Please pardon the anachronistic title used to attract better the reader’s attention. Augustine writes below in Retractions 1,13 to clarify a comment he made in his book Of True Religion. I found this quote interesting. He believes that miracles have ceased in one respect, but that they continue in another respect.
I said (chap. xxv), “These miracles were not permitted to last till our times, lest the soul should always seek visible things, and the human race should grow cold by becoming accustomed to things which stirred it when they were novel.” That is true. When hands are laid on in Baptism people do not receive the Holy Spirit in such a way that they speak with the tongues of all the nations. Nor are the sick now healed by the shadow of Christ’s preachers as they pass by. Clearly such things which happened then have later ceased. But I should not be understood to mean that to-day no miracles are to be believed to happen in the name of Christ. For when I wrote that book I myself had just heard that a blind man in Milan had received his sight beside the bodies of the Milanese martyrs, Protasius and Gervasius. And many others happen even in these times, so that it is impossible to know them all or to enumerate those we do know.*
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*Augustine, Earlier Writings, trans. John H. S. Burleigh (Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1953), 220.
Immoderate 
Interesting. Thanks
So Pentecostalism is out, and Benny Hinn is in. Sw33t!
I know Ryan D is in jest, but what if someone held that position seriously. Could you make anything of the fact that Augustine says there are healings (“many others”) but not healers?
Brad-
I think you could say that based on the above passage, Augustine wouldn’t approve of modern faith healers.
Agreed.
Who is Augustine that I should listen to him – he is not an apostle and neither is he Paul. The scripture does NOT say what he says. Thus I will listen and follow only what is written IN the scripture and NOT a doctrine ABOUT scripture and scripture is NOT about cessation
It seems to me that Augustine’s position on cessationism was based almost completely, if not completely, upon his particular observation of history. Did he ever attempt to make a case for this position based upon Scripture?
Augustine of Hippo was a significant theologian who has influenced Western Christian thought in many positive ways. However, like all theologians, he wasn’t always right. His views on mariology were wrong; Mary having never sinned or that she was “ever a virgin” (I’m sure Jesus’ brothers would have been fascinated to know they too were immaculately conceived). Likewise we can appreciate his stance on abortion that it was wrong – but only after 40 days for males and 90 days for females. His position on cessationism is a reaction to supernaturalism of the Montanists. Montanus criticized the church for it’s powerlessness by the second century and observed it was becoming a “church of bishops.” Though I believe he was right, I also think the movement (which lasted into at least the 6th century, and by some estimates the 8th) was judged by its extremes. And the reactionary doctrine of cessationism became a convenient excuse for a powerless “church of bishops.”
@paracletos your right on Saint Augustine being off on some views. But his views on the ceasing of gifts is right. Scripture and history prove that the gifts of languages and healers and prophets have passed on. Does God still heal I’m sure he does, but he does not use men with healing gifts. Those gifts were given to the time of the Apostles for a purpose to spread the gospel. “But when “THAT” which is perfect come, then that which is in part will pass away” The Word ” THAT” is not a PERSON. Many take 1 Corinthians 13:10 as if it is talking about Jesus. If that was true it would use a more ” personal” saying. It would read like this, ” when “HIM” which is perfect come… But it doesn’t. I see this verse as if it is talking about the completion of Scripture. When 1 Corinthians 13 was written there still was many more books left to be written. I use to be a continueist but as I studied scripture and took notice what charasmatics believes did not match scripture especially the gift of languages ( I started my Christian life as assemblies of God church goer) and I studied history of the church. I’m a cessationist.
Thanks for taking the time to report what you came across…..It’s so important to know how we arrived at our current level of Christian maturity. Take away the higher gifts of the Holy Spirit and Jesus’s ministry would have been a non-event. Having lost them in the first several centuries AD,2000 years latter ,we are just beginning to rediscover that they are an essential part of our Christian witness as sons and daughters of God. Not only are they essential, but even better , the Holy Spirit is more than willing to pour them out on us if we are willing to ask and draw close to learn to use them in the will of our Father. This drawing close is the process of “quickening the spirit of sonship in your Church and renewing us in mind and body” that was the prime prayer of the RC Church from 1974, with VAT.ll’s New Roman Missal, that was reverted back to concepts of “adoption” in 2010ish. The prime prayer I’m referring to is the opening prayer for the Easter Vigil Mass that immediately follows the Ceremony of Light which traces Salvation history to the time when “Lord God you’ve brightened the night with the radiance of the rissen Christ. Quicken….” It’s my perception that since we lost what we did in the Garden, “….. all creation has been in travail, groaning…. awaiting the revelation of the sons (and daughters) of God”….. even now in our own day!!
