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An Eye-Opening Message to Charismatic Christians
Posted by Lev/Christopher on November 4, 2008 at 11:18am in Tongues
My beloved brethren and sisters in Christ, I occupy the pulpit this evening with a heavy burden on my heart, for I have a prophetic message today to all Christians who find themselves within the co-called 'Charismatic Movement'. I wish to address a topic which, though I have spoken much about before, remains an ever urgent one for those seeking the Kingdom of God.
The Lord Jesus said: "I am the way and the truth and the life" (Jn.14:6) and it is with these words that I wish to begin my examination of the charismatic movement. He made this well- known statement in the context of coming to know God the Father: "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (v.6b) and then added a complaint: "If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well" (v.7).
To know God is to know Christ; and to know Christ is to know the three-fold principle of (a) walking along the way; (b) knowing the truth, and (c) having life.
A. Walking in the Commandments
To know Christ and God is first of all to be walking along the path of discipleship in obedience to His commandments: "If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father's commands and remain in His love" (Jn.15:10). To walk in God's commandments means to set aside the traditions of men: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!" (Mk.7:9).
I can guarantee that if you are walking the path of true discipleship in His love you will encounter traditions that are contrary to God's Word. It is inevitable. No individual or church is perfect and all have the need to be in a spirit of constant repentance. If we wish the Kingdom of God to draw near to us, we must constantly be repenting -- changing our direction as the Word reveals our errors: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" (Mt.3:2). The moment we get stuck in a tradition, the moment the refining edge of God's Word no longer has an impact on us, it is then we ought to greatly fear. The Pharisees, who in most ways were very commendable in their zeal for the truth, became conceited, and like so many other religious groups, became fossilised and hypocritical. We must be on the alert always to ensure such forces of spiritual sterility never descend upon us.
So, in order to know God, we must ensure that we know His commandments and be walking in them in love. If we find a scripture that contradicts a cherished belief -- perhaps one we have espoused for many years, and perhaps one which our church has espoused for many generations, what must we do? We must repent, else the Kingdom of God will move away from us. And when that happens, God abandons us to our own delusion. Having said that, I want you to mark this scripture down on your heart -- listen to it carefully:
"The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all sorts of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish BECAUSE THEY REFUSE TO LOVE THE TRUTH and so be saved" (2 Thess.2:9-10).
Perhaps you are smiling to yourself, thinking, "Well, I'm saved! I have received the Lord Jesus as my Saviour and have experienced the new birth, with signs accompanying." Maybe you have. But consider this: are your experiences in line with the truth?
B. Walking in the Truth
I once asked a group of people which of two principles was the most important: love or truth? The answer I got back was unanimously "love", to which I replied, "Wrong!" They were shocked, and protested by quoting Paul's discourse on love in his first epistle to the Corinthians. So I asked the group another question: "How do you know that love is the most important?" to which they replied, "Because it says so here in chapter 13". "And what," I replied, "if Paul had never written this passage on love? How would you know then?" After a pause and some discussion, one replied: "By searching elsewhere in the Bible." And I agreed. "That is correct. You knew the primacy of love from the Word -- without the Word, you would not have known, though you may have guessed at it. The fact of the matter is, you needed the TRUTH to first identify what love was. Only then could you love in the right way."
There are many theories and doctrines about "love" in today's world because people define "love" in different ways. I won't go into the world's view of love for that does not interest us here. Rather, I will underline this vitally important truth: to know what love is, you must first have God's perspective of it. And to have God's perspective you must know the Truth. To know the Truth you must know the Word; and to interpret the Word you must know the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. He said: "I am...the TRUTH." And although Jesus certainly identified Himself as being love incarnate -- "..God is love" (1 Jn.4:8,16), this was associated with LIFE and not LOVE: "If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he is in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him" (1 Jn.4:15-16). So we see, then, that love is associated with life.
But before we can have that love which comes from a life with God, we must first know the Truth. "I am the way and the truth and the life." So you see, before you can judge any experience as being of God -- whether it is the feelings of love we have within us or any kind of supernatural experience, we must first be doing TWO things: (1) We must be walking in the commandments by being on the WAY; and (2) We must be walking in the TRUTH by walking with the living Word. Only then can we properly assess the issues concerining love, life, and experience in general.
