THE BIBLE: GOD’S FINAL SPECIAL REVELATION

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A Paper Presented to

Dr. Douglas F. KellyReformed Theological Seminary

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In Partial Fulfillmentof the Requirements for the Course

OST508 Systematic Theology I

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byAlexander M. Jordan

July 2013

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION...................................................1

At Stake: Scriptural Sufficiency...............................4

The Nature of Revelation.......................................8

The General Cessationist Argument.............................12

Argument for the Cessation of Special Revelation..............15

Support for the Cessation of Special Revelation...............18

Conclusion....................................................20

BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................24

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1

INTRODUCTION

In the traditional Reformed/classic cessationist view, the Bible

is the unique revelation of God that was delivered to and through

human instruments borne along by the Spirit, in such a manner

that its human writers were not automatons taking dictation

(rather, their personalities were fully engaged in the work).

The joint, finished product is perfectly, and without error

(except scribal), the very word and thought of God in written

form, for in this process the Bible was “breathed out” by the

Spirit of God (1 Tim 3:16). The same Spirit who superintended

the writing of Scripture worked in believers through the internal

testimony of the Spirit to confirm the specific canon of books

(66 in all) that comprise the complete Bible. Yet the process of

confirming which written books were indeed revelations from God

and thus recognized as canonical was not relative, subjective, or

merely individual. The late Calvinist philosopher and apologist

Greg Bahnsen describes it this way:

The self-attestation of Scripture as God's Word makes it objectively authoritative in itself, but such authority will not be subjectively received without an internal,

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spiritual change in man. The Holy Spirit must open our sinful eyes and give personal conviction concerning the Scripture's self-witness: "Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, in order that we might know the things that are freely given tous by God" (I Cor. 2:12). We must be especially careful notto confuse this with subjectivism, which is ultimately relativistic. The internal testimony of the Holy Spirit doesnot stand by itself or operate in a vacuum; it must be teamed with the objective self-witness of the Scriptures themselves. Moreover, this work of the Spirit is not an individual or idiosyncratic matter, as though the internal testimony operated uniquely upon one person by himself. Thusit is the corporate church, not mystical religious mavericks, which recognizes -- through the Spirit's gracious, internal ministry -- that the objective self-witness of the Scriptures is genuine.1

The Bible stands alone in its authority for Christians, by a

revealed faith understood to be nothing less than the very

oracles of God. Yet the Bible is not the Word of God because of

its recognition by believers, and neither is a book part of the

canon because human beings deem it so. As Bahnsen further

explains:

It is the inspiration of a book that renders it authoritative, not human acceptance or recognition of the book. If God has spoken, what He says is divine in itself, regardless of human response to it. It does not "become divine" through human agreement with it. Accordingly, the

1. Greg Bahnsen, “The Concept and Importance of Canonicity,” Antithesis 1, no. 5 (September/October 1990).

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canon is not the product of the Christian church. The churchhas no authority to control, create, or define the Word of God. Rather, the canon controls, creates and defines the church of Christ: "...having been begotten again, not by corruptible seed, but by incorruptible, by the word of God which lives and abides forever.... And this is the word of good news which was preached unto you" (I Peter 1:23-25).0

In this paper we will argue that Scriptural testimony, church

history, and theological logic testify that the revelation that

produced the Bible as the absolutely authoritative, final and

complete word from God that Christians have humbly recognized,

submitted to and obeyed, ceased with the close of this biblical

canon. This is the classical cessationist position, which argues

that some of the miraculous gifts given to the early church

(e.g., tongues, prophecy and miracles) were purposed as temporary

and foundational “signs”, and ceased when their purpose was

fulfilled. Continuationists, on the other hand, argue that all

these miraculous gifts given to the early church continue, though

as we shall find, many continuationists today argue that what

actually endures today from New Testament days is not to be

equated with the authoritative revelation of Scripture-- rather,

a new sort of prophecy was inaugurated from the New Testament 0. Ibid.

