Ephesians unfolded

This is the first of a series of posts that I intend to look at the book of Ephesians. For purposes of expediency and personal belief I will keep to the traditional view that it was the Apostle Paul who wrote this letter. I acknowledge that there is some current critical doubt as to it being authentically Pauline, a belief which I don’t hold to and don’t wish to debate here. (1)
The letter is thought to have been written during AD 60-61 by Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome. The difference between this letter and his others is that he doesn’t address it directly to any person or group, though our popular versions say to the Church at Ephesus, many of the original manuscripts do not contain that address and it is thought to have been added at a later date and so the intent of the letter is more an open letter to a group of churches around Asia Minor whom he is most likely not personally familiar with, though knowing they know of his authority as an Apostle. The intent of the author is similar to his letter to the Romans Rom 11:33 where he is talking to both Jewish and Gentiles Christians about how they both are in Christ and none is greater than the other. The background here is that the Gentile Christians have grown in numbers and are boasting of their independence and perhaps superiority to Israel and becoming intolerant of their Jewish Christians. Therefore I propose that the outline of the contents of the first chapter of Ephesians should be as follows.

1:1-14 Introduction and purpose of his letter.
1:1-2 Address and salutation
1:3-10 God chooses the Jewish nation to reveal Christ.
1:11-12 God predetermined that it would be Jewish disciples, apostles, prophets whom Paul counts himself among to reveal Christ.
1:13-14 God has also chosen the Gentiles to be included in His plans
1:15-23 Paul prays for the church.
1:15 -16 reason for praying
1:17 – pray for wisdom and revelation so that they could know him better
1:18 – heart be enlightened – know the hope God had called them and the riches of his inheritance in the saints
1:19 -23 Know the incomparably great power for those who believe and what that power is.

If what has been suggested is true by the commentaries in that the Gentiles are being intolerant of the Jewish Christians then Paul is actually rebuking the recipients of this letter reminding them that they were the last to have Christ revealed to them.

The other issue that this raises is that Paul is not speaking to individuals so much about what it was that Christ had done through verses 3 -14 rather he is talking about what He has done is for both the Jewish and Gentile nations together in a corporate manner rather than a individual way. Though we can be greatly encouraged by applying the meaning of those verses to ourselves we need to be careful that we don’t take upon ourselves some of the meanings that Paul assigns on a national level.

Take verse 4 for an example “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world…” Most Christians wrongly read this verse applying it in a personal way that says, “God chose me in Himself before the creation of the world” The context of the passage does not allow us to make that interpretation rather the true meaning is that before the creation of the world God chose the nation of Israel to be the nation to reveal to the world Christ.

The next passage which is then taken out of context is verse 11-12. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out every thing according to the purpose of his will in order that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory.

Paul is not talking about individual salvation being predetermined by God, rather he is making reference to his apostleship among the other disciples coming out of the Jewish nation as being chosen to reveal Gods plan for the world – “Christ”
He then says, you (Gentiles)also were included in Gods plan of salvation that Christ died for you as well.

Then while it is true that as individuals we take hold of the great promises of Christ we need to remind ourselves that in this first chapter Paul talks about God choosing the Jewish nation to be his children – referring to his promise to Abraham that they will be a great nation blessed by God, then how God chose some to be Apostles (2) to make this plan of salvation known, and 3rdly that the Gentiles are included in this plan of salvation and were so before the creation of the world.

[1] D. Guthrie, J.A Motyer New Bible Commentary, Ephesians (Intervarsity Press, England 1970)p.1107
[2] This is referred again by Paul in 4:11 about how God gave some to be Apostles…to prepare Gods people for works of service.

The Ephesians 5 Fold Ministry Gifts

Adrian Warnock posts a excerpt from Doctor Lloyd Jones, where he believes that the office of pastor / teacher is one office and not two. He also says that he believes the other offices are temporal. If as he says is true he would then have to show that the gifting and work of evangelist is also temporal and no longer for today.

There could possibly be more Biblical proof to show that the office of Evangelist is more temporal than any of the other offices if a literal interpretation was to be made of Paul’s list to the Corinthians.

1Co 12:28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.
1Co 12:29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?
1Co 12:30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues[4] ? Do all interpret?
1Co 12:31 But eagerly desire[5] the greater gifts.
And now I will show you the most excellent way.

Yet I doubt if any one would say that Paul is specifically excluding Evangelists from this list, rather his emphasis is one on ensuring we are loving and using all the gifts for the common good. There is no clear cut Scripture that says there will be no longer Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers and if one was to make a case that they and other supernatural gifts are no longer for today; such as miracles, tongues, interpretation etc, then we also have to say that the gifts of helps and administration which are sandwiched between healing’s and tongues also have to have ceased as well.

Yet I know of no one who teaches that God no longer gifts people with the gift of teaching, administration and helps.

Paul then goes on to say that while he would like all to use the gift of tongues, he would rather they use the gift of prophecy more so. 1 Cor 14:5. If it was, as many teach that Paul is talking about the perfect being the Bible 1Cor 13:10 and therefore tongues and prophecy will be no longer, then Paul would have expanded and taught more in his next paragraphs about how they were to come together without using those gifts.

Yet he doesn’t do that, instead he strongly promotes the use of those gifts, expects them to be used lovingly and therefore shows that they are part of the fruit of the Spirit and that no one is to forbid either the speaking of tongues or prophesy.

When one considers Paul’s and all the other Apostles acceptance of Prophets in the narrative story and that they call other’s Apostles and Evangelists who were not of the original twelve. And that there is no teaching within any of the epistles that God will no longer equip, gift, promote any to those positions, one is hard pressed to make the call that Scripture says that they will cease.

The two workings of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit

Billy Graham writes in his book, “The Holy Spirit”[1] the story about an Indian who came down the mountains and saw the ocean for the first time. In awe he took a jar and filled it, with the intention to take it back to his people who had never seen the ocean before.

In the same way this article is like the jar, only instead of being made of glass, its limitations are through its words. For words can never hope to capture the fullness of the glory of the Holy Spirit, for in the same way the ocean must be experienced to gain a full appreciation of its immensity, we too must experience the Holy Spirit to fully appreciate and understand His Immensity, Glory and Mission. Many today limit the Holy Spirit within the confines of the written word of God, trying to understand Him through the limits of those words. There they constrain their understanding of Him to a narrow scope, where he is no longer to be experienced today as he was recorded in the Scriptures as working. Instead they teach and believe that his work has changed to making us rationally understand and believe the propositions of Scripture. Here they become guilty of the sin of Bibliolatry, changing the Trinity to Father, Son and Bible.

In doing this they actually deny the truth of Scripture in that the Holy Spirit is the same God yesterday, today and will be the same tomorrow. Scripture is not meant to be read that way, it is to be read as a pointer towards the living God, recording for us the ways and means to which we are to experience the Holy Spirit ourselves. Scripture clearly shows us that the Apostles took this experience for all very seriously. Peter tells his audience when asked what they must do to be saved, “Repent, be baptised and then you will receive the Holy Spirit” Acts 2:38 and indeed we see this happening with the Christians in Samaria, repenting and accepting Christ for themselves, being baptised and then the Apostles went and ensured that they experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

This then is the norm of what should happen in the Christians life. Many in Christendom today though have reversed the order Biblical order in that we receive the Holy Spirit before accepting Christ, for it is God who makes us alive while we are dead in sin and therefore he does this by granting us the Holy Spirit in making us alive. This is a distortion of the Biblical recording of both Jesus’ teaching about the Holy Spirit and the recording of the working of the Holy Spirit.

