a devastating series of sledgehammer blows
This book has certainly stirred up no small amount of controversy in some
circles, and I suppose with good reason. Frankly, though, a lot of the
controversy seems either ill-informed or ill-adviced.
MacArthur does a
very good job of showing how far too much in charismatic churches is going some
very disturbing places. Prophets who are free to prophecy falsely and not be
accountable for it? Speaking gobblety-gook and claiming it's tongues? Claiming
apostles are still around today? All the fake healers putting on shows and
leaving the truly sick people out in the cold? And much of this stuff has been
going on for over 100 years? MacArthur rightly calls out those who practice and
promote those things, and shows from Scripture just how off those ideas are, and
then shows what the Scripture tells us how the Spirit works.
Reading
parts of this book is liking seeing one sledgehammer blow after another—showing
how supposedly spirit-filled ministers fall into immorality again and again, how
they couldn't prophecy their way out of a paper bag, how they will do almost
anything for money, how they hide the fact that they don't really heal much of
anyone who is really sick, how they put more emphasis on the things they feel
inside themselves than in what Scripture says. If charismatic churches were to
really take these things to heart, this book would signal the end of the
too-popular TV charlatans and fake healers and false prophets who have shamed
the church for far too long.
No comments:
Post a Comment