What to make out of the Evangelical-versus-Charismatic debate
(Based on 1 Corinthians 12:13)
Khen Lim
Image source: samdepreacher.wordpress.com
Not too long ago, I had spent time in different churches where
I got to feel what they were like. Among the few that I did invest some years
with was a charismatic Indian working-class church loosely tied with the
Assemblies of God denomination. Coming from an essentially conservative evangelical
background, the initial experience was overwhelming. Despite spending a few
years acclimatising, it was tough going for an old dog like me.
And then comes that special time every Sunday when the church
is called to pray. The noise is so deafening that it just about lifts the roof.
It is as if everyone competes with his neighbour, speaking in tongues. Some simply
stand at their place but some of the senior citizens remain in their seats. There
are others, who, with eyes closed, wander about the aisles as if in a stupor, occasionally
walking into one another. A few regularly lean, facing one of the walls like
Jews to the Western Wall. Some others literally lie on the floor or sit cross-legged.
All were effortlessly speaking in tongues.
And it was loud with a capital L. If you were as uninitiated
as I was back then, perhaps you could imagine the shock. I was and still am a
preferably quiet prayer person. Unless I lead in a corporate prayer or pray for
another person, I feel more comfortable praying privately for only God to hear.
This is not to say that I’m right and anyone who does it otherwise is wrong. As
for speaking in tongues, it wasn’t an easy sight to reconcile with. I had
intense difficulties coming to terms with everything I saw. I was neither
comfortable nor accepting what was a weekly reality to the church members. For
me, I was troubled deeply.
Why? Because some members came to me, insisting that unless I spoke
in tongues, my baptism was a phoney event. That was pretty much below the belt
as far as I was concerned but out of courtesy, I wore my diplomacy cap well and
simply shrugged it away. And of course, when everyone could speak in tongues so
eloquently (how could it be eloquent when no one was ever around to translate?),
I stood out like a sore thumb not only because I was the sole non-Indian in the
entire mix but also because I struggled and failed to step up to the plate. I
felt like a fake trying to blend in with the ‘real Christians.’
I survived a few years at that church because I put up with
all of that and said nothing. But that didn’t mean I ‘learned’ to speak in
tongues. You don’t ‘learn’ to speak in tongues; you either have that gift or
you don’t. I didn’t and so, to be a part of that church, I simply closed my
eyes, spread my arms and prayed with my lips moving. People might assume I was speaking
in tongues but that’s their assumption. I was simply praying and nothing more.
Looking back at all of this and now back in a more comfortable
evangelical setting, the contrast couldn’t have been more striking. It’s as if
we’re just not involved or not ‘into it’ during the worship service. We’re so
static by comparison and unlike my earlier experience, we appear to have our energy
sapped. No one I know of speaks in tongues at our services and if anyone did,
it would have been very private and discrete so as to be ‘inoffensive’ or ‘alienating.’
The big deal with all this is that often, evangelicals are
made to feel like we don’t get it. We’re not legit because our baptism did not
come with that sudden electrical bursts of tongues. Without that experience, we
are not biblically validated. But if that were the case, how and what is the biblical
position?
‘Paula’
Theologian, pastor and president of the Evangelical Theological
Society, Dr C. Samuel Storms brings up a pertinent example of a girl Paula who
was raised in a Christian family, who regularly attends church and by
adolescence, she took Christ seriously enough to repent of her sins at a church
camp and place her faith in the atoning death of Jesus. From that point, she
never doubted that she was a child of God.
Yet in the ensuing teenage years, life-changing forces played their
part in the confusion process and Paula found herself enduring peer-group
pressure in school. Because her physical beauty wasn’t exactly of prom queen
material, boys didn’t find her attractive enough. Her school grades didn’t
light up the Christmas tree either. And genuine friends were thin on the
ground.
At her coming of age, she was somehow invited to an overnight
party, which was in itself a miracle. Seizing the chance to be accepted, she allowed
herself to her very first drink of beer and instantly, earned her a welcome into
a band of classmates who in the past didn’t even know she existed. One thing
led to another and she realised that all she had to do to be part of everyone’s
friend list was to do what they did. But she had undercurrents of doubt
troubling her because her conscience told her she had diverted from what she
was taught in church. Yet social acceptance was so compelling that she set her
thoughts aside.
While in her sophomore college, Paula joined in with some
sorority sisters who planned a Bible study night that met regularly. Eventually
she awakened to the realisation that her life was now so divergent from what
she knew the Lord wanted of her. Shocked into submission, she grieved over her
mistake but the girls rallied around her, encouraging her that it was not too
late to turn back. And so they began by praying for her but these were somehow
different Christians to the ones she was accustomed to back home.
These girls believed in spiritual gifts, which her home church
had cautioned her about but all of that took a backseat when they all laid
their hands on her. In her plea, Paula asked God for forgiveness for the many
years of spiritual emptiness and abandonment. One of the girls then cried out, “Oh
Lord Jesus, we ask that You pour out Your Spirit on Paula and empower her to
live and witness for You as she has never before!”
And all of a sudden, an unfamiliar gush of warmth came rushing
through Paula’s body, engulfing her. She felt, as she recounted later, as if a mains
pipe had burst from deep within her pressured soul. She might not know what all
of that was about but she knew to quickly offer her praises and gratitude to
Jesus. Despite her ignorance, all she understood was her joyousness and the
peace that the life-transforming experience brought to her fore. Her
backsliding days were over and Paula returned to God full of vigour and by His
grace, she lived passionately for Jesus.