There are distinctly two workings of the Holy Spirit.

1.) The external working of the Holy Spirit in drawing a unbeliever to accepting Christ.

2.) The baptism of the Holy Spirit which is the initial first experience of repeated infillings of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Himself taught that there would be an external working of the Holy Spirit Jn16:13 Paul says that no one can call Jesus Lord except through the work of the Holy Spirit 1Cor 12:3. He also goes to great pains to show us that faith comes through hearing the word of God, in the attempt to motivate us to share the Word of God through evangelism. Rom 10:17. . We see this external working of the Holy Spirit at work in Samaria, convicting the Samaritans to the truth of Christ, cutting them deep to the heart. We see the Holy Spirit at work in Peter’s first sermon to the Jews and God fearers who are cut to the heart asking what must we do, to be saved. And again we see this happening to Paul who has an encounter with Jesus, is convicted of his sin and that Jesus is Lord and yet has to wait for the laying on of hands by Ananias to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Acts 9:17 It may appear to the casual observer that there is a episode in the Scriptures where some receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit before being convicted by the external working of the Holy Spirit, and that is the case of Cornelius and his family. Yet if we look closely at the story we notice that his encounter with Christ is similar to the one Paul had, as both encountered the Angel of the Lord, before meeting with a Christian whom the Lord sent. Acts 10:33 the only difference was that they were yet to be baptised in water which Peter soon rectified. Again in Acts 16:25 we read of the Jailer being convicted through the external working of the Holy Spirit, this time through the earthquake – and their subsequent acceptance of the word of God.

Finally we read of some disciples whom Paul met on the road to Ephesus, there he asks them if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed. This is an important Scripture because it shows us an insight into his ministry that like the Apostles did with the Samaritans, Ananias did with himself, he also ensured that other believers also did not remain content with just believing, but they also received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, or if you like the initial experiential experience of being filled with the Spirit. There they showed that the receiving of the Holy Spirit was experiential for they also started prophesying and speaking in tongues. Acts 19:6 We also read of Apollos being like those disciples Paul met, only knowing the baptism of John and that Pricilla and Aquila explained the way to him, but that he taught about Jesus accurately.

The reception of the Holy Spirit is a experiential reception, one that though we read about within the pages of Gods word, we experience it our selves outside of our rational understanding.  This experience brings life to the believer, it brings about gifting and draws us close to the heart of God

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[1] Graham, Billy The Holy Spirit (Word Books, Texas, 1978) p.1

Does equating Salvation as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit grieve the Holy Spirit?

Adrian Warnock asks this question in reference to something that Doctor Lloyd Jones said in one of his books.

“There is nothing, I am convinced, that so ‘quenches’ the Spirit as the teaching which identifies the baptism of the Holy Ghost with regeneration. But it is a very commonly held teaching today, indeed it has been the popular view for many years…”

I was quick to accept this in my initial post on the subject on my other blog Dancing with the Trinity But having reflected further on the subject and specifically what the Doctor says next.

But if you say that they are identical, you do not expect anything further.

Yet there may be some who do hold that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is equal to Salvation / Regeneration who do believe that there can be an ongoing experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit and who may seek the Lord for that fresh infilling. It could more be a matter of semantics and misunderstanding of Theological language rather then truly hardening ones heart against the Spirit.

Which I think Jones would agree with from what he says next.

And if you do not believe that it is possible for you to experience the Spirit of God bearing direct witness with your own spirit that you are a child of God, obviously you are quenching the Spirit. That is why so many Christian people are miserable and unhappy; they do not know anything about crying out, ‘Abba, Father’; or about ‘the Spirit of adoption’. God is a Being away in the far distance; they do not know Him as a loving Father; they do not know that they are His children. They may believe it intellectually, theoretically…

Perhaps he is mixing the experience of the fresh infilling of the Spirit rather then the one off Baptism of the Holy Spirit subsequent to salvation which he speaks?

I come from the Pentecostal position in that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a one off event, subsequent to salvation, followed by fresh experiences of the infilling of the Spirit.

However I believe and some may think me overly harsh for saying so, that the cessationist doctrines are not Holy Spirit inspired and those who hold and teach the same are guilty of hardening their hearts against the work of the Holy Spirit and perhaps may even come close to, or commit the act of actually blaspheming against the Spirit. Even at best they are guilty of grieving the Holy Spirit and James says that teachers will be doubly judged.

We need to look at the Bible, using doctrine when doctrine is taught, bringing Doctrine alongside the Biblical narrative. We read of three cases in Scripture where Salvation / Regeneration take place before the Baptism of the Holy Spirit happens.

1. Jesus breathes upon the Disciples and tells them to receive the Holy Spirit .
2. The Samaritans who accept the Gospel with joy, but did not receive the Holy Spirit until the Apostles went to them.
3. Paul discovered some believers who had not received the Holy Spirit. We need to note that Paul specifically asked them if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed…to which they replied “what Holy Spirit?”…

Further more in every Scriptural recording, something overt happened to signify the reception of the Spirit – usually with tongues or prophecy. You can read more about that gift here.

The normal teaching regarding the Acts narrative is that it fulfilled the requirements of first the Jews, then Samaritans and then the Gentiles to receive the Holy Spirit and through those 3 incidences the Holy Spirit had been completely given and therefore the Spirit had been given to all. It does seem rather forced to the natural reading of the Scripture according to the way it was documented as history.

The other issue about it, is many who hold to this teaching say you cannot use Acts for doctrinal purposes to those who hold to a more natural reading of the narrative, which is rather hypocritical when their own doctrine has been formed from the same narrative.

In forming our theology of the Holy Spirit we cannot divide any of the authors of the Epistles Doctrine from the narrative story, and read our own western mindset / experience into it. Its by combining both the Biblical narrative with the teachings that we can clearly see that there is a indeed a experience of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to be had…. and then not only that one of event, but Scripture shows there are times of repeated refreshing s.

I don’t think God cares about honest mistakes in belief when his people are clearly seeking after him. But when hearts are hardened against both the clear teaching of Scripture and against seeking a fresh experience of the Lord and all he would give to them and teaches others the same- then those people are guilty of quenching the Spirit of the Lord.

Being Sifted Like Wheat

I first wrote this and blogged it July 13, 2005. And this is the revised version.

Since October 17th 2008 I have been thinking and reflecting about the difficulties we have in life and that we face as Christians. It seems that there are times we are constantly under spiritual attack and no matter what we do; our courage fails us right at the time it is crucial that it does not. How often does it seem that we hear the voice of God in what ever way it is that he is talking to us, and yet we don’t do as he has told us; instead we do exactly the opposite?

• Peter the Apostle knew all about this, Luke records the warning, exhortation and encouragement of the exchange between both Jesus and Peter.

Luk 22:31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you[1] as wheat.
Luk 22:32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Luk 22:33 But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”
Luk 22:34 Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

Here we read that Satan has asked God permission to sift Peter and that he has been given permission to do so. There is another story in the OT about a man called Job who also was sifted by Satan with Gods permission.

Have you ever watched wheat being sifted? With todays society and the readily availability of instant food, I would say probably not. A normal sieve was round about 30 – 40 cm across with sides about 100 mm – 150mm high, and a fine mesh type bottom, some sieves were bigger made of a mesh type material, about the size of a blanket and took two people to operate.

