Billy Graham in 1966

Billy Graham, Evangelicalism’s chief architect, declared, “As we approach the end of the age … I believe we will see a dramatic recurrence of signs and wonders which will demonstrate the power of God to a skeptical world.”[3] Nevertheless, “there is also a need for a word of caution: There are many frauds and charlatans … one must have spiritual discernment.”[4]

I find Graham and like-minded Evangelicals paradoxical.[5] This conundrum shows up in Christianity Today, the movement’s flagship periodical. While conciliatory,[6] this magazine reiterates that spiritual gifts are outside the norm.

An example is demonstrated in Andrew Wilson’s recent article, “Whatever Happened to Gifts of Language, Prophecy, and Healing? Let’s Ask The Early Church Fathers,” Christianity Today” (April 20, 2018).

Wilson contends that in Evangelicalism, historicity should be valued alongside orthodoxy. He asserts that a truncated theology is often a result of beginning “history in the wrong place.” When Evangelicals take “a longer view… tracing our roots back to the early church fathers,” it leads us to “surprises … Angels and demons … or, more surprisingly, miraculous gifts.”

Drawing from a sampling of Church Fathers,[7] Wilson contends that healing, prophecy, and exorcism were evident five centuries across a vast geographical span. He selectively argues for the charismata.

Yet, in Wilson’s essay, telltale Evangelical caveats emerge. Reluctant to advance beyond the fifth century,[8] he suggests that there is “general agreement” that “languages, prophecy, and healing disappeared early in the church’s history.”[9] Sadly, Wilson insinuates that miraculous gifts can be an “excuse for speculation, self-indulgence, sectarianism, and silliness.”

Evangelicals love to flirt with continuationism but often disavow it as soon as their Reformed ethos gets upended. Tragically, most will side with Wilson, proposing that the charismata are “relatively unusual” (and the unusual cannot be normative).

In every era since Pentecost, God has been actively moving with His marvelous gifts. Rather than being mired in the doubts of modernity, Bible-believing Christians should steadfastly embrace the age of the Spirit. It is time to own the miraculous without caveats.

PR

Notes

^[1]. Douglas Jacobsen, Thinking in the Spirit: Theologies of the Early Pentecostal Movement (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003), 356.

^[2]. Leonard Sweet, Health and Medicine in the Evangelical Tradition: “Not by Might nor Power” (Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International, 1994), 151, 158.

Everyone is more than welcome to attend!

For our February conversation, we will be rethinking Church, faith and spirituality through the eyes of millennials. We will also engage ministry leaders who are doing effective ministry on campuses of colleges and universities across the nation.

Here is a little about each of the panelists:

• Dr. Kurnia Foe is an Indonesian Christian who is working with international students at Old Dominion University. His service is key to helping international students get acclimated as new students at the university.
• Mike Morisi is the president of Campus Harvest, which has ministries on 350 college and university campuses across the United States of America.
• Taci Chisholm is an evangelist and radio personality. She has a strong ministry to young women.
• Colleen Stein is the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Virginia Peninsula Area Director. InterVarsity is an organization with over 700 Chapters on college and university campuses across the nation. Colleen oversees several of the InterVarsity college and university chapters on the Virginian Peninsula.
• Pastor Jamie Limato is part of the college and university campus church planting movement. He serves as senior pastor of Aletheia Church, a church plant nearby Old Dominion University. The ministry focuses providing worship and spiritual nurture for college and university students.
• Thurston Benns is the Tidewater Area Director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, an organization with over 700 Chapters on college and university campuses across the nation. Thurston oversees several of the InterVarsity chapters on the Tidewater college and university campuses.
• Alex Holt and Free Worship and Jay EL will lead us in opening worship!

Exciting!

The theme of the night will be “Faith Sharing on College and University Campuses.” Pew Research Center reports that while thousands of millennials do not regularly attend church, they are deeply interested in spirituality. Many of them are secretly seeking for God to help them to make sense of life; they are seeking divine guidance for their everyday life. At the YMPL Gathering, we will have an invigorating discussion about effective ways that believers can share their faith within the context of today’s generation.

Please RSVP; so we can be on the lookout for you!

YMPL is a network of young ministers, pastors & leaders. We are building a global relational community of leaders to impact the world for Jesus Christ!

See you Friday, February 10th at 6pm EST. Please bring friends!

Dr. Henry Harbuck of the Association of Evangelical Gospel Assemblies.

It may be time to evaluate what you plan to do in ministry in 2015. At the beginning of each New Year, this is what I do: I sit down and reflect on my successes and defeats during the former year and then make a plan.

