Top Ten Reasons Why Reformed Christians (Cessationists) Reject the gifts of the Holy Spirit Today
Understanding the work of the Holy Spirit divides the Evangelicals into two camps namely the Cessationists and the Continualists. Most Cessationists are from the Reformed circle of Christianity, while all continualists are Pentecostal evangelicals. Here are in my opinion the top ten reasons why the former rejects the latter.
1. They believe as per 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 that revelatory gifts has ceased “when that which is perfect has come”, to them means that when the Bible or the canon was completed spiritual gifts have ceased.
2. Since the Bible is complete, and 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says the Scripture is sufficient to equip us for every good work, we dont need spiritual gifts anymore.
3. Since Bible is complete, present-day tongues and prophecies constitute extrabiblical revelations; extrabiblical revelations are to be rejected because the Bible is already complete.
4. There are just too many charlatans pretending to have spiritual gifts in order to take advantage of the more gullible individuals.
5. There’s just to many superstitious folks clamoring for signs and wonders; in turn they simply become more excessive and bizarre.
6. Many clamor for miraculous physical healing which is temporal but spiritual healing is more important because of its eternal significance, sin therefore is the most dangerous desease facing humanity.
7. The manifestations or the things demonstrated or experienced today by Pentecostals have no Biblical precedence.
8. They believe miraculous gifts are only for the establishment of the early church (apostolic era); today pastors, evanglists and teachers by preaching and teaching have replaced the need for spiritual gifts such as tongues.
9. All the leading theologians from Clement of Rome to Augustine right up to the Protestant Reformation have been cessationists, there may have been a few and isolated exceptions but not one of them stands out as a significant theologian.
10. Acts of providence (which is common) are just being confused as miracles (those extraordinary works of God). Miracles then served as signs, they pointed to something for instance, new revelations in the past were authenticated by accompanying miracles, signs and wonders like during the time of Moses, during the time of the Old Testament prophets, and then during the time of Christ and the Apostles. There simply is no need for signs and wonders at the moment.
Trivia: Reformed preacher Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) wrote The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God in 1941 and Thoughts on the Revival in New England in 1942 in defense of the “bodily effects” experienced during the “Great Awakening” arguing that they were incidents of the real work of God – moral transformation.
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