Mike Winger Says Cessationism Is Unbiblical & Extreme - Defends Modern Day Speaking in Tongues

Did Mike Winger really just call cessationism an extremist position? That's what we're going to be talking about in this episode of the Testing the Spirits.

Podcast.

Do you guys have all seen the video of, what's her name?

Paula White?

Raka-daka-baka-laka-laka-paka-paka.

Mike Winger, Cessationism, and the Challenge to Prove Tongues Today

Hello, and thank you for listening to the Testing the Spirits podcast. In this episode, we're going to be talking about Mike Winger's recent statements in one of his live Q &A videos, where he did, in fairness, he did say that what Paula White was doing and that gibberish, you know, that was fake.

He did acknowledge that. But he said that is one extreme, and he said the other extreme is the cessationist position. Well, what's the problem with that? Well, first of all, I don't necessarily go around calling myself a cessationist because there's a lot of confusion.

People say that, well, if you're a cessationist, you don't believe the Holy Spirit is active in the church today. Yes, I do. They say, you don't believe that tongues is real. Well, I do believe that there is a legitimate gift of speaking in tongues, but I do not believe that it's operational today.

In theory, could it happen in a tribal situation with a missionary? Even John MacArthur, who is probably the most well-known cessationist, he does say that, yeah, a missionary could be overseas and God could give them the gift of tongues.

But he says it's not commonplace. It's not happening on a regular basis. And I do agree with that. And I would just say this to Mike Winger, I'll play the full clip in a moment where he does call cessationism an extremist position.

But I would just challenge Mike Winger, post one video, just one, of a person legitimately speaking in tongues. So that's my challenge to Mike Winger. You say that cessationism is an extremist position, okay.

That means that tongues is happening all over the place. There is another video I saw online where Mike Winger claims to have spoken with other.

Tongues.

I guess he did it privately. But you know, I never really thought he was a charismatic. I knew he was Calvary Chapel, but then I saw the movie Jesus Revolution and I realized that yeah, Calvary Chapel, they are charismatics.

Lonnie Frisbee was more of the hyper charismatic, but Chuck Smith was open to the gift of prophecy and healing and speaking in tongues. And Mike Winger believes that. But again, my challenge to him would be show me one video of a person legitimately speaking in tongues.

So let's watch the full clip. You know, it's like, I don't know, an hour, two hour video that he posted, but we're going to show, you know, in context, the full clip of Mike Winger calling cessationism an extremist position.

And then I'll come back with more to say, watch.

Why the Speaker Rejects Charismatic Claims About Tongues

We tend to do one of two extremes when it comes to the gifts. It seems like our tendency is to highlight them in a way that is not loving and not gracious towards others and not edifying and upbuilding, but it's more about the flashiness of the gifts and the ego of saying, look what just happened in our, in our group.

We're excited or, and so we go off the rails and there's plenty of church groups that go.

Off the rails.

Then the other side is cessationism.

Now I did an entire sermon on first Corinthians 14, where I think I demonstrated that is not.

The case.

You can listen to that if you want, I'll link it in the description. But I do want to say this, yes, speaking in tongues was a legitimate gift in the early.

Church.

You can see on your screen, Acts chapter two, however, the Pentecostal movement, because I need to explain this, the Pentecostal movement began in the 20th century. So tongues did exist in the first century.

People were speaking in tongues, but that seems to have ceased. That was the almost universal testimony throughout church history. But starting in the 20th century with the rise of the Pentecostal movement, that is when people started to claim that the gift of tongues was restored to the church.

Prior to that, it was mainly only the cult groups that claimed the gift of tongues. So that was the Mormons, the Shakers, and a few others. They would speak in gibberish and they called it tongues. I would say it's an ecstatic utterance.

But up until the 20th century, the point is pretty much all Christians agreed that tongues had ceased. Matter of fact, first Corinthians 13 verse eight says that tongues will cease. Some people believe that verse proves cessationism.

Other people don't. That's fine. I'm not going to make that argument here. Here's my point. The Pentecostals claimed that tongues was restored around 1901, 1905. Afterwards, they did some revisionist history and they claimed that tongues had always just continued throughout church history.

But remember, they named their movement after the day of Pentecost. And we see here in Acts 2, 4 through 8, that on the day of Pentecost, they did speak with other tongues, but it says that the people heard them each in his own language.

So the point being, tongues is not gibberish, nor is it some heavenly prayer language.

And I've spoken in tongues, not with interpretation, but in a way that was very powerful in my life and very needful in the moment with real spiritual blessing and benefit that happened right then at the time.

Tongues is not gibberish, nor is it some heavenly prayer language. Tongues is when a person is miraculously given the ability to speak in a language that they previously didn't know. And they still don't know it, but for that moment, they have the miraculous ability to speak in this other language.

And people can hear them speaking in their own language. But the fact is, charismatics like Mike Winger, they have a different view of tongues. It's not consistent with Acts chapter 2. They want to run to 1 Corinthians 14, but you have to interpret the unclear passages by interpreting the clear passages first, and the clear passage is Acts chapter 2.

So again, the fact is, Mike Winger, other charismatics, I think they are wrong to call cessationism an extreme. If you don't agree with cessationism, that's fine. Again, I think God could give someone the gift of tongues in a missionary setting, so I don't even know if I would qualify as a full-blown cessationist.

But I do know this, generally speaking, tongues is not happening today. It's just not. And I will reiterate my challenge to Mike Winger, if you say that it is, and if cessationists are truly wrong, then just show one video proving it.

Just post one video of a person speaking in tongues today. Now I know Mike Winger has a lot of fans, and someone might want to defend him by saying that I'm taking him out of context. That's usually the only defense a person can muster up, and nine times out of ten when they say that, they can't actually explain what in the context would change anything.

But just in case somebody wants to make that argument, here is a larger clip of Winger defending his charismatic viewpoint.

1 Corinthians 14 and the Case for a Middle Ground

But there at the end of the chapter, he says, do not forbid to speak in tongues. I think that possibly this is, I mean, I'm convinced that the Holy Spirit inspired this for the very reason that we tend to do one of two extremes when it comes to the gifts.

It seems like our tendency is to highlight them in a way that is not loving and not gracious towards others and not edifying and upbuilding, but is more about the flashiness of the gifts and the ego of saying, look what just happened in our group, we're excited.

Or and so we go off the rails, and there's plenty of church groups that go off the rails. Then the other side is cessationism. We're just going to say, all that stuff is ended. We forbid speaking in tongues.

We forbid those things. We don't desire to prophesy. And so at the end of 1 Corinthians 14, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy. I do not forbid to speak with tongues. I do think that that is still applicable in the church today and didn't just, we didn't just undo a direct instruction that we have.

But man, when you just look at the two extremes, they sort of, you understand how one extreme almost creates the other, right? The extreme of hyper charismatics sort of creates, in a sense, at least creates a lot of, a lot more cessationists.

But I think that 1 Corinthians 14 pushes us into the middle ground.

All right. So, yeah, I totally disagree with that. But again, if I'm wrong, just post one video of a person legitimately speaking with other tongues and there you go. That should end the debate. But either way, thanks for listening.

And until next time, may the Lord be with you. Have a great day.