While this generalization lacks some nuance, there are Christians who believe that God only speaks through Scripture and those who believe that God speaks through other means today as well.
I understand that there are cessationists, those who believe the sign gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 are no longer available, have some differing views.
For example, cessationists would agree that God does not provide new prophecies and that there are no prophets today, but might disagree over whether the Holy Spirit gives nudges in a certain direction or provides leadings.
Where does cessationism come from? Ironically, one would not get the impression from just reading the New Testament that the gifts of the Spirit would end with either the death of the Apostles or the completion of the New Testament.
I believe that cessationism comes ultimately from a conviction of what is called “the sufficiency of Scripture.”
I am going to set aside discussions of healings and miracles. Even some cessationists believe such things sometimes happen today, they would just say that it comes directly from God rather than through a person as in the days of the Apostles.
I think the biggest concern for cessationists is that if the Holy Spirit speaks today, that is a threat to the sufficiency of Scripture, that is the belief that all we need is found in the Bible.
While I am not a cessationist, I am sympathetic toward this fear. I spent about seven years as a Pentecostal. Regularly, people would either give a message in tongues or a word of prophecy during the service. There would also be people who would give “words” to people during prayer time.
I struggled with this. If these messages were a word from God, why was no one writing this down? The reaction from the congregation was not usually, “Let’s examine the content of that message of God” but rather “Isn’t it great that such things are happening at our church?”.
At one church, where I was doing a placement during seminary, we had a guest speaker for some “revival” meetings. She claimed to be a prophet and she actually did write down the messages that she claimed she received from Jesus. She published these things as a book and described it from the pulpit as “the word of God.”
All of those things make me very skeptical when someone claims to have a prophecy or a direct word from God. In fact, I think twice about connecting with people on social media who self-designate as an Apostle or a Prophet.
Having said that, I still struggle with the fact that the New Testament does describe a God who is in regular communication with the Church, and not just through written Scripture.
Cessationists will respond by saying that this was because the New Testament was not yet complete and once it was complete, such communication was no longer needed.
There is a certain logic there. But that’s the problem. The strongest argument for cessationism is based on logic and not a statement found within Scripture. The argument that seeks to protect the sufficiency of Scripture must also admit that Scripture is not sufficiently clear on the matter and that logic must step in.
People who deny the prophecies continue or that there are still apostles today, do so not because that is what the Bible teaches, but because if those things continued to exist, it would challenge our view of Scripture.
I actually believe that the Bible does not need all of the defending that cessations are working so hard for. I think the Bible is sufficient for telling us who God is, what God has done through Christ, and how we should live our life as a disciple.
None of that is threatened if God speaks to people today through dreams, words, prophecies, etc. Yes, it does bring us into the messiness of figuring out what is real and what is not. But better that than ignoring the ways God speaks to us.
Scripture is sufficient. But accepting that means that we take seriously that the Bible describes a God who communicates to us in many ways.
If you are interested in this topic, you might enjoy this episode of the Unbelievable? podcast.
