Signs of the Apostles

by Walter J. Chantry

How should the Christian assess the contemporary claims about spiritual gifts? In Signs of the Apostles Walter Chantry describes the worldwide spread of the charismatic movement and discusses its significance. He believes God is still working in the world today. But it is his conviction that miraculous powers are no longer placed in the hands of individual men and women. Every recorded instance of the reception of miraculous power in the New Testament Church occurred through the ministry of an Apostle. Now that the canon of Scripture is complete, the pursuit of all the spiritual gifts of the apostolic age can only proceed upon the basis of a failure to recognize the sufficiency and finality of the Bible. This short work is written with clarity and vigour. It carefully distinguished some kinds of charismatically-inclined Christians from others. It poses questions with which every Church member is faced. Chantry's answers tally with those of the greatest leaders of the Church during the Christian centuries. From Psalm 85 he outlines the true character of revival, and closes the book with material drawn from the Great Awakening of the 18th century.

Genres: Theology, Ecclesiology

102 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1973

About the author

Walter J. Chantry was born in 1938 at Norristown, Pennsylvania, raised in the Presbyterian Church; graduated B.A. in History from Dickinson College, Carlisle in 1960, and a B.D. from Westminster Theological Seminary in 1963, from which time he has been pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Carlisle. He is married with three children.

Rev. Walter J. Chantry served as pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pa., for thirty-nine years. Following that he edited The Banner of Truth magazine for almost seven years.

Reviews

[Andrew Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great entry level book into the topic of Pentecostalism. This is an older book and I’m not sure if there are updates so it’s written in the scope of Pentecostalism in the 70’s. Of course charismania has only exploded even more since then so this is still a very valuable read. Chantry does a good job of explaining cessationism and how the sign gifts read about in Scripture served the purpose of authenticating prophets and apostles in the days before the completion and closure of the canon of Scripture.

[Matt Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

An indictment of pentacostalism and neopentacostalism. As a cessationist, I agree with everything written here. He looks for the reason behind the signs. He reduces the denomination to its root cause. Looking for more than Scripture as authority. Like the Jews facing off against Jesus, the charismatics are looking for a sign. The miracles or signs or wonders or whatever term you like point to the one who performed the sign. For pentacostals that is the pastor, for cessationists that is Christ.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book from Once Upon a Time Books in Arkansas after basically searching their online database and ordering any Banner of Truth publications that were undervalued and underpriced.

With that in mind, this is a Banner of Truth publication from the 1970’s that is critiquing a charismatic or Pentecostal revival. Some of the commentary is addressed specifically to that revival in the sense that Chantry will quote “neo-Pentecostal” leaders in order to prove his point.

Despite the handful of outdated references, the arguments that were being made for Charismatic revival are often the same ones being made today. Chantry does a good job critiquing through an expository analysis of scripture and makes a good argument for Cessationism. The influence of
Iain Murray also rubs off on him and Chantry does a good job at giving a historic analysis as to whether or not historic church figures (Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, Thomas Brooks,) attributed revival to charismatic efforts.

Ultimately it’s a good book for Christians but I wouldn’t recommend this as an introduction to the topic of spiritual gifts or an introduction to cessationism. I’d probably tell them to go check out Tom Schreiner’s book on spiritual gifts in order to get a great introduction and balanced view on the topic and then I would recommend them to check out this book.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a short, concise defense of the cessation of the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit. In particular, it's a rebuttal to the notion of a second-blessing experience of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Chantry emphasizes the importance of basing one's life upon the objective truth of God's word, rather than the subjective perception of one's personal experience. While this title is not comprehensive in nature and leaves many important themes unaddressed, it's a very helpful book on the legitimate role of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life. I recommend it highly.

[Ezekiel McMurtry · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I agree with the theological aspects of this book, I struggled with the delivery. There was far too much generalizing of the Pentecostal movement for me to consider this good pedagogy. I like the theology presented, but the lack of interaction with published Pentecostal works caused this book to fall short.

[Matthew Rawlings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, to the point and fair.

[Tom James · Rating 4 out of 5]

An fine critique of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. A fairly short book, so it's a quick read. Dr. Chantry is writing from a cessationist perspective, defending his viewpoint by pointing to the sufficiency of Scripture for the Christian today.

[Douglas]

This work points out very important and most often overlooked portions of Scripture in the debate on cessationism versus continuationism. It realigns the debate to focus on the real question that must be asked. Most cessationists are accused of simply having no faith and not believing in miracles But that is a dishonestly and obviously lethargic response to those cessationists who point to the material cited in Scripture, and it is side-stepping the real question at hand. That question is well stated, answered and Scripturally defended in Chantry's book.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I'm not a continualist, I dont agree with the thesis that is built on the premise that scripture is the mature thing that came so now we dont need the signs.

You find that thesis in section : "Gifts must depart from the church". I think this is poor exegesis of the text (1 Corinthians 13).

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent.