Strange fire

Last week, the hubbub on Twitter and around the Christian blogosphere was John MacArthur's Strange Fire conference, which was dedicated to discussing the issue of, for lack of a better term, the charismatic movement and what MacArthur believes is an avalanche of false teaching that, to some extent, has begun to reach the mainstream of evangelical Christian teaching.  I am stuck in a position where, while I share many of his concerns about "charismania" and will absolutely call things like the prosperity gospel, the Word of Faith movement and phenomena like the "Toronto Blessing" and the "Brownsville Revival" unbiblical, I am not a cessationist like he is.  The best understanding of my position is probably the phrase "charismatic Calvinist"--I absolutely believe that the gifts of the Spirit continue to this day and I have not seen a convincing case made from Scripture that they have ceased, but I also believe strongly that they exist for precisely the same purposes they did in Scripture: to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and bring others to repentance and salvation.

I grew up in a church that was extremely wary of anything even remotely charismatic (although on reflection, it was equally wary of anything remotely Calvinist), and after the Lord saw fit to pull me back in to Himself in 2007 I found myself in a place that was much more...exuberant than anything I was used to.  When I was a kid, the idea that someone would raise their hands in worship would have drawn stares and probably a talking-to from a deacon after service.  By contrast, at the Village people worshiped in such a way as they felt stirred their hearts for Christ. 


So I find myself trying to point to the point for the giftings people yearned for: glorifying Jesus, bringing life to that which is dead, opening eyes and authoring worship of the One who deserves it most.  Cessationists, it seems, look at charismatics as wild-eyed addicts of their own emotions, while charismatics look at cessationists as promoters of a cold intellect and as afraid, for lack of a better word, of the Holy Spirit.

I would say that from my perspective, one of the biggest issues is that it seems like those on the charismatic side are much less willing to be discerning about their teaching.  Some have a hard time even cracking a Bible.  For example, this particularly unfortunate bit of nonsense:



No, Jenn, He isn't.  The Holy Spirit is not a genie, He is not blue, nor is He sneaky.  He is the third Person of the Trinity and He is God.  This sort of ridiculousness, however, is unfortunately rampant in a lot of the charismatic circles I was witness to while living with my wife on campus of her school or going to church over the past year.  The trouble begins when you attempt to point this out, and speak to what the Bible says; lots of frowns, furrowed brows, and talk about personal feelings as though they are equivalent in authority to the Word comes out.  But, to steal a phrase, theology matters: if you think of God as a genie, no matter the positive point you're trying to make, you begin to treat Him like a genie, demanding what you want and being upset when it isn't forthcoming.

And when this sort of thinking is allowed for the sake of not hurting feelings, or trying to go after some sort of "experience" of Christ rather than seeking after the person of Christ, helped by the Spirit, so that we may worship and give glory to the Father, the door to false teaching creaks open.  Not long after you have guys like Benny Hinn running around saying things like God is nine and acting like the gifts of the Spirit are super powers that he can pull out at will to do as he pleases.  You end up with people like Joel Osteen telling people that what God wants is not people who are broken of their addiction to the world, who love Him above all things and recognize that no thing they have up to and including their own lives is more valuable than their relationship with Christ, but rather that what God wants is for you to be comfortable and happy and strife-free, and who measure God's blessings not by nearness with Him and by the strength He gives them to endure all things, but by bank accounts and cars and houses.  And eventually, you end up with people like Joseph Smith who can come in and preach utter heresy, and because people are basing their worship not on knowing the Word and judging all things by it but rather by their feelings, they will go off into complete apostasy and find themselves in a place where they have surrendered any and all belief that might actually be called Christian.

So you might say "So why aren't you a cessationist again?"  Because I believe that abuse of a doctrine is not a reason for abandoning it.  I have heard a lot of very wise and correct warnings given about the abuses of the charismatic movement, but I cannot look at the truth of Scripture and see any place where I see God saying "this far, and no farther" in terms of the gifts of the Spirit as they relate to the progression of time.  I do think, however, that anyone who does embrace such a belief should remember Jesus' words to the Pharisees when they asked for a sign, that the only sign such a wicked and adulterous generation would receive would be the sign of Jonah--Christ dying, being in the earth 3 days and rising again.  How much more does such a verse apply to us in this wicked modern age?

I feel like in order to be fair I need to spend as much time speaking to the cessationists, and to be certain I believe they are adhering to an unbiblical doctrine.  But the thing is, I feel like I can have an honest conversation with most cessationists (not all, but most that I've known) and we can come away having discussed the word, edified, and feeling like we at least understand each other better.  When I speak with most people that are in the charismatic (not simply continualist, but charismatic) side, I feel like they are very personally invested and hurt when you point out that X preacher they love to watch on TV is actively encouraging thoughts and beliefs that are unbiblical and untrue, and in some cases are the opposite of the Gospel.

I want to say that I'm not writing this trying to be an authority, but simply my own thoughts on this based on what the Word says.  But if I were to give a word of advice to charismatics, it would be that the fire of the Holy Spirit is only stoked by being immersed in the truth of the Word, not put out--and, that anyone who attempts to dissuade you from doing so because "you can't think, you just have to let it happen" as people like Rodney Howard-Browne have claimed, is probably hiding it from you because if you read it, you will realize they are not preaching the truth. 

And to my cessationist friends, I would remind you that your battle is not against real manifestations of the Holy Spirit, but rather against untruths and demonic signs others are trying to introduce to the church.  The answer is not to claim that the gifts of the Spirit has ceased, but rather to advocate for the truth of Scripture: all gifts exist to point to and glorify Christ, and for no other reason.  Whether teaching, or giving, or healing, or prophecy, or even tongues, using these gifts for self-exaltation is to defeat their purpose.

*This is not to say that the Gospel was not preached, but rather simply speaking to what was desired by a lot of people.