It occurred to me that the Reformed/Charismatic tension is still one that doesn't seem to be wholly "cracked" at present. It certainly seemed close at one stage. Men like Ern Baxter, Terry Virgo (and for a time Stanley Jebb in our circles) taught so well on it on holding that tension. But I always used to think that the problem lay with charismatic life. That excesses seen in various moves of God like the Toronto Blessing or Lakeland scared people off. Now I'm not so sure. I met with the hospital chaplain at work and we found out we had a similar background - and got on to discussing Calvinism and why it seems that the theological viewpoint that should make Christians most humble and most worshipful seem to produce a judgemental, proud and arrogant spirit.
So actually I am wondering whether the reason why it is so tricky to hold a tension between Reformed and Charismatic life is because of the reformed doctrines and the fact that we are not allowing the glorious truth of them to become reality in our hearts. However there is no better movement of churches who is getting close than Newfrontiers in my opinion. They honour reformed doctrine but value charismatic life so much and that gives me massive encouragement. It was great to find the following video with Terry Virgo discussing this very issue;
No comments:
Post a Comment