The schism
Central to Paula’s story is Paul’s verse in 1 Corinthians
12:13 in which the apostle says we are all baptised in the Holy Spirt and made
to drink of the Holy Spirit:
“For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether
Jews or Gentiles slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”
(NIV)
What is at stake with this verse is whether or not there are
two different events by which Christian life is characterised. In the NIV translation,
the verse identifies firstly, baptism by one Spirit, and secondly, the drinking
of one Spirit. Accordingly then, do we as Christians encounter a Spirit-baptism
and then later, a secondary experience? If we use Paula’s example, was she
baptised when she was eleven years of age or nine years later during one Bible
study night? There are two polarising views to this:
Evangelicals believe that all Christians experience
Spirit-baptism during conversion and not thereafter. Charismatics, on the other
hand, consider the reality and importance of post-conversion encounters with
the Spirit as having experienced Spirit-baptism. Paul’s earlier verse probably
alludes to what John the Baptist famously said about Jesus.
In the fulfilment
of prophecy, the Baptist said, “After me
comes He who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to
stoop down and untie. I have baptised you with water but He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit” (my emphasis,
Mk 1:7-8).
The use of the preposition ‘with’ here strongly indicates that the
Holy Spirit does not baptise but instead it is Jesus who baptises in or with the Holy Spirit. In other words, Jesus immerses people in and
envelope them with the Holy Spirit.
Reverting to Paul’s verse, it is also very clear that all Christians experience baptism in the
Holy Spirit: “But we have all been
baptised into one body by one Spirit…” (NLT) regardless of who we are.
Furthermore all Christians will drink
of the one Spirit as well: “…and we were all
given the one Spirit to drink” (NIV). So, for now, insofar as what Paul
says, it is correct that all Christians are baptised (immersed) by Jesus in the Holy Spirit, which then results in us being of one spiritual
body regardless of our background.
Distinct yet inseparable
In fact the two events – baptism and drinking – though they
appear distinct in the verse, are inseparable because they are put together
with the purpose of uniting us under a unitary body, a singular spiritual
organism of the Body of Christ, which is the Church. The baptism part is often
referred to as immersion, in which the body of the individual is submerged with
the effect that the Holy Spirit is poured in as if inundated. This imagery is
identical to how Isaiah (32:15, 44:3) and Ezekiel (39:29) describe in the Old
Testament.
So, in a nutshell, baptism in the Spirit carries the following
non-negotiable characteristics: it only occurs at conversion and not subsequent
to that. It is only a one-time event and therefore not repeatable for all Christian
lives. It is instantaneous and not a continual process. It is also permanent.
On the other hand, the second event – the drinking – refers to
the filling of the Holy Spirit. Paula’s example reveals how she was
reinvigorated (renewed) in the Spirit nine years later when she entered
college. It is therefore an event that happens subsequent to the baptism. It does not take place during conversion
but it is a continuous and repeatable event. It doesn’t necessarily suggest
every Christian will encounter it though and it certainly isn’t permanent as,
for example, an anointing might only apply to a certain task or a particular
person.
Briefly then, we may or may not have multiple (or any) fillings
of the Holy Spirit but we only have one baptism. In other words, despite being
baptised in the Holy Spirit in which we can experience the permanent indwelling
of the Spirit, we may yet remain unfilled with the Spirit. That would explain
the distinction between ‘full of’ and
‘filled with’ the Holy Spirit.
Ultimately maybe this is not about who is right or wrong. Evangelicals
like me have our point and a very compelling one at that but who is to say that
the charismatics are entirely wrong? The same can apply in reverse were this
article written by a charismatic. Therefore can we refer to a post-conversion
experience with the Spirit as ‘baptism’ or a ‘filling’? Whether our answer is
yea or nay, does it even matter? Is this a win or lose case? Knowing that it’s
important to have Scripture authenticate and verify everything we say and
believe, we might want to lighten up and consider this example:
Suppose you are at home, busy putting your finishing touches
to your work when you develop a massive headache. You go to the bathroom and retrieve
a loose blister pack from the medicine cabinet, assuming it’s Panadol, since
you can’t quite read the printing on the foil. After consuming one, you return
to your work and think nothing about it. Half an hour later when you decide to
take a break, you realise you don’t have that headache anymore. In talking
about it with your wife, she surprises you by saying that it wasn’t Panadol
that you took but Aspro Clear.
Here’s the point of it – you didn’t take Panadol but the
headache is gone anyway. It might not have been Panadol but it was just as
effective and the headache did not return. Had you known it was Aspro Clear,
you might have gone on looking for Panadol instead and chances are that you
might not find any throughout the house and your headache would have persisted
in burdening you. Thinking it was Panadol – when it clearly wasn’t – didn’t
change any of the facts. And the main point of it all was that you wanted to
get rid of that pesky headache. And you did. It’s just that you did it with
Aspro Clear instead.
Whether or not we have any post-conversion experiences of the
Spirit to speak of in which we may have called differently shouldn’t ultimately
matter. What matters is whether these experiences were real to you or not. The
names we give them are moot.
Like many of us, Paula accepted Christ in faith at that
fateful church camp when she was eleven years old. Then, she was baptised in
the Holy Spirit (immersed) and became part of that one Body of Christ as the
Spirit indwelled in her permanently. In the ensuing years, she lost her way and
after finding herself at an invitation to a Bible study night, she come to
realise it. In renewing her faith nine years later, Paula was filled with the
Holy Spirit (drink) that inspired and empowered her to return more strongly
than ever, laying out a life dedicated to Christ in glory to Him.
That, in the end, is what ultimately matters.
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