cessationist – Protestia

Broken Stone Studio has announced a new film set to be released in the summer of 2023 called ‘Cessationist’ which will serve to be an indictment of the abuse of charismatic gifts and continuations, over and against the closing of the canon of scripture, asking whether or not the apostolic sign gifts are still in operation today. According to the promo material:

On any given week, countless Christians gather and participate in strange practices they believe are true expressions of the power of God. From speaking in tongues to attempting to raise the dead, Charismatic Christians believe they are participating in modern miracles. But are these miracles real? Are the Apostolic sign gifts in operation today? Cessationist will lovingly and carefully answer this important question by exposing the errors and building a positive case for the real work of the Holy Spirit today. The real gift of the Spirit is far more necessary and powerful than many imagine.

The film will feature Conrad Mbewe, Joel Beeke, Phil Johnson, Justin Peters, Gabriel Hughes, Kofi Abu-Boahen, and Josh Buice, among others.

Newly created on Kickstarter, the film is seeking to raise $100,000 in order to be funded. It has raised a little over 10% and has 28 days left to go.

Broken Stones Studio is the broadcasting & media production company of Les Lanphere. He is perhaps best known as the host of the Reformed Pubcast and has previously released two well-received films, Calvinist and Spirit & Truth, a Film about Worship. Both also launched on Kickstarter and were fully funded.

120 days ago, Dr. Michael Brown, chief enabler of all that is theologically weird and always eager to platform, promote, and advance every crazy-as-a-rat-in-a-coffee-can charismatic leader not named Todd Bentley, made a public wager on the truthfulness, veracity, and inspiration of some charismatic coronavirus prophecies.

Titled This is a Great Time to Test Contemporary Prophetic Words, the purpose of the post was to say that two charismatic rockstar prophets of God have made some prophecies about COVID-19 and that we should test them.

Specifically, that “two well-known charismatic prophets, Chuck Pierce and Tracy Cooke, have spoken of a clear “shift” (or “diminishing”) that will take place with COVID-19 by the end of Passover. “ With the final day of Passover being April 16, 2020

Brown wrote:

If these words come to pass, then skeptics and mockers should take notice while Christians who do not believe in prophecy today should rethink their views and look at the Scriptures afresh.
If these words do not come to pass, those of us who do believe in prophecy today should ask some serious questions, including how we deal with inaccurate or false prophecies in our midst. (And yes, the skeptics and mockers will have more fuel for their fire while non-charismatic Christians will challenge us to rethink our views.)

It is beyond dispute that this shift or ‘diminishing’ of the coronavirus did not happen by mid -April. Instead, lockdowns intensified and are in still in place in many cities and countries. Some states never even really left lockdown. Countries across the world are bracing for second waves and the cases and death toll are rising evermore, and have been rising since the prophecy was given.

At the end of the prophecy deadline, April 16th there were 2,006,659 cases of COVID-19 worldwide and 136,387 deaths. Now, four months after the prophecy deadline, there are 21,026,758 cases, as of August 15th, and 755,786 deaths, with the number still growing.

Given that there was no diminishing or shifting, but rather increasing and expanding, integrity would demand that Dr. Michael Brown publicly declare that these two men, Chuck Pierce and Tracy Cooke prophesied some Grade A bovine scatology and that these words did not come to pass.

In fact, not a single charismatic prophet prophecied the novel coronavirus at all. These were their two last hopes that surely one of their kind prophecied it, and the whole thing has gone down in flames. Literally.

Dr. Brown should take the ‘L’ and publicly rebuke the false prophets and make good on his word to rethink how he and his fellow continuationists deal with this. That should have been done four months ago, on April 17th, actually. Yet 120 days in, still not a peep.

Dr. Brown, you made the wager, and now the cessationists have come to collect.