Featured Would the Continuation of the Gift ofProphecy Challenge Sola Scriptura?

I have a word of prophecy for you.
The Lord has definitely told me that you should give your $400 to me. Wink

 

You are certainly right to ask God for wisdom in making decisions, but that is not the same as thinking that God has given you some infallible word outside of the Bible- and if it's not infallible and inerrant, what is the good of it? And if it is infallible and inerrant, how is it not on the same level as the Bible?

I wrote something on Cessationalism a while ago.
https://marprelate.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/cessationism-have-the-sign-gifts-ceased/

 

Hello SATS Prof,
The following is taken from my blog post.
I’d like to explain what I mean by the word, Cessationism.
1. I do not believe that all miracles have ceased today. Every time someone is saved it is a miracle of God’s power and grace, and He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. However, I do not believe that there are ‘workers of miracles’ (1 Cor. 12:10) today.

2. I believe that God sometimes heals today according to His will. I have some experience of this which I am happy to relate if anyone is interested. I think many people have testimonies of God healing in answer to prayer. However, I do not believe that there are miraculous ‘gifts of healing’ (1 Cor. 12:9) today.

3. I believe in prophetic ministry today. I believe that preaching is prophetic in that it ‘tells forth’ the words of God. I think it is the 2nd Helvetic Confession that declares that 'the preaching of the word of God is the word of God.' What I do not believe remains today is the gift of ‘foretelling’- seeing the future. I do not believe that anyone can bind the conscience of a Christian by anything outside the Bible. This I think is the important bit. You can believe that God has spoken to you on some point or other, or about something or other, and you are free to act upon it if you choose, but no one has the right to bind my conscience with anything other than the word of God as found in the Bible. In Acts 11:27 ff, Agabus makes a predictive prophesy which appears to have been universally received as truth and which bound the consciences of all the disciples in Antioch (vs. 29-30). I say that has finished.

What I understand as Cessationism is the belief that certain gifts which were given to the church were never intended to be continued indefinitely but were for the infancy of the Church. A parallel to this is God’s dealings with Israel in the wilderness. They received miraculous supplies of manna, water and quail; their feet did not swell and their shoes did not wear out. The day they crossed into Canaan, the manna ceased (Joshua 5:12) and the other items are not mentioned again, so I assume they did as well. I believe that the same principle applies in the N.T. Certain gifts were supplied to the infant church which were discontinued when it reached maturity.

If we look at the list of gifts listed in Eph 4:11, we see that the first gift is Apostles. I believe that there are no Apostles today. If you agree with me then you are a Cessationist because you agree that at least one of the gifts has now ceased. The qualifications for an apostle are listed in Acts 1:22- he must have seen the risen Christ. Therefore Paul asks, “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” (1 Cor 9:1). Later he describes himself as the last apostle (1 Cor 15:8). Therefore we conclude that there are no apostles today- not even C. J. Mahaney.

 

I challenge the misuse of ICorinthians 13 to say that gifts cease.

1 Corinthians 13:8
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

Was not Enoch a prophet, yet we possess very little of his prophecy...2 verses made the canon...
Do we have 120 years of Noah's words?
Has every dream, vision, revelation that every Seer, prophet, visionary has ever received from God, been recorded in our canon? No!
Most of the prophecies given to men have failed, they are no more available.

Ancient Hebrew, Koine Greek, and Latin have ceased, among other tongues.

The Mayans had solar cells and batteries, and a calendar that reached til 2012, but 500 years ago this knowledge was all lost.
How were the pyramids built?
This knowledge has gone away.

My ancestors lived in the forest until 100 years ago, or so, but now their methods of survival, especially the medicines, are being lost.

Knowledge will vanish away.

This is the reasonable explanation set in the context of smack-dab inbetween ch. 12 and ch. 14.

Not one word of the prophecy of all of the prophets at Corinth made it into the Canon, yet Paul admonished all to covet the best gift of prophecy.





