The Gift of Healing
Theology
Reading: Craig L. Blomberg Contagious Holiness
Enjoying: hot cocoa
Listening: nothing. Though I had the "Revival Hymn" (download here) recommended to me tonight, and I have a few more audio articles I'd like to hear at St. Anne's Pub, I'm just enjoying the whistle of the wind and the soft snowfall.
Justin Taylor notes that Tim Challies is interviewing Wayne Grudem on the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit. Having earlier interviewed Sam Waldron, Mr. Challies gets Dr. Grudem's view as a neo-charismatic, or perhaps more in his own view, a biblical charismatic.
While reading the article, Dr. Grudem brings up the issue of healing. While the cessation/continuist debate often centers around content-laden gifts, such as glossalia (speaking in tongues) or prophecy, the gift of healing seems different. For instance, no one is claiming that, if we suppose the gift of healing is still continuous in the Church today, that God's revelation to His covenant people is somehow lessened or jeapordized. But what makes the discussion so potent?
Foundational for this discussion will be Vern S. Poythress' article, Modern Spiritual Gifts as Analogous to Apostolic Gifts: Affirming Extraordinary Works of the Spirit Within Cessationist Theology, first published in JETS. It can also be found here.
Labels: theology
