Christmas Eve Service Liturgy — 2014

Welcome and Greeting

Invocation

Eternal God, your promise of a coming Savior is spoken in your words to Eve after the fall, in the psalms of David, in the words of the prophets.  Your Word of deliverance is spoken, eternal God, and takes flesh at last in the womb of the virgin.

We ask that Emmanuel would be honored in the people of your Church and that Nations would find themselves bowing the knee to your Christ who alone can provide redemption and grace. We ask this through him whose coming is certain, whose Day draws near: your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Nicene Creed (Responsive)

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father [and the Son]; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

THE FIRST LESSON

Scripture —  Genesis 3:15 / Matthew 1:20 / Galatians 4:4

Congregational Response

We speak with gratitude when we see your promise to Eve, of a coming Savior, fulfilled in the Christ child who crushed the head of the Serpent.

 Carol — “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”  (Brown —  169)

THE SECOND LESSON

Scripture — Genesis 12:3 / Matthew 1:1  — Genesis 22:18 / Romans 9:5

Congregational Response — Father, Thank you for the promise, to the patriarchs, of a coming Christ and then for the promised fulfilled in Christ’s arrival.

Carol: “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” (Brown 184)

THE THIRD LESSON

Scripture — Micah 5:2 / Matthew 2:1, Luke 2:4-6

Congregational Response — Praise be unto God for providing us the Bread of life as born in the House of Bread

 Carol —  “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” (Brown 402)

Special Music — Aimee Chauvin

THE FOURTH LESSON

Luke 1:46-55 / Luke 2:29-32

Congregational Response —  We thank you for the promise fulfilled that elicited a response that speaks of gratitude for a Salvation that is both individual and global.

Carol  —  “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” (Brown 168)

Special Music — Bacon Voice Ensemble

THE FIFTH LESSON

Scripture — Isaiah 7:14 / Matthew 1:23

Congregational Response — We look for no other Redeemer but He who was and is “God with Us,” the Lord Christ.

Carol — “Joy To The World” (Brown 170)

Special Music — Strings and Flute

THE SIXTH LESSON

Scripture — Isaiah 9:2-7  / Revelation 1:12-16

Congregational Response —  Grant us grace Father, to remember that this child is now your Warrior King and that we walk in the path of His conquering work. 

Hymn — Christ Shall Have Dominion (Blue Psalter — 135 Blue)

SEVENTH LESSON

Candlelight Exhortation — Matthew 4:16
Carol — “Silent Night” (Brown 195)

Words To Go

“Advent is concerned with that very connection between memory of the past and hope for the future which is so necessary to man. Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic memory within us, namely, the memory of  God who became man. Rightly remembered and held, this is a restorative memory; it brings hope, it brings peace, it brings confidence. The purpose of the Church’s year is continually to recite her History, so as to awaken her memory so that she can discern God’s accomplishment in the past so as to provide fuel in the confidence of his promises for the future.”

_________

“The birth of a king has lost most of its meaning in our day, because the few kings remaining are mainly figureheads. In earlier days, it was, however, a momentous event. Whenever a son was born to a king, the entire kingdom celebrated with a joy our holidays today do not have.

Why was the birth of a king’s son so great an event to the poorest man of the realm, and so great a cause for rejoicing? It meant, very simply, that a protector and defender was born, someone who in the days ahead would provide the leadership, unifying force, and strength to repel all enemies, suppress criminals within the realm, and enforce justice. A kingdom without an heir to the throne had an uncertain future. Men being sinners, the kingdom would face internal and external troubles if no king reigned to enforce justice. The succession being uncertain, the kingdom would risk civil war.

The term “enforce justice” tells us much. Man is a sinner, and he is by nature lawless unless he is regenerated by Jesus Christ. Justice thus must be “enforced,” that is, put into operation by force, because otherwise lawlessness and injustice will prevail. If there is no forceful enactment of justice, there is no justice. This is the grim fact people once knew and are now forgetting.

This tells us too what the Scripture means when it speaks of Christ as King, hailed King from His very birth. The Gospel of Matthew gives us His royal genealogy in its first chapter. Revelation 17:14 tells us that He is the universal King, “for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings.”

When we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, we thus celebrate the birth of one who is ordained to right every wrong, overthrow every enemy, and enforce justice. He will put down all enemies before time is ended, and He will reign eternally over His people. The news of His birth, and its celebration, is indeed “joy to the world,” because the Lord is come who shall in the fullness of time enforce justice truly and absolutely.

