History Of The Charismatic Movement To Early 1980′s

History Of The Charismatic Movement, Part 1
(Pending audio)

History Of The Charismatic Movement, Part 2


History Of The Charismatic Movement, Part 3


The Charismatic Movement And The Reason Why

I loved George Gardiner (1919-1984).

Pastor George Gardiner was a Pentecostal for many years. He said that his journey out of Pentecostalism “began with nagging questions about the gulf between Charismatic practices and Scriptural statements–a very wide gulf!”

He was still in a Pentecostal Bible School when he and his room mate began discussing their doubts about Charismatic teaching.

He determined to study the book of Acts.

“I re-read the book of Acts, slowly and carefully, praying as I did, ‘Lord, let me see what it says, and only what the Word says. Give me grace to accept it if I have been wrong and grace to apologize if I have been unduly critical.’

“The journey through Acts was an eye opener! The actions and experiences of the early churches were far removed from the actions and experiences of the modern movement. In some ways they were completely opposite!”

I met this great preacher in 1977 while attending Grand Rapids School of the Bible and Music. He was the Pastor of Calvary Undenominational Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan (founded by M.R. DeHaan), and was a great Bible preacher, having long since left pentecostalism.

In 1982, after my spending about 6 months in the “Charismatic Movement” myself, George graciously met with me in his study, and we pored over many scriptures regarding the teachings of this Movement, which I had begun to see were untrue.

Gardiner is the author of “The Corinthian Catastrophe” (http://www.amazon.com/The-Corinthian-Catastrophe-George-Gardiner/dp/0825427088), and gave me a copy of his book, which I still highly recommend to this day for those who have questions.

George Gardiner’s explanation of the History of the Charismatic Movement (preached in these recordings in the early 80′s) is thorough and enlightening. And he really explains well what the Bible teaches about tongues, interpretation of tongues, signs, wonders, and miracles.

Saints In The Hands of An Angry God?

Question: When is God angry with His children, born-again saints of God?

The answer: Never.

Now I know you’ve been taught that He’s angry, directly or by implication. Admit it. You may even think when you are sinful or disobedient to the Word of God that God sees you as “wicked”, and everyone knows “God is angry with the wicked every day”, right?

Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon, “Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God” in the 1700′s, and the picture has been applied to believers and has stuck…

…with those who don’t understand the difference between a Sinner and a Saint. Or who don’t understand the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

Oh, how the devil loves confusion. He loves confusion between the biblical concept of a “saint” as anyone who is a born-again child of God, and the Roman Catholic nonsense that a “saint” is someone who meets some elaborate criteria of the Mother Church, and is “voted in”. The devil loves confusion between the Old Covenant (which Hebrews 8 says failed in bringing righteousness because of man’s inability to keep the Law) and the New Covenant, in which God puts His laws in our hearts, fulfills those laws in Christ on the cross, declares us righteous, and forgives us of all our sins, past, present and future.

Yes, the devil loves confusion.

So it’s no surprise (though a crying shame), that children of God think that God is angry at them when they fall short and sin. And otherwise fine Christians who mean well perpetuate this ridiculous notion, without one shred of support from the New Covenant scriptures!

And so Christians often run away from this angry God, instead of toward Him, when they fail. They won’t look Him in the face, because they think it’s a face of anger. What a tragedy.

This is not the place for an extended exegesis (“drawing out”) of the subject in the scriptures. But here’s a challenge for those who doubt what I’m saying: Search the epistles of the New Testament for any teaching that God is ever angry with His children.

By the way, don’t think the passages on God’s chastisement are regarding some kind of punishment out of anger. Study them closely, and you will see they involve loving gentle correction, from a loving Father, who just wants his kids to be in close fellowship with Him. No condemnation, no unforgiveness, no bitterness, no anger.

Like a daddy teaching his 1-year-old to walk, while the kid keeps wobbling, staggering, and falling…sometimes painfully in the wrong direction, but often into a laughing Daddy’s arms for a big hug.

Why Did God Mess Up Your Day?

