Spiritual Warfare

Fire in China, Ashes in America

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God's torch is passing to Asia, and he is performing many miracles in China.
—American missionary David Lin

Diane over a Crossroads is starting a series looking at the underground Chinese Church. I'll be quoting liberally from her blog, Chinese Girl with Her Biblebut as always, it pays great dividends to read her post.

Every Godblogger I know tries to tell it like it is, but inevitably the vast majority of us are English-speakers of American and British extraction. No matter what we might think of ourselves, most of us are not that much different in how we reflect a Western Church philosophy with roots in Reformation Europe. Acculturated as we are within Evangelicalism (mostly), we also take on the sheen of our wealthy American and U.K. culture. Especially for those of us in the United States, our models for how to live out the Christian walk are inextricably linked to American Manifest Destiny, the American Dream, Rugged Individualism, and a "What's in it for me?" attitude.

Yet not every Christian in the world thinks or acts like we do. I know it's hard to believe, but we are not the measure of all things Christian.

Yesterday, I posted that our Western roots and over-reliance on Greek thought have led us into a pit of division, where sides must be chosen, for some have even wondered which hemisphere of our brains is more godly. While we seem to be obsessed with drawing dividing lines wherever we can stick our straight-edge, the non-Western world shows us a Christianity far less at odds with itself—or with the Gospel.

Take the simple act of prayer. Ask most Americans about prayer and they'll say they wholeheartedly believe in it, even if they don't do all that much of it daily. The Chinese underground Church takes a different stance. Not only are the leaders of those churches praying several hours each day, but they have older saints who are devoting themselves to prayer all day and most of the night.

A couple years ago I posted a comment to TheOoze Web site stating that I did not believe that the Church in America would ever see any kind of revival unless people started praying a minimum of two hours a day. The response was that two hours of daily time dedicated to nothing but prayer was too much to ask. TheOoze is an Emerging Church site, so I was not surprised by that reaction from the mostly sub-35 crowd there. But what has been eye-opening to me is that Emerging Church foes in the Traditional Church largely have the same response: two hours solely devoted to prayer is unreasonable given most people's circumstances.

If one assumes that we continue to follow the societal structures we've created in our "every man for himself" society hellbent on fifty hour work weeks, two hour commutes, and family quality time, then maybe two hours is too much to ask. But persecuted Chinese Christians are pulling it off. They seem to be loaded with praying people, but where are our Western prayer warriors? If we wonder why Christianity in the U.S. is in the doldrums, I think we should look no further than the woeful prayer lives that most of us have, from the newest believer up to the most senior pastor. What kind of vital faith do we expect to see when we try to squeeze by on a handful of minutes tossed heaven's way while we rush around like headless chickens?

I don't hear American Christians talk about breakthroughs in the Spirit the way the Chinese do, either. We tend to timidly toss in the towel when confronted with a mountain-sized challenge—or else we resort to the following:

  • Traditional Church – Form a committee to examine the challenge. Form another one when the original disbands because of in-fighting.
  • Emerging Church – Walk a labyrinth to clear our heads so we can think deep, spiritual thoughts about the challenge while asking, "What would Thomas Merton do?"
  • Seeker-Sensitive Church – Commission a demographic study to examine what most people think of the challenge, then design new programming that makes talking about the challenge culturally relevant.
  • Charismatic Church – Bring in a band of traveling prophets to have them scry the meaning of the challenge in terms of battle plans for Joel's Last Days Army.

What do Chinese house churches do? They fast and pray for as long as it takes for God to resolve the challenge. As one Chinese Church leader says it:

When there is a real resistance, the teams do not try to push the Gospel. They just go on their knees and wait on the Lord to hear His voice for direction on what to do. They just keep silent and continue to fast and pray. This is a very practical part of their lives.

Is that how our churches today—no matter what kind they might be—do anything?

Our Western tendency to compartmentalize the Faith is strange to Asian believers. They have a far more holistic view of the Gospel and how it plays out in everyday life. From Diane's post:

Brother Denny (an American missionary interviewer): How do the Acts of the Apostles compare to the Chinese church? What does the Chinese church believe about the Book of Acts?

Brother Paul (Chinese): They would say, "We are there. It is our normal Christian life." They believe that Acts is a demonstration of the normal Christian life. It is a testimony of the resurrected Christ, and He is still the same today. They do not believe that miracles have passed away.

