Some notes on the Holy Spirit

Like Father and Son, the Spirit is a divine person, God the Holy Spirit. The Spirit should always be called “He” not “it” since He is personal. The Spirit is not some impersonal force, like electricity.

The word “holy” means special or set apart. The Holy Spirit is unique and as God is set apart from all evil and sin.

The Spirit’s primary work is to draw us to Christ and to glorify Him (Jn 16:14). We are united to Christ in the Spirit. Indeed, the Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ (Rm 8:9; 1 Pt 1:11).

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Mt 1:20), was filled with and empowered by the Spirit (Lk 4:1, 14, 18) and offered himself to God on the cross through the Spirit (Heb 9:14). After he ascended into heaven, Christ sent his Spirit to his people.

Jesus calls the Spirit another counselor / advocate / comforter / helper (lit. one who is called alongside, like a defense lawyer) to the disciples (John 14:16, 26; 15:26). It is as if Jesus was their counselor in his earthly ministry and in his bodily absence, the Spirit takes his place as another counselor (although of course Jesus is with his disciples always Mt 28:20 – by the Spirit?).

The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin (John 16:7-11).

Believers are given new life by the Spirit (cf. Ez 37:1-14).

The Holy Spirit is a deposit or down payment (a kind of first installment) guaranteeing our salvation (2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; Eph 1:14).

The Spirit assures us that we are children of God (Rm 8:16).

The Spirit is the author of Scripture. The Bible is God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16). The word for “breath” or wind is the same word for “Spirit” in both the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament.

We should pray for the Spirit’s help when reading the Word he has caused to be written.

All Christians are indwelt by the Spirit (Rom 8:9). Though we should go on being filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18) we should not expect a second stage “Baptism in the Holy Spirit” as if there are two grades of Christians, Spirit-filled Christians and Spirit-less Christians.

Christ gives gifts of the Spirit to the church (1 Cor 12:1-11; Eph 4:11-16). It is good for us to consider what our gifts might be and try to use them for the common good (1 Cor 12:7). But the key is serving others, not focusing on being fulfilled by using our gifts. If there are needs and opportunities we might sometimes serve in areas where we don’t feel particularly gifted. Perhaps having a go at something will show us that we might have gifts we didn’t think we had. Sometimes others might see gifts in us we didn’t recognize ourselves.

The gifts of the Spirit are of course controversial. Bible-believing Christians disagree about them.

It seems in the Bible that the gift of “tongues”, or “languages”, is the supernatural ability to speak in foreign human languages that one has not learnt (Acts 2:4-12; 1 Cor 14:10-11, 21, quoting Is 28:11; with the “tongues of angels” in 1 Cor 13:1 not referring to the gift of tongues but seen as a rhetorical flourish describing eloquence). The Bible is clear that tongues should not be used in church unless there is an interpretation / translation and then only in an orderly manner, one speaker at a time (1 Cor 14:27-28).

Some have argued that there are two levels of prophecy in the Bible: Old Testament infallible “thus says the LORD” prophecy and a less authoritative New Testament prophecy along “I think the Lord might be saying to us…” lines. But it is hard to find this distinction in the Bible. The Bible warns against the terrible sin of false prophecy, where someone claims to say something that God does not say.

Many Bible-believing Christians would argue that tongues and prophecy were foundational gifts for the church and that since the completion of the New Testament canon of Scriptures and the end of the apostolic period these gifts are no longer needed and have ceased. See further O. Palmer Robertson, The Final Word: A Biblical Response to the Case for Tongues and Prophecy Today (Banner of Truth, 1993).

The Scriptures warn us of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders (2 Thess 2:9).

Whatever we say about the Holy Spirit, he wouldn’t want us to distract from the fullness and finality of the revelation in Christ (Heb 1:1-2) or the sufficiency of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16-17).

The Spirit works in us to produce in us the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22), which we might sum up as Christ-likeness.

History of cessationism / tongues and prophecy?

I asked about this a couple of years ago, but does anyone know where one might find a history of cessationism / claims to speak in tongues or prophecy?

Last time I quoted this from Packer:

Seventeenth-century England did not, to my knowledge, produce anyone who claimed the gift of tongues, and though claimants to prophetic and healing powers were not unknown, particularly in the wild days of the forties and fifties, the signs of 'enthusiasm' (fanatical delusion) and mental unbalance were all too evident.

(Among God's Giants, p290)

And for John Owen:

gifts which in their own nature exceed the whole power of all our faculties" [tongues, prophecy, healing powers] belong to "that dispensation of the Spirit [which] is long since ceased, and where it is now pretended unto by any, it may justly be suspected as an enthusiastical delusion

(Owen, Works, IV:518)

There's also Jonathan Edwards:

Since the canon of the Scripture has been completed, and the Christian Church fully founded and established, these extraordinary gifts have ceased.

(Jonathan Edwards, Charity & Its Fruits, 29)

The Westminster Confession of Faith, of course says:

I. Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence, do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of his will, which is necessary unto salvation; therefore it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his Church; and afterwards for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which maketh the holy Scripture to be most necessary; those former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people being now ceased.

(Chapter 1. Of the holy Scripture)

How much is cessationism the consensus position of the Reformed church? Or the Catholic church for that matter?

I guess one place to look would be:

B. B. Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles (New York: Charles Scribners, 1918).

The Wikipedia artilcle on Cessationism gives some leads and also links to some Cessationist articles at the Highway, including those by Charles Hodge, J. Gresham Machen and Richard Gaffin.

I could have done with a few lectures on this at Vicar factory!

Newman, Packer & Owen on Cessationism

There’s a lively discussion going on over at Christ and Covenant on prophecy and tongues.

I’ve commented that I'd quite like to be a cessationist. It seems more conservative (and therefore sound) and less crazy charismaniac to me.

I'm confused about how we fit together the sufficiency of scripture and continuation of prophecy (if there be any). Do we say to people "live according to the Bible and you can be sure you'll live a life according to God's will for you" or do we say "part of living according to the Bible is to listen out for the voice of God telling you his will for your life in a way that you couldn't have worked out with precision or confidence by thinking about the Bible and circumstances"? It seems to me like a question that matters.

I guess unless we think 2 Tim is the last bit of the Bible to be written and 3:16f needs to be read especially in the light of that, the sufficiency of Scripture (for the recipients of 2 Timothy) certainly does not rule out God giving extra additional (Scriptural) revelation later on that could not have been inferred from the previously given but then sufficient Scriptural revelation?

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Though it wouldn't prove anything conclusively, of course, it would be interesting to know the history of tongues and prophesy (with footnotes!).

In his work on John Owen on spiritual gifts, Packer comments that:

"Seventeenth-century England did not, to my knowledge, produce anyone who claimed the gift of tongues, and though claimants to prophetic and healing powers were not unknown, particularly in the wild days of the forties and fifties, the signs of 'enthusiasm' (fanatical delusion) and mental unbalance were all too evident." (Among God's Giants, p290)

For John Owen "gifts which in their own nature exceed the whole power of all our faculties" [tongues, prophecy, healing powers] belong to "that dispensation of the Spirit [which] is long since ceased, and where it is now pretended unto by any, it may justly be suspected as an enthusiastical delusion" (Owen, Works, IV:518)

If New Testament gifts of prophecy, healing-powers and tongues are for today it is weird (though I grant not impossible) that they went away for so long in so many places and that so many otherwise fairly biblical Christians fail to receive them today.