What happens is that you put the harvested wheat with the stalk etc into it and throw it up and down, shaking it, tossing it, so that the wheat is separated from the rest of the plant, and ready for use, either for storage, sowing or grinding into flour. The sifting process is a much-needed process for the grain to be any use.

So we see here that Jesus is telling Peter and though he is talking specifically to Peter, I believe he is also talking talking to the rest of the disciples; that he and they are going to be sifted, to be thrown about, that they will be going through some tough times, but not to worry, he has prayed for Peter / them that they will not fail. John 21:15-17.

Jesus tells us that he has prayed their faith will not fail them, that they will turn back, and in doing so strengthen many. Peter now argues with Jesus, protesting that it would not be so. Jesus declares, it will be so, and this is how it will pan out! And as the story progresses we know that indeed all the disciples bar John deserted Jesus and after the resurrection Jesus also reinstates them all, especially Peter.

How often have we been in the shoes of Peter and the other disciples, our boldness and confidence fleeing from us? Our faith becomes shaken, we get tossed and turned. Perhaps we don’t quite reach the stage Peter and the others did in denying our Lord. Yet for what ever reason we find we are going through a dark night or season of the soul, where we know our walk with the Lord is perhaps not OK. We find the going tough. We lack the wisdom, boldness and even passion to witness to others. Our prayer life lacks the dynamic it once had and we wonder in the deeper recesses of our inner being if we will ever recover that dynamic again? We intend to pray and instead get easily distracted. Or we go through the motions of being a Christian, not enjoying our reading of the word – that is if we do read it. We go through the motions of praying, while deep within we can’t wait for the prayer time to be over. Legalism creeps in, duty replaces joy and intimacy.

Perhaps you don’t know what it is I’m talking about? Praise God for it. Perhaps the time will come for you to experience it, perhaps not. Perhaps you have gone through that and come out the other side wiser for the experience. Or perhaps you are in the middle of such an experience right at this very moment.

If this is you then we have joined company, and we need to be reminded of what the Apostle Paul wrote.

1Co 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Just as Peter was sifted by satan, we to are liable to being sifted by satan in all his subtle and not so subtle ways. Just as Peter was told by Jesus that he would fail, he was also told that his faith would not totally fail him, that he would bounce back and strengthen others.

What ever it is we are facing right now at this very moment, God will not allow us to face more than what we bear and he will also provide a way out, under the shadow of his wings.

Father God, I lift us all up to you, individuals families and friends. Lord I ask that we who are going through the trials of being sifted that you will strengthen us, help us to both know and to see that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that you are providing a way out. That you will deliver us from the shaking of the evil one.

For those who have come out of such an experience I ask that you will continue to help them to walk with you in joy, in peace, in strength, in the fullness of your spirit, and for those who have not yet been through the sifting process that indeed you will prepare them for such an event if it is to be your will for them to do so. I ask that none of us will ever fall away, to deny you Lord, that we will all grow from strength to strength, faith to faith, in the power of your spirit I ask that you will do this Jesus, shielding us from the power of the evil one.

Men of the land – Prophetic Word

This is a copy of the word that came to me on Friday night, 18th April during Easter 2003,

To set the mood,
We had gone to church and then went land hunting with my wife and two of my children. I have always been a man of the land, though rover the last few years I have been of it. The ties to the land runs in my blood, and tonight I was reflecting on how you can take the boy from the bush but can’t take the bush from the boy.

Then I felt the Lord had this to say, which I am sharing with you now.
Malachi 4:6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.

To our men of the land.

Tonight I felt the lord had me say this. Men you are in relationship with the land, sometimes you hate it, sometimes you love it and sometimes you wish you could pretend it’s no longer even there. You wrestle with it, to draw the best it can give, you nurture it, you till it, you fertilise it, you seed it, you cull and weed and burn and spray, you even water it when there is water to give, and then you harvest it.

The harvest depends on the amount of nurturing you give it, and on the amount of water it receives.

Guys you can work hard from sun up till sundown working the soil hard to give it its best and it will give you its best it can give you with all the hard work you put into it, but the true harvest depends on the water, the life giving, thirst quenching water, the water that brings healing, the water that brings life, the water that sustains life and even produces new life.

Men of the Land listen to what the Lord would have you hear him say, you work hard for your families, you work hard for yourself, and the words you speak to your family, the words you speak to your self can be like words of water or poison. They can either build up or burn down, they can encourage your wives and sons and daughters to bloom and to blossom and to bear much fruit or they can spray over them like toxin and cause them to wither and die.

Words have the power of life and death, men of the land listen up, many of you feel that you are like wells run dry that you are like dams with a little muddy water left in them that you are like the garden tank hose with no pressure, that you are like a cloud with no water, that you are running dry with nothing else to give.

Men of the land listen up; it is when you are this dry you need to turn to the source of water, the source of living water which is there only for the asking, every one who drinks of the water of the Lord will never thirst again, indeed it will become like a well in you, a spring that flows up to eternal life.

Who is this source of living water? It is none other than our lord and savoir Jesus Christ. Who beckons and calls, “Come to me all who are heavily burdened, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light”

I ask you, over this Easter will you allow Jesus to refill your tanks?

Craig

Prophetic Word – Fatherlessness

Monday 11th April 2005

This is a copy of a prophetic word I felt the Lord give me back in April 2005.

To our Men of the land

Tonight the lord was talking to me about his being a Father and how there is a wound that runs deep within Australia of many being fatherless and that wound is reflected in our churches and across this nation of ours. He has been talking to me about how Australia has roots that run deep of fatherless-ness right from the very beginning of Australian settlement, a wound that caused much wounding of the original inhabitants.
Australia was settled by many children ripped from the care of their parents and sent out here without a father, many men were ripped from their families and sent out here causing an issue of fatherless-ness where they left.

This wound was what was behind the killing of many aborigine men in the land, again causing the issues of fatherless-ness to increase, and then this wounding was the root cause of what caused the men of this land to then rip many aborigine children from their families and caused another deep wounding of fatherlessness.

This wounding on the nation was again compounded by the various wars across that our nation was involved in, where many men were killed or in action while their wives gave birth back home, causing an issue of wounded-ness in these children of being brought up with no father, during world war one may of our men who went to war never came back and the same with the second world war, those who did come back found it hard to be a father to their children and the cycle was growing worse and worse. Then the Vietnam war came and men went to war and caused much heartache and brought home much heartache, and as a result again many children increasingly were being raised up with no father.

Again we are at war, this ugly issue of Fatherlessness is again increasingly raising it’s ugly head, only the spiritual stronghold behind this is worse, fathers are abandoning their children in many ways, one is through abortion, another is to leave their families and there kids for a life of their own, and the 3rd issue is that men are opting out of father hood altogether, deciding not to have families, deciding not to have children at all. Then the lord spoke to me and said,

There is a deep wound in the men of the land, a wound that has been caused by fatherless ness, a wounding that runs deep into the very soul of Australia, a wounding that is festering and weeping, a wound that is gaping open and is ugly and is a wound that can not be left to heal on it’s own, it’s a wound that can only be healed by me. Men of the land, you need to turn to me and to come to me as your father, you need to lay down all your hurts, you need to lay down all your pretences, you need to lay down all your pride and come to me and allow me to be your father. Men of the land listen up, I am the father of all fathers, I have seen and I know the weaknesses and the failings of your own natural fathers, the very weaknesses and failings that were caused by them being wounded by less than perfect fathers, men of the land listen up, you cannot do it on your own, you can not continue to be independent, you cannot continue to pretend you are not hurting, men of the land, many of you are orphans, many of you have no father, many of you have never known a true father and for many of you wish that you never had a father. Men of the land listen up, I am the only perfect father, to the men of the church you need to get a revelation of me as your father, you need to get this revelation deep into your soul, deep into your spirit, and you need to bring about that revelation into your community. Men of the land listen up, your communities are hurting because of fatherless-ness, your children are hurting, your walk with me is hurting, men of the land turn to me,

Deu 14:29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

And

Psa 68:5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.

