A Call to Consider the Strange Fire Conference

Last week in Sun Valley, California Grace Community Church hosted the Strange Fire conference, the latest iteration of the Truth Matters conference, which is kind of a Shepherds’ Conference light, aimed at lay men and women rather than at pastors and elders.  And in case you missed it and the ensuing kerfuffle, the focus of this conference was the dangers posed by and the errors pervasive in the charismatic movement.  (In the interest of full disclosure, I am a confirmed cessationist, you can read why here.)

Now whether you are a confirmed cessationist, or even more so if you are a confirmed continuationist (or even a full on tongue speaking Pentecostal) I firmly believe that you should take the time to listen to the conference audio and consider the teaching and evaluate it in the light of Scripture.  Let me give you a few reasons why.

1.    Although it seems to be very unpopular to say so, even in the evangelical world, someone is wrong about the gifts and being wrong has consequences.  Either cessationists are wrong, and their denial of the miraculous gifts is seriously hindering their Christian lives, or charismatics/continuationists are wrong and they are introducing (and fostering) dangerous errors into the church.  This is an either/or issue not a both/and.  One group is right and one group is wrong.  Period.  And believers should want to be right, there is nothing godly in not caring about truth.  (There is a very helpful post from the Gospel Coalition here.)

2.    Unity is not the supreme Christian virtue.  Jesus never said the He came to bring unity,in fact He said He would be divisive.  Having a conference to take issue with what a church and many faithful scholars and pastors see as a threat to the people of God and the gospel is not inherently wrong or unloving as many have complained.  What if Peter, in the name of unity above truth, stopped preaching Christ when so ordered by the Sanhedrin?  What if Luther burned his 95 Theses instead of nailing it to the church door at Wittenberg?  What if he recanted instead of declaring “here I stand”?

3.    It was not just John MacArthur, and the staff of Grace Community Church speaking at the conference.  It has become popular in many corners of the reformed world to criticize John MacArthur, and even to begin referring to him as a Fundamentalist (which he is not, in the capital F sense, although he certainly and unapologetically affirms the fundamentals of the faith).  But it wasn’t just him speaking, he was joined by Joni Eareckson Tada, R.C. Sproul (via video, despite his failing health), Steve Lawson, Conrad M’bewe and others.  Although he is the lightning rod, John MacArthur is not alone among the giants of the faith in feeling that this conference was necessary. 

4.    The theological fringe is the mainstream of the charismatic movement.  Although the criticism has been leveled that the abuses that were the focus of much of the conference represent the fringe extreme of the movement they really don’t.  Try this little experiment, go to your local mass market Christian bookstore, don’t ask for help and begin wandering around.  Do you see more Joyce Meyer or Wayne Grudem Books?  C.J. Mahaney or T.D. Jakes?  D.A. Carson or Joel Osteen?  Flip through the channels on T.V., who do you see first, Pat Robertson or John Piper?  Benny Hinn or Mark Driscoll (there is a must read take on Driscoll’s impromptu appearance at the conference here)?  

For these reasons and more, the issues raised at the Strange Fire conference bear serious consideration, no matter where you personally are regarding the sign gifts.  I urge you to take these issue seriously, they are not minor, and be willing to submit yourself to the authority of Scripture and consider that you might be wrong.

Has John Piper Jumped the Shark?

            I have spent a lot of my time recently listening to bad preaching, in fact I have been spending a good chunk of time listening to false teaching.  Not because I am buying it, but because I am preaching through the book of Colossians and have come to Chapter 2 and Paul’s response to what theologians call the Colossian Heresy.  And while the exact nature of that heresy has been lost in the mists of history, there are several elements of it preserved in Paul’s response to it. 

Sadly they all are still with us and have infected large segments of the professing church.  Legalism – check, calls for asceticism – check, unhealthy obsession with angelic/demonic beings – check, sensuality of mind – check, being puffed up and  going on in detail about “visions” – double check.

Which brings be back to why I have been listening to so much false teaching lately, I want to get a taste of how bad it really is out here, and unfortunately it is pretty bad.  Just walk down the aisles of your local mass market Christian book Store or peruse youtube and you will find that every aspect of the Colossian heresy on prominent display.  I wanted to see and hear just how bad it is, and that is how I Ran across this “testimony” from Kim Walker – Smith, the lead singer of a band called “Jesus Culture.” 