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forward. This new definition of prophecy is revelation that

originates with God yet may be, and usually is, imperfectly

received and transmitted on the human side.

But we will argue that the authoritative and precise nature of

revelation and prophecy did not fundamentally change with the

arrival of the new covenant revealed by the New Testament.

Therefore, revelation today does not consist in seeking out a

fresh ‘word from God’, nor in encouraging, as do such

continuationist theologians as Wayne Grudem, Jack Deere and

others, a novel and tenuous approach to prophecy. Rather,

revelatory activity today is the Spirit’s working in believers to

cause them to grow ever deeper in understanding and application

of solid Scriptural riches, and this does not depend upon the

generation of new prophetic content by new prophets, for the

revelatory gift that produced Scripture has ceased, the Bible

being the last, yet fully sufficient, Word from God.

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At Stake: Scriptural Sufficiency

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Tm 3:16-17)

Is the Bible sufficient to lead believers in all eras into

spiritual maturity, fully equipping them for every good work? Or

does the believer require ongoing specific, supernatural and

direct revelations from God in order to grow spiritually and make

the best life choices? Does the Spirit of God work through

Scripture to equip the Church with all that is necessary to

accomplish its task of world evangelization and making disciples

of all nations in the name of Christ, or must we also have signs

and wonders today that will cause those who are skeptical to

embrace Christ and His message? Such questions naturally arise

today in light of the fact that those classified as

“continuationists” believe that all of the spiritual gifts

present in the first New Testament Church continue to function

(or should be functioning) in the church today in the same manner

that they did in the early Christian community, for, they argue,

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they are still needed. This would include such clearly

miraculous gifts as tongues, prophecy and healings. By contrast,

classic cessationism asserts that gifts such as tongues and

prophecy were “sign gifts” of a temporary nature, necessary at

the first to authenticate the message of the apostles and to

establish the Christian faith, but no longer needed and removed

by God once the New Testament was inscripturated.

The significant questions raised by consideration of these

opposing positions indicates that the issue of whether or not

revelation has ceased is not at all minor; how one answers it

leads to radically contrasting approaches to Scripture,

especially regarding the question of its sufficiency for

spiritual life and discipleship.

Are believers taught in Scripture to seek out spiritual gifts such

as prophecy and tongues, or were gifts such as these sovereignly

distributed in the early church during the period when the

foundations of the Church were being laid? If today’s prophetic

revelations are directly from God as many

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charismatics/continuationists claim, why doesn’t God communicate

them to us in such a way that we may receive them with certainty

about their content? Dr. Wayne Grudem has described New

Testament prophecy as “telling something that God has

spontaneously brought to mind.”0 In his writings Grudem

characterizes such prophecy as being of divine origin yet subject

to fallible reception and interpretation by human beings. There

is ongoing debate among evangelicals as to whether Grudem has

successfully defended this view scripturally. There are other

arguments which also disincline one from accepting his

definition. The New Testament reveals a new and superior

covenant received from God through Christ in fulfillment of

prophetic promises (particularly, the book of Hebrews). Are we

to believe that in the era of the Spirit’s blessed outpouring

upon all believers that the gift of prophecy has become something

inferior (i.e., less sure, faulty, un-certifiable) to what it was

under the old covenant? Of what practical benefit is a ‘word

from God’ in which the believing community must essentially

subjectively guess which parts are from God and which may not be?

0. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1994), 1050.

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The Scriptures on the other hand, are full of spiritual riches

the Church has always recognized as being of the utmost practical

benefit for life in this world and of eternal value to the soul

of man, because it is a sure and a revealed Word (2 Pet 1:19).