Men of the land I am calling you to stop the curse in this land, I am calling you to me and for you to rise up and defend the cause of the fatherless and for you to turn to me, to seek my face and for the stronghold of fatherlessness to be broken in this nation.

Men of the land listen to me, my son died for you, and through him I have called you to be my children, I have called you because of my son, come to me all you who are heavenly laden, cast your cares on me, my yoke is easy, my burden is light, come to me and cast all your cares on me because I care for you.

craig

Our Father

Today I have been reflecting on fatherhood.Jesus taught us to pray …”Our father”Jesus showed us how God is the perfect Father and also how he is the perfect son.

Today the world is lost, fathers don’t know how to be fathers any more, sons and daughters just don’t know how to be true sons and daughters either. Who and where are our our role models and our mentors?

I was only praying today that none of us can truly walk in the presence of God with out knowing him as father and knowing our role as a child or his son / daughter. We only need to look to Jesus as our role model.

I say today that no matter how good or bad your upbringing was and is, no matter what your own father was or was not like, God is our perfect father, he is for us and not against us, he has good plans for us and wants us to know him as the perfect father.

All of us were and will always be some ones child, and none of us were perfect children, all of us were naughty in some way or rather, some of us were / are cheekier then others as well. The Bible calls it sin, and all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. It doesn’t matter our past, God will allways accept us with open arms , forgiving us through his Son Jesus Christ if only we would repent and turn back to him. In return he will adopt us as his own children.

It is my prayer today that you will truly come to know the only living God as your real heavenly Father and accept what he has to offer you through his son Jesus.

craig

Speaking the Truth in Love.

One of my favorite blogs is T4G which is where four well known preachers from four different reformed denominations and flavors dialog with one another in love, honest disagreement and at the same time unity in the Gospel. The participants are,

Mark Dever Capital Hill Baptist Church and 9 Marks Ministry.

Ligon Duncan First Presbyterian Church.

C.J. Mahaney Sovereign Grace Ministries

Albert Mohler The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

While these four men all minister in different ways and have different theological beliefs to each other they are agreed on the centrality of the Cross and it is on this they are united and because they do recognise this about each other are able to call each other brother and dialog and listen to what it really is each other is saying.
Particularly I have found the way they have and find unity with C.J. Mahaney who labels himself a Reformed Charismatic, where the others come from a more cessationist background very encouraging. While I myself do not consider myself reformed in the way of totally agreeing with T.U.L.I.P , and lean more towards Pentecostal Theology and practice there is much I do agree with them regarding the centrality of the Cross.

One of the things I have normally found though is that most reformed preachers tend to pull down any Pentecostal / Charismatic preaching and theology with polemic and rhetorical arguments that really have nothing to do with what has been really said. And I find this extremely discouraging.

Take for example this You Tube video clip of Mark Driscolls critique of Joel Osteen. I think this is a classic example of someone preaching about an issue and critiquing / comparing it to something someone else did not actually say. Now I have to say I’m not a huge fan of Joel Osteen and have never read his books, or watched his programs. I have read one of his book reviews by Michael Horton, which I found to be a honest critique.

However in Marks sermon I think he speaking against something Joel is not saying.

For example,

• Joel speaks about this by saying you might have a bank load of money, but what about your family life if it sucks…what are you going to do about it?

• The same goes with relationships you might have with other people at work…

• What is your attitude going to be if your bank account is Zilch towards God…

• Are you going to worry or are you going to give it to God.

Mark strips him apart by using Jesus as the example of having bad relationships with his family, community etc. Mark is totally correct about what he says about Christ, you will hear no disagreement with me there. And the context is that yes we will be persecuted and should expect it when it comes to preaching the good news about the kingdom.

Gods word commands us to live peaceably with all men as far is as possible with us, it gives us principals and guidelines to be Godly fathers, husbands, wives, mothers children and how to live in society. Therefore what O’steen was saying has some Scriptural merit.

Mark talks about the pain of the cross, about the level of anxiety that Jesus faced being so much that he cried tears of blood. Again this is true, Gods word also tells us to cast all our anxieties onto the Lord for He cares for us, and in other places about the peace of God beyond all comprehension filling our minds and so again I find what Joel said about not worrying did have Scriptural support, even if he did not actually quote the scripture and verse.

• Now Marks concerns about the gospel Osteen preaches are most likely very very true, and to be taken on board, but it is important that the examples we use are truly relevant to the critique we make.

On another forum we have been discussing this very issue and some very important points have been raised. I think it is very important that we actually listen to what it is that someone has said, and not what we think it is they said to make our points.

Another blog / forum that I read often is the Pyromaniacs Team and I must say that I am often in agreement with what they say. And I do agree with what Dan says about not seeking God for any thing that is extra Biblical, though perhaps we both have a different understanding to what Extra Biblical means. Yet they too are guilty of not speaking the truth in love, for their is a level of dishonesty in their posts regarding what people may or may not have asked and their response to it.

Take the example of where I asked Dan a question about whether he would believe a person if they told him they had had a Angelic encounter…..and his response here. He misses what I asked him, and goes into an attack against Christians seeking God for something better than his word….saying that we don’t need more than his word..and then continues into a tirade against charismatics / pentecostals etc… then saying he would doubt them very much about such an encounter.

Personally I find this kind of thing dishonest and think if someone is going to answer a question they need to stick to the question and answer it truthfully. If you read through the comments made to the Pyro post you will see that Dan has not really engaged with others comments about how Angels have helped Christians and in doing so have glorified God, but would rather label every person who had such an encounter as seeking external Biblical truth…whether they were seeking the encounter or not. He then says he would doubt any one who told him they had had an Angelic encounter.

One of the things I found dishonest about his post is that in his polemic against Christians seeking extra Biblical wisdom and not turning to the word of God is that he didn’t turn to the word of God to see what it actually says about Angels.

When we do we will read that though we are not to seek them out, but that God does use them to answer our prayers, such as setting Peter free from jail, telling Cornelius that some one will come and explain the ways of God to him, and that we should be hospitable to strangers because sometimes we might be entertaining angels.

The word of God also warns us that Satan appears as an angel of light and that we are to test the spirits according to the word of God.

Therefore if an Angel came and tried to give us extra biblical information or tells us to do something that was not in keeping with the word of God we should tell it to get nicked in the name of Jesus.

If though we find that we have an encounter with an angel that answers our prayers for provision or protection in any way that is in keeping with the word of God, or one asks us to go to someone to preach the gospel and we do and it bears much fruit then we give glory to God for his leading, provision and guidance.

If great men of God like the T4G group can actually dialog in grace, truth and in love and do it well then we likewise can do the same by being slow to speak and quick to listen to what it is that each person is actually saying.

