Beyond Belief It is a, fascinating, extensively researched, encouraging, insightful (but sometimes exasperating) description of the expansion of the worldwide Pentecostal/charismatic churches. For the American Spirit-filled believer, it is also an important source for understanding of the various ways Pentecostal/charismatics are “doing church” throughout the world.

The author, Ms. Elle Hardy, is not an academician, but a master reporter with a proven track record. For Beyond Belief she traveled to 12 countries where Pentecostalism is prominent as well as many parts of the United States. Her methodology involves an immersion into the worship and life of the various and very different Pentecostal/charismatic churches she investigates. She also seems to have an ability to contact and win the confidence of the leaders she interviews. Yet she keeps a certain critical distance from the topic by the fact she is not a born-again believer – despite the many attempts by her Pentecostal friends and contacts to make her so. Hardy’s descriptions of the various forms of Spirit-filled congregations are an encouragement that the Holy Spirit revival begun at Azusa Street has not been stymied despite local scandals and setbacks – which Hardy often details.

Beyond Belief is divided into two parts. Part 1 is entitled “The Good News: The Unstoppable Rise of Pentecostalism.” The title gives the book’s central thesis, Spirit-filled Churches are growing and will be the future of the Church at large. Part 2 is called “Spiritual Warfare: The battle to build heaven on earth.” This Part explores the author’s fear that Spirit-filled churches will attempt to establish forms of theocratic rule over the Earth.

As a historian, I found chapter one, which deals with the origins of Pentecostalism, especially interesting in its interpretation. Hardy gives special credit to Aimee Semple McPherson as the person who brought Pentecostalism to wide public attention, if not acceptance. She understands McPhearson as a proto-charismatic and proto-Televangelist through her pioneering use of radio evangelism and relief work for the poor.

Chapter 4, entitled “The Father, the Sons, and the Holy Mess,” deals with the Pentecostal movement in Brazil which is overtaking Catholicism as the majority religion in that country. Brazil now has a bevy of megachurches with Pentecostal pastors who mostly preach an exaggerated “prosperity Gospel” and live lavishly. The author makes much of this seeming contradiction, unaware that there can be moderate and biblical expressions of prosperity teaching, such as was developed by Puritan theologians in the 18^th Century.[1] Significantly, Hardy also admits that the prosperity Gospel motivates the poor to be honest and work hard and ultimately helps elevate them out of poverty. Also, Pentecostalism has become a major factor in the lives of Brazil’s lower classes, as opposed to the Catholic Church which was predominantly a middle- and upper-class church with “outreach” to the poor, not centered on their transformation out of poverty. She summarizes, “…research has found that people who come from poverty or cycles of violence and addiction have more chances of escaping that world if they joined an evangelical [Pentecostal] church …” (p. 90).

Chapter 5, “The Bigger the Prophecy the Bigger the Pocket,” covers how strong Pentecostalism has become in sub-Saharan Africa. Like the churches in Brazil, there are many “prosperity Gospel” megachurches in Africa for the same reasons—they help the poor come out of poverty. But to a greater degree than Brazil’s Pentecostal churches, the ones in Africa can manifest dangerous levels of syncretism, that is, incorporating animist and pagan elements of belief and practice into their churches. For instance, the role of the “prophet” is highly esteemed in Africa and this office is often blended with unscriptural elements, such as ongoing communications with dead ancestors. All of this raises interesting questions on how far the Gospel can accommodate to culture, before it becomes “another Gospel” (see Gal 1:6).

Chapter 6 entitled, “Did you Know About the Good Samaritan,” is about Pentecostalism in the UK. This is an inspiring account of how the Gypsies (Roma people) in the UK and Europe have been rapidly and successfully evangelized into Pentecostal churches. The Gypsies have been transformed into hardworking and stable populations and are now often accepted members of European communities where they were formally despised and rarely evangelized.

Part 2 of the book develops Hardy’s view of spiritual warfare. Unlike most readers of The Pneuma Review, her concern and focus is not on the theology or practice of battling the “principalities and powers.” Rather she is focused on the trend that the theology of spiritual warfare, especially the concept of “occupying” the seven mountains of human culture, education, government, medicine, entertainment, etc. is an attempt to usher us to some sort of theocratic state.

This section begins with chapter 7, “A Company Town.” This is the study of Redding, California, which is the home of Bethel Chapel, one of the largest megachurches in America. The church has achieved a great amount of influence in Redding, to the point that people must be careful of what they say and to whom they say it. Hardy also faults an overenthusiastic Christian healing ministry in Redding, were volunteer laypersons at times barge into medical facilities uninvited (Personally, I would rather have to deal with that problem, which is easy to fix, than with the problem of not having enough volunteers to minister at hospitals). Hardy’s complaints in this case seems exaggerated and trivial.