C. Walking in the Life
It follows quite naturally that if there is a counterfeit Way or discipleship, and a counterfeit Truth (as Paul warned the Thessalonians) that there must also be counterfeit life, love and experience. We would be foolish to think otherwise. I have over the years met many people from different religions, many of whom have had profound mystical experiences. They have seen visions, witnessed miraculous supernatural happenings, spoken in tongues, levitated, felt peace and joy, and become aware of a spiritual dimension they had never before been conscious of. Before I became a Christian I assumed that all, if not most, supernatual experiences were from a single source, God. Since receiving the New Birth I have discerned that there are two possible sources for everything supernatural, even feelings of joy and happiness! It is not enough to simply "experience" something out of the ordinary -- we need to know the basis of that experience, or in other words, its source.
That is why Jesus did not say: "I am the Life, the Truth and the Way". His ordering of words is no accident. Nothing Jesus says is accidental. He does not say, "Be baptised, and repent," but, "Repent and be baptised". You do not marry someone and then propose marriage afterwards -- you propose first and then enter marriage covenents. To enoy true life, and to have it abundantly, means that first of all there must be a path of discipleship down which one is walking -- a path which is founded in the Truth.
I was once a Mormon. I came to that church by the opposite route that Jesus taught. I trusted a feeling I had in my heart, and followed a false route layed down in the Book of Mormon. I trusted my feelings and the supernatural experiences I had and ignored anything and everything the Bible taught that contradicted my experience. Sadly, the Mormons are not alone. Millions worldwide have been seduced into a Bible-only counterfeit religion that lays greater stress on spiritual gifts than on the truth. It is this that I wish to talk to you about today. Please bear with me, for I know that for many of you hearing this, what I am going to say is not going to be easy. Please also remember that it is not me I am asking you to believe, but the Word of God, and therefore God Himself. I am but a servant of the Word.
What is God's Word?
Before we take a close look at God's Word, the Bible, we must be clear what God's Word is, and what it is not. God's Word is what the original prophets and apostles said and wrote in the original or receptor tongues, which were Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. The Bibles you are holding in front of you are not God's Word -- they are TRANSLATIONS of God's Word.
There are going to be people here holding different English, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish translations of the Bible. If you sit and compare one another's Bibles you will see that 99.99% of the time they are in complete agreement. That is in itself a miracle. However, from time to time, you will find disagreements. This is not because the Word of God is faulty but because translators struggle to express an original Hebrew or Greek concept in an alien language like ours, and have enormous difficulties. Perhaps half-a-dozen English words will express the meaning of a Greek word; but one English word alone is insufficient. This means that the translator must pick the English word he feels is best, and sometimes that can be inadequate or even plain wrong. He may include footnotes (if he is wise) showing alternative renditions. Or he may use all of them such as the Amplified Version does and, though it is clumsy to read, at least gets the original sense over. Sadly, most translations do not do this and give the false impression that there is only one way a passage can be rendered in a modern tongue like English or Norwegian. This is not so, and can be terribly misleading. The translators of the King James Version were much more honest and if they weren't sure about something they wrote it in italics. But sometimes they made mistakes even in non-italicised text. To be knowledgeable in God's Word you must be aware of these things.
There is a second problem you need to be aware of. When the Roman Catholic Church took power in Europe it destroyed as many of the original Bible manuscripts it could lay its hands on and substituted a counterfeit version that was manufactured in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. By God's providence, the original (true) manuscripts survived as copies -- there were simply too many of them for the Catholics to eliminate. 95% of all Bible manuscripts are based on these true copies and are called the Textus Receptus, Received Text, Majority Text or Byzantine Text. The Catholic forgeries are called the Alexandrian Text or Minority Text and comprise about 5% of all Bible manuscripts. Because the original Majority Text was destroyed by the Catholics, their counterfeit Minority Texts are the oldest. Because they are the oldest, scholars wrongly assume they are the best and as a result ALL MODERN TRANALATIONS ARE BASED ON THE COUNTERFEIT MINORITY MANUSCRIPTS.
