Page 115 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT

shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out Th. 5:20-21 is that all preaching and teaching must be
of the holy city, and from the things which are written proven by Scripture and only that which is found to be
in this book” (Revelation 22:18-19). in accordance with Scripture is to be received.
This warning applies not only to the individual book I am convinced that the doctrine of the sole authority
of Revelation but to the entire Book of which Revelation of the Scripture refutes the Pentecostal and Charismatic
forms the final chapter. When the canon of Scripture movements.
was completed with the writing of the final book of the 3. WE REJECT THE PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC
New Testament, it was sealed with a most solemn MOVEMENT BECAUSE OF ITS EMPHASIS ON THE
warning not to add to it nor subtract from it. The MIRACULOUS RATHER THAN A SIMPLE WALK OF
Revelation is finished. Ever since then, those who have FAITH.
claimed to speak by prophecy and other extra-biblical
revelation have been deluded. This includes the The Pentecostal and Charismatic movements
Montanists, Roman Catholic popes and councils and definitely emphasize the miraculous. John Wimber
“saints,” the prophets of St. Medard, the Cevennol believed the miraculous is necessary for effective
prophets, the Irvingites, the Shakers, Seventh-day evangelism and called it “doing the stuff.” I could list
Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, and hundreds of books written by Pentecostals and
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and Charismatics that focus on a miraculous experience and,
Pentecostal prophets. commonly, the more radical and outrageous the better!
“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not The Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship has published
many books and countless articles emphasizing
according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them” (Isaiah 8:20). charismatic experiences. One book titled “The Happiest
In Old Testament times, the Scripture was the sole People on Earth” has a testimony that is typical. After
authority for faith and practice and every teaching was describing the glorious things that allegedly occurred
to be compared to it and every teaching that was after one couple was “baptized in the Holy Spirit,” one
contrary to it was to be rejected. The Scripture is the of them said to the effect, “Even if there is no heaven,
sole and final test of truth. Anything that is spoken that this is so good that it wouldn’t matter.” That is some
is not in accordance with the Scripture must be rejected powerful experiential Christian living! I picked up a
as darkness and those who speak such things are not copy of that book in a restaurant in Cody, Wyoming, in
following the light. This is the infallible test. the 1980s and at the time my experience was the very
opposite of that testimony. I was sick, broke, lonely, and
“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in discouraged! I was tempted to find a Pentecostal or
that they received the word with all readiness of mind, Charismatic to lay hands on me so that I, too, could
and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things
were so” (Acts 17:11). have such a glorious testimony at all moments of my
The same standard is true in the New Testament Christian life, but when I prayed earnestly about the
dispensation. The Bereans were called “noble” because matter and meditated upon the Word of God, I came to
they tested everything by the Scriptures. This practice is my senses and remembered that God promises no such
exalted by the Spirit of God as noble Christianity, and experience for the present. Paul described the “normal
any type of Christianity that tries to add anything to the Christian life” in Romans 8:18-23, and it is nothing like
same level of authority as the Scriptures and any type of the testimonies given by Charismatics.
Christianity that draws back from testing everything Paul says the present Christian experience is one of
carefully by the Scripture is ignoble and wrong. suffering and bondage to corruption (which refers to the
“Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast indwelling sin nature and this body of death) and
that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21). waiting for the glory that is to come when we will
Here the Spirit of God gives two interconnected finally experience the resurrection and the kingdom of
commandments. Prophesying is not to be despised but Christ.
all things are to be tested. This is what we see in 1 Paul described his own Christian experience in many
Corinthians 14:29: “Let the prophets speak two or three, places in his epistles, and it, too, was nothing like the
and let the other judge.” In the apostolic churches experiences described by Charismatics. In 2 Co. 1:5 he
prophesying involved both preaching and revelation, testified that “the sufferings of Christ abound in us.” He
but the revelation aspect ceased with the completion of told the Corinthians, “We would not, brethren, have you
the canon of Scripture. Paul defined prophesying as ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we
speaking to men “to edification, and exhortation, and were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch
comfort” (1 Co. 14:3), which is a ministry that continues that we despaired even of life” (2 Co. 1:8). When he
in the churches throughout the age. The chief point of 1 listed his experiences to prove his apostleship Paul

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