Chapter 10.16

The Dangers of Super-supernaturalism

The Damage of a Monumental Delusion

Table of Topics

A) The Dangers of Super-supernaturalism

B) Positives are Not Unique, and All of Its Uniquenesses are Either Unimportant, Damaging, or Demonic

C) Ignoring the Sufficiency of Nature

D) Disparaging God

E) Disparaging Scripture & Exalting Experience

F) Redefining Spirituality

G) Intimidating & Criticizing Christians

H) Emotionally Damaging Christians

H.1) Promising healing

H.2) Promising wealth

H.3) Disparaging suffering

H.4) Preying on emotional breakdowns

H.5) Disappointing Christians

I) A Biblical Response to Super-supernaturalism

Extras & Endnotes

Primary Points

None of the positive things regarding super-supernaturalism are unique to it, and all of its true uniquenesses are either unbiblical or unimportant.

Super-supernaturalism leads to the disparagement of God because it claims miracles are needed to prove His love and compassion.

Super-supernaturalism makes experiences, which are subject to misinterpretation and demonic manipulation, to be as authoritative as Scripture.

Super-supernaturalism has redefined Christian spirituality as experiencing the miraculous gifts of the Spirit instead of His virtues, and subsequently have taken a rather arrogant, slanderous, and intimidating stance toward other Christians.

Through its unbiblical and unfulfilled promises, disparagement of the God-ordained value of suffering, and consistent preying on people’s emotions, super-supernaturalism has caused a great deal of damage in Christianity.

Our response to super-supernaturalism needs to begin with properly interpreting Scripture in order to offer a biblically based critique, confront its false doctrines and subsequent harm to Christians, forgive the true Christians and fake Christians involved in it, pray against this spiritual battle, and live out Authentic Christianity ourselves.

A) The Dangers of Super-supernaturalism

The doctrinal debate surrounding super-supernaturalism is much more than just that. We would claim that very few things have been used by satan to assault the Church more effectively in all of its history.

Throughout Knowing Our God we thoroughly discuss many of these very serious dangers and doctrinal errors of super-supernatural teaching and practice. These include:

1) Biblical and historical support refuting the super-supernaturalist claim that the miraculous sign gifts are still operating. ^[1]

2) A demonstration that current phenomena claimed to be miracle working is far inferior to biblical miracle working in supernatural power, and therefore there should be no such modern claim to such gifts. ^[2]

3) An exceptional amount of fraud in super-supernaturalism. ^[3]

4) A weakening of the divine authentication of the authority of Scripture because of super-supernaturalist claims to the sign gifts of the King, Prophets and Apostles. ^[4]

5) An alarming lack of discernment regarding distinguishing divine from demonic supernatural phenomena, making super-supernaturalists particularly guilty of allowing demonic infiltrations of the Church and setting it up for the End Time deceptions of the antichrist that the real Christ warned us of. ^[5]

6) A misinterpretation of John 14:12 as referring to physical miracles and therefore a general devaluing of the more important spiritual miracle of conversion/regeneration that the King was actually talking about. ^[6]

7) A devaluation of the more important spiritual serving gifts because of an overemphasis on supposed sign gifts. ^[7]

8) A tendency to misinterpret circumstances and events as the miraculous and direct intervention of God for the purpose of communicating something, often resulting in misplaced blame against God. ^[8]

9) The tendency and actual occurrence of lying about God’s supernatural intervention because they do not value discernment and the place of divine authentication enough. ^[9]

10) Susceptibility and common commitment of the egregious sin of testing God because of expectations of miracles in contexts God does not promise one. ^[10]

11) Its misplaced arrogance in claiming a prayer and singing “gift” (in tongues) that spiritually edifies them in a way not available to other Christians and allows for more intimate communication and worship with the Father, such that His children without the “gift” are excluded from such intimacy. ^[11]

12) Its misuse of exorcism, potentially hurting people more than helping them. ^[12]

13) A self-centered focus on the physical benefits of healing while ignoring their more important and biblical authenticating function. ^[13]

14) The propensity to advertise and exaggerate their “miracles” instead of command silence as Christ often did, revealing impure motives. ^[14]

15) The prevalence of pagan worship practices. ^[15]

16) The deceitful, greedy, and sexually immoral character of its most foundational and influential “faith healers.” ^[16]

17) The illegitimate criticizing of Christians for a lack of faith concerning miracles when, in fact, miracle faith is the sovereign gift of God, and the absence of a miracle may be the fault of a lack of such faith on the part of the “healer. ^[17]

18) Being a primary cause of over-skepticism regarding the miraculous. ^[18]

19) The splitting of more Christian churches than any other issue in Church history. ^[19]

20) Claiming new divine revelation from God through modern “prophets.” ^[20]

Here, we wish to discuss additional problems with super-supernaturalism that are not discussed at length elsewhere.

B) Positives are Not Unique, and All of Its Uniquenesses are Either Unimportant, Damaging, or Demonic

Because many of those engaged in super-supernaturalism are born again Christians, we would expect many positive things surrounding it. For example, John Armstrong writes:

Out of the Vineyard’s [a branch of modern super-supernaturalism] stress on not placing limits on God’s power and freedom flows an intense desire to worship God in a meaningful and positive way. I have sensed in my dialogue with Vineyard people a real hunger to meet God and to worship Him as the living, powerful God of Scripture. Simple, but sometimes quite moving and scriptural, praise music also is a product of that desire. We use some of these Vineyard songs in my own congregation.

Further, there is a positive stress on koinonia, or fellowship. In our highly technocratic age we crave relational ministries, and far too often the church has responded with very impersonal programs.

The passion I have noticed among Vineyard people for the lost is also encouraging. Greater zeal for perishing sinners is desperately needed in our evangelical churches. In both personal interaction and in public meetings, I saw a genuine desire to reach out to non-Christians. ^[21]

Likewise, J. I. Packer shares several positive things in super-supernaturalist churches including: Christ-centeredness, Spirit-empowered living, prayerfulness, joyfulness, congregation-wide worship, every-member ministry, missionary zeal, small group ministry, openness to changing church organizational structures, and generous financial giving. ^[22] We can agree with these, and believe if there was not so much potential good in the Christians involved with super-supernaturalism the devil wouldn’t be working so hard to derail and corrupt them with the deceptions of super-supernaturalism.

While there are surely good things among those involved in super-supernatural doctrines and practices, we would also claim again that none of those things are unique to super-supernaturalists Christians. No one who knows the state of Christianity in America and abroad would claim by personal experience or statistics that, in general, super-supernatural churches and Christians are more evangelistic, financially generous, or more committed to fellowship. This is because these are things that any Christian will desire to do, and the unique doctrines and practices of super-supernaturalism, or even a possession of miraculous gifts, do not enhance these basic elements of the Christian life. In other words, whatever we could praise super-supernaturalist Christians and churches for, we could just as easily praise historicist Christians and churches for.

Whatever uniquenesses do exist within super-supernaturalism are either inconsequential, damaging, or demonic. For example, we have written regarding the rather meaningless influence of charismaticism elsewhere:

No one can deny that such emotionalist [i.e. “charismatic”] churches are more expressive in their corporate worship. Accordingly, perhaps the single most significant and acceptable influence that emotionalism has had on American Christianity is that we clap more in our worship services. We can find one verse of Scripture that even suggests this is biblical (cf. Ps 47:1).

However, at best this is simply a personal preference and has no automatic bearing on how God-pleasing our worship is. Saying that your church has more emotional or expressive worship is like saying your worship music includes a heavier element of the drums or violin. It makes the worship different than elsewhere, but not necessarily better from God’s point of view, which is the only perspective that matters.

Unfortunately, emotionalists have illegitimately criticized less expressive and more liturgical worship, assuming that it cannot be as God-pleasing or life changing as their brand of worship. On the contrary, Jesus said, “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (John 4:23). Understanding that “in spirit” means much more than emotions, “charismatic” worship has no automatic superiority over other authentic forms of Christian worship and its overly emotional element can actually be selfish and sinful, as demonstrated above.

And considering much of the content of the lyrics that has come out of “charismatic” worship, and the mindless nature of much of it, they are clearly inferior when it comes to the Father’s desire that we “worship. . . in truth.” ^[23]

The damaging aspects of the uniquenesses of super-supernaturalism are partially listed above, others discussed below, and still others discussed throughout the following chapters of this section of KOG.

We also write a great deal concerning the alarming demonic nature of much of the phenomena in super-supernaturalism. ^[24] When we note that the historically very unique claims to prophesying, exorcisms, and performing miracles essentially define super-supernaturalism, we are rather amazed to read Christ’s warning that “many” servants of satan will make the same unique claims. (cf. Matt 7:21-23)

Therefore, when 1) the miraculous phenomena in super-supernaturalism is demonstrated to fall far short of the biblical attributes of such gifts, ^[25] and 2) clearly demonically-empowered miracle workers in false religions perform even greater miracles than anyone in super-supernaturalism, ^[26] and 3) Christ warned us that “many” miracle workers and exorcists in the Church would be demonic fakes, then it is not unreasonable to conclude that while super-supernaturalism claims to be an unprecedented work of the Holy Spirit, that it may actually be an unparalleled invasion of demonic deception and power into the Church of God.

C) Ignoring the Sufficiency of Nature

While demonic influence is the most alarming danger of super-supernaturalism, perhaps its most fundamental error is an over-expectation of divine intervention because of a devaluation of the God-ordained sufficiency of natural means. ^[27] While anti-supernaturalists think the “ordinary and natural processes” God has ordained are all-sufficient to accomplish God’s will, super-supernaturalists do not value those processes enough. As Dr. Packer has noted:

For God to proceed slowly and by natural means is to him [a super-supernaturalist] a disappointment, almost a betrayal. But his undervaluing of the natural, regular, and ordinary shows him to be romantically immature and weak in his grasp of the realities of creation and providence as basic to God’s work of grace. ^[28]

Miracles simply are not as necessary as super-supernaturalists claim. Accordingly, we have written elsewhere:

Super-supernaturalists insist miracles are needed in abundance for all sorts of reasons. Part of the problem is that they forget that God will not do for us what He has already enabled us to do. This, coupled with the fact that He has enabled us to do everything He has commanded, is a significant reason why miracles are so extremely rare. And more often than super-supernaturalists want to admit, the things we cannot do, simply do not need doing. ^[29]

Several important points are made here. First, when we expect God to do for us what He has already enabled and is expecting us to do, we will be living in sin. For example, many pray for supernatural assistance to forgive or love someone, and they wait for such assistance. However, in reality, God has already given the Christian the ability to love and forgive through the New Nature and there is nothing else for God to do, but we must simply obey. This relates to the fact that God has already enabled us to do everything He has commanded us to do in Scripture by indwelling us with Himself.

Secondly, our natural abilities are valued by God much more than super-supernaturalism reflects. He does not often instantly transport us somewhere in order to share the Gospel as he did Philip the Evangelist (cf. Acts 8:39). When God gave Noah the monumental task of building the ark, other than giving Noah the plans, we have no indication that God supernaturally intervened in the boat building. That’s why it required a hundred some years to complete. Contrary to super-supernaturalism, God wanted Noah and his sons to take that long and endure cutting trees and shaping planks with their natural abilities and strength in order to accomplish such an important task.

Finally, we so often think that the fulfillment of God’s will requires miraculous intervention, when this is not the case. There are, of course, events in which it does, such as spiritual conversion. But because super-supernaturalists devalue the place of the natural processes God has ordained for providing for and guiding our life, and fulfilling His will, they have an unbiblical and potentially hazardous expectation of the supernatural.

Having a super-supernatural world-view has all kinds of unfortunate consequences. First, if one believes that God is constantly and directly intervening and manipulating things in our life, then everything becomes a personal message from God instead of an ordinary, natural event in our life or God’s Creation. Therefore, when bad things happen, there is a temptation to automatically assume God is somehow judging us.

Accordingly, we read in Scripture:

As He [Jesus] went along, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in His life. (John 9:1-3)

Notice here that the disciples seem to give a supernatural explanation to something that happens naturally. In other words, the disciples assumed that the man’s blindness was due to some special intervention by God in order to punish the man for his or his parents’ sin. In our opinion, the fact that Jesus used the man’s natural condition to glorify God does not imply that that condition was the “work of God” but rather the miracle was. In other words, the disciples were claiming that the supernatural reason this man had a physical ailment was because God was supernaturally punishing him for spiritual sin. Sound familiar? As we discuss elsewhere, it is all too common in super-supernaturalists circles to claim that the reason someone remains unhealed is because of sin in their life. Their over-expectation of miracles erroneously leads them to equate the absence of such miracles with the presence of sin.

Along the same lines we read:

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵I tell you, no! (Luke 13:1-5)

Once again, we would suggest that an over-expectation of divine miraculous intervention led these people to interpret naturally occurring events as the punishing hand of God. And to do so was to misrepresent God and misinterpret the events. Accordingly, we have spoken elsewhere of the dangers of interpreting natural disasters as the hand of God. ^[30]

Likewise, as mentioned above, super-supernaturalism can lead to paralysis as we wait for God to miraculously do something He has already enabled us to do. Also, in a super-supernatural world, demons are unnecessarily blamed for all kinds of evil. Therefore, the solution to sin is exorcism instead of repentance, a view that the King said had dangerous consequences. ^[31] Likewise, because so much physical and psychological disease is demonic from a super-supernatural perspective, super-supernatural cures are thought necessary and the natural processes God has created our bodies with, or that doctors have developed, can be unwisely devalued or even discarded.

D) Disparaging God

A related error in super-supernatural literature is confusing the gift of healing with God’s compassion. Along these lines, Jack Deere claims:

When some people try to tell me that God no longer heals, or that he only heals rarely, I want to ask them, “Where has the Lord’s compassion gone? Does Jesus Christ no longer walk among our churches? Does he no longer notice our pain? Does he no longer care for the families who have loved ones in mental hospitals, or whose babies are born with twisted bodies?”

I don’t think his compassion has changed at all. I think he is just as willing as he was in the first century to touch both our spirits and our bodies. I think it is the church that has changed, not God. . . . To argue that Jesus has withdrawn his healing ministry from the church today is to argue that he has also withdrawn his compassion from the church. But if we believe in a compassionate Savior, we ought to have confidence in his desire to heal in the church today. ” ^[32]

One might be offended by Mr. Deere’s language. According to him, those who would claim that the miraculous gifts no longer operate today also claim that God has lost His compassion. Such an unnecessary accusation may not be worth a rebuttal, but because of the several deceptive and harmful conclusions that could be drawn from such a statement, the following will be added.

First of all, in both the first and last sentences cited above, Mr. Deere copies the familiar mistake of not distinguishing between that fact that God still heals today through direct miracles He does, but not through the delegated miracle working of those with the biblical gifts of healing. ^[33] Of course God still heals, just not through miracle workers as super-supernaturalism claims.

