THE GIFTED CHURCH

7 sort of tact;ful but persistent arm--twisting on the part of the clergyo Those who do indicate some willingness to serve are swamped with work while a majority of church members do little or nothing+ People are often placed into tasks which they are inconpetent to handle, Positions are most often filled on the basis of willingness not ability, Sunday 6chooZ teachers ! fOI: exmlple, nay not be those with the greatest ability for teaching but nerely those who resisted less than the average church member as the arm twisting ivas applied, Clergy in the church are often on the verge of a phenomenon 'lbtunout;, " qIhe task before them is more than they labelled alone can handle, but since volunteers are not fortheom:hrg9 the attitude usually is "If I dontt do it myself , it won1 t get done," So they do the job themselves, They cut grass! fix leaky toilets9 and do all kinds of tasks that other people could do, So the pastors of the church are overworked, Cl:hey receive little support and assistance, Peter Wagner calls this the fallacy of the ”omnicompete Ilt pastor, "> the idea that the pa6tor 8hould be able to do every job that needs to be done, Many pastors fall into this trap, The result far too often is clerical apathy or "burnout, " in who could help are "too busy, " Holy Scripture the meantime ? church a members And so it goes, speaks of a eoncept; we call the 11pries1,hood of all believers, 11 Heres it is emphasized that every Christian ha8 a part to play in the Church of Jesus Christ, Not just a professional clerical class are to be about the Church1 s tasks, avery Christian Church has a regpongjbillty has often failed miserably to do bio or her parte in getting this The message across• Uh.is is the ideal, however9 and until we come closer to attaining it, the Church will never be what God calls it to be, We can thank Dietrich Bonhoeff er for making "cheap grace” a well-known tern in the Cburch9 especially the Lutheran Church, For Bonhoef£er, "cheap grace is grace without disciples tripe 8 , (For many) the Christian life comes to mean nothing nore than living in the world! and as the worl<19 in 1’ being no different has the right from the world, , , etre only man who to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man wklb has left all to follow Christ,6 8 Many in discipleship, our churches have not heard the call to a life of tIlhey have heard much about gBace and little about the obedience which should arise out of this precious grace, Martin Luther has this to say about obedience : You may as well quit reading and hearing the word of God, and give it to the devil, if you do not desire to live according to it, 7 Somehow, the Church has failed to challenge Christians to a wholekzearted comnit;ment to Christ and to His church, Just telling people to be involved is not enough, Many would do more, if they could, Our task is to tell people how they can become better prepared and motivated servant6 for their I,ord9 how they can participate in the ministry into which all Christians are called, Many people hold back because they cannot see how they could do such a task on their own, without help, Dbe task of the Body of Christ is to point people to the Source of the required power, We cannot blame people for not participating in the work of Christ 1 s church9 if we have been negligent in explaining how God wills to work in the world through hiB multigifted Body, Ci:he mainline churches have lost many of their members in recent years to unconventional cults and sects, We ought to be asking ourselves hard questions about wb these people left and what it was that the Church failed to provide , 1IIke Church is not beyond criticisn, When constructive criticism is offered? it ought to be received as such, And not Just received, but also acted upon in good faith, The church’s nenbers are sending out a message to the church9 both verbally and non-verbally, Woe to us if Ive fail to listen and take heed, It 6eems to me that there is much truth in Wisloff 1 s com-- ment describing the plight of the contemporary church: , , ,the Church of God is in distress ? in deep distress, [i}he disbress of the church resembles that of the man one occasionally meets who dresses in rags and hard:Ly eats , while he hao great and unused riches biciden away , 8 A large group of people are waving a red flagt saying that 9 the time has come to take advantage of those 11great and unused riches, ” !!!he church has all the abilities and resources it needs for nini6try and service, The people who sit in the pews each Sunday are our answer, There , hidden away from view9 lie all the talents, abilities, mlci gifts that we need, No, things are not as they should be in the Church, but all the resources we need are near at hand, Our task is to discover them1 (or help people discover them) and put them to work, What is the Spirit saying to the churches today? it seems to me that we are being told that the reason for our troubles is that we have failed to tap the great resources lying unused among our people, We have failed to teach people that they are gilfte(19 and that their God expects those gifts to be used for His glory, We have failed to teach people how to put their gifts to work, And in so doing, we