My mother, Assemblies of God Evangelist Verna M. Linzey, enjoyed taking time out of her busy schedule to fellowship with fellow Navy Officers’ Wives as part of her “Ministry of Presence” on the base. My father, first-ever Assemblies of God Active Duty Navy Chaplain Stanford E. Linzey, Jr., was stationed on the USS Holland, which was homeported at Charleston. Mother was on the Navy Wives Bowling League and had won a trophy for being an outstanding bowler.

I was looking forward to my donut on that mild, sunny day in October 1963. Then a short while after crossing the Wappoo Creek Bridge, we came to the railroad tracks before an intersection, and the light turned red. The cars ahead of us did not cross the intersection and we had to come to an abrupt stop on the railroad tracks.

It seemed like an eternity that we waited for the green signal so that we could get off the tracks, but finally the light turned green. Then, just as the car in front of us accelerated, the railroad lights started blinking and the bells began ringing. Mother pressed on the gas pedal, but the front tires were stuck on the railroad tracks. The car would not accelerate. The train was quite a distance away, but it was coming quickly. Mother kept pressing the accelerator pedal while praying, but the car would not budge. We were stranded on the tracks.

I was in the far back of the station wagon, which was off the tracks, and Mother knew there was no time to get me out of the back of the car. She figured that I would survive if the train hit the car. So, praying all the while, she threw open the door and jumped out of the car so that she, too, could survive.

Suddenly, a man appeared and told her to get back in the car and floor the gas pedal, and “don’t let off.” She risked her life for me, rushed back inside the car, and floored the gas pedal, with her heart pounding and the palms of her hands and forehead perspiring. Then the tires screeched and the car abruptly “jumped” off the railroad tracks to safety just before the train crossed the street. After the train cleared the street, the stranger was nowhere to be found. We had never seen him before, nor did we ever see him again. But I’ll never forget the day when my life was saved by an angel.

Image: Jad Limcaco

Not only did the angel come to us in our time of need, but also my mother’s unhesitating obedience to what the angel told her to do saved both of our lives.

Looking back, I think about what would have happened had I been killed. How deeply would this have impacted the lives of people to whom I would not have ministered as a military chaplain and as a civilian minister? And what about the lives of those who would never have been spiritually impacted by the Modern English Version Bible, which I edited?

God had plans for my life. He gave me a mother who risked her life for me and He sent an angel to intervene that day so that His purpose for me would be fulfilled.

It is the power of God that uses all that the Cross of Christ represents to separate those that are being rescued from those that are lost. This excerpt from Cletus Hull’s book, The Wisdom of the Cross and the Power of the Spirit in the Corinthian Church, is an exegetical study of First Corinthians 1:18-21.

Christology and the Cross
 

Employing numerous antithetical parallel statements, [Paul] begins writing about how the crucified Lord, in the wisdom of God, divides humankind into two groups. Mihaila observes, “for Paul, the cross is the great divider, acting ‘as an eschatological discernment,’ separating τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις from τοῖς σῳζομένοις (1 Cor. 1:18).”[1] The present tense participles, ἀπολλυμένοις (those who are perishing) and σῳζομένοις (those who are being saved), provide the meaning of life’s continuum to accept or reject Christ. Additionally, the present participle denotes the process of salvation in the believer. Salvation is both instantaneous and continues forward in life. Literally, perishing means “to be ruined or destroyed.”[2] Therefore, a choice not for the cross is interminable destruction. Anthony Thiselton remarks that “two ‘worlds’ confront each other at the foot of the cross”[3], as the kingdom’s salvific entrance into humankind reveals the dividing line between the perishing and those who are saved. Paul utilizes similar language in his second letter to the Corinthians when he writes, “for we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Cor. 2:15). The metaphor of aroma becomes symbolic of the meaning of the cross to the Corinthian church. The message of the cross brings judgment, as it divides humanity into two specific groups. Thus, the fullness of their salvation will not be completed until the eschaton.