 If you don’t want to waste the time to sit through the video, let me summarize it for you.  She sees “Jesus” who has stretch Armstrong like super powers and uses them to show her that he (the lack of capitalization is purposeful, whatever she may have seen/imagined it wasn’t the Jesus of the bible) loves her "this much".  Then she has another vision where she not only sees Jesus, she also sees the father who reaches into his chest and tears a piece of his heart out Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom style.  She also canoodles with her vision of Christ and both the father and son of her visions apparently have the habit of bursting into maniacal laughter.  To call it crazy and heretical would be an insult to crazy heretics the world over.

The video itself wasn’t that shocking, after all Jesus Culture is from the heretical Bethel Church in Redding California, where students of the church’s School of Supernatural Ministry are promised that they will receive no instruction from professors or trained theologians (or anyone else who might point out the gross heresy, different gospel, and cult like control exercised at Bethel) but only from Apostles and prophets.  (And I am guessing not in the form of study of the inspired scriptures written through the Apostles and the prophets, but I digress.)

What I did find somewhat surprising was that Jesus Culture was invited to be one of the featured worship bands at the Passion 2013 conference, an ostensibly “mainstream” conference for evangelical young adults held last week in Atlanta, with as many as 60,000 in attendance.   But in the grand scheme of things even this is really not that surprising, given the willful lack of discernment in the broader “evangelical” world of 21^st century America.

But what I did find absolutely flabbergasting and shocking was that my wife interrupted my rant about how any youth/college pastor that took his students there or senior pastor who knowingly allowed the young members of his flock to go there and be exposed to this kind of deadly false teaching should be immediately fired by saying "but Piper was there."

I thought that couldn’t be.  I said she must be mistaken.  She countered that she saw an article about it on the Christianity Today website.  I countered that it must be Don Piper who also made outrageous unbiblical claims of visions of heaven.  She demurred and said she couldn’t be sure.  So I googled and sure enough John “desiring God” Piper was a speaker and participant at Passion 2013 along side of Jesus passion and a host of other problematic participants.  My jaw dropped.  So with much sadness I think we all have to ask an important and weighty question.  Has John Piper jumped the theological shark?

Now let me say that it brings me no joy to ask this question.  I deeply respect and love the ministry of John Piper.  As a young believer, saved out of a very sinful lifestyle, his book When I Don’t Desire God: Fighting for Joy was a real lifeline for me more than once, and his book Let the Nations be Glad was formative in my view of global missions, and I actually mourned when he ceased his radio broadcasts because they were a great encouragement to me during a period where my job required lots of solo time behind the wheel.  And I appreciate his more scholarly work as well.  I deeply appreciated The Future of Justification his scholarly response to N.T. Wright’s new perspective on Paul, it was brilliant and decisively took the exegetical fight to Wright who tends to intimidate lesser minds with his command of the Greek language and confuse them with his circuitous use of the English one.

I also appreciate Piper’s pastoral heart.  His commitment to living, and having the staff of Bethlehem Baptist live in the same Minneapolis neighborhood as the church, even though it is not the best, and his willingness to engage with and teach on social issues beyond abortion and homosexuality from a truly biblical perspective is a model that all shepherds should seek to follow.

In short, I am a Piper lover and have been deeply impacted by his ministry.  Sure I wish he would repudiate continuationism.  And I am baffled by his relationship with Mark Driscoll, whose misogyny, impropriety and generally unloving and prickly demeanor have only gotten worse despite Piper’s mentorship.  And I was alarmed by his invitation to Rick Warren to Speak at the Desiring God 2010 conference.  But I have always given Dr. Piper the benefit of the doubt.

I understand the reluctance to come out of the closet as a cessationist, and the doubt that can be injected into an otherwise excellent exegete’s mind by a few experiences or the testimony of experiences by trusted friends.  It is wrong, but I can see how someone would be wobbled there.  And I sort of sympathized with his motive for mentoring Driscoll, after all Driscoll does undeniably have a huge audience, and seems to get soteriology right, so I can see wanting to straighten him out.  As far as Warren goes, I bought into the explanation that he wanted the DG attendees who had likely never heard Warren be exposed to what he actually teaches.  After all I have often thought that if discerning believers heard what seeker sensitivity actually espouses they would sound the alarm so loudly that the Druckerite ministry model would be forever wiped away.  But participating in Passion 2013 may well be a bridge too far.