Brother Ren (Chinese): We have to understand that the Gospel that is preached in China, is a little bit different. The emphasis is not only intellectual and mental messages. It is fifty percent preaching, fifty percent showing the power of the Gospel. There is always an expectation and readiness for miracles. It is normal that anytime when the message of the Gospel is pronounced, there is going to be a demonstration of the power of God in that situation. People can see clearly that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He is the Savior of the world. The church of China is not praying for miracles, but they are living in miracles. It is like [Brother] Paul said: it is the normal Christian life.

While we continually argue the theological points of our own little factions, the Chinese Church is living the whole Gospel, not just the parts they like. The result is that God is growing the Chinese Church exponentially, while we American Christians bicker about one topic or another as fewer people care to listen to what we have to say.

Here is a Church that has none of the material available to them that we have. They have no money, no political standing, no cleverly-devised programs, no conventions, and nowhere near the dogmatic factionalism that we have. But what they do have is a faith that moves mountains and may very well topple the atheistic Communist regime in their country of 1.3 billion souls.

And what of the persecuted Chinese Church's view of evangelism? Well, they believe that the Great Commission comes first. What is unusual to Westerners is how they go about it.

In many cases, Christians are sent out to towns that have no Christian witness and the first thing they ask is, "What is the greatest problem in this village?" When they hear what it is, they immediately begin fasting and praying that Jesus Christ would prove Himself greater than the problem. Diane quotes the Chinese Christians (from the quote above) saying that two young women went into a town and were told that a demon-possessed man had the townspeople under his thumb. They confronted the man in the name of Jesus, cast out his demons, and led him to Christ. Then that same man joined the two women as they spoke to the entire village about Jesus. All three hundred in that village repented and gave their lives to the Lord.

Does that model seem familiar? We saw it in Jesus' ministry and the ministry of the apostles in Acts. In fact, the Lord Himself advocated this type of ministry when He said:

And proclaim as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. Acquire no gold nor silver nor copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
—Matthew 10:7-22 ESV

Should we be surprised at the quote that opened this post? We out-thought the Lord here in America. We told His Spirit that we can do it all in our own cleverness or we told Him that He could not work that way anymore. Either way, we seem to have lost Him here in America. He took His fire to China.

I can't read Diane's post and not get excited. Unfortunately, I'm excited for China and not for America. We can't seem to see what we've done to ourselves because of our overt anti-supernaturalism and our reliance on our own human reasoning. Meanwhile, the Chinese Church is receiving the blessing of God while they live out the whole Gospel, or as they say, "The normal Christian life."

I don't know about you, but I want that same kind of "normal Christian life" here in America. What has happened to the Church here is criminal, but we brought it on ourselves. It will take the Holy Spirit of God to bring His torch back our way, but He'll only do that if we are ready.

Lord Jesus, make us all ready.

Tags: China, America, Revival, Holy Spirit, Evangelism, Church, Faith, Christianity, Jesus, God

How Not to Be a Charismatic Headcase

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If you don’t know by now, I’m a charismatic. I let that get out from time to time online, but some might consider it my dirty little secret and immediately write me off.

My journey to the charismata was inspired by a man I could not explain. If ever there was a man around whom a halo flowed, it was this man. He knew things about people that they did not tell him. He laid his hands on people and they were made well. He prayed big prayers that asked for big answers from God and he got them more often than not. He knew the Scriptures in such a way that every time he opened his mouth to speak, wisdom flowed out that set people on fire. He disarmed every person who got close enough to be hugged by him. He could even call to birds and animals and they would come to him. And he was a Lutheran.

Quite apart from him, but because of his influence in the lives of so many people, I started asking God what made this man this way. So God began teaching me. How appropriate that this same man who had led me to the Lord years before just happened to be around the night I was baptized in the Holy Spirit so fully that I felt more alive than at any moment in my life to that point. Like warm oil, the Holy Spirit was poured out on me and He was life more abundant in a way that I pray everyone who comes to Cerulean Sanctum experiences at least once in their life, if not every day. That touch from God changed everything for the better in my life.

That’s my story in a nutshell.

Now that the blogosphere is loaded lately with commentary about all things charismatic, I feel I must comment. Being one of the few active charismatic bloggers almost necessitates that I say something. This post is part of that something.