Secondly, Mr. Deere again misses the primary purpose that Jesus healed and highlights secondary effects. Christ’s primary purpose for healing was to prove to the Jews that He was sent from God (cf. John 2:18; 3:2; 5:36; 10:38; 15:24), not to heal the physical ills of the world or those around Him. ^[34]

Thirdly, Mr. Deere would have us assume that God healed a multitude of people in the first century when neither the biblical nor secular historical record gives evidence of such. ^[35]

Fourth, is Mr. Deere really thinking about what he is saying when he claims that because “the church . . . has changed” it has triumphed over and blocked God’s sovereign desire to exercise compassion on His people? ^[36]

Fifth, Mr. Deere would seem to reveal a great deal of spiritual immaturity by equating God’s love to His changing our difficult circumstances. God is much more interested in our character and choice to trust Him in difficult circumstances than in simply waving His wand and removing those circumstances. This is, of course, a popular, but unbiblical mindset in super-supernaturalism and is repeatedly exposed in their frequent “health and wealth” teachings. Considering the number of good Christians who are sick, lame, disabled, dying, and dead, experience would tell us differently, as well as the biblical record.

Thank God that our difficult circumstances are not a reflection of some lack of compassion that God has for us, which is the conclusion to be drawn from Mr. Deere’s argument. If Mr. Deere’s argument truly applies to divine healing, than our physical health, finances, and every other circumstance in our life becomes a barometer of God’s love for us. A more deceitful and damaging heresy could hardly be suggested.

At the bottom of such thinking is the belief that God still needs to prove His love to us through miraculous interventions to keep our life healthy and wealthy. In reality, God’s love has once and for all been demonstrated on the Cross and the purpose of this life is for us to prove our love for God by often enduring difficult circumstances. In super-supernaturalism God exists to serve and impress us, instead of the fact that we exist to serve and please Him. Super-supernaturalists need to be reminded of St. Augustine’s (354-430) warning that:

God is tempted in religion itself, when signs and wonders are demanded of him, and are desired not for some wholesome purpose but only for experience of them. ^[37]

Finally, equating divine healing with God’s compassion is a double edged sword for super-supernaturalists. They will admit almost without exception that the abundance of healings through miracle workers decreased significantly after the age of Christ and the Apostles. Are we to conclude that God’s compassion for His people also decreased after that? Are we to conclude that God has more compassion for super-supernaturalists today who claim to be experiencing miraculous healings to a much greater degree than others? It would seem again that super-supernaturalists are not willing to honestly address the full implications of their beliefs.

E) Disparaging Scripture & Exalting Experience

It is very easy for humans to live by feelings instead of faith. As we have demonstrated elsewhere, the only reliable basis for any specifically Christian faith is the written words of Scripture, and absolutely nothing else. ^[38] Experiences can come from all sorts of circumstances, and if allowed to lead us, will inevitably mislead us. ^[39] Nonetheless, as discussed more thoroughly elsewhere, extra-biblical experiences are worshipped in the American Church and erroneously thought to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. ^[40]

Dr. Packer speaks of the authority given to mere experiences in pagan culture in general when he writes:

We are very self-absorbed; the human-centeredness of our Western culture has made us so. We are interested in experiences, meaning our “feelings” or our “reactions to something,” for their own sake, as if experiences are all that matters. We are inclined to jump to the conclusion that the more intense an experience is, the more of God there must be in it. But by biblical standards that is not so at all. ^[41]

As with other pagan cultural trends, super-supernaturalism is at the forefront of promoting experience as a source of spiritual authority, with the inevitable result of reducing the authority of Scripture. This exaltation of experience and its damaging consequences, are reflected when John MacArthur writes:

The entire [charismatic] movement has absorbed the erroneous notion that whatever is truly spiritual must transcend or bypass people’s rational senses. Spiritual gifts supposedly operate by suspending the faculties of human reason. One might think that the strongest evidence of the Holy Spirit’s power is when someone lapses into a stupor.

And so the lore of the charismatic movement is filled with outrageous accounts of behavior that resembles trances, seizures, subliminal messaging, hypnosis, suspended animation, frenzy, hysteria, even dementia. These are often cited as proof that God is at work in the movement. . . .

I suspect a[n] . . . anxiety reaches right into the ranks of the charismatics themselves. Could it be that some who attend these fellowships are tempted to exaggerate, dramatize, or even fabricate some miracle of special experience because of their need to keep up with the brethren who appear to be more spiritual? . . . .

Most charismatics believe progress in the Christian life is having something more, something better, some electrifying experience. An ex-charismatic in my congregation told me why he had grown frustrated in the charismatic movement: “You spend the rest of your life trying to find another experience.” The Christian life becomes a pilgrimage from experience to experience, and if each one is not more spectacular than its predecessor, many people begin to wonder if something is wrong. ^[42]

It is this very exaltation of experience in super-supernaturalism that has led us elsewhere in KOG to discuss the unbiblical nature of many of its most valued worship experiences. These include being “slain in the Spirit,” being “drunk in the Spirit,” even “glued in the Spirit,” and “holy laughter,” all of which have absolutely no biblical support whatsoever, and intentionally put the mind in an “altered state of consciousness,” but because they are experienced in a church setting, they are believed to be Christian. ^[43] Nonetheless, experience is at the heart of super-supernaturalism, not the word of God, and therefore, not the Holy Spirit.

For example, one of its founding fathers in America, Larry Christenson, wrote:

There is a sound biblical theology for the baptism [Pentecostal style] with the Holy Spirit. But the baptism with the Holy Spirit is not a theology to be discussed and analyzed. It is an experience one enters into. ^[44]

Such a statement sounds spiritual, just not biblical, and it exalts human experience as the ultimate source of truth rather than careful biblical exegesis.

Likewise, regarding super-supernatural phenomena, a foremost theologian in the movement, J. Rodman Williams, writes: “One has difficulty finding adequate theological [i.e. biblical] language or ways of relating it to various doctrines of the Christian faith.” ^[45] Dr. Williams argues that we should adapt our interpretation of what is true to what we experience rather than interpreting our experiences through biblical truth. He makes a most revealing statement regarding super-supernaturalism when he writes, “At the critical center there is the knowledge that something has happened!” ^[46] And that is what is most important in super-supernaturalism. “Something has happened” and because it is in a Christian context and being experienced by Christian people we are to automatically assume that the source is the Holy Spirit even when it contradicts the Holy Spirit inspired Scriptures.

Whenever the objective, dependable, divine written Word of God is neglected or devalued, there will always be a subsequent emphasis and exaltation of our subjective, deceitful, human experiences. A common super-supernaturalistic reply to those who would question that the source of their experiences is the Holy Spirit is to say, “Don’t judge it unless you have experienced it.” Obviously there are many things that the Bible teaches us that we can know for certain without experiencing it. Hell would be one.

And such a response misses the point of an honest and biblical inquiry. Historicists do not question that super-supernaturalists experiences are real, but when the latter claim that the source of those experiences is the Holy Spirit, then they have stepped on biblical ground and they must interpret those experiences on that ground. It is not right, nor rational, to claim that an event or experience is from God, and then dismiss or devalue the use of the Bible to examine it. Unfortunately, as we will note throughout this section of KOG, the tendency in super-supernaturalism is to make Scripture conform to their experience, rather than interpreting their experience through Scripture.

Generally, super-supernaturalists are not embarrassed at all about their exaltation of experience as a source of spiritual authority. Accordingly, one of super-supernaturalism’s own historians has written:

In Neo-Pentecostalism, then, spiritual authority rests ultimately in the present activity and teaching of the Holy Spirit at least as much in the Bible itself, whose essential truth is made known to individuals only by the power of the Spirit. Thus Charismatic Renewal rejects “bibliolatry.” . . . The existential “encounter” with Christ rather than correct doctrine intellectually accepted becomes, in Charismatic Renewal, the only basis for Spirit baptism and the unity it effects. . . .

The very unconcern in Neo-Pentecostalism about doctrinal formulations is in contrast to most sects-and in some considerable contrast to traditional Christianity, which has been an intensely “intellectual” (in the sense of being concerned about intellectual distinctions) and doctrinally oriented religion. Charismatic Renewal reflects other currents in our times in being reluctant to create boundaries or to establish firm and objective criteria. There is a powerful subjectivist element in it all. ^[47]

Accordingly, it is emphasized that for theology to be relevant and useful, it must begin with interpreting subjective experiences of people rather than the objective revelation of the Scriptures. Therefore, the super-supernaturalist theologian F. Sontag writes in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society:

Thus to be truly charismatic a theology would have to take its cue as much from an experience of the descent of the Holy Spirit as from Scripture or from tradition or from an understanding of the life of Jesus. Although a charismatic theology does not begin with a notion of God as Father or King but instead rises from below, it need not neglect Scripture or tradition or Jesus. To be a charismatic theology only requires that the experience of the presence and the movement of the Holy Spirit form the basis for the constructive theological effort.

The experience of the Holy Spirit becomes the key upon which “God” and “Son” and “Church” are interpreted versus, say, taking the NT documents alone as in themselves the fundamental norm. A charismatic theology must be inspired by the enthusiasm of the Spirit. Otherwise theology comes at its task doomed to misunderstand God and sterile in its impact. . . . A charismatic theology would, however, have to start with the premise that the Spirit and his movements offer more direct access to God’s nature than rationality as such. ^[48]

The super-supernatural devaluation of Scripture naturally exposes itself in various ways. For example, it has been common in super-supernaturalism to equate non-super-supernaturalists with the Pharisees. Their point is that the Pharisees were very committed to Scripture but lacked a great deal of spirituality. John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard Movement of churches, for example, in a message on healing, “expressed particular concern for the Calvary Chapel movement, well-known for teaching people verse-by-verse through the Scriptures”:

Calvaryites [Wimber says] are sometimes a little too heavily oriented to the written Word. I know that sounds a little dangerous [a little?], but frankly they’re very pharisaical in their allegiance to the Bible. They have very little life and growth and spontaneity in their innards. Sometimes they’re very rigid and can’t receive much of the things of the Lord. ^[49]

Likewise, Jack Deere writes:

[T]here is something very wrong in our relationship with God when we do not see [visions], hear [voices], and feel [impressions] from him, and yet leave our “time with him” feeling satisfied.. . . This is what happened to the Pharisees who diligently studied the Bible, but “never heard his voice” (John 5:37). Evidently, Jesus thought that the voice of God and the Bible were not the same. ^[50]

Mr. Deere’s false premise is that the reason the Pharisees “never heard His voice” is that they were wrongly seeking it in Scripture, instead of the subjective impulses and feelings that super-supernaturalism advocates. Yet, Christ tells us precisely why the Pharisees missed God in spite of their knowledge of Scripture:

And the Father who sent Me has Himself testified concerning Me. You have never heard His voice nor seen His form, nor does His word dwell in you, for [oti, “because”] you do not believe the One He sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life. (John 5:37-40)

The reason the Pharisees and a myriad of Bible scholars since them have not heard God’s word in spite of their Bible knowledge, is because they are not born again believers in Christ. It is simply inexcusable for super-supernaturalists to disparage any real Christian for their commitment to understanding Scripture by accusing them of being Pharisees. There is no recognition of the fact that: 1) The Pharisees studied the Bible without the Spirit of God. To study the Scriptures with the Spirit is more life changing than any alternative method of interacting with God that Deere and others wish to recommend. 2) When Christ was here, new revelation was being given and the unbelieving Pharisees did not recognize it. New divine revelation is not being given today.

The charismatic Evangelical Free pastor Doug Bannister writes in the context of why his church needed more super-supernaturalism:

Something was missing. Our church had become too much like a classroom. We came dangerously close to defining spiritual growth as learning more about the Bible. Our Bible knowledge was increasing, but we had a hard time pressing beyond all the facts about God into the actual presence of God. We were getting to know Him propositionally, but were not encountering Him personally.^[51]

Like most super-supernaturalists, Pastor Bannister defines experiencing “the actual presence of God” and “encountering Him personally” as primarily an emotional experience. ^[52] His concern is not unique as no right thinking Christian is content with mere Bible knowledge. However, Pastor Bannister and other “charismatics” are wrong to suggest that what needs to be added to Bible knowledge is extra biblical revelation. Stale Bible study is not an excuse for super-supernaturalism. It is unfortunate that Pastor Bannister doesn’t mention the life changing effect of obeying the Scriptures instead of seeking impulses and feelings apart from Scripture. Instead of casting a negative slur on Bible study, Christians would be better served by reminding them that it is an essential means to experiencing God. Contrary to Pastor Bannister and others like him, the perspective of orthodox Christianity throughout its history has been that Bible study and teaching combined with application and obedience to Scripture is God’s ordained and all-sufficient means to experiencing Him in a personal way.

Along these lines, the respected Christian apologists Alan Richardson wrote:

In this life our knowledge of God must remain rational knowledge in this sense; no wordless knowledge of God, or immediate apprehension of Him, is claimed as a result of Christian faith. Faith is not a mystical but a rational activity, and to seek “religious experiences” as an evidence for, or as a consequence of Christian faith, is the first false step in our religious life. ^[53]

Accordingly, in contradistinction from super-supernaturalism, all Christians should resonate with James White who writes:

Finally, I can honestly say that the deepest, most lasting spiritual experiences I’ve ever had have always been linked to Scripture. Working through the text of Isaiah 6 and the holiness of God . . . studying the truth of Christ’s preeminence, eternality, and deity in Colossians 1 and 2 . . . peering in wonder through the veil of eternity at the relationship of the Father and the Son in Philippians 2:5-11. . . pondering in amazement the Son’s self-humiliation in giving Himself for me . . . This is not the kind of spiritual ecstasy that will sell a million books, get you on TV, or launch you as a Christian media darling. But it is the kind of spiritual experience that lasts a lifetime. ^[54]

It is our belief that on that Great Day when the truth is known, it will be revealed that during our lifetime, the promotion and practice of super-supernaturalism in God’s Church did more to devalue the unique authority of Scripture in the minds of God’s people than anything else. And we will regret it.

Several Christian leaders have voiced a concern regarding super-supernaturalism’s exaltation of subjective experiences and subsequent degradation of the authority of objective Scripture. For example, in the early 1970’s the insightful Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984), in his book The New Super-Spirituality, saw parallels between super-supernaturalism and liberal, unorthodox Christianity. A contemporary wrote:

Francis Schaeffer, an evangelical culture-critic also puts forward a negative assessment of Neo-Pentecostalism on the basis of what he feels is its weakened doctrinal commitment-its emphasis on “external signs” instead of theological “content”-and its spiritual elitism. Schaeffer thinks that one reason why some theological liberals find Charismatic Renewal attractive is the fact that experience (“feeling”) functions as the central “doctrine” of both Pentecostalism and liberalism (with its roots in Schleiermacher and later in existentialism). He declares:

One can . . . see a parallel between the new Pentecostals and the liberals. The liberal theologians don’t believe in content or religious truth. They are really existentialists using theological, Christian terminology. Consequently, not believing in truth, they can enter into fellowship with any other experience-oriented group using religious language. ^[55]

Likewise, the very respected OT scholar, Merrill F. Unger (1909-1980) wrote around the same time:

A third important reason exists why the modern charismatic revival is subject to attack from evil powers. In its commendable zeal for the power and blessing of God, it has not always been fortified by sound doctrinal teaching from the Word of God. It has sometimes forgotten what no revival movement may forget with impunity – that experience and practice, no matter how apparently genuine and plausibly exercised by the Spirit, must be rigidly judged and regulated by the Word of God. ^[56]

More recently, Dr. Packer, in the context of a gentle rebuke to super-supernaturalism on this very point, wisely notes:

Charismatic theology . . . looks loose, erratic, and naïve, and the movement’s tolerance of variations, particularly when these are backed by “prophecies” received through prayer, suggests a commitment to given truth in Scripture that is altogether too fragile. . . .

