So, basically you are claiming that cessationists are similar to liberal individuals who deny the authority of Scripture as well as comparing them to Deists.
You could address the point I made. Doesn't a cessationist world view allow the world now, after the first century, to function the way these philosophies say it does? Benjamin Warfield's 'common sense realism' was an Englightenment philosophy.
To be honest, within the Reformed faith, they are very concerned about Scripture. They spend months going over a particular book like Romans, for instance. The sound ones practice expository teaching.
What are your services like? Do you cover books of the Bible, in context, in depth? Or, does your church do topical sermons, which can easily be manipulated through proof-texting without regard to context?
The church I go to now typically does topical teaching. Home groups have a variety of things they are doing. A recent series was on the judgment seat of Christ, going through scriptures on the topic. This church is an independent church that was formed by a merger of a Baptist church and an A/G along with a prayer ministry. Prior to that, there was a series on how God uses suffering in the lives of believers.
But I have been to Pentecostal services that teach week after week through a book. And I've also seen Sunday morning as topical and Sunday or Wednesday night services as verse by verse.
I've heard some preachers use prooftexts, and I've probably heard more of this from Charismatics than Pentecostal pastors. There are some country Pentecostal preachers who seem heavy on excitement and low on knowledge, too. Some of the Pentecostal churches in rural areas function a bit like missionary Baptists when it comes to preachers.
Or, do they spend their time involved in emotional frenzies, perhaps jumping pews and running laps around the church?
I think you are forming some stereotypes here over the type of emotional displays that make fodder for people compiling emotional displays in YouTube. Maybe once in my life, I remember the people a Full Gospel church marching around the church while singing a song during the worship time. I forget what the song was. It probably went along with what was being sung. I did attend services at a Charismatic Messianic service that might have actually been an A/G where they would get the Torah out and dance around while carrying it. That may have been after a church dinner though. Running in a frenzy is not typical of my experience. But some Charismatic churches have dancing and stuff like that based on the Psalm. Jewish believers may dance Jewish cultural dances and stuff like that. A lot of the Messianics are Charismatics, but not all. That's a small subset percentage-wise. The Psalms say '...praise His name with dancing....'
I've never seen jumping pews, swinging from chandeliers, or running on the top of pews in church. I've heard someone say something about 'swinging from the chandeliers' once, but it's not a real thing in my experience. I don't think I've ever seen anyone run a lap around the pews in the church unless I saw a healing service on TV or something like that where someone did that after their legs were prayed for.
Additionally, I do not deny that miracles occur, and do not claim God is detached. My main concern are questions such as, what is the gift of languages in the Bible? Is it still needed today? I am not satisfied with the typical continuationist claims.
A historical Pentecostal understanding is that tongues means languages--usually human languages
twitching in some type of a trance.
Btw, you know Peter and Paul went into trances in Acts.
Nor do I believe that dreams or visions are normative. Nor do I believe the charismatic claims by individuals about their healings and their resurrections.
Biblically, should dreams from God be considered normative or not? Job lived in the land of Uz, which was outside the land of Israel. There is no indication that he was an Israelite. The book of Job says that God speaks to a man in a dream to warn him of his ways. Pharoah and Nebucadnezzer had dreams to warn them or tell them of things to come. Someone in the Midianite camp had a dream foretelling what would happen. Pilate's wife had a dream.
Peter, quoting Joel said 'your old men shall dream dreams'. This is 'in the last days.' Biblically, what reason do you have for thinking the prophecy of Joel as Peter interpreted it would not apply now in the last days? If it applied in the first century, we are even further along in the last days now. Why would the statements in Job about God speaking through dreams not apply now?
I am asking for ____Biblical____ evidence, not a page out of systematic theology or something your faith community accepts, not even a confession. I am just asking for scripture. Is your reasoning on these things in any way based on scripture?
The continuationist position on this is that scripture regarding these things are still true and applicable. Shouldn't that be the default position? Isn't the burden of proof for the proposition that scripture no longer applies to this situation be on the cessationsists?
Regarding healing, if you believe that God heals, why wouldn't you believe that just maybe some oth
Do I believe healings and resurrections still occur? Yes....I just don't believe outlandish tales from unbalanced people. I would need to know that person to know if their accounts are credible or not.
My attitude is to keep an open mind. If a stranger tells me he was the dead raised, it could be true. But people can lie and misinterpret, too.
My wife and I hosted a New Year's prayer and fellowship gathering in Indonesia. Her people-group like to have family devotions on New Year's, and in the city away from her folks, we invited friends over. This one was a day-time gathering, rather than the night prayer time. But when we hosted, a friend brought someone who was a preacher in Papua. He claimed he had been raised from the dead... after a year of being dead. His wife kept everyone away from the body, and he claimed he woke up after a year.
Okay....maybe. I don't know the guy. I'm not going to say I believe him. I'm not going to say his claims are false. So I see where you are coming from on this. But it does seem like you have softened your position a bit on miracles and such. Given the fact that faith is related to healing in scripture, it does make sense to actually believe God will answer our prayers for healing and everything else when we pray.
And, as I have said, almost all continuationists I know are not credible.
Maybe you need to expand your circle of acquaintances. I've told you I've had some concerns with some of the WOF teachings. For me, the concerns aren't about associating faith with healing, because there is clearly some of that in scripture. That is something that Pentecostals an Charismatics believe in, drawing from scripture. Some of the WOFers do not believe God ever sent calamity and that it's all from the Devil, almost a dualistic way of looking at things, and various other doctrines and just weird random stuff from some of the TV preachers. But maybe I had a bit of a bad attitude toward them. Then while living overseas, I met some who seemed to be fairly solid evangelicals who didn't seem like some of the extreme TV preachers I'd seen. It changed my perspective a bit.
It might do you well to meet some 'credible' people from some different backgrounds you are not familiar with. I Corinthians 2 warns about divisions in the body, chapter 4 warns about strife. We are to love all the brethren, and not all are exactly like us.
Like I have said, I don't like using the words "continuationists" or "cessationists" anyways because that gives the impression that "cessationists" don't believe God heals or perhaps even resurrects people physically today. Either way it is not normative but is extraordinary.[/QUOTE]
I've never been to a psychiatrist or therapist. I've felt depressed a few days over a girl when I was young, but I wouldn't categorize that as an abnormal 'mental health' issue. 