Charismatic Renewal

This article is from John Marks Ministry

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/8206.htm Here’s an article on an important modern movement within Christianity I wrote about ten years ago. What has changed?

Charismatic renewal is not going way. According to David Barrett, editor of World Christian Encyclopedia pentecostals and charismatics numbered an estimated 100 million worldwide in 1980. He says that number jumped to about 150 million by 1985.(1)

The word ‘charismatic’ (Greek charisma – a gift of grace) is useful as an adjective but sometimes offensive as a noun. Here we will reluctanly use ‘charismatic’ as a noun, and as an adjective, but with the understanding that every true Christian is charismatic.

We are now hearing about ‘post-charismatics’. They had assumed the experiences in Acts 2,8,10,19 and I Cor. 12 and 14 were normative for all Christians for all times. Having sought an emotional high, they found that their version of the charismatic renewal promised more than it delivered. (2) Let us work through the myths or misconceptions in order.

# 1: ‘RELIGIOUS RENEWAL IS A FAIRLY MODERN PHENOMENON’.

Those unfamiliar with the mistakes of the past, as Santayana said, are likely to repeat them. Movements of religious renewal are not new. Thet happen when something lost is found: the book of the law (Josiah), prayer and asceticism (Desert Fathers), simple lifestyle (Franciscans), justification by faith (Luther), sanctification (Wesley), spiritual gifts (Pentecostals).

Christian renewal emphasizes the church’s organic, communal nature and tends to idealise the primitive apostolic church. Static institutions are challenged to change and become dynamic.

Traditionalists are usually blind to the disparity between the institution’s claims and its inaffectiveness.

Renewalists often have little – or an idealised – sense of history; God is on their side and against the institution; they don’t realize that they too will set up new institutions which will eventually settle down, preserve a status quo and be challenged again.

Howard Snyder and others have helped us formulate a ‘mediating model’ of the church, which affirms history and expects renewal – both. (3)

# 2 ‘”ENTHUSIASM” IS A SIGN OF IMMATURITY’

Not necessarily. Stolid Anglo-Saxons may not approve of too much enthusiasm, but other culture (Latins, Africans) like it. Two Israelite leaders, Eldad and Medad, got excited when the Spirit fell on them, so Joshua the institutional spokesman told Moses to stop them. Moses retorted by wishing the Spirit might similarly fall on the lot of them (Numbers 11:26-30)!

Experiences of some of the mystics (Richard Rolle, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross), reveal an affinity to modern ‘charismatic’ phenomena.(4)

Whenever the Holy Spirit manifests himself in a person, a culture or an age he produces various attitudes: an ordering attitude, a praying attitude, and a questioning attitude, and an attitude of receiving. Without the receptive attitude the other three dry up. ‘Without mystical experience, without an ongoing awareness of the presence of God, one does not live a full and rich Christian life … the charismatic renewal represents the re-entry into the world of the felt presence of God… it means mysticism, the attitude of receiving, is being renewed for us.’ (5)

In all renewal movements there is a predictable dialectic: a move far enough one way will cause the pendulum to swing back to the other extreme.

The sad history of Enthusiasts illustrates both the dangers of unchecked fervency not centred on the revelation of Jesus Christ, and also the inadequacy of merely institutional or rational authority …. The faith is endangered when Christians have to choose between this uncontrolled fervency and dessicated, authoritative, uninspired orthodoxies in Protestantism or Catholicism. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love and community, the Spirit of reflection and control. (6)

# 3 : ‘PENTECOSTALISM IS AN ECCLESIASTICAL ABERRATION THAT CAN BE IGNORED.’

Not without reason has Pentecostalism been called the ‘third force within Christendom’.

Pentecostalism teaches a necessary second stage in a believer’s relationship to the Lord – ‘baptism in the Spirit’ – whose initial evidence is speaking in tongues. Its mission has been to restore spiritual gifts that had been neglected or opposed by the churches: tongues, interpretation, prophecy, faith, miracles, healing, wisdom, knowledge, and discernment (I Cor. 12:8-10).

# 4: ‘”NEW-PENTECOSTALISM” IN THE 1960s AND 70s WAS INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM THE OLDER PENTECOSTALISM’.

The Neo-pentecostal renewal began in a significant way in the historic churches in the 1950s.

Catholic charistmatic renewal (the term ‘Neo-pentecostal’ soon went out of vogue) probably goes back to Pope John XXIII convoking the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), and his prayer that the Holy Spirit would renew the church as by a new Pentecost.

Charles Hummell uses a World War II analogy to explain what happened. Pentecostalists based their pneumatology on the Synoptics and Acts: wasn’t Jesus first conceived by the Holy Spirit, then later baptized in the Spirit? Didn’t the disciples ‘receive’ the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathed on them, but were later filled with the Spirit at Pentecost? Traditional theologies, on the other hand, were Pauline. They said you mustn’t build doctrines from these events in the primitive church, but rather ask ‘What do the New Testament letters to various churches teach us?’ And only once is ‘baptizing in the Spirit’ explicitly referred to there (I Corinthians 12:12-13). And so the battle-lines formed, and the troops became entrenched within their fixed positions. It was something like the French Maginot Line facing the equally impregnable Siegfried Line. Each army was safe behind its ramparts but unable to advance. Suddenly the German panzer divisions moved swifly around these fixed positions and rolled into Paris without a pitched battle.

So with our little theologies. We fight our wars, protect territory already won, and are often ill-prepared to take new ground. ‘For decades pentecostal and traditional theologies of the Baptism in the Spirit faced each other along one major doctrinal battle line. Then suddenly the Holy Spirit moved around these fixed positions to infiltrate charismatic renewal behind the lines in mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churches’. (7)

Catholic charismatic renewal has less emphasis on spiritual gifts and more on nurturing a personal relationship with Christ and on developing Christian community. In 1979 the Australian Catholic Theological Association said that through the movement thousands of Australian Catholic men and women were able to experience a deeper conversion to Jesus Christ; a renewal of faith; an introduction to a serious prayer life; a new appreciation of the Scriptures; and openness to the use of their gifts from the Holy Spirit; a commitment to evangelism. (8)

# 5: ‘CONSERVATIVE CHURCHES ARE FRIGHTENED TO TOUCH CHARISTMATIC RENEWAL BECAUSE IT’S AN “ALL-OR-NOTHING” PACKAGE.’

Peter Wagner, professor of church growth at Fuller Seminary has popularized the notion of a ‘Third Wave’ of charismatic renewal experienced in many churches in the 1980s.

Many historians feel this century has seen the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit since the first century or two. The first wave came … with the Pentecostal movement. The second came around the middle of the century with the charistmatic movement. The Third Wave is more recent, having begun around 1980, with the same powerful, supernatural acts of the Holy Spirit which have been confined to Pentecostals and charismatics now being seen in a growing number of evangelical churches.

Wagner goes on to talk about his ‘120 Fellowship’ that meets from 7.30 to 9.15 Sunday mornings.

