Cessationism versus continuationism

Today, I had a conversation with a man. He asked me do I believe in once saved always saved? When people start a conversation with a question as a statement, I won’t debate or argue with them. It doesn’t matter whether he agrees or disagrees with my answers. It is unfortunate, people will test you because they have a disagreement with you about their beliefs.

Just like the Sadducees in Matthew 22, they tested Jesus regards to the resurrection. They only believed in the Pentateuch. They didn’t accept any later scriptures or oral traditions as the Pharasies. They also denied angels and spirits. I sensed set up, but I will always try to have healthy, and respectful talk. I walk in love and I told him that 1 Corn. 13, states without love everything is a tinkling brass and means nothing. I shared my thoughts to the best of my ability. I told him I believe in Jesus. I accepted Him as my personal Savior, and repented of my sins. I have a relationship with the Lord. He has been faithful to me and helped me through many difficult times. He asked me many other questions, if I believed in healing, spiritual gifts, etc. I boldly said, yes I do. Because God healed me. I told him how the Lord grew out my short leg at the knee many years ago.

I listened carefully to the Lord for my response. What should I say? I heard the Lord say, ask him if one of his beautiful daughters got sick. Wouldn’t he ask God to heal her? I stepped out boldly and said it. He didn’t say anything!

I made it clear that all the gifts are wonderful. Still, without love, they are nothing. They too will fade away. Only faith, hope and love remains, but the greatest is love. I believe the Lord wants us all to reach back to help others get up and over a hard spot. Walking in step with Jesus. He will guide us to see who needs a kind word. He will show us who needs a prayer. Jesus will help us find something that will help them understand what is happening in their life. We don’t want to be judgmental, or harsh. But we want to be respectful and considerate of others.

The man, who is a Southern Baptist minister, asked whether I believe in the gifts of tongues, and faith healing? He was pushing the questions and was anxious for me to confess. I told him, I am filled with the Spirit, he said oh no,Tamara! Like I committed the unpardonable sin. He seemed to be judging and said I base my faith on experience.
I said, no! The bottom line is I am saved based on my faith in Jesus. My confession and my repentance of sins guarantee this. Receiving Jesus as my personal Savior. I can’t enter heaven on anything else, but the shed blood of Jesus. His works on Calvary. It is not by my good works, tongues, prophecy, or my feelings! I have had plenty of times where feelings changed but my experience did not! I can still remember my salvation, my conversion and my submission to God.
I stood many years as a widow. I was alone with nothing but my faith. I clung for life to the hem on His garment. While all around me was chaos. The Lord kept me safe and my faith was stronger because of the severe trials. Not one person, but My God can know what I endured during this season. Accepting Jesus as our personal Savior and repenting of our sins is essential. But, we must also live a holy, godly, and sanctified life unto Jesus. Dying to flesh, and walking in the Spirit. Galatians 5:16-23.

Many Christians will throw you out with the bathwater because of your personal beliefs. How can anyone understand what you lived through but your God?! How many years of hardship and suffering? How harsh is man’s critical spirit, scrutinizing and interrogating others? So many have fallen away due to this. They have backslid. I have even heard stories of people leaving church and going into witchcraft. Because the church was unkind, they were ostracized by their own religion!

I personally, kept my heart in love. I won’t deny my love for Jesus and His presence, even when I don’t sense it. I will trust Him, as if my life depends on it. The man still wasn’t convinced of my salvation. He gave me a tract on how to avoid hell. It explained how to know if I would go to heaven or have eternal life. When he left, I watched him drive away. I made it a point to wave goodbye, but he didn’t even look my way. This is how I learned about the topic today.

2 Corinthians 13, the greatest gift is LOVE! “If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.But the greatest of these is love.”

