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The Master's Seminary Journal (MSJ) 25:2 Volume 25, Number 2 • Fall 2014 MSJ Tribute to Dick Mayhue John MacArthur Reflections on the Life and Ministry of Richard L. Mayhue Irvin A. Busenitz A Testimonial to Richard L. Mayhue Keith Essex The Gifts of Healing Richard L. Mayhue God’s Kingdom and the Miraculous Michael J. Vlach The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament F. David Farnell Are Tongues Real Foreign Languages? A Response to Four Continuationist Arguments Nathan A. Busenitz Strange Fire Redux John MacArthur The Writings of Dr. Richard L. Mayhue: 1974 to Present Compiled by Dennis M. Swanson THE MASTER’S SEMINARY JOURNAL published by THE MASTER’S SEMINARY John MacArthur, President Irvin A. Busenitz, Dean of Faculty Edited for the Faculty: William D. Barrick John MacArthur Irvin A. Busenitz Richard L. Mayhue Nathan A. Busenitz James Mook Keith H. Essex Bryan J. Murphy F. David Farnell Kelly T. Osborne Paul W. Felix Dennis M. Swanson Michael A. Grisanti Michael J. Vlach Gregory H. Harris Matthew W. Waymeyer Brad Klassen by Irvin A. Busenitz, Editor Michael J. Vlach, Executive Editor Dennis M. Swanson, Book Review Editor Garry D. Knussman, Editorial Consultant The views represented herein are not necessarily endorsed by The Master’s Seminary, its administration, or its faculty. The Master’s Seminary Journal (MSJ) is is published semiannually each spring and fall. Beginning with the May 2013 issue, MSJ is distributed electronically for free. Requests to MSJ and email address changes should be addressed to [email protected]. Articles, general correspondence, and policy questions should be directed to Dr. Michael J. Vlach. Book reviews should be sent to Dr. Dennis M. Swanson. The Master’s Seminary Journal 13248 Roscoe Blvd., Sun Valley, CA 91352 The Master’s Seminary Journal is indexed in Elenchus Bibliographicus Biblicus of Biblica; Christian Periodical Index; and Guide to Social Science & Religion in Periodical Literature. Articles are abstracted in New Testament Abstracts; Old Testament Abstracts; and Religious and Theological Abstracts. This periodical is indexed in the ATLA Religion Database® and it is also included in the full-text ATLASerials® (ATLAS®) collection. Both are products of the American Theological Library Association, 300 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 2100, Chicago, IL 60606, E-mail: [email protected], and www.atla.com. Copyright is waived if photocopied articles are for use in a classroom or local congregation and if the number of copies does not exceed one hundred which are distributed free and include the notice “Copyright (year). Reprinted from The Master’s Seminary Journal.” For any other use, such as posting on the Internet, advance permission is required. ISSN #1066-3959 Volume 25 Fall 2014 Number 2 THE MASTER’S SEMINARY JOURNAL CONTENTS Editorial ...............................................................1–8 Irvin A. Busenitz MSJ Tribute to Dick Mayhue ............................................9–10 John MacArthur Reflections on the Life and Ministry of Richard L. Mayhue ................11–12 Irvin A. Busenitz A Testimonial to Richard L. Mayhue ....................................13–15 Keith Essex The Gifts of Healing ..................................................17–28 Richard L. Mayhue God’s Kingdom and the Miraculous.....................................29–43 Michael J. Vlach The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament ..............................45–62 F. David Farnell Are Tongues Real Foreign Languages? A Response to Four Continuationist Arguments...........................63–84 Nathan A. Busenitz Strange Fire Redux ...................................................85–93 John MacArthur The Writings of Dr. Richard L. Mayhue: 1974 to Present .................95–104 Compiled by Dennis M. Swanson Reviews ...........................................................105–132 F. David Farnell and Norman L. Geisler The Jesus Quest: The Danger from Within ...........................105–106 Reviewed by Richard L. Mayhue J. Allen Daniel Reconsidered: The Key to the Divine Timetable................106–108 Reviewed by J. E. Rosscup Daniel I. Block Obadiah: The Kingship Belongs to YHWH ...........................108–110 Reviewed by Mark A. Hassler Gregory A. Boyd Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty ...................110–112 Reviewed by Bradley Klassen Angelo Di Beradino, ed. Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity, Produced by the Institutum Patristricum Augustinianum ...........................113–114 Reviewed by Dennis M. Swanson John D. Currid Against the Gods: The Polemical Theology of the Old Testament........114–117 Reviewed by Bryan Murphy Colin Duriez C.S Lewis: A Biography of Friendship ...............................117–118 Reviewed by Gregory H. Harris Bart D. Ehrman Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics........................................118–124 Reviewed by Kelly T. Osborne Douglas J. Moo Galatians........................................................125–126 Reviewed by Mark A. Hassler C. Marvin Pate Apostle of the Last Days: The Life, Letters, and Theology of Paul .......127–128 Reviewed by William D. Barrick JoAnn Scurlock and Richard H. Beal, eds. Creation and Chaos: A Reconsideration of Hermann Gunkel’s Chaoskampf Hypothesis ..........................129–132 Reviewed by William D. Barrick MSJ 25/2 (Fall 2014) 1–8 EDITORIAL This issue of The Master’s Seminary Journal celebrates the completion of twenty-five years of publication. To commemorate this event, the faculty is honored to dedicate this issue to Richard L. Mayhue for his twenty-five years of service to the seminary. After serving as Dean of the Seminary since 1990, he was recently named Research Professor of Theology and is engaged along with John MacArthur, the sem- inary president, in the massive project of completing a systematic theology. The articles in this issue represent the labor of several faculty members who presented this material in the annual faculty lecture series last January. That series, inaugurated in 1997 by Dr. Mayhue, has been renamed “The Richard L. Mayhue Lecture Series.” The lead article, written by Dr. Mayhue, deals with the biblical de- scription of divine healing, an area where he has made one of the most significant contributions in evangelical literature over the years. To introduce the series of articles, we have included John MacArthur’s Intro- duction to Strange Fire (Nashville, TN: Nelson Books, 2013, ix–xviii). It is a most appropriate beginning to this fall issue, one that focuses on a biblical analysis of the supernatural gifts of the Spirit. The case for non-continuationism or the cessation of these gifts is compelling to the point of conviction. Introduction to Strange Fire Nadab and Abihu were not shamans or snake-oil salesmen who infiltrated the camp of the Israelites in order to spread the Canaanites’ superstitions among the peo- ple. They were by all appearances righteous, respectable men and godly spiritual leaders. They were priests of the one true God. And they were not middling Levites. Nadab was heir apparent to the office of the high priest, and Abihu was next in line after him. They were the eldest sons of Aaron. Moses was their uncle. Their names head the list of “nobles of the children of Israel” (Exod 24:11). Aside from their fa- ther, Aaron, they are the only ones singled out by name the first time Scripture men- tions Israel’s “seventy elders,” the group of leaders who shared spiritual oversight in the Hebrew nation (Num 11:16–24). Scripture does not introduce them to us as sin- ister figures or notoriously wicked men—quite the opposite. These two brothers, together with the other seventy elders, were privileged at Sinai to ascend the mountain partway and watch from a distance as God conversed with Moses (Exod 24:9–10). The people of Israel had been instructed to stand at the 1 2 | The Master’s Seminary Journal foot of the mountain and “not go up to the mountain or touch its base” (Exod 19:12). While God was up there talking to Moses, if so much as a stray beast wandered onto the skirt of Sinai, that animal was to be stoned or shot (v. 13). From the base of the mountain, all the rank-and-file Israelites could see was smoke and lightning. But Nadab and Abihu were expressly named by the Lord Himself, who invited them to come up and bring the seventy elders. And “they saw God, and they ate and drank” (Exod 24:11). In other words, Nadab and Abihu had been closer to God than almost anyone. No other Israelite except Moses himself had ever been given a higher privilege. These men certainly seemed to be godly, trustworthy spiritual leaders and faithful servants of God—young men of renown. No doubt virtually everyone in Israel es- teemed them highly. And no doubt everyone in Israel was staggered when God suddenly struck Nadab and Abihu dead with a blast of holy fire. This occurred, apparently, on the first day of their service in the tabernacle. Aaron and his sons were anointed in a seven-day-long ceremony when the building of the tabernacle was complete. On the eighth day (Lev 9:1), Aaron offered the first sin offering ever made in the tabernacle, and the ceremony was punctuated with a miracle: “Fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces” (Lev 9:24). Moses records what happened next: Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the LORD spoke, saying, ‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored’” (Lev 10:1–3 NASB). Most likely Nadab and Abihu had taken fire from some source other than the brazen altar and used it to light their censers of incense.
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