God’s Word Heard

In this, the final chapter of God Has Spoken, Dr. Packer reminds us that hearing God’s word (which doesn’t just involve being in earshot of it, but taking it to heart and living it out) depends on our openness to the Holy Spirit’s work. He writes:

It is the promised privilege of all Christians, we are told, to be ‘taught by God’ (Jn. 6:45, citing Is. 54.13), and it is the Spirit of God who teaches them. The Spirit who taught all things to the apostles (Jn. 14:26, 16:13f.; I Cor. 2:10, 13) is the ‘anointing’ that teaches all Christ’s people (I Jn. 2:27). He teaches us not by fresh disclosures of hitherto unknown truth, like those whereby the apostles were taught, but by enabling us, who, being fallen, are by nature wholly insensitive and unresponsive to God and the things of God, to acknowledge the reality, recognize the divinity, and bow to the authority, of divine facts and truths set before us, and to see how they bear on our lives. Historically, theologians have called this work illumination, or enlightenment, or the inner witness of the Spirit. It was to this work that our Lord referred when he said that the Spirit’s task was to convict (Jn. 16:8). By it, the Spirit authenticates the prophetic and apostolic word to our consciences as being, in truth, what it claims to be, God’s message, just as He authenticates Jesus Christ to us as being, in truth, what He claimed to be, God’s Son and our Saviour. The Spirit brings us to acknowledge the divinity claimed by, and for, Christ on the one hand, and the Scriptures on the other, as being, in truth, self-evidencing; thus He leads us to bow to the conjoint authority of both. He further enables us to grasp what both are saying to us, and works in our minds and hearts to apply the divine instruction effectively, and make us respond. It was through the Spirit’s work that the Thessalonians, having ‘received the word of God, which you heard from us [Paul]… accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God’. It was also in virtue of the Spirit’s action that Paul could speak of his message as a word which ‘is at work in you who believe’ (I Thess. 2:13). But are we open to this working of the Spirit?

Packer entitles the last section of this chapter, ‘Finding the Word of the Lord’, pointing to the beginning of a solution he raised at the outset, that in spite of all the Biblical study and knowledge of the day in which he was writing, and we might well say ours too, our churches suffer from a ‘famine of hearing the words of the Lord’. He calls for all Christians to be engaged in Bible study, affirming that the Spirit teaches not just the scholar but the layperson from his Word. But that in turn requires expository preaching when the church gathers together, and indeed, it is that preaching which is the primary means by which Christians grow:

What does make Bible study harder for laypeople nowadays than it used to be is the widespread breakdown of the great evangelical tradition of large-scale expository preaching Sunday by Sunday from our pulpits. The New Testament pattern is that public preaching of God’s Word provides, so to speak, the main meals, and constitutes the chief means of grace, and one’s own personal meditations on biblical truth should come in as ancillary to this, having the nature of a series of supplementary snacks - necessary, indeed, in their place, but never intended to stand alone as a complete diet. There is something deeply unnatural and unsatisfactory in a situation where the people of God have to rely entirely on personal Bible study for their spiritual nourishment, due to a lack of effective expository preaching in public worship.

Jeff Meyers on Tongues

HERE’s a great post on tongues from Jeffrey Meyers.

His basic thrust is that what passes for tongues today is nothing like tongues in the church of the apostles, which have no relevance for the church now. They were non-Hebraic languages to instruct the Gentiles, confirm his gifts to them and manifest his judgment against the Jews, provoking them to jealousy, as per Deut. 28:49, 32:19-22, Isa. 28:11-12, 66:18, 1 Cor. 14:20-25.

Tongues were so prominent in Corinth because the church met right next door to the synagogue (Acts 18.7). During the transition period until around 70AD when God was inaugurating his international church, he provoked unbelieving Jews to jealousy with foreign languages (presumably this ceased at around that time because judgment finally fell on the Jewish nation with the destruction of the temple). Every time tongues are spoken in Acts, Jewish people are somehow involved.

Charismaticism: uncatholic?

In Daniel 9.24 we read:

“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put and end to sin and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place/thing/one.” (ESV)

The events referred to in this verse clearly centre on the cross of Christ and is bound up with the sealing of revelation from God; this can only mean that visions and prophecies come to an end with this package of events. Like tombs or documents, they are no longer to be added to. Sealing here doesn’t just mean that there’s no more need for prophecy (without ruling out the possibility of it continuing), just as sealing doesn’t meant that there is no more need to add to a document. It is far more definitive than that. Sealing indicates completion.

