To all the speakers at the G3 Cessationist Conference and to all those who appeared in the Cessationist movie, I want to give you a personal invitation.
This is not a challenge, and this is not meant to be a provocation. Instead, this is a genuine, heartfelt invitation for the glory of God and the good of His people, an invitation to enter into a serious public dialogue about the cessationist-continuationist controversy.
Will you please take a moment to read on?
Since 2013, I have offered to debate any of the speakers from the Strange Fire conference on a simple topic: According to the Scriptures, are the gifts of the Spirit – including tongues and prophecy and healing – normative for today?
To date, none of the speakers responded to my invitation, although I subsequently had debates with Dr. Sam Waldron, Dr. Theodore Zachariades, and (in more limited form) with my friend and colleague Dr. James White.
Last year, at the invitation of Christianity Today, I wrote an article explaining why I was not a cessationist, offering to debate anyone who appeared in the cessationist movie or would be speaking at the conference. Pastor Andrew Rappaport, a Jewish believer in Jesus, like myself, was the only one to respond to the invitation, as he had participated in a previous, smaller cessationist conference and was a supporter of the movie. He actually reached out to churches in Oklahoma near the site of the upcoming cessationist conference area to see if any of them would be willing to host our debate the night the conference ended, but he got no takers.
Hopefully, Andrew and will be able to conduct that debate for the edification of the Church in the days ahead.
But for now, I want to offer an alternate proposal to any of the G3 speakers or to those who appeared in the movie: Let’s sit down together one on one in a full-length, non-hurried, non-timed discussion where clarity and understanding is our goal.
We will each lay out our positions in a private setting before video cameras, we will make sure we understand one another’s positions, we will have opportunity to challenge one another’s positions in a gracious way and to respond to those challenges.
Then, we will post the video for free viewing on our respective social media platforms for everyone to watch and evaluate for themselves.
Will you do it?
Recently, on August 20, I did something similar with a brilliant, ultra-Orthodox rabbi. He and I have been engaging in discussion since 2001, exchanging many hundreds of pages of documents and emails over the years along with countless conversations by phone. We’ve also had some limited YouTube interaction, with each of us posting a series of videos where we responded to one another.
But this was the first time that we sat together and conducted our discussion in public (it amounted to almost four hours of content), where questions were asked of one another and where greater clarification could come. The response to the video has been overwhelmingly positive. People in both the Jewish and Christian community are benefiting greatly by watching this dialogue and witnessing our respectful interaction.
How much more could we do this as brothers together in the Lord?
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I tried to become a cessationist. I didn't want to be Pentecostal or Charismatic anymore for a number of reasons, and I bought books arguing against the Pentecostal-Charismatic position, also dialoguing privately with those who rejected the charismatic gifts for today.
But the more I studied the Word, the more I was convinced that there was not a stitch of scriptural support for cessationism.
In fact, it is my belief that there is not a single verse in the Bible that supports the cessationist position and that the doctrine would have been utterly foreign to the Apostles and to the writers of the New Testament.
My own view is that cessationism is either based on one’s personal spiritual experiences or bad exegesis or faulty theological presuppositions (or all three).
You, for your part, feel you have very strong and robust Scriptural arguments against my position. You would also question my interpretation of the Word, my theological presuppositions, and my own spiritual experiences.
Fair enough! That’s why we need to have this discussion: the Body of Christ deserves it.
We will not debate contemporary miracles.
We will not debate contemporary abuses.
We will simply discuss one question: What does the Bible say?
Surely, you know that the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement is growing rapidly around the world, with an ever-increasing number of Reformed continuationists as well.
It is my conviction that there is a powerful, glorious wave of the Spirit sweeping the earth that cannot be stopped, mixed with many destructive excesses and even heresies that must be addressed. (For my relevant 2018 book, see here.)
In your view, this is a dangerous movement that is deceiving many that must be confronted as loudly and clearly as possible lest millions of people are led astray.
Suffice it to say that the stakes are high!
Let us, then, as leaders with platforms in the Body, have a respectful, face-to-face discussion, one where we will be sure that each of us is satisfied that we have been able to present our views and respond to relevant questions.
I’m more than happy to use the platforms that God has given me to expose viewers to your position, and I hope that you feel sufficiently confident in your point of view that you would be willing to expose your viewers to my position. And I’m happy to come your way to record or to fly you to North Carolina at my expense to record. We have a great studio and our team is ready to go.
And rather than try to score points or win a debate, we will present a discussion between leaders in the Body with the goal of magnifying Jesus, exalting the Word, and building up the people of God.
Are you in? You can reach out to me here.
Of course, if you are convinced that I am not a brother, I can only pray for God’s grace to flood your hearts afresh. Be assured that I hold no animosity towards you! I do hope, however, that at least one of you will take me up in this invitation.
May Jesus be glorified and may we all walk in the fullness of the Spirit for today.
