The aim of the conference was to teach that God no longer gives people the charismatic gifts mentioned in the Bible, such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing, etc. He also stressed heavily that those who claim such gifts are grieving the Holy Spirit and worshipping God in a way of which he does not approve.
With more than 500,000 (half a million!) Christians around the world claiming charismatic experiences, it's not hard to imagine why this conference was so controversial.
The fundamental question is this: Does God still grant charismatic gifts today or have those gifts ceased?
Those who believe charismatic gifts are still given today are often referred to as "continuationists."
Those who believe these kinds of gifts have ceased are often referred to as "cessationists."
Personally I think the case for cessationism is much stronger than the case for continuationism. But that's not what I want to examine in this post.
What I am aiming for is to encourage you to come to your own conclusion by studying what the Bible actually says.
For those of us who grew up in a church atmosphere it is likely that there are many doctrines that we have simply accepted as true because that's what we were taught.
While I'm a firm believer in honoring our parents and trusting what they tell us, simply believing things because others tell us they are true is not a biblical way to live, and it doesn't honor God. We must know why we believe what we believe.
However when we set out to think through issues like charismatic gifts, there is a temptation to seek out philosophical arguments that aren't based on specific passages in the Bible to bolster the case for what we want to be true.
If I'm honest with myself, I want the doctrines I learned growing up to be true. But that doesn't mean they are. That doesn't mean they're biblical.
It is my duty as a follower of God, to base everything I believe on what his word actually says. And with all the different church denominations out there and different factions that teach completely different things, it's not enough to simply trust whatever church you grew up in.
This means we need to spend a significant amount of time in our lives reading the Bible.
That sounds simple, but there are many Christians who only take in Scripture when they attend church or a group Bible study.
We need to be reading Scripture for ourselves regularly to find out what God has actually said in his word.
It's not honoring to God when someone says something like, "That's somewhere in the Bible right?"
So when it comes to deciding whether you're a cessationist or a continuationist, don't base your beliefs on anything other than what the Bible actually says. Read it for yourself and draw conclusions based on what you find.
Experiences can deceive us. Emotions can't always be trusted. But the Bible is objective, external to ourselves, and the only source of information in this world that is never wrong.
Having said that, for anyone who is interested, the best biblical cases for cessationism that I've found are listed below. These resources will help to point you to the applicable texts in the Bible so that you can study for yourself whether or not you believe charismatic gifts are still given today.
Also John MacArthur has a book entitled Strange Fire coming out in mid-November, which addresses these issues and seeks to make a case for cessationism. I plan on reading it as soon as I get a chance.
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