His promise is peace, not the peace of death and the graveyard, but the peace of justice and prosperity. The Virgin Mary rejoiced, declaring of the justice God and her son would finally establish: “He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away” (Luke 1:51-53).

If we believe in Christ, we shall rejoice, and we shall be confident, come
what may. We have a King!”

~ RJR

 

Tearing Apart a Public Service Announcement Against Guns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFOhBAH3zPA#t=110

1.) Notice the boy is white. (This will come into play later.)

2.) Notice that there is no Father in the household.

3.) Notice how this opens with the kid sneaking around on his Mother.

4.) The boy sneaks into his parents bedroom and steals from his mother. The video communicates that this is noble behavior.

5.) Every single one of his classmates are minorities.  This subliminally communicates that it is only evil white people who keep guns.

6.) The female teacher freaks out at the sight of the weapon. Gun make everyone scared.

7.) As the boy turns in the weapon he stole from his parents he says, “Can you take this away? I don’t feel safe with a gun in my house.” Note that for liberals feeling is always substituted for thinking.

This video is like an instruction manual on how kids can most quickly ruin their own lives and the lives of their entire families. What the video doesn’t show is the aftermath of the boy getting kicked out of school, the parents being arrested, and the boy and all his siblings being taken by Child protective services because the parents were so unsafe.

 

 

 

Rushdoony & McAtee on the State

“The conflict of Christianity with Rome was political from the Roman perspective, although religious from the Christian perspective. The Christians were never asked to worship the Romans gods; they were merely asked to recognize the religious supremacy of the state. As Francis Legge observed, ‘The officials of the Roman empire in time of persecution sought to force Christians to sacrifice, not to any heathen gods but to the genius of the Emperor and the fortune of the city of Rome; and at all times the Christian’s refusal was looked upon, not as religious, but as a political offense. …. Whatever rivalry the Christian Church had to face in its infancy, it had none to fear from the deities of Olympus.’ The issue, then, was this; should the emperors law, state law, govern both the state and the church or were both state and church, emperor and bishop alike under God’s law? Who represented true ultimate order? God or Rome, eternity or time? The Roman answer was Rome and time,  hence Christianity constituted a treasonable faith and hence a menace to political order. The Roman answer to the problem of man was political and not religious. This meant, first, that man’s basic problem was not sin but political order. This Rome sought to supply religiously and earnestly. Second, Rome answered the problem of the One and the Many in terms of Oneness, the unity of all things in terms of the state, Rome. Hence, over-organization, simplification, and centralization increasingly characterized Rome. “

R. J. Rushdoony
The One and The Many — pg. 94

1.) If the State was asking for the Christians to have recognized its religious supremacy then the problem was religious even if the State would have defined the problem as “political.”

2.) This demonstrates that political problems cannot be cordoned off from religio-theological foundations. In point of fact, every political problem, before it is a political problem, is a religio-theological problem.

3.) Sacrifice to the genius of the Emperor and to the fortune of the city of Rome was a supremely religious act.

4.) Interesting that the current state also asks its citizens to sacrifice to the genius of the Political system. The only difference is that the sacrifice the current citizenry is asked to make is to offer up their children to the State via their attendance to state Churches (sometimes euphemistically referred to as “Public Schools.”)

5.) When fallen man makes the polis that which represent ultimate order the consequence is then that any concept of God or heaven is cast in the image of the polis that is understood to represent the ultimate order. To the contrary, when the ultimate order is seen as God and Eternity then the consequence is that the polis and the citizenry begin to incarnate, in various ways, God and eternity into Time and space.

The result of this is Augustine’s City of God vs. City of Man. The City of God, on earth, is built up as men bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ so that His will is increasingly done on earth as it is in heaven.  To the contrary, the city of man is built up as men bow to themselves, collectively considered, and so as man is taken as the ultimate man incarnates the ugliness of “hath God really said.”

6.) Christianity, when it is most vital, should always be considered a threat to pagan states and a menace to their political (and social) order since Christianity screams that such political and social orders are unreal and illusory and idolatrous to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

6.) Because Rome’s view that the problem of man was political and not religious therefore we know that Rome had made politics their religion.  Man without God will always turn religion into politics and politics into religion. Since, for fallen man, above them is only sky, therefore fallen men will always make a Idol out of the political process.