We should note that the Scriptures never tell us to seek after

spiritual gifts, as these are distributed sovereignly by God, and

not all are given every gift (1 Cor 12:11) and are distributed in

such a way that each person has an important role in the life of

the church (1 Pet 4:10). Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts in

1 Cor 12-14 concludes with exhorting the Corinthians to

“earnestly desire” (1Cor 14:1) gifts such as prophecy or

interpreted tongues, so as to be of benefit to the body of

Christ. Actually, the Greek word “zeloo” which means “to be

zealous” is used in this verse; this has often been translated in

English as desire. But as Professor Thomas R. Edgar points out,

“zeloo represents attitude (zeal) rather than action (to seek).”0

If gifts are sovereignly distributed as God pleases, then seeking

0. Thomas R. Edgar, Satisfied by the Promise of the Spirit (Grand Rapids, MI 49501:Kregel Resources, 1996), 42.

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after gifts does not mean one will obtain the particular gift one

seeks. In addition prophecy and tongues were given then but not

now, as we’ll further discuss.

In practice, the effect of the charismatic reliance upon the

miraculous is detrimental to the principle of scriptural

sufficiency. As Pastor John MacArthur has written,

The truth, however, is that there is no way to “protect the distinctiveness of the Bible” if God is inspiring new revelation today. If the canon is still open, and if God is still giving new prophecies, new songs, and new words of wisdom, we should be earnestly seeking to compile and study these most recent revelations along with Scripture—and maybeeven more diligently, since they speak expressly to our timeand culture. Some Charismatics actually reason that way. But it is error of the worst kind. The canon is not still open. God’s Word, made of the Old and New Testaments, is oneunique miracle. It came together over a period of 1,500 years. More than forty men of God, prophets and apostles, wrote God’s words—every jot and tittle—without error and in perfect harmony. No hymn is worthy to be compared to Scripture. No modern prophecy or word of wisdom is even in the same realm with God’s eternal Word. Heaven and earth will pass away; God’s Word will abide (Matt 5:18).0

As to whether miracles, signs and wonders are needed today in

order to arrest the attention of non-believers and turn them into

0. John MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos (Grand Rapids, MI 49530: Zondervan, 1993).

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believers, charismatics seem to forget the teaching of Christ and

Paul on this issue. In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus relates the parable

of “The Rich Man and Lazarus” in which he describes a rich man

who after death finds himself in Hades, and conversing with

Father Abraham. Desperately wishing to warn his family so

they’ll avoid his terrible fate, he begs Abraham to send to them

Lazarus, reasoning that if they see someone come back from the

dead to give them this warning message, they’ll believe and

repent. Yet Father Abraham tells him that they have Moses and

the Prophets-- if they will not listen to the authoritative

teaching they already have, neither will they be convinced even

if someone should come back to warn them from the dead. The

principle given here by Jesus is that the Word of God is

absolutely sufficient of itself to convey the message of

redemption, and a corroborating miracle is not necessary. Paul

also taught, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the

power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew

first and also to the Greek (Rom 1:16).” The miracles given at

the time of Jesus were provided as unique signs corroborating and

validating the messengers and their message, not as a tool of

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evangelism in and of. For many witnessed the outstanding

miracles of Jesus, miracles which have never been excelled before

or since, yet refused to believe.

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The Nature of Revelation

As we continue making our case that the classic cessationist

argument carries more weight biblically, is more in accord with

the facts of church history, is theologically more logical, and

pastorally, more beneficial than the continuationist position, it

may be helpful to further clarify the meaning and nature of

revelation.

Revelation comes from a Latin word, ‘revelatio’, which means an

unveiling or revealing. As reformed theologian Berkhof states,

it is “the act of God by which He communicates to man the truth

concerning Himself in relation to His creatures, and conveys to

him the knowledge of His will.”0 Revelation may also refer to the

“designation of the resulting product of this work of God.”0 We

have already mentioned that the Bible being is traditionally

regarded as the unique revelation from God because it is not

merely a human product, but “breathed out” by the Spirit of God,

0. Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, U.K.:William B. Eerdmans, 1996), 117.

0. Ibid., 116.

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and noted as well that the process by which certain books were

recognized to be of divine origin (and thus canonical) was also a

function of revelation, being accomplished by the same Spirit who

penned the Scripture through men. So there is the completed

revelation that produced the divine content (i.e., the

Scriptures) and there is ongoing revelation that enables men to

recognize and receive this divine content.

