applied to all Christians. Have you ever heard the statements in 1 John 1: 1-3 spiritualized and applied to all Christians? Read carefully, however, they are literally true only of the Apostles of Christ and a few other early disciples who actually touched, handled, saw, and heard our Lord.Waldron, Samuel E. (2007-08-22). To Be Continued?: Are the Miraculous Gifts for Today? (Kindle Locations 1221-1224). Calvary Press. Kindle Edition.

This resource is useful for my PhD research on tghe Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts, their theology, nature, number, uses and abuses..

I wholeheartedly applaud Dr. Waldron's intention to write a brief and easy to understand response to the continuationist position. A work of this kind is needed, and I would love to find a resource of 100 pages that I could comfortably put in the hands of people who have questions about the existence of the sign gifts. And Dr. Waldron correctly gathers and analyzes the exegetical and lexical evidence. However he crafts this odd and very weak cascading argument that if he can show there are no apostles, then there can be no gift of prophecy, then there can be no speaking in tongues (which he correctly lexically identifies as normal human languages) then there can be no gift of miraculous healing power. He fails to build the case for his argument and if it (as presented in the book) is drawn out to its full conclusion, there are also no legitimate pastors or teachers (he bases much of his cascading argument on Ephesians 4:12). I am convinced that his argument is so weak that his accurate presentation of the data would be viewed with suspicion by a thoughtful and honestly questioning reader. Pastors should read it to be aware of it, but I would never put this in the hand of someone who is actually looking for answers to the question of whether the sign gifts are still in operation today.

Simple reading with an informed understanding of the continuation (or not) of spiritual gifts such as tongues, apostles, etc. Very good read actually, and well balanced.

This is the most readable, succinct summary of this topic that I could recommend. The author avoids the polemic approach that some prior authors adhering to cessationism have taken.