The Heresy of Perfectionism
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This scripture is speaking of those without Jesus Christ.
He gave us God's perfect righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ that we are SUPPOSED to live in. Because of our faith in Jesus Christ, He gave us the righteousness of God ("He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him". -2nd Cor. 5). Because of that righteousness we have been given, we are to live our lives in that righteousness ("As He is so are we in this world". - 1 John 4:17).
He gave us God's perfect righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ that we are SUPPOSED to live in. Because of our faith in Jesus Christ, He gave us the righteousness of God ("He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him". -2nd Cor. 5). Because of that righteousness we have been given, we are to live our lives in that righteousness ("As He is so are we in this world". - 1 John 4:17).
N
Amen, it is God's righteousness not our's, sadly there are those that feel that they are 100 percent perfect, at all times, in speech and deed, without spot or blemish. I think is silly, without Jesus we are nothing.
We must renew our minds daily( Romans chapter 12 verse 2), pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5 verse chapter 17), and have no confidence in the flesh (Philippians chapter 3 verse 3).
He who think's he stands should take need, lest he fall, (1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12).
The reason we renew our mind's and pray, is because the human flesh is not perfect.
If we were indeed perfect, we would have no need of this.
If we were to honestly think about it, we would be able to see this simple truth, but sadly, as in Jesus day, we have modern day pharisee that dwell among us. In Jesus day its seems the scribe and pharisee were part of the scenery, little has changed.
We must renew our minds daily( Romans chapter 12 verse 2), pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5 verse chapter 17), and have no confidence in the flesh (Philippians chapter 3 verse 3).
He who think's he stands should take need, lest he fall, (1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12).
The reason we renew our mind's and pray, is because the human flesh is not perfect.
If we were indeed perfect, we would have no need of this.
If we were to honestly think about it, we would be able to see this simple truth, but sadly, as in Jesus day, we have modern day pharisee that dwell among us. In Jesus day its seems the scribe and pharisee were part of the scenery, little has changed.
All I can say is say it again sister YES!
personally I shall bear my cross until this earthly body is of no more use to Lord then shall I sleep with my fathers if that is his will and await the great day of judgement when we all shall rise and stand before the Lord! Man I`m getting goosebumps!!!
corripiens iridis manet
personally I shall bear my cross until this earthly body is of no more use to Lord then shall I sleep with my fathers if that is his will and await the great day of judgement when we all shall rise and stand before the Lord! Man I`m getting goosebumps!!!
corripiens iridis manet
that is CHRIST'S RIGHTEOUSNESS IMPUTED TO OUR FILTHY ACCOUNT.
we have a desire to pursue righteousness now...something that was IMPOSSIBLE BEFORE THE GOD OF GLORY CAME AND LIFTED US OUT OF HELL.
and sometimes we do okay. NEVER EVER EVER EVER enough to warrant standing before PURE LIGHT AND HOLINESS, made right by CHRIST Crucified.
Sola Scriptura - Scripture Alone
Solus Christus - Christ Alone
Sola Gratia - Grace Alone
Sola Fide - Faith Alone
Soli Deo Gloria - The Glory of God Alone
Unwarranted confidence in human ability is a product of fallen human nature ... God's grace in Christ is not merely necessary but is the sole efficient cause of salvation. We confess that human beings are born spiritually dead and are incapable even of cooperating with regenerating grace. We reaffirm that in salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by his grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life. We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature. - Cambridge Declaration
we have a desire to pursue righteousness now...something that was IMPOSSIBLE BEFORE THE GOD OF GLORY CAME AND LIFTED US OUT OF HELL.
and sometimes we do okay. NEVER EVER EVER EVER enough to warrant standing before PURE LIGHT AND HOLINESS, made right by CHRIST Crucified.
Sola Scriptura - Scripture Alone
Solus Christus - Christ Alone
Sola Gratia - Grace Alone
Sola Fide - Faith Alone
Soli Deo Gloria - The Glory of God Alone
Unwarranted confidence in human ability is a product of fallen human nature ... God's grace in Christ is not merely necessary but is the sole efficient cause of salvation. We confess that human beings are born spiritually dead and are incapable even of cooperating with regenerating grace. We reaffirm that in salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by his grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life. We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature. - Cambridge Declaration
E
It is not our righteousness which makes us holy. It is God who is in us that makes us right.