Christian theology also asserts that the God who created all

things has revealed (and continues to reveal) Himself to all

people using a diversity of means. The magnificence and

complexity of creation testifies to Him as intelligent Maker of

all things (Rom 1:19-20). The providential care by which He

blesses all, even those who don’t acknowledge Him, with sunshine,

rain and many good things, including life itself, also testifies

to the reality of His existence and benevolence to all (Acts

14:17; Ps 73:3; Acts 17:25). Mankind’s innate sense of right and

wrong, also known as his conscience or inner “moral monitor”, as

Professor Kelly puts it, also suggests to men that they are

accountable to a heavenly judge (Rom 2:14). Yet because the

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heart of mankind was hardened and his perception darkened due to

the Fall, man doesn’t recognize the goodness of God in all these

testimonials, nor does the insight gained by this “general

revelation” give human beings knowledge that leads to salvation

(Rom 1:19-28; Rom 3:21-26). Chapter 1 of The Westminster

Confession of Faith, a famous creed of the Reformed church,

explains:

Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and powerof God, as to leave men unexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of His will, which is necessary unto salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal Himself, and to declare that His will unto His Church; and afterwards for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of theChurch against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice ofSatan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing which makes the Holy Scripture to be most necessary; those former ways of God's revealing His will unto His peoplebeing now ceased.

Thus there is general (or natural) revelation, which God provides

through creation and in the conscience of man; there is special

revelation (both recorded and unrecorded) by which God has

communicated supernaturally (direct verbal speech, theophanies,

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prophecy, visions, symbols, etc.), and there is the Bible, which

according to the Reformed viewpoint is the complete written

record of special revelation, a gift of God that provides the

Church with its most sure foundation for faith, including the

content that leads man to redemption. In addition, there is

internal revelation that enables sinful, fleshly mankind to

apprehend the meaning of divine communication. Revelation is

necessary because God is an invisible Spirit, and because of the

salvific and spiritual nature of the truths God desires to

communicate to human beings. As Berkhof notes,

… religion brings man in contact with an invisible Power, inaccessible to human investigation. If man is ever to know and serve God, the latter must reveal Himself. This is all the more true in view of the fact that in religion man is seeking something which he cannot find in science and art, incommerce and industry, in sensual pleasures and worldly riches, namely, redemption from sin and death, and life in communion with God. He can obtain these blessings only if Godreveals Himself in relation to man and points out the way of salvation.0

Influential Princeton theologian B.B.Warfield offers the

additional insight that revelation does not consist merely in the

Spirit-breathed record of the redemptive acts of God, but is 0. Ibid.

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itself a redemptive act, in that it provides the enlightenment to

the mind that precedes, accompanies and follows the redeeming

acts of God so as to guide men to understand and receive them:

Revelation thus appears, however, not as the mere reflection of the redeeming acts of God in the minds of men, but as a factor in the redeeming work of God, a component part of the series of His redeeming acts, without which that series wouldbe incomplete and so far inoperative for its main end. Thus the Scriptures represent it, not confounding revelation with the series of the redemptive acts of God, but placing it among the redemptive acts of God and giving it a function as a substantive element in the operations by which the mercifulGod saves sinful men. It is therefore not made even a mere constant accompaniment of the redemptive acts of God, giving their explanation that they may be understood. It occupies a far more independent place among them than this, and as frequently precedes them to prepare their way as it accompanies or follows them to interpret their meaning. It is, in one word, itself a redemptive act of God and by no means the least important in the series of His redemptive acts.0

We find then that there is a sense in which revelation does

indeed continue today, not in the generation of new revelatory

content, but in the continuing work of the Spirit to make already

revealed content knowable and thus beneficial to man. In this

mysterious work of the Spirit, fallen man is regenerated out of

0. Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. 4 ed. James Orr (Chicago: Howard-severance Co, 1915), s.v. "Revelation."