As a wise brother commented to me the other day, biblical theology is obviously better than proof-texting (although this is a pretty good proof text, actually!), but that’s all right, because this fits in very nicely with the whole idea of God’s special revelation being linked to redemptive-historical works. With the first advent of Christ and all that entailed, there are no more genuine visions and prophecies (in the sense that individuals receive unmediated revelation from the Lord).

Interestingly, this appears to be the understanding of the early church and the emphasis by the modern charismatic movement on ongoing visions and prophecies is a therefore a departure from the orthodox faith of the church in the first few centuries A.D. Claims of ongoing revelation actually undermine the past reality of Christ’s work.

In his work On the Incarnation, Athanasius addresses the unbelief of the Jews in Christ, in a section which the editors of my edition wrongly advise the non-student reader to skip, for in this section we see clearly Athanasius’s admirable grasp of the whole sweep of the metanarrative of Scripture. I shall let him speak for himself on Daniel 9:

“Not only does [this prophecy] expressly mention the Anointed One, that is the Christ, it even declares that He Who is to be anointed is not man only, but the Holy One of holies! And it says that Jerusalem is to stand till His coming, and that after it prophet and vision shall cease in Israel! …

When did prophet and vision cease from Israel? Was it not when Christ came, the Holy One of holies? It is, in fact, a sign and notable proof of the coming of the Word that Jerusalem no longer stands, neither is prophet raised up nor vision revealed among them. And it is natural that it should be so, for when He that was signified had come, what need was there any longer of any need to signify Him? And when the Truth had come, what further need was there of the shadow?” (p. 73)

Amen!

Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi

While I’m making the most of the afternoon, and to break up what will become a continuous stream of posts on Pierced for our Trangressions (watch out, DV, for posts on the theological framework of penal substitution, the witness of the early church, union with Christ and particular redemption), here’s a great, old, cessationist hymn on the Holy Scriptures:

O God, Who didst Thy will unfold
In wondrous modes to saints of old,
By dream, by oracle, or seer,
Wilt Thou not still Thy people hear?

What though no answering voice is heard?
Thine oracles, the written Word,
Counsel and guidance still impart,
Responsive to the upright heart.

What though no more by dreams is shown
That future things to God are known?
Enough the promises reveal:
Wisdom and love the rest conceal.

Faith asks no signal from the skies,
To show that prayers accepted rise;
Our Priest is in the holy place,
And answers from the throne of grace.

No need of prophets to inquire:
The sun is risen; the stars retire;
The Comforter is come, and sheds
His holy unction on our heads.

Lord, with this grace our hearts inspire;
Answer our sacrifice by fire;
And by Thy mighty acts declare
Thou art the God Who hearest prayer.

Josiah Conder, 1789-1855

"As for tongues, they will cease"

The issue of tongues was another topic raised at Ledbury, and I shall again share what the Bible seems to be saying on the topic.

First of all, what is the gift of tongues? The Biblical evidence seems to point to supernaturally given human languages. The word glwssa just means language. That’s clear from what happens in Acts 2:

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each on was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Aia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians - we hear them telling in our own tongues the might works of God. (Acts 2.4-11)

That appears to be what’s going in Corinth too. Paul writes:

There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, but if I do not know the meaning of the language I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.” (1 Corinthians 14.10-11)

Paul’s argument from Isaiah’s prophecy also seems to support that the gift of tongues is a gift of a foreign human language:

In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 14.21)

1 Corinthians 13 does not come to the rescue here. Paul is using the language of hyperbole. He is no more saying that the spiritual gift of tongues is an angelic language as he is saying that he can understand all mysteries and have all knowledge and all faith.

Some of the verses in 1 Corinthians 14 may be consistent with tongues being an angelic language (e.g. 2, 4, 14), but they may also be true of foreign human languages, so that doesn’t prove anything. To suggest that the spiritual gift of tongues is a non-human angelic language is speculation flying in the face of Biblical examples of the manifestation of tongues to the contrary.