7.) Those who deny that the political order can be, should be, or is divinized will always be considered threats to the State. If the conviction is that “in the state we live and move and have our being” all those who deny that precept must be either marginalized or eliminated.

8.) When Rushdoony speaks of “unity of all things in terms of the state” what he is saying is that the state becomes the only point of integration of man. All things must find their meaning in terms of the state. The state becomes the background against which, “man as chameleon” must and does find his identity.

That we are at that point today is testified to by the necessity of the State to provide our health care. In that pursuit there is the thrust of “unity of all things — even medicine — in terms of the state.

9.)  If you can’t see our current situation in this country summarized in Rushdoony’s statement, “Hence, over-organization, simplification, and centralization increasingly characterized Rome,” you don’t have a pulse and you might consider that you are a Zombie.

10.) Theonomy or autonomy. The God of the Bible or Man as God. One never escapes either law or theocracy. It is never a question of “whether or not law,” or “whether or not Theocracy,” it is only a question of whose law and whose Theocracy. You can always tell which God is supreme by observing which law is enacted.

 

 

Isaiah 9 and Christmas Post-millennial Advent

 

In our first week of Advent I took some time to speak about the culture wars, particularly how those culture wars have manifested themselves against Christmas. I looked at how Christmas has been subtly undermined and challenged us to not be swept away by the Cultures re-definition of Christmas.

The Next two weeks I tried to set out how the birth of Christ was consistent with the expectation of earlier portions of prophecy in the OT. First, we looked at Herod’s slaughter of the Innocent and the escape of the Holy family and their return as well as the significance of Christ being a “Nazarene.” We noted the ways that that event in the NT served as a recapitualtion of the Narrative of OT Israel in the life of Jesus. Last  week we considered the prophecy of the Virgin Birth in the OT and how that fit with the Birth of Christ.

This week in our 4th Advent Sermon we want to look at the Scriptures that speak of the great glory of the King and the implied inevitable victory of that Great King over all his opponents. What we are suggesting is that with the coming of Christ God’s triumph has arrived and His victory is inevitable.

This inevitability and certainty of victory has been a truism of Christianity that has been stolen from us by one of the great Christian Heresies — Marxism. Marx wrote, “the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.”

When once believe their cause will inevitably be victorious they live and move in terms of the inevitability and certainty of that victory.  Christians need to regain this sense of inevitable and certain victory that was characteristic of their Faith for generations.

And that inevitability and certainty of Victory is caught up in the celebration of Christmas.

“The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has a light shined.
You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For every boot of the trampling warrior in battle tumult,
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For unto us a child is born,
Unto us a son is give;
and the government will be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”
(Isaiah 9:2-7, emphasis mine)

Here we have a promised change coming for the burdened people of God. The passage describes them as living under the oppression of Darkness to now living under the dawning of great light. All this as metaphor for going from being downtrodden to being released.

Then we have briefly described a people who are transitioning from oppression to liberty. The yoke of the enemy has been cast off and the rod of the oppressor has been broken by a deliverer. In place of the enemies yoke and rod comes the kind of joy and gladness associated with harvest and military victory.

In all this God has done something to make the tools of the enemy’s warfare be abolished. There is the introduction of a child who will rule as King.

When we consider again the mention of “Light” in the beginning of this passage

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light”

we are reminded that ‘Light,’ throughout the book of Isaiah as well as all of Scripture is a metaphor  for God’s blessings, presence and revelation (Is. 9:2, 30:26, 42:6, 16, 60:1-3), unto His people. So, again, what is being promised here in reversing travail and oppression is the very presence of God.

We must not miss the idea of this Light because when the utter fulfillment of this promise comes to pass and when this child arrives what we read of is Light,

“9 And lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone about them, and they were sore afraid.”

And John’s Gospel can speak this way of the Lord Christ … And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

And our Lord Christ will even speak of Himself as being the “Light of the world.”

We capture something of this idea of the promised coming Light when we sing during this season our songs,

O Little down of Bethlehem

Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light,
The hopes and fears of all the years,
Are met in thee tonight.

O Come All Ye Faithful

True God of true God, Light from Light Eternal,
Lo, he shuns not the Virgin’s womb;
Son of the Father, begotten, not created;

Hark, the Herald Angels Sing

Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris’n with healing in His wings

Christ is that male child spoken of and is the Light that God promised in Isaiah. The Lord Christ is the one who was promissory of the great reversal in the fortunes for His people.  The Lord Christ is the one who occasions the great reversal in the circumstances of God’s people.