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his spiritually dead state (Jn 3:3-8), and thus becomes able to

see what before he was blind to, namely, the reality of the God

behind the witness of revelation (1 Cor 2:12-16). Building on

natural revelation, the special revelation of the gospel of

Christ with its divine power regenerates fallen man so that he

may know and be known by the God who is always speaking and

testifying through it.

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The General Cessationist Argument

Continuationists may at this point object that if revelation

continues in the form of the Holy Spirit’s inner working in man,

it is inconsistent to argue that new revelation has ceased! But

as mentioned, the cessationist distinguishes between the

completed outward revelation of Scripture and the ongoing inward

process of revelation. Charismatics or continuationists may

counter that neither inner nor outer revelation ever ceased, but

unbelief in many segments of the Church, coupled with a tendency

towards rationalism (especially since the Enlightenment)

squelched the manifestation of overt gifts of the Spirit, though

they never disappeared entirely from the life of the church.

Further they argue that with re-discovery of spiritual gifts

facilitated by the Pentecostal, Charismatic and Third Wave

movements, the Spirit is again moving as in New Testament days.

The Spirit longs to give exciting new revelations and speak to

all believers personally; He desires that all should prophesy,

speak in tongues and even seek after special visions. But many

sectors of the Church reject these available resources of the

Spirit due to rigid adherence to a faulty theology that apriori

rules out the possibility of miracles and ongoing revelation

today, and also, due to fear and lack of faith. Jack Deere, in

his book, “Surprised by the Power of The Spirit”, argues that

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“all cessationists ultimately build their theology of the

miraculous gifts on their lack of experience. Even the appeal to

contemporary abuse is an argument based on negative experience with

the gifts.”0 Given the limited space available to us for this

paper, we cannot address the details of continuance vs. cessation

of all miraculous gifts, but focus on our contention that

authoritative written verbal revelation has been given to the

Church in the Bible alone.

Before making this narrower argument, we begin by noting the

elements of the general, classic cessationist argument against

all ongoing miraculous gifts (prophecy, tongues and miracles),

which includes the following points: 1.) The church historically

has not held the charismatic view, but rather, the cessationist

view of these spiritual gifts; 2.) The New Testament chronicles

a unique period in history during which the Church was being

established upon the foundation of Christ as cornerstone, and

upon apostles and prophets divinely gifted to receive direct

revelation concerning the mystery of Christ and commissioned by

Christ to witness to Him and to be led into all truth regarding

0. Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit (Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530:Zondervan, 1993), 56.

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the meaning/application of His teaching. It was by this

empowering that the New Testament came to be written by these

apostles and prophets (Eph 2:20; Eph 3:5; John 14:25-26, John

16:12-15); 3.) Miracles, prophecy, and tongues were special

“sign” gifts given to the Church at this time as a means of

attesting to the authority of the apostles and confirming the

validity of their gospel message (Hebrews 2:4; Romans 15:19; 2

Cor 12:12); 4.) With the passing of the last of the apostles, so

also these “sign” gifts so closely connected to the apostolic

ministry eventually passed from the scene; 5.) Miracles in the

Bible were neither unceasing nor widespread, but clustered in

three time periods-- establishing a biblical pattern that

miracles are given in concentrated portions for a specific

purpose, then have ceased; 6.) According to the testimony of

church history, the record of miracles following the apostolic

period is extremely sparse, with hundreds of years passing with

essentially no miracles recorded until the alleged revival of

these gifts occurring with the Pentecostal movement in the 1900s;

7.) The so-called miraculous gifts we see today in the church are

not of the same quality as those of the apostolic age, do not

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agree with the definition of New Testament gifts, and are

therefore not authentic; 8.) Though there is no Bible passage

clearly indicating a specific moment in time when spiritual gifts

will cease, 1 Corinthians 13 does teach that gifts such as

prophecy and tongues will indeed cease at some point; 9.) Many

cessationists find support from 1 Corinthians 13 that the

completion of the bible canon is the event connected with the

ceasing of such gifts as tongues and prophecy. 10) Cessationists

find support in other Scripture passages as well, including Eph

2:20, Heb 2: 3-4, 2 Cor 12:12, among others.

