Dave Black posted some notes on the difference between being a cessationist and a continualist (his term). I agree with his comments. Most commonly when we talk about “cessationism” we are talking about the gifts of the Spirit. Do these gifts, particularly the more spectacular of them, continue to operate in the church today? (I…
A guest contributor to The Jesus Creed asks this question. He comes at it from the angle of just how far such a teaching would be from what is implied in the gospels, from which our definition of “Gospel” should come. I’m not a cessationist, though I think it is important for people on the…
I was interested to find this post by Craig Adams, looking at some quotes from John Wesley on the continuation of the gifts. I find myself in general agreement with what Wesley says here. The extraordinary gifts are possible, but not commonplace, nor are they required. The primary evidence of the Spirit is the sanctification…
T. C. Robinson has a post on the gifts of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:13. He makes several points that I think are important, but I did not draw from that particular passage, though I did draw from Galatians 5:22-26 with the fruit of the Spirit. T.C. points to the importance of 1 Corinthians…
The lectionary passages for Epiphany 2 (Cycle A) include 1 Corinthians 1:1-9. In verse seven, we have the phrase “spiritual gift.” It’s interesting to note which word is used for “spiritual gift”–in this case charisma. This is not the word used in 1 Corinthians 12:1 and 14:1, which both use pneumatikos. A number of interpreters…
In one of the sermons I heard this morning (I attended services at two different churches), the scripture reading was from Ephesians 4:1-12. When Ephesians 4:11 was read, I remembered a discussion I had some time back about whether pastors and teachers here was intended to refer to one group of people. The individual with…
. . . and on the subject of enjoying God, he’s really right. I don’t mean to throw more fuel on the fire of this “hearing God” thing. Personally I think John Piper’s original article should be much, much less controversial than it is. The main thing that seems to be happening is that people…
You know, John Piper has come on my radar on women’s ministry issues, and some of my comments have been pretty negative. But this article on his DesiringGod.org web site is something that resonates completely with me. For my skeptical friends, no, this is not the evidence you keep hoping I’ll provide. It’s simply an…
OK, that should be a sufficiently provocative title! 🙂 Peter Kirk commented on an earlier post and gave me some advice–advice which I would normally consider quite good sense. Here it is: But maybe you are going a bit too far, at least to keep yourself out of trouble, in suggesting that those who do…
Finally, after many delays, every one of them my fault, my new edition of this book has gone to the printer. Titled uncreatively Identifying Your Gifts and Service: Small Group Edition, it fills a need, expressed by a number of people who have taken my class series of the same name, for an edition of…