Chapter 8 is entitled, “Fully cursed and abundantly blessed.” In a fascinating section, it describes an Islamic denomination that has adopted many Pentecostal practices, such as tithing, ecstatic states of worship, and a modified Islamic prosperity gospel. The denomination goes under the acronym NASAFAT and has many branches in West Africa and the US. This chapter then turns to the Church in Nigeria, where it is flourishing. Many churches are extremely influential in Nigeria and provide all sorts of services including dating for singles, Christian schools, etc. to a degree not known in the United States.

A point of sadness. Hardy notes that friction between Christians and Muslims are high in Nigeria and believes that Nigeria may be very close to civil war. She believes a major contributing factor is the Christian spiritual warfare ideology of the “seven mountains” which attempt to control the nation (p. 190). Hardy claims that many Nigerian pastors are ex-Muslims, and rather than having great compassion for Muslims, generally act with discourtesy and nastiness towards them.

“Not your grandmother’s church,” is the title of chapter 9. The main point here is that Christians in the United States have sometimes gone overboard in combating sex trafficking by prosecuting the easy target, the soliciting “Johns.” At times their lives are ruined with felony convictions and embarrassing publicity. Hardy claims that Christian ministers often use the popularity of this type of ministry to enhance their church’s standing while avoiding the very serious issue of the semi-slavery of many Asian immigrants in nail polishing shops, dishwashers, etc. All of this is related to the attempt to prove that Pentecostals are molding secular power and laws for their seven mountain campaigns without much discernment. I found this chapter unconvincing and the least satisfactory of the book.

To the contrary, the new Pentecostal pastors and lay leaders are intolerant of shamans and their practices. Unfortunately, as Pentecostals increase in numbers and political power, this can lead to mob action, violence and even murder. Hardy amply documents this and shows a similar pattern in Brazil. Certainly, those actions are wrong, unbiblical, and sinful. Again, the author relates these actions to seven mountain theology.

Hardy assumes that the traditional Catholic approach is the correct one. I believe her position is erroneous and spiritually destructive as it leaves the demonic activity and its realms unchallenged. Part of her confusion is that her immersion style reporting opened her to demonic influences. She recounts how after an interview with a Mayan shaman: “We lit candles from a small flame pit and prayed to each of the four energies as we turned in each direction. Ramulu [the shaman] gave Mother Nature an offering of palm tree and asked for her blessings” (p. 218).

The proper New Testament response to witchcraft and shamanism is outlined in Acts 13: 8-12, where Paul disables a sorcerer, but does not permanently harm him. Tragically this has not been appropriated by Christians as something possible in the post-Apostolic age, so this effective tool has been used only infrequently in Church history.[2]

Hardy links the negative and hostile actions of Pentecostals towards non-Christians to dominion theology, which is perhaps an overreach, as that type of theological sophistication is unlikely in the Mayan areas. Also, there is problem in that she doesn’t really understand the demonic dangers and energies of shamanistic worship and objects.

Chapter 11 is entitled, “We ain’t going round that mountain another seven years.” This deals with the fact that many Pentecostal congregation are gravitating to right-wing and populist, identity politics. She finds this especially dangerous for the future of Christian witness and the Church universal. Only time will tell whether her fears are prophecy or hysteria.

In summary, Beyond Belief is an extremely informative, but flawed book, full of eye-popping accounts of congregations in all parts of the world doing church enthusiastically, if not always with true discernment.

Reviewed by William De Arteaga

Publisher’s page: www.HurstPublishers.com/book/beyond-belief/

Notes

[1] On this issue see my book Quenching the Spirit (Lake Mary: Creation House, 1996), chapter 15. [Editor’s note: see the review by Mike Dies]

[2] See my essay, “The Ministry of command Disablement,’ in: William De Arteaga, Battling the Demonic (2023). [Editor’s note: see the review by Anders Litzell]

Is Christianity just something that helps some people? Is there really any basis for right and wrong other than opinion?

This article is reproduced with permission from the British ministry Facing The Challenge, see below for more information.

Across Britain this week, hundreds of couples will be getting married. They will spend thousands of pounds on the wedding itself. I’m sure they will go into their marriages with high hopes, and most of them will mean the promises they make to each other.

Yet the sad reality is that four out of ten of them will end in the divorce courts. Until recently, Britain had the highest divorce rate in Europe. It has only fallen from that position because fewer people are now getting married in the first place.

Image: Billy Hicks/Wikimedia Commons

And whatever we think about the rightness or wrongness of divorce, surely we cannot deny the pain and guilt that it inflicts on any children involved—and indeed on the husband and wife. Divorced people who remarry have a higher chance of going through yet another marriage breakdown. (Perhaps this is one reason why people choose to live together rather than to marry.) Children from broken homes are more likely to have behavioral problems, more likely to have problems at school, and more likely to end up in broken relationships as adults.

We’re in a mess, aren’t we? Where has it come from? How did we get here?

One of the underlying reasons is that for most of us today, right and wrong are no longer something God-given, something we can all agree on. Rather, right and wrong are just a matter of “lifestyle choice”.