Rom 8 : 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness
My bvodyu is still dead because I still sin.
My Spirit is alive because of God who is in me. It is his righteousnbess. not mine
Rom 8 : 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness
My bvodyu is still dead because I still sin.
My Spirit is alive because of God who is in me. It is his righteousnbess. not mine
E
Think about it. I NEVER KNEW YOU. Major thing we all must look at. He will never say I knew you but you went away from me and forfeited my gift by returning it. HE SAID I NEVER KNEW YOU. People who try to work to earn Gods gift will be left on the outside looking in. Screaming they did all these things for Christ. And Christ will say I NEVER KNEW YOU. They better listen now before it is too late!
I completely agree Christ made us righteous. We are supposed to live in that righteousness we've been given; not as sinners.
"Walk in the light as He is in the light", yes? You "were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light...And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose [them]."
"Walk in the light as He is in the light", yes? You "were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light...And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose [them]."
ON CESSATIONISM:
Jon Ruthven, PhD, Professor, Systematic and Practical Theology
School of Divinity, Regent University – Virginia Beach, VA 23464-9871
The doctrine that revelatory and miraculous spiritual gifts passed away with the apostolic
age may best be approached by examining the central premises of the most prominent
and representative modem expression of cessationism, Benjamin B. Warfield’s
Counterfeit Miracles (CM). The thesis of this paper is that Warfield’s polemic–the
culmination of a historically evolving argument–fails because of internal inconsistencies
with respect to its concept of miracle and its biblical hermeneutics.
Contemporary cessationism stands upon certain post-Reformation and Enlightenment
era conceptions of miracle-as-evidence, upon highly evolved, post-biblical emphases
about the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of God and their normative expressions in the world.
The central fault of Warfield’s cessationism is that it is far more dogmatically than
scripturally based. His cessationism represents a failure to grasp the biblical portrayal of
the eschatological outpouring of the Spirit of prophecy, expressed characteristically in
the charismata, which are bestowed until the end of this age by the exalted Christ as
manifestations of the advancing Kingdom of God.
review:
1) the historical evolution of cessationism and the concept of miracle on which it depends;
2) to survey the theological setting in Scripture against which the cessationist polemic
must be examined;
3) to scan a few representative passages of Scripture which summarize the recurring
theme in the NT that Spiritual gifts are granted for the advance of God’s kingdom and the
maturity of the church until the end of this present age. This will be followed by a review
of some biblical principles applicable to cessationism. [NEXT POST]
I. The Historical Evolution of Cessationism and Its View of Miracle
Benjamin Warfield’s “Protestant polemic” against continuing miracles is “Protestant” in
that it seeks to protect the core principle of religious authority on which his tradition vas
based: the final, normative revelation of Christ in Scripture. From before the turn of the
century until Warfield responded with his work, Counterfeit Miracles in 1918, Protestant
religious authority had come under increasing attack, in Warfield’s view, from a variety of
competing religious movements. Warfield perceived that these religious bodies e.g.,
Roman Catholics, proto-pentecostals like the Irvingites, faith healers, as well as Christian
Scientists and the theological liberals, were, to some degree heterodox, because they all
shared an ominous flaw in faith or practice: openness to contemporary miraculous gifts.
Cessationism did not originate within orthodox Christianity, but within normative Judaism
in the first three centuries of the common era. An early form of cessationism was directed
at Jesus. One of the accusations which led to Jesus’ execution was that he had violated
the commands of Deuteronomy 13 and 18, which forbid performing a sign or a wonder to
lead the people astray after false gods. The Mishnah and Talmud developed a
sophisticated cessationist polemic, used not only against early charismatic Christians, but
intramurally within Judaism by competing rabbis. (See Fredrick E. Greenspahn, “Why
Prophecy Ceased.” JBL 108 1 [Spring 1989]: 37-49).
Christian theologians at first attacked Jews with their own cessationism, but not until the
fourth century did they employ the polemic against other Christians. These apologists,
e.g, Justin and Origen, argued that God had withdrawn the Spirit of prophecy and miracles
from the Jews and transferred it to the Church as proof of her continued divine favor.
Thus they-came to share with Jews an aberrant view of miracle: evidentialism. That is,
the primary, if not exclusive, function of miracles is to accredit and vindicate the bearer of
a doctrinal system.