Being a defender of the truth of the charismatic gifts for today is tough. Not because I’m fighting from a position of weakness, but because the astonishing reality of the gifts is too often buried by over-the-top charismatic excess, or as Chuck Smith dubbed it, “charismania.”

Now THAT'S a snake handler!I hate charismania. It’s one of the things I loathe most of all. If the devil is in the details, then charismania is an in-depth laundry list of heresy and stupidity. Pyromaniac Phil has posted several things on charismania lately (1, 2, 3, 4) and reading the comments from an infertile couple rung through the ringer by clueless charismaniacs had me seething. I wish some people knew how brutally they dishonor the Lord when they engage in charismania.

I’ve been around the American Church in a variety of denominations, parachurch organizations, and individual churches enough to know that every sector of what passes for the “Church” here has enough people who long ago went off the deep end to fill book after book with nonsense passing for Christian expression. No denomination is exempt and neither is any individual church. Craziness is out there everywhere, and with that craziness comes error and omission, whether it be in doctrine or in practice. Yet nothing gets the big guns locked and loaded than a bunch charismatic headcases.

I’ll be the first to admit that far too many self-labeled charismatics cashed in their orthodoxy cards a long time ago and deserve all the criticism they pass off as persecution.

No post on Cerulean Sanctum has generated more hits and links than one of the first I posted two years ago called “Charismatic Churches and the Cult of the New.” I would encourage everyone to read that post because a lot of what follows here stems from that entry. What grieves me is that too many ardent Christians looking to bash all modern expressions of the charismata and charismatics love to cite that post as a reason why charismatics have been deceived by the Enemy. That was never my intent, nor is it my intent for this post to continue to add kindling to their arguments.

Nevertheless, I press on and offer this post as a warning to all charismatics. If you love the Lord, if you desire to see the Holy Spirit honored, if you long to see other Christians stop bashing charismatics, if you want to see the Spirit of God sweep through our churches with revival, then these admonitions are for you.

1. Stop being so undiscerning
The gift of discerning of spirits is a favorite charismatic gift, yet how terrible that so few actually practice it as God intends. Charismaniacs long ago excised 1 John 4:1 from their Bibles, so how can they not pass off every spiritual manifestation, no matter how deviant from the Scriptures it may be, as an act of God? “Look before you leap” may not be in the Bible, but I would love to see more charismatics just sit still for a few moments and lift what they may be hearing before God Himself before they rush to deliver some “word from the Lord.” I almost never speak anything out to anyone until I’m absolutely sure it’s of God. As a result, I speak out far less than I could. If only more charismatics had that kind of restraint.

2. Stop letting immature people minister to others “charismatically”
Nothing bothers me more than this. I don’t know a single church, charismatic or not, that perfectly practices the discipline noted in the Scriptures when it comes to correcting the wayward. Yet for some reason charismatic churches are worst of all when it comes to dealing with people who are blowing it. Too many charismaniacs are pronouncing bogus words of knowledge, wisdom, and prophecy over people. Too many people who are ministering to others have a vaunted opinion of their “giftings” and should instead be told to sit down and stifle it until they have a solid grounding in Scriptural knowledge and proper church practice.

A couple years ago, I felt compelled to start telling the leadership in charismatic churches that people were giving false words to people. The list of false things people have said to me (and people I know well) over the years dwarfs the number of correct words people have relayed. Like 100:1.

Anyone looking to discredit modern charismata need look no further than this kind of abuse to find a reason to lay a blanket condemnation over it all. That kills me, but we charismatics have only our astonishing lack of discipline of the immature to blame for this.

Personally, I think all charismatic “word gifts” should be run past the pastors and elders. (God help that church if the leadership is just as undisciplined.) A credible accuracy of words and actions need to be established in anyone. You simply don’t give a howitzer to a baby to play with, and neither should church leaders allow people whose spiritual lives have not been tried by fire to abuse spiritual gifts.

3. Stop overemphasizing the gifts and the people who have them
One the greatest reasons for abuse of the charismata is that too many charismatics have made possessing those charismatic gifts the ne plus ultra of faith. As a result, people are led to conjure up those gifts just to fit in. Those folks, desperate to seem mature in the Lord, are practicing phony gifts—end of story. Frankly, that should bring immediate correction from church leadership, but more often than not it is simply written off without any disciplinary action.

