Strange Fire in the Churches of Christ

This is not the post you think it is.

The Internet has been buzzing about John MacArthur's Strange Fire conference and the angst he has created with Reformed leaders, like Mark Driscoll, who are Charismatic.

This isn't a post about that conflict. To be honest, and to reveal just how little I know about and pay attention to Reformed Christianity, I had no idea who John MacArthur was before this brouhaha. I do recall seeing his name on the spines of books in bookstores, but I've never read anything he'd written or watched any sermons of his. But apparently he's a pretty big deal in Reformed circles.

And he's also a cessationist, which is what I want to talk about. Because my tradition, the Churches of Christ, is also cessationist. This is the view of the Holy Spirit that I grew up with.

To catch everyone up, cessationism is the view that the miraculous workings of the Holy Spirit ceased (thus the label "cessationism") after the apostolic era, generally the first century of the church. There are many aspects to this view but a few common ideas appear a lot. I'd like to mention the ideas that dominated in the Churches of Christ when I was growing up and how these ideas shaped how we viewed the bible and the activity of God in the world.

The central idea had to do with the relationship between the charismatic gifts and the bible.

Cessationists often argue that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were necessary during the apostolic era because there was no New Testament on hand. Thus, direction for the church had to be given through direct divine intervention, mainly through the apostles, but if one of those guys weren't on hand then through the members of the church exercising things like the charismatic gift of prophecy.

However, once the bible had been "completed," it is argued, there was no longer any need for the charismatic gifts. The bible, rather than prophetic utterances, would guide and correct faith and practice. Evangelistic persuasion would no longer require miraculous displays but be rooted in the proclamation of the gospel, using the bible to convict the heart and mind of sin.

Basically, the bible displaced the charismatic gifts.

Where did this idea come from? When I was growing up this argument was made by an appeal to 1 Corinthians 13:

1 Corinthians 13.8-10 (NASV)
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.

The gifts will cease when "the perfect" comes. So what's "the perfect"? Well, any cogent exegesis of this passage would say that love is this perfection. That love is the gift that pushes all other gifts to the side. That's Paul's whole point in verses 1-3: if you have all this supernatural power but don't have love it profits you nothing.

But that's not what I was taught growing up. I was taught that "the perfect" was the bible. That when the bible came the charismatic gifts would cease.

This interpretation was supported by other passages that identified the activity of the Holy Spirit with the bible. For example, passages like this were used to defend a bibliocentric--nay, a biblioexclusive--vision of spiritual warfare:

Ephesians 6.16-17
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

It was pointed out that the only offensive weapon for spiritual warfare mentioned in this text was "the word of God," which is also the "sword of the Spirit." Thus, it was argued, the way the Holy Spirit "does battle" with demonic and satanic forces is through proper use of the bible. If you want to call upon the Spirit pick up the bible, "the sword of the Spirit." The prime example of this was Jesus's own battle with Satan in the desert temptations. In each instance Jesus resists the Devil by quoting Scripture.

All of this, you can imagine, had a very deflationary effect on any robust charismatic vision of spiritual warfare. The battle with evil became about exchanging bible verses.

Spirituality was reduced to cognition, memory and rational argumentation.

Charismatic Christians, we were told, would object to all this, they would decry limiting and restricting the activity of the Holy Spirit to bible study. But we had a great proof text for them:

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

The Spirit working through the bible wasn't a dry academic exercise. The bible was alive and active. The bible cut deep.

In short, even all the dynamic language of God's activity in the world was located in the bible. To suggest that the Holy Spirit was somehow constrained or limited by the bible was deemed to be a lack of faith. See Hebrews 4.12.

All this added up to a couple of big conclusions.

To be spiritual was to be biblical.

To engage in spiritual warfare was to quote Scripture.

And perhaps most importantly of all, the only way God acted in your life and in the world was through the study and use of the bible.

And thus, the Holy Spirit became the bible.

That's a sketch of cessationist teaching in the Churches of Christ. But things have changed a lot over the last few decades. In the late '80s and early '90s a mild charismatic wave rolled over the Churches of Christ. No one began to speak in tongues or anything, but there was a growing realization that God was doing things in the world beyond our memory verses. Prayer and worship, in response, became more emotive and hands began to be raised.

Still, it's pretty mild stuff given our cessationist roots. I actually like where we are right now. Still very rational and generally suspicious of charismatic excess, but open to being interrupted by God and confessional about treating the bible in idolatrous ways.

And a final note, given that Halloween is upon us.

You could tell in the '80s and '90s when the Churches of Christ starting thinking that spiritual warfare might, well, be spiritual (rather than biblical) warfare. It was when we stopped having Haunted Houses in our churches. I remember these well as a kid, putting on a Haunted House in the basement of our church. But those Haunted Houses are thing of the past.

The world has become increasingly enchanted for the Churches of Christ.

And, thus, a little more spooky.