The following is, of course, pure fiction, and even a little hokey (a little), but it is one of the most beautiful illustrations I’ve ever seen regarding…

1) how little we know what we really need;

2) how ignorant we are of the future — “like totally!”; and

3) how important it is to trust our loving Lord, to thank Him, and to not grumble and complain, in ALL circumstances.

It was written by that good ol’ writer Anonymous, but I would love to give credit to whomever actually originated it.

====================================

Me: God, can I ask You a question?

God: Sure.

Me: Promise You won’t get mad?

God: I promise.

Me: Why did You let so much stuff happen to me today?

God: What do you mean?

Me: Well, I woke up late.

God: Yes.

Me: My car took forever to start.

God: Okay.

Me: At lunch they made my sandwich wrong, and I had to wait.

God: Hmmm.

Me: On the way home, my phone went dead, just as I picked up a call.

God: All right.

Me: And to top it all off, when I got home, I just wanted to soak my feet in my new foot massager & relax, but it wouldn’t work! Nothing went right today! Why did You do that?

God: Let me see….the death angel was at your bed this morning and I had to send one of my angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that.

Me (humbled): Oh.

GOD: I didn’t let your car start because there was a drunk driver on your route that would have hit you if you were on the road.

Me: (ashamed)

God: The first person who made your sandwich today was sick, and I didn’t want you to catch what they have. I knew you couldn’t afford to miss work.

Me (embarrassed):Okay.

God: Your phone went dead because the person that was calling was going to give false witness about what you said on that call.  I didn’t even let you talk to them so you would be covered.

Me (softly): I see, God.

God: Oh, and that foot massager, it had a short that was going to knock out all of the power in your house tonight. I didn’t think you wanted to be in the dark.

Me: I’m sorry, God.

God: Don’t be sorry, just learn to trust Me — in all things.  The good and the bad.

Me: I will trust You.

God: And don’t doubt that my plan for your day is always better than your plan.

Me: I won’t, God. And let me just tell you God, thank you for everything today.

God: You’re welcome, child. It was just another day being your God and I love looking after my children…

The Law Of Sin And The Law Of God

I’ve heard many Christians over the years say that they, not Paul, were really the chief of sinners, which is a direct contradiction to the inspired word of God.

 

It seems like everybody wants to be a Chief (of sinners), but nobody wants to be an Indian (a saint)!

 

There is Pauline theology, and then there is “Christine” theology, that is “Christine O’Donnell theology”, which says “I am you!”

 

“I am you”, “Christine theology” works when speaking on a worldly level: “I’m an average American, and so are you.”

 

But “I am you”, “Christine theology”, doesn’t work when speaking on a spiritual level about Christians, once they are born again, and are new creations in Christ. Now it’s, “Praise God! I am no longer you!”

 

What I am in my new regenerate spirit is who I really am. When I sin, it is not me (that is, in my new spirit), it is “sin in me”, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 7:17:

 

“But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

 

And Romans 7:18 goes on to say, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells…”.

 

Someone may ask,

But certainly you are not suggesting that these things are no longer sins if we do them just because we are Christians?

 

It doesn’t mean that when I sin, it is not sin. It simply means that it is not me, but it is “sin in me”, in my flesh doing the sinning, and it is my flesh warring against the new me, warring against my new regenerate spirit. (Romans 7:17)

 

You ask, “How are we different from a murderer?”

 

We are different in our spirit.

 

To the extent that we acknowledge, understand, reckon, and appropriate our new identity in Christ as born again new creations, alive to God and dead to sin (Romans 6), and now saints, we will have the strength in our new spirit to walk by the spirit, as the Apostle Paul so often instructs us to do.

 

That’s the reason for making the distinction that “I am not a murderer”.

 

But to the extent that we instead focus on “our old man” who “was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with” (Romans 6:6), and call ourselves something that we are not, “sinners” (defined as one who practices sin as an ongoing lifestyle), to that extent we will live somewhat defeated lives, struggling with sin more than we should have to, like the double-minded man who is unstable in all his ways.