I would also like to suggest that this gift has long since ceased. Going back to
verses 21 and 22 of 1 Corinthians 14:

In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers. (1 Corinthians 14.21-22)

Paul is quoting Isaiah 28.11, which in context is about the judgment that is about to come upon the Northern and Southern Kingdoms because of their idolatry which is a product of their unbelief. People of strange lips and a foreign tongue will speak to the Lord’s people, because foreigners will invade and will take his people into exile (Isaiah 28.13). Dr. Peter Masters therefore (rightly, I think) says that the gift of tongues in the church is a sign of judgment for unbelieving Jews. That certainly does justice to the Isaiah context. As everyone’s being preterist at the moment, may we not say that judgment finally fell on the Jewish people who refused to believe in Christ, who crucified him, persecuted the church and hindered the spread of the gospel, with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 (cf 1 Thessalonians 1.14-16)?The sign has therefore served its function. There is no reason to expect it to continue.

And anyway, if we are saying that the miraculous speaking of foreign languages is a sign and a wonder (as indeed it surely is by its very nature, and as Peter seemed to think when he said that what was going on at Pentecost fulfilled Joel 2 (Acts 2.16-19)), the writer to the Hebrews says that the role of signs and wonders was to authenticate the message of salvation i.e. the gospel. By the time he wrote, this was a past-tense phenomenon:

[The message] was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (Hebrews 2.3-4)

(This also has implications for other miracles such as claims of healing - more to follow).

However we are to understand what is commonly called glossolalia these days, it is not what the New Testament understands by the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. Lots of worldwide religions and cults (including the Roman Church, I understand) lays claim to similar experiences. Biblically, speaking in tongues was a sign-gift of the Spirit of speaking in human foreign languages which ceased in the first century AD.

"As for prophecies, they will pass away"

March has hitherto been a lean month for ‘blog posts, but I shall try to address that. I have re-done the labelling for all my ‘blog post: I hope the new system makes more sense.

Following a question about prophecy that was raised during the Ebbe’s student conference at Ledbury, I thought I’d put up some thoughts on what it seems to me the Bible is teaching on the subject.

I want to affirm first of all that prophecy in the Bible is not just foretelling, i.e. revelation of future events, but also forthtelling, i.e. preaching and applying God’s already revealed word to a new situation. The New Testament seems to use the word “prophecy” to refer to the proclamation of God’s word and works in at least one instance. When the Holy Spirit is poured out at Pentecost, the disciples tell in different languages, the mighty works of God, and Peter responds by saying that what was happening was in fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy that sons and daughters, male servants and female servants, will prophesy (Acts 2.1-18).

Prophecy in this sense surely continues as the Spirit-indwelt church relates the never-changing word of God to our ever-changing world, from her pulpits and as her members minister the word to each other.

But the New Testament in other places uses “prophecy” to refer to direct revelation from God. There’s the case of the commissioning of Barnabas and Saul in Acts 13.1-2 and the prophecy of Agabus in Acts 21.10-11. In 1 Corinthians when Paul speaks of the gift of prophecy, he appears to have this in view:

“Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a
revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you
can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and
the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. ” (1 Corinthians 14.29-32)

As I understand the Scriptures, prophecy in this sense has ceased. There is nothing more to be revealed. God has revealed himself perfectly to us in Christ:

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the [OT] prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he
appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is
the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” (Hebrews 1.1-3)

As much of Christ as is going to be revealed to the world has been revealed to the world, both in his incarnation and ministry, and through his apostles. Jesus promised them:

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will
teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
(John 14.26)

and:

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth,
for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will
speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify
me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16.13-14)

The apostles have long since gone to glory. All the truth that God wants to reveal to us before the Lord Jesus returns has been revealed. Moreover, pophecy, like apostleship as a foundation gift for the church:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens
with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.”
(Ephesians 2.19-20)

One lays the foundation and then one builds upon it. It would be an odd building indeed whose foundation continues to be laid, even as the building grows.

What we have in the Bible is sufficient for the faith and practice of the church. We are not lacking in anything we need. Paul writes to Timothy (primarily referring to the OT, but also surely with a view to what was going to be inscripturated, cf. 2 Peter 3.16):

“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
competent, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3.16-17)

I quoted 1 Corinthians 13.8 in the title with tongue somewhat in cheek, but surely the general principle that Paul lays down surely applies: “when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” The perfect has come: the canon of Scripture has closed. Might we say that an insistence on prophecy in our churches is, in fact, childish?

So let’s be grateful to God for his sufficient revelation and be ever more diligent to study and apply what God has said in the Bible. In the words of Isaiah, “To the teaching, and the testimony!”