The Charismatic Church

 

I know that a number of folk will be unhappy with me offering negative opinions about the Tongues / Gifts Movement but honestly it is of concern to me that the three sects of the Church experiencing growth at the moment all have significant doctrinal issues and false teachings. Those being the Pentecostal / Charismatic Movements, the Seventh Day Adventist Church and the Calvinist Movement.

Focusing on the Pentecostal / Charismatic Movement in this article. My concern is that this movement which arose from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (ccr) began in February 1967, at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University, Pennsylvania in the United States. 

This was not the only source of the Charismatic Revival that swept the Protestant Church, and the Western World, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. However, I believe it was crucial to the impetus that the movement gained and the ecumenical essence that has been contained within it ever since.

The Tongues / Gifts Charismatic Movement and revival amongst evangelical Christians has always focused on Baptism of the Holy Spirit and evidence of this baptism by the recipient speaking in tongues primarily and being accompanied by other gifts such as prophecy and healing.

Although on the surface of it there is nothing wrong with any of these gifts on the surface of it. The problems arise when speaking in tongues is made to be of paramount importance in the Christian walk to the exception of the gospel of Jesus Christ; of actual Salvation; of the saints reformed character and with the inclusion of false teaching and shamanistic television evangelists and the like.

The result for Protestant Christianity and the Evangelical Church over the last sixty years has been catastrophic. The movement has led the Church to embrace a weak worldly liberalism that calls the unbeliever to join the Church but to change nothing. A faith in Jesus Christ without repentance and in many cases based around the prosperity gospel.

As our parents of the Great Generation aged and passed away coming into the twenty first century many Churches shut their doors from a lack of congregants. Hence, you can see many old churches throughout the Western World repurposed as dwellings or event venues. Many parishes sought ways to get people to fill the seats in their steadily declining congregations. Many began to adopt the Seeker Gospel which literally preached as I mentioned above that the church needed to change to be more relevant to the modern church goer. So by all means come to church as you are and you need make no changes to fit in. Instead we will adjust our preaching; our teaching and our music to match yours so you will feel more at home.

All along continuing to be infiltrated by satanic and mediumistic forces based around a false teaching about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. In the true gospel the new Christian believes, first, on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and to receive eternal life. They usually move to be baptised in water in obedience to God’s word (Acts 2:38). This is for the remission of sins and in order to receive the Holy Spirit. People are often baptised in the Holy Spirit at this time although there may be a later event at which this happens.

The difference here is that the new believer is saved in Jesus Christ, first, and baptised by the Holy Spirit as a believer. The emphasis in the Charismatic movement is on speaking in tongues and therefore the order of events is not considered to be as important as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the speaking in tongues. This is a problem that leads many Charismatic Christians to be spiritually attacked and to have mental illness because it is a mediumistic attack on the Church.

The result of all of this is a Roman Catholic approach to the Christian walk. The emphasis on Grace plus Works. So, the believer never progresses to Grace alone. Only if your relationship with Christ Jesus informs you that there is nothing that you can bring to the table but yourself alone and that the work of the Holy Spirit is to gradually enact the nature of Christ Jesus and the holiness of God into your heart and mind. The Baptism of Tongues doesn’t seem to lead to this for many. Probably because many are saved before they receive the Baptism of Tongues and although its purpose is to hinder the Christian. Some Christians in the Tongues movement do continue to grow but always purport speaking in tongues as an essential part of Christianity. Those who aren’t believers before they receive the Baptism of Tongues seem to remain as young believers never maturing in the faith and always centered on themselves.

In the end all that I can advise is that anyone who wonders whether to try the Charismatic Church out is to say “Don’t!” The true Baptism of the Holy Spirit imparts many different gifts to the true convert who throws themself on the mercy of Christ Jesus. Those who ask humbly for forgiveness, that the Savior makes his place in their heart, soul and mind, and that they might have eternal life in His name.