Do Charismatics Reject the Ordinary Means of Grace?

Lately, it seems as if I have been hearing a critique of continuationism from those within the cessationist camp that I was unaware of previously.  Namely, some cessationists complain that charismatics reject the ordinary means of grace (for example Scripture, prayer, the sacraments) in favor of emotional experiences supposedly delivered by the Holy Spirit.  I have recently come across this critique here and here.  I thought I would take a few moments to briefly respond.


Firstly, despite being an obvious guilt-manipulation tactic, it should be noted that this is not always untrue.  The reality is, many charismatics and prophetic types really do despise preaching and sacrament and give an unhealthy emphasis to emotions and experiences.  There are places where services degenerate into free-for-alls where every "manifestation", no matter how wild, is considered proof that the Holy Spirit "showed up".  Preaching, if there is any, is relegated to maybe 30 minutes of out-of-context drivel and the sacraments are hardly practiced.  I myself have experienced this phenomenon and have left church fellowships where this has occurred.  It would be stupid of me to deny this tendency doesn't exist.  it manifestly does.  However, it must be stressed that this does not necessarily need to be the case.  It is possible to bring order to our assemblies where spiritual gifts are in evidence (that is the whole point of 1 Corinthians 12-14).


Secondly, this creates a false dichotomy.  I don't have to choose between the ordinary means of grace and spiritual gifts.  Spiritual gifts are an ordinary means of grace.  To neglect the gifts of the Holy Spirit to emphasize preaching and sacrament is wrong.  These we should have done without leaving the others undone.  There is no reason why we should bifurcate the Holy Spirit's ministry into either word and sacrament, or into miracles. 


In short, all of these activities glorify God and minister to His Church.  All of them are ordained for us.  In addition to New Testament imperatives concerning the preaching of the Word (1 Timothy 4:13; 5:17; 2 Timothy 2:2) and administering the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper (Matthew 28:19,20; Romans 6:1-4; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34), the New Testament commands Christians and churches to seek to minister in spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 1:7;12-14; Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Peter 4:10).

Testing the Spirits: A Hallmark of Word and Power, 1 John 4:1-6

In the fourth chapter of the First Epistle of John, the Apostle gives some instructions to the churches he is writing to regarding how to know the difference between truth and error in their meetings together.  Rather than a full analysis of the passage, I believe it would be better to draw out some applications of this passage, particularly for those individuals, pastors, and churches that consider themselves to be committed to Word and Power.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,  and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.   They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.   We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

1 John 4:1-6 NKJV

The first thing I would like to highlight is that the phrase "Beloved, do not believe every spirit" implies that "spirits", or prophetic utterances and by probable extrapolation, other spiritual phenomena, are expected to occur in these churches.  There is no hint, even at this late stage of the Apostolic Era, that the revelatory gifts were on their way out so to speak.  John fully anticipates that his readers will be expectant concerning prophetic activity in their midst.  This is confirmed in that John warns his readers, not about false teachers or false apostles, but about false prophets who will speak error.

Secondly, John tells his readers to test the spirits.  He does not tell them to gullibly accept them or not to question them because to do so might be "unloving" or "pharisaical", or possessing a "religious spirit".  No, the Beloved Apostle instructs the churches to put all claims of revelatory and/or miraculous activity to the test, to see if in fact God is in it or not. 

This flies in the face of the de facto practice of many contemporary charismatic/prophetic movements, who seem to regard all prophecies, miracles, and manifestations as true works of God and proof that the "end-time revival" is at hand.  Those who dare question them are often maligned and ignored as those who just don't get it, or aren't "listening to what the Spirit is saying to the churches" (I have actually heard this language ripped from its context in Revelation to make this exact claim).

Thirdly, the way we are to test the spirits and know their true source is by how these prophecies, manifestations, etc... represent Jesus.  To be sure, in John's day, the issue at hand was whether or not Jesus Christ came in the flesh.  John was battling a form of proto-Gnosticism that was gaining hold of the churches in and around Ephesus.  In our day, at least in the West, the false Jesus we are likely to encounter is a soft, non-offensive Jesus.  A Jesus who doesn't demand holiness or call us to crucify our flesh.  A Jesus who is rather like us in point of fact.  As Word and Power Christian, we must make sure that all of the prophetic utterances we allow to flow within our midst represent the true Jesus who is both God and man - the Jesus who preached repentance and the taking up of one's cross.

Fourthly, it should be plain upon reading this passage that those who are giving these false "spirits" or prophecies with a false Jesus, are self-evidently not born-again believers. In other words, these false prophets that John warns us about whose supernatural activity denies the truth about Jesus, are liars, deceivers - and, as John calls them - antichrists. These individuals and their ministries are those who speak and act like the world. They don't listen to those who truly know and believe the truth. So the next time you are confronted with supernatural activity, ask yourself what kind of Jesus they are preaching; and ask yourself what their attitude is toward those who know the truth of the Gospel. And finally, ask what their attitude is toward the world. That is how you will know whether their miraculous phenomena come from the Spirit of the Living God, or from the spirit of the antichrist.