An Argument for the Cessation of the Miraculous Gifts

So a friend recently asked me about Biblical support for believing that speaking in tongues, prophecy, etc. have ceased.  The below is my attempt.

How do we understand Pentecost?
 It is important to gain an understanding of Pentecost as part of the historia salutis (history of salvation) and not the ordo salutis (salvation order). The historia salutis is concerned with those epochal events that are once-for-all time events, never to be repeated (Incarnation, Death/Resurrection/Ascension of Jesus). These are the major events planned and carried out by God so that the salvation of His people is made possible. The ordo salutis is concerned with those events that occur in the salvation of an individual (calling, regeneration, conversion, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, glorification). Every believer experiences the ordo salutis, but only because the events of the historia salutis have been carried out. Thus, the historia salutis acts as a foundation for the ordo salutis.
Charismatics/Pentecostals (Non-cessationists) would place Pentecost within the ordo salutis (maybe not explicitly, but implicitly). Baptism in the Holy Spirit as evidenced by the speaking of tongues is something to be sought after by every believer, much in the same way that believers are to pursue sanctification.
Cessationists places Pentecost within the historia salutis, meaning that Pentecost (just like the Incarnation and death of Jesus) is a one-time event, never to be repeated. Just like we don't seek for Jesus to become Incarnate again (He still has His human body in heaven!) or to die again for sinners, we should not seek Pentecost to happen again.
Support for this can be found in John 7:39, John 16:6, Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4 and Acts 2:39. All of these verses in context tie the coming of the Holy Spirit with the Ascension of Jesus. The Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Christ (John 14:15-28; Romans 8:9-11), could not come unless Jesus first ascended to the Father after His resurrection. Therefore, there is an explicit tie between the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost and the work of Christ here on earth. Thus, Pentecost belongs in the historia salutis. Pentecost is not an experience which is to be sought after by believers and repeated upon believers. To quote Gaffin, "Even less is it [Pentecost] the model for a postconversion, second-blessing experience of the Spirit to be sought by all believers in every generation of the church."

What about those chapters in Acts (8, 10, 19)  where the Spirit comes upon believers?
First, the theme verse of Acts is Acts 1:8 which states, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." This can be demonstrated in that Acts 1-7 deal with the church in Jerusalem; Acts 8-12 deal with the Church in Judea and Samaria; and Acts 28 ends with the church in Rome ("the ends of the earth").
These chapters in Acts demonstrate that the work of the Spirit (the Spirit of Christ remember) is spreading from the Jews throughout the whole world in the establishing of the church. Acts 8:14 states, "Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God." Acts 10:45 states, "And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles." Both times the coming of the Spirit signifies that Gentiles had been accepted into the family of God in a way that was evident to the first Jewish believers.
It is also important to note that Acts is talking about a "transition" time. There is movement from the Old Covenant dealing with the Jews to the New Covenant and its mystery of Gentile inclusion with the Jews. In the transition of anything (moving, marriage, parenthood, church planting, etc.), it is obvious that the transition only occurs once then things settle and continue in a normal pattern. You don't seek to repeat the transition period as things are changing in stages and there is no normal pattern.
Gaffin says it better than I can: "The attempt to read out of Acts 2 and the other passages a permanent model (ordo salutis) for receiving the Spirit creates a number of unanswerable questions: Does 'Holy Spirit baptism' take place at the same time as or subsequent to initial faith in Christ? The former is the case in chapter 10 and perhaps (but not indisputably) chapter 19, the latter in chapters 2 and 8. Before or after water baptism? The former in chapter 10, the latter in chapters 8 and 19, with chapter 2 giving no indication. With or without laying on hands? The former in chapters 8 and 19, the latter in chapters 2 and 10. These dilemmas simply show that the passages in question are being pressed into doing something Luke never intended."

When and who are baptized with the Holy Spirit?
According to 1 Corinthians 12:13, "we all" were baptized into 1 body in 1 Spirit. This 1 body is the Body of Christ (known as "union with Christ"), which is another name for the church. So individual members of the church have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is also described in Ephesians 1:13 as being "sealed with the promised Holy Spirit" which occurs after believing in Christ. Thus all who exercise faith in Christ are baptized with the Holy Spirit at the moment they exercise faith. Every believer has the Spirit. There are not 2 groups of believers: one Spirit-baptized and the other non-Spirit baptized. Again this connection can be seen in Romans 8:9 and Ephesians 2:11 (which in context is about Jew and Gentile being the same in Christ, again contradicting any sort of class distinction within Christ's Body).


