Pushing the Envelope
The charismatic stream places the emphasis on the immediacy of the Holy Spirit?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s power for praise, ministry, and life-transformation. Just as we should not limit membership in the evangelical stream to contemporary Christians who bear that name, we should not limit the charismatic stream to those who have spiritual roots in the twentieth-century Pentecostal or charismatic movements. Christian in every age have been touched by the Spirit of God and have longed to bring God’s power to bear in their lives and ministries.
Biblical Christianity is a religion of the Spirit. The writings of Paul make this abundantly clear:
?¢‚Ǩ?ìMy speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God?¢‚Ǩ¬ù (1 Cor 2:4-5).?¢‚Ǩ?ìFor the kingdom of God depend not on talk but on power?¢‚Ǩ¬ù (1 Cor 4:20).
?¢‚Ǩ?ìOur message of the Gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction?¢‚Ǩ¬ù (1 Thess 1:5).
There has never been an era of church history devoid of powerful manifestations of the Spirit’s presence. Nor, to my knowledge, has there been a vital movement of Christian reformation or renewal that did not have such a component. Here is a small sampling:
Patristic: The monks of the ancient church spoke of ?¢‚Ǩ?ìspark-like?¢‚Ǩ¬ù prayers that transcended words. They often struggled against demons, performed healings, and experienced visions. St. Augustine changed his mind about divine healing when people began getting healed in his church.
Medieval: A spiritual revival broke out in Normandy in the 12th century that involved charismatic worship, divine healing, and greater calls to spiritual conversion. It ultimately resulted in the first stage of construction of Chartres cathedral.
Lutheran: Martin Luther drew up instructions for a healing service based on James 5. Johann Cristoph Blumhardt saw phenomenal growth in his church at the edge of the Black Forest because of amazing healing miracles that were occuring there in 1842.
Calvinist: John Knox, the Scottish reformer, claimed to have gifts of prophecy. In fact, several of the early Scottish Presbyterians apparently manifested this gift, including George Wishart, Robert Bruce, and Alexander Peden. Jonathan Edwards, leader of the Great Awakening in New England, wrote The Surprising Work of God, in which he described leaping for joy, weeping, trembling, and fainting.
Wesleyan: John Wesley?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s evangelistic meetings often involved remarkable manifestations.
Christians/Disciples: Barton Stone, a key leader of the Second Great Awakening, noted numerous ?¢‚Ǩ?ìcharismatic?¢‚Ǩ¬ù phenomena during his camp meetings.
Among Baptists:
- The early Baptists in England and America anointed the sick for healing, often recording their successes (17th and 18th centuries).
- Adoniram Judson Gordon was prominent in the healing movement of the mid-1800s and regularly held healing services in his Boston church. He wrote The Ministry of the Spirit and The Ministry of Healing.
- Edward T. Hiscox?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Standard Manual for Baptist Churches (1890) has a section on the Laying on of Hands, which had been used by Baptists ?¢‚Ǩ?ìto impart the charismata for the general calling of all Christians. Our most orthodox Baptist churches formerly practiced the laying on of hands upon the person baptized. Some still practice it.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù
Experiencing the Spirit Today
Several sorts of experiences of the Holy Spirit are described in the New Testament. I have discussed this variety somewhat in a previous post, and I won’t repeat myself here.
I realize that the gifts of the Holy Spirit can be a touchy subject for some, and all of us sometimes fail to use language that edifies rather than trampling on the sensitivities of others. Be that as it may, I can’t help but be who I am, and who I am is someone with exegetical and theological reservations about the classic Pentecostal formulations about what it means to be “baptized with the Holy Spirit.” That does not, however, mean I’m willing to dismiss things like tongues, prophecy, divine healing, and so forth out of hand. There is just too much credible evidence that these things have always been a part of Christian experience.
Rather than digging a hole from which I cannot get out, let me point you to some resources that I have found helpful in “interpreting” Pentecostal experience in ways that a non-Pentecostal can understand.
First, there’s Jack Hayford’s The Beauty of Spiritual Language. Hayford is a pastor in a classic Pentecostal denomination. This book deals with much more than tongues. It includes much personal testimony and it sets forth a view of tongues that, while still more than I’m willing to swallow, backs away from the classic understanding of tongues as “initial evidence” of Holy Spirit baptism.
Receiving the Power by Zeb Long and Douglas McMurry tackles the topic of spiritual manifestions from a classic evangelical point of view. By classic evangelical, I mean the late 19th century?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùa time before the rise of modern Pentecostalism and the subsequent stampede among many evangelicals away from anything that even smells like Azusa Street! Long and McMurry are Presbyterians who develop a Reformed, evangelical doctrine of gifts, tongues, and Holy Spirit baptism along the lines first laid out by the likes of R. A. Torrey and Dwight L. Moody.
Next, mention must be made of several books by Morton Kelsey, an Episcopal scholar/priest who has written extensively on spiritual phenomena and how to interpret them within a modern world view. I would start with his Healing and Christianity?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùwhich almost singlehandedly changed my mind on the whole topic?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùbut don’t overlook other titles such as Encounter with God: A Theology of Christian Experience and Tongue Speaking: The History and Meaning of Charismatic Experience.
Finally, let me point you to two books by James D. G. Dunn, a self-described “Methodist with Baptist leanings and Pentecostal interests.” His Jesus and the Spirit, subtitled “A Study of the Religious and Charismatic Experience of Jesus and the First Christians as Reflected in the New Testament,” is an exegetical tour de force. He looks at just about every New Testament text that relates to spiritual experience and sets them in a context for understanding, drawing on sociology, psychology, and other disciplines. My first edition, signed by the author, is one of the treasures on my bookshelf! Dunn’s Baptism in the Holy Spirit is also worth the read for an exegetical and theological examination of the topic. Both of these books are very technical, but well worth the effort!
Boy, that makes it sound like you can learn about experiencing the power of the Spirit from a book, doesn’t it? That’s not my intention. You discern and develop your gifts by using them, and you experience God’s power by grace alone?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùalthough it never hurts to cultivate an attitude of openness to whatever the Spirit may be doing! At the same time, however, I would encourage all of us to be mindful of the interpretations we place on our experiences lest we find ourselves majoring on minor details or assuming to be normative what is actually quite unique. For that, we need solid exegesis and theology.
Next: The Sacramental Stream