have condemned the Church to seeming impotence in the task it is called to perform, God's will is not that the clergy do everything and that the laity nerely go along for the ride, His will is beautifully expressed in Bphesians 4:12-13 , a ,to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up FBU+ne. Tf Chris+ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and af the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the 9 stature of the fulness of Christ, The clergy are called to equip the saints for the work of ministry, tIThe saintsl’ includes every Christian, We equip them from Godls word and together go about the ministry of service to the world, Clergy are not to do the work alone, if they dc>9 the task will turn out to be too much for them, God does not want us to be 1’omnicompet;ent, " be facilitators, But he does call us to helping others to take up their part of the burden One day Jesus Christ stood up in the gynagogue and read from the book of Isaiah, What he read, he applied to himself , q:be words outlined the task that he had laid down for himself , and later, for his church: Uhe Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the o afflicted; 10 He has sent ne to bind up the brokenbeart;ed, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who me bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, , , This is our task as God1 s church, equip the saints to assist us in This is the task we must doing, And this is the task we receive gifts from God1 s Holy Spirit to enable us to perform, Ray Stedman has taken the time to exegete the Greek word, 4 AfeTeprt <f/cOS 4, The word! , the word translated according to Stedman, is the ’'to equipl' in Ephesians one from which we derive the English word "artisan, " "someone who works with his hands to make or build things, " , , ,this word first appears in the New Testament in connection with the calling of the disciples ("mending their nets") , The word "mending" is the wotslated were equipping in Ephesians 4 as ’'equipping," Elrey their nets by mending them, They were getting them ready for action, , , "fitting then out, "9 11 A Historical Review of CJharisnata the basic thesis of this paper is that GodI through his Holy Spirit9 bestows gifts upon his people which enable them to serve him, !!!hose gifts are called in the Greek1 XaPF pda , 11:hey inclucie9 as we shall see, both ordinary and extraordinary gifts, it is the extraordinary gi:fto which have caused the most trouble in the contemporary church, it would be useful at this point in our study to make a quick historical overview of scale of these gifts, looking to see how they have been manifested throughout the ages, Historical data unfortunately, are rather skialpy, it is jugt ag eagy to argue that the extraordinary gifts passed away with the end of the apostolic age as it is to say that they continued, albeit sporadically, through history, It is useful to compare what is happening in the church today with events of the pasts looking for points of similarity as well as points of difference, NO one is willing to argue that all of the charismata are no longer to be found in the church, But what is open to debate is the que6 liion of which gif+;6 we should expect today, Hopefully our overview will 11 provide some clues, The apostolic age literally abounds with testimony about the Holy Spirit, Scripture.itself has much to saY about the Holy Spirit and bia 8ift8, ' in P&rt Ill of this paper we will deal with the Scriptural evidence, Outside of the Script;ur:ess however:9 finding reliable in:fornation on the occurrences of charismat;a becomes a much more difficult task, With an eye to the occurrence of one specific gift, glossolalia (or, nore commonly, speaking with tonWes) Krister StendaIhl offers the following: , , ,beyond the New Testament, our earliest writings such as those of the Apostolic Fathers (with the possible exception of Ignatius9 the Shepherd of Hermas of Rome, and the Didach6) and those of the Apologists , preserve for us almost no evidence of glossolalia, IO We can be relatively sure that if we discover glossolalia at a particular time and place , we will find the other "extraordinary gifts'’ (interpretation of tongues9 discernment of spirits, etc) are operating as well, Scholars going back through church history usually look for tongues first, They can be relatively sure that where tongues are9 the other special gifts will be associated Rusch divides the patristic and medieval ages into three a periods of different q:he first emphases on the Holy Spirit : Jeriod can be called a time of tbenign neg©t ;ended from the end of the lst Century until the 4th, , ,concern about the Holy Spirit was not a priority item The second period may be described he overriding as a IDreoccuDat;ion wil=i–MBBBH q_uegt;lon of pneumat;ology at; this time was , , ,:LS the Holy Spirit a person of the godhead or a creature? Illbjg debate was one of the is6ues of the 4th Century, The may be pictured wit origin, a consideration of head of the Spirit the as an lengnossment; t it was relationship a time devoted to within the god--- to the Father and the Son, (5th-.15th Century) , 11 {i}binking specifically of the (;harismatia of 1 Corinthians :L29 E;rling Jorstad makes the