Consider the Following Ten Points:

1. Spiritual Warfare: Engaging in spiritual warfare without a plan is outright dangerous. Sometimes my new plan may only be a revision of my former plan. At other times, it’s a new plan altogether. I do this because I’ve learned if I fail to plan; I plan to fail.
2. Defeat Is Not The End: The most difficult task I face is the same as what you face daily. I must follow through on my plan and refuse to permit myself to view setbacks as defeat. Defeat is only a “bump in the road” or a “detour.” Defeat should never be viewed as the “end of the road.”  When I face defeat, I keep telling myself to “keep on racing for the goal line” that is before me (Phil. 3:13), knowing that it’s never easy to complete what God has called me to do.
3. Listen to God: Many of the prophets and saints in ancient times were often surrounded by doubters. Nehemiah had to listen every day to many doubters when God told him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (Neh. 5:16). He continued to listen to God though his critics opposed him. The walls were finally built and Nehemiah was appointed governor over Judah by King Artaxerxes of Persia (5:14).
4. Facing Fear: All of us will encounter fear at some point in time, though a “super-spiritual” person may refuse to admit this. There is nothing wrong with being human; God never expects us to be super-human. Try calming your mind when you encounter fear; remember the God whom you serve is all powerful. Everything is possible for him/her who believes (or trusts) in God (Mark 9:23). Begin praising Him for all the wonderful things he did for you in the past. Ask the Father, in Jesus’ Name, to help you with your unbelief (or doubt- Mark 9:24), like the father who came to Jesus, asking that He deliver his son from a demonic spirit.
5. Self-talk Is Real: This is not a New Age concept. More thoughts run through someone’s mind than words that come out of his/her mouth. Therefore, we are talking to ourselves all the time [in our minds]. When you have negative (defeating) thoughts, just replace these with what the Scripture says you should do. This is not easy when your mind is uneasy or filled with anxiety. But with enough practice you’ll eventually get the hang-of-it.
6. Dealing With Failure: When you fail, examine where you went wrong. Ask the Lord to renew your strength and try…try…try again. Evaluate any equivalent benefits you gained and lessons learned from your failure. Don’t be stupid! If your plan is not working after you’ve tested it for a long period of time, develop a plan that does work. Then go in a different direction.
7. Don’t Keep Focusing on your Failures: Focus on your best abilities and gifts and continue to develop them and use them to honor God.
8. Stop Complaining: Try to identify the most difficult problems your ministry faces. Don’t do this by yourself. Have a meeting with your inner-circle of confidants who have your best interests at heart. Don’t try to dominate the meeting or preach to them. Instead, ask them for suggestions and insights. Such a meeting with your trusted friends will greatly help you to evaluate your plans. Remember to pray after the meeting concerning the revised plans.
9. Control Stress: This is easier said than done. Stress (“burn-out”) often destroys a minister’s health, ministry, plan, and family life. There are many things that can be done to relieve stress. You may try using the Internet to find articles that give pointers on how to relieve stress. Be sure that you don’t follow the advice of some weirdo, who has bogus credentials and no experience with stress. There’s been a lot of talk today in the media about stress, but little is said about how to relieve it. Some ideas are: exercise, good nutrition, rest, and time alone with God. Don’t get so stressed-out that you get addicted to prescription drugs. Do something now. Stress is a killer!
10. Decisions: Don’t ever make a major decision when you’re under tremendous pressure or stress. Take your time, though there may be deadlines facing you. Ask the Lord to give you peace of mind concerning your trials, and to help you make the right decision, at the right time.

Originally appearing in The Grapevine 28:1 (January 2015).

Although the accuracy of teaching is preeminent when judging the quality of a book, credit must be given for its tone when appropriate. From page one of Hull’s work, the reader is struck with the author’s sincerity, transparency, his passion for people, his drivenness for all that God has for him, and his willingness to risk all for his perception of the will of God in relation to the charismata.

This book comes from the heart of a pastor. More specifically, from the heart of a pastor who is trying to transition parishioners of a cessationist mindset into the fullness of the gifts of the Spirit. There is a generous mix of true-life anecdotes and biblical teaching. Some anecdotes leave you laughing or celebrating, others leave you in tears. At times his language is plain, but poignant: “If you lay your heart on the altar, someone will come and jump up and down on it” (p. 172).

Aside from Hull’s firm belief in the continuation of spiritual gifts in today’s church, even miraculous ones, perhaps his greatest contributions are in the chapters on healing and on hearing God’s voice, in which are packed practical guidelines that encourage faith while acknowledging God’s sovereignty.

