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. You guys have all seen the video of what's -her -name?

Paula White? 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 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 a 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 you know, I never really thought he was a charismatic and 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 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 And it's like I don't know an hour two hour video that he posted but we're gonna 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 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. 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 2 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 8 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 1st 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 yet.

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 you know 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

But they're 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 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, we're just gonna say all that stuff is ended. We forbid speaking in tongues.

We forbid those things We don't desire to prophesy and so the end of first Corinthians 14 Brethren desire earnestly to prophesy 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 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 cessationist

But I think that first 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