Anyone wishing a complete and detailed response to the writing and teachings of Jack Deere, Wayne Grudem and others who hold that those not manifesting the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit are not Spirit-filled can find it in this book. Edgar, a professor of New Testament at Capitol Bible Seminary in Maryland, does not write for the fainthearted or lazy. This book is mind-stretching and detailed and will have to be read slowly. It is one of the most well-presented current defenses of the cessationist position and cannot be ignored even if not accepted. It is methodical and scholarly.
Edgar affirms that Christians can be both fulfilled and satisfied by the Holy Spirit apart from miraculous gifts. Those not following the signs and wonders mania have not settled for less.
Taken up are the issues of whether there are “lesser” gifts of prophecy and healing in the Church today and whether cessationists simply lack faith because they reject these inferior manifestations.
Germane to the issue as well is whether so-called “gifts” today really resemble those that are in the Bible. This is a pertinent and urgent question that is rarely asked.
Some chapter titles are: “Experience or Scripture?”, “Scripture: For Validity or Mere Credibility?”, “Biblical Information Regarding Spiritual Gifts”, “The Gift of Miracles and the Gift of Healing” and “The Gifts in History.”
Edgar wrestles boldly with issues that affect the contemporary Church and does it in a scholarly, yet loving, way.
Is the promised Holy Spirit sufficient to satisfy every need
for godly living? This book does an admirable job in answering
that question and many others. It deals with root issues and not
just the peripheral in confronting the charismania sweeping the
American Church.
—GRF
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