Experience is a slippery word, and experiences coming to imperfectly sanctified sinners cannot but have dross mixed with their gold. No experience just by happening can authenticate itself as sent by God to further his work of grace. The mere fact that a Christian has an experience does not make it a Christian experience. ^[57]

Likewise, Dr. Edgar has written:

The significance of the experience-centered focus of Charismatics is often missed. Part of the problem that underlies the controversy is that cessationists [historicists] assume that solid scriptural discussion will be the basis for determining the validity of the cessationists or Charismatics viewpoint. . . . [However] the experience of the Charismatic . . . is assumed to be true and has no need to be validated by Scripture.

Therefore, Scriptural argument will seldom convince Charismatics that their interpretation of the experience is wrong. . . . Even if cessationism could not be proven with certainty, this would establish none of the other assumptions necessary to conclude that an individual’s experience is . . . from God. ^[58]

Accordingly, most of those who have ever attempted a biblical discussion of super-supernaturalism with one who thinks they have experienced it, will testify that the super-supernaturalist is much more interested in talking about the experience, rather than the Scriptures.

Unfortunately, examples of the exaltation of experience and the devaluation of Scripture abound in super-supernaturalism. Church historian Ian Murray writes of its rise in Britain:

By the 1970s, it was said, the majority of younger evangelicals in the Church of England were charismatic in outlook. The charismatic change was certainly in evidence at Nottingham where there was drama and dance but the public exposition of Scripture was no longer to the fore. ^[59]

This same trend is abundantly observed in the writings of the influential super-supernaturalist author Jack Deere. For example, he has written:

A Bible deist [i.e. historicist] has a lot in common with the natural deist. They both worship the wrong thing. The deists of the eighteenth century worshiped human reason. The Bible deists of today worship the Bible. Bible deists have great difficulty separating Christ and the Bible. Unconsciously in their minds the Bible and Christ merge into one entity. Christ cannot speak or be known apart from the Bible. . . . They do not understand how it is possible to preach the Bible without preaching Christ. . . .

The Bible deist talks a lot about the sufficiency of Scripture- in reality he is proclaiming the sufficiency of his own interpretation of the Scripture. When many people say they have confidence in the Bible, what they really mean is they have confidence in their ability to interpret the Word. . . . The Bible deist is so confident in the sufficiency of his interpretation that it is difficult for him to be corrected by experience. ^[60]

In other words, we are to believe that Mr. Deere’s interpretation of his experiences are more reliable than our interpretation of Scripture. This is nothing less than an all out attack on the authority and clarity of Scripture and the God-ordained place of Spirit-liberated reason in interpreting Scripture. However, it is also an exaltation of the authority of experience, which is so foundational to super-supernaturalism.

Obviously, there are challenges to our interpretation of Scripture which we discuss elsewhere, but correctly interpreting objective Scripture is a lot easier than interpreting our subjective experiences, and God designed it to be so. ^[61] Nonetheless, super-supernaturalism continually places personal experience on par with Scripture as a source of divine authority, both in its teachings and practices. Unfortunately Mr. Deere ends up slandering those who hold to the superior authority and clarity of Scripture over any experience, and who maintain a unity between Christ and Scripture instead of trying to divide them.

Several of Mr. Deere’s “biblical” arguments for his doctrines have been exposed as weak and insufficient elsewhere in KOG. It would seem that the author himself knew that. Accordingly, he masterfully uses the weapon of experience to support his doctrines. Virtually every chapter of his books begins with the retelling of a supernatural experience, not biblical truth. The biblical arguments are merely there to give the book a “Christian” flavor, because the real meat of Mr. Deere’s books is the amazing experiences he can tell. And there is little doubt that he puts these experiences in the face of historicists to say, “Now you explain that!” We have elsewhere, and unfortunately there is considerable evidence that the experiences that Mr. Deere is gloating in are demonic delusions. ^[62]

Nonetheless, Mr. Deere would have us think that his beliefs are biblical convictions. For example, in chapter one of Surprised by the Power of God, when explaining how he became a super-supernaturalist, he writes in italics for emphasis:

This shift in my thinking was not the result of an experience with any sort of supernatural phenomena. It was the result of a patient and intense study of the Scriptures. ^[63]

Unfortunately the intensity of one’s study obviously does not necessarily have a direct bearing on its accuracy. Are we to assume that Mr. Deere discovered something in Scripture that the Christian Church throughout 1600 years virtually universally missed? And the fact that Mr. Deere italicizes the above statement makes it apparent that he wants to give the impression that he began his journey into super-supernaturalism because of Bible study. If he says above that the historicist cannot be confident in his interpretation of Scripture, why can Mr. Deere? We would suggest Mr. Deere’s claim that experience had nothing to do with his conversion to super-supernaturalism, and Scripture study had everything to do with it, is another exaggeration at the very least.

Likewise, in chapter two Mr. Deere writes:

As I drove to the airport in April to pick up Dr. White [a foremost leader of super-supernaturalism], I was tense with anticipation. My months of studying Scripture had given me a new openness to God’s power, and I sensed that I was about to embark on a new stage in my Christian life. ^[64]

All of this talk of the importance of Scripture, however, is abandoned in the remainder of the book. By chapter three we are well immersed in the psychic abilities of John Wimber and his “amazing” ability to heal someone’s “backpain.” The next chapter then is entitled: “The Myth of Pure Biblical Objectivity” where Mr. Deere argues essentially that because of our inescapable personal bias, we cannot really claim that there is one true interpretation of Scripture. So much for the value of Scripture.

By chapter five Mr. Deere says what he really believes:

There is one basic reason why Bible-believing Christians do not believe in the miraculous gifts of the Spirit today. It is simply this: they have not seen them. [And he has?] . . . It is common for charismatics to be accused of building their theology on experience. However, all cessationists ultimately build their theology of the miraculous gifts on their lack of experience. . . . The doctrine of cessationism did not originate from a careful study of the Scriptures. The doctrine of cessationism originated in [a lack of] experience. ^[65]

This is a good example of what we have meant by the fact that super-supernaturalist teachers like Mr. Deere talk out of both sides of their mouth. Above we saw that Mr. Deere claims he became a super-supernaturalist because of his “patient and intense study of the Scriptures,” but then claims here that the reason the rest of us are not super-supernaturalists is because of the lack of our experience. Again, we believe that subsequent chapters of KOG will demonstrate the shallowness of even Mr. Deere’s study of Scripture.

Erwin Lutzer, pastor of Moody Bible Church relates one of many instances of the lack of respect for Scripture in super-supernaturalism in one of its most popular events in recent Church history, the so-called “Toronto revival”:

Three charismatic authors, who are generally sympathetic to manifestations of the Spirit, have written of their grave misgivings about what was happening in Toronto [at the Vineyard Church]. One of them, Peter Fenwick, wrote, “My greatest fear springs from the fact that the Bible no longer occupies the place which it once did in the evangelical community. Indeed, the whole controversy surrounding the Toronto Blessing is in fact a major battle for the Bible.” He goes on to say that the Toronto Blessing could not have started were it not for the acceptance of unbiblical practices.

When serious Bible students pointed out that the “word of knowledge” in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 12:8 KJV) does not refer to clairvoyance, that is, the ability of an evangelist to divine the various diseases of people in his audience, such instruction fell on deaf ears. ^[66] For the most part, it did not matter what the leaders did or said; it did not matter whether their practices were bizarre or their doctrine new and inconsistent. The leaders responded to criticism by saying, “Who are you to question what God is doing?”

When people questioned why some things that were happening were not found in the Bible, the leaders responded with the verse “See, I am doing a new thing!” (Isaiah 43:19). Never mind that in the biblical context this “new thing” is God bringing the Jews back from exile, resettling them in the land, and establishing the coming kingdom. But this verse, wrested from its context, was now used to justify virtually anything and everything. Since now any manifestation of the Spirit could be described as a “new thing,” Christians found themselves defenseless against error. ^[67]

In other words, the foundation of what is unique in super-supernatural theology is what a Christian sees, hears, or experiences.

Accordingly, several Christian scholars have warned of the danger of unevaluated experiences. For example, the respected Protestant Bible scholar Bernard Ramm (1916-1992) wrote simply. “The difference between a wise man and a fool is not in the degree of experience but in the measure of [biblical] truth extracted from experience.” ^[68]

Likewise, Sinclair Ferguson has written:

Unlike other theological differences (e.g. over the relationship between the body of Christ and the bread of the Lord’s Supper), these [experiences in super-supernaturalism] are observable and measurable phenomena. . . . Yet this is precisely the heart of the problem: the phenomenon is indeed an experienced reality, but it is not a self-interpreting reality. This applies equally to tongues and prophecy, words of wisdom and knowledge, and to the working of miracles and healing by human hands. An important, but largely unrecognized, element of interpretation is involved in continuationism [super-supernaturalism]. ^[69]

Experience can never be the test of what is true, and especially of what is biblically true. Rather, biblical truth must always stand in judgment of the source and meaning of our experiences. Accordingly, Frederick Dale Bruner reflects the historical Christian position when he says:

The test of anything calling itself Christian is not its significance or its success or its power, though these make the test more imperative. The test is truth. ^[70]

Along the same lines, the influential British theologian Alister McGrath has written:

Experience [is] something which requires to be interpreted. . . . According to this approach, Christian theology provides a framework -within which the ambiguities of experience may be interpreted. Theology aims to interpret experience. It is like a net which we can cast over experience, in order to capture its meaning. Experience is seen as something which is to be interpreted, rather than something which is itself capable of interpreting.

The classic example of this approach is usually thought to be Martin Luther’s “theology of the cross,” which is of continuing significance as a critique of the role of experience in theology. Luther’s position is that experience is of vital importance to theology; without experience, theology is impoverished and deficient, an empty shell waiting to be filled. Yet experience cannot by itself be regarded as a reliable theological resource; it must be interpreted and corrected by theology.

Luther suggests that we attempt to imagine what it was like for the disciples of Jesus on the first Good Friday. They had given up everything to follow Jesus. Their whole reason for living centered on him. He seemed to have the answers to all their questions. Then, in front of their eyes, he was taken from them and publicly executed. God was experienced as being absent. There was no way in which anyone experienced God as being present on that occasion. Even Jesus himself seems to have had a momentary sense of the absence of God – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27: 46).

This way of thinking, according to Luther, demonstrates how unreliable experience and feelings can be as guides to the presence of God. Those around the cross did not experience the presence of God – so they concluded that God was absent from the scene. The resurrection overturns that judgment: God was present in a hidden manner, which experience mistook for absence.

Theology interprets our feelings, even to the point of contradicting them when they are misleading. It stresses the faithfulness of God and the reality of the resurrection hope – even where experience seems to suggest otherwise. Theology thus gives us a framework for making sense of the contradictions of experience. God may be experienced as absent from the world – yet theology insists that this experience is provisional and flawed, and cannot be taken at face value. . . .

The force of conviction is not an adequate criterion of truth. One can be forcefully, as well as sincerely, wrong. The appeal to subjective experiences of God, to personal visions, to esoteric and unverifiable words of knowledge, and for forceful, but unsubstantiated, convictions is as powerful as it is dangerous. The Charismatic movement de-emphasizes the objective means by which those revelations and visions may be checked against some criterion available to the general public, namely, the Scriptures. The virtual marginalization of Scripture within certain types of evangelicalism today is one of the greatest scandals of our age. ^[71]

Of course, it will require several subsequent chapters in KOG to make a case that super-supernatural phenomena and claims to the miraculous gifts are not biblical and therefore neither Christian or of the Holy Spirit.

But there is another test we can mention here, as we have repeatedly. The most important test of anything claiming to be from the Holy Spirit is the presence and growth of the virtuous fruits of the Spirit. And as we have already pointed out, no one would dare claim that for all the doctrines, practices, and experiences of super-supernaturalists, they are significantly more virtuous than historicists.

Founding divine authority on human experience is unbiblical and hazardous. The mantra in American Christianity is that human experience is more transforming than the word of God. Admittedly, experiences are more powerful, but never more truthful. Only when our experience occurs in the context of the word of God can we be certain that it is true.

Super-supernaturalism’s emphasis on the authority of experience has led large parts of it to believe that prosperity, health, and happiness are the ultimate Christian experiences on Earth, with a widespread neglect of the important place of suffering in Scripture. Because the Bible plays little or no part in super-supernaturalism, suffering plays little or no part in its teaching as well.

None of this is to unnecessarily disparage the value of experience in the Christian life. Conversion, for example, can be a very memorable experience. Accordingly, theologian Carl Braaten has written:

Our point is not to eliminate experience from the Christian life or theological method, only that it cannot properly function as the source and norm of Christian truth. . . . The reduction of theology to experience, both as its primal source and norm, results in the death of dogmatics as a churchly discipline. What takes its place is ‘religious reflection’ – reflection on one’s personal religious experiences.

Tom Driver begins his book, Patterns of Grace: Human Experience as Word of God, reflecting on his religious experience sitting in a bathtub. And it gets no better. . . . [W]hen Christian mysticism loses its dogmatic basis, it degenerates into mere feeling, nourished by pagan forms of spirituality. ^[72]

Likewise, Donald Bloesch shares the balance when he writes:

Scripture without experience is empty, but experience without Scripture is blind. Scripture is the objective norm by which we can measure the validity of our experience. But to be vital and fruitful, this norm must take root in our lives, which means that we must experience the reality of God presented in Scripture. ^[73]

And while super-supernaturalism would certainly like to claim that it has helped American Christianity attain such a balance, this simply is not true. In fact, because of their many abuses of spiritual experience such as being “slain in the Spirit,” “drunk in the Spirit,” and even hysterical “laughter in the Spirit,” they have actually served to disparage the “Christian experience” into just that, an experience, instead of a life transforming event that leaves one holier and humbler.

On the contrary, the experiences of the super-supernaturalists have made them arrogant. Here we are reminded of others who were boasting of experiences, and the disdain that the Apostle Paul had for them when he writes:

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen [or experienced!], and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head [Christ] (Col 2:18-19)

So much for the unqualified exaltation of amazing experiences.