It is, however, with reservations that I recommend Straight Talk to Pentecostals. With characteristic frankness, Hull admits that “I have had a prayer language for more than thirty years, but I am still not 100 percent sure it is God or my own flesh” (p. 118). More important, Hull holds an unbiblical view of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which he views as conversion (p. 116). Although he decries cessationist thinking as “inbred” and based more on “custom” than “study,” he is himself a Lukan cessationist when it comes to the baptism in the Holy Spirit, stating that the Pentecostal interpretation of Spirit-baptism is “impossible” (p. 111).

He bases his interpretation of the six occurrences of Spirit-baptism in Matthew, Mark, and Luke-Acts on the one occurrence in Paul (1 Corinthians 12:13), arguing that Paul’s usage is more weighty because it was seventh and last and twenty years removed from the “fluidity of the first years when they [the first Christians] were all trying to figure out the role of the Holy Spirit” (p. 114). One problem with this is that 1 Corinthians 12:13 appears to be the believer’s baptism by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ (a sensible and universal experience of all Christians), not the believer’s baptism in the Holy Spirit by the Heavenly Jesus that imparts a prophetic empowerment for service (a likewise sensible though not universal Christian experience; cf. R. Menzies’ Empowered for Witness). Hull shows no appreciation for the diversity of the NT writers and no appreciation for Luke’s uses of “filling” synonyms, which occur over 50 times in Acts alone. Neither does he show any appreciation for the probability that Luke, as a close companion of Paul and as someone who held Paul in high regard as a great man of God, is applying his considerable training in the Greco-Roman narrative style of historiography to clarify Paul’s epistolary writings for Christians thirty years removed from Paul. Instead, Lukan cessationist like Hull have effectively silenced Luke’s majority usage of “baptized” (3x) and “filled” (9x) in favor of Paul’s single usage of each term (1x[?]/1x). This use of Paul to parse Luke is a practice left over from cessationist Protestantism, and a hearty adieu by biblical exegetes is long overdue. (For more thorough discussion, see Roger Stronstad’s Spirit, Scripture and Theology: A Pentecostal Perspective and The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke).

Ruth A. Tucker, God Talk: Cautions for those Who Hear God’s Voice (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 173 pages.

Ruth Tucker confronts the popular notion that everyone can hear the voice of God. Pentecostal, Charismatic, and Evangelical bookshelves abound with books that instruct the reader on the normalcy for the average Christian to conversationally engage with God in prayer—hearing God’s literal voice in response. This book stands against the tide of popular-selling Christian books saying that you can hear God’s voice in “three easy steps.”

The reader must complete this book—not become frustrated or prematurely judge it, abandoning it mid-way. With great courage, Tucker bluntly speaks on the forbidden emotions associated with the silence of God. One’s first response to her thesis might be that she has missed the intimate blessing of God. Persisting through the whole of her argument will bring the reader to a new understanding.

From the opening subtitle to the subtle phraseology of the text, the reader may wonder if Tucker is embittered against the church or against God, and whether this book is giving vent to her disappointment. She does not flinch when shooting the sacred cow of popular Christianity (i.e.., God told me). The book unbraids the familiar stories of the “Guideposts guidance” kind of prayer. She does not avoid making the church wince when it hears the convicted criminal announce that the voice of God instructed him to do his evil deeds. She confronts the subjective, even naïve interpretation of events―mocking the assumption of sunshine or green traffic lights as a personal favor or as a special answer to prayer. She grapples with theodicy, echoing popular arguments for defending God’s goodness in a world filled with evil.

Midway through the book Tucker gives a brief solace for the bruised reader to rest as she finds a secure toehold in sola scriptura before continuing her climb (We let the reader decide if her direction is upward or downward). Moving toward her conclusion she bandages the wounds of the tender reader with the comfort of Christ-centered soteriology. When the final pages are turned, the reader may well be relieved that someone had the chutzpah to speak unguardedly. There are no “Sunday School” answers in this text. These are difficult issues—dragons that only the brave dare challenge.

Tucker says that in the mystery of God’s silence is a safe place to be—though silence is a stark contrast to our culture’s insistence on activity. She pulls the scarlet thread of this silence through the whole fabric of the book—the mysterious thread of the silence of God—as noted in Scripture, in the writings of Christian mystics throughout history, and in the reality of the serious moments of life. She warns that the fabrication of conversation or the embellishment of conversation with God is a serious offense. Even in the silence, God is there.

Reviewed by John R. Miller

Preview God Talk: http://books.google.com/books/about/God_Talk.html?id=uFfIsfjiO-AC