Cessationist Views and Beliefs - Essay Example

Depending on their level of belief against spiritual gifts, cessationists may be divided into four groups, classical, concentric, consistent, and full cessationists. In general, cessationists believe that cessation ended with the end of the apostolic era; beginning on the day of Pentecost and ending when the last apostle died to the fulfillment of the purpose of God in history. In other words, cessationists believe that miraculous activities were purposely meant to authenticate the church and to aid its stable establishment.

According to the Bible (Exodus 4:1-8), Moses was given the power to perform extraordinary works in order to establish his ministry before Pharaoh as being authentic. In a similar manner, Elijah before Ahab authenticated his ministry as noted in 1 King 17:1 and 18:24-25. In the New Testament, the book of Acts, the apostles performed miracle acts after they were filled with the Holy Ghost in replication of Jesus’ works.

In general, many authors have agreed that biblically, miracles may be clustered according to periods; Moses, the prophets including Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, among others,  the first coming of Jesus, and the Second coming of Christ. However, the Bible is silent in certain periods which may not mean that miracles did not happen at such times.

Citing scriptures such as Ephesians 2:20 and 1Corinthians 13: 8-10 and works written by people in ancient periods such as Justin Martyr, Augustine, Clement of Rome, and Origen among others, Cessationists make their claims against the existence of miracles today. However, a close analysis of these claims reveals that they go against the teachings of the bible concerning the continuation of spiritual gifts as stated in Romans 11:29.

Conclusion

While Cessationists in their different categories believe that God still has the power to perform miracles through humans, this never happens in the current day noting that God’s mission of establishing a stable church has been accomplished. In my view this is a wrong interpretation of the bible; I believe spiritual gifts in their fullness still exist. In many cases, the Cessationists clearly misinterpret biblical teachings and ignore certain scriptures. For example, Acts 1:8 states that gifts will be available to the church in their witnessing to the very end of the world. The gifts of God, in my view and in line with bible testimony (Rom 11:29), are not withdrawn and therefore will continue to be in existence till the second coming of Christ.