In this piece over at Pulpit & Pen, JD Hall explores the increasing lack of discernment in the visible Church due to the popularity of the Charismatic movement. Hall asserts that “charismania” is the “convoluted mess that Brown identifies himself with.”
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“I am an unashamed Pentecostal/charismatic believer, a lifelong tongues speaker (since Jan. 24, 1972), one of the four principle leaders who served in the Brownsville Revival, the author of an in-depth, scholarly treatment of divine healing, the man who wrote Authentic Fire in response to Pastor John MacArthur’s Strange Fire…yet I am terribly ashamed of our folly, our gullibility, our lack of discernment, our failure to test all things by the Word, our carnality and our openness to being duped, deceived and defrauded.”
Dr. Michael Brown, a charismatic scholar and apologist, has written for Charisma Mag what is effectively a rebuke of some in the charismatic movement who are “gullible.” To be clear, Brown isn’t turning in his charismatic credentials, as you can see above. Brown references himself as one of the four principle leaders of the Brownsville Revival in an attempt to bolster his claims as a charismatic, which are already well-established. He also references himself as a lifelong tongue speaker and critic of John MacArthur (whose claims, he goes on to say, are “imbalanced” and “inaccurate”).
Brown’s chief contention concerning the gullibility plaguing charismaticism is corrupt fundraising among charismatic televangelists (although he reiterates that he does believe in “sowing and reaping”). Brown mentions a televangelist who used time at the Garden of Gethsemane to plea for money, a “prophet” guaranteeing provision in an upcoming famine in exchange for an offering, and other abuses designed to rake in cash. Brown did not name names in the process, saying instead that he was committed to reaching out to the offenders personally.
Brown ends with a hopeful admission, “It is high time for this nonsense to stop, beginning with each of us reading this article (me included) searching our own hearts and lives.”
Well, amen and amen.