It's shocking, isn't it, but it's true. This means we must go back to the original Majority text for the original and the only English translation of the Bible which uses this Majority Text is the 1611 King James Version (KJV). Though it is not perfect (because it is a translation), it is certainly the best we have. However, because its English is very old fashioned and diffcult for late 20th century man to understand, I am going to use a more recent version, the New International Version (NIV) inspite of its perfections. I hope you will bear with me. When the NIV is too corrupt, I will use the KJV. And where that is poorly translated, I will return to the original Greek or Hebrew of the Majority Text.
So you must all become scholars for a short while! Never mind, it will make you better Bible students and make you appreciate God's Word even more. More important than that, it will lead you to the TRUTH, and that is surely worth it. Who, after all, wants to be deceived? If you love your soul enough you will search until you know the truth. Searching never did anyone any harm if the object is the Truth.
Journey to Corinth
Now that we have examined the importance of finding the Truth based on God's true Word, I want to jump two thousand years back in time and take you to the ancient city of Corinth. Most of you will be familiar with this city through the reading of Paul's epistles to the Corinthian saints but before we look at their sad story it is necessary to get some historical background.
Corinth was rather a special place. Like New York today, it was one of the most well-known cities in the the Roman world. It was an important commercial centre -- in fact, it was stinking rich. It was located on an important artery of commerce and had visitors from all over the Roman Empire passing through it. It was cosmopolitan. It was also famous for sport, and hosted the Isthmian Games every four years rather as we host the Olympic Games. In those days, though, the Games were highly religious and were attended by major festivals. It took months to prepare them, as it does ther Olympics today. The main events were athletics, wrestling, and boxing, illustrations of which Paul uses in his epistles.
Sporty and rich -- a commercial centre -- cosmopolitan. Sounds a bit like today's modern cities, doesn't it? But there was more -- much more. Overlooking the city of Corinth was the temple of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and fertility, the religious centre of the city. Over 1,000 priestesses served as prostitutes within that temple together with long-haired hippie-like male prostitutes who raomed the streets plying their wares which Paul commented on when criticising men having long hair (1 Cor.11:14). Corinth in New Testament times was not unlike the red-light district of modern Amsterdam in Holland: the whole city reeked of sexual immorality. It was a cesspit of vice. Little wonder that the first Christians in that place had huge problems because they were surrounded by a culture that was the antithesis of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We can summarise Corinth with these key words: Immorality, sport, politics, and trade. Add the scientific revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries to the place and you have a modern decadent western city: New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Oslo, Stockholm, or Copenhagen. There is therefore no doubt in my mind, and in the minds of many other Bible commentators, that the Corinthian Church was a a type of modern Western culture and Christianity. We shall now see why.
Immature and Immoral
Corinth was the most troublesome of the Christian colonies in the gentile world. It is plain to see when reading the apostle Paul's epistles to this congregation that it was in a mess. There was sexual immorality (1 Cor.5:1) and unbelievers visiting this church thought the Christians there were mad:
"If therefore the whole [Corinthian] church be come together into one place, and all speak in tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?" (1 Cor.14:23, KJV).
Let us be under no illusion, the Corinthian Church was a charismatic church. Moreover, as we shall see in a minute, it was the only charismatic church in the New Testament. Paul said to them: "you do not lack any spiritual gift" (1 Cor.1:7). Do you hear that? They had all the charismata or "spiritual gifts"! Isn't that wonderful? Or was it wonderful? Weren't they also immoral -- so immoral, in fact, that they were getting an appalling reputation amongst the non-believing gentiles (1 Cor.5:1). And yet they had "all the charismata". Was Paul commending them or condemning them? Well, he spent THREE CHAPTERS trying to set them straight on this issue -- chapters 12-14.
What else do we know about them? Were they a mature church, one we should immitate today? See what Paul says: "Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly -- MERE INFANTS IN CHRIST" (1 Cor.3:1). No, this was a highly IMMATURE and BABYISH congregation. He repeats this accusation again and again: "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish things behind me" (1 Cor.13:11). They babbled like small children, they thought like little children, and they reasoned like little children. "Enough!" says Paul. "Grow up! Stop talking, thinking and reasoning like babies!" This is not a congregation to imitate. Again he says: "Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, BUT IN YOUR THINKING BE ADULTS" (1 Cor.14:20). This was not a congregation to go to for spiritual education; this was not a place to go to for sound doctrine. This was not a place to go to reason the truth with, because they were IMMATURE. This was not the place to visit to get a sound Bible education.