 

I know that I am not what I used to be before I was radically saved 31 years ago.

 

And the murderer, if he comes to know the Lord five minutes before he dies, like the thief on the cross, will find himself with Christ in great glory in Heaven.

 

And at that point, the point at which the murderer should trust in the Lord, I can then say that the murderer is now just like me.

 

You may ask,“When I sin, it is not me”?

 

So, then, what do we do with this verse in Romans 7:17?:

 

“But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

 

Paul clarifies it, to answer your question, with this next verse in Romans 7:18:

 

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells…”.

 

Paul is making a distinction between “I” (“the one who wills to do good” Rom.7:21) and “my flesh” (“in me, that is, in my flesh” Rom.7:18.)

 

You will say,

Paul later says: “So then, I *myself* serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

 

Exactly. “I *myself* serve the law of God with my mind…”

 

but

 

“…with *my flesh* I serve the law of sin.” (Rom.7:25)

 

Not only does Paul say, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in Romans 7:17, “But now it is *no longer I who do it*, but *sin* that dwells in me.”…

 

…but Paul goes on to say again in Romans 7:20:

 

“Now if I do what I will not to do, it is *no longer I who do it*, but *sin* that dwells in me.”

 

Now, there are two “I”‘s here:

 

1) “I do what I will not to do”

 

and

 

2) “it is no longer I who do it”

 

Go back to #1:

 

1) I (my flesh) do what I (“the one who wills to do good”) will not to do.

 

and

 

Go back to #2:

 

2) …it is no longer I (“the one who wills to do good”) who do it.

 

Then who, or what, “in the flesh” is doing the things I will not to do? (Rom.7:20)

 

Paul gives us the answer twice:

 

Romans 7:17 and 7:20 “…it is no longer I who do it, but *sin* that dwells in me.”

 

Paul then reveals to us some of the mystery behind this. He gives us the reason for this:

 

Romans 7:21, “I find then *a law*, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.”

 

And then Paul presents the conflict once again, of the “flesh warring against our mind”:

 

Romans 7:22, “For I delight in the law of God according to *the inward man*…”

 

Romans 7:23, “…BUT, I see *another law in my members*, warring against *the law of my mind*, and bringing me into captivity to *the law of sin which is in my members*.”

 

Paul then makes this conclusion in Romans 7:25:

 

“So then, *with the mind* I myself [my new regenerated self] serve the law of God, but *with the flesh* [still unchanged] the law of sin.”

 

So, as we see in Romans 7:23, there is a war between “the law of my mind” and “the law of sin which is in my members [my flesh]“.

 

There is a war between “I”, “the one who wills to do good” [the one whose spirit is regenerated], and “my flesh” [which is still as yet unchanged].

 

 

In Conclusion: The Law of Sin vs. The Law of God

 

1) The Law of Sin

 

Paul says in Rom.7:17,20 “sin…dwells in me”, and in Rom.7:18 “in my flesh, nothing good dwells”, and in Rom.7:21 “evil is present *with* me”.

 

Paul wraps it up by saying in Rom.7:25 “with the flesh [I serve] the law of sin.” (“I” in this verse does not refer to “the one who wills to do good” but to that part of me which is unchanged, unrenewed, unregenerated, that is, “my flesh”)

 

2) The Law of God

 

Paul says in Rom.7:12 “the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good”.

 

And he says in Rom.7:14 “the law [of God] is spiritual”.

 

In Rom.7:22, he says, “I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.” (“the inward man”, as opposed to “the [outward] flesh”)

 

And in Rom.7:23, Paul refers to “the law of my mind”.

 

Paul wraps it up in Rom.7:25 by saying, “with the mind I myself serve the law of God.”

 

As opposed to the flesh, which cannot be “renewed”, the Scriptures say that we can be “transformed by the renewing of our mind”. And it is with our mind that we “serve the law of God”.

 

It is with our flesh that we serve the law of sin. (Rom.7:25)