following argument although he offers no specific information to substantiate his point : The controversy over the gifts of the Holy Spirit first broke out in the early church at <Jcr:Lathe 12 !!!ben slowly but steadily over the early years of the (}hurch9 Christians devoted a decre8sing amount of attention to the cultivation of the cbarismata of he :t (Jorinthian6 12, Throughout the bi Church, until the 18t;:h Century in fact, the record shows that only a tiny number of believers practiced the celebration of the gifts, 12 John MacArthur quotes Oleon Rogers who says simply, again without verification, "it is significant that the gift of tongues is nowhere alluded to , hinted at, or even found in any writings of the Post Apostolic Fathers, " (emphasis added) Krister Stendahl9 however9 does find glossolalia post--apostolic During age : the middle of the 2nd Century, manifestation of unusual , ,two in the movements arose alongside or within the main body of Christians + o ,which did have glossolalia, The older movement was Gnosticism, q:he other, a somewhat later reaction to the structural hardening of main-line Christianity was montanism, Among the Gnostic groups, glossolalia of the type requiring interpretation was common, IIL One important spiritual phenomena which occurred in the 2nd Century was Montanism! which Stendahl referred to above, Kenneth Kinghorin gives u6 a good idea of what Montanism was all about : During the 2nd Century, certain prophets, called pneumatics9 attempted to correct the sagging spirit_ ual life of the churc tre , o ,their movenerit produced serious problems for the Church, Montanus 1 ministry crystalZized into a scbismatic movement, , , (he) emphasized the immediate working of the Holy Spirits apart from sermon or sacramen¤, Mon{wrisa! iisist6d on a thorough going geparation from 1 the world1 in preparal;lon for the expected immediate return of Christ, 15 According to MacArt;hurl Mont;anus taught "a progression of revelation from the Old Uestament prophets to the Lord's disciples and then on into the lne lv age of the Spirit1, "16 But he went on even further: Montanus boldly intimidated Cbristianc by claiming the Church was comprised of two groups : the t Spiritual Christians 1 who followed his teachings and claimed direct revelation fron God, and the ' Carnal Christians I who only had the '(lead letter of the Scriptures, 17 1 13 q:he rest of the Church, however, branded Montanism as a serious heresy to be rejected, it is interesting that some of the ideas put forward by Mont;anus are still with us todayo Most noteworthy are his claim8 to direct revelation and an insidious spiritual 6litism, MacArthur goes so far as to saY that today's Charismatic movement, with its emphasis on the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, could be called nothing more than NeoMontanism, ItS Although MacArthur is definitely against the extraordinary (and he says 9 temporary) gifts he is definitely not against all gifts, As a matter of fact, the church of which he is pastors has had many good things happen since it began to encourage its members to exercise their spiritual gifts, MacArthur is an example of someone who has carefully screened the cklarisnata to see which ought to be operating in the church today9 and then encouraged people to make use of those which he feels are heeded, One will not find tongues in his church9 but will find the other, less spectacular gifts in use, I personally tend to think that HlacArthur is heading in the right direction, although I would not be as adamant in insisting that there is no possi-•. bility that tongues and associated gifts are to be found in today1 s church, In its response to Montwlism, the Church began to claim that direct revelation had ceased, According to Rusell9 the Church : Now found its assurance of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in the threefola apostolic authority or canon, creed, and ecclesiastical office, A signi-. ficant alteration in the understanding of the Spirit 1 s activity occurred, Now to substantiate its existence, the Church looked not to the future and Christ's return? not to the present and the Spirit's extraordinary gifts9 but to the past - canon and creed, OB 19 As we shall see , the Church's insistence that these extraordinary gifts had ceased was contradicted by sporadic manif estat;ions of these gifts at various times and places, [1:he most famous follower died circa 220 A.:D. : of NionI;anus was :i:ertu11ian who 14 that spiritual gifts constituted the plenary Christian experience because they had been tforetold1 by the apostle6 ; and he challenged his skeptical contemporaries by citing Paul, 20 He claimed Rusch quotes Irenaeug of Lyons (d, circa 202 AD) as saying that "the Spirit is considered the source of prophecyol'ZI According to Williams and Waldvoge1, Irenaeus , , ,conspicuously associated tongues with the last days ( Joel 2–:28-29) , (He) went on to relate the events of Pentecost own experience to his : ' in like manner, we do hear many brethren in the Church9 who possess pro--' pbette gift;sI and who through the Spirit speak al:L kinds of languages, 1 22 Williams and Waldvogel have done the most thorough study of pbarismata through church history that I was able to