Page 113 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT

example, in the book Nine O’Clock in the Morning, This is a very significant testimony. Arnott had been
Bennett describes an experience he had at a meeting in unable to receive the “anointing” BECAUSE HE WAS
Oregon: ANALYZING IT BY THE BIBLE. When he finally broke
“... one young minister challenged me. He wasn’t down in desperation and stopped analyzing it, he began
ungracious; he just didn’t agree with my theology. He to receive the strange unscriptural experiences.
held a mild debate with me in the presence of others Even those Pentecostals that are the highly
there--mostly businessmen--and then departed, feeling theologically oriented and that seemingly base their
that he had made his point. Shortly after he left, a thinking most solidly upon the Bible commonly exalt
young businessman asked for and received the Baptism experience and “personal revelation” to the same level
in the Holy Spirit. He was so overcome with the joy of
the Lord that he, like others on the Day of Pentecost of divine authority in practice.
itself, looked as if he was filled with new wine. I could Consider Derek Prince. He reminds his listeners that
not miss the sad contrast between the young minister he has studied Greek since he was 10 years old and
departing in intellectual triumph, but still dry and taught it at Cambridge University, but in spite of his
hungry in his soul, and the young businessman, filled intimate knowledge of the biblical languages he
with the joy which he had accepted from God in launches off into the strange waters of extra-biblical
simplicity and trust. ... We too, like the young minister, doctrine. For example, he says:
CAN GET SO TANGLED IN INTELLECTUAL
QUESTIONINGS that we may spend all our time “When you are baptized in the Holy Ghost, you
having ‘great reasonings among ourselves,’ and miss become a kind of prayer wheel. The Holy Spirit turns
the glory of God!” (Nine O’Clock in the Morning, p. you around and prays through you. ... A lady who is
248). known to many was born and raised in the Roman
This is an extremely dangerous position. Observe Catholic religion in Ireland. She came to London,
where she was saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit.
how that Bennett portrays the young preacher in a At the time, she worked as a maid in a hotel in
negative light, as strictly intellectual and as not properly London, and she shared a room with another Irish
open to God’s leading and as spiritually dry (a judgment Catholic girl. One day, the other girl said to her, ‘I want
that Bennett was not in a position to make). In contrast, to ask you something. I hope you don’t mind, but every
he portrays the gullible businessman in a completely night after you have gone to bed and you seem to be
positive light because he asked for something the Bible asleep, I hear you talking some foreign language. What
never instructs us to ask for and received an experience is that language?’ That young lady got to know for the
never described in the New Testament (“the baptism of first time that every night after the body was asleep,
the Holy Spirit and spiritual drunkenness). the Holy Ghost was praying through her” (Prince,
Baptism in the Holy Spirit, pp. 56-57).
The fact is that the “young minister” was right. To There is nothing like this in the New Testament and
question a doctrine and to analyze spiritual practices thus it is far more likely that the unintelligible dream
and experiences by the Word of God is not only right, it mutterings he has described are demonic or carnal. Yet
is necessary. It is obedience to God’s command (i.e., Acts in spite of boldly adding to and contradicting the Word
17:11; 1 Th. 5:21; 1 John 4:1). of God, Derek Prince would profess that the Bible is his
In November 1993, John Arnott, pastor of the Airport sole authority for faith and practice.
Church in Toronto, flew to Argentina with his wife to Consider Four-Square pastor Jack Hayford.
have Claudio Friedzon lay hands on them. They were Christianity Today magazine calls him “The Pentecostal
searching for a new experience of “anointing.” This Gold Standard” (Christianity Today, July 2005), but
occurred during an Argentinean pastors’ conference when Hayford’s theology and practice are placed under
organized by Luis Palau’s brother-in-law, Ed Silvoso. the microscope we find that his position is not the
This event is described as follows by Guy Chevreau, who untarnished gold of Scripture but the rust and corrosion
works with Arnott in Toronto: of extra-biblical “revelation.” Speaking at St. Louis
“John was standing with his hands up, posturing his 2000, for example, Hayford told of how his daughter
openness to the Lord, and Claudio looked at him and approached him one day with a concern about her
said, ‘Do you want it?’ He said, ‘Yes. I really want it.’ “tongues speaking.” She was afraid that she was
Then Claudio said, ‘Then take it!’ and he slapped John
on both of his hands. John fell again. BUT THIS TIME speaking mere gibberish, but he encouraged her that the
HE DIALED DOWN A LOT OF THE ANALYSIS AND believer must first learn to speak in baby tongues before
SAID, ‘I DON’T CARE, I’M JUST GOING TO TAKE he speaks in adult tongues. There is absolutely no Bible
WHAT GOD HAS TO GIVE.’ Something clicked in his support for such nonsense and it denies the
heart at that moment” (emphasis added) (Chevreau, Pentecostal’s claim that the Bible is his sole authority for
Catch the Fire, p. 24). faith and practice. Further, Hayford says that in 1969, as
he approached a large Catholic church in Southern

Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity 113