Dirty Linen?
Some people feel very strongly that I am wrong to criticize the Charismatic Movement, especially in a public forum like the Internet. Surely there are more important targets to go for or other issues that need tackling, rather than washing Christian linen in public?

In response I want to make clear that I am criticizing Charismatic theology not Charismatic phenomena. I occasionally pray in tongues myself and I am happy for other people to do so provided they stick to the guidelines in 1 Corinthians 14. My problem is with the teaching that there is a ‘Second (or third, fourth, etc.) Blessing’ of the Holy Spirit bringing about a new level of spiritual effectiveness not obtained through ‘mere faith’ in the gospel.

It seems to me that Paul took this very seriously when he wrote to the Galatians. He believed in the sufficiency of the gospel and insisted that if he ever changed even his own tune on this they were to kick him out. So my reasons for criticizing the Charismatic Movement may be summarized as follows:

• Charismatic theology detracts from the power of the gospel so that the subsequent ‘work of the Spirit’ gets the main emphasis.
• Charismatic theology takes away the confidence ordinary Christians have in what God has done for and in them and leaves them uncertain and ineffective.
• Charismatic theology has spread throughout the whole church and needs to be addressed and answered.
• Charismatic theology never delivers as much as it promises so that believers are always running dry spiritually and looking for the next ‘wave’ or ‘movement’.

• “it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith” (Romans 1:16, RSV).
• “the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph 3:6, RSV).
• “our Saviour Christ Jesus ... abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:10, RSV).

As soon as you teach another message, about the Holy Spirit, as the key to spiritual effectiveness for Christians, you take away from the power of this gospel. And to do that is in fact to preach what Paul calls “another gospel” (Galatians 1:6-7). We shouldn’t do it! And if we have been doing it, we should repent and stop doing it.

Preach the gospel and people will experience the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit as they learn it and apply it to their lives.

The Confidence of Christians
If you are an honest person, then as soon as someone says “Not all Christians are filled with the Spirit” you will ask “Does this mean me?” And your awareness of your own sinfulness will immediately convince you it probably does! (In fact, someone who is filled with the Spirit would probably say, with the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 1:15, “I am the foremost of sinners”. The last thing they would say is “I am filled with the Spirit”!)

If you can then be persuaded that being filled or baptized with the Spirit is always something that you will know about when it happens and yet nothing happens you will inevitably go into a downward spiral of spiritual depression. Read what David C K Watson, himself a Charismatic, wrote about his seeking to be filled with the Spirit:
 

“[...] for a period of three of four months, I was in some distress and agony, longing to know the power of the Holy Spirit and to be more effective in my ministry.” [Notice how Watson makes the connection between a distinct experience of being ‘filled with the Spirit’ and power for effective Christian living.] “I read stories of revival, how the Spirit would come down and a person would be thrown to the ground by the power of the Spirit, or suddenly in the middle of the night he would leap out of bed and shout ‘Hallelujah!’ for hours. Well, I was waiting for something to happen ...” (God’s Freedom Fighters [Croydon: Movement Books, 1972, p92])

“Eventually God opened my eyes and gave me the gift of faith to believe the promise I had known so well - the promise of Jesus in Luke 11.13: ‘How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’ I said, ‘Lord, I believe now ...’ and as I started to praise Him I had a most wonderful, quiet sense of joy and peace in the Lord.” (Ibid. p 101).

Charismatic teaching creates anxious Christians. Gospel teaching creates confident Christians - confident not in what they are, but in what God has done for them.

A Widespread Movement
The Charismatic Movement has affected all denominations worldwide. In many cases it is a Charismatic culture which has been adopted, not a Charismatic theology. The people who sing Charismatic songs and adopt Charismatic attitudes often have no grasp of ‘Second Blessing’ teaching. And the Charismatic movement actually started by asking the right questions: “Is it necessarily the case that God no longer does miracles, or gives supernatural manifestations of his Spirit to the church?” Unfortunately, the Charismatic Movement came up with the wrong answers. The result has been the spread of a teaching which, the clearer it becomes, the more definitely it undermines the gospel and saps the confidence of ordinary Christians.

The main reason for my criticizing this movement is to clarify the issues so that people can see Charismatic theology for the mistake that it is and return to a gospel centred spirituality. This does not mean jettisoning a belief in miracles. It just means accepting what the Bible says - that the centre of Christianity is Christ on the Cross. This is the gospel, and preaching this message is the key to bringing people into an encounter with God’s Spirit and his power.

Prone to Dryness
One of the remarkable things about the recent ‘Toronto Blessing’ was the number of Charismatic leaders who admitted to ‘spiritual dryness’ once they had found an answer to it.

One of the things you need in order to understand the Charismatic Movement is a long memory. Mine goes back twenty-five years! In the seventies we were promised that ‘speaking in tongues’ was the key to personal and corporate spiritual renewal brought by being baptized in the Spirit. Later, the emphasis moved to healing as the key with tongues being secondary. After that, ‘words of knowledge’ became the focus of interest. Later still, in the early eighties, it was ‘dancing before the Lord’ which would kick-start spiritual renewal. Then, in the mid-eighties, John Wimber brought ‘Third Wave’ spirituality to revive the Movement and in the late eighties he himself introduced the ‘Kansas City Prophets’ with the usual spate of new books in attendance. Unfortunately, the prophecies (e.g. of a Europe-wide revival beginning in London at the end of the decade) failed to materialize. Then one of the ‘Prophets’ was found to have been using his position to gain sexual favours from women in the congregation, so they quietly drifted from the scene. But just as all seemed lost, out of the Vineyard stable came the ‘Toronto Blessing’! Only later did people realize that the true origin of this was in the ministry of Rodney Howard-Browne, associated with Kenneth Hagin’s ’Word Faith’ movement - something which most mainstream denominations would not previously have touched with a barge-pole. But by this stage it was too late - people had bought the package.

Yet where is the ‘Toronto Blessing’ today? Hasn’t everyone been there, done it, worn the tee-shirt and sent the card? But have the churches been revolutionized? Have the millions been converted? I don’t think so - but don’t worry. Charismatic Celtic Spirituality (Rodney Howard-Browne in a kilt?) is coming to the rescue. And so it goes on. But people don’t notice, because keen Charismatics are usually young Christians, and young Christians have short memories.

A Final Plea
I used to be a Charismatic. But I gave it up in the early eighties because I was spiritually exhausted by the Charismatic Movement’s constant failure to deliver on its promises. Fortunately, I didn’t give up being a Christian, or become a ‘post-evangelical’. Instead, I rediscovered my faith in God’s word and the power and sufficiency of the gospel. The road to recovery was long and slow. It is only fairly recently that I’ve been able to understand exactly where Charismatic theology is wrong. But now I want to turn back the tide that I believe is actually drowning the church. If you’ve been stimulated by reading this, my plea is that you think about it, study the scriptures and see whether what I’ve said is true. Obviously I think it is - and I have found it liberating to realize this! I hope more people will find the same.

John Richardson
March 1997
 

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Last updated 22 November 1997