This whole passage in Isaiah is indicative of the great anticipation that we as Christians continue to have — especially in this Advent season.  We do believe that the Light has dawned upon us with the coming of Christ but we also believe that we go from Light unto Light. This is to say that while we confess that God’s presence has come in Christ we anticipate the presence of God to magnify itself in the affairs of men over the course of time. We take seriously the phrase in this passage which teaches that

the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,

And so we anticipate that He who is now on David’s throne and who is now ruling will continue to extend His dominion progressively over the whole of a earth which He already rules now in Principle.

Men who are opposed to Christ and His Kingdom will be conquered and will find themselves to be glad subjects of this great King who upholds His Kingdom with justice and righteousness.

This is captured in a verse of “Angels from the Realm of Glory,”

“Sinners, wrung with true repentance,
Doomed for guilt to endless pains,
Justice now revokes the sentence,
Mercy calls you; break your chains.”

This all begins with the Birth of this promised child spoken of in Isaiah 2.

R.J. Rushdoony, in his book Institutes of Biblical Law: Volume 1 tells us,

“The joyful news of the birth of Christ is the restoration of man to his original calling with the assurance of victory. This has long been celebrated in Christmas carols… The cultural mandate [i.e. fulfilling the Dominion Mandate (Genesis 1:26-28) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20)] and postmillennialism is either explicit or implicit in Christmas carols.”

During this Christmas season we are reminded from this Isaiah passage that with the birth of the Lord Christ comes the promise of His eventual total Victory, in time and space, over all that and all who oppose Him. This is the essence of meaning of that 10 dollar word “Postmillennialism.”

With that Birth of Christ we expect that, in the words of Ken Genty,

“the proclaiming of the Spirit-blessed gospel of Jesus Christ will win the vast majority of human beings to salvation in the present age. We expect Increasing gospel success (which) will gradually produce a time in history prior to Christ’s return in which faith, righteousness, peace, and prosperity will prevail in the affairs of people and of nations. After an extensive era of such conditions the Lord will return visibly, bodily, and in great glory, ending history with the general resurrection and the great judgment of all humankind.

And that expectation, contained here in Isaiah 9 we sing of every year in our songs.

“Joy to the World”:

Joy to the world, the Lord is come,
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow,
Far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove,
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love.

Note the language. The Birth of Christ is “Joy to the World,” …. the whole Earth is to “receive her King.” The effect of the arrival of the Lord Christ is the ending of thorns and the curse. He “makes the NATIONS prove.”

The birth of the Lord Christ is not some provincial affair that can be kept secret. The Lands of Allah will surrender to Christ. The inroads of Marxism and Humanism that has captured nations will totter and fall down to be replaced by the already present Lordship of Jesus Christ. Men who now curse the thought of Christ and who are now in the chains of their own spite and the shackles of their own sin will be conquered and set free to gladly serve Christ. This is what Isaiah speaks of and this is what our Western Christmas Carols echo. Consider,

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”:

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep,
God is not dead, nor doth He sleep.
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With Peace On Earth, Good Will To Man.

The Christian religion is a faith of ultimate and total victory, where the very gates of hell cannot prevail against Christ and His chosen people (Matt. 16:18).

The triumph of Christ and of the Christian faith should be celebrated annually during the Advent season. In the Incarnation — from Birth to Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension — the Lord Christ has gained the victory that is now being worked out in space and time. He is even now, as He was upon His Birth,

“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

And He is even now increasing a government and a peace that shall know no end. This Mighty God champions over men by His Gospel which announces that those who are prisoners to their sin and who are in hostility to the great King can sue for pardon and be forgiven and so released.

Well could Charles Wesley write emphasizing this reconciliation that Christ brings to those who walked in darkness and who even loved that darkness they walk in,

Hark the herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled”
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies

So when we celebrate Advent and Christmas we celebrate not only the coming of a child lowly born. We celebrate the fact that this Child is “God with us– Emmanuel,” and we celebrate the sure and certain victory His life, death, and resurrection guarantees. Christmas is about the present and future triumph of God in space and time History against all those who would mute the voice of justice and righteousness and would think that they can forever successfully make war against the King of heaven. Christmas is about the Prince of Peace bringing in that Peace that He has already brought in.

