And yet I’ve met many godly, sane men and women in the Charismatic Movement. Not fakes, but real believers who did not seek signs and did love. Talk about believing through prayer!
“The Lord knows those who are his.”
The commonality with these fake religions is three things...They claim their authority comes from outside of the scriptures and they want your money and they pervert the scriptures to convince you...
That strategy has worked for so long in the Catholic religion it stands to reason Satan would use those same tactics on those who refuse to become Catholic...
And the sad thing is the things those people preach sounds good...They can back themselves up with a little bit of scripture (taken way out of context)...
Like Creflo Dollar there...We are all little 'gods'...If a person doesn't spend much time in the scriptures it would be easy to believe that and fall into one of these cults...I know...That's how I started...I started out with an Apostolic church...Fortunately for me, I started reading the bible at the same time...After six months, I couldn't hang around there any longer...
I believe many of the people in the Charismatic churches are saved but they are being scammed and these leaders are making it more difficult to get saved than Jesus intended...
The aberration of the so-called (because they evidence little faith for finances) "Word of Faith" movements are grievous, as i myself document regarding Benny Hinn. However, the "Strange Fire" is an unbalanced cessationist critique that puts much of Acts in a museum and attacks Pentecostalism itself by magnifying the aberrations, and validates nothing in it.
My position has been and is, that even if i saw no evidence of the gifts at issue mentioned in 1Cor. 12, and only fabrications (and which do abound), yet i would still have to allow for the gift as there is no real case for cessationism.
I heard Phillip Johnson from the Strange Fire conferrer attempt one argument against cessationism. today on Grace to You, and his conclusion was absurd. His main case was that we see a decreasing occurrence of miracles as time goes on in the NT, and Paul told Timothy to take wine for his infirmities, and Paul left Trophimus sick, which evidences these gifts were temporary.
Yet even in the last chapter of Acts Paul is doing miracles, and which was just after he had a visit from the angel of the Lord. And the reason we see less miracles mentioned in the latter chapters of Acts is because the narrative changes, as after Paul raises dead Eutychus in chapter 20, soon he is on his way to prison and no longer doing public ministry.
As for Timothy and Eutychus, this simply refutes the "word of faith" theology that holds that it is always God's will to heal, at least supernaturall thru human agency, which is the opposite extreme of cessationism.
Others argue that the "perfect" in 1Cor. 13 is the completed canon, and that the "perfect" is in the neuter so it cannot be the Lord Jesus. However, the characteristics that are realized at the coming of that which is perfect do not correspond to the what we see with the finished canon, as we still see through a glass, darkly; not face to face, and do not "know even as also I am known." (1 Corinthians 13:12) The problem here is not really with transmission, but the reception.
Yet, when t"hat which is perfect is come," that being the perfect revelation of Jesus Christ at His coming, then we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2) Then shall i "know even as also I am known." "Face to face with God my Savior" as the hymn goes. Glory to Him.
The problem here is balance, and the Lord hates a false one. God does not change, and the Christian faith began with an itinerant Preacher who was rejected by those who sat in the seat of Moses (who demanded, "who gave you this authority.." (Mk. 11:27-33), but who established His truth claims upon Scriptural substantiation in word and in power.
And this includes miracles, and the Lord promised His followers would manifest such, thus we have the book of Acts, and God never said or inferred He was going to take a sabbatical rest afterward. Even though we have a complete canon, it tells of a God who ministers grace thru men, and in the light of attacks on the credibility of the Christian faith and Scripture, miracles, primarily the new birth, but more, are a level of grace which is needed now as before, and testify that we are the church of the living God.
Yet cessationists seek to negate miracles thru men by setting the bar so high that even miracles in Scripture would be disallowed. The premise for this cessationism is that we see fraud, however the Scriptural response in the face of such is to overcome evil with Good. Moses first 3 miracles were duplicated by the devil, but God's response to was not to become a safe but sterile cessationists but to out do them.
And the fact is that today the devil is going to continue to do supernatural signs, and the response is not to simply argue texts, but to manifest who the living God is, in purity, passion and power. Thus rather than limiting the Holy One of Israel by giving His a sabbatical and putting much of Acts in a museum, or allowing false teaches to go uncensored, we need to consecrates ourselves to Christ, and seek God to do as He ever did, as in the early church,
And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. (Acts 4:29-30)
Now comes the confession that i can hardly describe myself as one who acts much like a Pentecostal in the positive sense, to my shame, but i know from Scripture and experience that the gifts such as healing have not ceased, as God changes not.
Forgot to add, i thing this reformed blog provides a fairly objective analysis of each side: http://triablogue.blogspot.com/search/label/cessationism
Good Night the woman has been confined to a wheelchair since she was 16 or 17 and is now in her 60's. She had to deal with the name it claim it prosperity crowd early on. Like the ones who say your lack of faith prevents your healing etc. She does not endorse such teaching. I know the type very well as I've had to undo their cruelly inflicted damage before. Joni is a very grounded down to earth person with a long time ministry to those with disabilities. Her ministry is a Godsend to many. She has touched many, many, lives.