find, Anyone who wishes to do further study in this area would do well to consult their work, Concerning Novatian (d, 257) we find this : Novation wrote concerning the Holy Spirit, 1111lis is He who places prophets in the Church, instructs teachers9 directs tongues, gives powers and healings9 does wonderful work:sI offers discrininat;ion of spirits (etc), o ,and orders and arranges whatever other gifts there are of c!!arisaIata: and thus nakes the Lord1 S church everywhere, and in a:119 perfected and completed, 1 23 Bishop H,ilary of Poitiers (d, 36? A:D) "accepted the place of charismata in ordinary Christian life, "z'+ Bishop Ambrose of Milan (d, 397 AD) held that "believers receive gifts which they either desire or deserve, "z> On the other hand, Gbrysostom (d, 40'/7 AD) argued that glossola lia had ceased, He saw spiritual gifts as easily counter£eiteci, He argued that they ought to be diseouraged by the Ch11TaLe':6 We Ae Cr:1-swell quotes Ghrysostom' S commentary on I Corinthians 14:1-40 as saying Dbe whole passage is exceedingly obscure and the obscurity is occasioned by our ignorance of the facts and the cessation of happenings which were common in those days but _wlexamp:Led in our own, 27 (author's emphasis) Williams and Waldvogel see little evidence of any form of glossolalia during the Middle Ages in either east or west,28 According to King“rorn, + , ,drew a parallel spiritual gifts, ' gratuitous qlhonas Aquinas (d, 1274 AD) between spiritual fruits and He defined charisms (gifts) as graces' and equated spiritual gifts 15 with inner virtues such as love and hope o Aquinas t views Catholicism, 29 became the standard for 11:Lomas most of Roman tEhe next data we have available to us originate in the period of the Reformation, McRae blithely dismisses the issue by stating bluntly! "there is no record of the Reformers p:racticing it (ie, tongues) or any other miraculous gift, "DU Ehings are not quite this simple, however, As we shall see :Later in Section IV9 Luther on occasion discussed spiritual gi£ts9 including the extraordinary variety, Calvin, however, "espoused the point of view that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased with the death of the last apostle, "jl The Reformed branch of Protestantism generally viewed the manifestation of unusual spiritual gifts with suspicion,32 Many today continue the tradition (cf MacArthur et, al, ) , Williams and Waldvoge1 point out that among the various representatives of the Radical Reformation! "there were several manifestations of tongues and comparable phenonena" : Gathered in conventlcles (secret ©eetings forbidden by territorial or established churches) Anabapt;istis shared the conviction that in studying Scripture both me and woman would be inspired by the same Holy Spirit that had once spoken to the prophets and apostles, 33 During the Post--Reformation period9 ive find evidence of the full spectrum of charismaIia being exercised by various small groups in both Frqnce and England, and later in Gernany and then the United States, Associated with a group called the Convulsionaries of St, 1585 AD) in France we find stories by mlraculous healing and convulsive behavior, This gEoup laid Scripture Medarc! (circa aside in its quest for the experiential,34 In England9 we hear of the Quakers (circa 1650 Ali) who in their worship t’endeavored to follow the promptings of the Spirit as he directed from within, 1135 Quakers spoke much of the t’Power of the Lord" which worked in them9 compelling them to weep9 sing9 or speak, Although they were severly persecuted they continued on undaunted,jb tIlhe }lanl;ers +lappealed to an inward C:hrist9 denying the 16 external authority of creeds and clerics in much the same way as did the Quakers, "i/ In late 17t;b Century France, we find the Cevenol priests, Here to we find reports of glosgolalia, But, nbecause their prophecies Igent unfulfilled they were branded heretics, "jB Also in France we find the Camisards9 a group very much involved in using the gifts of prophecy and tongues,Sy Williams and Wad.vogel report that the Canisards were a group of French Heugenots and claimed they were directly inspired by the Holy Spirit : tI:he Camisards maintained that 1 God has nowhere in the Scriptures concluded himself from dispensing again the extraordinary gifts of his Spirit unto men, ' 40 Williams and Waldvogel continue by pointing out that "twenty years after the dispersion of the Camisards in 1'/10" : ,,,glossolalia Between appeared in the Jansenist community, :L'/3C) and 1733 prophet;ices became increasingly frequent among them, 41 Mac Arthurl too9 reports that the Jansenists, a group of Ronan Catholic reformers , , , ,were reported to be holding night meetings in their leader1 s toni) where supposed ecstatic tongueg occurred, 42 Elle first group of this type we find on American shores is the Shakers (circa 1750) , Speaking in tongues was an important part of their worshipe45 WIen Christ returned, the Shakers c:Lained that He would return as a woman, They believed that {he operation of spiritual gifts was a sign of the last days,44 Ekxtraordinary spiritual gifts reportedly occurred in Germany in 1817, Gustav von Below? an army officer experienced a profound and life-changing conversion, , ,soon