Pyromaniacs, Lone Rangers, and the Bible

If you have ever checked out the “bobspotted blogs” section of my sidebar, you know that I am a Pyromaniac fan. And if you actually read my lengthy blogroll from yesterday you know that Phil Johnson has decided to manage the Barbarian hordes of violent commentors and insistent visitors by turning his popular blog into a team blog–Pyromaniacs.

The new blog promises to be as attractive, popular, and controversial as the last one. I know, you never really imagined those three adjectives being used together in reference to a blog. But then again, that is what makes Pyromaniac (and now Pyromaniacs) so intriguing.

Aside from continuing Phil Johnson’s reputation, Pyromaniacs is picking up his latest and most controversial subject. For quite a while, Phil has attempted to discuss the evangelical fascination with personal revelations and generally poor hermeneutics (for a brief recap check out this post by Phil). He began by highlighting some of the most egregious of charismatic soothsayers, attempting to get everyone to agree at how heinous (just plain wrong) it is to make specific prophecies in the name of Christ such as those made by Benny Hinn and company. But the cessationist debate kept coming to the forefront of the comments and in this post, Phil explains that he has been practically forced to deal with the cessationist debate.

Now what I want to discuss about this debate is more an offshoot of it–the principle of the sufficiency of Scripture. You may wonder why I call this an offshoot. But in truth, a large number of charismatics/continuationists (for a simple definition of some of these terms check out the box at the top of this post) are reformed and believe strongly in sola Scriptura. Many of these are the commentors plaguing Phil’s blogs of late. Some of the principle “Reformed charismatics” understand spiritual gifts much differently than the more mainstream and typical charismatic you remember from years gone by.

Anyway, the sufficiency of Scripture has been debated in the midst of this controversial blog-o-debate. So I wanted to bring together some good posts on this subject for your (and my) benefit.

• First, check out James Spurgeon’s treatment of the closing of the canon here and here (over on his main blog, Howling Coyote).
• Then, go back and check out Phil’s post which birthed the above treatment.
• Now in from a slightly different but related angle, check out James Spurgeon’s post on Lone Ranger Christians. THIS IS A PHENOMENAL AND VERY GOOD POST, A MUST READ!! [Also check up his clarifying follow up post.]
• And finally, in a similar vein check out my earlier highlight of an article by Ryan Debarr entitled Just the Bible. And also check out a similar post by Ray on the importance of study in relation to Bible interpretation.