We see signs and wonders on a regular basis. Because of this realize we may be different from some other churches and Sunday school classes, but we do not consider ourselves any better. We don’t teach a ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’ as a second work of grace (many of us have had experiences of what others might call ‘Spirit baptism’ but we simply say it is a filling or anointing of the Spirit which may happen to a person many times). Nor do we permit ourselves to be called ‘Spirit-filled Christians’ as if others in the church were something less than Spirit-filled. We do our best to avoid the Corinthian error concerning tongues. While we do not forbid tongues, neither do we stress (it). We treat tongues as just another spiritual gift, but not as a badge of spirituality. Many pray in tongues, but we do not encourage public tongues in our class.(9)

His conclusion: ‘I see the third wave of the eighties as an opening of the straight-line evangelicals and other Christians to the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit’. (10)

Many mainline churches are now incorporating a ‘soft-side’ charismatic renewing force into their worship/service, sponsoring healing services, for example, or praying for healing and deliverance in their normal worship times. Thousand are attending John Wimber’s ‘Signs and Wonders’ courses in many parts of the world.

# 6: ‘THERE’S ONLY ONE WAY TO UNDERSTAND THE TERM “BAPTISM IN THE SPIRIT”‘.

‘Baptism in the Spirit’, in the pentecostal and charistmatic traditions, is an effusion of God’s Spirit upon a Christian with power for praise, witness and service. It is an experience ‘which initiates a decisively new sense of the powerful presence and working of God in one’s life, (and) usually involves one or more charismatic gifts’. (11) Pentecostals normally view it as a ‘second work of grace’. Charismatics have come to understand it as a deepening of the faith grounded in the new life received in Christ.

When a person becomes a Christian (and that can happen in many different ways), he or she never realizes all that has happened. A fuller understanding of ‘justification’, for example, may come much later. But it happened earlier. So we mustn’t put dogmtic strait-jackets on this experience. Conversion can be dramatic (if the person was running hard from God beforehand, for example), or quite matter-of-fact.

So with the Holy Spirit. Luke and Paul write about the work of the Spirit from different perspectives. For Luke the Spirit gives believers power for witness in the world – and that can be repeatable. Paul talks about the Spirit incorporating us into the Body of Christ – that’s once-for-all.

Words can have different meanings in different contexts. Paul has perhaps five separate meanings for ‘flesh’. The Bible has many ways to describe the meaning of the death of Christ. ‘Baptism’ is used in the Scriptures as a flexible metaphor, not merely as a technical term. I heard Canadian theologian Clark Pinnock say: ‘So long as we recognize conversion as truly a baptism in the Spirit, there is no reason why we cannot use ‘baptism’ to refer to subsequent fillings of the Spirit as well’.

# 7: ‘RE SPIRITUAL GIFTS: THE BEST COURSE IS TO BE CONSERVATIVE (STICK TO THE SAFE ONES, AND LEAVE THE OTHERS WELL ALONE!)’.

Every church ought to be open to the full spectrum of the gifts. Spiritual gifts are meant to create truly Christian community. Where there is love, there’ll be gift-giving. God’s gifts are love-gifts — God at work.

Gifts are given freely bythe Holy Spirit to whomever he wishes. They can’t be manufactured byus nor is their presence or absence a sign of Christian maturity.

In a truly biblical fellowship the focus is not on the gifts, but the Giver (but that shouldn’t be a cop-out, ignoring the gifts we aren’t comfortable with).

Here’s a common problem: ‘I had the best hands laid on me, but nothing happened’. Well, what did you expect to happen? Faith-filled prayer believes you have received the Spirit: leave the rest to God’s timing. David du Plessis (‘Mr. Pentecost’) says, ‘Baptism in the Spirit is always easy when Jesus Christ does it for you, but always difficult when you struggle to do it yourself or with the help of others’. (12) And Richard Lovelace: ‘Christians act as though fellowship with the Holy Spirit were very hard to establish. Actually it is very difficult to avoid! All that is necessary is for the believer to open up to that divine Reality in the centre of consciousness which is the most fundamental fact of a Christian’s inner life’. (13)

# 8: ‘PROPHECY ISN’T NEEDED TODAY –WE’VE GOT THE BIBLE’.

Western fundamentalism has been infected with ‘dispensationalism’ which sees the activity in the Book of Acts as transitional: the canon of Scripture is now closed, and the curtain has been brought down on all this sort of thing. When Paul says tongues and prophecy will be with us ‘until the perfect comes’ (I Cor. 13:10) they say Paul meant a ‘perfect Bible’; the rest of the church interprets Paul as referring to heaven, ‘when we shall see face to face’.

Prophecy is a direct dominical utterance (‘thus says the Lord’) for a particular people at a particular time and place, for a particular purpose. The Divine Word also comes through Jesus, through Scripture, through circumstances, and through visions (more commonly in non-Western cultures). Prophecy gives the church fresh insights into God’s truth (Eph. 3) or guidance about the future (Acts 11), or encouragement (I Cor. 14:3, I Tim. 1:18), or inspiration or correction. It either edifies the church or brings it under judgement (‘God is in this place!’ – see I Cor. 14:25). The biblical prophets combined judgement with hope.

# 9: ‘TONGUES IS AN “ECSTATIC” GIFT (FOR IMMATURE CHRISTIANS)’.

The gift of tongues (‘glossolalia’) is a quasi-linguistic phenomenon, not language in the normal sense of the term. (14)

Tongues-speaking is not an indication of mental imbalance. After fifty years of research the consensus still runs, in the words of Virginia Hine twenty years ago: ‘available evidence requires that an explanation of glossolalia as pathological must be discarded’. (15)

Two decades of research into the discrete functions of left and right hemispheres of the brain appears to show that the dominant cerebral hemisphere (the left, for 95% of the population) specializes in thinking processes which are analytical, linear, logical, sequential, verbal, rational. The right hemisphere normally shows preference for thought that is visiospatial, simultaneous, analog (as opposed to digital), emotional. While speech has been seen to rise from mapped sectors of the left hemisphere, language-formation capacities are probably spread over both hemispheres. (16) Glossolalia may be right hemisphere speech, sharing a location beyond – but not contradictory to – the usual canons of rationality. It is appropriate to think of glossolalic prayer as neither irrational nor arational, but rather transrational: when reason fails in prayer, the Spirit helps (Rom. 8:26,27). It’s spirit to Spirit communication rather than mind to mind. (I Cor. 14:15).

Richard Beyer claims there is a ‘fundamental functional similarity between speaking in tongues and two other widespread and generally accepted religious practices, namely Quaker silent worship and the liturgical worship of Catholic and Episcopal churches’. (17)

# 10: ‘WHAT IF THEY’RE NOT HEALED?’

Let’s look at the tough questions.

Does God want everyone healed? Pentecostalists usually say ‘yes’ (and if you aren’t, the problem is with your, or your praying friends’ or your church’s lack of faith). Most others would say ‘no’.

Francis McNutt offers a more balanced view:

In general, it is God’s desire that we be healthy, rather than sick. And since he has the power to do all things, he will respond to prayer for healing unless there is some obstacle, or unless the sickness is sent or permitted for some greater reason. (18)

The church today surely needs less pride and prejudice in this area. ‘But what if we pray publicly and they’re not healed?’ is the kind of faithfless question that stymies our maturing in this area. Our calling is to be faithful and obedient. It’s God’s business whether he heals or not!

# 11: ‘DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL SPIRITS IS A MEDIEVAL OR ANIMISTIC IDEA. WE’VE NOW OUTGROWN ALL THAT’.

Naturalism is a view of the world that takes account only of natural elements and forces, excluding the supernatural or spiritual.