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Argument for the Cessation of Special Revelation

A specific argument for cessation of special verbal revelation

may be derived from the general arguments described above. To sum

up the arguments thus far, we can state that since miraculous

gifts in general were rare, both in Bible days and throughout

church history, since they were given as foundational signs

flowing from the apostolic ministry long since over, since the

Church as a whole has recognized such gifts are past, since

Scripture gives support to the idea of cessation of gifts, and

since the New Testament gifts possess a quality that makes them

unmistakably authoritative, but the gifts we see today do not

share this quality, then revelatory gifts in general have passed,

including the subset of tongues and prophecy that deal with

inspired verbal communication from God.

The Bible- both Old and New Testaments- is itself a form of

prophetic revelation (Heb 1:1). A key point is that prophecy and

tongues (prophecy interpreted) in the New Testament was no less

authoritative than prophecy of the Old Testament. Below, we

present a further argument for cessation of special revelation

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that builds on this point. I am much indebted to the online

series of articles titled “The Cessation of Special Revelation- A

Humble Argument for the Cessation of New Testament Prophecy and

Tongues0” by Dr. Robert Gonzales of Reformed Baptist Seminary in

the presentation that follows.

The Bible presents the writing of the New Testament by the

apostles and prophets as the consummation of the process of

special revelation. Scripture from beginning to end testifies of

Christ, as Christ Himself declared (John 5:39), thus Scripture

finds its climactic significance in the revelation of Christ. As

already discussed, God reveals Himself continually via a

multitude of means, including both natural and special

revelation. But there was a progressive element in God’s special

revelation that culminated with God sending His Son to present

His most important message to man- the gospel of redemption

through Christ. The message of righteousness received through

gracious faith included in this Christian gospel was already

known by God’s saints of old (Heb 11; Rom 4:3). But when the Son

came to earth as sent by the heavenly Father, that message of 0. The Cessation of Special Revelation- A Humble Argument for the

Cessation of New Testament Prophecy and Tongues

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grace became most fully revealed, fulfilled and completed (Heb 2;

Matt 5:17). As Scripture testifies, “Long ago, at many times

and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the

prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,

whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he

created the world. (Heb 1:1-2).

Thus Dr. Gonzales argues that special revelation has ceased,

using this syllogism: 1) All pre-parousia (i.e., pre-return of

Christ) divinely authoritative special revelation has been

completed and has, therefore, ceased; 2) NT prophecy and tongues

are forms of pre-parousia divinely authoritative special

revelation; 3) Thus, tongues and prophecy have ceased. He

states, “According to the Bible, special revelation is a process

that consummates in a final form and a historical goal. The

final form of special revelation is Scripture and the historical

goal of special revelation is Christ,” and “Special revelation

reaches its redemptive goal in the person and work of Christ who

is the Incarnate Word of God.” The argument concludes this way:

if Jesus Christ is the greatest, final message God has given unto

man for his redemption, and that message has now been mediated to

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us in its final form (the New Testament) via the apostolic

witness (including New Testament prophets), then special

revelation has ceased. God does not need to give us further

special revelation, for He has already provided us the highest,

most complete revelation that can be given. What is important

now is that believers become mature in their understanding and

application of this supreme revelation, becoming fully

established through it, that we may faithfully serve out and

complete our collective gospel mission here on earth, thus

bringing glory to God.

