Was cessationism a broadly held belief in the early church?
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I'm currently reading Eusebius' History of the church and stumbled upon this passage:
> These earnest disciples of great men built on the foundation of the
> churches everywhere laid by the apostles, spreading the message still
> further and sowing the saving seed of the Kingdom of Heaven far and
> wide through the entire world. Very many disciples of the time, their
> hearts smitten by the word of God with an ardent passion for true
> philosophy, first fulfilled the Saviour's command by distributing
> their possessions among the needy; then, leaving their homes behind,
> they carried out the work of the evangelists, ambitious to preach to
> those who had never yet heard the message of the faith and to give
> them the inspired gospels in writing. Staying only to lay the
> foundations of the faith in one foreign place or another, appoint
> others as pastors, and entrust to the the tending of those newly
> brought in, they set off again for other lands and peoples with the
> grace and cooperation of God, **for even at that late date many
> miraculous powers of the divine Spirit worked through them**, so that at
> the first hearing while crowds in a body embraced with a whole-hearted
> eagerness the worship of the universal Creator.
To me, this seems to imply that readers at Eusebius' time would not expect performing miracles to be a gift that one could possess. Is this line of thing correct?
To further clarify, I'm using the same definition of cessationism found on Got Questions
> Most cessationists believe that, while God can and still does perform
> miracles today, the Holy Spirit no longer uses individuals to perform
> miraculous signs.
Asked by Nicholas Staab
(171 rep)
May 2, 2025, 11:38 PM
Last activity: Jun 7, 2025, 12:14 AM
Last activity: Jun 7, 2025, 12:14 AM