A Response To A Cessationist - Part II

This is the second part to the previous letter. I forgot to say that this rebuttal happened in February 2011.


A) "Paul may have still been alive when the written New Testament was completed, but I don't know that he was."

Indeed! He doesn't know! He wasn't alive! His epistles are among the earliest manuscript we have about the NT writings.

B) " I don't think Paul's use of the personal pronoun “I” in I Corinthians 13:12b should be taken to mean that he would necessarily be alive when the perfect is come."

The reason he feels the need to try to explain an otherwise clear text, it is because he is looking for something between the text. But as we know, there is nothing between the lines. No, Paul was not talking about the arrival of the Bible, but rather having that perfect understanding like all the saints on the day of resurrection. That is when with the rest of us, we will all be mature in the likeness of our master (Ephesians 4). Jesus said in Luke 6:40: " The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master."

C) "Paul uses the personal pronoun “I” multiple times in Romans 7:14-25, but I think you will agree with me that he is not talking about himself per se, but is just talking about any person's struggle with sin (mind over flesh). The exact same thing is taught in Galatians 5:17 and there he doesn't refer to himself specifically."

No i disagree. He is also talking about himself. And no, he is not talking about the struggle with sin in the sense he talked about it in Chapter 6 of Romans. Rather he talks of his struggle about sin when someone revert to live under the law - the mosaic law that is. Certe, theologians are in both side of the issue but i see no reason that would exclude Paul from having to struggle with some form of sin for after all he admitted himself that he wasn't yet perfect! St. Paul said in Philippians  3:12  "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." And as for Galatians 5:17, i don't see his point. I guess he gave the wrong verse.

I will suggest that he chooses another diagram to illustrate his point and this time, i suggest he makes a comparison between a child both in 1 Co 13:11 and Ephesian 4:14 and maturity or mature man (perfection) both in 1 Cor 13:11 and Ephesian 4:13

Then maybe he will stop looking as darkly as in a glass when he will read this portion of the scripture!


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