It was the involvement of Jesus Culture that drew my attention but their participation was far from the only deadly dangerous problem with Passion 2013.  In Fact I suggest you actually take the time to google “problems passion 2013” you will likely be, if not shocked, deeply saddened by the results that come up.  Contemplative Spirituality and mysticism were front and center for the entire conference, including a lectio divina session that Dr. Piper helped lead.   Hosting pastor Louie Giglio delivered the final message of the conference which was an exhortation based entirely on an extra-biblical revelation he claimed to receive.  Prosperity-lite preacher Jude Smith delivered a seductive message redefining the Gospel not as the atoning sacrifice of a sinless savior by which repentant sinners can be reconciled to a holy God, but as a call for community based on a deeply twisted (twisted and in error yet seemingly plausible – see Colossians 2:4) understanding of Genesis 1:26.  And the whole shebang was capped off by Beth Moore preaching the Sunday service at Giglio’s Passion City Church (so much for 1 Timothy 2:12 and biblical authority).

By his presence and participation there John Piper lends his de facto endorsement to all of these practices, ministries and teachers, and that is an enormously dangerous thing.  John Piper is one of the very few names that have earned a reputation for absolute fealty to the biblical gospel, the authority of scripture and the Lordship of Christ.  And now that reputation is lending credibility to the ministry of false teachers who proclaim a different gospel and those who deny the authority and sufficiency of Scripture.  It is a very short leap from John Piper and Jesus Culture were both at Passion 2013, to John Piper is trustworthy so Jesus Culture is trustworthy to Jesus Culture is Trustworthy so Bethel Redding and Bill (and Beni) Johnson are trustworthy to the "gospel" they preach is just as able to save as the Gospel Piper preaches.  That is how Satan does his work as a murderer.

While John Piper, to my knowledge, hasn’t himself said anything contrary to the gospel, this is an enormously alarming development.  And while I am sure that Dr.Piper would say he would never depart from the biblical Gospel, I am equally sure that if you asked Billy Graham in 1968 if he would ever say that Mormons are Christians or James McDonald circa 2000 if he would ever embrace someone who denies the trinity as a brother in Christ they would have said no too.  It is my prayer that Dr. Piper ceases to share the platform with the kinds of teachers found at Passion 2013, and that he disassociates himself with them before it is too late.  As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:33 bad company ruins good morals, and bad company can destroy a ministry too.  Has John Piper jumped the shark?  Maybe not, but he is definitely water skiing in a leather jacket.

Why Our Church Isn't Charismatic and Yours Shouldn't Be Either

            When examining the question of the “charismatic” gifts, the key question, really the only question is, “does the Scripture indicate that these gifts are normative for the Church?”  In order for that to be the case, the gifts as practiced in the charismatic church would have to match the sign gifts practiced in the apostolic church.

            The Charismatic movement likes to claim that it is exercising the biblical gifts of tongues (and to a much lesser extent the interpretation of tongues), prophecy and healing, but do they really?

Almost without exception charismatics claim that the gift of tongues is the gift of a secret prayer language, but that is simply not supported by the biblical text.  The clearest text (and the clear should always inform interpretation on the less clear passages) on what the gift of tongues was is Acts 2:1-13, and it not only defines the gift of tongues as speaking in unlearned human languages, it names some of the languages spoken, and even states that those present were amazed because they heard the tongue speaker “telling in our own tongue (language) the mighty works of God.”  Anything other than this is not the biblical gift of tongues.  

 But the charismatic gift of “tongues” is not like this at all, it is a nonsensical “prayer language” that bears no resemblance, according to linguists, to any known human language.  It doesn’t even contain the building blocks of human language.  Even the best pro-tongues scholars admit that it is not normal human language.  D.A. Carson (who I esteem highly, and is many times smarter than I'll ever be) for example claims that the gift of tongues is a prayer language.  And then baffling proposes that a self keyed linear cipher that an informed 12 year old could crack with a pad and a pencil is an undecipherable secret coded prayer language, that no human by natural means could ever understand (the pertinent part of Carson's book Showing the Spirit is excerpted here). Thus we have to conclude that whatever it is that is going on in charismatic churches; it is not the biblical gift of tongues.  And if it is not biblical we do not do it.  