the gifts of the Holy 11 Spirit, including tongues appeared, 1145 Here9 strangely enough, an ecclesiastical commission sent to investigate declared the phenomena to be of God,46 In John early ministry, Kenneth Kinghorn reports that sone people began to faint with religious emotion during his meetings : Uhis phenonenon was called being ’'slain in the Spirit;o " Wesle} took a dim view of this activity and he forbade it, !!!he instances of fainting soon disappeare(Ie 47 17 During the 191;h Century, Charismatic manifestations occurred in England among the followers of Edward Irving, tu iT_Nor--' way among the followers of Professor G, Job:n60n in 08:Los'bY and in America among the early Mormons,> 0 Modern Pentecostalism looks back to an incident at Charles F, FarLam1 S Bible School in Uopeka, Kansas at the turn of the century for its origin, bl About twenty years ago 9 Pentecostal-type occurrences began among mainline Christian Churches and continue until the present day with little sign of abating, As one looks back through church history, as we have just cione9 searching for clues to the continuance of special Chartsmata from apostolic times , the data is confusing and ineonclusive, it is possible to argue either way, using the sane data, It is surprising, however, to note how many individual outbreaks continue to turn up as scholars sift through the data, I personally have difficulty with a f etr of the special Charismatic gifts9 not because I do not believe that it is possible for them to happen today, but because I see them as problematic for the church and our understanding of the Scriptures, Dbe gifts that concern me could be classified under the title 1’direct revelation” (eg, anticipatory prophetic utterances dis.-. eerning of spirits , interpretation of tongues ? etc , ) This will be more clearly explained in Section V of this paper, 111 q:he Scriptural Basis For Spiritual Gifts Let us turn now to see what the Scriptures themge:Lveg have to say about spiritual gifts, it is surprising how much the New eestament has to say about charismata9 especially in the letters of Paul, Here, we find a writer who has taken the time to reflect upon the Charismatic gifts, Paul endeavors, as Koenig sgys , 11to evaluate them! to understand what role they ought to play in the life of the church, to rank them in order of importance, 1152 Paul himself was personally acquainted with all of the charisma I;a, including tongues , and one cannot find a place in his writings of theme where he expressly forbids the use of any 18 According to Edgar Krentz : , , ,Paul the Apostle above all others develops and extends the understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit, For Paul, the Spirit is the dynamic pre--- senee of Christ in the post-resurrection church, He expowers , shapes 9 and norms the confes6ion, lifes and hope of both the individual Christian and the community, 53 In the post-apostolic age, the Church looked to Isaiah 11 :2 for a list of the endowments of the Spirit rather than to the Apostle Paul, in Isaiah we find qualities rather than spiritual gifts being exto11ed9 wisdom9 understan(iing9 knowlecige9 fear of the Lord, and so on, in the New £!!estament;9 the closest parallel to Isaiah 11 would be t;he discussion of the "fruits’' of the Spirit in Galatians 5, \{e will have more to say about the fruits of the Spirit later, Paul looks to Baptism as one of the sources of the gift of the Holy Spirit, !!!he New llestament; speaks of individuals receiving the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands9 ( Acts 8:17) and through the mere hearing of the Word being preached? ( Acts 4:4) , The question remains whether the Holy Spirit and his gifts are given through these various means, I propose that they are and will examine this question more closely in Section V, We have come to the point in our discussion where we must define the term charismata, A survey of the literature reveals several definitions, but a common thread seems to hold most of them together, E, Andrews in the Interpreter' s Dictionary of ,The Bible offers the following definition of charismaa: {I}he term used in the New Destament to desILgnate the special endowments of the members of the church for its service, 54 McRae defines a spiritual gift by saying: , , ,a divine endowment of a special ability for ser-vice upon a member of the body of Christ, 55 Spiritual gifts have something supernatural about them, They allow individuals to accomplish deed8 that;9 on their own I would be impossible, They are given by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of serving others, IIlley equip the Christian for gervice and ministry, 19 Many of the gifts are difficult to define, One comes to wonder whether we should even attempt to define them exactly, Perhaps they are meant to be flexible enough for use in all ages and all gjtuat;iona, !!!he gift of prophecy, for example9 means to some of today’s (;harismatics9 the ability to forete:L:L the future, Others would argue that "prophecy” means an accurate and forceful proclaara-tion of God1 s will as expressed in Holy Scripture, I would because of the define the gift along the lines of the latter concern : have about the misuse of direct revelation, [1:he point