So Many Charismatic Casualties (False Prophecies, Promised Healings That Never Came, etc.)

Have you been burned by a false prophecy? Did you lose your faith when a promised healing never came? Have you had it with flaky teaching in the name of "new revelation"? If so, you are not alone. There are more Charismatic casualties than many of us would care to admit.

But let me start here with an honest confession. My own experience in Pentecostal-Charismatic circles has been far more positive than negative. I have worked with the same leadership team for more than 20 years. I have had the privilege of serving with men and women of integrity all around the world – I'm talking about Pentecostal-Charismatic leaders around the globe.

I was saved in a Pentecostal church in 1971 and transformed by an outpouring of the Spirit in 1982. I was on the front lines of the Brownsville Revival from 1996-2000, and grads from our ministry school are bearing amazing fruit around the world. And while I have seen my share of scandals and false prophecies and leadership abuses and weirdness, it has been the exception far more than the rule.

Sadly, for many others, the opposite has proved true. For them, there is little or nothing good in the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement. They have been hurt or confused or abused, causing some to reject the move of the Spirit today and causing others to lose their faith entirely. My heart breaks over all these Charismatic casualties, and it is high time that we set our house in order.

I recently read a book critiquing the movement, and in my opinion, it was totally over the top in its criticisms.

Putting aside the scriptural errors I found in the book, it painted a terribly caricatured picture, one that was so exaggerated it was hardly recognizable to me. Yet as I read reviews to the book posted by readers, I saw that many of them were adding their hearty Amen. The picture it painted was all too familiar to them.

I'm aware, of course, that every church (or ministry or denomination or leader) has its critics. You can find horror stories everywhere, and if a church or ministry is big enough, you can find lots of negative reports from those who were allegedly burned by that church or ministry. But when you hear the same story over and over again from people from varied backgrounds, you know that something, somewhere is wrong.

When it comes to the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement, there is no shortage of amazing stories of what the Lord is doing in virtually every nation on the planet. This is truly a stunning, Jesus-exalting, multi-generational work of the Holy Spirit. I see no way to deny that for a split second.

Even more importantly, based on Scripture, I find it indisputable that the gifts and power of the Spirit are to continue in operation until Jesus returns.

But that doesn't minimize the damage that has been done in the name of the Spirit, and there are all too many casualties because of unchecked abuses. Out of love for the Lord and love for His people, we need to step higher.

Although my new book, "Playing with Holy Fire", just came out a few days ago, I'm already seeing a pattern in the reviews being posted by readers.

One reader wrote, "Dr. Michael Brown's very timely and balanced work really addressed where I am right now: disillusioned and heartbroken over the abuses of the contemporary church (this goes beyond the Charismatic/Pentecostal movement, though it is centered there). Furthermore, he encouraged my heart, showing me that I am not alone, and providing a Biblical way forward."

Another commented on Facebook that reading the book was bringing them healing from the negative experiences they had in our circles. Still another wrote, "As a former cessationist who was a cessationist BECAUSE of the abuse I saw happening in exercising the Holy Spirit's gifts, it concerns me too. Both because these abuses keep a very large section of the church away from desiring and pursuing something God wants them to have, but also because it harms our testimonies among unbelievers. This book will definitely be going to the top of my reading list!"

Other pastors and leaders are saying, "At last! These abuses needed to be addressed."

So, while I rejoice in what the Spirit is doing around the world, I grieve over the many who have been hurt and disillusioned because of human error and human sin and human carelessness. Truly, we have been given much by the Lord. And that means that much will be required of us.

May we walk worthy of the Holy Spirit's high calling. And may the name of Jesus be exalted, not tarnished, by our lives and ministries as Pentecostal and Charismatic believers.

Then they should be 'translated' the same way each time.
If they aren't; SOMEONE along the way is making a judgment call.

Sure. That's the unavoidable hazard of the person who must be either a translatong interpreter or an interpreting translator, It's not an eviable position in which the person who really seeks the Truth rther than personal fame finds him/herself.

