The below comes from Irenaeus’ work, Against Heresies, 5.6.1. The Doctrine of Cessationism generally states that certain gifts enjoyed by the Church during the Apostolic days ceased shortly after their deaths. Irenaeus, a pupil of Polycarp, was born between 115 and 125, dying about 202. This book is placed around the year 180 and was written to defeat the first great doctrinal threat to the Church, Gnosticism. It is highly doubtful that Irenaeus wrote this in defense of glossolalia, but it serves that peculiar purpose well in that the ancient Apologist establishes that the Spiritual man is the perfect man, and in order to be perfected, one must ‘partake of the Spirit’. Irenaeus says, ‘The man is rendered spiritual and perfect because of the outpouring of the Spirit’.
We must be reminded that in Acts, as the Spirit fell upon the Jews, the Gentiles, and the disciples of John the Baptist, it was accompanied with speaking in tongues, or prophesying.
1. Now God shall be glorified in His handiwork, fitting it so as to be conformable to, and modeled after, His own Son. For by the hands of the Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not [merely] a part of man, was made in the likeness of God. Now the soul and the spirit are certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was molded after the image of God. For this reason does the apostle declare, “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect,” terming those persons “perfect” who have received the Spirit of God, and who through the Spirit of God do speak in all languages, as he used Himself also to speak. In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages, and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and declare the mysteries of God, whom also the apostle terms “spiritual,” they being spiritual because they partake of the Spirit, and not because their flesh has been stripped off and taken away, and because they have become purely spiritual. For if anyone take away the substance of flesh, that is, of the handiwork [of God], and understand that which is purely spiritual, such then would not be a spiritual man but would be the spirit of a man, or the Spirit of God. But when the spirit here blended with the soul is united to [God’s] handiwork, the man is rendered spiritual and perfect because of the outpouring of the Spirit, and this is he who was made in the image and likeness of God. But if the Spirit be wanting to the soul, he who is such is indeed of an animal nature, and being left carnal, shall be an imperfect being, possessing indeed the image [of God] in his formation (in plasmate), but not receiving the similitude through the Spirit; and thus is this being imperfect. Thus also, if any one take away the image and set aside the handiwork, he cannot then understand this as being a man, but as either some part of a man, as I have already said, or as something else than a man. For that flesh which has been molded is not a perfect man in itself, but the body of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the soul itself, considered apart by itself, the man; but it is the soul of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the spirit a man, for it is called the spirit, and not a man; but the commingling and union of all these constitutes the perfect man. And for this cause does the apostle, explaining himself, make it clear that the saved man is a complete man as well as a spiritual man; saying thus in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, “Now the God of peace sanctify you perfect (perfectos); and may your spirit, and soul, and body be preserved whole without complaint to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Now what was his object in praying that these three — that is, soul, body, and spirit — might be preserved to the coming of the Lord, unless he was aware of the [future] reintegration and union of the three, and [that they should be heirs of] one and the same salvation? For this cause also he declares that those are “the perfect” who present unto the Lord the three [component parts] without offence. Those, then, are the perfect who have had the Spirit of God remaining in them, and have preserved their souls and bodies blameless, holding fast the faith of God, that is, that faith which is [directed] towards God, and maintaining righteous dealings with respect to their neighbours.
We can see here in the words of Irenaeus that although he might place emphasis on speaking in tongues, he does not make it central to the Christian life or worship. It is something placed on the individual, and commended, but not established as a must at every gathering of the Church – as some today would make it.
I look forward to any discussion that might arise out of this posting.
Tags: cessationism, Christianity, glossalia, God, holy spirit, Oneness Pentecostalism, patristics, religion, speaking in tongues, spiritual gifts, spiritual maturity, spirituality, trinity