is this , however: no one definition of any of the spiritual gifts can be adamant;ly held as the only possible explanation, There should be a built in flexibility here, ale Greek words translated spiritual gifts are y&ptaInTel , which occurs 17 times IInthe New Testament, and &Pm , which comes from the verb aJetC , to give, Another word which is translated "spiritual gifts" or Hspiritua1 tbingsn is IWt waylegs And still another is l&Vg> HerS which is translated t’nanifesI;at;ion , " yZVvopa or /4(eaRI , however, are the nost commonly used terms for spiritual gifts, They appear only in the writings of :Paul and in 1 Peter 4:10, They are taken from the root word Xdpls which means ”WaGe.:’ Lite,ally translat,d, X&cOaara nearIS "gifts of grace" or ltengracements, t! According to Paul9 the most important of the Spirit's gifts is eternal life through Jesus Christ, (Romans 6: 23) Without tlrlg , none of the other rift;g are obtainable or of an/ uae , CJharismata are freely given9 by grace alone t and cannot be earned, God longs to give these gifts to hiD people, And he is able to do this through his servantg, Paul9 in Romans 1:11 says simply: For 1 long to see you9 that I may impart to you some 6piritua:L gift to strengthen you, These gifts are freely offered to every Christian, But those outside I Corinthians the faith are not eligible 1:7 says : to receive them, 20 , , ,you are not lacking in any spiritual gifts as you wait for the revealing of our :Lord Jesus Christ, The ”you” here refers to the Church at Corinth, Again, in Bphesians l:3 we find: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing, ,, in this sense, then, every Christian can properly be called '’Charismatic, , , ,each '’ I Corinthians has his own special kind and one of another, Andrews points spiritual gifts ?: 7 says gift : from God, one of one out that Paul has a very democratic view of believing that every Christian possesses some of l;hens with varying degrees of fulness (Romans 12:6) ,>6 Paul directs Christians to seek gifts of the Spirit eagerly (I Corinthians 12:31 ; 1 Corinthians 14:1) , He says 9 however9 that God, (through his Holy Spirit) is the one who makes the soveriegn decision as to which gifts are for whom, "God has the sovereign freedom to give charismata when and how he pleases, 11>/ In I Corinthians 12 :18 we find these words : , , ,but novi, God has placed the members, each one of t;hens in the Body, Just as He desired, Also compare 1 Corinthians 12:11 : But one and the same Spirit works all these things9 distributing to each one individua11y9 just as he wills , Spiritual They are not gifts are not to be a source of boasting or pride, to be received humbly and used for the glory of God, to buttress the human ego , Galatians 5 :25-26 : Let us have no self-'conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another, It seems that spiritual gifts are to be distinguished from natural talents, All people, including those outside of the Body of C;bris I;! have natural talents, But charisnata9 spiritual gifts , are specially given for spiritual tasks , and, as we have seen already, they are reserved for Christians only, Being endowed by the Holy Spirit with special gifts is not something that happens only once, IVe are told in Galatians 5:16 to "walk in the Spirit, '’ 11]he Greek is in the present tense and 21 indicates a continuing action: "keep on walking in the Spirit, ’1 nphesians 5 : 18 counsels : "be filled with the Holy Spirit" Againt we are left with the impression that this is something that is to go on continuously in our lives, Spiritual gifts are made up of ordinary and extraordinary manifestations and abilities o Nlodern Oharismat;ics tend to emphasize the extraordinary, Extraordinary gifts include the ability to utter special wisdom and knowledge by the prompting of the Spirit; the ability to heal supernaturally-; the ability to work miracles, speak in tongues, interpret messages in tongues1 and so on, (cf , I Corinthians 12:8-11) The ordinary gi:fI;sI on the other hand, include service! teaching, egEor liation, giving9 and act;6 of mercy, 12:6-'8) There are other more mundane gifts administrations , and so on, (cf , Romans as well : helps ! An LCA document which looks at +he Charismatic in todayt s churches argues Movement : !!!he Church needs the tnon-remarkable t as well as the 'remark:able1 gifts, , , The lists of Charisma I;a in the New 111estament; are not inclusive lists, in fact I it is probably that gifts are needed by today1 s church which were unknown in Bible times, 58 Many deal with the more out of the ordinary gifts by simply dismissing them as temporary and no longer needed, But! as we have seen, historical data are far from conclusive, I have come to the point of being convinced that we nuDt let our theology determine for us which gifts we expect, £!