It's been fun to see the Amazon reviews coming in on my two new books, A New Apostolic Reformation?: A Biblical Response to a Worldwide Movement and God's Super-Apostles: Encountering the Worldwide Prophets and Apostles Movement. So far, the reviews have all been positive. One reviewer's comment, in particular, caught my attention. I'd like to respond to him here.Alex Houston, who gave A New Apostolic Reformation? four stars, wrote:

I would have given this excellent book five stars, but I felt that there were some cautious continuationist views that I can't agree with. The authors believe that there is a biblical basis for the ongoing gift of prophecy (but not the office of prophet). Of course, I strongly disagree. I would have liked to have seen a more cessationist response, but other than that, I felt this book was very helpful. (See Houston's full review here.)

Houston was not the only reviewer who wished that I and my co-author, Dr. Doug Geivett, had argued from a cessationist view--that is, that the view that the miraculous gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12 are no longer active in the church. We did not present our own views on the cessation or continuation of the miraculous gifts, but we did make it clear in the preface that we would not base our arguments on cessationism. This was deliberate. Undoubtedly, the discussion about the miraculous gifts is important. But other people have already written extensively on all sides of this issue.We wanted to fix our focus in a way that is most useful to the most people. We hoped that, by not taking a stance on the miraculous gifts debate, we could reach a large audience with our warnings about risky NAR teachings and practices that are being promoted in a growing number of churches. The truth is, NAR teachings are found primarily in charismatic and Pentecostal churches, which believe that the miraculous gifts are still in operation. In fact, the NAR movement emerged out of independent charismatic churches and thus have gained a foothold in many of those churches, in varying degrees. But we believe that NAR teachings and practices do not represent classical charismatic or Pentecostal beliefs, but are something entirely different.-- Holly Pivec