Unfortunately, super-supernaturalism and the Church in general, have paid a great price for their degradation of Scripture and exaltation of experience. First, it is tragic that while the movement is certainly known for its charismatic personalities, there are very few respected Bible scholars or theologians among them. Suffice it to say that super-supernaturalism is not known for its careful or diligent study of Scripture. They would rather be known for their unbiblical or at least extra-biblical experiences. When they meet the King they will discover which one was infinitely more valuable to Him.

Secondly, the Scriptures have enough enemies outside the Church, without those inside the Church disparaging its authority as well. Read the quotes and examples above again and ask whether or not super-supernaturalism is guilty of this great sin. Unfortunately, while the concerns of ones like Dr.’s Schaeffer and Unger were the majority view in their day, far fewer are expressing the concerns of Dr.’s Packer and Edgar in our day.

We believe the degradation of the authority of Scripture has been immense within super-supernaturalism. Other movements throughout Church history have had the same effect as well, but none greater than this one. Even so, when one compares the amount of Christian literature that has been written to defend the Scriptures against similar attacks on its authority (e.g. liberalism, higher criticism, neoorthodoxy, ^[74] the errancy/inerrancy debate, and now postmodernism), one is surprised by the paltry defense that has been made against the dangers of super-supernaturalistic theology. This is not because the practical threat to the authority of Scripture is less than these past ones, but that the latter, as noted above, is so popular.

Finally, super-supernaturalism’s commitment to experience instead of Scripture has destroyed a great deal of unity in the Church. Contrary to what super-supernaturalists claim, real unity within the Body of Christ will only come with agreement on central issues of Scripture, not shared experiences. A commitment to an unbiblical unity around subjective human experience rather than objective biblical truth is well attested in super-supernaturalism. We have already noted Francis Schaeffer’s concern above:

One can . . . see a parallel between the new Pentecostals and the liberals. The liberal theologians don’t believe in content or religious truth. They are really existentialists using theological, Christian terminology. Consequently, not believing in truth, they can enter into fellowship with any other experience-oriented group using religious language. ^[75]

While super-supernaturalism seeks unity through spreading its unique and unbiblical doctrines and practices, the Apostle Paul said nothing about such things when he wrote of unity:

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace [a virtue]. ⁴ There is one body [the Church] and one Spirit [who is God]—just as you were called to one hope [a virtue] when you were called— ⁵ one Lord, one faith [the doctrines of Scripture!], one baptism [a step of obedience]; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Eph 4:3-6)

One will search in vain in the Scriptures for biblical proof that the unique experiences of super-supernaturalism such as speaking in tongues, or being “slain in the Spirit” is what our unity is to be based upon. Biblical unity is based on truth, which is why the Apostle writes in this same passage that it is God’s goal that “we all reach unity in the faith” (Eph 4:13), which is doctrine. ^[76]

Of course, many super-supernaturalists also recognize the unchristian division that exists today between them and historicists. Yet they would blame such division on the lack of acceptance among historicists instead of the lack of sound doctrine among super-supernaturalists. On the contrary, division among Christians is caused when someone veers from the clear teaching of Scripture and it is this abandonment of what the Scriptures teach regarding important doctrines that has created the division that exists today, not a lack of tolerance.

Along these lines John MacArthur has written:

Harmful division germinates . . . when someone turns away from the Word and lets error creep in to threaten the flock. . . . My principal concern is to call the church to a firm commitment to the purity and authority of the Scriptures, and thereby strengthen the unity of the true church.

Perhaps the most serious damage done to the church by the charismatic movement has been precisely in this matter of unity. Who knows how many thousands of churches have split over charismatic teaching. . . . Many charismatics, I’m sure, are keenly aware of that difficulty, but it is compounded by a second tendency . . . this penchant for doctrinal ambiguity . . . [through which] the charismatic movement has unwittingly succeeded in becoming the kind of worldwide ecumenical force many liberals originally envisioned. . . .

Charismatic ecumenism is steadily eroding any claim the charismatic movement ever had to biblical orthodoxy. . . . The charismatic movement is entirely unequipped to defend against [heretical] influences. And so while charismatic doctrine tends to be divisive among groups that are orthodox, it has had the opposite effect among groups that are not. ^[77]

Accordingly, Dr. Gaffin has written:

Consider this disconcerting situation: Especially in recent decades the work of the one Spirit, given to unify the church (e.g., 1 Cor. 12; Eph. 4:3), has become the occasion (notice I did not say, the source!) of disunity and even divisions in the church. What is the way out of this impasse of claim and counterclaim about experiences of the Spirit’s working? Certainly the answer does not lie, at least ultimately, in those experiences themselves. Slogans like “theology divides; tongues unite,” . . . have a neat ring but are not really helpful. . . .

Surely . . . for believers in Jesus Christ, all experience, including those attributed to the Spirit, must be assessed by his inscripturated Word to see whether they are genuine. . . . Where there is a readiness to maintain that standard without compromise, we have every reason to be hopeful and to expect that the Spirit will honor that commitment and grant greater unity to the church, not only in understanding his work but also in experiencing it. ^[78]

An accurate understanding and agreement of what the Scriptures teach regarding this debate is the only hope for real, God-pleasing unity in the world-wide Church of God. When it comes to obtaining a God-like, biblical level of unity, no amount of acceptance will make up for a lack of agreement on what God’s word teaches (cf. 1 Cor 1:10; John 17:11, 22-23; Rom 15:5-6; Phil 2:2; 2 Cor 13:11).

F) Redefining Spirituality

Throughout Book II: The Revelation of God, we have reflected on several parallels between the errors in the Corinthian Church and those in the modern “charismatic” movement. We believe these churches need to hear what the Apostle wrote to them when he said:

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. ⁴ For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. ( Cor 11:3-4)

We have repeatedly pointed out the biblical truth that true Christian spirituality is defined, experienced, and recognized as supernatural virtue such as love and holiness. ^[79] We have also repeatedly pointed out the error in super-supernaturalism of redefining Christian spirituality as speaking in unintelligible gibberish (i.e. tongues), falling down and shaking “in the Spirit,” emotional worship, and being healed of physical ailments. Perhaps the most offensive and arrogant error of super-supernaturalism is claiming that because other Christians today, and throughout 1600 years of Church history, have not experienced these unbiblical or extra biblical phenomena, that they are neglecting the work of the Holy Spirit, are less spiritual than super-supernaturalists, and essentially living in sin.

Accordingly, super-supernaturalists continually claim there is something wrong with other Christians because they supposedly are not experiencing as many miracles as the super-supernaturalists. For example, the title to Doug Bannister’s tract for super-supernaturalism reads: “The Word and Power Church: What Happens When a Church Experiences All God Has to Offer?” The implication is clear. A church of Spirit-filled Christians living in obedience to the commands of Scripture is not a “power church” because they lack the miraculous gifts Pastor Bannister claims are operating in his church. And evidently historicist churches today and for the last 1600 years are not experiencing all that God has to offer, even though many of them have certainly experienced just as much grace, truth, love, holiness, conversions, and Christian fruit as Pastor Bannister’s church. Later in the book he writes, “I am writing this book for . . . evangelicals who want more of the Spirit” ^[80] and he is not talking about love and holiness, but super-supernaturalism.

Pastor Bannister’s perspective on spirituality is revealed as well when he shares:

On my first visit to the counselor’s office I chatted cordially with the receptionist and cracked a joke with my counselor, whom I knew professionally. “Come in, Doug, have a seat,” he said, closing the door. “How are you?” I wept for most of the next hour. I didn’t know why. . . .

What were my tears telling me? They were whispering to me the secret of who I was, a thirty-five-year-old spiritually bankrupt pastor who lacked the inner resources to press into his future. My tears also whispered the secret of who I had been. I had been a man of the Book. And that was good. But it was not enough. And so my tears summoned me to where I should go next. They beckoned me to become a man of the Spirit, too. ^[81]

Which did not mean becoming more loving or holy, but essentially learning the gift of tongues. And we confess it seems odd, and certainly not historical Evangelicalism for Pastor Bannister to claim to be “a man of the Book” when his spiritual life was so bankrupt. It is believing the promises and obeying the commands of Scripture through the New Nature that has enabled centuries of Christians to serve Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, not receiving or experiencing the gift of tongues.

Along the same lines, the super-supernaturalist J. P. Moreland writes:

As you enter more and more deeply into progress in the way of Jesus, the Kingdom Triangle [which includes experiencing an abundance of physical miracles] must be at the core of your life and (your church’s) strategy. ^[82]

Evidently then, because so many Christians throughout history have not had the occurrence of physical miracles “at the core” of their life, they have not made much “progress in the way of Jesus.” Men at least as spiritual as Dr. Moreland, including Chrysostom, Luther, Whitefield, Edwards, and Spurgeon would rebuke him for his lack of spirituality to even suggest such a thing.

Dr. Moreland writes elsewhere:

A few years ago Dallas Willard gave an admonition to the Vineyard movement that I believe applies to the entire Evangelical church: “You must ensure that Vineyard churches maintain the visible signs of the Holy Spirit [i.e. physical miracles] and the kingdom of God, or else Vineyard churches will never maintain the faith for discipleship or evangelism or anything else. ^[83]

On the contrary, scores of churches throughout history and today have done precisely what Dr. Willard recommends, without claiming or possessing the miraculous gifts of the Apostles.

Likewise, the Pentecostal NT scholar Gordon Fee equates physical miracles and gifts with experiencing more of the Holy Spirit when he writes:

In recapturing the dynamic life of the Spirit there will also be the renewal of the charismata, not for the sake of being charismatic, but for the building up of the people of God for their life together and in the world. . . . I also believe that that perspective . . . must become our own, if we are going to make any difference at all in the so-called post-Christian, post-modern era. ^[84]

And yet, while super-supernaturalist churches have supposedly possessed, practiced, and experienced what Dr. Fee prescribes, they have not produced more converts or better disciples for advancing the Great Commission than historicist churches. So much for the renewal of the miraculous gifts being a “must.”

In summary, super-supernaturalists claim that a lack of physical miracles in a church or Christian’s life should cause alarm, but they have no biblical justification for saying so. Bernie Gillespie, a Pentecostal himself, admits:

Growing up as a Pentecostal I learned to think that the more miracles, dreams, healings, visions I had, the more it showed I was spiritual. I felt good whenever I could manifest the supernatural. . . . For some, the absence of the “supernatural” is their evidence that . . . God’s presence is absent. The Scriptures declare that we are right with God by faith in Jesus Christ. For some, as it was for me, this truth has been either muted or replaced by a “faith in the miraculous.” ^[85]

Accordingly, Erwin Lutzer writes:

The strength of the church is not dependent on the number of miracles within our midst. If anything, the church is weak today, not because of a lack of miracles, but a lack of confidence in the message of the gospel. ^[86]

Likewise, Dr. Lutzer writes elsewhere:

Interestingly, no church in the New Testament is judged for not doing more signs and wonders. But Paul rebuked churches for an unclear gospel (Galatians) and an overemphasis on gifts along with a worldly spirit (Corinth) and the dangers of accepting a Gnostic view of Christ (Colossians). Christ’s rebukes to the seven churches were either doctrinal, moral, or both. Never once did He hint that they needed more signs and wonders. ^[87]

Along these lines, we have written elsewhere of what real spirituality and even the greatest miracles are today, according to Scripture:

There is again here a lesson particularly for super-supernaturalists. Their teachings and practice often result in dividing believers into two groups: 1) “super Christians” who are supposedly performing or experiencing a multitude of merely physical miracles, and 2) the second rate Christians who cannot perform or experience such miracles because of a lack of gift or even faith on their part. Not so.

The greatest miracles from God’s perspective can be performed by any obedient loving Christian. And while super-supernaturalist Christians certainly claim a superiority in physical miracles, hopefully not even the most arrogant of them would claim a superiority in the most supernatural thing, which is unconditional love.

Contrary to super-supernaturalists, supernatural virtue was intended by God to replace the miraculous authentication provided by the sign gifts. Unfortunately, we fear that some super-supernaturalists are trying to take a spiritual shortcut and cover up for spiritual immaturity and a lack of supernatural virtue by claiming an abundance of physical miracles. ^[88]

Don’t miss the points made here, because super-supernaturalists often do. As noted above, no Christian or church will ever be evaluated by God based on the number of physical miracles occurring through or to them. It is the spiritual miracles of conversions and love discussed elsewhere that God is concerned about and super-supernaturalist churches are certainly not, in general, more loving, nor seeing more people saved, than other churches. ^[89] Accordingly, we would ask then, why do they claim to be more supernatural if love and conversions is the most supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit operating today?

Along these lines, Dr. Edgar writes:

Paul provides an instructive perspective on the continuing activity of the Spirit in the church in the one passage in the New Testament where believers are commanded to be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18). The verses that immediately follow (vs. 19–21 ) are dependent syntactically on this command and so indicate what is characteristic of the Spirit’s filling work.

Paul then goes on to elaborate at some length on the element of mutual subjection [not miracles], in particular, by spelling out its implications for marriage, the family, and work (5:22–6:9 ). From this it is plain that the filling or fullness of the Spirit is not, at least primarily, a matter of unusual or enrapturing experiences, but is the reality of the Spirit’s working in the basic relationships and responsibilities of everyday living. ^[90]

Or, as the eminent Reformed theologian John Gerstner (1914-1996) paraphrased Jonathan Edwards:

The fruits of the Spirit are far greater than the gifts. A man may have extraordinary gifts and “yet be abominable to God, and go straight to hell.” As there are no supernatural gifts in heaven, the church is most like heaven when it emphasises the fruits of the Spirit. ^[91]

G) Intimidating & Criticizing Christians

Because super-supernaturalists have redefined Christian spirituality as experiencing supposed miracles instead of virtues, they end up habitually and illegitimately criticizing and intimidating the children of God. More specifically, inherent in super-supernaturalism is the claim that they are somehow spiritually superior to others because they are uniquely exercising the faith necessary to experience more physical miracles from God in their churches. While we address the Scriptures used for this erroneous idea elsewhere, ^[92] here we will describe its damaging effects.

Inherent in super-supernaturalism is the claim that there is something wrong with Christians and churches that are not experiencing miracles like they supposedly are. There is at least the indirect but clear implication that super-supernaturalists are somehow spiritually superior to others because they are uniquely exercising the faith and virtue necessary to experience more miracles from God in their churches. Along these lines, the popular super-supernaturalist author Jack Deere writes:

Apostasy, legalism, and lukewarm faith are serious problems in the church today. These things significantly hinder God’s miraculous ministry among contemporary believers. However, I believe that there is another factor that is a greater hindrance than all three of these put together. I am referring to the present unbelief that is rampant in the church. . . . The surprising thing to me today is not how little God heals among the conservative [i.e. non-super-supernaturalist] evangelical church, but that he heals at all. So much of the church is so filled with unbelief that I am truly amazed that anyone ever gets healed.