The Pastor doesn’t believe in the gifts, tongues, or healing and says it was for another time. I quoted Isaiah 53:4-5. What about the scripture, “by My stripes you ARE healed?” It is as matter fact as anyone can be! You are and still are, and ARE is what matters, if you will believe it and received it. You ARE healed! By faith. Jesus even said, by your faith you are made whole. The Lexicon, Strongs # 7495. rapha: To heal, to cure, to restore.
KJV: cure, (cause to) heal, physician, repair, X thoroughly, make whole See H7503 
NASB: heal, healed, physicians, become fresh, heals, healing, purified.

Jehovah Rapha, “The Lord’s Hebrew name translates to, “ The Lord who heals”. Not, He did heal, but now he doesn’t feel like it. He decided He did enough of it in His short 3 year ministry. I am sorry for my sarcasm, but I can’t wrap my mind around it. Why would He rent the huge heavy curtain in the Holy of Holies? That curtain separated us from the presence of God. He certainly would want us to enjoy His fellowship. He gave us healing, a variety of gifts, spiritual revelations, prophecy, and speaking in a heavenly language. There is so much evidence of these truths. I just don’t understand how they can believe that. Denying the power within. I don’t take the energy to make arguments about it. It just doesn’t justify what the Lord did for ALL of the people. He died a cruel death. He suffered greatly for people to say that the gifts were to help them build the church.

Today, more than ever we need ALL He has for us. Even more than the beginnings of the New Covenant. We are in desperate need to have it in this hour. So much is being compromised and denied. Arguing over who can preach, and other doctrines. Just because it fits in your denomination regulations, or suits your ideology doesn’t make it true or right.

Why would so many experience miracles and healings, if He stopped!?

“ It signifies God’s role as the divine physician, capable of healing both physical and spiritual ailments. This name, Jehovah Rapha, emphasizes God’s power and willingness to restore wholeness to those who are broken.”  What a loving Savior. He is so kind, compassionate and loving! We all should strive to be more like our Lord. We see Jesus in daily life. He went from town to town. He met men, women, children, and families with great personal needs.

He is moved by their cries. However, God can’t push past human will. I told the man, one day we will know all things. We will stand before Him. We will all know the truth! Because His truth and our rosy color glasses don’t match! He is not in error!

The Lord guided me to Matthew 22:29. The Pharisees came to test Jesus, and He was aware of it! Problem was, they didn’t know the Word of God nor the power of God. They only wanted to trip him up, argue, and justify their stand. As you read further down the chapter, you will see Jesus silenced them. They didn’t dare ask anything else.

After the conversation with the Pastor, I thought what am I dealing with? I googled and found the words Cessationism and Continuationism. I was asking the Lord for help because I wanted to understand. I desire to help the one who isn’t strong in their faith. Someone can easily feel tripped up and confused by this type of conversation. Many are wounded by others who use the Bible and doctrine to thump people over the head. I am sure there are well meaning people everywhere who do this. It saddens me. The Lord was grieved by religious leaders and people. Their actions are destructive to the building of His Kingdom.

We need to talk about how this affects the Church, and those who serve Jesus. It is a division, and a chasm. It made me think what a waste of belief, denying what Jesus did for each person He died for. He came to give us life, and not just life but an abundant life. It is a shame people believe this way. Saying so much is not for today! Denying the power of God. Feels such a sad shame. Considering, all Jesus Christ did out of His great love for people. He gave His all, died, suffered and sent His Holy Spirit. To break off the curse and then it stopped!?? Why would He stop it? He changed the whole pattern of the religious practice in Israel. Look thru the Bible and read the book of Acts and Hebrews. Read of all the prophets prophesying of future events, and still all the things Revelations say, that haven’t happened yet. God is still evolving His grand vision. He has plans for the great awakening of the world. Many people from different cultures and religions are being saved. Today, we see that there is a move of God in the earth!

In Iran, people are getting saved because Jesus is showing up in their dreams, to reveal Himself to them. He is making Himself real to the people going to Him in prayer for the truth! How can anyone deny that testimony? Not just one but many! I didn’t share this with him, and I am sure that he would have been undone by hearing that.

