Charles Carrin

One of the tragic losses in modern Christianity is the near-elimination of the Holy Spirit from the life and activity of many believers. Religion that is learned and formalized can function without the Holy Spirit; true spirituality cannot. A prominent church leader once said of his denomination that “If the Holy Spirit were to disappear from the Church 90% of its work would go on as if nothing happened.” In many cases that is so. The loss is enormous. While your church or denomination may not be like that, there are still no known Christians today experiencing the Holy Spirit in the same capacity as did first century believers. Nor are we getting the same results. Modern Christianity exerts a fading influence in Western culture.

In John 16:13, Jesus promised, “When the Spirit of truth has come He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is mine and declare it to you.” And again, in John 15:26 He said, “When the Helper comes whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” The word Jesus used for “Helper” has a rich and wonderful meaning in its Greek equivalent, parakletos, and was used in the ancient Olympic Games to identify those who accompanied a marathon runner by shouting encouragement to him. This example of the Holy Spirit and the Christian with the marathon-runner to his paraklete is an excellent illustration. Para = “alongside of;” kaleo = “to call.” Here are six scriptural ways the Holy Spirit wants to accompany our race and shout encouragement:

1. The Holy Spirit bears witness directly to our Spirit and leads us internally: Romans 8:16: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” 1 John 5:6-8: “And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.”

2. The Holy Spirit will lead us externally: Acts 16:6-7: “Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia but the Spirit did not permit them.” Genesis 24:27: “As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.” 1 Samuel 10:6: “Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.” Galatians 5:16-19: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

Charles Carrin: I had a specific God-instruction to write a “charismatic catechism” for the benefit of Spirit-filled believers who had no such resource. I began working and the book assumed the nature of a theological-treatise. There are 300 questions and answers on a progression of 18 sub-topics, beginning with “Who Is God?,” and including questions about the Kingdom, the Church, the Bible, Mankind, Israel, Church History, Spiritual Gifts, the Devil/Demons, and Significant People. A beneficial feature of the book is that it can be opened at any page and the reader can begin studying a “capsule” of important Christian truth. The period of study can effectively be three minutes or three hours.

PneumaReview.com: Whom do you feel will benefit the most from this book?

Charles Carrin: There is something for every age and specialty-interest. Youth, middle-aged, seniors, will find an introduction to the Bible, Christianity, church history, and other important information. It will be of special help to the new Christian who is just beginning their learning process of Kingdom facts, or the long-time believer who needs to re-fresh his Christian education.

PneumaReview.com: How did you select the subjects that you included in the book?

Spirit-Empowered Theology (Chosen, 2017).

Charles Carrin: There were two motivations: A Catechism contains a progression of theological and historical topics. The format reads in an expanding way. One topic leads into another and as far as possible I pursued that development of thought. Themes were chosen in the hope that readers would continue pursuing them beyond the Catechism. Secondly, I prayed, seeking God’s direction for the fields I covered.

PneumaReview.com: Why did you include entries about things outside of the Bible, such as events and people in post apostolic church history?

Charles Carrin: I have been in ordained ministry almost 70 years and have had opportunity for long-range observations of strengths and failures among believers. Most Christians, including many pastors, are woefully uninformed about their own church history. In brief, I have included such historical facts as Emperor Theodosius decreeing in 380 A.D. that only those churches accepting Imperial endorsement and known as Roman Catholic would be recognized as official. All others would be heretic. Modern Christians need to know that there were more Bishops who boycotted this decree than accepted it. Even so, the minority was declared “official” and the others heretic. My hope is that the reader will be motivated to explore the church’s historical field far beyond what I have written. Most Protestants are unaware of their own antiquity.

Is it “Strange Fire” or “Holy Fire”? by Charles Carrin

You will soon be hearing about two books: Strange Fire by Dr. John MacArthur and Holy Fire by Dr. R.T. Kendall. Dr. Kendall has written only in the emergency to defend Scripture and charismatic Christians from Dr. MacArthur attack.

John MacArthur is a man of significant Christian stature.  He is the author of more than 150 books, a study Bible, other best-selling material, and a College President.  R.T. Kendall is equally a man of great achievement. He holds a PhD. from Oxford University, authored more than 60 books, for twenty-five years was pastor of London’s Westminster Chapel near Buckingham Palace and a leading voice in Reformed theological circles around the world.  More recently he has become an outspoken defender of the plenary inspiration of the New Testament, including spiritual gifts. I Corinthians 12,13,14. Unlike Dr. MacArthur, Dr. Kendall does not believe that portions of the New Testament or miraculous gifts of the Spirit have passed away.

While no group of Christians has ever been exempt from undesirables in its ranks, Dr. MacArthur has taken the position that all ministers today who claim to experience spiritual gifts are “Satan’s false teachers … spiritual swindlers, con men, crooks, and charlatans.”  One would think that such an indictment leveled against godly men and women would be beneath Dr. MacArthur standard.  Of necessity, his accusation points toward  Jack Hayford, Mark Rutland, Derek Prince, Kenneth Hagin, Sr., Duncan Campbell, David Du Plessis, Demos Shakarian, Smith Wigglesworth, and a thousand other saintly believers.

My purpose is not to attack Dr. MacArthur.  Instead, I want to speak defensively for the Bible’s full message and its reliability. The New Testament contains six passages in which gifts of the Spirit are identified. I have now been in ordained ministry 64 years and have been on both sides of this  tragic  fence.  In  my  youth  I was taught that all gifts identified in I Corinthians 12 were obsolete. Later I was told that only knowledge, tongues, and prophecy, had been removed. My denomination preached nothing about it. For us, those verses weren’t even there and in the confusion I walked away from all of it. For me, there was no sensible answer. Then, in 1977, I had a personal encounter with the Holy Spirit that changed everything. The decision was no longer left to me and I emerged from that holy explosion  not only believing but experiencing spiritual gifts. To my amazement I found they were very, very real.

Believe me when I say that the gospel that is blazing in first-century-power in remote parts of the globe today is not coming from those who deny the truth of the New Testament.  These are marooned in their own religious mud.  Only “full gospel” believers are winning.  If you don’t believe that, go!, find out for yourself. Millions of Africans have come to Christ in recent years through charismatic preaching.

Am I “charismatic?” Yes! Absolutely!, and as such believe that the New Testament is still intact,  none of the Scripture has lost its validity and every line should be accepted by the modern church. Opposing Christians–usually called “cessationists”–believe that many New Testament passages have lost their authority and should be ignored.  Though still in the Bible, these select scriptures are no longer true.  Astonishingly, no one has yet been able to supply a list of these invalid verses. While the argument usually centers on the reality of spiritual gifts, the debate fundamentally regards whether or not the New Testament is reliable.

My question is this: If Moses sanctified the Old Testament by sprinkling it with the blood of animals and Jesus sanctified the New Testament by sprinkling it with His own blood (Hebrews 9:11-23) and Moses’ book was unalterable–can Jesus’ book  be less so?  Was the Old Testament inviolate while the New Testament is not?  Was there spiritual power in animal blood that Jesus lacked?  For myself, I can take only one position: The New Testament was, is, shall ever be, true in each line. None of it has lost is power or purpose. The need of the church is not to edit the Bible but to believe it.

Observe these Scriptures and their obvious message:

Jesus said: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4

Jesus said: “Heaven and earth shall pass away but My words will by no means pass away.” Matthew 24:35.

God the Father said: “My Covenant I will not break nor alter the Word that is gone out of my lips.” Psalm 89:34.