Position · 1918

Cessationism

The view that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, such as tongues, prophecy and healing, ended with the apostles and are not given to the church today.

Holders argue that these gifts served to confirm the apostles and their message while the New Testament was being written, and that with the closed canon of Scripture they are no longer needed. God may still heal in answer to prayer, but not through gifted individuals. The classic modern statement is B.B. Warfield’s Counterfeit Miracles (1918). The view is common in Reformed and some Baptist and dispensationalist circles, though no tradition holds it uniformly. Critics, including continuationists, answer that the New Testament gives no clear end date for the gifts.