This world view has influenced theology in this century principally through Rudolf Bultmann: ‘The forces and laws of nature have been discovered, and therefore we can’t believe in ‘spirits’ …. whether good or evil.’ (19) Against this, the biblical worldview holds that the universe consists of both visible and invisible creatures, angels, demons, and powers. As theologians like Gustav Aulen and Helmut Thielicke point out, the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom in the ministry of Jesus Christ can’t be understood apart from its being a war against the principalities of evil. Emil Brunner says we cannot rightly understand the church of the New Testament unless we break out of the strait-jacket of naturalism and take seriously the dynamic manifestations of the Holy Spirit. (20)

Someone has calculated that 3,874 (49%) of the N.T.’s 7,957 verses are ‘contaminated’ with happenings and ideas alien to a naturalistic world-view. Morton Kelsey notes that the only large group of Christians who take seriously the idea of a direct encounter with the non-space-time or spiritual world are the Pentecostals and the charismatics, ‘and they have come in for derision from every side’. (21)

However, as C.S. Lewis and others have warned us, there are two opposite errors we must avoid: either disbelieving in the devil’s existence, or giving Satan more attention than he deserves. Cardinal Suenens similarly exhorts us to steer a safe course between ‘Scylla and Charibdis, between underestimation and exaggeration…'(22)

Within the church the gift of ‘discernment of spirits’ is very important. The Scriptures suggest various tests to discern the spirits: Is Christ glorified? (John 16:14); the church edified?; others helped? Does it accord with Scripture? Is there love? Is Jesus Lord of the person’s life? Is there submission to church leaders – allowing others to weigh what is said or done?

# 12: ‘IT’S ALL SO DIVISIVE THAT WE OUGHT TO LEAVE CHARISMATIC ISSUES WELL ALONE’.

Divisiveness would head anyone’s list of the issues confronting us in the modern charistmatic renewal.

My observation, however, is that divisiveness is not a function of the presence or absence of certain spiritual gifts, but of insecurity, fear (‘charisphobia’), insensitivity (‘charismania’), or lovelessness on one or both sides.

David Watson talked about tidy churches, with piles of papers neatly in order. The windows are opened, but the fresh wind of the Spirit blows the papers about, so the elders scurry around collecting them all again, and close the windows. ‘You’ve got tidiness, even stuffiness. That’s the picture of many a church. I would prefer to have the windows open with a fresh breath of the Holy Spirit blowing…. Give me untidiness with life every day if the alternative is tidiness and death. One of the tidies places you can find is the cemetery.’ (23)

Let us beware of the error Gamaliel warned about (Acts 5:33-39). If this is of God, we must take the movement seriously.

Certainly the swift stream of renewal often throws debris on to the banks. Old wineskins can’t cope with new wine without bursting. When the Spirit is at work, the devil will be sowing weeds among the wheat.

# 13: ‘EXPERIENCE-CENTRED AND WORD-CENTRED THEOLOGIES WON’T MIX’.

The success of an experiential theology must be judged by the ease (or lack of ease) with which it moves from Spirit to Word. If Word and Spirit can be held in dynamic union, then experiential theology has the possibility of becoming definitive for the life and witness of the church today. Too often Word takes the place of Spirit. (24) Our traditional theologies run the risk of being rationalistic, contrived conceptual schemas. The Holy Spirit is the subject of a sterile ‘pneumatology’, with little openness to an experience of his power. But, again, an experience-centred theology sometimes stays there. (25) Sometimes there’s an unhealthy identification of truth with a prophetic leader, or a great experience: everything else derives validity through reference to these. Or else the Bible is used as a sanction for one’s independent feelings and experiences. Or perhaps we are not open to the whole of experience. (26)

Thus an unhealthy individualism and a pervasive subjectivism often accompanies pieties of personal experience. As Russell Spittler has put it:

Individualism is a virtue when it assures conscious religious experience, but becomes something of an occupational hazard for Pentecostal-charismatics. Add in some dominant personality traits, take away an acquaintance with the church’s collective past, delete theological sophistication, and the mix can be volatile, catastrophic. (27)

Let us beware of inhabiting simplicity this side of complexity, or complexity the other side of simplicity, but rather move to simplicity the other side of complexity! (28) The security of the slogan is easier than the hard work of discovering the truth. Much of what is written in pentecostal/charismatic books is what Kilian McDonnell calls ‘enthusiastic theological fluff – pink hot air in printed form’. (29)

There is a great need for a thorough-going charismatic theology. For example the justaposition of the ideas of ‘baptism in the Spirit’ and the release of spiritual gifts may be seen to be a most significant contribution to twentieth-century theology, but a lot more work has to be done on it yet.

# 14: ‘IN THE CHURCH’S WORSHIP, YOU CAN’T MIX CHARISMATIC ELEMENTS WITH TRADITIONAL FORMS’.

Probably, in retrospect, it will be seen that in corporate worship, ‘in the sphere of liturgy and preaching, that the pentecostal movement will have made its most important contribution, and not in the sphere of pneumatology, as is constantly and quite wrongly supposed’. (30)

Pentecostal/charistmatic worship features are invading traditional churches with a rush! It’s becoming more common for worshippers of all kinds to raise their hands in adoration, as they sing scripture-songs in their morning worship-services. However these songs are as limited as is charismatic theology: there are very few about mission and justice, for example; they’re mostly ‘God loves me and I love him’ songs. Nice, but there’s more; love issues in a life of witness and obedience in a hostile world. (31)

The way forward ultimately is to integrate the unique insights and results of charismatic renewal into the full life of the church, with a submission to the order, tradition, doctrine and spirituality of the church as a whole. It’s not helpful to go ‘underground’. Every special movement needs the whole church body to give focus, direction, discernment and correction; it needs to be tested, evaluated, encouraged, improved and admonished. As Leo Cardinal Suenans says: ‘To be most useful, the charismatic movement must disappear into the life of the church’. (32)

# 15: ‘THE PROBLEM OF ELITISM SHOULD EVENTUALLY GO AWAY’.

I’m pessimistic on this one. We enjoy sorting others out according to false hierarchies of value. There have always been ‘haves and have-nots’ in the church: only the categories change. In one era a priestly caste takes special prerogatives to itself and we have the evil of clericalism. In others there are ‘heresy trials’ with the orthodox removing the heterodox. In the charistmatic renewal, experience is the watershed: those who have ‘arrived’ have been ‘baptised in the Spirit’ in a discernible experience subsequent to conversion, and speak in tongues. But the New Testament mostly uses ethical rather than experiential categories to define stages of Christian maturity (e.g. Barnabas, was ‘spirit-filled’, ie.. he was a man filled with goodness and faith, Acts 11:24).

# 16: ‘”MAGIC ISN’T A PROBLEM IF WE’RE MINISTERING IN CHRIST’S NAME.’

It is possible for a miracle-centred theology to become ‘theurgical’ (Gk. ‘theourgia’ – magic). An openness to signs and wonders can easily degenerate into ‘miracle-mongering’.

Miracles are not just for show. ‘Jesus resisted the temptation to work miracles to dazzle people or to seduce them into believing in him…. He refused to give the Pharisees a ‘sign from heaven’…. It was not as a wonder-worker that he desired to be sought after’. (33) John Bodycomb writes: ‘I am uneasy about theological assumptions implicit in either that impassioned roaring heavenward (reminiscent of the prophets of Baal) or in that sycophantic sweet-talk that begins ‘Lord, we just simply ask you to …’ (whatever it is)’. (34) Magic involves repeating formulas (‘vain repetitions’). It’s wanting blessings more for my sake than God’s. It’s manipulating Deity for my ends.

