✪ "Celibacy of the clergy continued to be praised as an ideal, although it was not enforced legally and effectively until the time of Hildebrand (Pope Gregory VII, 1073-85)." Ref-0063, p. 224. "A monastic model of priesthood. . .emerged in the early Middle Ages, pushing the priesthood toward even more of a castelike existence within the Church. This movement reached its apex with the imposition of celibacy in the twelfth century as a universal requirement for priests of the Latin rite." Richard P. McBrien, Catholicsm, (New York: Doubleday, 1981), 870, cited by Mal Couch, The Power of the Catholic Priesthood, Ref-0055, December 2001, p. 255. "If the Roman Church were consistent in her teachings, one should expect that she would not consider the non-sacramental state of celibacy of higher Christian perfection and more sanctifying than the sacramental state of Christian matrimony. One should expect the Roman Church to encourage her priests to receive the sacramental grace proper of Christian marriage. Instead she maintains that priests, because of the holiness of their vocation, should not be married. How can the holy character of a supernatural sacrament, such as the alleged sacrament of Christian matrimony, overshadow and be incompatible with another sacrament such as the sacrament of Holy Orders as claimed by Rome?" Ref-1202, 127-128. "Widely circulated, Jerome’s letter to Eustochium was part of an ardent campaign he would wage for the rest of his life to promote virginity and celibacy. Though Jerome was hardly the only Church Father to push these values—Ambrose and Augustine were his equals in this regard—his polemics would play a central part in implanting them in Western Christendom. And the doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity, which he insistently proclaimed, would become a foundation of Western Mariology." Ref-1522, p. 104. "In the millennium since Jerome had beaten his breast in the Syrian Desert over the dancing girls of Rome, no one had so bluntly challenged his exaltation of virginity as Luther did in On Monastic Vows. A piercing protest against the whole ecclesiastical regimen of sexual denial, this tract would lay the foundation for Protestants’ rejection of celibacy and support for clerical marriage." Ref-1522, p. 504.
✪ Aramaic for "rock"
✪ That the gifts will cease is clearly taught -- the disagreement is over when? "The cessation of the gifts of apostleship and prophecy is not based upon 1Cor. 13:8-11, since that is dealing with the cessation of the gifts only with the Rapture of the Church." Ref-0067, Summer 2000, Questions and Answers. "The ‘perfect’ is not the completion of Scripture, since there is still the operation of those two gifts [knowledge and prophecy] and will be in the future kingdom (cf. Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17; Rev. 11:3). The Scriptures do not allow us to see ‘face to face’ or have perfect knowledge as God does (v. 12). The “perfect” is not the rapture of the church or the second coming of Christ, since the kingdom to follow these events will have an abundance of preachers and teachers (cf. Isa. 29:18; 32:3,4; Joel 2:28; Rev. 11:3). The perfect must be the eternal state, when we in glory see God face to face (Rev. 22:4) and have full knowledge in the eternal new heavens and new earth. . . . Paul uses a different word for the end of the gift of languages, thus indicating it will ‘cease’ by itself, as it did at the end of the apostolic age." Ref-0089, n. 1Cor. 13:8-10 "If the voice of the verb here is significant, then Paul is saying either that tongues will cut themselves off (direct middle) or, more likely, cease of their own accord, i.e., ‘die out’ without an intervening agent (indirect middle). . . . The implication may be that tongues were to have ‘died out’ on their own before the perfect comes. . . . The dominant opinion among NT scholars today, however, is that παυσονται is not an indirect middle. The argument is that παυω in the future is deponent, and that the change in verbs is merely stylistic. If so, then this text makes no comment about tongues ceasing on their own, apart from the intervention of ‘the perfect.’ There are three arguments against the deponent view however. First if παυσονται is deponent, then the second principle part (future form) should not occur in the active voice in Hellenistic Greek. But it does, and it does so frequently. Hence, the verb cannot be considered deponent. . . . But this is not to say that the middle voice in 1Cor. 13:8 proves that tongues already ceased! This verse does not specifically address when tongues would cease, although it is given a terminus ad quem: when the perfect comes." Ref-0129, p. 422. "One of the first direct references to the early-church belief regarding the cessation of the prophetic gifts is in the Muratorian Fragment, which most modern scholars now date around A.D. 170. This work contains the oldest existing list of the canonically accepted NT books. . . . The work refers to both apostles and prophets, stating explicitly that the number of prophets “is complete,” indicating an end to prophetic expression." F. David Farnell, "The Montanist Crisis: A Key to Refuting Third-Wave Concepts of NT Prophecy", Ref-0164, 14/2 (Fall 2003) 235-262, pp. 258-259. "The context of 1 Corinthians 12-14 discusses the nature and regulations of spiritual gifts bestowed in the Church Age by God the Holy Spirit. These, by definition, were not bestowed prior to the advent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Ad 33. Thus prophecy in the New Testament