The obvious implication is that wherever more miracles are supposedly happening (i.e. the super-supernatural churches), the people there possess more faith and suffer less from, “Apostasy, legalism, and lukewarm faith” and “unbelief” in God. One might be tempted to be offended by such an arrogant statement, particularly when it is absolutely untrue. And in terms of “apostasy” one may conclude from subsequent chapters of KOG that Mr. Deere is pointing his finger in the wrong direction.

Nonetheless, this tenet of super-supernaturalism is clear: the reason miraculous healing is not occurring in the churches to the degree it could is because of something lacking in the Church. The unavoidable conclusion of this is that the reason miraculous gifts have been restored only to super-supernaturalist churches after over 1600 years of absence, is that these churches are superior in Christian virtues to not only churches throughout that long history, but the historicist churches today. ^[93]

This exposes the foundational doctrinal error in super-supernaturalism that the occurrence of miracles depends on a faith we are responsible for. This error is corrected by understanding the biblical concept of miracle faith. The relationship between faith and miracles is a topic too involved to discuss in detail here and is taken up elsewhere. ^[94] However, let us say here that neither Christ nor the Apostles ever criticized a believer for a lack of faith to either produce or receive a miracle. ^[95] The criticisms concerning faith for miracles were always directed toward unbelievers, and many of the miracles in the Bible had nothing to do with anybody’s faith, and often occurred in spite of doubt.

In addition, we note that ones like Brother Yun in China have witnessed and experienced a number of remarkable miracles. But he does not claim miraculous spiritual gifts or ascribe to super-supernaturalism. Instead, as we discuss at length elsewhere, Brother Yun and others ministering in countries hardened to the Gospel, are in environments where we would expect more miracles to occur, which is a better explanation of any real upsurge in miraculous activity than many of the reasons super-supernaturalism offers. ^[96]

The reason that more miracles are occurring in China than in America is not because the Christians in America have less faith or more reason as super-supernaturalists suggest, but rather, China and America constitute two completely different spiritual environments and miracles are simply much more necessary in the former for accomplishing God’s will.

The greatest cause of super-supernaturalism’s habit of slandering Christians and exalting themselves is their need to explain why the miraculous gifts of the Apostolic Age have supposedly returned only to them after more than 1600 years of absence. For example, super-supernaturalist Michael Green claims:

Where churches have regained dependence on God’s Spirit, where they have believed that God is active among his people today, where they have prayerfully asked him to give them not only qualities of character but spiritual power, then those same gifts which we see in the New Testament have appeared today. ^[97]

Evidently, then, historicists churches have been deficient in all of these things since the Apostolic Age, and super-supernaturalists are now superior in them? In reality, we will point out in subsequent chapters that the modern versions of the “gifts” claimed by super-supernaturalists today do not match the attributes of their biblical and apostolic counterparts, but rather, have often been observed in pagan and even demonic environments. This is why historicists reject super-supernaturalism.

Nonetheless, Dr. Green shares his own perspective as to why super-supernaturalist claims and doctrines are not accepted:

Christians in the main line of both Catholic and Protestant traditions have for a long time been very scared of allowing that these gifts of the Spirit of which we read in the New Testament might be expected to occur today. They are supposed to have died out in the apostolic era. It is much more comfortable to suppose that this is the case, and to look for the contemporary manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the peace and order of the Church of today rather than in the violent irruptions of earlier days. Both Catholic and Protestant camps have been heavily infected by the rationalism of the Enlightenment, and our Christianity has been unduly cerebral. ^[98]

On the contrary, Dr. Green, historicists are not “scared” of authentic miraculous works of the Holy Spirit. We would like to see people healed just as much as you do. But we do not need people to be healed as much as you do. And we are not looking for mere comfort as you accuse us of, but rather biblical integrity as we pursue sacrificially serving the King. We’re not sure what “violent irruptions” of the Holy Spirit in apostolic times is being referred to except the persecutions which occurred among unbelievers from the preaching of the Gospel (cf. Acts 8:2; 13:49-50; 17:5), and no working of miracles is recorded.

If Dr. Green is referring to the Corinthian worship services, we would remind him that they brought the Apostle Paul’s rebuke and reminder that “God is not a God of disorder but of peace” (1 Cor 14:33). And as we have discussed elsewhere, the unbiblical, harmful, and mindless emotionalism habitually bound up with super-supernaturalism needs to be evaluated with a great deal more emphasis on our God-given reason, not disparaging it. ^[99]

Nonetheless, supporting super-supernaturalism by slandering Christians is the norm. Accordingly, Dr. Fee writes what is typical in this regard:

Westerners are instinctively nervous about spirit activity, be it the Spirit of God or other spirits; it tends not to compute rationally and is therefore suspect. Hence our difficulties with regard to any genuine “restoration” of the experience and life of the early church. ^[100]

Likewise, John Wimber had written:

It is the Holy Spirit, the “go-between God,” who holds the key to power encounters. Our openness and availability to its direction and enabling, anointing, and power is the catalyst for fulfilling the great commission. Clearly the early Christians had an openness to the power of the Spirit, which resulted in signs and wonders and church growth. If we want to be like the early church, we too need to be open to the Holy Spirit’s power. ^[101]

Again, what Mr. Wimber claimed to be a lack of openness, we would suggest is a superior discernment. And as we demonstrate biblically elsewhere, God’s miraculous activity is not dependent on humans, but He is sovereign over when and where they occur. ^[102]

Others have pointed out additional slanderous accusations made by Mr. Wimber as one writer remarks:

More serious than this apparent blind spot, however, is Wimber’s misuse of biblical passages. For instance he applies Matthew 13:11–16 to those who oppose his position. Jesus explained to His disciples that He was speaking to the people in parables, “because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (v. 13 ). Jesus then related this to Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa 6:9–10).

Wimber applies Jesus’ comments and Isaiah’s prophecy to fellow evangelicals who do not accept the validity of present-day signs and wonders. He correctly points out that the central problem with those who do not see or hear is a hardened heart. But then in summarizing he states, “A hard heart may incline us toward a worldview that excludes the supernatural or it may prevent us from altering a faulty worldview to include the supernatural.” By “supernatural” he means the current manifestation of miraculous gifts.

Therefore an evangelical who believes in a supernatural realm of reality and the supernatural intervention of God in history [or even today!], but does not acknowledge the divine origin of contemporary signs and wonders would be classified by Wimber as having a hardened heart. . . . In short, there is a world of difference between the rejection of the Messiah by first-century Jewish leaders and the rejection of present-day signs and wonders by certain 20th-century evangelicals! ^[103]

An obvious problem with such accusations of disbelief and sin in the context of miracles is that everyone knows that there is a particular movement of churches that is claiming to be experiencing far more miracles than other movements of churches. The claim itself is arrogant and unfounded, but the reasons that the modern “miracle” movement gives for this supposed discrepancy is that the “non-miraculous” churches are less spiritual, holy, and faith-filled than they are.

Again, it should not be missed what super-supernaturalism is claiming: it is uniquely experiencing an outpouring and ministry of the Holy Spirit that other Christians for over 1600 years and today have not. Such an exclusive view is corrected by the late D. M. Lloyd-Jones, who actually supported a good deal of super-supernatural doctrine, ^[104] but nonetheless writes the obvious:

[S]uch a [world-wide] movement of the Spirit is going to affect the whole church. It moves the whole church forward and does not merely gather together people who are interested in experiences and sensations and who are always turning round in a little circle. That is the cause of division. This [a real world-wide movement of the Holy Spirit] is more general in its operation. ^[105]

In short, no real, widespread activity of the Holy Spirit is going to bypass millions of Christians who are at least as faithful to their Lord as super-supernaturalists. Nonetheless, super-supernaturalists are rather forced to explain the supposed lack of ministry by the Holy Spirit as a lack of spirituality on the part of historicists, not only today, but apparently throughout Church history.

Again, not only is there no biblical foundation for such an accusation, there is no reality to it either. In fact, many observers of American Christianity suggest that the people in the “miracle” churches actually tend to be more immature and shallow in their walk with God. Even if this would be denied, no one in their right mind could claim that “miracle” churches are generally superior to “non-miracle” churches in any valuable way except in their claims to supposed “miracles.”

While super-supernaturalists are accusing Christians of a lack of faith and “openness,” the fact of the matter is that other Christians are exercising more biblical discernment than they are. Notice again the unfounded accusations by Mr. Deere when he writes:

Having been to one meeting where the gifts of the Spirit were abused or faked, I concluded that all meetings where the gifts of the Spirit were practiced were just like that one. It is not surprising that God did not let me see the genuine thing. When you go with a closed mind [does he mean a biblically discerning mind?], it is rare for God to violate your prejudices. In those days I was not a sincere seeker. I should not have been surprised, therefore, if God chose not to throw his pearls to the swine. ^[106]

It is difficult to interpret Mr. Deere in any other way than the following: 1) If we have witnessed phenomena that were unconvincing as a miracle, we should keep trying until we find some that is convincing. 2) If you are not a super-supernaturalist you have a closed mind and God is going to exclude you from the wonderful works of the Spirit that He is doing for those that are more “sincere” in their seeking of miraculous manifestations, and 3) If you are not experiencing what the super-supernaturalists are experiencing you are one of those proverbial “swine” that tramples on the Word and work of God.

Apparently, super-supernaturalists would apply such a condemnation to such a respected Bible teacher as Charles Swindoll, Chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary who writes:

Not that God no longer does miracles. He does. But miracles, by their very definition, are extremely rare. In my lifetime, I probably could name three I’ve been aware of, and they were so obviously miracles of God that no other explanation would work. ^[107]

Does Dr. Swindoll have such a “dismal” record of recognizing and experiencing physical miracles in his decades of ministry because he is somehow less spiritual than super-supernaturalists?

What the super-supernaturalist is forced to claim is that they have more faith, holiness, or spirituality than the likes of Martin Luther, George Whitefield, John Wesley, or Jonathan Edwards, who, not only did not experience what super-supernaturalists claim they have, but all of whom condemned much of what is occurring in super-supernaturalism today as the devil’s deceptions. ^[108] And the obvious fact that there are a multitude of Christians who are advancing the Kingdom of God at least as effectively as any super-supernaturalist puts Mr. Deere and others in no reasonable position to make the kinds of slanderous accusations they are making.

Super-supernaturalists consistently accuse others of not valuing or recognizing authentic God ordained miracles to the degree that they do, or that others believe in a God that is less powerful than the super-supernaturalists’ God. This is a complete distortion of the facts. More discerning Christians value truly God-wrought miracles just as much as any Christian. Nonetheless, super-supernaturalists essentially accuse other Christians of being anti-supernaturalists. Most typically, however, Scripture portrays this as an attribute of unbelievers, not believers. Anti-supernaturalism is illustrated in Scripture by the response of the unregenerated Egyptians to the miracle working of Moses and the unregenerated Pharisees to the miracles of Christ.

Christians, on the other hand, have a great aptitude for recognizing divine miracles. This is essentially because in regeneration we have personally experienced the greatest miracle happening today. Accordingly, perhaps the first principle to properly recognizing miracles is to get saved, as we discuss at length elsewhere. ^[109]

Therefore, particularly super-supernaturalists need to be careful of accusing Christians of being anti-supernaturalists because such a view normally exposes one who does not know God at all. When a born again Christian is skeptical of a claim to the miraculous, such skepticism should not be immediately scorned, but respected. A desire to be discerning and exercise integrity regarding claims to miracles should not be interpreted as anti-supernaturalism or “Pharisaism.” So while the possibility of some unbiblical anti-supernaturalism can exist among Christians, ^[110] its adherence is most likely an indication of a child of the devil, rather than a child of God.

Because super-supernaturalism has attempted to redefine Christian spirituality to match the uniquenesses they want to claim, those claims can be rather intimidating. When someone tells us that in their church a faith healer cured someone’s cancer, and the miraculous and exciting in general is more abundant, how will your personal and church experience match that? Are the rest of us really missing out on something? Why wouldn’t we think so?

Super-supernaturalists claims cause even the most mature believers to question their own spirituality and even what the nature of true Christian spirituality is in general. And when we consider the vast number of well-meaning Christians who adhere to super-supernaturalist beliefs and practices, claiming them to be superior to our beliefs and practices, the whole thing becomes even more intimidating.

Dr. MacArthur reflects this concern well when he says: “It seems that the Charismatic movement has separated the Christian community into the spiritual “haves” and “have-nots.” He then goes on to freely admit that,

Although I have devoted my life to preaching sound biblical doctrine that centers on the work of the Holy Spirit in every believer’s life, I must confess that by the Charismatics’ definition, I am among the “have-nots”. And I admit to having asked myself, Are all those people who are supposedly having all those amazing experiences for real? Could it be that I’m missing out on what God is doing? Are my Charismatic brothers and sisters reaching a higher level in their walk with Christ? ^[111]

In more ways than one, twenty-first century super-supernaturalism smells like first century Montanism and Gnosticism. We have already described the universal excommunication of the first super-supernaturalists, the Montanists, and their practice of calling themselves spiritual and the orthodox Church carnal. Regarding a similar tendency in another ancient heresy, Dr. Bloesch writes:

Like most enthusiasts the Gnostics were incorrigible elitists. Valentinus, a second-century Gnostic, divided humankind into three categories: first the “pneumatics,” who are destined to return to the realm of pure spirit out of which they emerged; second the “psychics,” who have life but not spirit and are therefore barred from entering the higher spiritual domain. . . . Many Gnostics divided believers into “psychics” and “gnostics”-the carnal Christians and the truly spiritual. ^[112]

Sound familiar? Accordingly, super-supernaturalism prompts a concern regarding intimidation. This issue becomes particularly important with the obvious effort on the part of super-supernaturalists to win people to their beliefs and practices. Understandably it certainly is not a neutral issue for them, as it is for many in the historicist camp. The latter may be content to let their super-supernaturalist counterparts believe what they want, but not so for the super-supernaturalists. There is little doubt that most of them sincerely feel that many historicist are missing out, and many of them believe that God’s will is that all Christians would share their experience, and they diligently pray for and work toward that very thing. This is clearly communicated in the suggestion that they uniquely possess “the full gospel” or experience the “Spirit-filled life.” It would seem at times that they are at least as interested in winning Christians to the super-supernaturalist cause as they are unbelievers to the Christian cause.

This has inevitably resulted at times in attempts to proselytize particularly, it would seem, young or discouraged Christians to join their experience. How many Christians have had a super-supernaturalist attempt to persuade them that the real answer to their spiritual problems or the highway to intimacy with God is some “second blessing” of the Spirit or to speak in tongues? Unfortunately, such intimidation has caused many brothers and sisters in Christ to seriously question their spirituality.

If even mature Christians are intimidated and enticed by super-supernaturalist claims, what of the average Christian in our churches, or imagine particularly a young believer? He or she is just beginning their new life in Christ and are encountering many new experiences. Soon, they encounter super-supernaturalists at work or in their neighborhood who at least imply that there are a lot more miracles happening in their church than yours. In addition, their experiences with being “slain in the spirit”, healings, prophecies, and speaking in tongues convince the young Christian that there must be more to the authentic Christian life than what they are experiencing in your church.