Against some Christian sects who claimed unique access to the Spirit, or that the
charismata would cease with them, the orthodox repeatedly cited 1 Corinthians 13:10 as
proof for the continuation of spiritual gifts in all the Church until the parousia. By the time
of Chrysostom (d. 407), however, cessationism provided the ecclesiastical hierarchy with
a ready rationale against complaints of diminished charismatic activity in mainline
churches. Their cessationist arguments ran in two contradictory directions. Miracles
appeared unconditionally: required as scaffolding for the Church, which, once established
no longer required such support; or conditionally: that if the Church became more
righteous, the charismata would reappear.
John Calvin turned the cessationist polemic against Roman Catholicism and the radical
reformation, undercutting their claims to religious authority they based on miracles and
revelations. Calvin popularized the restriction of miracles to the accreditation of the
apostles and specifically to their gospel, though he was less rigid about cessationism than
most of his followers. Nevertheless from Aquinas through the Enlightenment, the concept
of miracle assumed an increasingly rationalistic cast, until it became a cornerstone of the
Enlightenment apologetic of Locke, Newton, Glanville and Boyle, but a millstone in Hume.
Hume’s skepticism about the possibility of miracles, the ultimate cessationist polemic
(which exemplified Warfield’s historical critical method in his examination of post-biblical
miracle claims),precipitated the response of Scottish Common Sense Philosophy (SCSP),
a somewhat rationalistic apologetic made widely popular by William Paley’s Christian
Evidences. Paley argued from the divine design of nature, predictive (Messianic) prophecy
and from (biblical) miracles. SCSP epistemology was short-lived in Europe but came to
dominate American thought so thoroughly that for about a century, the Romantic
reaction, so widespread in Europe, scarcely gained a foothold.
Nowhere had the Enlightenment era Scottish philosophy been more warmly nurtured than
at Princeton seminary, where Warfield was its last major expression. Warfield seems
unconscious of the impact of SCSP on his thought. but his CM rests solidly on its
epistemology, and from it, his concept of miracle, discernible as such to anyone of
“common sense.”
Warfield’s concept of miracle required an essentially deistic view of nature invaded by a
supernatural force so utterly transcendent that, to an impartial observer acquainted with
the facts, no possible natural “means” could produce such an effect. A miracle must be
instantaneous, absolute and total to qualify. A startling, dramatic healing may occur
today so that “the supernaturalness of the act may be apparent as to demonstrate God’s
activity in it to all right-thinking minds conversant with the facts.” But to call such an
event a miracle is to obscure the division between miracles and the “general
supernatural” (CM, 163). Similarly, Warfield divides NT spiritual gifts into those which are
“distinctively gracious” (“ordinary gifts”) and those which are “distinctly miraculous”
(“extraordinary”) gifts.
On the one hand, Warfield insists that making such distinctions is “simply a question of
evidence,” (The Selected Shorter Writings of Warfield [Philppsburg: Presbyterian and
Reformed, 19731, 175) and on the other a matter of one's a priori. It is no surprise, then,
that when Warfield spends perhaps 97% of CM "sifting" the evidence on post biblical
miracles throughout Church history, he arrives at "an incomparable inventory of
objections to the supernatural." (Colin Brown, Miracles and the Critical Mind [Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984], 199). Warfield at the outset has already decided their fate when
he insists that miracles may only occur as “the credentials of the Apostles” and
“necessarily passed away with them” (CM, 6). Warfield’s cessationism involves a double
standard: in CM he applies the same rationalistic critical methods as Hume and Harnack
to postbiblical miracles that he attacks in liberal critics who apply them to the biblical
accounts.
Biblically, discernment of a miracle is neither “simply a question of evidence,” nor is it
simply based on one’s a priori position. A miracle is an event perceived, in varying
degrees of accuracy (e.g., John 12:29), by divine revelation. “The natural man cannot
accept the matters [gifts] of the Spirit” for they are “discerned by the Spirit” (1 Cor 2:14).
Not only is Warfield’s understanding of miracle-discernment unbiblical, but his
understanding of their function as well. By demanding a strict evidentialist function for
miracles, Warfield confuses the sufficiency of revelation, i.e., in the unique historical
manifestation of Christ and essential Christian doctrine, with the ongoing means of
communicating, applying and actualizing that revelation, i.e., via such charismata as
prophecy and miracles. We see below that the charismata do not so much accredit the
Gospel as they express and concretize the Gospel. Just as sound and inspired preaching
applies, but does not change, the all-sufficient Scripture, so true gifts of prophecy,
knowledge or wisdom reveal human needs, directing them to God’s truth within the
eternally-sealed limits of the biblical canon. Just as gifts of administration or hospitality
tangibly express the gospel and advance the kingdom of God, but do not alter its
doctrinal content, so likewise, gifts of healing and miracles.
