The Real Reason for the Charismatic Bandwagon The charismatic movement owes its origins in the impulse to find spiritual experience in the midst of spiritual poverty. It has many forms though there are, broadly-speaking, five types of charismatic:
(1) The Classical Pentecostals who, reacting to the coldness and stuffiness of the older Protestant churches, sought for a more dynamic gospel paradigm;
(2) The liberal Christians who, deprived of the gospel of salvation, sought for a substitute for the social gospel, and found it in tongues;
(3) The Charismatic Roman Catholics who, whilst remaining true to Catholic dogmas, wanted some "fresh air";
(4) Protestant Charismatics from the older denominations seeking to break out of their stuffy coffins whilst remaining true to their traditions;
(5) The "Health and Wealth" Movement, consisting mostly of young disillusioned people looking for a substitute "fix" to replace drugs, the occult and free sex.
There may be other categories, but these are the main ones. Most have departed from the Word of God in one area or another.
What do these have in common? The search for experience. It's the same basis of Mormonism which relies on "spiritual experience" as the basis for establishing truth, even when it contradicts the Word of God. Jesus is the new "high" for most of these people -- they want Him all to themselves as a replacement drug.
Please do not think for one minute that I am knocking "experience" -- you can't be alive in Christ and not experience! We are to "love the Lord with all our heart" -- it is a love affair of the highest degree. But it isn't a spiritual drug-fix. All true experience must come from the Truth or else it is likely useless. "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life". Remember that. We must begin with the Truth of the Word and work out of that. All else is terribly dangerous even if sometimes people are lead to the truth without initial contact with the Word. If an experience harmonises with the Word of God, all well and good. But if the Word contradicts it, THEN THE ALARM BELLS SHOULD BE RINGING. Make no mistake, all experience is not of God, and most of it is a counterfeit of the devil.
We ought to remember Peter's experience on the Mount of Transfiguration (2 Pet.1:18ff) -- whilst He saw the glory of Christ there was something better and surer than the vision itself -- the Word of God! His experience was secondary to God's Word.
The charismatic movement is built on experience. The Bible is used to support experience, instead of experience being tested against the Bible. People are thus taken out of context and those passages which rebuke their practices are explained away or ignored. They are little different from the Mormons and other cultists in this respext. Those who follow the Scriptures are accused of "intellectualising" and "following the letter rather than the Spirit". But they forget that the Holy Spirit wrote the "letter" and does not sponsor experiences which contradict His own Word.
'Tongues', for the most part, is a psychological phenomenon that has nothing to due with biblcial tongues, but sometimes it is animated by demons. I have heard dozens of "messages in tongues" and "interpretations" but not one ever added anything of value to the meeting. Every one was a rehash of scripture (often quoted wrongly), some promoted false teaching, some were wildly fanciful predictions, some were designed to rebuke individuals with whom the speaker has a disagreement, and others were simply to gain the admiration and respect of peers.
Biblical tongues was not ecstatic speech and modern ecstatic speech is not Biblical tongues. The desire for experience has subverted sincere people into involvement with a psychological phenomenon which they mistakenly believe is "speaking in tongues". In the process, because the inhibitions are lowered, many emotional experiences are realised -- euphoria, excitement, release, and the like. But surrendering inhibition can be dangerous. Paul warned "the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets" (1 Cor.14:32). God never leads His children into loss of control. That was typical of the paganism out of which the Corinthians had come (1 Cor.12:2)! The enemy of the soul is ever ready to take advantage of an "out of control" situation and thousands can testify with regret to the end results.
Ecstatic experience, like drug-addiction, requires larger and larger doses to satisfy. I suppose that is one reason for modern "turbo-tongues". Sometimes the bizzare happens as is true of the so-called "Toronto Blessing". Eventually a crisis is reached and the tongue-speaker will sit on the back seats as a spectator in the hope that everything will be eventually as it was. The most tragic decision is to quit and in the quitting abandon all things spiritual as fraudulent -- I have met many such disillusioned souls. The spectators are frustrated, the fakers suffer guilt, the hoping are pitiful and the quitters are a tragedy. Such movements are definitely not harmless!
My mission, and that of many others, is to salvage the 'charismatic' for true Christianity. Coming our of the charismatic movement is not easy and many land in mental institutions -- the victims of the "Health and Wealth" movement which I dare say isn't Christian at all is terrible. They are becoming as numerous as the Jehovah's Witnesses. Almost as bad, the victims are giving true Christianity a bad name and are being used as an excuse for atheism. But Biblical Christianity is not the charismatic movement! Far from it!
The New Covenant Church of God, like many other denominations, comes with a message of a whole and balanced Christianity. We are, as you have heard tonight, no-nonsense Christians and will not compromise with the Word. We are also a people with rich experiences, thanks be to Christ who is the giver of all good things (Eph.5:1
. If you are looking for a home where you can grow in grace and love, we welcome you into our family.
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