This attitude of superiority in super-supernaturalism is especially evident in the belief and practice of speaking in tongues. As discussed elsewhere, there is no doubt that super-supernaturalists believe that their gift of tongues provides them with a superior way of communing with and experiencing God. ^[113] Indeed, as Dr. MacArthur has said, they have succeeded in dividing God’s people into the spiritual “haves” and “have nots”.

Any spiritual superiority that super-supernaturalists might claim over historicist is simply self-delusion. Along these lines, Jonathan Edwards wrote during the Great Awakening that:

It is particularly observable, that in times of great pouring out of the Spirit to revive religion in the world, a number of those who for awhile seemed to partake in it, have fallen off into whimsical and extravagant errors, and gross enthusiasm, boasting of high degrees of spirituality and perfection, censuring and condemning others as carnal. ^[114]

This would seem an apt description of some in super-supernaturalism. We have already noted that the rise of super-supernaturalism has occurred during a period of general revival in the Church, and has benefited from it. In addition, Jonathan Edwards rightly warned us in the days of the Great Awakening not to dismiss God’s working because of fake or even demonic phenomena that may surround it. However, we are commanded to not only be aware of the devil’s schemes, but to resist them. On both accounts, it would seem super-supernaturalism is failing.

Regarding the claims to spiritual superiority in super-supernaturalism, Dr. Packer touches on a truth that exposes the arrogance in such claims:

An important question to ask at this point is: How far are the distinctives of charismatic experience confined to professed charismatics? I suspect that something of an optical illusion takes place here; from the strangeness to them of charismatics’ outward gestures, other Christians infer that the charismatics’ inward experiences must be very different from their own. But I doubt whether this is so. ^[115]

For example, Dr. Packer points out that the common Christian experience of being visited in a special way by the Holy Spirit is labeled (erroneously) by super-supernaturalists as “the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” Dr. Packer concludes:

I suggest that, in reality, charismatic and non-charismatic spiritualities differ more in vocabulary, self-image, groups associated with, and books and journals read, than in the actual ingredients of their communion with the Father and the Son through the Spirit. Charismatic experience is less distinctive than is sometimes made out. ^[116]

For example, NT scholar D. A. Carson writes:

Although some people in the [super-supernaturalist] Vineyard movement justify their emphasis on healing by saying that at least the movement prays for the sick, whereas mainstream evangelicalism fails to do so, that has not by and large been my experience. Doubtless there are some evangelicals who never ask for healing, and, if they pray for the sick at all, pray exclusively for perseverance and stamina and the like. But far more, at least in North America, focus a large percentage of their public praying on the sick. I have been to countless prayer meetings where 70 or 80 per cent of the prayers have canvassed the illnesses of sundry friends and relatives, in each case petitioning the Almighty for healing.

The distinction of the Vineyard movement does not lie in its prayers for the sick but in its insistence that signs and wonders must be part of normal Christianity. That means frequent claims of healing must be present, or the movement loses its raison d’être [unique reason for existence].

In my observation, that has badly skewed the objectivity of the reporting. Remarkable healings may take place both within and outside the Vineyard (and other related) movements. I suspect they take place more frequently in mainstream evangelicalism than some think, and considerably less frequently within the Vineyard than some think. ^[117]

H) Emotionally Damaging Christians

H.1) Promising healing

In another important critique of super-supernaturalism, Dr. Packer refers to “eudaemonism” and writes:

I use this word for the belief that God means us to spend our time in this fallen world feeling well and in a state of euphoria based on that fact. Charismatics might deprecate so stark a statement, but the regular and expected projection of euphoria from their platforms and pulpits, plus their standard theology of healing, show that the assumption is there, reflecting and intensifying the “now I am happy all the day, and you can be so too” ethos of so much evangelical evangelism since D. L. Moody.

Charismatics, picking up the healing emphasis of original restorationist Pentecostalism–an emphasis already strong in “holiness” circles in North America before Pentecostalism arrived-regularly assume that physical disorder and discomfort are not ordinarily God’s beneficent will for his children.

On this basis, with paradigmatic appeal to the healings of Jesus and the apostles, plus the claim, founded on Isaiah 53:3-6, 10 as interpreted in Matthew 8:16, 17 and I Peter 2:24, that there is healing in the atonement, plus reference to Paul’s phrase “charismata of healings” (“gifts of healings,” AV; “healers, /I RSV) in 1 Corinthians 12:28, they make supernatural divine healing (which includes, according to testimony, lengthening of legs, straightening of spines and, in South America, filling of teeth) a matter of constant expectation and look for healing gifts in their leaders almost as a matter of course.

But the texts quoted will not bear the weight put upon them, and the New Testament references to unhealed sickness among Christian leaders make it plain that good health at all times is not God’s will for all believers. Also, the charismatic supposition loses sight of the good that can come in the form of wisdom, patience, and acceptance of reality without bitterness when Christians are exposed to the discipline of pain and of remaining unhealed. Moreover, the charismatic supposition creates appalling possibilities of distress when on the basis of it a person seeks healing, fails to find it, and then perhaps is told that the reason lies not in God’s unwillingness or inability to heal, but in his own lack of faith. ^[118]

We argue elsewhere in support of Dr. Packer’s contention that Scripture does not defend the super-supernaturalist’s expectation of healing. ^[119] Do we see how vulnerable we become when we become fixated on our physical well-being as is promoted in super-supernaturalism? When our comfort or healing becomes our god? When we desire anything other than intimacy with Christ, including His sufferings (cf. Phil 3:10), we have been sucked into idolatry, and this is precisely what much of super-supernaturalism is guilty of.

A related super-supernatural heresy is that disease in a Christian’s life is a result of a particular sin in their life. B. B. Warfield (1851–1921) was more honest, and biblical, when he wrote:

Though the redeemed of the Lord are no longer under the dominion of sin, the results of sin remain with us: inwardly we are corrupt, outwardly we are the prey of weakness and disease and death. We shall not escape from either in this life. . . .

Our Lord never permitted it for a moment to be imagined that the salvation He brought was fundamentally for this life. His was emphatically an other-world religion. He constantly pointed to the beyond, and bade men to find their true home, to set their hopes, and to place their aspirations, there. ^[120]

Likewise, Robert Saucy comments:

A theology of healing must recognize that bodily health is nowhere promised as a provision of salvation for this age. The body is presently doomed to death because of sin (Rom. 8:10). In contrast to our being “inwardly” renewed through the grace of salvation, “outwardly we are wasting away” (2 Cor. 4:16). The body must still be redeemed [at the resurrection], leaving the believer in a state of groaning with the rest of creation (Rom. 8:23), no doubt, partially because of physical pains. ^[121]

Super-supernatural theologian Max Turner admits the dangers of this theology regarding healing:

Pentecostalism has set for itself an ideal that it has not been able to live up to, where it has maintained that God certainly wills to heal all. . . . [Some super-supernaturalist teach that] it is not merely the right, but the duty, of Christians to acquire their healing. Faith is the divinely appointed means, and active confession (‘I am already healed in Christ’) is the power, which by immutable law draws the spiritual healing into the earthly body. . . . According to this view, then, if people are not healed it is entirely their own fault. . . . And of course this theological diagnosis can lead to disastrous pastoral consequences.

Larry Parker took [super-supernatural] teaching to its logical conclusion when he [continued] to [pronounce] his baby son’s healing, and refused to believe the ‘Satanic symptoms,’ until little Wesley died in an insulin coma. He believed this too was a Satanic counterfeit, and that God would raise him, so he and his wife would not permit the child’s burial, and held a resurrection service instead. But Wesley was not raised. Tragically, they persisted in their ‘faith’ that the death was just a counterfeit, and that God would raise up their son, for over a year! . . . When they came to terms with what happened, Larry wrote up their story as the book, We Let Our Son Die. ^[122]

Super-supernatural teachers cannot avoid all responsibility for such things. They cannot teach what they teach regarding healing and then not expect such tragic consequences. We’ll say it again: heresy hurts people. And false teaching regarding healing is no exception.

The intimidation and false expectations in super-supernaturalism are encouraged by the vast amount of exaggeration and fraud occurring among them. In reality, investigations show that not nearly as many people are really experiencing miraculous divine cures as is being claimed. ^[123] But super-supernaturalism often cares little about the consequences of this lying. Along these lines, one critic writes:

Those who profess to depend on prayer alone carry a particular responsibility to eradicate any air of arrogance relating to their intimacy with God-that God uniquely answers their prayers while bypassing the mother with the dead baby in her arms. They must be brutally honest, not only about their own unanswered prayers but also about the colossal collective unanswered prayers that only seem to mock the untold numbers of suffering people around the world. ^[124]

This issue is not simply a cold, doctrinal one, but there is a very human and heartbreaking side to it also. One might ask why so many people continue to attend faith-healing services in spite of their dismal record? The answer: desperation! You will not find a more desperate person than a mother with a severely sick child. A husband will try anything to bring healing to his terminally ill wife. Could it be that it is not so much a supernatural, God-given faith that draws these people, but rather a very natural, certainly understandable, but might we add enslaving, human desperation?

And even though the pain of such circumstances is not to be diminished, we need to be reminded that the child of God is not to be controlled by such desperation, regardless of his or her circumstances. Is it possible that God would have many more of our ailing brothers and sisters come to the point where they simply accept their circumstances and get on with the life God has given them? Does it really help people to string them along with a false expectation that they will surely be healed “next time” if they only have enough faith?

And this brings up the most painful consequence of all regarding this charade: Guilt. Spiritual diseases are at least as painful as physical ones. The pain in a physically diseased person’s life is exponentially intensified when they are taught that the reason God will not heal them is because of some deficiency in their life. What other conclusion will the victim come to when it is pounded from the super-supernaturalist pulpit that God should heal you? How many modern so-called faith healers have not only sent people away failing to heal their physical ailment, but have also infected them with the spiritual diseases of guilt, self-condemnation, and alienation from the God who really does love them even though He doesn’t heal them?

This exposes another unfortunate consequence of super-supernatural error. While the Scriptures teach that miraculous gifts always operated to authenticate messengers of extra-biblical divine revelation, super-supernaturalists, in order to support their claim that such gifts are needed today, insist that these gifts are important evidences of God’s love for us. The idea is that the more God loves you, the more miracles He will do in your life. On the contrary, if the demonstration of love on the cross and the spiritual miracle of our salvation and regeneration are not enough, nothing else will be.

Accordingly, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down His life for His friends” (John 15:13). There is no greater demonstration of God’s love than the one given us in the cross. The apostle Paul put it this way:

Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possible dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:6-8)

Let us not wait for the kinds of miracles super-supernaturalists worship in order to know God loves us.

Dr. MacArthur describes our general concern well when he says:

There is much confusion, guilt, and heartache among Charismatics and non-Charismatics because of what they have been told about healing. The agony of disease and illness is only intensified when people feel they are not healed because of their sin, their lack of faith, or God’s indifference to them. They reason that if healing is available and they do not get it [while others supposedly are], it is either their fault or God’s. Thus faith healers have left untold wreckage in their wake. ^[125]

If there is even one son or daughter of God who has been victimized in this way it has been one too many. The spiritual wreckage resulting from super-supernatural practices reveals that much of its theology is not only unbiblical, but irresponsible. And all of this done supposedly in the name of Christ!

Super-supernaturalists may claim to share our concern, but it would appear that they do little to correct, and much to promote the environment in which such abuse is occurring. Obviously no super-supernatural teacher would say that they intended such results from their teachings, but such a disclaimer in no way excuses them from their accountability before God for such spiritual damage.

This is why we have asked if super-supernatural theologians really think about the practical ramifications of what they teach? Would they admit that their cavalier and misguided approach to Scripture has resulted in the spiritual harm of untold numbers of God’s people? Super-supernatural teachers cannot stick their heads in the sand and pretend that these issues are merely an intellectual dialogue between scholars. Real people believe this stuff, their writing promotes it, and God’s people are hurt by it.

One shudders to think of the account that some will give before the Father, and we are reminded of the Apostle’s words to the Galatians:

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the One who calls you . . . The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. (Gal. 5:7-10)

Any true Christian should be especially fearful of causing or allowing the deception, discouragement, and harassment of a child of the Almighty God, which is precisely what is frequently happening at the hands of super-supernaturalists.

H.2) Promising wealth

In his discussion of “eudaemonism” Dr. Packer goes on to write:

The same must be said of the crass insistence by some charismatics (and others, too, be it said) that if you honor God, he will prosper your business, and you will make money and enjoy comfort. In practice it often does not work so. A long line of bankrupt believers proclaims this, and while some may have brought trouble on themselves by supposing that because they were Christians they were somehow exempt from the rigors of proper business management and coping with economic change, that is not the case with them all.

In Scripture Christians are given no general promises of wealth, only of testing and tribulation. Directions are certainly given for handling wealth if in God’s providence it comes your way, but it is evident that universal wealth is not expected.

In theology, what is being affirmed here is another form of the eudaemonist error: God (so it is being implied) does not mean his children ever to suffer the pains of poverty. The claim may sound plausible when made by a wealthy speaker in a luxurious hotel ballroom, but one has only to imagine it being voiced to Christian villagers in India or Bangladesh or some drought-ridden part of Africa to see how empty it is.

God does indeed sometimes bless the business life of his children in a striking way (first, however, by giving them commercial wisdom, which they use to good effect), but when folk are told that he will do this for all his children, eudaemonism is once more taking over and false hopes are being raised, which could bring on total breakdown of faith when events dash them down. And even if they are not dashed, but fulfilled, their very presence in a man’s heart will have encouraged him in unreality and kept him from maturity. ^[126]

H.3) Disparaging suffering

All of the above, obviously leads to the very prominent error in super-supernaturalism of disparaging the place of suffering in the Christian life. While the Apostle Paul said, “I want to know Christ and . . . the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings (Phil 3:10), super-supernaturalist seek Heaven now on Earth. While the Apostle said he would “boast” and “delight” in the fact that God did not heal him (cf. 2 Cor 12:9-10), the same Apostle would have been rebuked by super-supernaturalists for not being more expectant of a miracle.

Accordingly, Dr. Packer shares:

There are many of us for whom the role model is [the paraplegic] Joni Eareckson rather than [the super-supernaturalist] John Wimber. We see the powers of the kingdom operating, but mainly in regeneration, sanctification, the Spirit as a comforter, the transformation of the inner life, rather than in physical miracles which just by happening prevent much of that other kingdom activity whereby people learn to live with their difficulties and glorify God. ^[127]

While super-supernaturalists habitually claim that physical suffering is the discipline or curse of God on rebellious children, Scripture teaches God allows it for the most spiritual Christians. Super-supernaturalists don’t really know what to do with a man like Job. Accordingly, NT scholar R. K. Harrison points out the obvious that:

[T]he book of Job disproves the idea of a necessary connection between sin and disease. What it does demonstrate, however, is that a positive response to suffering results in [actually, even more so reflects] emotional and spiritual maturity. ^[128]

Generally, super-supernaturalists place no value on the fact that God can be greatly glorified by our virtue in the midst of great difficulty. However, biblically speaking, real “power evangelism” is not performing physical miracles to remove suffering, but rather, the power to live a virtuous life in the midst of suffering. Nor do super-supernaturalists recognize the value of suffering for growing our character. All of which might explain some of the reason why many are concerned about the general lack of spiritual immaturity among them.