So we have an immature church that tolerated immorality. Many of the members were involved with prostitutes (1 Cor.6:15-18) and had to be reminded by the apostle that their bodies were supposed to be temples of the Holy Spirit. AND YET THEY HAD ALL THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. There was drunkeness amongst the Corinthian saints, even during the administration of the Lord's Supper; they were proud and arrogant and showed a lack of concern for people (1 Cor.5:2). AND YET THEY HAD ALL THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. Some members were questioning the resurrection (1 Cor.15:12) and they were rapidly becoming heretical -- they were corrupting the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Cor.11:3). AND YET THEY HAD ALL THE SPIRITRUAL GIFTS.
This, brethren and sisters, was a charismatic church that was backward in its spiritual development, sexually immoral, and doctrinally off-the-mark. AND YET THEY HAD ALL THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS.
Isn't this ringing alarm bells off in your heads? How could such an apostate church possess all the charismata -- the spiritual gifts -- and yet be heading for spiritual extinction? Could the Holy Spirit be giving these charismata or might they have been inflenced by another spirit? Did not Paul tell them that they were supposed to be members of Christ's Body and therefore supposed to keep their temples clean? Do not the Scriptures amply testify that the Holy Spirit cannot make its home with devils? You answer that question for me: Does the Holy Spirit enter and energise a person who is living a sexually immoral life, who is a drunk, who is proud and conceited, who is denying FUNDAMENTAL doctrines like the resurrection? Does it?? If that is true (and I know you know that is true because you are going to have to spit at God's Word to deny it) then WHAT SPIRIT WAS BEHIND THOSE CHARISMATA? It's a tough question, I know, and it probably hurts -- maybe some of you are going into panic stations. Please don't! Remember, if it's the truth you're after, you have nothing to lose!
There can be no doubt whatsoever that the Christian congregation was a spiritual DISASTER. The apostle Paul, heavy-hearted and pleading with them to grow up and see reason, uses analogy after analogy, picture after picture using local symbolism, to try and penetrate the veil of darkness that covers these backslidden Christians. He is telling the Corinthian saints that they are committing spiritual suicide. He is telling them: "Stop ripping your church apart in your selfish, babyish desire for the showy charismata." Like a physician he is warning them that they are already suffering from arrested development -- they have become deformed spiritual midgits.
The Divisiveness of Charismata
It is no secret that the charismata question has divided the Body of Christ into opposing sections, despite the political correctness that charismatics and non-charismatics show one another most of the time. Today, using the Word of God, I want to resolve that division, heal a nasty sore in the Body of Christ, and by the grace of God, point the Church of God on the course the first apostles intended it to be on. My authority is going to be the Bible and not my own opinions. The presence of this division in the Body of Christ is proof that it is not of God, for Paul, again addressing the Corinthians, says:
"I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in MIND and THOUGHT" (1 Cor.1:10).
Please notice that he is not telling them to be united in one experience or supernatural manifestation or one charismatic gift but in one MIND and THOUGHT -- or as the King James Version puts it, "the same mind and in the same judgment".
Conclusion No.1: Spirituality and the spiritual gifts are not the same. Like the modern West, the Corinthians were not ignorant. They upheld, as we do, the Greek virtue of learning. They prized knowledge greatly. Paul is certainly not against learning -- indeed, he is all for it; but what he is saying is, GET YOUR EDUCATION FROM THE RIGHT PLACE:
"Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise are futile". So then, no more boasting about men" (1 Cor.3:18-19).
