Charismatic: To be, or not to be?
What comes to your mind when you hear the term, "Charismatic"? For some Christians, the term suggests speaking in tongues, new revelation from God, and wild and crazy worship services. For other Christians, the term suggests normal, biblical Christianity.
The word, "charismatic" is derived from the Greek word, charis, which means "grace." It emphasizes the biblical teaching that the Holy Spirit graciously and sovereignly endows all genuine Christians with spiritual gifts for ministry (see Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:4-11; Eph. 4:7; 1 Pet. 4:10). In this sense, all Christians are Charismatic.
However, this is not what most people today mean by the term, "Charismatic." The term represents the belief that all the spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament are operational in the church today, just as they were in New Testament times, and will continue to be operational until Christ's return. The theological term for this belief is "continuationism." The theological term for the opposing view - namely, that there are some extraordinary spiritual gifts associated with God giving new revelation to the church - is "cessationism." Personally, I consider myself to be a "soft cessationist." Let me explain.
The first question to ask when evaluating spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues, prophecy, and miracles, is: Are we talking about the same thing that is taught in the New Testament? For example, in the New Testament, speaking in tongues is the supernatural ability to speak the words of God in a human language which is foreign to the speaker (Acts 2:1-8). This supernatural gift is both a sign for unbelievers (1 Cor. 14:22) and a means of receiving direct revelation from God for the edification of the church (1 Cor. 14:26-28). Speaking in tongues in the New Testament is nothing more and nothing less than this. I find that when we define speaking in tongues (or any other sign gift) strictly in terms of what the New Testament teaches rather than in terms of personal experiences and traditions, it eliminates much confusion.
The second question to ask is: What is the purpose of spiritual gifts? God doesn't give spiritual gifts for no reason. The New Testament teaches that God gives spiritual gifts for specific purposes, including: (1) edification; (2) attestation; and (3) revelation.
(1) Edification means building up the body of Christ. The idea is that God gives spiritual gifts for the purpose of serving others, not for the personal fame or enrichment of the gifted person (1 Cor. 14:26; Eph. 4:12-16). The building up of the church continues to be the primary purpose of spiritual gifts today.
(2) Attestation means that certain extraordinary spiritual gifts were given by God in order to attest to the extraordinary role that the gifted person fulfilled in redemptive history. The Apostles, for example, were attested by God through the extraordinary spiritual gifts that they exercised as Christ's personal reprentatives on earth so that Christians would recognize their unique apostolic authority (Acts 2:43; 5:12; Rom. 15:18-19; 2 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 2:20; 1 Thess. 2:13; Heb. 2:3-4). While the office of apostle ceased with the passing of the apostolic age, it is theoretically possible for certain Christians today to fulfill extraordinary roles in the continuing unfolding of church history, such as missionaries to unreached people groups or church leaders during times of extraordinary persecution. This allowance is the difference between the "hard and fast" and the "soft" cessationist views.
(3) Revelation means God revealing new doctrines to the church. This was absolutely necessary in New Testament times because the New Covenant was inaugurated with the death of Christ (Luke 22:20), approximately 60 years before the last New Testament book was written. During this transitional period when the New Testament scriptures were being written, disseminated, received, and collated, Sola Scriptura was practically impossible because the Bible itself was a work in progress. So, members of the New Covenant community needed to know what to believe and how to live as faithful covenant members. To fulfill this need, God gave the early church the Old Testament Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:15-17) plus continuing, direct revelation (Acts 13:1; 1 Cor. 11:2; 16:1; Eph. 2:20; 2 Thess. 2:15). Direct revelation from God today would imply that the completed Scriptures are similarly not sufficient. Are such extraordinary circumstances possible today? The hard and fast cessationsit answer is NO. The soft cessationist answer is PERHAPS.
In either case, the cessationist does not believe that God can't continue giving these spiritual gifts, but rather that God chooses not to because of the sufficiency of the completed Scriptures. Furthermore, the cessationist believes that the Holy Spirit speaks to and leads believers today through illuminating and applying the Scriptures in the believer's mind and conscience.
For me, I want to be a biblical Charismatic!