H.4) Preying on emotional breakdowns

It is commonly understood that those who are under severe emotional stress are much more susceptible to spiritual deception. In our study of the super-supernatural phenomenon, we have noticed a trend in which many become adherents to it on the heels of great emotional instability and spiritual bankruptcy. Along these lines, a historian of the rise of Mormonism writes the following about the conversion of a Baptist preacher:

[John Barr writes]: “In 1830 I was deputy sheriff, and being at Willoughby on official business determined to go to Mayfield . . . and hear [the Baptist preacher] Rigdon on the revelations of Mormonism. Varnam J. Card, the lawyer, and myself started early Sunday morning on horseback. We found the woods crowded with people going in the same direction.

Services in the church were opened by Cowdery, with prayer and singing, in which he thanked God fervently for the new revelation. He related the manner of finding the golden plates of Nephi. He was followed by Rigdon, a famous Baptist preacher well known throughout the eastern part of the Western Reserve, and also in Western Pennsylvania. . . .

He said he had not been satisfied in his religious yearnings until now. At night he had often been unable to sleep, walking and praying for more light and comfort in his religion. While in the midst of this agony, he heard of the revelation of Joe Smith. . . . Under this his soul suddenly found peace. It filled all his aspirations. . . . he inquired whether any one desired to come forward and be immersed” [as a member of Mormonism]. ^[129]

This Baptist preacher, who by all appearances was a Christian man looking for a new experience, found it in super-supernaturalist Mormonism. Such a story warns us of the dangers of coming to spiritual convictions “in the midst of [emotional, spiritual] agony,” as this influential Baptist preacher did when he converted to Mormonism. Those in Christian ministry as well know the instability of false “conversions” even to Christ under emotional duress. Such a person “hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time” (Matt 13:20).

It is our concern that super-supernaturalism has taken unfair advantage of people who are emotionally and spiritually unstable. For example, Doug Bannister describes his own journey into super-supernaturalism when he writes:

During the spring of 1997 God led me through a season of deep pain and discouragement as I wrestled with these questions. The answers he gave me, and the way he gave them, are a major reason why I am writing this book. . . .

That was a frightening spring. Life blossomed around me, but my inner world was colorless. I couldn’t read and couldn’t pray. One night after a meeting, I sat in my car for a long time. I couldn’t go home because I couldn’t remember how to start the car. . . .

On my first visit to the counselor’s office I . . . wept for most of the next hour. I didn’t know why. . . . What were my tears telling me? They were whispering to me the secret of who I was, a thirty-five-year-old spiritually bankrupt pastor who lacked the inner resources to press into his future. ^[130]

Pastor Bannister would seem to have been having an emotional breakdown, and it was just at this time that speaking in tongues and the doctrines of super-supernaturalism came into his life and “rescued” him.

Our concern is that such a mental and emotional state makes us all the more susceptible to deceptive experiences. Accordingly, it does not surprise us that Drs. John Kildahl and Paul Qualben, clinical psychologists, have concluded from an extensive ten year study of the tongues phenomenon, “that a personal crisis of some kind preceded the initial experience of speaking in tongues in 87 per cent of the cases examined.” ^[131]

The emotional abuse occurring in super-supernaturalism is perhaps illustrated further when Drs. Kildahl and Qualben report:

[S]peakers in tongues develop deeply trusting and submissive relationships to the authority figures who introduced them to the experience. . . . [G]lossalalists have a strong need for external guidance from some trusted authority-someone “more powerful” then themselves who gives them security and direction, even peace and relaxation in their lives. Kildahl also found that speakers in tongues tend to “overinvest” their feelings in their leaders to the point of “idealizing them as nearly perfect parents.” ^[132]

We would suggest again that super-supernaturalism is guilty of habitually taking advantage of people when they are experiencing emotional trauma and spiritual discouragement. This is most definitely true of those who have been desperate for healing among them, have not received it, and have concluded from super-supernatural doctrine that there is something wrong with their relationship with God. That is emotional abuse pure and simply. Accordingly, many super-supernaturalists remind us of those wicked men who, “are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women” (2 Tim 3:6), which is the devil’s work, not God’s.

H.5) Disappointing Christians

It is hardly surprising that the fake nature of much in super-supernaturalism leads to the disappointment and disillusionment of believers. Untold numbers of people have been turned away from the Church because of bad experiences specifically with super-supernatural doctrines and practices. Accordingly, Hank Hanegraaff writes concerning super-supernaturalism:

Followers who at first crowded through the front doors of their churches often become disillusioned and fall out the back door, some even into the kingdom of the cults. They no longer know what to believe and secretly fear that the untrustworthiness of those who claim to be God’s representatives may indicate the untrustworthiness of God Himself. ^[133]

Likewise, we have already quoted Dr. Percy above who writes:

As one leading figure within British Charismatic Christianity said to me recently:

I sense that people are rather bored with charismatic phenomenon, and a bit nervous of just jumping on to the next bandwagon, in case they get their fingers burned again. They’ve had Signs and Wonders, the Kansas City prophets, power evangelism, power healing, deliverance, the “Toronto Blessing,” and more besides. . . . But where has it taken us? I think that people are just tired. ^[134]

Likewise, in Reformation Today magazine, a former super-supernaturalists, Ken Haarhof, writes:

I spent over 20 years in the Pentecostal atmosphere of the Apostolic Faith Mission, Full Gospel Church and Assemblies of God, of which four years were in full-time ministry. I attended every major campaign in South Africa from the 1950s onward, including those of Branham, Oral Roberts, Lorne Fox and many others of local fame. I acted as usher in healing lines and as a counselor in enquiry rooms. I lived through climax and anti-climax. I climbed the mountain peaks of expectation. I waded through the valleys of disappointment. I laid hands on the sick. I rebuked death. I prophesied. I spoke in tongues. I interpreted.

I would now say, in all sincerity, that I saw and experienced nothing which would lead me to believe that Pentecostalism offers anything along the lines of the New Testament Churches’ experience. I am often asked to explain my attitude in retrospect to my Pentecostal experiences, particularly that of tongues. Pentecostals feel that if it is not of God it must necessarily be of Satan, but I have found a more charitable view among their non-Pentecostal Christian fellows. I would say that my experience can be explained in terms of a combination of the following factors.

1. A sincere desire for a deeper experience. 2. A faulty doctrinal basis. 3. Manipulative indoctrination. 4. Enthusiasm. 5. A charged atmosphere. 6. A demonstration or example of how it is done. ^[135]

Along the same lines, George Gardiner, a pastor and former tongues-speaker who left the super-supernaturalist movement, relates the possibly tragic emotional and psychological consequences of opening oneself to unbiblical experiences:

Such experiences not only give Satan an opening he is quick to exploit, they can be psychologically damaging. . . . Charismatic writers are constantly warning tongues-speakers that they will suffer a letdown. This is ascribed to the devil and the reader is urged to get refilled as soon as possible. . . . So the seeker for experiences goes back through the ritual again and again, but begins to discover something; ecstatic experience, like drug-addiction, requires larger and larger doses to satisfy. Sometimes the bizarre is introduced. . . .

Eventually there is a crisis and a decision is made; he will sit in the back seats and be a spectator, “fake it,” or go on in the hope that everything will eventually be as it was. The most tragic decision is to quit and in the quitting abandon all things spiritual as fraudulent. The spectators are frustrated, the fakers suffer guilt, the hoping are pitiable, and the quitters are a tragedy. No, such movements are not harmless! ^[136]

I) A Biblical Response to Super-supernaturalism

As we noted above, we believe the Bible clearly describes the purposes and attributes of the miraculous gifts of miracle working and tongues. Accordingly, we can compare this to the teaching of super-supernaturalism and find it unbiblical. This is where we must start, a study of Scripture, and this is what we intend to do throughout Book II: The Revelation of God.

If indeed super-supernaturalism is unbiblical, then it must be confronted. It is neither loving nor God-honoring to allow doctrines and behavior that are contrary to God’s word and desires to persist among His people. Heresy always hurts God’s people.

The need for Pastors to gain a biblical understanding of super-supernaturalism is great. Not only to protect their own flocks, but we believe there will be a great number of hurting and disillusioned Christians coming out of super-supernaturalism in the coming years, and perhaps more than anything, they will need the biblical truth regarding their error to set them free. Accordingly, it is vital that we train the next generation of Pastors about the failures of the past generation to exercise sound doctrine and discernment, because if super-supernaturalism has worked so well to deceive so many, it will continue to do so.

And if indeed super-supernaturalism has been unbiblical then it has automatically deceived and damaged Christians. And for this we must forgive them. It is our responsibility to correct them, but not to condemn them. Whether a super-supernaturalist be a true believer or a fake one, they will all stand before Christ to give an account of their teaching and practices just like all of us. We must let Him be their Judge, while we continue our God-given responsibility to protect the sheep from the doctrines of men and demons.

And we must remember that our struggle is with demons, not humans (cf. Eph 6:12). Therefore, while doctrinal arguments are important in such a spiritual battle (cf. 2 Cor 10:3-5; Eph 6:14, 17), we must also “pray in the Spirit [not in tongues] on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Eph 6:18). If some of our conclusions regarding popular beliefs and practices within super-supernaturalism are correct, then God would surely have us praying for them. Not in an attitude of superiority, but rather as Christ told us to pray, “Our Father . . . lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil” (Matt 6:9, 13). Whatever practical concerns we may have about super-supernaturalism, some of them are no doubt true in someway in our own lives.

And we must pray in a manner that reflects the fact that super-supernaturalism is not just some heretical sect outside of the Church, but a substantial part of it is a substantial part of the Body of Christ of which the Apostle said, “if one part suffers, every part suffers with it” (1 Cor 12:26). Indeed Father, deliver us from sin and evil because we are in this together. ^[137]

Finally, we must live Authentic Christianity ourselves. Along these lines, Dr. MacArthur comments:

Probably the key reason tongues [and other super-supernatural phenomenon] have exploded on the scene with such force is the need for an alternative to the cold, lifeless Christianity that permeates so many churches. People who join the charismatic movement often are those who are looking for action, excitement, warmth, and love. They want to believe that God is really at work in their lives-right here and now. Dead orthodoxy can never satisfy, and that is why many people look for satisfaction in the charismatic movement. ^[138]

Real satisfaction in the Christian life comes from an all out radical commitment to follow Jesus Christ to the ends of the Earth. Typical American Christianity, with its “one hour a week” mentality will not satisfy like the 24/7 lifestyle of Authentic Christianity. We need to be genuine in our worship, radical in our faith, consistent in our evangelism, grounded in the truth, and supernatural in our love and acceptance. It is these things that anyone with the Holy Spirit inside of them seeks and if we have them, we might be surprised how many of our super-supernatural brothers and sisters abandon some of the excesses that concern us, and instead, join us. Let us at least make sure that the devil cannot offer them a more exciting, awesome, supernatural way of life than we can.

Along these lines, Dr. Packer points out that super-supernatural Christians have successfully overcome many of the problems that plague many churches such as dead worship, a lack of laity involvement in ministry, missionary apathy, ineffective and even non-existent small group ministries, formal and inflexible Structures, and scrooge-like financial giving. He reminds us that we must ask the difficult questions as to how we are going to accomplish the same in our churches. He penetratingly asks:

If the charismatic handling of all these problems fails to grab you, what is your alternative? Any who venture to criticize charismatic practices without facing these questions merit D. L. Moody’s retort, a century ago, to a doctrinaire critic of his evangelistic methods- “Frankly sir, I prefer the way I do it to the way you don’t do it.” ^[139]

A cold, lifeless church is not better than an over-heated and emotional one. Which is why we must all strive for Authentic Biblical Christianity!

Extras & Endnotes

A Devotion to Dad

Oh Father, “Send forth your light and your truth” (Ps. 43:3), and “In your majesty ride forth victoriously in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness; let your right hand display awesome deeds. Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies” (Ps. 45:4-5). This is a battle that we are not able to win ourselves, yet it is no less a very real fight that the devil has brought into Your Church. Help us to see supernatural victory in our own churches and communities, and stem the tide of the demonic deception and division that is sweeping through Your Bride.

King Jesus, please continue to expose the frauds, fakes, and deceptions in the modern miracle movement, and thwart its potential to consume worldwide spirituality and become a tool of the antichrist.

Deliver us from the temptation to simply quietly surrender by allowing ourselves to think these truths are not worth defending, and that our super-supernatural brothers and sisters are really not hurting themselves and others. Make us wiser than our enemies, certain of the truth, mastered by love, and the most humble men and women on earth. Amen.

Gauging Your Grasp

Why do we suggest super-supernaturalism leads to the disparagement of God? Do you agree or disagree?

Why must we deem Scripture to be more authoritative than our own experiences?

In what way do we claim super-supernaturalism has redefined Christian spirituality? What is the consequence of this?

How do elements of super-supernaturalism prey on people’s emotions?

What are some of the harm we believe super-supernaturalism has brought to Christianity? Do you agree or disagree?

What are some suggested responses to super-supernaturalism. What would be your suggestions?

Recommended Reading

• Satisfied by the Promise of the Spirit by Thomas R. Edgar, (Kregel Resources, 1996). This is a rare and good biblical critique of many aspects of super-supernaturalism.
• Counterfeit Revival by Hank Hanegraaff (Word, 1997). A very well researched expose on super-supernaturalism from someone within the Charismatic movement himself.
• The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun, Brother Yun and Paul Hattaway, (Monarch Books, 2002). Relates several believable stories concerning miracles that do not violate biblical teaching on this topic.