The wisdom of the world -- how much have we been infiltrated by it? Judge for yourselves. Who or what do you follow? This great preacher, or that great preacher, or the Word of God? Have you tested the teachings of the evangelists and pastors of the churches against the Word of God, or are you just 'trusting' them to be 'inspired'? God help you if you trust one who leads you down to hell! We must resist the urge to follow-a-leader indiscriminately -- did you know that over half the major Christian evangelists are teaching false, damning doctrines, that have more to do with the New Age Movement than with Christianity? They are imitating the teachings and wisdom of the world, and of its master, Satan. Instead we must say, with Paul, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient Christ" (2 Cor.10:5). Education, good though it is, is no substitute for spirituality. Spirituality is obtained on a different basis altogether.
The Corinthians need not have been in the terrible situation they were in. They had superb teachers like Paul. They had the doctrine laid out clearly before them. So does the Body of Christ today -- the teachings in the Bible are plain enough but people choose to ignore them or twist them to fit into preconceived doctrines. And why? because their REPUTATION and CREDIBILITY is at stake. And why is that? because they are PROUD and CONCEITED, and will not repent and humble themselves. God help us all if we do not repent from error and change our ways!
I have often said, to the dismay of friends and family alike, that small children are egos-on-legs. That's not, by the way, to say that I don't adore and love children, but is to state a reality about their spiritual condition. They are selfishness incarnated. Fortunately for them they are, for the most part, not aware of it, and are therefore not always accountable. But an adult who behaves like an ego-on-legs is very definitely accoutable, especially if he claims the Name of Christ.
The Corinthians were selfish par excellence. They strove to outdo one another in the spiritual gifts. Not content with the orinary 'tongues' of the charismatic movement, one church in Bergen, Norway has introduced (can you believe it) TURBO-TONGUES to outdo all the other charismatics -- speaking super-fast gibberish like machine-guns. The result would be comical were it not a tragedy. These are the symptoms of little egos-on-legs trying to outdo one another.
The Corinthian saints were suing each other in the courts of the land (1 Cor.6:7) and generally sinning against one another (1 Cor.8:9,11-13), acting like gluttons while the poorer members starved. These people were using the charismatic gifts to serve themselves without the slightest of thought as to whether they would build up anyone else. They were divided amongst each themselves and formed different "parties" sympathetic to different personalities (1 Cor.1:12).
The good news is that the Corinthians did eventually reform but then slipped back into their selfish ways. Bishop Clement of Rome wrote of them:
"Owing to the suddenly bursting and rapidly succeeding calamities and untoward experiences that have befallen us, we have been somewhat tardy, we think, in giving our attention to the subjects of dispute in your community, beloved. We mean that execrable and godless schism so utterly foreign to the elect of God. And it is only a few rash and headstrong individuals that have inflamed it to such a degree of madness that your venerable, widely-renowned, and universally and deservedly cherished name has been greatly defamed. Indeed, was there ever a visitor in your midst that did not approve your excellent and steadfast faith? Or did not admire your discreet and thoughtful Christian piety? Or did not proclaim the magnificent character of your hospitality? Or did not congratulate you on your perfect and secure fund of knowledge? You certainly did everything without an eye to rank or station in life, and regulated your conduct by God's commandments. You were submissive to your officials and paid the older men among you the respect due to them. The young you trained to habits of self-restraint and sedateness. The wives you enjoined to discharge all their duties with a conscience pure and undefiled, and to cherish a dutiful affection for their husbands; you taught them also to stay within the established norm of obedience in managing the household with decency and consummate prudence.
"Moreover, you were all in a humble frame of mind, in no way arrogant, practicing obedience rather than demanding it, happier in giving than in receiving. Being content with, and intent upon, the provisions which Christ allowed you for your earthly pilgrimage, it was His words that you carefully locked up in your hearts, and His sufferings were ever before your eyes. Thus all were blessed with a profound and radiant peace of soul, and there was an insatiable longing to do good, as well as a rich outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the whole community. Filled, moreover, with a desire for holiness, you stretched out your hands, with ready goodwill and devout confidence, to Almighty God, imploring Him to show mercy in case you had inadvertently failed in any way. Day and night you vied with one another in behalf of the entire brotherhood, to further the salvation of the full number of His elect by your compassion and conscientiousness. Guileless and sincere you were, and bore one another no malice. The very thought of insubordination and schism was an abomination to you. Over the failings of your neighbors you mourned; their shortcomings you judged to be your own. You had no regrets when you had been charitable, being ready for any good deed. Decked with the jewel of a virtuous life that commanded veneration, you fulfilled all your duties in the fear of the Lord, whose precepts and ordinances were engraved upon the tablets of your heart.
