Pentecostal Overreaction and the Charisma of God

Those who claim to have the Spirit on speed dial promise you everything and leave you with nothing.

A lot of our theology is done in reaction to other theologies. With few exceptions, everyone who has come to Providence over the years comes from a different tradition than what we have in the CREC. And you are here in response to another tradition. You may be here because of the liberalism in your former church or their nonchalant responses to political tyranny, or because they were making subtle biblical compromises, or they were not providing the encouragement you needed to raise your children in the Lord. Or perhaps you went through a powerful reformation of your own thinking theologically, and here you are. For example, some of you grew up in charismatic churches, and your outlook has changed dramatically. The word-of-faith leaders added confusion among the people. This is not the same in all Charismatic or Pentecostal churches, but this is what many people see from the outside.

Charismatic Reactionaries

In our day, religious charlatans roam the earth speaking through a TV screen proclaiming to have a daily interview with the Holy Ghost and promising you all the riches the world can muster. And if only for $19.99 you buy a handkerchief dipped in the seawater of the Red Sea, all your deepest woes will go away. After all, the Spirit anointed this cloth.

Those who claim to have the Spirit on speed dial promise you everything and leave you with nothing. The charismatic church remains the fastest-growing church in the world and has grown the fastest in my home country of Brazil. Now, why are they so popular? Part of it is the appeal of riches to very poor areas of the world, their media ministry, which takes most of the Protestant TV slots in the country; part of it is the spontaneity and freedom of worship, the revivals, dancing, and the over-caffeinated preachers. But what unites Charismatics and Pentecostals is their view of the Holy Spirit. In classic Charismatic tradition, the Holy Spirit becomes an ever-present power doing the miraculous and mysterious all the time. He operates through the charisma-- the gifts-- of tongues, healing, or prophecies. Again, many who come from that environment to the Reformed world are reacting to a particular understanding of the Holy Spirit and how he operates in history.

Before moving on, let me say it is human nature to react, but it is unwise to live in constant reaction-mode. I don't want you to change overnight if you come to Providence from a different background. Because if you change overnight, you are going to change overnight. You will have a collection of theologies and a collection of churches, which are all very different from a collection of stamps. If you live in overreaction mode, you will take everyone around you on an emotional rollercoaster; if you are always doubting whether you made the right decision, you will never enjoy your current decision. So, regarding these ecclesiastical and theological issues, stability is good.

So, there is a danger of overreaction. This means that when we see things done poorly elsewhere or in our own religious background, we are tempted to think that nothing good ever came from that. This applies if you come from fundamentalism, charismatic, or whatever other tradition. But if you think that, you are not being discerning. Maturity is looking to the past and seeing God’s providence through the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s not just beating your past into submission; it’s submitting yourself to God’s care of you in your past, present, and future. Your history will make you a better member of Providence, but if you live in overreaction mode, this may be just a quick pitstop before the next squirrel or light you see.

Pentecost Defined

I already gave an indication of this; the reason I used the Charismatic example is because today is Pentecost Sunday. And if ever there was an event in the pages of Biblical history that is deeply charismatic, it’s the event called Pentecost in Acts 2.

Pentecost means “fiftieth” because it comes 50 days after Passover, or we might say, Easter Sunday. Pentecost was prefigured all through the Old Testament. The early followers of Jesus would have understood Pentecost as an event that drew its significance from the Feasts, leading to this fiery moment of redemptive history in the first century. The Great Harvest Feast is being fulfilled, and God is harvesting the nations. Christ is sitting at the Father’s right hand, and the nations are being given to Jesus Christ as an inheritance (Ps. 110).

So, Pentecost is deeply charismatic. We might say that Pentecost is the Father’s charisma to the Church. The word “charisma” means gift. When Jesus ascended, the Father gave the Spirit as a gift to the Church.

The Holy Spirit is God's charisma to us. When we see abuses of his work, we tend to overreact and treat the Spirit as a tertiary prize. He is not as important as the Father and the Son, and we don’t want those charismatics to lead us astray, so we will only talk about him if necessary to maintain our creedal bona fides and Trinitarian library cards.

The Caution of Overreaction

But that is a horrible response. Remember Luther’s dictum: “The abuse of something is not an argument against its proper use.”  We don’t want to miss the privilege of talking to God because, after all, the Spirit is God. The Third Person of the Godhead was there in creation (Gen. 1:2), and he has the attributes of God (I Cor. 2:10-22; Eph. 4:30; Rom. 15:13). He is everywhere, all-knowing, and all-powerful. He is worshiped and adored (Acts 15:28; I Peter 1:2); you are incorporated into the church by being baptized into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; the Church has affirmed that in our creeds and our fathers in the faith.

We need a return to a Spirit-led faith and a sense of mission that relies heavily on the power of the Spirit to move us to serve, worship, and grow in the Church.