Most charismatics don’t want to hear this, but I believe the true gifts are far more rare in the Western Church than we see in actual expression. That means a lot of people are trying to maintain a false image of being a fount of charismatic experience when they may not be. The damage that is done as a result of that fakery is astonishing. When we put so much emphasis on the charismata and “moving” in them, we create this problem. It’s time we regained some sense and put our emphasis on knowing the Scriptures, prayer, and holiness, rather than putting all our eggs into the gift basket.

4. Stop living in a charismatic ghetto
All people who call themselves charismatics would do well to read authors and teachers outside charismatic ranks. Not only would this go a long way in cutting down on some of the bizarre practices of charismania, it would aid charismatics in all aspects of ministry.

All Christians have their blind spots theologically and charismatics are no different. Too many Christians stay within their theological comfort zones and never grow deeper in Christ as a result. Certain charismatic churches are especially prone to this, particularly those that trace their lineage back to Azusa Street.

Along with a tendency to stay in the charismatic ghettos, the rabid anti-intellectualism I see in some charismatic circles is especially disturbing, as if if the Holy Spirit is quenched by a sharpened mind. Nonsense! Again, discernment is needed constantly in the Christian life, but if we can’t engage ideas that are outside our realms of experience, then we are not living up to the potential that God holds out for us.

5. Stop practicing magic
Nothing dishonors God more than attributing His power to objects, words, or certain rituals. The essence of witchcraft is to imbue things with power that radiates from within them. It is the very mark of idolatry.

Prayer hankies, rugs, and flags; “holy water”; certain repetitions of phrases and actions—they have no power. When charismatics start treating the manmade as if it has the power to bring about change for the Kingdom, then we have replaced the Holy Spirit with those objects and actions.

The charismaniac fringe is rife with such magic. This one issue bothers me tremendously when I see it espoused or practiced. Some charismatic churches base prayers prayed for others on odd little vocal tics, phrases, and chants as if God is being conjured up somehow. I’ve seen and heard of all sorts of excesses using items and actions, like placing numerous Bibles on people when praying for them, playing musical instruments around people while ministering them, and on and on. Folks, that’s magic being practiced. Other churches may not play around with magic in their services, but many of their members do privately. We need to cut out this cancer now.

If you’re a charismatic, I hope this post has made you think. If you’re not, I hope you understand that there are certainly problems in your church and denomination that may very well be just as deviant as some of the things that afflict charismatic churches and believers. If that’s you and this is just all grist for your particular mill, then you’ve missed the entire point.

I believe with all my heart that the Church of the 21st century should be no different than the Church of the 1st century in its expression to the dying world around it. Nor should it be any different between the brethren. That’s why all this is so important. The abuse of the charismata today is no more a proof against them than a lack of love expressed to hurting people negates the Gospel.

And we all know how easily each of us falters in displaying the love of Christ to our neighbors and our brothers in Christ, don’t we?

Clash of the Titans

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SwordsmanBefore I begin this post, I want to point something out. Call it a disclaimer, but here it is:

  1. What follows is not based on any scientific assessment, merely my general impressions after surfing through many blogs, talking with folks from both sides, and my history from being in both camps.
  2. As general impressions, they do not represent all individuals in either camp.

Now, onto the observation….

This struck me just this weekend and it shows an intriguing divide in the Christians blogosphere and in our churches. What I noticed was this:

  1. On the issue of Halloween, Calvinists were regularly FOR Halloween participation, while Charismatics were regularly AGAINST it.
  2. On the issue of the appropriateness of Christians reading Harry Potter books, Calvinists were routinely FOR reading the Potter books, while Charismatics were routinely AGAINST the books.
  3. On the issue of spiritual warfare, what constitutes spiritual warfare for Calvinists becomes more an issue of waging war against falsehood (conceptual), while Charismatics consider spiritual warfare to be waging war against the demonic (personal).
  4. That differing perspectives on spiritual warfare may be the reasons why Calvinists and Charismatics are on opposite sides of the Halloween and Harry Potter issues.

Is this merely C.S. Lewis's assertion about the demonic fully realized? (That two errors exist on demons: too much attention and too little.)

Thoughts?