Evidence for God from Science

Dr. Heiser was always known for his emphasis on what Scripture actually says and teaches, particularly as it would have been understood by its originally intended audience and contexts. He was also widely known for shining a scholar's academic research on a variety of claimed supernatural manifestations of "sign gifts" today, contrasting such claims with what the research data actually reveals. And, of course, always parsing his observations against the backdrop of how Scripture might inform us on such things. This is an exceptionally interesting topic - one which requires serious cautions and Scriptural study!

Philip

1 Corinthians 13 has long been used by Cessationists - those who insist the supernatural sign gifts have ALL passed away - here's a key passage from this chapter that many have long used to support this contention:

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

Note an important question about the passage above - what is this "perfect" that will come before all supernatural gifts cease? Was it the completion of the Bible Canon (ending after the book of Revelation and the passing of those who wrote the New Testament? Could the "perfect" be Christ, at His return? Keep this passage in mind as you sift the info below!

Interestingly, while Heiser was quick to note the wacky, weird and strange things that many assert to show supernatural gifts being used in churches today, and he asserted them to typically be fake and alien to what Scripture reveals about them. He called out the nuttiness and babbling claimed as tongues, while affirming that ACTUAL tongues are still sometimes manifest in evangelism in circumstances with a language barrier. So, while calling out the fake, Heiser nonetheless was not a Cessationist, yet was extremely cautious while weighing the tensions of Scripture surrounding this issue. Below is an outtake from his podcast and a video he posted not long before he died concerning this issue.

Philip

Dr. Heiser, taken from his blogpost / 'Gandalf and His Ministry Going Forward' / Nov. 19, 2019:

I spend next to no time taking sides on things like eschatology, creation views, spiritual gifts, women in ministry, etc. I’ll tell anyone who asks where I’m at on such things and why, but I’ll leave it to other ministries to fight with Christians who don’t take their view! I not only refuse to engage in that sort of “ministry” because it’s a poor use of my time, but it’s a poor use of God’s time. Whether you think so or not, the believing Church is in crisis. It has bigger problems than these peripheral debates. They are not as important as those who promote fighting about them want their audiences to believe. The gospel is what’s important, as is seeing the believing Church thrive in a post-modern and (now) a post-Christian culture. The Great Commission isn’t about winning such debates. To be blunt, it’s about time the believing Church comes to grip with this.

An Example

Let me illustrate how this works with an issue-example.
I’m not a charismatic. I’m also not a traditional cessationist. I’m in the academic category of “cautious but open” when it comes to supernatural (“miraculous”) gifts and acts of God today. That doesn’t mean I’m cautiously open to the modern charismatic movement. I’m not. Lest I be misunderstood on that point, I realize that “charismatic” is a very broad term, and that it is not completely synonymous with Pentecostalism and is not intended to wipe supernatural works of the Spirit today off the table. My concern really isn’t a movement at all, but teachings and practices that simply don’t align with Scripture. It seems quite evident to me that the overwhelming majority of what happens today in churches that promote the miraculous gifts is self-induced or contrived nonsense (with, tragically, outright deception at times being in play). I’ve read the New Testament, and I can’t find things like maniacal laughter, barking like a dog, or clucking like a chicken to be manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I can’t find any biblical endorsement of the idea that all believers should manifest miraculous gifts as a means of validating salvation, or that we should seek angel guides, or that I (or anyone else) can teach people how to prophesy. Gold dust and feathers cannot be found in accounts of the Spirit’s power in the book of Acts (and angels don’t have wings anyway, at least according to the Bible). Frankly, what we are told is a a wave of Holy Spirit power today looks more like Harry Potter at Hogwarts than the New Testament.

But such outlandish abuses do not compel the conclusion that God cannot and has not acted in miraculous ways all around the world today. I know people who were supernaturally enabled to speak in other languages on the mission field in some tight circumstances (not the gibberish many call “tongues” today). The number of conversions in Muslim countries today, prompted by dreams and visions, where many of those converts literally risk (or give) their lives in response, are demonstrably real when judged by the sort of spiritual fruit the New Testament puts forth as the basis for such judgment. I don’t think for a minute God is prohibited by cessationist theology from acting, or that cessationist theology has a good case for God not being free to do these things. I know the data used to support such ideas. They aren’t persuasive, and I’m not a newbie to the biblical text. But what passes today for the movement of the Spirit is frequently nothing more than a show or can’t be distinguished from manifestations of the same “giftings” seen in transparently non-Christian religions.

I land where I do because I choose to stop where the text stops and let the ambiguities be what they are. Sure, I’m going to lean one way or the other, but I’ll tell people (and often do) why I can’t say some other view is totally wrong. I’d rather focus on the core meta-narrative of salvation history. I truly believe if God cared more about such things he

was perfectly capable of providing more detail on them to resolve those issues. But he didn’t. That tells me they are peripheral to God’s goals in providing Scripture and directing the mission of the Church.

The peripheries are interesting and fun. God expects us to wrestle with them. He doesn’t expect us to be fragmented over them. That’s basically the state of the believing Church. And right now that’s a luxury in the West. Unless you’ve been living in a cloister, the Church is headed for some dark times. The culture isn’t moving toward paganism; it’s decidedly already at home there. The day is fast approaching when we’ll be glad to find others who believe regardless of their views on the things Christians fight over. Believers will need each other more and more as the culture gives way to limiting individual liberty and to intolerance for Christianity.

End

And here is one more apologist providing a detailed Scriptural analysis to see if it supports strict Cessationism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufFrzhsW5T0 (I find it a balanced analysis)