The Charismatic Legacy
Nov 6, 2017 10:49:29 GMT -6
Post by Todd on Nov 6, 2017 10:49:29 GMT -6
One charismatic preacher, many years ago, claimed something to the effect that “the man with knowledge has nothing on the man with an experience.” What tripe.
There is a perfectly good realm where experience is of tremendous importance. But it is largely derivative and dependent on knowledge. If your experience is to mean anything at all, it will be judged against standards that are the result of knowledge. Ask any doctor, detective, or investment broker. Ask any auto mechanic. Knowledge is the highway along which experience must travel, just as knowledge, in order to truly be knowledge and not superstition, must be verified by experience.
This brings us back to the charismatic preacher. For the experience of charismania did not travel the highway of knowledge, but of emotion. Biblical knowledge cannot be confirmed by charismania in any of its many forms but ends in confusion and a proliferation of discordant experiences and expectations. We see this in evidence, for example, when we pray to the Holy Spirit despite Biblical examples to the contrary. Jesus never prayed to the Holy Spirit. Nor did the apostles or anyone else until the charismatic reworking of the church began in the early twentieth century. This is”knowledge” that is really nothing more than superstition (or at best, theology) failing to be verified in practice. But it continues in our practice because it is what we want to do. This is not knowledge, but fleshly willfulness. It is the democratic principle (or democratic hermeneutics) at work.
Indeed, the modern “democratic” fall of the church (at least in America) is seen in our having canonized our experience, expectations, and dictates above the Bible itself. We may not speak in tongues, but our preferences in church music, homiletic strategy, and missionary vision all reflect our desire to do what we feel like doing. In music, for instance, relatively few churches today sing the old hymns. Instead, most of our songs are about what “happy campers” we are. We should confine such songs to camp, and hay-rides. But in worship, (a term the meaning of which we have forgotten) we should sing songs that reflect and produce the same mood that characterizes worship.
In homiletic strategy, we should quit tying sermon topics to anticipated outcomes, preach the whole Bible, and let God take care of the results. We should be utterly unafraid in doing so. We are so concerned with “church growth,” by which we mean ever-increasing numbers of pew-sitters, that we have forgotten that church growth has nothing to do with numbers and everything to do with increasing the spiritual understanding of Christians.
In missionary activity, we should focus on Biblical precepts. We should encourage the people to practice Biblical behavior individually first and corporately second. But corporate involvement should not result in “being unequally yoked” with Worldly agencies. The church must never place itself on a spectrum that includes the non-Christian in its goals, means, or methods. To do so merely confuses the onlookers.
- Todd
There is a perfectly good realm where experience is of tremendous importance. But it is largely derivative and dependent on knowledge. If your experience is to mean anything at all, it will be judged against standards that are the result of knowledge. Ask any doctor, detective, or investment broker. Ask any auto mechanic. Knowledge is the highway along which experience must travel, just as knowledge, in order to truly be knowledge and not superstition, must be verified by experience.
This brings us back to the charismatic preacher. For the experience of charismania did not travel the highway of knowledge, but of emotion. Biblical knowledge cannot be confirmed by charismania in any of its many forms but ends in confusion and a proliferation of discordant experiences and expectations. We see this in evidence, for example, when we pray to the Holy Spirit despite Biblical examples to the contrary. Jesus never prayed to the Holy Spirit. Nor did the apostles or anyone else until the charismatic reworking of the church began in the early twentieth century. This is”knowledge” that is really nothing more than superstition (or at best, theology) failing to be verified in practice. But it continues in our practice because it is what we want to do. This is not knowledge, but fleshly willfulness. It is the democratic principle (or democratic hermeneutics) at work.
Indeed, the modern “democratic” fall of the church (at least in America) is seen in our having canonized our experience, expectations, and dictates above the Bible itself. We may not speak in tongues, but our preferences in church music, homiletic strategy, and missionary vision all reflect our desire to do what we feel like doing. In music, for instance, relatively few churches today sing the old hymns. Instead, most of our songs are about what “happy campers” we are. We should confine such songs to camp, and hay-rides. But in worship, (a term the meaning of which we have forgotten) we should sing songs that reflect and produce the same mood that characterizes worship.
In homiletic strategy, we should quit tying sermon topics to anticipated outcomes, preach the whole Bible, and let God take care of the results. We should be utterly unafraid in doing so. We are so concerned with “church growth,” by which we mean ever-increasing numbers of pew-sitters, that we have forgotten that church growth has nothing to do with numbers and everything to do with increasing the spiritual understanding of Christians.
In missionary activity, we should focus on Biblical precepts. We should encourage the people to practice Biblical behavior individually first and corporately second. But corporate involvement should not result in “being unequally yoked” with Worldly agencies. The church must never place itself on a spectrum that includes the non-Christian in its goals, means, or methods. To do so merely confuses the onlookers.
- Todd