was somewhat different from prophecy in the Old Testament. Whatever the dynamics of prophecy were in the Old Testament, it was not a spiritual gift of the same order as in the New Testament." Robert Dean, Jr., "Three Arguments for the Cessation of Tongues", Ref-0055, Vol. 9 No. 26, March 2005, 63:86, p. 79. "The view that tends to characterize ‘cessationist’ circles today is not that God does not work miracles any longer, but that today’s miracles are not examples of what Paul called ‘the gift(s)’ of miracles." Ref-1282, p. 111n20 (Seven biblical arguments for cessationism: (1) The unique roll of miracles. Three primary periods were specific men were empowered to perform miraculous works: (a) Moses/Joshua, 1445-1380 B.C.; (b) Elijah/Elisha, 860-795 B.C.; (c) Gospels/Apostles 30-100 A.D. The primary purpose of miracles has always been to confirm the credentials of a divinely appointed messenger. To establish the credibility of one who speaks for God. With the death of the Apostles and new revelation, these need passed. (2) The end of the gift of Apostleship (1Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:7-11). This was a temporary gift having three requirements: (a) a witness of the resurrected Christ (Acts 1:22); (b) personally appointed by Christ (Acts 1:2); (c) ability to work miracles (2Cor. 12:12). There is none alive today who meets those three qualifications. The one NT gift most frequently connected with miracles, the gift of apostleship, ceased. (3) The foundational nature of the NT Apostles and Prophets (1Cor. 12:28; Eph. 2:20; 3:5; 4:11). A foundation is only laid once. (4) The nature of the miraculous gifts practiced by charismatics today bear almost no resemblance to their NT counterparts: (a) tongues: the ability to speak in an unlearned, known human language vs. ecstatic speech; (b) prophecy: inerrant in OT/NT vs. errant “modern prophecy.” (c) healing: results were complete, undeniable vs. modern claimed healings which are incomplete, temporary, unverifiable. (5) The testimony of church history. Apostolic period (Heb. 2:3-4): tongues not mentioned and miraculous gifts seldom mentioned in later epistles. Testimony of church fathers: John Chrysostom; Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Spurgeon, Warfield. (6) The sufficiency of Scripture. The canon of the Scripture closed with the writings of the NT Apostles and their authorized companions. The Scriptures we now have are all-sufficient (2Ti. 3:16); (7) The NT rules laid down for miraculous gifts (1Cor. 14:27-34) vs. modern practice. Those who claim to be exercising gifts empowered by the Spirit are ignoring the rules which the Spirit gave for their use--how likely is it they are truly Spirit-empowered? -- Tom Pennington, The Biblical Case for Cessationism, Strange Fire Conference, [http://www.challies.com/liveblogging/strange-fire-conference-a-case-for-cessationism]. See 2013110901 DVD.) "There are already four valuable critiques to [Wayne] Grudem’s position: (1) Robert Thomas, “Prophecy Rediscovered? A Review of ‘The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today’,” Bibliotheca Sacra 149 (January-March 1992): 82-96; (2) Thomas Edgar, Satisfied by the Promise of the Spirit (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1996); F. David Farnell, “Fallible New Testament Prophecy/Prophets? A Critique of Wayne Grudem’s Hypothesis,” Master’s Seminary Journal 2 (Fall 1991); 157-80; and, (4) R. Bruce Compton, “The Continuation of New Testament Prophecy and a Closed Canon: A Critique of Wayne Grudem’s Two Levels of New Testament Prophecy” (Paper presented at Faith Baptist Bible College Leadership Summit, Ankeny, IA, 27-29 July 2011). Beasley attempted to supplement rather than duplicate these works." Gary E. Gilley, Review of: ‘The Fallible Prophets of New Calvinism’ by Michael John Beasley, Ref-0785 Vol. 17 No. 52 (Winter 2013), 272-275, p. 273. "Scripture clearly designates two classes of prophets: true and false. A third class has been invented by the charismatic/continuationist community, and circulated widely by many New Calvinists--fallible prophecy which contains elements of both truth and error. Such a category is nothing less than human contrivance (p. 164)." Gary E. Gilley, Review of: ‘The Fallible Prophets of New Calvinism’ by Michael John Beasley, Ref-0785 Vol. 17 No. 52 (Winter 2013), 272-275, p. 275. "[John] Piper, who encourages his church to seek the sign gifts, received a prophecy regarding his family from a woman in his church. . . . The prophecy claimed his wife would give birth to a girl and die in the process. Several months later, she bore a boy and was completely healthy. Obviously, the “prophecy” was false in every detail except that Piper’s wife was pregnant, which again invites the question, of what value is fallible prophecy? How could anyone determine which parts were of God and which of the mistaken imagination of the so-called prophet. Not only does fallible prophecy have no real value, it is dangerous and can lead the gullible to take very unfortunate actions." Gary E. Gilley, Review of: ‘The Fallible Prophets of New Calvinism’ by Michael John Beasley, Ref-0785 Vol. 17 No. 52 (Winter 2013), 272-275, p. 275. "Cessationists maintain that the revelatory gifts (prophecy, knowledge, tongues, interpretation of tongues, etc...) and confirmatory gifts (miracles, healings, etc...) ceased with the closing of the New Testament canon at the conclusion of the first century while the edificatory gifts (teaching, mercy, giving, leadership, etc...) remain." -- 20151205204245.pdf.