Publications & Particulars

1. For historical and biblical support for the cessation of Apostles see chapters 8.5-7. Regarding Prophets see chapters 9.1 and 9.13. Regarding miracle workers see chapters 11.1 and 11.5. Regarding tongues see chapters 12.2-5 and 12.13. ↑

2. Regarding the fact that the current phenomena claimed to be miracle working is far inferior to biblical miracle working in supernatural power, and therefore should not be a claim to such gifts section 11.1.D. ↑

3. Regarding the fraud in super-supernaturalism see esp. sections 11.7.B.9 and 11.8.E-F. ↑

4. For further discussion of super-supernaturalism’s undermining of Scripture’s authority by claiming miracle working abilities see section 11.3.B. ↑

5. Regarding the lack of discernment in super-supernaturalism regarding demonic infiltration see esp. chapter 11.11. ↑

6. Regarding the real meaning of John 14:12 (“greater miracles”) see section 10.5.B.2. ↑

7. Regarding super-supernaturalism’s devaluation of the more important spiritual serving gifts because of an overemphasis on supposed sign gifts see section 10.5.B.4. ↑

8. Regarding super-supernaturalism’s tendency to misinterpret circumstances and events as the miraculous and direct intervention of God for the purpose of communicating something, often resulting in misplaced blame against God see section 10.3.D. ↑

9. Regarding super-supernaturalism’s tendency and actual occurrence of lying about God’s supernatural intervention because they do not value discernment and the place of divine authentication enough see section 10.3.D. ↑

10. Regarding super-supernaturalism’s susceptibility and common commitment of the egregious sin of testing God because of expectations of miracles in contexts God does not promise one, see section 10.3.A.3. ↑

11. Regarding super-supernaturalism’s misplaced arrogance in claiming a prayer and singing “gift” (in tongues) that spiritually edifies them in a way not available to other Christians and allows for more intimate communication and worship with the Father, such that His children without the “gift” are excluded from such intimacy, see chapter 2.6.1. ↑

12. Regarding super-supernaturalism’s misuse of exorcism, potentially hurting people more than helping them, see section 10.5.A.4. ↑

13. Regarding super-supernaturalism’s self-centered focus on the physical benefits of healing while ignoring their more important and biblical authenticating function see section 11.2.C. ↑

14. Regarding super-supernaturalism’s propensity to advertise and exaggerate their “miracles” instead of command silence as Christ often did, revealing impure motives see sections 11.7.B.9; and chapter 11.8. ↑

15. Regarding the prevalence of pagan worship practices in super-supernaturalism see chapters 4.9-11. ↑

16. Regarding the deceitful, greedy, and sexually immoral character of most of foundational and influential “faith healers” in super-supernaturalism see sections 10.15.A.7; 9.11.F.3; 9.12.D; 11.7.B.9; and chapter 11.8. ↑

17. Regarding super-supernaturalism’s illegitimate criticizing of Christians for a lack of faith concerning miracles when, in fact, miracle faith is the sovereign gift of God, and the absence of a miracle may be the fault of a lack of such faith on the part of the “healer”, see chapter 11.5. ↑

18. Regarding super-supernaturalism being a primary cause of over-skepticism regarding the miraculous, see section 10.3.A.1. ↑

19. Regarding super-supernaturalism’s tendency to split churches see section 10.13.C. ↑

20. Regarding super-supernaturalism’s claim of new divine revelation from God through modern “prophets” see chapter 9.3. ↑

21. John H. Armstrong, “In Search of Spiritual Power,” in Power Religion: The Selling Out of the Evangelical Church? (Moody, 1992), 84. ↑

22. J. I. Packer, Keep in Step With the Spirit (Revell, 1984), 185-91. ↑

23. Excerpted from section 4.8.B. ↑

24. We also write a great deal concerning the alarming demonic nature of much of the phenomena in super-supernaturalism. See chapters 11.11-13. ↑

25. Regarding the fact that the miraculous phenomena in super-supernaturalism falls far short of the biblical attributes of such gifts see chapters 11.1 and 12.2-4. ↑

26. Regarding the fact that clearly demonically-empowered miracle workers in false religions perform even greater miracles than anyone in super-supernaturalism, see chapter 11.12. ↑

27. For more explanation concerning the importance of natural processes and the proper expectation of miracles see chapter 10.3. ↑

28. Packer, 193-4. ↑

29. Excerpt from section 10.3.B.1. ↑

30. Accordingly, we have spoken elsewhere of the dangers of interpreting natural disasters as the hand of God. See chapter 10.3.D. ↑

31. For the dangers of exorcism ignored generally in super-supernaturalism see section 10.5.A.4. ↑

32. Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit (Zondervan, 1993), 119. ↑

33. First of all, in both the first and last sentences cited above, Mr. Deere copies the familiar mistake of not distinguishing between that fact that God still heals today through direct miracles He does, but not through the delegated miracle working of those with the biblical gifts of healing. Regarding this important distinction see sections 10.4.A.1 and 10.5.A.1. ↑

34. Mr. Deere again misses the primary purpose that Jesus healed and highlights secondary effects. Christ’s primary purpose for healing was to prove to the Jews that He was sent from God (cf. John 2:18; 3:2; 5:36; 10:38; 15:24), not to heal the physical ills of the world or those around Him. Regarding this see section 11.2.C. ↑

35. Thirdly, Mr. Deere would have us assume that God healed a multitude of people in the first century when neither the biblical nor secular historical record gives evidence of such. See section 10.2.B.1. ↑

36. Fourth, is Mr. Deere really thinking about what he is saying when he claims that because “the church . . . has changed” it has triumphed over and blocked God’s sovereign desire to exercise compassion on His people? Regarding this ridiculous explanation for the fourth century cessation of these gifts see section 11.7.C ↑

37. Augustine, Confessions, 10.35; online at http://www.ccel.org. ↑

38. For further discussion of biblical faith in relation to Scripture see chapters 6.10-11. ↑

39. For further discussion on the place of feelings in decision making see section 4.6.C. ↑

40. Specifically on the place of experience and emotion in Christian worship see chapter 4.8. ↑

41. J. I. Packer, Knowing Christianity (Harold Shaw, 1995), 5-6. ↑

42. John MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos (Zondervan, 1992), 185, 206. ↑

43. For further discussion of these fleshly and even demonic worship phenomena commonly encouraged in super-supernaturalism see section 4.11.B. ↑

44. Larry Christenson, Speaking in Tongues (Dimension Books, 1968), 40. ↑

45. J. Rodman Williams, The Era of the Spirit, 55. ↑

46. Ibid. (italics added for emphasis). ↑

47. Richard Quebedeaux, The New Charismatics: The Origins, Development, and Significance of Neo-Pentecostalism (Doubleday, 1976), 111, 124, 154. ↑

48. F. Sontag, “Should Theology Today be Charismatic?” JETS (30), 199, 200. ↑

49. Hank Hanegraaff, Counterfeit Revival (Word, 1997), 109. ↑

50. Jack Deere, Surprised by the Voice of God (Zondervan, 1996), 291-2. ↑

51. Doug Bannister, The Word and Power Church (Zondervan, 1999), 15 ↑

52. See further discussion of Charismatic worship perspectives in chapters 4.8-11. ↑

53. Alan Richardson, Christian Apologetics (Harper, 1948), 244. ↑

54. James White, Scripture Alone: Exploring The Bible’s Accuracy, Authority, And Authenticity, (Bethany House, 2004), 94 ↑

55. Quebedeaux, 171-2. ↑

56. Merrill, F. Unger, NT Teaching on Tongues (Kregel, 1971), 3. ↑

57. Packer, Spirit, 173, 201. ↑

58. Thomas R. Edgar, Satisfied by the Promise of the Spirit (Kregel Resources, 1996), 25. ↑

59. Iain Murray, Evangelicalism Divided (Banner of Truth Trust, 2000, 2001), 135. ↑

60. Deere, Voice, 251-3. ↑

61. For further discussion regarding the challenges of interpreting Scripture see chapter 3.3. ↑

62. For legitimate and alarming explanations for phenomena in super-supernaturalism see sections 4.11.B and chapters 11.8-12. ↑

63. Deere, Power, 23. (Italics in the original). ↑

64. Deere, Power, 25. ↑

65. Ibid., 55,56. 99 ↑

66. For further discussion of the biblical meaning of the gift of knowledge see chapter 8.2. ↑

67. Erwin Lutzer, Who Are You To Judge? (Moody, 2002), 65-6. ↑

68. Bernard L. Ramm, The Pattern of Authority (Eerdmans, 1957), 45. ↑

69. Sinclair Ferguson, The Holy Spirit (Intervarsity, 1996), 235. ↑

70. Frederick Dale Bruner, A Theology of the Holy Spirit, (Eerdmans, 1970), 33. ↑

71. Alister McGrath, in Power Religion: The Selling Out of the Evangelical Church? (Moody, 1992), 227-8, 304 ↑

72. Carl E. Braaten, “The Role of Dogma in Church and Theology” in The Task of Theology Today: Doctrines and Dogmas ( Eerdmans, 1999), 26-7, 32. ↑

73. Donald G. Bloesch, Essentials of Evangelical Theology, Vols. 1 & 2 (Harper & Row, 1978), 189. ↑

74. Neo-orthodoxy is a relatively complex theological perspective best known as the position Karl Barth (1886-1968) promoted. R. V. Schnucker relates in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (EDT):

    Neo-orthodoxy . . . does not have the popularity it enjoyed earlier in the [20^th] century. Certain inherent elements have precluded its continuing influence. For example . . . its view of Scripture, “The Bible is God’s Word so far as God lets it be his Word” (Barth, Church Dogmatics, I/2, 123), has been seen as a rejection of the infallible sola Scriptura of conservative Protestantism. . . .

    Perhaps the greatest weakness within the movement has been its pessimism concerning the reliability and validity of human [even Christian] reason. [Its critics claim] If human reason cannot be trusted, then it follows that since neo-orthodoxy relied on human reason, it could not be trusted. (“Neo-orthodoxy,” [Baker, 1994], 756)

    Which is the same inevitable result of any philosophy or theology that degrades the God-given place of especially Spirit-liberated reason. ↑

75. Quebedeaux, 171-2. ↑

76. See 1.? ↑

77. MacArthur, Chaos, 358 ↑

78. Robert B. Gaffin in Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Wayne Grudem ed. (Zondervan, 1996), 334-5. ↑

79. We have repeatedly pointed out the biblical truth that true Christian spirituality is defined, experienced, and recognized as supernatural virtue such as love and holiness. For further see section 5.6.B.; 10.15.A.7; and 9.12.D. ↑

80. Bannister, 24 ↑

81. Ibid., 36-37 ↑

82. J. P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle (Zondervan, 2007), 199. ↑

83. Ibid., 187. ↑

84. Gordon Fee, God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul (Hendrickson, 1994), 902. ↑

85. Donald Bloesch, The Holy Spirit (InterVarsity, 2000), 208. ↑

86. Erwin Lutzer, Seven Convincing Miracles (Moody, 1999), 57. ↑

87. Lutzer, Judge, 120. ↑

88. Excerpt from section 10.5.B.3. ↑

89. For the claim that the “revival” in charismaticism has been more fake than real see section 10.15.A. ↑

90. Thomas R. Edgar, ”The Cessation of the Sign Gifts” Bsac 145 (1988), 371. ↑

91. Jonathan Edwards, Treatise on Religious Affections, II:274; online at http://www.ccel.org. ↑

92. For further discussion concerning the relationship between faith and miracles see chapters 11.4-5. ↑

93. Regarding super-supernaturalism’s claim that Scripture and sign gifts ceased because of a lack of virtue in the early Church see section 11.7.C. ↑

94. Regarding the relationship between faith and miracles see chapter 11.4-5. ↑

95. Regarding the fact that neither Christ nor the Apostles ever criticized a believer for a lack of faith to either produce or receive a miracle see section 11.5.D. ↑

96. Instead, as we discuss at length elsewhere, Brother Yun and others ministering in countries hardened to the Gospel, are in environments where we would expect more miracles to occur, which is a better explanation of any real upsurge in miraculous activity than many of the reasons super-supernaturalism offers. See section 10.3.C. ↑

97. Michael Green, Evangelism and the Early Church, 26-7, 249. ↑

98. Ibid., 249. ↑

99. For disparagements of reasoning particularly in super-supernaturalism see section 2.4.A.2 and chapter 4.11. ↑

100. Fee, Presence, 800. ↑

101. Wimber, Power Evangelism, 31. ↑

102. Regarding the fact that God’s miraculous activity is not dependent on humans, but He is sovereign over when and where they occur, see section 11.5.F. ↑

103. K. L. Sarles, “An Appraisal of the Signs and Wonders Movement,” Bsac (145), 70-1. ↑

104. One biographer shares the rather radical shift D. M. Lloyd-Jones apparently experienced in the matter of super-supernaturalism:

     In [super-supernatural] circles, the name of Lloyd-Jones was anathema, for example, the Church’s Council of Healing, where one leader told me only Dr. Lloyd-Jones prevented the healing movement from sweeping the church. That leader died long before Dr. Lloyd-Jones changed his position and viewpoint, from his early agreement with Professor B. B. Warfield’s views on healing to an acceptance of healing gifts. He was later seen by many charismatic leaders as lending support to the ‘gifts of healings’ which were so much part of the renewal movement. But all those later developments were some decades away from his early ministry in London. (Davies, 356) ↑

105. Lloyd-Jones, Spirit, 130-1. ↑

106. Ibid., 78. ↑

107. Charles Swindoll, The Mystery of God’s Will (Word, 1999), 31. ↑

108. For the Church’s historical condemnation of super-supernaturalist phenomena see chapter 4.10; section 11.7.B; and chapter 12.13. ↑

109. For further discussion regarding how unregenerate and regenerate people relate to miracles see section 4.13.B. ↑

110. For elements of unbiblical anti-supernaturalism among Christians, see section 10.12.A.3. ↑

111. MacArthur, Chaos, 21-22, italics in original. ↑

112. Bloesch, Holy Spirit, 87. ↑

113. Regarding the super-supernaturalist’s belief that their gift of tongues provides them with a superior way of communing with and experiencing God see chapter 12.1. ↑

114. Ref. unavailable. ↑

115. Packer, Spirit, 199. ↑

116. Ibid. ↑

117. Carson, Power Religion, 111-12. ↑

118. Packer, Spirit, 194-5. ↑

119. We argue elsewhere in support of Dr. Packer’s contention that Scripture does not defend the super-supernaturalist’s expectation of healing. See section 10.13.A.1. ↑

120. B. B. Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles (Banner of Truth Trust, 1972), 177. ↑

121. Robert Saucy, Miraculous Gifts, 130. ↑

122. Max Turner, The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts (Hendrickson, 1998), 342. ↑

123. Regarding the fraud in super-supernaturalism’s claims to healing see sections 11.7.B.9 and 11.8.E-F. ↑

124. Ruth Tucker, God Talk: Cautions For Those Who Hear God’s Voice (Intervarsity, 2005). ↑

125. MacArthur, Chaos, 256. ↑

126. Packer, Spirit, 195-6. ↑

127. J. I. Packer cited in Stafford, “Testing the Wine from John Wimber’s Vineyard,” 22. ↑

128. R. K. Harrison, “Healing” in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE), Geoffrey W. Bromiley, , ed., 4 vols., (Eerdmans, 1988), 2:644. ↑

129. Leslie D. Weatherhead, Psychology, Religion, and Healing (Abingdon, 1952), 214. ↑

130. Bannister, 35-6. ↑

131. Quebedeaux, 114. ↑

132. Quebedeaux 75-6. ↑

133. Ibid. ↑

134. Ref. unavailable. ↑

135. Reformation Today, issue 16. ↑

136. George E. Gardiner, The Corinthian Catastrophe (Kregel, 1974), 55. ↑

137. See the prayer below under Extras & Endnotes. ↑

138. MacArthur, Chaos. ↑

139. Packer, Spirit, 171. ↑