Charismatic Chaos (eBook)

John F. MacArthur (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
300 Seiten
Publishdrive (Verlag)
978-0-00-103162-3 (ISBN)

Infos

The charismatic movement of the past quarter-century has made an impact on the church unparalleled in history. But one legacy of the movement is confusion and mushy thinking. In Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur calls for biblical evaluation and analyzes the doctrinal differences between charismatics and non-charismatics in the light of Scripture. 'My principal concern,' writes John MacArthur, 'is to call the church to a firm commitment to the purity and authority of the Scriptures, and thereby to strengthen the unity of the true church.' To tough questions that seem to divide, Charismatic Chaos provides tougher answers that strive to unite. This book tackles such questions as - Is experience a valid test of truth? - Does God still give revelation? - Prophets, fanatics, or heretics? - Does God still heal? - What should we think of the Signs and Wonders movement? - Does the Bible promise health and wealth?

Textauszug

 

- 1. Is Experience a Valid Test of Truth?

A woman wrote to me, seething. “You resort to Greek translations and fancy words to explain away what the Holy Spirit is doing in the church today. Let me give you a piece of advice that might just save you from the wrath of almighty God: put away your Bible and your books and stop studying. Ask the Holy Ghost to come upon you and give you the gift of tongues. You have no right to question something you have never experienced.”

A radio listener, after hearing my teaching on 1 Corinthians 12-14, wrote, “You people, and especially ministers of the Gospel, who claim that speaking in tongues is not for today are, in my opinion and all those who do, grieving the Holy Spirit and missing a blessing from God. To me—it is as ridiculous as if an unsaved person tried to persuade you that you absolutely cannot be sure that you will enter heaven. . . . If you haven’t experienced it—you can NOT tell someone who HAS that it doesn’t exist.”

Both of those letters reflect the tendency to gauge truth by personal experience rather than Scripture. There is little doubt that most charismatics, if they are honest with

themselves, would have to acknowledge that personal experience—and not Scripture—is the foundation of their belief system. As much as some charismatics might want to give the Bible a high place of authority in their lives, the Scriptures too often rank second to experience in defining what they believe. As one writer puts it, “Experiences with God provide a basis for their faith.”1

That is exactly backward from how it should be. Our faith should provide a basis for our experiences. A true spiritual experience will be the result of the quickening of truth in the Christian’s mind—it does not occur in a mystical vacuum.

Non-charismatics are often accused of opposing emotion and experience. Let me state as clearly as possible that I believe both emotion and experience are essential outgrowths of genuine faith. Many of my own spiritual experiences have been profound, overwhelming, life-changing events. Please do not think for a moment that I would defend a cold, inanimate religion based on a barren creed or some empty ritual.

In an authentic spiritual experience, emotion, feelings, and the senses often become intense, transcending the normal. These may include strong feelings of remorse over sin, a mighty sense of trust that surpasses the pain of a traumatic situation, an overpowering peace in the midst of trouble, the overwhelming sense of joy related to confidence and hope in God, intense sorrow over the lost, the exhilarating praise in understanding the glory of God, or a heightened zeal for ministry. Spiritual experience by definition is an internal awareness that involves strong emotion in response to the truth of God’s Word, amplified by the Holy Spirit and applied by him to us personally.

Charismatics err because they tend to build their teachings on experience, rather than understanding that authentic experience happens in response to truth. Too many charismatic experiences are utterly detached from—and in

some cases contrary to—the revealed plan and operation of God indicated in Scripture. When these become the basis for one’s beliefs, there is almost no limit to the kinds of false teaching that can emerge.