}hi6 will be further clarified in Section V, Dbe question regarding which gifts ought to be found in the Church has generated more heat than light, as far as I am concerned, Churches have been known to split over this very issue, It seems to me that the attitude expressed in a report to the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod in 1977 on the issue of Charismatic Renewal states the most useful way of approaching this whole controversial issue : The Church will accept with joy and gratitude wly _gift which the SpIrit in his grace may chee>oe to bestow on use ee The Church, therefore, reject out of hand the possibility will not that God may, in 22 His grace and wisdom endow some in Christendom with the same abilities and powers he gave his Church in past centuries, 59 Scripture reveals that God does not neces8arily act in exactly the smile way in various ages and epochs, God need not bestow the same gifts on people in different ages, Dimes change, Perhaps spiritual gifts do too, it is difficult to prove this conclusively either way, And to try to do so is to miss the Doint, God does give gifts to his people in every age for ser-vice and the upbuilding of the Body of Christ, Exactly which gifts he sees fit to bestow is His business not our?so Our task is to receive what he has to offer and use it to his gloryo There are several lists of spiritual gifts in Scripture (Ronans 12:6--8; 1 Corinthians Mark 16:17--18) , it is 12:8-119 289 29-.31 ; 1 Peter 4:11 ; apparent that these lists are not meant to be exhaustive, q:hey overlap9 with some specific gifts (ego prophecy) being found in more than one list, The spectrum of lists is broad and all--encompassing, The actual number of gifts is difficult to determine, As one surveys these liStS9 one iS struck by the diversity, Larry (}hristenson, a Charismatic Lutheran pastor, na+;es : The spectrum of spiritual gifts nentioned in Scrip-t;ure is broad and varied - from the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23) to the gift of celibacy (1 Corinthians '/7:?) , 60 Stendabl points out how different denominations have en-- phasized certain gifts and neglected others : , , ,every denomination or sect takes its gift of the Spirit and buildg a gpeela:L little atlapel around it, q:he fullness of the Spirit is 9 in the image of Paul! the Body of Christ with many and diverse members, ies gifts, 61 I agree with o, Peter Wagner that arguing about the number of gifts or which of them ought to be operative today is not where we should be concentrating our energies, Our underlying philosophy regarding ckrariFmata is what is really important: My studies of the growing churches in America have not led me to believe that the question of which spiritual gifts are or are not now in effect is a primary growth factor, Much more important seems to be the recognition that the Holy Spirit is working 23 through gifts and that Christians need to discovers develop, and use them, 62 Some individuals want to know how long they can expect to possess a eertain spiritual gift, Scripture seems to indicate that gifts are given for life bu+;! again, we cannot be adamant, God, in his wisdom, nay see fit to change one's gifts + but this would seem to be the exception rather than the rule, C, Peter Wagner is the only author I came across who attempted to answer this question and his reply generally coincides with what was just said: , , ,it is better to know what gifts you have and that you can depend on this, rable, So are gifts, We have already said 63 that Body parts are not transfer.gifts have one primary function - they are given to enable service in the Kingdom of God, Gun)tel explains that }£p£9aa7U must be understood in relatiQn to 8tq,FOY&, (service) otherwise, lie lose the proper perspect;ive of what spiritual gifts are all about : Parul designates /£rc9naM the correlat;ive of flea xo Pia , - The gift that God gives to the Christian should not be used for a mere display of supernatural power -. it includes an obligation, 64 Spiritual gifts are means to an en(19 not ends in themselves, I Peter 4:10: As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace, Gharismata are given to build up the Body of Christ ! and to reach out more effectively to a world in need, They a=e bestowed for ministry9 and without them, ministry becomeg an impoggjb:Le task• TheY are given to be use<19 not to remain hidden away, Ehese gifts help to ’lbuild up the Body of Christ, " 4:12) This point I Corinthians (Ephesians cannot be overempbasized, Compare Paul in 14::L2 •••since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the Church, If I had my way these words would be put up in bold let,ters wherever Charismatic Christians meet, As a matter of fact, not just "CharismatiGSl " as we commonly use this tera9 but 9very Christian who would like to make responsible use of his or her 24 charismat;a must never forget PaUl 1 S dictum, It is plain to anyone who reads the book of I Corinthians that, although spiritual gifts were very nuch in evidence in the Corinthian fellowship, too many believers had forgotten what the function of these gifts was supposed to be, Instead gifts became an occasion circles today for pride too , Christians and self-gratification, have fallen victim in to the many very same snare and (ie:Lusion: , , ,the community lacked consciousness of the purpose, and therefore a proper criterion for evaluating the charismatia, Spiritual 65 gifts are to operate in a context of loving con-- cern for the neighbor, All of us are aware of Paul's admonition in I Corinthians 13: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels and have not love ! I am a noisy gong or a clwrging