For Warfield, the inerrant authority of Scripture was the bedrock of his theology. So it is
ironic that in only a few scattered pages of CM does he seek scriptural support for his
cessationist polemic.
II. The Eschatological, Charismatic Spirit
Manifests the Advance of the Kingdom of God until the Parousia.
Warfield’s polemic failed to comprehend the broad sweep of biblical theology when it
addressed the crucial eschatological dimension of the charismata in pneumatology and in
the presentation of the kingdom of God. These doctrines, as they appear in classical
Protestant systematic theologies, have been grotesquely misshapen by a long evolution
of tangential dogmatic conflicts. Even after competent biblical studies have been
published on these areas, not only Warfield, but most other systematicians have been
reluctant to utilize the results. Warfield’s evidentialist function for miracles,
thefoundation for cessationism, is reductionistic and superficial in view of the dominating
role for miracles in the biblically formulated, eschatologically conditioned doctrines of
pneumatology and the kingdom of God.
A. A Biblical Doctrine of the Holy Spirit Is Inimical to Cessationism
Warfield’s desire to limit the Spirit’s contemporary miraculous and revelatory work is not
only to confuse the finality of revelation with its mode of presentation and application,
but also to change the essential character of the Holy Spirit as biblically defined and to
alienate his pneumatology from its clear and authoritative biblical grounding. If we apply
Warfield’s own biblical hermeneutic to every scriptural context on the Holy Spirit, it
reveals a profile of the Spirit’s activity that is characteristically, if not exclusively,
miraculously charismatic–the virtual consensus of serious biblical scholarship.
Specifically, in a broad sense, the Spirit of the Bible is the Spirit of prophecy. To speak of
the Spirit’s “subsequent [post-apostolic] work” as functioning only within the Calvinistic
ordo salutis, demonstrates that the Holy Spirit of post Reformation cessationism is far
removed from the portrayal of the Spirit in the canonical Scriptures. Most significantly,
Warfield’s pneumatology fails to account for the great Old Testament promises of the
specifically prophetic Spirit to be poured out upon all eschatological generations who
believe, beginning with those in the New Testament era (Isa 47:3; 59:21; Joel 2:28-32; cf.
Acts 2:4, 38).
B. A Biblical Doctrine of the Kingdom of God Is Inimical to Cessationism
Warfield failed also to address the important implications of the doctrine of the kingdom
of God. Its nature is essentially that of warfare against the kingdom of Satan and its
ruinous effects (Mt 4:23; 9:35; 10:6,7; 12:28 Lk 11:20; Lk 9:2,60; 10:1-2,9,11; Acts 10:38).
The NT teaches that Jesus’ earthly mission was to inaugurate the kingdom of God in
charismatic power, and that he is to continue that mission through Christian believers,
beginning with his disciples and their converts and continuing until the end of the age. As
a rabbi’s good disciples, his followers are to duplicate and continue exactly his work
(“teaching them to obey all that I commanded you,” Mt 28:20), in this case, to
demonstrate and articulate the inbreaking Kingdom. This is shown by:
1) an analysis of the commissioning accounts of Mt 10, Mk 6; Lk 9 and 10; Mt 28:19-20 [cf
24:14]; Lk 24:49 and Acts 1:4,5,8);
2) the characteristic way in which the kingdom was demonstrated articulated in Acts; and
3) by the summary statements of Paul’s ministry among the Gentiles throughout his
epistles (Rom 15:18-20; 1 Cor 2:4; 2 Cor 12:12; 1 Th 1:5, cf. Acts 15:i2).
Thus, the “signs of a true apostle,” or of any Christian, do not accredit anyone as a bearer
of orthodoxy, but rather, characterize the way in which the commissions of Jesus to
proclaim and demonstrate (“in word and deed”) the eschatological kingdom of God are
normatively expressed by any believer. Whether in the context of an unevangelized
crowd of pagans, or within the Church community itself, wherever the Spirit displaces the
kingdom of darkness in its various manifestations of evil, whether sin, sickness or
demonic possession, the kingdom of God has provisionally arrived. Such victories of
repentance, healing or other restoration from the demonic world, represent a continuing,
though partial experience of the fully realized and uncontested reign of God to come.
