It is according to the guys over at Restless and Reforming! They have a three-part post that explains why cessationism (the belief that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit — things like speaking in tongues, gifts of healing, prophecy — gradually disappeared as the NT age of the apostles came to a close) is actually a good thing for the church. You can read the three posts here:
Here is a compiled list:
- Cessationism guards the soul from fleshy piety.
- Cessationism makes room for genuine works of the Spirit.
- Cessationism saves us from subjective tyranny.
- It guards the church from wackos.
- It values the integrity of Christian speech.
- It keeps the main thing [i.e., the work of Christ] the main thing.
- It respects the biblical miracles.
- It keeps one looking outside of one’s self.
- It saves one from trying to interpret providence.
- It respects the Reformed doctrine of a liberated conscience.
I also appreciated this comment (which is a summary of a point in a highly recommended book) by the blog authors:
The question ‘What is God saying to you?’ betrays the attitude that God’s word to the Christian is not supremely embodied in Scripture but must be sought by trying to interpret what God is ‘saying’ through life’s events. As R. Scott Clark said in Recovering the Reformed Confession, the proper response to the question, ‘What is God saying to you?’ should be a relaying of the contents of last Sunday’s sermon, or a description of the significance of baptism or the Lord’s Supper. Anything else is a dead end and a detraction from Christ.
Your right on target with this!! Keep it up. I agree that everything else is a dead end.
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Thanks for this post Tim. I am working my way through 1 Corinthians on Sunday mornings. I have a break this week to baptize a new granddaughter in another PCA congregation, but I’m right in the heart of the issue in chapter 14. I’ve looked again at the arguments and I remain fully convinced of cessation; John Piper, Wayne Grudem, CJ Mahaney and Gordon Fee not withstanding.