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Support for the Cessation of Special Revelation

Biblical History of Miracles: The sparse history of miracles in

Scripture supports the argument that these were gifts given by

God as pointers or signs that authenticated the message of those

performing the miracles. In his book “Charismatic Chaos” John

MacArthur notes that “miracles happened during three relatively

brief periods of biblical history: in the days of Moses and

Joshua, during the ministries of Elijah and Elisha, and in the

time of Christ and the apostles.”0 MacArthur responds to Jack

Deere’s claim that miracles appear everywhere in Scripture, by

pointing out that the events Deere cites are “supernatural acts

apart from any human agent.”0 Cessationists argue that miracles

done by specially gifted people are what has ceased, not that God

can longer do miracles. Why did God give miracles during these

periods? To authenticate those through whom written revelation

was being and would be produced—Moses, who gave us the Law;

Elijah and Elisha, who introduced the prophetic age; and the

0. MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos, 112.0. Ibid.

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apostles and prophets who wrote the New Testament as Christ’s

representatives.

New Testament Prophecy No Less Authoritative than Old Testament

Prophecy: Making a distinction between the nature of Old and New

Testament prophecy, Dr. Grudem has affirmed that the Bible holds

final revelatory authority, while maintaining that gifts such as

prophecy continue, albeit in a non-canonical form. But if Grudem

concedes the canon is closed-- meaning there is no new

authoritative Scripture-level prophecy today, yet it can be shown

that Scripture depicts New Testament prophecy as authoritative,

since it continues in the vein of the Old Testament gift, then

his argument fails. Indeed the Bible assumes an essential

continuity between OT and NT prophecy. Limited space permits us

to examine but a few passages. On the day of Pentecost described

in Acts 2, when the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit came

upon Peter and the disciples were all gathered together, Peter

inspired by the Spirit explained the significance of the tongues

as the fulfillment of the prediction of Joel, an Old Testament

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prophet (Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2: 16-21), thereby clearly linking

New Testament tongues and prophecy with God’s previous works.

In Ephesians 2:20 and 3:1-5, together with 1 Corinthians 12: 28,

we find prophets in the New Testament ranked as second in

importance only to the apostles, and when speaking prophecy, on

the same authoritative level as apostles, for they are likewise

the privileged recipients of the “mystery of Christ.” As F. David

Farnell comments, “Reception and propagation of such revelation

constituted the foundation of the church universal throughout the

present age. New Testament prophets were vehicles for these

revelations and held a high profile among early Christians for

this reason.”0 Moreover, the prophets, together with the

apostles, were those upon whom the Church universal was built.

The high profile and importance of prophets and prophecy in the

New Testament is inconsistent with Grudem’s hypothesis that New

Testament prophecy is something fallible and non-authoritative.

0. F. David Farnell, “Does the New Testament Teach Two Prophetic Gifts?”Bibliotheca Sacra 150 (January-March 1993).

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Conclusion

We have discussed the teaching of Scripture that the process of

revelation is God’s supernatural work, and that though He uses

fallible human instruments, God’s power was not in any way

hindered in communicating precisely what He wanted to say in His

Holy Word, which He has also preserved. Accordingly prophecy in

both the Old Testament and the New is equally authoritative and

the Bible itself is a prophetic work. As Peter testifies, “no

prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men

spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2

Peter 1:20-21). Prophecy, tongues and miracles have not been

promiscuously present in human history, but rather, God has sent

such gifts at precise periods in order to authenticate His

prophetic messengers. Prophets were alongside the apostles in

being foundational to the church, and it is because the apostolic

and prophetic foundation was successfully laid, and the New

Testament Scriptures provided, that the special gifts associated

with these ministries were removed because no longer necessary.

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Prophets and prophecy are exalted gifts, given only to a few.

The test of the true prophet of God has always been to prophesy

with one hundred percent accuracy, but today’s so-called prophets

and prophecies fail this test because of biblical deficiency in

understanding the gift, which causes lack of reverence towards

its glorious nature, and much mispractice. Unfortunately this

faulty and lowered view of prophecy has been perpetuated even by

well-meaning scholars, who inadvertently lend support to the

excesses of the charismatic movement. The emphasis among many

charismatic Christians on new words, fresh visions, tongues-

speaking, and signs and wonders is biblically misguided and

contributes in practice to a diminished reliance upon Scripture

as sufficient for life and guidance.