Let’s recognize one thing. Pointing the finger and judging others is a common thing that most denominations all do. Sadly, it is a part of the fallen nature. It is a sin. Judge not, least you be judged. Are you going to judge with mercy, or are you going to be without? According to James, that is the way God will treat you.

How dare anyone question a personal experience that someone lived through!? It is ignorance that makes people think they have all the answers and knowledge. The letter of the law kills, but the Spirit brings life! Matthew 5:17-18 Jesus, states, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” This verse emphasizes that Jesus came to uphold the law, but also to reveal its deeper meaning and purpose. 2 Corinthians 3:6 further clarifies, “For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” It’s finished, doesn’t mean, He is done. Why would the curtain rent in two!? He wanted us to live in peace with Him. We can boldly enter His presence. We can enjoy the freedom of walking in the garden with Him again. He waited a very long time, to have that phase restored. The devil is out to rob, steal and destroy, But I have come that they may have eternal life.

The Lord used Paul, a religious scholar, to evangelize the Gentiles and the world as He knew it. Peter and other disciples were sent to transform Asia. They evangelized the area’s they felt God say to go. God did a clean up in the Churches affected by other religious practices and idol worship. There was too much anointing and power of God going on during that move, it transformed hearts. And today, the same. Yet, as in that day, it is quenched by the spirit of religion, dogma and lack of understanding.
He said, I base my faith on experience! Again, he doesn’t know me or my story. What about the stories of Joseph and David? What about Lazarus and the lame man at the gate Beautiful? Consider Mary Magdalene, blind Bartimaeus, and the Woman at the Well. What of their testimonies and their transformation, experience and their change? Noone can take it away from them! They can’t deny what Jesus did in their lives. They had a personal encounter, a deep connection and they were delivered, changed and impacted by Jesus’ love!

What do these words mean?
Cessationism, is the theological belief that certain spiritual gifts, particularly those of a supernatural nature like speaking in tongues, prophecy, and healing, ceased to be given to believers after the apostolic age, or the time of the early church. Essentially, cessationists believe these gifts were temporary and served a specific purpose in the early church’s establishment, but are no longer needed or active today.

Continuationism is a Christian theological belief that the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual gifts, have continued to the present age. Continuationism as a distinct theological position arose in opposition to cessationism. It is often manifested in advocacy of the recovery of spiritual gifts in the Church today. It also encompasses any tradition that does not argue the gifts have necessarily ceased.

That day, 2 people stood in the room, representing Cessationism versus continuationism. We both represented our beliefs. He was firm in His. I was firm in mine! Cessationism versus continuationism is a thing today. We will be dealing with many different types of problems as we wind down the clock to the next era. The devil is not just hindering the believer. It is meant for them to question their faith and their beliefs system. To get the believer to doubt and reason in their intellect. We will be in a position where the truth will prevail and shake up the room you’re standing in. Demons get angered because of your existence. You will sense the mockery of the people who are lost. Those who are not saved or serving the fallen nature are unsubmitted vessels. The enemy will use them to mock, gossip, and revile against you. These spirits hate you. You can sense all of hell pushing up against your back. This is where you must dig in your heels in and put your focus on the Lord! The author and finisher of your faith. You are standing out like a sore thumb with unbelievers.

When he left that day, he drove by the window. I saw a man upset. That was sad. In 2 Corn. it says, all of the gifts will pass away. Salvation isn’t based on the spirit filled life, but on faith in God. That shouldn’t be an issue. That’s not good enough for ministers who don’t want to treat others as they should. We all will stand before the Lord alone. Truth will be revealed that day. All the fussing and needless nonsense of doctrine and religion will be revealed. Seems like a waste of oxygen. Why can’t we just embrace each other in love, and not worry about the jots and tittles. They really don’t amount to diddly squat. In a literal sense, “jot” refers to the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet (yod). “Tittle” refers to a small mark or stroke that distinguishes similar letters.