Combating Charismatic Theology
by Phil Johnson
Executive Director, Grace to You
Does God expect every Christian to be a miracle worker? Does He want us all to speak in tongues and prophecy? What was the role of the charismatic gifts in the early church? Are the New Testament charismatic gifts still operating in the church today?
At no time in the two-thousand-year history of Christianity has the majority of the church been open to prophets and miracle-workers. In two thousand years, virtually every “prophet” has been overwhelmingly rejected by mainstream Christianity, and every bit of extrabiblical revelation has been discredited, disproved, or declared heretical.
That was true until this generation. It may well be that for the first time in the history of the church a majority of professing Christians are open to the notion that God is revealing new truth that goes beyond what He has given us in Scripture. Multitudes believe that the “signs of an apostle” (2 Cor. 12:12) are actually meant for every Christian. I’m convinced this is not a positive change for the church.
PROVE ALL THINGS
The past decade or so has seen three dangerous trends relative to the charismatic movement:
1. Charismatic practices are more and more excessive and outlandish.
2. Non-charismatics are more and more reluctant to speak critically of such practices.
3. Charismatics are more and more intolerant of criticism about their movement.
Multitudes are simply disobedient to the apostle Paul’s clear command in 1 Thessalonians 5:21:
“Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good”—and the next verse says, “abstain from every form of evil.” The immediate context also speaks about prophetic utterances, so it is specifically commanding us to test people who claim to speak for God. What is the measure by which we test someone who claims to speak for God? Isaiah 8:20: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” The Word of God is the only and ultimate test of truthfulness. Every prophet, every teacher, and every movement that claims to be from God may be tested according to His Word.
If the charismatic movement is true, then its leaders should have no fear of being held accountable to Scripture. Even the apostles, who had complete authority to speak for God in the early church, were not reluctant to have their doctrines tested by Scripture. Luke wrote this about the believers in Berea (Acts 17:11): “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were true.”
What were these people examining? The apostles teaching against the scriptures.
In the early church the apostles had the same authority as the Word of God. Acts 16:4 speaks of apostolic decrees that were binding on all the churches. In 1 Thessalonians 2:7, Paul reminds the Thessalonians that he ministered to them tenderly, like a mother cares for a baby—but in verse 6 he says that if he had chosen to do so, he could have wielded apostolic authority over them. Apostolic authority was never to be challenged in the church. Before the New Testament was written, the teaching authority of the apostles was the rule by which the church lived, according to Acts 2:42. So in essence, the teaching of the apostles carried an authority equal to that of Scripture.
Yet Luke commended the Bereans for examining apostolic doctrine in light of the Old Testament. The apostles had nothing to fear from that; their teaching was from God the same as the Scriptures, and God cannot deny Himself. So there could be no discrepancy between the Old Testament and apostolic teaching. That is why Paul himself told the Thessalonians to test all things.
We have before us a movement that is built on the claim that God is routinely doing miraculous things and revealing new truth to the church. Those claims constitute a serious and significant departure from historic, biblical Christianity. Yet Christians all over the globe at this moment are claiming that God has spoken to them through fresh words of prophecy. It is our biblical duty to search the Scriptures diligently, to see whether these things are so.
CESSATIONISM
Two basic presuppositions underlie all charismatic doctrine:
1. The assumption that God is routinely doing miraculous things.
2. The notion that God is still revealing new truth.
Those two ideas are affirmed either explicitly or implicitly by charismatics.
The opposite view is called Cessationism.
Charismatics often cite Hebrews 13:8 (“Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, and to day, and forever”) as proof that God is doing all the same things today that he did in the apostolic era. But that verse teaches nothing whatsoever about the charismatic gifts. It is a statement about the unchanging character of Christ. That verse is one of the great proof texts on the deity of Christ, because it shows that He is immutable, unchanging in His character and attributes. But it does not teach that miracles are common in every era.
There is ample proof in Scripture to demonstrate that although God Himself is unchanging, He does not necessarily manifest His power or reveal Himself in the same way in every age. So Hebrews 13:8 cannot be used to prove that the same apostolic gifts must operate in every age.
Every true evangelical holds to some form of cessationism. If you acknowledge that the canon is closed and the gift of apostleship has ceased, you have already conceded the very heart of the cessationist argument.
Many leading charismatics freely admit that all the charismatic gifts in operation today are of a lesser quality than the gifts we read about in the New Testament. For example, in Wayne Grudem’s The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today (Wheaton: Crossway, 1988), he writes that “no responsible charismatic holds” the view that prophecy today is infallible and inerrant revelation from God.1 He says charismatics are arguing for a “lesser kind of prophecy,”2 which is not on the same level as the inspired prophecies of the Old Testament prophets or the New Testament apostles—and which may even be fallible. Grudem writes: “There is almost uniform testimony from all sections of the charismatic movement that [today's] prophecy is impure, and will contain elements which are not to be obeyed or trusted.” Jack Deere, former professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, admits in his book Surprised by the Power of the Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993), that he has not seen anyone today performing miracles or possessing gifts on the same level as those manifest in the apostolic era. Deere argues throughout his book that modern charismatics do not even claim to have apostolic-quality gifts and miracle abilities. One of Deere’s main lines of defense against critics of the charismatic movement is his claim that modern charismatic gifts are actually lesser gifts than those available in the apostolic era, and therefore, he suggests, they should not be held to apostolic standards. Deere and Grudem have, in effect, conceded the entire cessationist argument. They are admitting that the true apostolic gifts and miracles have ceased. By their own admission, what they are experiencing today is not the same as the gifts described in the New Testament.
