It is difficult to know who is and who is
not a charismatic these days. In fact, it seems to be quite the
theological novelty to call oneself charismatic. However, when one
person says he is “charismatic,” it may not mean what you think it means.
When I associate the term “charismatic”
with Christians, six primary things come to mind. Any or all of these could be
present in my thinking when I use the word:
1. Unusual attention given to the
empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer
2. The tendency to seek and expect
miraculous healings
3. The tendency to seek and expect God’s
direct communication (dreams, visions, experiences, personal encounters, etc.)
4. Unusual attention given to the
presence of demonic activity in the world
5. Very expressive worship
6. Belief in the continuation of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit
I am going to briefly explain each of
these. Please pay special attention to the graphs (Yes, my mind works in
graphs!) since I am going to attempt to show how, with all of these, the
designation “charismatic” works on a sliding scale. Here is the model:
Please notice that the scale is not black
and white (well, it is not red and white, but you know what I mean!). There is
a gradation shown here, indicating that one can be more or lesscharismatic,
depending on the issue in question. Better, I consider myself more or less
charismatic, depending on the issue. The line in the middle represents that
subjective place beyond which the designation “charismatic” is likely to be
made. I don’t always know where it is, but I think it is safe to say that the
line is there somewhere.
Below, I am going to briefly explain each
of these options by speaking to the extremes. Please humor me. I think I know where I am going.
1. Unusual
attention given to the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of
the believer
There are certain Christians who give unusual attention to the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.
Conversely, there are Christians who rarely, if ever, recognize the presence of
the Holy Spirit at all. For
those on the non-charismatic side of the scale, the Holy Trinity could best be
described as the Father, Son, and Holy Bible! For the charismatic, the
centrality of Christ’s person and work is replaced with the centrality of the
person and work of the Holy Spirit.
2. The
tendency to seek and expect miraculous healings
Many Christians believe that God’s
benevolent healing power is available for all who have enough faith. That would
be the far right extreme. Other Christians, on the far left, never hope in
God’s miraculous intervention in any way (Unfortunately, I tend to lean
toward the left).
3. The
tendency to seek and expect God’s direct communication (dreams, visions,
experiences, personal encounters, etc.)
Some people believe God communicates with
them directly. They have little use for the Bible, since from their perspective
God’s answers are available immediately upon request through direct means.
Every dream, vision, or unexplained sound is God trying to tell them something.
On the other hand, some believers do not seek God’s guidance in any way other than
through the Bible. These often misunderstand the idea of sola Scriptura to mean that the Bible is our onlyauthority and source for
guidance, not (as it should be understood) as our final and only infallibleauthority in
matters of faith.
4. Unusual
attention given to the presence of demonic activity in the world
There are those who believe that demons
are the cause of every problem we face. If someone is depressed, it is never
due to a chemical imbalance, but demonic oppression. If someone is sick,
medicine is not the answer, exorcism is. They have “deliverance ministries” in
which all problems (including being overweight!) are solved by finding and
breaking the demonic stronghold. On the other side of the fence are those who,
while maybe giving lip service to
spiritual warfare, don’t really engage in battle against the forces of darkness
in any way. In fact, they are quite embarrassed to acknowledge the reality of
Satan and his demons at all.
5.
Expressive worship
And, yes, there are the “expressive
worship” people. You know, the ones who not only raise and/or clap their hands
during worship, but weep, scream, dance, and sometimes go into convulsions
during their time of worship. And there are the others who lip-sync the songs,
have their hands in their pockets, and . . . wait . . . let’s get real: There
are those who “accidentally” show up twenty-five minutes late to the service
every week, just in time to catch the sermon and (oops!) miss worship time. The
latter is me.
6. Belief in
the continuation of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit
In the New Testament, we are told that
God has gifted the church and individuals with gifts (charisma) and offices that are for the mutual edification of the church.
On the far charismatic end of the scale, there are those who not only believe
that all gifts are still in operation, but whose life and ministry are centered
around the practice of the more extravagant gifts. For them, the gift of
tongues is a sign of maturity and the presence of the Spirit in their life. Every
church service is chaos, as people are uncontrollably “led by the Spirit” to
prophesy, speak in tongues, and/or pronounce a word of wisdom or knowledge. On
the non-charismatic end of the scale, we have those who don’t believe in the
gifts at all. Some believe that all gifts
of the Spirit ceased in the first century. Don’t believe me? Check it out for
yourself. I know of a very large network of churches which believes the gifts
of teaching, giving, evangelism, tongues, healing, prophecy, and every other
gift mentioned in the New Testament ceased in the first century. However, I
don’t want to limit this category to just those who build extreme cessationism
into their theology, because I would leave a lot of others out! While some
would never openly affirm this theological stance, practically speaking, they
might as well do so. In many churches, if you are not the pastor, an usher, or
on the worship team, there is no need for you in the church other than to fill
a seat Sunday morning and to pay your dues as the offering plate is passed
around. For these, the mass majority of Christians are non-essential,
non-contributing members of the body of Christ.