This excerpt comes from pages 17-21 of The Wisdom of the Cross and the Power of the Spirit in the Corinthian Church: Grounding Pneumatic Experiences and Renewal Studies in the Cross of Christ by Cletus L. Hull, III (Pickwick, 2018).

The cross led to the ensuing topic of δύναμις power (1 Cor. 1:18). He writes a similar comment in a non-polemical context in 1 Thess. 1:5 which states “because our message (λόγος) of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power (δύναμις) and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” Gräbe suggested, “the concept of power belongs to the heart of Paul’s message. It is the apostle’s deepest conviction that the gospel has a decisive effect on people’s lives.”[4] The word δύναμις revealed the basic meaning of “being able” and “capacity.”[5] Walter Grundman in TDNT notes that “the δύναμις θεοῦ is the power of God, and therefore the power of salvation, which is at work in history, and specifically in the Christ event.”[6] Δύναμις “describes the effect of Paul’s divine message on this world,”[7] and as a result, an understanding of the power of God in the cross conveyed the joie de vivre in the theology of the cross.

Paul use of γέγραπται in the present tense locates an event that occurred in the past but has present and continuous consequences. In 1 Corinthians 1:19, Paul quoted Isaiah 29:14 from the LXX, as the OT context unveiled that judgment by Assyria foresaw a fall of the hypocrites in Israel. He wrote “I will set aside” rather than “I will hide” which the LXX contained.[8] This change of meaning fit his purpose for citing the OT prophet.
Fee notes that “Paul sees this Isaiah passage as now having eschatological fulfillment.”[9] Paul handled this OT content illustrating that just as the wise people of Israel were destroyed, so also the Greek wisdom came to naught when contrasted with the power of the cross. Ciampa and Rosner writes, “Paul uses Isaiah 29:14 to announce that God’s eschatological judgment and salvation are taking place among the Corinthians.”[10] The parallelism in the Isaiah text strengthens the themes of God’s judgment on sin and human depravity (cf. Isa. 6:9-10; 29:9-10; 42:18-20; 63:17). Certainly, Paul’s quote is an appropriate choice in connection to the Corinthian concept of wisdom.

Reinhard Bonnke is an evangelist anointed by God to preach the good news around the world. His intense focus on proclaiming the love, power, and forgiveness found only in Jesus Christ has been blessed by the Lord in amazing ways. Pastor Bonnke has preached in front of more than 74 million.

PneumaReview.com: How did you know that the Lord called you to be an evangelist?

Reinhard Bonnke: God spoke to my heart and it came straight from heaven. That call was so strong, I have never been able to doubt it until today.

PR: Are there any evangelists who particularly inspired you?

Bonnke: The films of T.L. Osborn in Africa inspired me.

PR: Could you share a pivotal moment in your ministry?

Bonnke: The vision of a blood-washed Africa propelled me to go from Cape Town to Cairo and start Christ for all Nations.

PR: How important is your Pentecostal experience to the work that you do?

Bonnke: The Holy Spirit is the hand in the glove of the preached Gospel.

PR: In what ways does an evangelist support the local church?

Bonnke: Evangelism and the local church are inseparable. It’s like the Good Samaritan seeking an inn for the one he rescued.

Reinhard Bonnke preaching at the 2005 Crusade in Jos, Nigeria.

PR: In his book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Philip Jenkins reported that Christianity is growing rapidly in the global South. Why do you think that these parts of the world are experiencing such growth?

Bonnke: Many of these nations have been held by false religions and now realize that the truth of the Gospel is setting them free.

PR: You said, “Africa shall be saved,” and preached to millions that Jesus would rescue them from their sins and make them a new creation. Now you say, “America shall be saved,” and you are rallying men and women to pray for the salvation of Americans. What must happen for a new awakening to come?