We moderns speak so foolishly about Peace

Imagine all the people living life in peace — John Lenon

‘Cause out on the edge of darkness,
There rides a peace train.
Oh, peace train take this country.
Come take me home again.  — Cat Stevens

But the only way peace can come between man and man is when man’s warfare against God is ended and in the Birth of Christ the provision for the end of that warfare has arrived.  We sing of this every Christmas,

“O Holy Night”

A thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn,
Fall on your knees, O hear the angel’s voices,
O night divine, O night when Christ was born.

“A new and glorious morn breaks”, because Christ’s blood has been spilled, the just for the unjust  that those who were once afar off from God could come near and know the end of their hostility and the meaning of genuine peace. This peace of God, is found only in the Christ of the Bible and His finished work.

A weary world can rejoice because in the death of the Lord Christ their rebellion against God has been punished and they now can sue for peace. All those hostilities that find themselves manifested in long simmering hatreds, jealousies, and individual twisted-ness can be brought to the Cross and laid down and men can find peace with God and so peace with man.

And none of this would be true save for the birth of He who remains Mighty God and Prince of Peace.

Because of God’s work in sending Christ, Christianity anticipates that definitive conquest of God and His people in the affairs of men precisely because in the incarnation and Redemptive work of Christ God already has conquered over His enemies. We Christians are confident of God’s Victory,and so are Heralds of this Gospel triumph that God has gained in Christ. We command all men everywhere to repent and remind men that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Our Christians Fathers so believed in the inevitability of this victory that is set forth in Isaiah 9 and throughout Scripture that they wove that Triumph into our Christmas songs.

Hark, The Herald Angel’s sing

Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;

O come, All ye faithful,

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant

Those who are in Christ are the happy humble warriors. Happy because they know the one promised has come and so they know that their victory is certain, no matter the opposition.

Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,

 

 

Ask The Pastor; Where Does Scripture Teach That Signs & Wonders Have Ended?

Note — The name of the conversation partner has been changed to a totally random name I pulled out of a hat. Also, a tip of the hat goes to Joe Bloggs for providing some of the exegetical work. Thanks Joe.

_______________________________________________________

Dear Pastor,

Where can you point out in scripture that these Signs and Wonders gifts – such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, etc. – are no longer given by Holy Spirit?

Bojidar Mavinov

Dear Bojidar

Thank you for writing. Of course the standard Reformed position held from the Reformation forwards is called “Cessationism.” Cessationism teaches that the Charismatic gifts have ceased and that the no further special Revelation is to be expected

Before we turn to the question proper let us make a few opening observations about Pentecostalism with its desire to look for further Revelation (commonly referred to as continuation-ism).

1.) What happens in continuation-ism is that the authority of Scripture is diluted. When you raise signs and wonders (SAW) to a level of authority alongside Scripture the sum effect is to lower and dilute the authority of Scripture. Now instead of looking to Scripture for God’s mind and instruction people also look beyond and outside of God’s word to “dreams and visions” and “words of knowledge,” or a “word from the Lord.”  Hence, God’s inscripturated word is diluted. This desire for additional special revelation is seen in what you have recently written,

<blockquote>”I will have to pray and wait for a supernatural revelation, for relying on my mind to use such a tremendous resource (of God’s supernatural power) would be the stupidest thing I could do as a Christian.”</blockquote>

<blockquote>”All knowledge comes through revelation, and therefore the application of the Word to present use will need supernatural revelation.”

“All knowledge comes through revelation, and therefore the application of the Word to present use will need supernatural revelation.”

“Since the Bible contains the canonical covenantal principles, but not the specific application for present use for every man in every circumstance, revelation is needed.”</blockquote>

This insisting on continued revelation on your part takes us off of God’s inscripturated word, and throws us back on intuition and mysticism masquerading as “revelation,” Human mysticism and intuition become authorities alongside Scripture.

2.) In keeping with that when one raises SAW to equal authority of Scripture one has, in essence, denied Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone). It is no longer Scripture alone that is the authority but rather it is Scripture plus signs and wonders. Of course this is to deny the very heart of the Reformation and to proclaim that one is no longer “Reformed.”