It should go without saying that
both extremes are not only unhealthy, but potentially destructive to the
body of Christ due to their imbalance. There is a healthy middle which
represents an orthodox position in all of these areas. Take a look at this
modified version of my chart.
In these types of discussions it is easy
to create a caricature of one side by immediately associating them with the
extremes of their positions. This is called a “straw man argument;” it is an
unfair assertion which honors neither the issue nor the people involved, much
less the Lord. Though I am not a charismatic, this does not mean that I am on
the far left. At least, I try not to be. Similarly, I suspect most charismatics
don’t want their perspectives to be caricatured with those on the far
right.
Concerning these six options, I propose
that a true charismatic in a theological sense is not necessarily one who holds
their hands high during worship. Neither is it accurately characterized as
someone who believes very strongly in the presence of demonic forces. In fact,
I believe that a real charismatic is associated with the sixth option alone,
believing that all (or at least most of) the gifts of the Spirit are still in
operation today and is personally seeking them.
However, with all six issues, I would say
that I am to the left of the charismatic line. On some, I am pretty far to the
left. On others, I hug the midline. For example, as I alluded to just a moment
ago, I am not expressive in my worship at all. Yet when it comes to the reality
of the presence and activity of Satan and his demons, I find myself moving
further and further to the right all the time. Because of this, and because the
line between being charismatic and non-charismatic is somewhat subjective, I
imagine in many people’s eyes I would be labeled charismatic with regard to the
issue of demonic activity. While I recognize that these issues are somewhat
connected, I am nevertheless persuaded that none of these, with the
exception of number six, is the final determinant of whether or not one is
truly a charismatic.
Gifts of the
Spirit across the Spectrum
Having laid some basic groundwork, here
are the four positions (generally speaking) that one can take with regard to the
charismatic issue:
1. Hard
Cessationist: The term “cessationist” is
taken from the word “cease.” The hard cessationist believes that particular
gifts, such as tongues, prophecy, miracles, healings, and the like, necessarily ceased in the
first century due to an exhaustion of purpose. The hard cessationist would
distinguish between what are called “sign gifts” and all other gifts. “Sign
gifts” are the gifts that are evidently miraculous, and therefore provide a
sign to the witnesses that the message of the one who performed these gifts was
truly from God. According to the hard cessationist, once the New Testament was
completed, there was no longer a need for these gifts to be given to the
church, since the Gospel message had been firmly established. They would be
considered “hard” cessationists, since they believe that both the Bible and
biblical theology necessitates their cessation.
2. Soft
Cessationist: The soft
cessationist would agree with most of the arguments of the hard
cessationist, except they would be open to God’s use of the sign gifts in areas
that are unevangelized. Therefore, the “ceasing” of the gifts has less to do
with the completion of the Bible and more to do with God’s
missional purpose. For the soft cessationist, it may very well be that God
continues to use these gifts to establish the Gospel message in areas of
the world that have yet to be penetrated with the Gospel. Once the Gospel is
established, the gifts would cease.
3.
Continuationist: The term “continuationist”
is taken from the word “continue.” Continuationists, simply put, believe that
all the gifts of the Spirit have continued throughout the church age. For the
continuationist, while many of these gifts would have indeed served as signs to
the outside world, their primary function is not to evangelize the lost, but to
ensure the health of the church. In other words, God gives them out of his
benevolence. The continuationist sees no biblical evidence that these
gifts would ever cease; on the contrary, he believes the Bible teaches that
these gifts are normative for the church age.
4.
Charismatic: Every charismatic is a
continuationist, but not every continuationist is a charismatic. I think this is an important
distinction to make. The charismatic would agree with all of the continuationist’s
positions; the primary difference is in their pursuit of all the
gifts for the church. I would like to propose this as a formal working
definition of a charismatic for our purposes:
A
charismatic is one who believes that all of the gifts of the Spirit have
continued, are normative, and should be sought out by the church.
The last phrase “and should be sought
out” is the key difference between a continuationist and a charismatic. In
other words, the theology of the charismatic is not simply a passive academic
argument, but one that should be practiced and affect the life of the church.
If you believe that all of the gifts have continued, but neither practice them
yourself nor belong to a church which seeks them, then you are not really
charismatic.
Here is what my chart would look like
now:
For the record, I think I would be best
placed somewhere between a soft cessationist and a continuationist, most
days leaning my back against the door of the soft cessationist. I don’t like
the word “ceased” with regard to the gifts (too definite) but I don’t like the
word “normative” either.
I hope that this helps a bit to
clarify what the word “charismatic” means in theological context. I think with
such a definition, it would be easier to tell who the real charismatics
are and who are just more charismatic than others.
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