In the past 50 years, the Charismatic movement has made much progress, in terms of expanding all over the world, being the most popular form of Christianity in the wider culture, saturating the media of satellite television and of course, of having congregations with stupendous membership. In spite of all these seemingly great advances, it is the firm conviction of conservative Evangelicals around the world that this movement is a misleading one and many a times, very dangerous too.
The issue is primarily a theological one. Growing out of Pentacostalism, which was a wild child of Second-Blessing teachings of Holiness movements, Charismaticism, true to its legacy has very little to do with the sufficiency and efficacy of the First Blessing – The Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is only when there has been a serious lack of understanding of the perfections of Christ’s work for His people, that people seek after second and subsequent blessings. Had they realized the sufficiency of Christ’s work and how our first and only blessing is the gospel, there needs no discussion for any blessing subsequent to salvation. The Bible knows no blessing that a believer ought to seek, subsequent to his salvation. The newness of the New Covenant is the great blessing of the indwelling of the Spirit in all believers, which they receive at their conversion and only (in the sense, exclusively) because Christ gained it for them. If it is asserted that, even after Christ gained the promise of the Father and poured it onto His church at Pentecost, individual believers subsequent to their conversion, are to follow some "steps" to get filled by the Spirit, then it is a clear denial of the efficacy and sufficiency of Christ’s work for the church. This is the linchpin argument against Pentecostal and Charismatic theology. However Charismaticism goes beyond this issue. Issues dealing with ongoing revelation, ongoing apostolate, ongoing signs and wonders etc are also crucial to this whole discussion.
In the first part of our analysis of the Charismatic theology, we turn to Dr. Trevor Craigen, Professor of Theology at Master’s Seminary, for his overview of the experience-driven theology of this movement. Dr. Craigen notes the need for this overview as follows, “The burgeoning of the Charismatic Movement [C.M.] in the last decade together with the publication of its own theological literature mandates at the very least an overview of its significant theological breakpoints. By breakpoint is meant that which makes this movement break from traditional evangelicalism--although, really, it never was ‘in.’ For sake of an overview, no distinction is being drawn between Pentecostalism and the C.M.” His presentation gives a detailed overview of each of the significant and unique theological convictions of the Charismatics. He organizes these into four basic questions which frame the major emphases of this movement. In addition to this overview, he gives a five-point theological response to these emphases of the Charismatics. Though not exhaustive, these preliminary considerations make up an excellent initial response to the theological emphases of the Charismatic movement.