In a very helpful book, Satisfied by the Promise of the Spirit (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1996), Thomas Edgar writes,
The charismatic movement gained credence and initial acceptance by claiming their gifts were the same as those in Acts. For most people this is why they are credible today. Yet now one of their primary defenses is the claim that [the gifts] are not the same [as those in the New Testament] Faced with the facts, they have had to revoke the very foundation of their original reason for existence.
THE UNIQUENESS OF BIBLICAL MIRACLES
A miracle is an extraordinary work of God that involves His immediate and unmistakable intervention in the physical realm in a way that contravenes natural processes. There are two kinds of miracles recorded in Scripture. Some are remarkable acts of God apart from any human agency; other miracles involve a human agent who (from the human perspective) is the instrument through which the miracle comes.
Charismatics suggest we ought to be actively seeking such miracles today. Many charismatic leaders claim to be able to work miracles of various kinds (e.g., healings, “slaying people in the Spirit,” and so on). More than that, most charismatics believe such miracles should be commonplace in the church today, and they believe that if miracles are not commonplace in your experience, something is wrong with your spiritual life.
But miracles have never been commonplace, even on the pages of Scripture. They occur rarely, and when they occur, it is for a specific reason. Miracles in Scripture are never done merely to satisfy curiosity or to appease skeptics. They are never used for self-gratification or for egocentric reasons. They are never just for show. But when God is found in Scripture using a human agent to perform miracles, it is always with a specific purpose. Scripture is clear about what that purpose is. It is to authenticate the authority of those who speak for God. Here is an important principle: Such miracles in Scripture are always related to the giving of new revelation.
B. B. Warfield wrote:
Miracles do not appear on the pages of Scripture vagrantly, here, there, and elsewhere indifferently, without assignable reason. They belong to revelation periods, and appear only when God is speaking to His people through accredited messengers, declaring His gracious purposes.4
The purpose of the miracles is to verify the messengers.
Scripture repeatedly connects the prophetic ability to work great signs and wonders with the office and function of a prophet. Psalm 74:9 says, “We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.”
Miracles authenticate the message of the prophet. Jesus Himself pointed to his miracles as proof of His prophetic authority. Listen to John 5:36: “the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.” In John 10:36-38, He said: Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? 37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. In verse 25, He said, “Ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.” The testimony of Nicodemus revealed the main reason for Jesus’ miracles (John 3:2): “[he] came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” And John 7:31 tells us that “many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?”
Why did John record so many of Jesus’ miracles in his gospel? He tells us in John 20:30-31: “many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” Again and again we see that miracles are given to corroborate the authority of someone who speaks for God.
THE UNIQUENESS OF THE APOSTLES
The miracles in the book of Acts were the proof that the apostolic message was true. Notice that these miracles were always associated with the apostles themselves. Acts 2:43: “And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.” Acts 5:12: “by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people.” In fact, New Testament miracles are referred to as “the signs of an apostle.” When the apostle Paul wanted to defend his own apostleship in 2 Corinthians, he pointed them to the signs and wonders he had done among them. 2 Corinthians 12:12: “Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.” Hebrews 2:1-4 again expressly states that the New Testament miracles came with the express purpose of corroborating the apostolic witness: Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; 3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
The gospel was first proclaimed to the world by Jesus apostles and other eyewitnesses who had received it from Him. The outpouring of miracles that came with the introduction to the gospel were God’s own testimony to the fact that the gospel was true.
That’s why if you search your New Testament you will discover that from the day of Pentecost to the end of the New Testament era, no miracle ever occurred in the entire New Testament record except in the presence of an apostle or one directly commissioned by an apostle.
So miracles in the New Testament, as well as miracles in the Old Testament always served this important purpose: they validated the message of men who were the instruments of new revelation from God. And most often, they were associated with the men who were the human instruments by which Scripture was being written.
One other notable fact stands out: the frequency of these miraculous events decreases dramatically from the beginning of the book of Acts to the end. By the end of the book of Acts we no longer read of miraculous healings. Miraculous phenomena like tongues of fire and a mighty rushing wind are seen in Acts 2, but not at the end of the book. Once the apostles’ authority had been established, the outpouring of miracles subsided. Once the signs had served their purpose, they began to pass away, so that aside from some highly questionable claims, there is no record in all of church history of miraculous healings and supernatural gifts, from the closing of the book of Acts until the modern charismatic movement.
1. Grudem, p. 111.
2. Ibid., p. 112.
3. p. 32.
4. B. B. Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1918), pp. 25-27.