Further, thank God for the life and courage and integrity of Jan Huss……If you trace the Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church that began when the Magisterium prayed for ….A new Pentacost, in preparation for VAT.ll,…. it came through a “Spirit -filled Presbyterian woman whose “Spirit -filled”ministry is traceable back to the Azusa st Awakening and William Seymour, who was a Holiness Movement Methodist preacher traceable back to John Westcliff, an Anglican priest who was baptized in the Holy Spirit but didn’t have the language to describe the experience except it empowered him in his ministry…. this baptism occuring INT context of a Moravian Christian Community in London…. the Moravians being spiritual descendants of the Hussites from the Check Republic who rose up against the murderous excesses of the Church Authorities when they burned Jan Hussat the stake for protesting against the simony of indulgences…….A protest that began with hi taking exception to the practice of priests taking communion in both species and contrary to scripture offered only the body to the nonclerical. believers. Jan Huss was a Roman Catholic priest and university professor at Charles University in Prague……He was also a Prophet and suffered the fate of most of the ones the Holy Spirit sends with the Word of God on their lips, even from Old Testament times till now!
Duquesne University , where the Charismatic Renewal movement in the Catholic Church began in modern times is no ordinary institution ….. It was started by the Spiritan Order….An order ” Dedicated to the Holy Spirit under the Protection of the Virgin Mary”, and Duquesne was the only Spiritan university in the world and it was dedicated to the Holy Spirit…..Duquesne was a governor of New France who fostered Catholic observances in New England area.. The fellow who began the Spiritan Father’s was himself a Catholic priest formed by the Jesuits ( our current Pope is a Jesuit). And the Jesuits were……….. I guess what I could say in conclusion is that any one of us could trace our pasts back to a common source….Back to Jesus, but then we ould have to go back to Abraham like Mathew did in his Gospel…… But even that would not be complete….. it’s Luke that takes us back to. “….Son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God”. God forgive us our missing the mark so badly and bring us to repentance that we have grown to the place where we identify ourselves by sooooooo much that is less than your sons and daughters…….Holy Spirit please convict us of our sin against your Truth,heal us, quicken your spirit of sonship and daughtership in us …. restore us in mind and body……..Invest us with your fulness and all your giftings so that the full knowledge and Glory of God our Father may cover and fill the earth …..So that your whole Family,the sons and daughters of Adam may be reconciled to you and one another in love, faith and hope. Forgive us Father…. We really , really didn’t know. What we were Doing.
The power of God has always been evident in creation, both inside and outside the assembly of “the “holy ones of God”……..The issue is that the power “in” God, that our Lord, Saviour,and Eldest Brother Jesus displayed and arranged at the first Pentecost to be given to his followers , was surrendered relatively soon after it was recieved . What you see in 2000 yrs of Christian history is the aftermath of that fateful allowance. Coupled with God’s love and perseverance…..Proof of his existence alone,,He has been able to reinstate in us , the awareness of our heritage as His Daughters and Sons….The full giftings of the Holy Spirit……It’s in everyone’s greatest interest to allow Him to mature us and teach us to use these gifts in His service. When I look out at the world today, it’s this vision and this vision of sonship alone , that will save us from the destruction and possible anihilation that is immanent.
One does not have to be particularly perceptive, knowledgeable,intelligent or wise to see the nature of the gathering Storm clouds that threaten the earth…… Time to get serious with the Lord, “those whose hearts are not upright, will succumb (Habakkuk 2:4).” So let us begin with evaluating our hearts in the light of Jesus and his Word, and not some “ism”that we’ve managed to end up in for any number of reasons during the last 2000 years……. Come Holy Spirit and renew the Face of the Earth!!!
Amendment…..Holy Spirit,please renew our minds with your Truth, the whole truth, transform us and restore our hearts….. Come and renew the Face of the Earth in Your Love….Amen?