Cessationism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cessationism - 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 fulfilment of the purpose of God in history1. In other words, cessationists believe that miraculous activities were purposely meant to authenticate the church and to aid its stable establishment2. 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 Kings 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 Christ3. 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 today4. However, a close analysis of these claims reveal that they go against the teachings of the bible concerning the continuation of spiritual gifts as stated in Romans 11:29. 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