# 17: ‘THE CHARISMATIC RENEWAL IS ECUMENICAL’.

‘If it is charismatic, it s ecumenical’ says ‘Mr. Pentecost’, David Du Plessis. But, he says, there has been a dangerous tendency by Pentecostals/charismatics to criticize the church, leading to the formation of schismatic, independent groups:

The more schismata the less charismata (I Cor. 12:25,26). I have a passion for unity because the prayer of Jesus was for unity that the world may believe. And I have very little hope for the world unless unity comes to Christianity…. (35)

# 18: CHARISMATIC RENEWAL AND MISSION.

Christians are commissioned to do in their world what Jesus did in his: bringing salvation (‘wholeness’, the ‘reign of God’), where there is pain, sickness, lostness, alienation, oppression, poverty, war, injustice. So the church’s mission has three dimensions: evangelism (preaching good news), works of mercy (relieving persons’ pain), and works of justice (addressing the causes of pain); and three instruments: word (what we say), deed (what we do) and sign (what God does).

Pentecostalists/charismatics have brought the church back to ‘signs and wonders’ and they have generally done evangelism better than others.

But pentecostal/charismatics churches are weakest of all in the justice area. There’s more in the prophets than Joel’s promise of the Spirit on all flesh. The prophets cried out for justice, the redress of wrongs done to the poor.

# 19: ‘BEING “BAPTIZED IN THE SPIRIT” IS AN ANTIDOTE FOR ANTINOMIANISM’.

It isn’t. Antinomianism (living carelessly and ‘lawlessly’) is as much a trap for Pentecostals/charismatics as for anyone.

# 20: CONCLUSIONS: THE WAY FORWARD.

‘As I observe it,’ says Sherwood Wir the most important gift God has given to the charismatic renewal is a fresh outpouring of love. Not joy, not ecstasy, not tongues, not miracles, not even martyrdom, but love. (36)

And there’s something else the cautious ought to be more afraid of : attributing the work of the Spirit to the devil. That’s a very serious sin, Jesus warned.

Paul sums it up: ‘Make love your aim, while you set your heart on the gifts of the Spirit’ (I Cor. 14:1).
FOOTNOTES

(1) Christianity Today, May 16, 1986, 40.

(2) e.g. Eternity, Feb, 1980, 21ff.

(3) Howard A. Snyder, The Problem of Wineskins (1976), The Community of the King (1978), The Radical Wesley (1980), Liberating the Church (1983), all IVP, Illinois.

(4) Bengt Hoffman, a professor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in a book entitled Luther and the Mystics, Minneapolis: Augsburb Publishing House, 1976.

(5) Mark Hillmer, ‘Spiritual Renewal in the Family of Lutheranism’ – 6-page paper, date and place of publication unknown.

(6) Roland Walls, article ‘Enthusiasm’, in Gordon S. Wakefield, ed., A Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, SCM, 1983, 133-4. Walls goes on: ‘A growing number of Eastern Orthodoxy which has been at pains to spell out the difference between natural and supernatural enthusiasm. In this tradition, undisciplined enthusiasm arises more from psychic and disturbed emotional sources than from single-minded devotion to love of God and our neighbours … The only fires that can be trusted are those of love of God and our fellows, and the cleansing fire of repentance.

(7) Charles Hummell, Fire in the Fireplace, IVP, 1978, 189.

(8) ‘Charismatic Renewal is a valid form of Catholic Spirituality’, The Advocate, 11 Sept. 1980, 10.

(9) Leadership, Spring Quarter, 1985, 114-115.

(10) Pastoral Renewal, P.O. Box 8617 Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48106, July-Aug, 1983.

(11) a quotation by Father Francis Sullivan SJ in David Parry, This Promise is For You: Spiritual Renewal and the Charismatic Movement, London: Darton Longman and Todd, 1977, 144.

(12) Quoted in Larry Chistensen, Speaking in Tongues, Minneapolis: Bethany, 42ff.

(13) Richard Lovelace, Renewal as a Way of Life, Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1985, 148.

(14) W.J. Samarin, Tongues of Men and Angels, N.Y., MacMillan, 1972.

(15) ‘Pentecostal Glossolalia: Toward a Functional Interpretation’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol 8 (Fall 1969), 2,217. See also J.P. Kildahl, The Psychology of Speaking in Tongues, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1972.

(16) Russell P. Spittler, ‘Bar Mitzvah for Azusa Street: Features, Fractures, and Futures of a Renewal Movement Come of Age’, in Theology, News and Notes, Fuller Theological Seminary, March 1983, 15.

(17) Richard A. Beyer, ‘Quaker Silent Worship, Glossolalia and Liturgy: Some Functional Similarities’, unpublished essay referred to in Michael P. Hamilton, ed., The Charismatic Movement, Eerdman, 1975, 115.

(18) Francis McNutt, Healing, Indiana: Ave Maria Press, 1974, 84-6.

(19) Hans Werner Bartsch, ed., Kerygma and Myth, London: SPCK, 1953, 69.

(20) Emil Brunner, The Misunderstanding of the Church, London: Lutterworth, 1952, 49-53.

(21) Morton Kelsey, Encounter with God, Minneapolis: Bethany, 1972, 26-36.

(22) Cardinal Leon-Joseph Suenans, Renewal and the Powers of Darkness, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1984, 115.

(23) ‘David Watson on Spiritual Gifts’, Theology News and Notes, Fuller Seminary, March, 1983, 18-19.

(24) Robert Johnston, ‘Of Tidy Doctrine and Truncated Experience’, Christianity Today, Feb. 18, 1977, 11.

(25) Russell Spittler, op.cit., 16.

(26) See ‘The New Pietism: Plus or Minus? unpublished and undated paper by John Bodycomb, Uniting Church, Victoria. It’s what Bill Burnett, former Arlchbishop of Capetown calls getting stuck in a kind of ‘happy clappy groove’. (Interview by June Coxhead in Vision Magazine, date unknown, p.19). One person commented, ‘I left my Pentecostal church. They wouldn’t let me bring my sorrow to the Lord! They won’t touch a text like Ps. 1219:71 (NIV) : ‘It was good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn your decrees’.

(27) Russell Spittler, op.cit., 16.

(28) See Rowland Croucher, Recent Trends Among Evangelicals, Sydney: Albatross, 1986, Section One.

(29) ‘Church Reaction to the Charismatic Renewal’ in Arnold Bittlinger, The Church is Charismatic Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1981, 154.

(30) Quoted in Walter J. Hollenweger, The Pentecostals, Augsburg, 1972, 466.

(31) I am told some exceptions are now appearing in Graham Kendrick’s songs.

(32) ‘Catalyst’, Mar. 1980, 1.

(33) Alan Richardson, A Theological Word Book of the Bible, SCM, 1950, 153.

(34) J. Bodycomb, op.cit., 7.

(35) Interview with David Hubbard, Theology News and Notes, Fuller Seminary, March 1983, 7.

(36) Sherwood Wirt, Eternity Magazine, Feb. 1980, 26.

Note on Bibliography : An excellent overview of some of the literature on charismatic renewal may be found in Cecil M. Robeck, ‘The Decade (1973-1982) in Pentecostal-Charismatic Literature: A Bibliographic Essay’, Theology News and Notes, Fuller Seminary, March 1983, 24ff.