"All splendor and scope for expansion were bestowed upon you, and then the Scripture was fulfilled: The beloved ate and drank, and he waxed large and fat, and then he kicked out. From this sprang jealousy and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and anarchy, war and captivity. Then the dishonored rose up against the honored, the ignoble against the highly esteemed, the foolish against the wise, the young against their elders. For this reason piety and peace are far removed, because everyone has abandoned the fear of God and lost the clear vision which faith affords, and nobody regulates his conduct by the norms of His commandments, or tries to make his life worthy of Christ. On the contrary, everyone follows the appetites of his depraved heart, for they have absorbed that unjust and unholy jealousy through which death came into the world." (1 Clement 1:1-3).
I weep for those Corinthians -- they are a tragic reminder to us of what happens to a people when they disobey the Word. Selfish, willfully ignorant, childish walking egos. The Corinthian Church is dead. Or is it? Sadly, it has become resurrected, only this time it is much more subtle. It wears the mantle of a church that loves and lives the Word of God, but the truth is another reality.
The Corinthians loved to criticize their leaders. This is another symptom of selfishness. First it was Paul whom they virtually ignored. Then, in the post-apostolic period, the youth actually deposed the Elders in an ecclesiatical coup d'état! The First Epistle of Clement to the Corithians, which we in the New Covenant Church of God use, is very instructive indeed. Two generations of Corinthians showed a profound lack of respect for authority in common with the secular society of the time and in common with the secular society of today. They were revolutionaries -- rebels -- and incurred the wrath of God. The young thought they knew it all and chose to depose the wise. And so it is in today's Western world.
Can you believe it? The Corinthians actually thought they were more spiritual than Paul and had outgrown and outdistanced him (1 Cor.4:3)? "Already you have all you want! Alrready you have become rich! You have become kings -- and that without us. I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you!" (1 Cor.4:8) Are you hearing this? Haven't we heard all this somewhere else right here in this city, and in other cities? Haven't we heard false preachers saying, "health and wealth and crowns -- you're kings, behave like one"? Haven't we? And what does Paul says? He says: "I wish that you REALLY HAD become kings" but the reality was completely different. Instead, these people were spiritual PAUPERS. They thought that their wealth, health and charismatic gifts proved otherwise. O the folly of youth!
A few years ago I was talking to a man who was raised in a charismatic church in Oslo but left that movement. He returned to a meeting because he was interested how the youth viewed the Gospel. He asked one young woman: "Tell me truthfully -- are the sexual standards amongst the youth in this Church any different from the youth outside?" She bowed her head in shame and whispered, "No." No, brethren and sisters, it isn't. The morals and standards in many charismatic churches are little different from the world.
You see, when you compromise with God's Word it isn't long before you compromise with evil itself. The Corinthians liked to look upon themselves as being "liberal", like many charismatic and non-charismatic denominations today. "Love" (so-called) is the key word, provided it is concerned only with self. "Let everyone else do what they want to, just let me get on with my own life", was the prevailing philosophy. So they re-invented Jesus, as they are re-inventing Him today - a tolerant Jesus with few moral demands - a "Jesus for everbody", a "I'll mind my own business if you'll mind yours" Jesus. But, no, this is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Bible is FIRST about discipleship and obedience to the commandments; SECOND, about TRUTH; and then -- and only then, THIRD, about life, living, and experience.
When blatant immorality does not disturb a Christian people, something is seriously wrong. They indulged in the sins of the flesh, AND YET THEY HAD ALL THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. Yes, I keep on mentioning that, don't I, and with a purpose -- I want to disturb you and make you peel the layers of spiritual numbness that are concealing the truth from your view. The Corinthians believed they were spiritual and that they were leagues ahead of the apostles. What about you? Do you think you have the "fullness"? Have you "got it all"? In fact, have you got so much that you believe you have nothing else to learn?
