A lot is going around the Christian blogosphere right now about cessationism vs. continualism. In other words, have the gifts, such as tongues, healing, prophecy, and such stopped, or do they continue to this day? I was raised in a Pentecostal church, so you can imagine where I was when I was a boy. And to this day I'm sure that my view of these things is jaded by what I saw and experienced when I attended a Pentecostal church in my youth.
I have gone through quite a shift in my theology however, and I now have leanings that are more of a Reformed Baptist in nature. (Although I have never looked up where the Reformed Baptist's stand on all issues, so there may be some points of contention that I don't even know about.) As much as I think I understand the arguments made by the Reformed Baptist camp on why cessationism is the correct exegesis of scripture, I'm not sure they have it all right, and here is why.
The church I attended in my formative years had two mid-week services. On Tuesday nights, we had youth service. I've never been able to figure that out. The other mid-week service was held on Thursday night, and it was Bible study for the entire congregation. We would have a short time of worship before the study began, usually two maybe three songs and then our pastor would begin.
There was a young lady in our church who was dating a Japanese exchange student that was attending our high-school at the time. I don't know if he really understood what was going on in a Pentecostal church or not, but he came to church with her often because he liked her.
One Thursday night, as the prayer over the teaching was just about to conclude, a strange hush fell on the assembled members. A lady toward the back began giving a message in tongues. This was not in and of it's self too terribly strange, except that it had never happened during Bible study on Thursday night that I could remember. Also, this particular woman, to the best of my recolection, had never given a message in tongues. It all seemed rather strange. As she began to speak, I thought I heard some words I understood. Snippets here and there. You see, there was a time in my life that my parents thought that we would be called to the foreign mission field...to Japan. So we had studied some Japanese when we were younger. That's how I got the feeling that she was speaking in a language that someone there could understand!
Sure enough, Hiro, (the student's name) looked rather surprised and even left the auditorium after a couple of minutes. I talked with him after words and he confirmed that the lady was indeed speaking in a manner that he understood. This woman in no way understood, or spoke any foreign language at all, and she was quite embarrassed that she had felt to do such a thing when it seemed at the time to be so out of order.
All highly subjective I know. It happened a long time ago. But I remember it as if it happened last week. All I can say is, don't be too quick to jump on the total cessationist bandwagon. I'm sure this sort of thing is exceedingly rare. I have only experienced it once. I have never talked to anyone else who has experienced it in this manner.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Easy Belief?
I have started reading John MacArthurs book "Hard to Believe" and it is a real page turner. Dr. MacArthur does a great job of taking apart the whole idea that we could possibly preach the unadulterated gospel and still be well thought of by the world. I particularly like chaper two entitled, "The Hard Truth". The myth of popular Christianity is exposed in this chapter.
John MacArthur explains- Christians have worked hard to position themselves in places of power within the culture. They seek influence academically, politically, economically, athletically, socially, theatrically, religiously, and every other way, in hopes of gaining mass media exposure. But then when they get that exposure - sometimes through mass media, sometimes in a very broad-minded church environment - they present a reinvented designer pop gospel that subtly removes all of the offense of the gospel and beckons people into the kingdom along an easy path. They do away with all that hard-to-believe stuff about self sacrifice, hating your family and so forth.
This is certainly not the gospel we hear preached on TV nowdays. It seems that all of the preachers on the tube either have a pablum filled message about how God wants you to be liked by everybody, or how you can be rich if you will just sew "seed" into their ministry, or if you will just "have faith" then you can be healed of that cancer or whatever else is ailing you. And if you don't get healed it's your fault because you didn't have enough faith to make it happen.
The simple truth is the gospel is not about our felt needs. It is about the salvation of the lost, which includes all of us until we accept Jesus as savior. It is amazing to think that the popular Evangelical movement has strayed so far from the preaching of the "hard truth" of the gospel. Many pastors are content to focus on church growth, while abandoning the true gospel in favor of something more palatable. The gospel does not address our felt needs. In our unregenerate state we have no felt need of a savior. The gospel tells us that we are dirty and unworthy, and that a totally innocent man had to die so that we could spend eternity someplace besides hell.
I am looking forward to finishing this book. It probably won't take too long given that it has taken hold of me, and I'm having a hard time putting it down long enough to post this. But I was just so excited about what I'm reading that I had to say something.
John MacArthur explains- Christians have worked hard to position themselves in places of power within the culture. They seek influence academically, politically, economically, athletically, socially, theatrically, religiously, and every other way, in hopes of gaining mass media exposure. But then when they get that exposure - sometimes through mass media, sometimes in a very broad-minded church environment - they present a reinvented designer pop gospel that subtly removes all of the offense of the gospel and beckons people into the kingdom along an easy path. They do away with all that hard-to-believe stuff about self sacrifice, hating your family and so forth.
This is certainly not the gospel we hear preached on TV nowdays. It seems that all of the preachers on the tube either have a pablum filled message about how God wants you to be liked by everybody, or how you can be rich if you will just sew "seed" into their ministry, or if you will just "have faith" then you can be healed of that cancer or whatever else is ailing you. And if you don't get healed it's your fault because you didn't have enough faith to make it happen.
The simple truth is the gospel is not about our felt needs. It is about the salvation of the lost, which includes all of us until we accept Jesus as savior. It is amazing to think that the popular Evangelical movement has strayed so far from the preaching of the "hard truth" of the gospel. Many pastors are content to focus on church growth, while abandoning the true gospel in favor of something more palatable. The gospel does not address our felt needs. In our unregenerate state we have no felt need of a savior. The gospel tells us that we are dirty and unworthy, and that a totally innocent man had to die so that we could spend eternity someplace besides hell.
I am looking forward to finishing this book. It probably won't take too long given that it has taken hold of me, and I'm having a hard time putting it down long enough to post this. But I was just so excited about what I'm reading that I had to say something.
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