Bonnke: The original Gospel must be preached to see original results. The Holy Spirit has a firm part in it and our faith is the power-switch.

Thank you for speaking with us, Pastor Bonnke, and for your passionate pursuit of what God has called you to do.

– The editors at PneumaReview.com

Catch the Vision and pray for these outreaches: Reinhard Bonnke Gospel Crusade
Comes to Florida, North Carolina, and New York in 2014

]]> https://pneumareview.com/america-shall-be-saved-an-interview-with-reinhard-bonnke/feed/ 2 https://pneumareview.com/ralph-martin-will-many-be-saved-reviewed-by-amos-yong/ https://pneumareview.com/ralph-martin-will-many-be-saved-reviewed-by-amos-yong/#comments Sat, 08 Mar 2014 11:38:01 +0000 http://pneumareview.com/?p=2850 Ralph Martin, Will Many Be Saved? What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization (Grand Rapids and Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012), xvi + 316 pages, ISBN 9780802868879.

Ralph Martin should be no stranger to those with some historical experience in or perspective on the charismatic renewal, especially the Roman Catholic stream in North America. His longtime association with the Catholic charismatic renewal led to publication of a number of volumes (a good number by Servant Books of the Word of God community at Ann Arbor) in the late 1970s and early 1980s (not to mention other books since), and in more recent times to his presiding over Renewal Ministries, which “is dedicated to fostering renewal and evangelization in the Catholic Church by helping people know the personal love of God in Jesus and grow in holiness” (see http://www.renewalministries.net/?module=Page&sID=about-us – last accessed 25 July 2013). At the end of 2011 this director of Graduate Theology Programs in the New Evangelization at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to a five year term as a Consultor for the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, followed by, in 2012, a further papal appointment as an “expert” for the World Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization. In the years preceding these assignments, he finally worked and completed (2011) his doctoral dissertation, “Lumen Gentium 16: Implications for Evangelization” (through the Pontifical University of Rome), which formed the basis for the book under review.

Martin’s thesis is at least threefold: that there is an incipient universalism that has pervaded not only Roman Catholic theology but also the Catholic church and laity and that this has cut the nerve chord for evangelization; that such thinking is due in part to a reception only of that part of Lumen Gentium (LG) 16 that suggests that the unevangelized may indeed be saved under certain conditions, but that this is flawed because it neglects the last part of LG 16 which also says that “very often” these conditions are not met; and that a proper scriptural commitment (especially of the early chapters of the book of Romans – cited in LG 16), thorough historical retrieval (of the main lines of the Catholic theological tradition), and critical theological analysis (of major Roman Catholic theologians like Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthasar) should lead to a re-assessment and proper moderation of such salvation optimism that can inspire, in turn, the contemporary church toward the “new evangelization” that is so desperately needed. Martin develops his argument in this volume in seven chapters – on Vatican II and its evangelistic thrust; on LG 16, its development, and its scriptural foundations (here the focus is on Romans); on Rahner & Balthasar; and on proposals for adjusting the pastoral strategy of Vatican II in light of the arguments herein – and three brief appendices.

This is a thoughtful, thoroughly researched (and documented), and important book. Martin is right to call attention to the theological framework that undergirds and motivates Christian evangelism, to question contemporary theological intuitions that minimize traditional doctrines like the fall, sin, divine wrath, and eternal punishment, and to urge a re-evaluation of the truth claims of the scriptures and the theological tradition as they pertain to these important matters. The argument has implications far beyond contemporary Roman Catholic theology, directly intersecting, for instance, with recent evangelical claims regarding “a wideness in God’s mercy” (the title of Clark Pinnock’s book on religious pluralism in the early 1990s). While some might question if or to what extent “preaching hell” is effective as an evangelistic strategy in the present climate, Martin’s riposte is that this is part of the scriptural and theological traditions, like it or not, so our pragmatic concerns should also be redirected to engaging the truthfulness of these notions.