From Pneuma Review Spring 2002.

John Rea, Charisma’s Bible Handbook on the Holy Spirit (Creation House, 1998), 346 pages, ISBN 9780884195665.

For the pastor and Bible student that have been looking for a handbook on the Holy Spirit from a Pentecostal/charismatic perspective here is an all-in-one reference not to be missed.

Dr. Rea introduces this handbook by discussing how to read and study the Bible. He then concisely presents the deity and personhood of the Holy Spirit; a truth we need to be continually reminded of. For the majority of the work he looks at every major reference to the Spirit in Scripture. He does this by examining seven distinct categories from four biblical eras. ‘The Spirit of God in Creation and the Patriarchal Age,’ ‘the Era of Charismatic Leadership in Israel,’ and the ‘Era of Prophetic Announcement’ cover the Hebrew Scriptures. He expands the ‘Age of the Holy Spirit’ from Messiah’s birth to today into the biblical categories of the Gospels (Preparation), Acts (Outpouring), Epistles (Explanation) and Revelation (Consummation).

Nearly 100 pages are spent on the work and person of the Spirit in the Old Testament. This feature sets this book apart from other studies of the Holy Spirit that often neglect the Hebrew Scriptures. 24 pages are spent on the Gospels, 14 on Acts, over 40 on the Epistles, and several pages conclude the study with the book of Revelation. Beyond the easy to refer to passage-by-passage study, the book includes an extensive Scripture index, charts of key words and other valuable reference pages.

Although Dr. Rea’s approach seems to reflect a classical Pentecostal perspective, this book has been published under the name of the most recognized independent charismatic magazine, Charisma. Everyone in the Pentecostal/charismatic movement should be grateful for this Bible handbook which is centered on the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Readers will find this reference to have good poise and good scholarship, yet concise enough for even the beginning Bible student.

For these reasons, this handbook should be found in every Pentecostal/charismatic leader’s library. The Pentecostal/charismatic movement needs more reference works of this quality.

Reviewed by James M. Dettmann

Raul Mock and Jim Dettmann at an editor meeting in May, 2005.

Interview with Charisma editor, J. Lee Grady: Special to the Pneuma Review

Pneuma Review: Many in the Pentecostal/charismatic movement have said that the church is experiencing renewal. Do you agree, and if so, how has it touched you?

Lee Grady: There is no question that the charismatic church has experienced a level of renewal since the early 1990s. I think history will show that this movement began in or around 1993, culminating in two significant explosions in Toronto in 1994 and in Pensacola, Florida, in 1995.

Were these movements revivals? So many people want to quibble over the terms, and some argue that Toronto and Pensacola did not bring widespread evangelism. But it is still too early to determine that. I meet people all the time who experienced some kind of spiritual refueling in one of those movements, and today they are doing significant things in ministry. Many people who had become dry and “barren” spiritually found a fresh touch of God’s presence in either Toronto, Pensacola or in one of the many spin-off movements that were triggered by those two moves of God.

As far as my own personal experience, I was touched by the Lord in 1996 when I went to Pensacola. For me it was simply a fresh impartation of grace and a renewal of faith that God will indeed visit the United States in revival. I had a deeply moving encounter with God while in Pensacola in which the Lord dealt with my own cynicism. I came back from my three days there a changed man.

PR: In your 1994 book What Happened to the Fire? (Chosen), you listed several key issues that must be addressed before revival could sweep the church. Included in that list were heavy-handed leadership and spiritual abuse. How do you feel the church has dealt with these issues?

Grady: The charismatic church is still dealing with authoritarianism. I see it everywhere in independent churches where leaders either do not have the proper accountability structures, or they are too young and spiritually immature to know that they need such accountability.

Three years ago we ran an article in Charisma about the signs of an unhealthy church, and we focused on manipulative, authoritarian leadership as a major sign of problems. The response we received from that article was incredible. So many people wrote us to tell about their horror stories. This made me realize even more how much of a problem this is in our movement.