Earnestly Contend

 

OK, let us consider 1 Cor. 13:8. ‘Love never fails. But whether there are prophesies, they will fail (Gk. katargethesontai. Literally, ‘Be rendered useless’ or ‘be abolished’); whether there are tongues, they will cease.’ This seems rather clear to me, and those who would make the text mean that prophecies will not fail and ‘tongues’ will not cease have the burden of evidence on them. It is suggested that prophecies and tongues will indeed disappear, but not until our Lord’s second coming. What then of faith and hope, which are said to ‘abide’ along with love? ‘Hope that is seen is not hope’ (Rom. 8:24) and ‘Faith is…..the evidence of things not seen’ (Heb. 11:1). When the Lord Jesus returns, ‘every eye shall see Him’ (Rev. 1:7) and we shall have no need of faith or hope, so they will ‘abide’ only until then. Therefore prophecy and tongues must pass away before the Second Coming. When were they to end? The answer is in verse 10. ‘But when that which is “perfect” has come, then that which is in part will pass away.’ The Greek word teleios, translated ‘perfect,’ can also mean ‘complete’ or ‘mature’ (as it does in 1 Cor. 14:20). ‘Mature’ seems to be the best translation as Paul goes on to talk about childhood and adulthood. What he is saying is that the sign gifts were given in the infancy of the Church, but in its maturity they would not be needed and the Corinthians should prepare to leave them behind as they had the things of childhood.

There are several evidences that this is the correct interpretation. Firstly, the number of miraculous signs recorded in Acts begins to fall away after Chapter 19. Secondly, Hebrews 2:3-4 places ‘miracles and gifts’ in the past. Thirdly, 2 Peter 2:1 speaks of false prophecy in the past and false teaching in the future, suggesting that there would be no future prophecy. Fourthly, while Paul speaks of the sign gifts as being current in his letters to the Galatians, Thessalonians and Corinthians (all dated before AD 60), the references in his later epistles are all in the past (e.g. Eph 2:20; 1 Tim 1:18; 4:14). We might expect detailed instructions concerning the recognition and appointment of prophets in the pastoral letters, but we find none. The same is true of the letters of James, Peter, John and Jude. Where are the apostolic commands governing prophecy and ‘tongues’ down the ages? There are none because they fulfilled their purpose and passed away in the First Century. Moreover, there are numerous N.T. passages that warn against false prophecy (e.g.. Matt. 7:15-23; 24:24; 1 Tim. 4:1; 6:20; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 4:1; Rev. 19:20) and none which tell us to obey true ones. Why? Because there never will be any. We are also told that, ‘the time will come when [men] will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned to fables’ (2 Tim. 4:3f). What are we to do about that? ‘Preach the word!…..Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching’ (v.2). Not a word about prophesying.

[N.B. Please note my comments about the prophetic (forthtelling) element in preaching in my posts above]

 

Matthew 6 is hardly a proof-text for your teachings here. You're amiss. None of your arguments flowing from your initial statements prove your teachings to be Biblical exegesis no matter how badly you believe they are.

More error here. The Word of God doesn't contain 'opinion'. God didn't need Paul's help when writing inspired Scripture, nor did Paul insert it into the text. None of us hold a Bible in hand that is subsequently tainted with human opinion as instruction for others.

As usual your logic remains flawed.

 

Problem?

"Prophecies" does not = "gift of prophecy".
"Tongues" does not = "gift of tongues"
Knowledge? Isn't a gift at all.

You proceeded right on in to a rambling lecture, but walked through a doorway of false premise.
You assumed the (recent) false interpretation, necessary to explain away doctrine for Dispy's and other heretics (not saying this is you), that ICor 13 is referring to gifts, here.

It isn't. In this series, three words are equal: prophecy, knowledge, and tongues.
Since one isn't a gift, none are, and that is the proper interpretation.



Earnestly Contend

 

1 Cor. 12:8.

 

Again,

the word of knowledge does not = knowledge.

Apparently this is hard for you.

The gift is a speaking gift, and not just knowledge.
Knowledge is available to anyone, saved or lost.
The word of knowledge is a gift to a speaker in the assembly, as are most of the gifts, including prophecy.

Earnestly Contend

 

So I just read an series of articles that I thought was interesting in light of this tread. It was a 3 part series about a group of witches that went to a charismatic church service. What I found most tragic about this is that 3 different "prophets" at this church told one of the witches that she was on the right path, and God was happy with her, and to keep doing what she was doing.
That is a false prophet.
those that believe in foretelling may say that modern day prophets are not held to the same level of accuracy as the OT prophet. The Bible in no where does away with the standard a prophet must meet in the OT, so if someone takes on the mantle of prophet and was to foretell they had better be 100% right or they are a false prophet.
Now I do believe that foretelling goes against Sola Scriptura so I don't think there is anyone doing any foretelling any more.