3.) Speaking of the denial of the Reformed faith, Pentecostalism, with its desire for signs and wonders (SAW) is by definition Arminian since the Reformed faith, by definition, rejects continuation-ism. Lesser theologies and their adherents (Arminianism and Arminians) which support SAW are, in principle, denying the finished work for Christ. This is so because signs and wonders, as God’s Revelation, always served the purpose in Scripture of validating and confirming Christ’s redemptive work. As such when signs and wonders are pursued independent of their attachment, in Scripture to Christ’s finished work, what is being communicated is a dissatisfaction with the finished work of Christ in favor or a theology of glory.  Arminianism is the only school of thought which can permit ongoing revelation because Arminianism has a limited view of God’s sovereignty, in that if God was sovereign then He would not need extra-Biblical methods of revealing the salvific works of Christ once the full relevation of His
atoning works were made manifest and inscripturated.

4.) Pentecostalism has an unfortunate tendency of denying the Reformed principle of “the priesthood of all believers” creating instead a two tiered Christianity, where the front tier is occupied by the “second blessing Christians” while the second tier is occupied by those poor questionable folks who just are not real Spirit-filled Christians because they don’t do glossolalia.

5.) Pentecostalism finally reduces to a mystical subjectivism.  Without the objective word anything and everything become potential for SAW. With the advent of the “Toronto Blessing,” the “Brownsville Revival” and “The Kansas City Prophets” we have seen SAW including “Laughing in the Spirit,” “Hitting in the Spirit,” “Kicking in the Spirit,” “Mooing in the Spirit,” and, my favorite, “Crowing like a Rooster in the Spirit.” All of these have been advocated as SAW. Now, Bojidar, it may be the case that you would find those antics to be silly but since there is absolutely zero standard in order to regulate SAW anything can be said to be a SAW from God. Once Pentecostals like you advocate for SAW then only the subjectivism of any given Pentecostal limits the SAW.

6.) We would add here the fact that those who have been duly called, set apart, and ordained to expound the Scriptures (as opposed to every believers duty and understand them in a common-sense manner), have stated that the miraculous ceased with the inscripturation of Scripture; such exegetes include Augustine, Luther, Calvin, the Westminster theologians, Owen, Voetius, Chas. & A.A. Hodge, Edwards, Godet, Shedd, Warfield, Kuyper, Hughes, and Lee.

Now turning to the question we started with let us explore the Scripture on the subject of why revelation has ceased.

1.)  Hebrews 1:1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.

God has spoken His completed message in Christ. The incarnation of the Lord Christ is the final revelation of the Father and as such further signs and wonders are to be considered “anti-Revelation.”

There are no further special revelational messages because nothing else is to be said. With the Scriptures God’s speaking in verbal propositional form has ceased. To allow for further special Revelation is to teach that Christ was NOT God’s final Revelational Word. Your insistence on more special revelation Bojidar communicates a dissatisfaction with Christ as God’s final word.

2.)  “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?” – Hebrews 2:1-4

 In this passage we see that those ‘signs and wonders’ were a thing of the past. Therefore, even by the time of the donation of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the sign gifts had ceased.  To understand the first few verses of Hebrews 2, you must understand the Greek verb ‘aorist’ past tense – that is the very point. The aorist tense means that it is done and dust, never to be continued. That is why signs and wonders have ceased; because they were ‘bearing’ witness to the start of the Lord’s preaching of the Gospel. The word translated ‘bearing’ is key in this passage to understanding the use of signs and wonders. The author of Hebrews is saying that they have served their purpose and are not to be repeated. Why? Because now the full revelation of Christ has been given (cf. Hebrews 1 in #1 above).

3.) “Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” – 1 Corinthians 13:8-10

Consider that Scripture here teaches that SAW and tongues would come to an end. The foretelling (prophesy) comes to an end. The tongues (glossolalia) comes to an end, the knowledge (“word from the Lord, ” “word of wisdom,” “word of knowledge”) comes to an end.

 I know Bojidar that you and the Pentecostals will say that that which is ‘perfect’ has not yet come and so I am misinterpreting the passage. Of course that is just an assertion on your part and against the clear teaching of Scripture, (i.e., Hebrews and Revelation, and Daniel), that that which is ‘perfect’ is in fact Scripture itself as it is the full and clear revelation of Jesus Christ.  I would add here that the duly called exegetes who rightly divided God’s Word, have taught that the ‘perfect’ in I Corinthians 13 refers to the Scripture as to that which is the “perfect which is to come.” This list includes men like, Edwards, Dabney, Jamieson, Fausset, Brown, Pink, Reymond, Unger, Du Toit, Gaffin, Judisch, and Budgen. Really, the Pentecostal reading is the innovative and novel reading.