cymbal, Without the requisite love, spiritual gifts can only 11cater to human pride and become perverted, ’l66 This thought is repeated again and again throughout the literature on spiritual gifts ! but is so easily forgotten in real life, it is something that, anYone who wants to take spiritual gifts seriously mISt always have before them, Priebe, in discussing this issue, makes mr important point: o BOttle lists of the gifts of the Spirit are closely connected with discussions of the importance of lo ieee +67 We have alreadY mentioned the fruits of the Holy Spirit as outlined in Galatians 5:22-23+ "Fruits” differ from "gifts" in that they are social virtues , they are what Christians are : gifts are what Christians @o IWery Christian is expected to manifest the fruits of the Spirit9 but no{ every Christian is expected to manifest every gifto Truits9 it seems to net are something we grow intoe Gifts are more like tools which are necessary as Christians go about their spiritual tasks, Gifts should be exercised in the context of fruits of the Spirit, especialIY lovee Gifts of the Holy Spirit do not operate in vactlo o Spiritual g:i.EbB cannot be properly understood if divorced from Paul1 s analogy of the Body of Christ, Body parts are 25 interdependent ; one cannot function properly alone, only in tandem with others, I Corinthians 12 : 21 : The eye cannot say to the hand, ’I have no need of you, '- nor again the bend to the feet, of yOU a 11 have no need 1 The body is made up of diverse members, The BodY of Christ is the same, qIhat diversity is not only important9 it is essential, Thus, the diversity we have seen in the cbarismat;a is mean{ to be, But all of the diverse parts must learn to work together in harmony, in a symbiotic relationship, Ellis our be applied directly to our discussion of those interested in making use of the charisma+;a, God bestows gifts sovereignly, Our gifts differ from our neighbor1 s, But toge-ther! all of those in the Body of Christ, possess all that is necessary for effective ministry, in isolation, everything is thrown out of equitebrium, All parts of the Body1 even those which appear to be the least useful, are inportant; to its proper function+ And so it is with the charismata, The less spectacular gifts are just as important as the more flambuoyant, An individual Christian never be led to believe that he or she is not as important another member of the Body because the gifts they happen to possess are of the more mundane variety, cannot be the same, Woe to the body if All parts they were ! must as of the body So it is with the Body of Christ, Uogetller9 vle possess everything required, Individually, we are helpless, Holy Scripture t;ella us that charismaIia are not to be neg-' lected, Tron what has been said so far, this should be quite obvious by now, But when you look around at the church, it seems that the message somehow has not gotten across a Paul told Timothy: (1 Yimothy 4: 14) Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophetic utterancee oo and , , ,I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is v/it.bin you, , , (II Tino+;by 1 :6) 26 IV The "Charismatic” View of Spiritual Gifts IL would be useful at this point in our discussion to have a look at some of the commonly held tenets of the (;hari6matile Movement wld then to eompare those views with traditional Lutheran theology, This paper proposes a greater awareness and use of the chaDismat.a, But, it also proposes that thi6 should be done in an enlightened sort of way'9 avoiding the lnistakes of the contemporary Charismatic Movement, Once we have d:i.scovere(i some of the mistakes that others have made ! perhaps we will be better able to avoid them ourselves 5:he key doctrine for Charismatic Christians i.s the "Baptism in the Holy Spirit, " Here9 it is said that Christians must seek o a second encounter with the Holy Spirit, one is to receive a special "filling’1 after with the conversion, Holy where Spirit, 5:he roots of this teaching can be found in John Wesley1 s theology: John VJesley9 the founder of the Methodist Church had already made a distinction between the sanctified, or those who had been baptized in the Spirits and ordinary Christians, 68 According to Classical Pentecostal doctrine ? which most Charisma];ics adhere to9 the traditional churches are somewhere between Easter and Pentecost,by Walter Hollenweger notes that: Innumerable writings give instructions how to prepare for the Baptism in the Holy Spirits and what con(ii- t;ions have to be fulfilled for it to be received, '/70 (Jharismatics generally agree that it is precisely here I during the Baptism of the Holy Spirits that a Christian receives the Charismaa, Before the "Baptismt’ (abbreviated BHS) an individual is said to possess only salvation, nothing more, The BHS is said to occur when its outward manifestations speaking in tongues , breaks forth, This is all the proof that is needed, abe BHS is God's 11payoff " for earnest seeking an(19 in the Jargon, "praying through, it BHS is the rite of passage for Pentecostalism and NeoPentecostalism, One is no long " Just saved; '’ one is now "Spiritfilled'1 and proudly bear6 that label, One has now "arrived" spiritually, God has shown his pleasure in the individual1 s