The essential nature of the kingdom of God is divine power–directed toward reconciliation
of man to God, of righteousness, peace and joy–displacing the rule and ruin of the
demonic (“The kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in dunamis,” 1Cor 4:20). Of the
98 contexts of divine dunamis in the NT, 65 refer to what the Protestant tradition would
designate as “extraordinary” or “miraculous” charismata, 33 of the cases refer to the
power of God without clear indication in the immediate context as to the exact way in
which God’s power is working. See the discussion of the Holy Spirit and his relation to
charismatic power in the appendix of my dissertation, “On the Cessation of the
Charismata,” esp. p. 323. The New Testament miracles do not appear simply to accredit
preaching (or, “the word”); rather the preaching in most cases articulated the miracle,
placing it in its Christological setting and demanding a believing and repentant response.
Presently, the exalted Christ continues to pour out his charismata upon his Church to
empower his kingdom mission until the end of the age (see sec. 11,D, below). It is simply
unbiblical to say as Warfield does, that after an initial outpouring of spiritual gifts in the
apostolic age to reveal and establish Church doctrine, the exalted Christ’s “work has been
done.”
C. The Specifically Eschatological Dimension of the Doctrines of
Pneumatology and the Kingdom of God Is Inimical to Cessationism
Warfield’s failure to grasp the eschatological implications for cessationism is perhaps the
most crucial. He nowhere notices that the Old Testament promises of the Spirit of
prophecy and miracles apply to the entire time between the t-o comings of the Messiah;
that Jesus’ “authority power” granted in his commissions to his Church is extended to all
nations and is to continue until the end of the age–a frequently repeated theme in the
New Testament epistles. The Spirit of revelation and power is bestowed all during this age
as his own “downpayment,” “first-fruits” or “taste” of “the powers of the age to come,”
until the time of the fullness of the Spirit in the consummated kingdom of God. The first
coming of Jesus represented, in Oscar Cullmann’s metaphor, “D-Day” the decisive battle
(properly at the resurrection) which raged on, with its sufferings, victories and defeats,
toward its ultimate victory at “V-Day” (the parousia). Below are diagrams of the Old and
New Testament views of history which originated from a Princeton Seminary colleague of
Warfield’s, Gerhardus Vos, in his Pauline Eschatology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1930; repr., 1961), 38.
on-the-cessation-graphic1
The New Testament introduces the overlapping period of the Messianic reign, during
which time the Church carries out the final commission by the power of the Spirit sent
from the exalted Lord Jesus. The first descending and ascending lines represent the
incarnation, inauguration of the Kingdom and ascension of the Messiah Jesus, and the
third, his parousia at the end of this present age:
on-the-cessation-graphic2
The New Testament expressly ties the presence of the charismata to the exalted
Lordship of Jesus. During his earthly ministry, Jesus promises the Spirit to “those who
believe in him” only after he was exalted: “Up to that time the Spirit had not yet been
given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (Jn 7:39). Similarly, the Paraclete cannot
come until Jesus has gone to the Father (16:7,17). The “greater -works” of those who
believe in him can be performed only because Jesus goes to his Father (14:12). Peter
continues the same theme in Acts: “Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from
the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and has poured out what you now see and hear”
(2:33). The same Jesus whom God has made “both Lord and Christ” now, on the basis of
repentance and baptism, will bestow the gift of the Holy Spirit to all (2:36b,38-39). Against
this brief sketch of the place of charismata in biblical theology, which was largely
available in the scholarship of his day, Warfield never made a reply.
Finally, Warfield the exegete, beyond his failure to engage the theological issues above,
failed even to acquaint himself with the brief, but significant passages of Scripture which
in and of themselves taught the continuation of the charismata. It is because Warfield is
first and foremost the biblicist, and because he claims to have structured his whole
polemic on “two legs,” an investigation into history and scripture, that his omission is so
glaring and so disappointing.
This article is an adaptation of Chapter 4 from the book based on the author’s PhD
dissertation, On the Cessation of the Charismata: The Protestant Polemic on Post-biblical
Miracles (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield University Academic Press, 1993).
[Warfield wanted a sign, 'miracles' -- Then came Finney (and the SDA, and Joe Smith/The
Mormons -- Then came the Civil War]