Hebrews 1 deals with the finality of revelation in Jesus Christ:
Hebrews 1:1-2 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.
God, having spoken, spoke. There were various means, and a growing body of writings, with various types of signs, parables, visions, angelic appearances, writing with the finger of God, living examples in prophets lives, etc. These were all preparatory, diverse, sundry, to the fathers, God Himself speaking by the prophets.
And the end of the times, God spoke by or in Son. A Son type revelation rather than a prophet type revelation. God speaking in His Son, the firstborn of every creature, the Creator-God in the flesh. In this finality, God determined to likewise speak by His prophets:
Hebrews 2:1-4 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; 4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
God’s will distributed gifts to bear witness in confirmation of a message, first in live preaching and declaration, but later written down in the full, final, infallible, preserved Apostolic tradition of Scriptures.
This enscripturated revelation is the “so great salvation” spoken first by Christ, and confirmed or made solid and sure by “them that heard Him” (both Apostles of Christ and apostolic men). Verse 4 describes the manner in which the Apostles and apostolic men “confirmed unto us” so great salvation: “God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will”.
First, it was God bearing witness (in Greek, sun-epi-marturountos tou theou). This participle “bearing witness” describes the manner in which the Apostles confirmed unto us the so great salvation first spoken by the Lord. In other words, the Apostles confirmed the message of the gospel first spoken by Christ by means of God’s witness to their words of confirmation.
How did God provide this testimony or witness to their words? “Both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost”. God’s manner of testifying to the Apostles’ preaching, and that of the apostolic men was through these gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Further, this gifting of the Holy Ghost was by the will of God, “gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.” These gifts of God’s Spirit were not necessary, or essential to the gospel economy, but were voluntary, according to His will, for the sake of confirming the message preached by the Apostles. This means, then, that the promises to and practices by the Apostles and apostolic men of the New Testament were intended as God’s testimony to the character of their unique giftings, as Apostles of Christ, or “them that heard Christ” and therefore endued with unique powers to found and establish the church of Jesus Christ on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus being the Chief Corner Stone.
The notion that Christians in subsequent ages should expect that there would be an ongoing bearing witness of God to the ordinary ministers of the church, then, would assume that the ordinary ministers of the church are likewise uniquely poised to offer the same time of confirmatory revelations in preaching and writing as the Apostles and apostolic men provided at the church’s first founding.
Consinstently, this means that those that claim continued promises and practices in our day as in the Apostles’ days must likewise expect that the cannon of Scripture is an insufficient guide, that the Apostlic tradition of Scripture is in need of a similar confirmation in God’s economy as Christ designed the Apostles to provide to His public ministry.
And, in fact, the historic error of expecting ongoing signs is generally accompanied by ongoing revelations. As in Scripture, the three basic eras of such gifts (Moses (Law), Elijah (Prophets), and Christ (Apostles)) were the three eras of Scripture revelation.
The conclusion is inevitable: if God bore witness to the Apostles to confirm their words with deeds, the confirmatory deeds in our day must mean confirmatory revelations, otherwise the purpose of the deeds would be unfulfilled, and they would serve to confirm nothing.
So the choice is apparent: either we have a fixed and final rule of faith and obedience in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, or we are waiting for more oracles confirmed by more miracles. Miracles were not a necessary part of God’s salvation, as witness the long periods of cessation in Old Testament history. Rather, they were voluntary confirmations by God to the Word of God given to be a rule for the church in subsequent ages.
Just as the types and shadows of the Law of Moses were preparatory in God’s economy for the final revelation in Christ, so the miracles of Moses, Elijah, or the Apostles were preparatory for the final Word Written as a rule for all subsequent ages. Only with the revelation of the Apostles there is a seal on the deal, a finality expecting no later confirmatory signs or revelations (Mohammed, Joseph Smith, the “saints” of the middle ages, or the John Pipers of today).
Can someone be Reformed and Charismatic? No, by definition, because Reformed theology uniquely affirms the sufficiency of the Apostlic Tradition in Scripture, the nature of God’s preparatory economy (both in Judaism, and the Apostolic office and miracles), and in the nature of the Christian ministry (as didactic, rather than revelatory). Someone may believe this or that point of Reformed theology, and vainly try to blend it with Scripture’s finality, but to affirm gifts is to undercut their purpose and their finality as God’s confirmation of the Apostles’ Tradition in Scripture. Amen!
