For This Reason 12

[HKHaugan]

One of the many bipolar positions in the church is the evangelical/charismatic divide usually centering on the tongues issue. It’s much more subtle than the conservative/liberal chasm since its clear to most that the conservative is a long term absolutist about Scripture while the liberal is more attuned to letting the contemporary culture guide thought and action. And further the liberal tends to be more institutional relying on political pressure as a way to attain contemporary social goals. But the evangelical/charismatic feud is spiritual and involves eternal issues, which are where and why the devil spends his energy inciting as much dissension as possible.

Listening to this controversy about tongues over the years has been both tiresome and grievous. Tiresome because the same arguments occur over and over and grievous because I believe it grieves the Holy Spirit. Now in my purview I try to see if there is a middle ground or can I say a balance that brings the two together to complement each other since I believe both have much to offer. The evangelical position is an elaborate intellectual challenge that gives the Bible the final authority to reorder the mind from a secular self-indulgent intellectuality to a spiritually disciplined mind to think like Jesus thinks. The charismatic position is a challenge to restore the heart to trust the Lord Jesus to act through the gifts and fruit of the Spirit to accomplish God’s will in worship and action.

Perhaps we can begin to see the where the conflict arises. The mind is suspicious of the heart and its tendency to random emotionalism. The heart is suspicious of the mind in its tendency to overthink and rely solely on the intellect. Both sides have fans, experiences and justifiable positions but every so often I get a bit cynical about leadership on both sides. Let me say why and note that I am the one who is admitting my tendency to be a bit cynical due to the spiritual callouses accrued from the ongoing tedium involved.

The ‘why’ is in leaders who fear they will lose control of their congregations. Ego is a strong factor when a strong personality has an intense commitment to a position. If you can build a good presentation for your position you remain in control. People follow eloquence, logic, genuine emotion and the ability to sway an audience. But to what end? Is it ultimately a salvation issue? Does one or the other jeopardize a believers’ eternal position? I’m always suspicious when anyone presents themselves as having perfected their minds that they have exclusive access to the way the Lord God works in any person’s life.

Look at the reality of the human mind, heart and spirit. All are out balance due to sin. Some need a strong emphasis on structure, others on emotional recovery, still others on spiritual awareness. Part of a leader’s responsibility is to discern where any person is starting with his leadership who in turn do the same with those they are in contact with. What happens with great speakers, strong personalities and natural leaders is that they tend to isolate themselves by their intensity. Either their superior knowledge or magnetic personalities become reasons that those they relate to personally defer to them and honest interchange disappears. Their followers let them dictate the atmosphere in attitude and discernment is discouraged.

Recently I was given an outline on Ephesians that was about 20 pages long. It was an impressive finely detailed use of Scripture until I came to seven pages which were a denominational leader’s diatribe opposing the use of tongues. It was loaded with historical and scriptural notations which basically implied that anyone reading this and not seeing its ‘clear teaching’ was defective. Reflecting on my reaction it seemed a condemnation on great numbers of Christians including me who must obviously be a second class evangelical if not an unworthy Christian. If I didn’t think like that and have all the answers like that I need to go home and work until I get it like that. One word comes to mind, pharisaic.

On the other hand I have read and heard some rather heavy handed charismatic and Pentecostal leaders who left me in the same quandary. If you don’t have the ‘second blessing’, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit evidenced by the gift of tongues, you are not a real Christian or a half Christian at best. If you don’t have this experience you’re dead in the water. It’s all about the experience and being able to ‘let go’ all the time. It’s not about the mind, it’s all about the Spirit and don’t you feel the Spirit working? The Scripture is there to support the experience. Charismatic leaders can do the same thing the strong minded evangelical does.

Both positions claim the Holy Spirit’s guidance and inspiration. The evangelical relies on the mind and the charismatic relies on the heart. For the evangelical, worship is more mind massaging while for the charismatic worship strokes the heart. The evangelical position relies mainly on the gift of teaching to develop doctrinal structure the Holy Spirit uses to build confidence in the Bible as the mind of God that will influence behavior, ministry and mission. The charismatic position relies on sensing the leading of the Holy Spirit through the Scripture, worship and inspired outreach. Spiritual gifts and spontaneous response in worship give the believer concrete evidence that if you lead from the heart the Holy Spirit will take you where you need to be. Over the years I’ve noticed that both use one phrase to conclude the superiority of their position, “The clear teaching of Scripture is….” Viewed from the outside this divide is justification for unbelievers who will discern dissension decisively through the spirit of fear to stay away from churches altogether.

Returning to Ephesians 3 “the clear teaching” about Jesus can be applied to this canyon of spiritual division, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations…” and this section closes “For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit (vs.14, 18).” It seems to me, in spite of abuses on both sides, that the Lord is working through both emphases. So who are we to keep stoking the fires of Gehenna (I’ll leave you to look up that reference on your own)?

This principle of the Jew/Gentile becoming one in Jesus can be applied to any separation in human living. It starts with the individual in need of balance when looking how to handle freedom and structure. Male and female can become one in Christ through the Spirit; ethnic groups, liberals and conservatives, individuals and groups, parents and children can become one in the Spirit. Scripture certainly gives us both the encouragement and the methodology. Take your pick of all the doubles in conflict due to sin and the Lord can unite them in Himself. But what He is uniting is not their separated concepts but their hearts through the Spirit. Scripture and tradition, freedom and law, the believer and the Body of Christ find their balance in Him. The spirit, heart and mind---the image of God in each of us---finds its residence in His neighborhood.