There are many reasons to worship the Holy Spirit as God, but one of the crucial roles of the Spirit in history is to expand the promises of the Father and the Son to the ends of the earth. As Calvin said, the Spirit is the fountain of life in creation. He moves where he wishes. And this is what is new after Jesus ascended. He sent the Spirit so that we would never be distant from Jesus. Jesus is in heaven, but by his Spirit, he is always with us. Jesus is ruling and reigning by his Spirit. So, you see, the Persons of the Godhead can never be ultimately separated. They work together in perfect harmony and perfect grace; never against one another, but always for Each other.

The Spirit’s Role in Expanding the Promises of the Father Through the Son

The Holy Spirit is given on the day of Pentecost to enlarge the promises and to universalize God’s word and mission. That’s why the gift of tongues in Acts 2 are gifts of understanding. It’s a sign that the Gospel is going to the ends of the earth: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Cappadocians, Egyptians, and more will now know God through his word in their own tongue. Why? Because the Spirit will use those whom he dwells to proclaim this word far and wide to the four corners of the earth. If we overreact to modern abuses of the Spirit, which are found in various places, we will miss the breadth and depth of the Gospel proclamation. You will also fail to see how the work of the Spirit is fundamental for the expansion of the Gospel in the baptism of the nations. That’s why one of the first great deeds of Acts 2 is the baptism of 3,000 people. Pentecost indicates that anyone who is baptized is set on fire. On Pentecost, water and fire come together. Among the many reasons we baptize by pouring water is because that’s how the Holy Spirit enters the scene on Pentecost. Acts 2:33 says that Jesus is exalted, and the Spirit is poured out on us. Every baptized Christian is emblazoned, enflamed with power from on high. We can’t minimize the Spirit because the Spirit indwells us; he is our life and light; our source of blessing and our security.

So, how do we continue to build on this Spirit-led faith without diminishing the role of the Spirit in our lives and in the Church?

A Pentecostal Life

First and foremost, we don’t separate the Spirit from our theology. We cannot give it little room because we witnessed abuses. This means we must bring the Spirit into our conversations, especially our prayers. John 16 says that the Spirit is our advocate; he is the Spirit of truth. If we forget the Spirit in our prayers, we are forgetting God. We are acting as if the Spirit is not engaged in our daily struggles or the life of the Church or the expansion of God’s blessings to the nations. How often is the Spirit absent in our petitions? If he goes wherever he wishes and proceeds from the Father and the Son, then there is no separation among Persons. We should not fear praying in the Spirit and by the Spirit to change our hearts and our circumstances, improve our baptisms, conform ourselves to Jesus, and give us stability in life and wisdom. These are all Spirit requests that we make unto God.

Secondly, we must be cautious about the ever-present temptation to conform to the newest thing. “Oh, look, honey, some kids on the internet have formed a new movement. That sounds fun!” “Oh, look, that church has a new pastor; let’s go there.” “Oh, let’s change our whole lives because I read this in a book.” These are all vanity of vanities, says the preacher. What the Church needs is not the spirit of the age, but the Spirit who guides the ages. What homes need are stable men, not men seeking the newest trend, but men who know their place and do the ordinary task of service and the ordinary task of leading their families. I am not saying there isn’t a time to change, but I am saying that when change is your currency, your bank account (namely, your home) will suffer and may go bankrupt.

Finally, some abuses in the charismatic world have led many to overreact. So, instead of an emotionally charged life where everything is led by my feelings or experiences of the Spirit, some in our Reformed world abandon the role of emotions/passions in our lives. We live somberly, treating worship and life like a funeral service instead of a liturgy to the living God. The Christian faith is Hebraic and, therefore, deeply emotional. We shouldn’t deny these things. C.S. Lewis noted that we should not minimize the importance of emotions in our lives. But he adds an interesting note. Lewis says we “should accept these sensations with thankfulness as birthday cards from God.” But he says that “they are only greetings, not the real gift.” What’s the real gift? The Holy Spirit. Your feelings are great responses. But don’t trust them as if the feelings are equivalent to the Holy Spirit or the work of the Spirit. You never truly know where your emotions come from. Some of it may have come from overeating the night before. You may feel something that the Spirit of God will hate. So, don’t negate your feelings, but be cautious about treating them as confirmations of the Spirit. You need to test the spirits of your feelings to see if they are from God.

Don’t overreact to whatever you experienced in your past, but trust the Spirit of God in your prayers, trust the Spirit of God to give you stability of mind, soul, and strength, and trust the Spirit of God to provide you with feelings that will reward your faithfulness, as opposed to treating them as signs of faithfulness.

Pentecost is God’s charisma of the Spirit to us. We are a Pentecostal people. The Holy Spirit is the Lord and giver of life. He moderates our responses and keeps us in perfect peace. Believe in his work and trust in his power.