So you're a cessationist then...yet you still call yourself Pentecostal?
No. I am certainly not cessationist. I am restorationist in that I believe that in the early 20th Century the spiritual gifts were restored to the church after they had ceased after the 4th Century because of the apostate way the then established church was going.
It is just that I respect Justin Peters and his honesty in calling out false teachers and prophets who are teaching bovine scatology instead of the truth about the ministry of the Holy Spirit as shown in Scripture. Therefore I am defending his right to share his concerns about the state of the Charismatic movement. I know that his personal cessationist theology does influence him to some degree, but he has shown that he does respect whom he refers to as "Reformed" Charismatics who hold to the Scriptures and who are just as concerned about the excesses and false teaching of some of the prominent "prophets" of the Word-Faith movement. His concern is the reluctance of the Reformed Charismatics to speak out against what is happening in our own movement.
I'm going to be a bit like Paul and speak a little inappropriately about myself. Before I moved to Christchurch and joined a Union Church (Methodist/Presbyterian), I was an elder of a suburban Presbyterian church in Auckland for 23 years. During that time I had the opportunity to preach regularly while we didn't have a minister. In fact I was the "session clerk" for a number of years, effectively, as the senior elder, fulfilling the pastoral role until a better man, in my view, took over the position. I was very open about my praying in tongues, and during one weekend conference there I took a workshop on being baptised in the Spirit. Bear in mind that this was and still is a non-Charismatic Evangelical church, where it was clearly expressed that "we don't want to become Pentecostal!". I taught them that unless they learned about and started using the gifts of the Spirit, the church would die. The membership was already declining as the older members died off, and the church was trending below 40 people attending a Sunday service. As an elder I never hesitated praying for the sick, and no one ever refused. Even at the secular gym I went to at the time, I prayed for two members who had suffered injuries, one of whom thanked me "for the blessing". I told the minister at a time when there was a fear that some wanted to put pressure to bring the Charismatic into the church, that because of my Pentecostal background, I would talk to those people to explain that if God wanted the church to become Charismatic He would do it in His way, not theirs. In fact, in later years we had quite a mixture of people who were Charismatic in their faith, and some had testimonies of divine healing. In fact, although the church didn't want to become Charismatic, they were sympathetic to it and I never had any negative feedback when I taught about the gifts of the Spirit, including tongues and the purpose of it. When we commissioned a new elder, I even gave a prophecy for him. It is interesting that a lady minister we have for around four years was Charismatic herself, although she didn't try to influence the church that way.
I told the minister in my present Union church that I have a Pentecostal background and believe in the gifts of the Spirit, and when we had a young guy come into a service and spoke in tongues, I explained to the people what that was all about and what I said was appreciated. The minister told me that "we welcome all types of people here", and he was happy for me to take services and preach. Since he resigned, and we are dependent on visiting preachers, I take services and preach once a month. I preach from the written Scriptures, and they always appreciate it. I think I am a bit of an antidote to some of the liberal preaching they get from a couple of other visiting preachers at times.
So, how much more of a Charismatic do I need to be to be able to continue posting on this forum?