The old missionary, Fred Wittman, has done exactly what you postulate as the way translation should be done. One volume of his translation of the New Testament has been published, "The Gospels: A Precise Translation" (click here), and it (the nicely bound APT volume) is free to you if you just notify the web site administrator. Its date of shipping depends on when the organization, Happy Heralds, Inc. receives the needed funds from its donors. Thousands of copies have been sent out from a debt-free site (Rom. 13:8; Matt. 0:8; Gen. 2:16; Rev. 22:17).

This volume has many helpful features. There is a glossary of the Greek words, an appendix that gives the chronology of Jesus' ministry, center columns on each page giving hints as to particular uses of the verbs and prepositions, a notation on each page giving the dates in which the action is taking place, etc.

Its underlying Greek Texts are the Scrivener's Textus Receptus and the more recent Robinson & Pierpont Byzantine/Majority Greek Text. As the author Robert Martin has pointed out, the reading is kind of wooden and harder to read for the beginner, but it is a great supplement to understanding troublesome passages of the KJV, for Bible students pastors, and missionaries.

Let me encourage you and everyone here to apply for a copy. Dr. Wittman is finishing the last touches of preparing the second volume of the remaining books of the New Testament. But he is getting pretty old, his wife just died a few months ago, and his health is failing. Y'all could pray for him and his work. He is a servant of God who has been working for the Lord faithfully every day since his youth, with an amazing body of publications. He himself deliberately has no presence on the internet, not even email, and thus has never had any viruses to make his old Windows 3.11 operating system stumble. But his creation Happy Heralds, Inc. does, and is daily overseen by a webmaster, who is also the president of the corporation.

But, contrary to your hypothesis, the translation of the Greek is context-sensitive as is every human language. And you, even if you used only one language with which to communicate, experientially do the same when your alter ego silently in your cranium renders the words you hear or read to have the sense to your inner being of what the person communicating to you seems to be projecting. In fact, one of the quirks of your FR responses is that you seek other meanings for what a commenter writes, sometimes to his/her dismay, or to portray one's vagaries. But the APT very intentionally tries to use the words repeatedly in exactly the same sense that you seem to think they ought to. I use this volume to help me stay consistent and true to what the Spirit says in the Inspired Word when I see that a particular version fails. Note that the Wittman rendering calls itself A Precise Translation, not The Precise Translation.

It is of note that, despite what you have suggested here, your handling of the Bible tends to go the other way, by using versions that are not designed to be literally consistent.

FWIW.

Not pejorative or condemning, just an informed observation.
Respectfully . . . imardmd1

Good question, and I'm quite willing to answer it.

I be betweeen #2 and #3, but Hodges and his "Free Grace" theological platform (or lack of it) is not my cup of tea. His co-authpr of the Majority Text, Art Farstad, is more of the mindset I might get along with, if he'd let me. I've heard that he can be quite aloof. Farstad played a pretty big role in developing the (so-called) "New" King James Version. But by all means, don't think that is interchangeable with the AV. It is not, IMHO.

I will continue to use the KJV/AV as my document for daily reading, study, and memorization, and the TR and Robinson/Pierpont Byzantine Majority as the preferred resources for the Greek. Also, I use the free e-Sword Bible software almost daily.

I don't believe I carry the ruined virus yet. A lot of self-appointed authorities do. I just go on what I've been taught from several different capable pastors and disciplers, who seem to me to be in pretty good standing with the Holy Ghost in their teaching and life-style. If I want to know someone who has reflected holy light through most of his life, I look at my son. He's ten times (or more) of a right-headed, right-hearted Christian man than I've ever been or ever will be. As were my Dad and my grandpas.

As far as quarrelling about words, it's OK to take a firm stance on translating nethod and stick to it. Nor is it wrong to have exchanges about what a Greek or Hebrew passage means in another language. That's not quite the same as telling the Holy Ghost that He chose the wrong words to express Himself.

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