Well, if that is your view, the First Epistle to the Corinthians was written for you. It was a corrective apostolic epistle to stop the downward slide into oblivion of a wreckless, rebellious and disobedient church THAT HAD ALL THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. Yet it was not spiritual. Far from it. IT WAS DEVILISH.
A devilish church with ALL THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS?? No, how can that be possible. Sorry, but that's what Paul said. A devilish church with all the charismata -- tongues, prophecy, healings, miracles. That's the sum of it. Now we have to unravel this web and see HOW and WHY.
Resolving the Charismata Problem
The Corinthian débâcle (for that is what it was) has spawned more controversy in the Christian Church than any other congregation. IF THERE HAD BEEN NO CORINTHIAN CHURCH THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT. It was an aberrant local phenomenon, as we shall see.
In the first ten chapters of his first letter Paul deals with the apostate character of the people. Only then does he tackle the sticky problem of charismata. Before we take a close look at the next chapters we must be perfectly clear as to the difference between the Greek words pneumatika and charismata. The word pneumatika means "spirituals" or "spirituality" as distinct from charismata which means "spiritual gifts". The whole of the message of opening chapters of 1 Corinthians is that there is a big difference between the two -- the Corinthian saints, Paul said, had an abundance of charismata but little or no pneumatika. And the reason they had so little spirituality (pneumatika) was because they were so pre-occupied with the spiritual gifts (charismata).
Now I mentioned earlier something of the spiritual world of the pagans in and around Corinth. It is time to tell you more. Paul reminds the Corinthian saints, "...when you were pagans, somehow or other your were influenced and led astray..." (1 Cor.12:2). Pagan worshippers, as the historians of the mystery religions like Plato and Virgil reveal, were caught up in emotional hysteria, shaking and falling prostrate on the ground and babbling in ecstatic speech. They were out of control; and Paul reminds the Corinthians that this is the way they were then but should not be now as Christians. He tells the saints that the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets (1 Cor.14:32) meaning that God's people are always under self-control when the Holy Spirit imparts true charismata to them. "Let all things be done decently (with propriety) and in order" (1 Cor.14:40). Do you hear that word? Order. Yes, order. In other words, Paul is telling them that the Holy Spirit does not produce the fruits of their former idolatrous worship.
A "test" charismatics often apply to these gifts is by asking a member under the control of their particular brand of charismata whether they are able to confess that 'Jesus is Lord'. And they base this 'test' on a passage by Paul: "..no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed", and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord", except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor.12:3).
A question arises from this: Can someone who has not been born again say, "Jesus is Lord"? Many a time I have asked an unbeliever to quote this passage, and he has remained an unbeliever. I dare say a satanist could repeat it. If you don't believe me, why not find the most immoral man you can and offer him a sum of money to repeat the words. I doubt you will have any difficulty. So is this a valid test for the presence of the Holy Spirit? If not, what did Paul actually mean?
Paul is not, of course, talking about repeating a phrase parrot-fashion -- even a parrot could be trained to do that. This is common sense. What the apostle is talking about is the sovereignty of Christ. In other words, is the person insisting on the Sovereignty of Christ?
I will explain. Jesus explained that the Holy Spirit would never testify of Himself, or promote Himself, but would always speak of and promote Jesus Christ (Jn.16:7,13-14).
In other words, any church, evangelist, teacher, teaching, movement or group which exalts the Holy Spirit is NOT of the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit always exalts CHRIST.
Thus the Holy Spirit would never say something like: "Receive Christ as Lord and Saviour and you will be saved; then receive the Holy Spirit and become a complete Christian". It is a false doctrine which teaches that Christ begins the work of salvation and the Holy Spirit somehow completes it. This is an old heresy that goes back to New Testament times:
"And He [Christ] is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning the and firstborn among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him" (Col.1:18-19).
continued in Part 2 below....
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Reply by Lev/Christopher on November 4, 2008 at 11:18am
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Reply by Rodney D Ready on December 14, 2009 at 7:09pm
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Reply by Lev/Christopher on December 15, 2009 at 4:54am
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Reply by Rodney D Ready on December 19, 2009 at 3:34am
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Reply by Lev/Christopher on December 19, 2009 at 5:58am
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Updated on 5 May 2010
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