Tongues
       1 Corinthians 14:2 states, “For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.” Setting aside the use of the word mystery, mysterion in Greek, in this verse, O. Palmer Robertson writes that the other twenty-seven occurrences of this word in the New Testament “talk about a ‘mystery’ as something once hidden but now revealed.”  Richard Gaffin Jr. scribed, “It [mystery] emphasizes that what is revealed is inaccessible to human effort and disclosed by God unilaterally.”  Therefore, at the core of the gift of tongues there lies a revelatory aspect that is inseparable from the gift. However, if “no one understands him [one who speaks in tongues]” (1 Cor 14:2), how can tongues be revelational?
        1 Corinthians 14:5 reveals that a person who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, “unless he interprets.” As Dr. Robertson writes, “According to the last phrase…tongues interpreted are equivalent to prophecy.”  Gaffin writes, “In chapter 2 [of Acts] tongues are prophecy. This is clear from Peter’s sermon where tongues, as the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2:28-32), are within the scope of ‘your sons and daughters will prophesy (v.17).”  As seen earlier, the cessationist views prophecy as being revelational. If interpreted tongues are functionally equivalent to prophecy, then tongues must be revelational as well.
        If interpreted tongues are equivalent to prophecy, then there are communicable, intelligent aspects to both. Clearly, Acts 2 reveals that the tongue-speaking at Pentecost constituted foreign languages as “each one of them [men from every nation] was hearing them [the disciples] speak in his own language (Acts 2:6).” The tongue-speaking recorded in Acts 10, is described as being of the same type as that recorded in Acts 2. There is no indication that the tongue-speaking in Corinth differed from that which occurred at Pentecost. Dr. Robertson writes, “Acts 2:4 speaks of ‘other tongues’, and 1 Corinthians 14:21 similarly refers to ‘other tongues’. The Greek is almost identical in both places, and may be translated ‘other languages’ in each case.”  Sinclair Ferguson writes, “In keeping with Paul’s application of Isaiah [to 1 Corinthians 14:21] then, it is more consistent to see the tongues in Corinth as foreign languages requiring translation and interpretation.”   

Prophecy
As O. Palmer Robertson wrote, “Prophecy is not a distinctly New Testament phenomenon, but one which dates back to the most ancient experiences of God’s people.”  He contended that the prophetic office was established in Deuteronomy 18, which describes the establishment as a result of the people of Israel asking Moses for a substitute to the terrifying experiences that they encountered on Mount Horeb.  Thus, the prophet, as a mediator, speaks the very words of God. As Exodus 7:1-2 states:
    Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I make you as God to Pharaoh,
    and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all
    that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh
    that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land.’
        Prophecy as the word of God given through the prophet-mediator does not necessarily have to be predictive in nature. “Moses’ main task in delivering the law at Sinai was not to predict the future, but to declare God’s revealed will.”  As the Exodus passage in the previous paragraph illustrates, Aaron simply proclaimed the words that Moses received from God. While some prophecy did predict the future, the substance of prophecy rests in the word of God being proclaimed through His mouthpiece. Prophecy is “the forthtelling of a revelation from God which on occasion also may involve the prediction of future events.”
        This connection of prophecy with divine revelation is key to the cessationist understanding. As O. Palmer Robertson writes, “If a person affirms that biblical prophecy continues today in either of its basic forms [forthtelling and foretelling], it should be clear that he [or she] is expressing belief that revelation continues today.”  Those who hold to a closed cannon agree that divine revelation ceased with the closing of the canon of Scripture. The revelation of God is fully contained within the Bible. The mediatory role is now fulfilled through Jesus Christ who indwells believers through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit now functions to illumine the heart and mind to the revelation contained within the Bible. Therefore, the gift of prophecy has ceased.
        
‍Some Final Considerations
It is widely acknowledged that Paul wrote the Pastoral Epistles (1/2 Timothy, Titus) at the end of his life and are the last of his canonical writings. In these books, it is interesting that there is hardly mention of any spiritual gifts. Timothy is charged to preach and teach the Word of God (1 Tim. 1:3, 4:11, 4:13, 4:16, 6:3; 2 Tim. 2:2, 4:2; Titus 2:1, 2:7). The qualifications given for leaders in the church do not include any of the miraculous gifts, but do include gifts of teaching (1 Tim. 3:1-13; 2 Tim. 2:24-26; Titus 1:5-16). Also, Paul commends Timothy to drink some wine for a stomach ailment he was having (1 Tim. 5:23). The mention of the gift of healing is conspicuously absent.
The Word of God is primary now because all of the revelatory and message-authenticating gifts (prophecy and tongues especially but also healing) have ceased. The message they authenticated as true and the message they revealed has now been written down in its completeness and fulness so that nothing else is needed. To say that divine revelation from God continues means that those speaking from God need to be writing their message down for all of God's church and adding to the Bible. The belief of continuing tongues and prophecy thus harms the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. Scripture's sufficiency is defined as, "The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men" (Westminster Confession of Faith 1.6). 2 Timothy 3:16-17 supports this affirmation: "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."


For Further Reading:
Perspectives on Pentecost: New Testament Teaching on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit by Richard Gaffin
The Final Word: A Biblical Response to the Case for Tongues and Prophecy Today by O. Palmer Robertson
The Holy Spirit by Sinclair Ferguson

Soli Deo Gloria