But God is more than able to lead His people out of such error,

for He has done so in the past. Perhaps such change comes in

part through the corrective challenges good teachers present the

Church. Accordingly I conclude with the following helpful quotes

from theologians Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. and Benjamin B. Warfield

which wonderfully summarize the cessationist position on

revelation:

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A dilemma confronts noncessationists. If prophecy and tongues (as they function in the New Testament) continue today, then the noncessationist is faced with the quite practical and troublesome implication that Scripture alone is not a sufficient verbal revelation from God. At best, thecanon is relatively closed. Alternatively, if—as most noncessationists insist—"prophecy" and "tongues" today are not revelatory or are less than fully revelatory, then thesecontemporary phenomena are misnamed. They are something other than the gifts of prophecy and tongues that we find in the New Testament. Noncessationists are caught in a redemptive-historical anachronism. They are seeking within the superstructure-building phase of the church's history that which belonged to its foundation-laying phase. They are involved in the contradictory effort of trying to maintain that the New Testament canon is complete and closed and yet at the same time that the revelatory gifts for the open canon period—gifts for when the New Testament documents werestill being written—continue. But God's Word lifts us out ofthis dilemma. It shows us that by God's wise and gracious design, prophecy and tongues have completed their task and have ceased. What remains, supremely and solely sufficient and authoritative until Jesus comes, is "the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture" (Westminster Confession of Faith,1:10).0

Miracles do not appear on the page of Scripture vagrantly, here, there, and elsewhere indifferently, without assignablereason. They belong to revelation periods, and appear only when God is speaking to His people through accredited messengers, declaring His gracious purposes. Their abundant display in the Apostolic Church is the mark of the richness of the Apostolic age in revelation; and when this revelationperiod closed, the period of miracle-working had passed by also, as a mere matter of course. It might, indeed, be a priori conceivable that God should deal with men 0. Richard B. Gaffin Jr., “Where Have All the Spiritual Gifts Gone? A

Defense of Cessationism,” Modern Reformation 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 2001): 24.

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atomistically, and reveal Himself and His will to each individual, throughout the whole course of history, in the penetralium of his own consciousness. This is the mystic's dream. It has not, however, been God's way. He has chosen rather to deal with the race in its entirety, and to give tothis race His complete revelation of Himself in an organic whole. And when this historic process of organic revelation had reached its completeness, and when the whole knowledge of God designed for the saving health of the world had been incorporated into the living body of the world's thought—there remained, of course, no further revelation to be made,and there has been accordingly no further revelation made. God the Holy Spirit has made it His subsequent work, not to introduce new and unneeded revelations into the world, but to diffuse this one complete revelation through the world and to bring mankind into the saving knowledge of it.0

.

0. Benjamin B. Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1918).

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Cessation of Special Revelation- A Humble Argument for the Cessation of New Testament Prophecy and Tongues

Bahnsen, Greg. “The Concept and Importance of Canonicity.” Antithesis 1, no. 5 (September/October 1990).

Berkhof, Louis. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans, 1996.

Deere, Jack. Surprised by the Power of the Spirit. Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530: Zondervan, 1993.

Edgar, Thomas R. Satisfied by the Promise of the Spirit. Grand Rapids, MI 49501: Kregel Resources, 1996.

Farnell, F. David. “Does the New Testament Teach Two Prophetic Gifts?” Bibliotheca Sacra 150 (January-March 1993): 62-68.

Gaffin, Richard B. Jr. “Where Have All the Spiritual Gifts Gone? A Defense of Cessationism.” Modern Reformation 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 2001).

Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1994.

MacArthur, John. Charismatic Chaos. Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530: Zondervan, 1993.

Warfield, Benjamin B. Counterfeit Miracles. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1918.

Warfield, Benjamin Breckinridge. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Vol. 4, edited by James Orr. Chicago: Howard-severance Co, 1915.