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]

Nigeria: the story media outlets are not reporting (June 2004)

News Bulletin

(from ChristianityTodayOnline): Nigerian Archbishop Demands Justice Peter Akinola affirms warning to government and Muslims, fires back on the Western press. (April 20, 2006)

Professor Keener responds:

I have spent time in northern Nigeria, and the Archbishop is speaking the truth. The western media reported when “Christians” massacred a few hundred “Muslims” in the “Muslim” town of Yelwa, but they took the matter completely out of context. A few years before local non-Muslims retaliated against Muslims there, I taught 60 pastors in Yelwa—which was not an exclusively Muslim town, and was in a mostly Christian state. I was conversing with some church leaders over a meal and overheard a Muslim from outside the area instructing local Muslims negatively about my presence (though I could only reconstruct it from the gestures and the few words of Hausa I recognized).

The next year, the Christians were slaughtered or driven out of Yelwa, and their churches burned. Thousands of Christians were murdered by jihadists throughout that state, starting just a few days before the infamous Sept. 11 in the U.S.A. But in contrast with the U.S. response to jihadists’ attack, nothing was done effectively to protect the Christians in Plateau state, and they received no media attention. Tens of thousands of people became internally displaced refugees.

Finally, some non-Muslims in the area retaliated. The media response, which blamed the Christians, invited the slaughter of hundreds of Christians in Kano; my friend’s contact there reported that all the morgues and refrigeration units were full—but the official report said only a few were dead, and their faith was not specified. To this date, I am more likely to see media reports saying how Muslims and Christians kill each other, or giving inflated figures for Muslim casualties and negligible figures for Christian casualties. That Christians turned the other cheek for years is routinely ignored. Yet how long would Americans have turned the other cheek? (It was only a matter of days, as I recall, before the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan.) We have a real double standard here.

The archbishop is right to work against the violence. But he is also right to be sensitive to the youth who are tired of turning the other cheek. Violence cannot solve anything and violence cannot win. But we need to understand what motivates it so we can address it.

Grace be with you,

Craig

April 20, 2006

Normally I send out my own prayer requests once a year (and some of them DO still need prayer) but this one is kind of urgent.

Most of you know I spent five months over three summers ministering in the Middle Belt of Nigeria. For years, Christians have been periodically slaughtered there in planned terrorist attacks; I have talked with survivors.

If you saw in international media that Christians attacked Muslims in a “Muslim town” called Yelwa a month or so ago, you should know the context of that so you can pray for our brothers and sisters there.

First of all, Yelwa was never a “Muslim town”—the media simply bought Muslim propaganda—an outright lie. I TAUGHT 60 PASTORS IN YELWA IN JUNE 2000, IN A DENOMINATIONAL HEADQUARTERS THERE; there were thousands of Christians in that area. If it is a “Muslim town” now, it is because militant Muslims systematically killed and drove off Christians and burned their churches; thousands of people lost their homes and centuries–old farmlands and became refugees.

Militant Muslim immigrants burned churches and declared it a Muslim town. (In one recent incident, Christians meeting for early morning prayer were surrounded and burned alive.) When some Christians retaliated (most are simply peaceful refugees), suddenly Muslims garnered international media attention.

In response to the media attention, the governor of a predominantly Muslim, “sharia” state in northern Nigeria invited Muslim youth to “defend their faith”; they rioted and over the next few days all the morgues, refrigeration units, etc., were filled. When Muslims seized a baby and hurled it into flames, the mother began screaming—so they told her that since she liked the child so much, she could join it—and killed her. Local Christians claim as many as 3000 died; a mission compound there had over 1000 refugees.

Meanwhile, the media reported that 40–50 people (not specifying Christians) died in a riot; I think even most of the people in the rest of Nigeria don’t know what’s going on unless they have contacts there.

(Several years ago I witnessed violence that was also suppressed in the Nigerian media. There are moderates on both sides but blood could drown out their voices…)

I love my brothers and sisters there, and as a believer would have wanted to die in their place.

Please pray for the gentle and loving Christians of northern Nigeria.

They are our brothers and sisters, and when they die part of our heart dies with them.

Your brother, Craig

Upheaval in Nigeria (April 20, 2006)