Apparently six out of seven 13-15 year olds now believe that there is nothing wrong with sex outside marriage. Three out of four believe there is nothing wrong with under age sex. Half of all lower sixth form pupils are already sexually active.

So Britain now has the highest proportion of unmarried teenage mothers in the world. And surely we can’t deny that these girls are not ready psychologically, emotionally, or financially, for the demands of parenthood.

But where has this idea come from? This belief that right and wrong are just a lifestyle choice.

Underlying it is the belief that truth itself is just a matter of personal opinion. No-one can know what is really true. Something can be “true for you” without necessarily being “true for me too.” So we all make up our own version of the truth as we go along.

A recent CD by the Manic Street Preachers captures this in its title: This is my truth tell me yours.

So today truth is whatever you want it to be—and because of that, right and wrong become just whatever you choose them to be.

Now in this kind of world, Christianity becomes just your private opinion, or my private opinion. If you choose to be a Christian, that’s fine—for you. I’m so glad it helps you—don’t push it down my throat, thank you very much. It isn’t for me.

So here we are in a world where truth is a matter of opinion, right and wrong is a matter of lifestyle choice, and Christian faith is something private and personal, with nothing to say to the wider world of law, or education, or the media, or business. Religious beliefs are private beliefs, and we should keep them that way.

But we find ourselves unable to live in this world that we have created.

Roger Olson was raised Pentecostal and now writes as an evangelical within the Baptist tradition. Although Baptist, he is neither a fundamentalist nor a Calvinist. Rather, he is one of the few Arminian evangelical theologians who have written an accessible text introducing theology.

Olson’s intention is for the book to serve as a “very basic, relatively comprehensive, nontechnical, nonspeculative one-volume introduction to Christian belief” (p. 7). Hence, Olson primarily aims to describe the various views that Christians have held in Christian history rather than arguing for any particular viewpoint. Aside from the first chapter, the book’s outline follows the key topics in systematic theology, like, creation, Jesus, and the Church. Each chapter includes a section explaining what the historical consensus of the church has been regarding the theme of the chapter, a section explaining alternative views (including both historical heresies and, in some cases, non-Christian views), and a section outlining diverse Christian beliefs regarding the chapter’s topic. This approach not only helps readers avoid heretical beliefs, but it also serves Olson’s irenic aim of helping readers realize that there is a core to Christian beliefs that also allows for authentic Christians to disagree on some points. Olson concludes each chapter by also proposing a brief “unitive Christian vision” of the doctrine under discussion, where he briefly recommends his own position, including an affirmation of the consensus as well as an attempt to take a “both-and,” rather than “either-or,” approach to the various theological issues regarding which Christian disagree.

Reviewed by Andrew K. Gabriel

Publisher’s page: http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=5125

Preview: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Mosaic_of_Christian_Belief.html?id=WPakCgAAQBAJ

This article on doubt, certainty, and faith was recommended to Pneuma Review readers in the Fall 2007 issue.

Introduction

It’s hard to imagine how any Christian at any time in history could live life completely free from any doubts about the truth of the faith. Suffering, inconsistent behavior among Christians, the lure of the world, intellectual misgivings—these things and others can lead us to question whether it’s all true.

Since the days of the early church there have been objections to the gospel which have given pause to Christians. Can I really believe this? Should I believe this? Doubt is part of human experience, and Christians experience it no less than non-Christians. Doubts about our faith are more momentous than many we deal with, however, because of their implications. I have my doubts about whether my favorite football team will be in the Super Bowl, but I can still hang in there with them as a fan. The claims of Christ are much more momentous, however. Our individual destinies and more are at stake.

We find ourselves today in the West beset by two different schools of thought which can cause us to doubt. On the one hand are the modernists, heirs of the Enlightenment, who believe that reason is sufficient for true knowledge and that Christianity just doesn’t measure up to sound reason. On the other hand are postmodernists who don’t believe anyone can know what is true, and are astonished that we dare lay claim to having the truth about ultimate reality.

I’d like to look at these two mindsets to see if they have legitimate claims. The goal is to see if either should be allowed to rob us of our confidence.

Modernism and Certain Knowledge

Modernists believe that our reason is sufficient to know truth, in fact the only reliable means of attaining knowledge. Only that which can be scientifically measured and quantified and reasoned through logically can constitute true knowledge.

What does this say, however, about things that can’t be so measured, things such as beauty, morals, and matters of the spirit? Can we not have knowledge of such things? We have inherited the belief that such things are at best matters of opinion; they are subjective matters having to do only with the individual’s experiences and tastes.

This way of thinking is disastrous for religious beliefs of almost any kind. Christianity in particular makes claims that can’t be weighed or counted or measured (although there are elements which can be empirically tested): the nature of God, justification by faith, the deity of Christ, and the reality of the Holy Spirit are a few examples. Since these elements are central but don’t fit within our logical, scientific mindset, they are said to be matters of personal opinion at best, or figments of our imagination at worst.