We see this in many charismatic books and television programs. Visions, dreams, prophecies, “words of knowledge,” private messages from God, and other personal experiences determine what is taught. Scripture—when used at all—is typically employed for proof texts or twisted to fit some novel opinion. Often passages of Scripture are so mauled that they are made to mean the antithesis of what they actually teach. Kenneth Copeland, for example, claims he gets many of his novel interpretations by direct revelation. Teaching on the account of the rich young ruler in Mark 10, Copeland was clearly seeking support for his own notion that God wants his people materially wealthy. Jesus’ words in verse 21 seem clear enough: “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess, and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Copeland, however, claims God revealed to him that this verse actually promises earthly, monetary dividends. Copeland says, “This was the biggest financial deal that young man had ever been offered, but he walked away from it because he didn’t know God’s system of finance. ”2

Sometimes a self-styled prophet develops a whole new set of teachings based wholly on experience—or pure whimsy. Dr. Percy Collett, for example, a charismatic medical missionary, devised an extensive series of detailed messages on heaven, all drawn from his extraordinary personal experience. Collett claims that in 1982 he was transported to heaven for five-and-a-half days. He says he saw Jesus, who is supervising the building of mansions there, and he claims he was able to speak face-to-face with the Holy Spirit.

A newsletter rhapsodically detailing Dr. Collett’s journey to heaven began, incredibly, with these words:

While Christianity abounds with accounts of glimpses of the “other” dimension from those who’ve had “out of body” experiences, Dr. Collett’s is unlike these. Obviously he was “caught up in the third heaven” even as Paul was. The difference being, Paul was not allowed to utter the things he saw and heard, while Dr. Collett, almost 2000 years later, was commanded to do so.3

Collett offers videotapes detailing his sojourn in heaven, and his accounts are peculiar indeed: “Everything God created upon the earth is in heaven—horses, cats, dogs. Everything that He created upon earth is in heaven—in the way of animals, only these are perfect. For example, the dogs do not bark. . . . You don’t need plumbing. You can go to the Banqueting House and eat all you want and no plumbing is needed.”4

Collett describes “the Pity Department, the place [where] the souls of aborted babies go, and also some severely retarded babies, and it is here that these little souls are trained for a period of time before they go before the Throne of God. ”5 He claims he also saw the Record Room, “an immense area where all the ‘idle’ words spoken by Christians are being retained until after Christians give an account of them, or are judged, at which time these will be emptied into the Sea of Forgetfulness.”6 Collett describes a “Garment Room,” where angels are sewing our robes, mansions under construction, a “Holy Ghost elevator,” and many other astonishing sights.7 He adds one macabre detail: “When I was traveling back to earth, I saw two girls, one brunette and one a red-head. We stopped to talk to them—their soul bodies—on the way back. We asked them what had happened to them. They indicated they had gotten killed in a car accident on a California highway. Their bodies (physical) were in a funeral home. They said their mother was weeping over them, so would I please tell her.”8

Dr. Collett feels he has conclusive proof to verify that tale: “About a year later I went to that area where the mother lived, and was giving this testimony. A mother jumped up in the congregation and said, that’s a description of my daughters. I told her she shouldn’t fret, that her daughters are in that wonderful place. She said that she would never cry again.”9

After Dr. Collett lectured on heaven to his third straight standing-room-only audience in Montgomery, Alabama, he offered to take questions from the floor. The first question was something I admit I had never contemplated: “I am a cowboy. Are there rodeos in heaven?”

But Dr. Collett was ready with an answer. “There are horses in heaven, beautiful horses. These are all praising God. There is no foolishness in heaven. I am not saying that a rodeo is foolish, but there is no Will Rogers style acting up there.”10

Charismatics have no way to judge or stop testimonies like that because in their system experience validates itself. Instead of checking such experiences against the Bible for validity, typically charismatics try to get the Bible to fit the experience or, failing that, they just ignore the Bible. How many charismatics, taught to believe that God is giving them or their leaders fresh revelation, simply put their Bibles permanently on the shelf?11

It Starts with the Baptism of the Spirit

One reason experience is the touchstone for charismatics is their undue emphasis on the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a post-salvation experience (see chapter 8). Charismatics generally believe that after someone becomes a Christian, he or she must seek diligently for the baptism of the Spirit. Those who get this baptism also experience various phenomena, such as speaking in tongues, feelings of euphoria, visions, and emotional outbursts of various kinds. Those who have not experienced the baptism and its accompanying phenomena are not considered Spirit-filled; that is, they are immature, carnal, disobedient, or otherwise incomplete Christians.

That kind of teaching opens the floodgates for believing that vital Christianity is one sensational experience after another. It...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 23.8.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
• ISBN-10: 0-00-103162-7 / 0001031627
• ISBN-13: 978-0-00-103162-3 / 9780001031623