Marks of a True Church

Cessationists include as marks of a true church those things that they can control and counterfeit, but they exclude the things that only God can do, even though the Bible promises and prescribes them as the gospel. Why? This is so that their churches will not be exposed as fakes and scams.

Where the gospel is preached and practiced, there will be healing, prophecy, and all kinds of signs and wonders*. God will come to and dwell in the true church, and he will act among and act through his people. One necessary mark of the true church is that God is there! And there he will do what only he can do.

The miraculous manifestations of the Spirit are given to all believers. A lack of power must be a mark of a defective or counterfeit church. The false church will fight against this so as to draw attention away from the fact that the glory of God has departed from it, or that it has never been there in the first place. It will condemn the gospel to justify itself.

* Matthew 21:21, Mark 11:23, John 14:12, Acts 2:17-18, 14:8-10, 1 Corinthians 12:7, 14:26, Galatians 3:5, James 5:14-18, and many more.