Cool Pastor Says "Cessationists are Wrong"

Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle says cessationists are wrong. Speaking on June 9 in a series entitled "Acts: Empowered for Jesus' Mission," Driscoll said that the gift of tongues is for today and will only cease when Christ returns. As far as we know, Driscoll doesn't claim to speak in tongues, but by this position he opens the door to and is an enabler of the charismatic movement. I would ask Driscoll exactly where tongues are operating scripturally today. When I was led to Christ by an old-line Pentecostal in 1973 from a hitch-hiking lifestyle, I had no reason to disbelieve in tongues, but as an earnest Bible student I could see that the gift of tongues had to operate according to strict apostolic rules (1 Corinthians 14). Though I have attended dozens of Pentecostal and charismatic churches and conferences in many countries, forty years later I have never witnessed the scriptural operation of tongues. This is because certain of the spiritual gifts were apostolic sign gifts (2 Cor. 12:12), and tongues was one of these. By its very nature a sign gift is limited in scope. Tongues, the ability to speak a language one has never learned, was a sign to the Jewish nation of the new thing that God was doing in proclaiming the gospel to all nations (Acts 2:4-12; 1 Cor. 14:20-22). Every time tongues were spoken in the book of Acts, Jews were present. It was a truly amazing gift, together with its twin, the interpretation of tongues. To speak or interpret a language one has never learned is a great, great miracle. In contrast, that which passes for "tongues" today is ridiculous. Something that can be taught, learned, and imitated is no miracle! (That which passes today as the gift of healing is equally ridiculous. We believe in divine healing in answer to prayer, but not in the continuation of the apostolic sign gift of healing.) A careful study on the origin of the Pentecostal movement at the turn of the 20th century should convince any Bible believer of its bogus character. The charismatic movement and contemporary worship music are two of the most powerful elements in the building of the end-time one-world "church," and Mark Driscoll is a huge promoter of contemporary worship music. (For extensive documentation of the statements made in this brief report and for the Bible's teaching on apostolic sign gifts, see The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements: The History and the Error, available in print and eBook formats from Way of Life Literature.)

(Friday Church News Notes, October 25, 2013,, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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