4.) Daniel 9:24f — Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thine holy city, to finish the wickedness, and to seal up the sins, and to reconcile the iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

We see here that the ‘vision and prophecy’ was to be sealed up by the time Jerusalem was destroyed. This happened in 70 A.D. Now when we read Daniel 9 in light of I Corinthians 14:4-6 (also written prior to AD 70) we see that because Paul makes ‘tongues’ a subset of ‘prophecy,’ that tongues have ceased with the fall of Jerusalem.

“He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying. Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?” – 1 Corinthians 14:4-6

So, if tongues is a lesser subset of prophesy, per the inspired Apostle, and if prophesying has been sealed in 70 AD per Daniel then if what Daniel is speaking of has come to pass then prophesying and SAW is sealed up and is no more.

5.) Acts 2:16 But this is that, which was spoken by the Prophet Joel,

Note that Peter says that the signs and wonders (SAW) happening on Pentecost is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. There is no indication in anything that Peter says that this unique event is to continue. To expect a continued pouring out of the Spirit on new believers such as what we find on the day of Pentecost would be like expecting repeated crucifixions and resurrections of Christ for each new believer. All are unique one time events that satisfy the expectations of Redemptive History.

Of course this does not deny that the believers are filled with the Spirit for as Paul teaches in I Corinthians 12

13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews, or Grecians, whether we be bond, or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

So, even though new believers do not receive a repeated 1st century Pentecost they always receive Christ by a spirit authored and spirit filled union with Christ. All believers are filled with the Spirit and do no wait for a subsequent filling of the Spirit after being united to Christ.

6.) Acts 2: 22  Ye men of Israel, hear these words, JESUS of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you with great works, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

Note here Bojidar, that once again, as in Hebrews 2, that the SAW are uniquely connected with the ministry of the Lord Christ. SAW were God’s approval on the ministry of Christ. Note also the aorist verbs here demonstrating that all this is past. Christ was approved by God via SAW.

7.) Proverbs 30:6 Do not add to His words Or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.

SAW and tongues and prophesy add to God’s words. Now, typically Pentecostals, like yourself Bojidar, will insist that they are not adding to God’s word and that anything that is arrived at via SAW and tongues and prophesy must be 100% consistent with the inscripturated word. 

However, if SAW doesn’t say anything different than what Scripture says and is in full agreement w/ Scritpure than SAW and tongues and foretelling (prophesy) are not needed since we already have that which they are 100% consistent with. If God has spoken in such a way that anything other that is said, via extra scriptural Revelation, has to agree with what God has said then SAW is a redundancy and so not needed.

SAW would, at the very least then, be superfluous.

Anticipating and Answering and Objection

One of my old Pentecostal bible study notes comments on Acts 2:39 by saying that Peter explicitly promises what happened to the Apostles to occur over and over again. It offers, 

39 For the promise is made unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

<blockquote>“The promise of the baptism in the Holy Spirit was not just for those present on the day of Pentecost, but for all who would believe in Christ throughout this age: “for you” – Peter’s audience; “your children” – the next generation; “for all who are far off” – the third and subsequent generations. (1) The baptism in the Spirit with its accompanying power was not a once-for-all occurrence in the church’s history. It did not cease with Pentecost, nor with the close of the apostolic age. (2) It is the birthright of every Christian to seek, expect and experience the same baptism in the Spirit that was promised and given to the NT Christians.”</blockquote>

These notes are in error. Joel’s prophecy cited by Peter, is in fact given in Acts 2:17-21. However, by verse 39,  Peter has moved on from talking about Joel’s prophecy. From there Peter has discussed Jesus and David. After that Peter finishes a section of what and the people had then responded by crying out: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”. Peter then responds and says: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” And then Peter, following on from that statement says: “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

The promise Peter says is for them and their children, and to all that are afar off is not the promise of what Joel prophesied clear back in vs. 17-21, pertaining to the sign gifts, but rather the promise that Peter speaks of is remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost Himself. He does not state anywhere in this passage that ‘signs and wonders’ were the continuing gift of the Holy Spirit on all new believers.  The idea that Peter in Acts 2:39 is referring to SAW is an assertion you and your fellow Pentecostals make, but it is not in the text. The Holy Ghost Himself in greater measure than in the Older Testament was the ‘gift’ spoken off by Peter, and part of the ‘promise’ – the other part of the promise was the remission of sins.

So Bojidar, I hope that this helps you see where from Scripture we conclude that SAW and continuation-ism is not biblical.