The situation with the charismatic gift of “prophecy” is similar, unless what is practiced as “prophecy” in charismatic circles matches biblical prophecy it must be rejected.   The gift of “prophecy” as practiced in charismatic churches is a fallible.  The typical claim is that the God sends an infallible message to a sinful human recipient, whose fallen condition may result in an incorrect interpretation of the message and the result, is a prophecy that is a fallible revelation from God.  Often these prophecies are not about matters of spiritual import, but often focus on the mundane, what job to take, who to date or marry and the like.  Wayne Grudem, a prominent apologist for fallible charismatic prophecy even claimed to have received a prophecy that he should cancel his subscription to the newspaper (see the video here).   

How does this compare to prophecy in the bible?  Not well!  Scripture is clear that there is one test for the authenticity of a prophet, the prophecies he speaks.  If the prophecy contradicts God’s revealed word, the prophet is false and if what the prophet says does not come to pass, then it “is a word that the Lord has not spoken (Deut 18:22).”  There is simply no idea of fallible prophecy in the bible.   

Although many charismatics will claim that there is a difference between Old and New Testament prophecy this is a mere assertion without any exegetical support.  In fact they often appeal to Acts 2 as a total fulfillment of Joel 2 as evidence that prophecy is normative for the church while maintaining the fallibility of New Testament “prophecy” yet they fail to note that Joel 2 calls for prophecy in the infallible Old Testament sense.   

Similarly they claim that Agabus, the prophet who predicted Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem (Acts 21:11) was mistaken because an alleged discrepancy with the details of the arrest that come later in the chapter.  However their argument is one merely from the white space of scripture, assuming that if the given details of the arrest do not include details in the prophecy, then they must not have come to pass.  Additionally their hermeneutic is overly literalistic, removing the possibility of symbolic speech from prophecy.  However the details of the prophecy are entirely consistent with the account of the arrest, and Paul, in his recollection of his arrest in Acts 28:17 (and the Greek uses the exact same verbs as in Acts 21:11).  

 There is simply no evidence at all that there is any difference in the nature of prophecy in the New Testament and the Old.  Additionally there is no record or evidence at all in the bible of prophecy involving the mundane details of life and to claim that God gives prophecies about continuing or canceling newspaper subscriptions is to make light of true biblical prophecy.  Thus we can conclude that prophecy as practiced in charismatic churches is not biblical prophecy and if it is not biblical it has no place in our church.

            Likewise, when it comes to the gift of healing, the key question is what is the charismatic “gift of healing” and how does it compare to the New Testament gift of healing.  In charismatic circles, the gift of healing comes in two forms, the pop-Pentecostal/TBN/Benny Hinn variety and the 3^rd wave variety.  The pop-Pentecostal idea of the gift of healing is that if enough faith is present in the sick person, then they will be healed, typically through the laying on of hands.  And while they claim great success, under scrutiny, major “healers” like Hinn, Todd Bently, Peter Poppoff and others have been unable to produce one person who remained “healed” of an organic ailment that was not being treated through conventional means.  They claim that the problem is that the “healed” didn’t have enough faith to sustain their healing.   

The third wave view of healing is much different, and although it is articulated a number of ways, it is essentially that someone with the “gift of healing” prayed for the sick person, and eventually they got better, almost always concurrent with conventional medical treatment and rarely of major visible illnesses. 

Neither of these practices match the New Testament gift of healing.  When Jesus and the Apostles and those associated with Apostolic ministry healed (as recorded in scripture) it was always instantaneous, immediate, permanent, apparent to witnesses and not dependent on the faith of the one healed.  Jesus healed ingrates (Luke17:12-19), Peter healed people whose level of faith is not indicated just by walking by (Acts 5:15) and Paul raised the dead after a three story fall (Acts 20:9-12).  Lepers, the blind, the lame, the physically malformed were all instantly, visibly and permanently healed.  This is the biblical pattern of the gift of healing, and it agrees with neither the temporary “healings” of the pop-Pentecostal movement or with the prayer healing of the 3^rd  wave, thus we can conclude that the gift of healing as practiced by the charismatic movement is unbiblical and so it has no place in our church.

Because the “gifts” as practiced by charismatics are not biblical gifts they have no place in our, or any other church, and the charismatic exercise of them is a serious error.  God still heals today, but not through the gift of healing; God still gives us special revelation, but through His word, not through prophets; and God still allows us to speak the truth in unlearned languages, but through the printing press (and google translate) not through the gift of tongues.  We are deeply gifted as a church, but what charismatics do is not a gift of God, and has no place in our body.