Page 63 - Pneumatology - Student Textbook

Study Section 12: The Charismatic Movement

12.1 Connect

How can we know whether something is true or not? For example, someone makes a blanket
statement: “The moon is made of cheese.” Is that statement true? What happens if that
person was an astronaut and he said he went to the moon and tasted the ground, and it was
made of cheese? Would you believe him as telling the truth?

For something to be true, it must be based on some standard or law outside of our experiences.
For example, gravity is based on a law that God created. If someone told you that he plans to jump off a
building this afternoon, then you can say truthfully that he may be injured or die because he WILL FALL to
the ground. You base your statement on the law of gravity. 100% of the time, when you drop something, it
will fall toward the center of the earth!

God established all truth. It is found in His Word and in His creation. Whether we experience His truth or
not does not negate the fact that what He says is truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…”
Jesus is God, and He is truth.

Today we are going to study a movement within the Christian church that bases truth on experience rather
than what the Word of God says. “If I experience something, then it must be true” is the overriding
philosophy of the Charismatic movement. This philosophy sends one down a slippery slope toward error.
Let’s examine some of the errant teachings about the Holy Spirit within the Charismatic movement.

12.2 Objectives

1. The student will be able to describe how the Charismatic movement began and what it is
known for.

2. The student should be able to define what it means to be slain in the Spirit and why this
practice is totally unbiblical.

3. The student should be able to define biblical tongues and contrast that with the tongues movement today.

12.3 The Charismatic movement

The Charismatic movement is an interdenominational Christian renewal movement and is one
of the most popular and fastest-growing forces within the Christian world today. The
movement traces its roots to 1906, at the Azusa Street mission in Los Angeles, California, a
Methodist-sponsored revival. It was there that people claimed to have been “baptized by the
Holy Spirit” in the manner recorded in Acts chapter 2 during the celebration of Pentecost.
People speaking in tongues and miracles of healing roused people to a spiritual frenzy. The
people who attended those meetings spread their enthusiasm throughout the United States, and the
Pentecostal/Charismatic movement began.

By the early 1970s, the movement had spread to Europe, and during the 1980s the movement expanded,
with a number of new denominations evolving from it. It is not unusual to see its influence in many other
denominations such as Baptists, Episcopalians, and Lutherans, as well as non-denominational churches.

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