Mike McLoughlin's Blog

Canadian Christianity Consumed by the Holy Spirit?

Mike McLoughlin — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:01:00 -0700

Watch for the book mentioned in this article. There is such a thing as a text for Pentecostal Theology after all!

The StarPhoenix
10 Mar 2007

Ecstatic spirit of Pentecostalism gaining strength in Canada
CanWest News Service

OTTAWA — The first time Michael Wilkinson saw Pentecostals at worship, he was a teenager, dragged along by his parents. “These people are all crazy,” he came away thinking. “I’m not ever going back.”

But then the kids in the youth group asked him to some concerts. The music was terrific and the teens were fun, not losers or hopeless squares. “You can be cool and go to church,” he thought.

Now 41, he is both Pentecostal and associate professor of sociology specializing in Pentecostalism at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C.

He maintains the Canadian Pentecostal Research Network and is compiling a study of Canadian Pentecostals, one of the first books of its kind. His colleagues are pressing him to finish so their graduate students can use it to undertake studies of their own.

Canada has about 4.4 million renewalists — some 500,000 classical Pentecostals, members of churches developed in the early 1900s; 2.5 million charismatics, people who are “spirit filled” but stay within their denomination; and about 1.3 million neocharismatics, or neo-Pentecostals, a movement that began 10 to 20 years ago among people who want to steer clear of some of the strictures of traditional churches.

Renewalists don’t all share the same beliefs or worship practices, but they are united by their experience of God — “an intense, direct and overwhelming spiritual experience centred in the Holy Spirit,” says Wilkinson, quoting from Frank Macchia’s Baptized in the Spirit: A Global Pentecostal Theology, one of several new books coming out on the subject.

The Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements says Pentecostal/charismatic Christianity is characterized by “exuberant worship; an emphasis on subjective religious experience and spiritual gifts; claims of supernatural miracles, signs and wonders — including a language of spirituality (as it is experienced), rather than a theology; and a mystical ‘life in the Spirit’ by which they daily live out the will of God.”

Psychology might describe it as magical thinking. Political science or sociology might see it as “enchantment,” a worldview that embraces wonder, belittled in western civilization but very much alive in other countries.

Renewal resides at the mystical end of the religious spectrum and much of it is an outright mystery, which is just fine with its adherents. For them, reason has its limits.

As one renewalist minister describes it, “When philosophers and theologians get to do enough thinking or talking, they eventually run themselves in a circle. . . . They’ve bumped their brains on the ceiling of a mystery, but don’t want to admit it, so they keep talking.”

Probably the most mysterious are the “gifts” of speaking in tongues, prophecy, deliverance and healing, and the signs and wonders, or modern-day miracles, “a foretaste of the coming kingdom of God,” according to Wilkinson.

Evangelicals are also turbo-charged in their worship but they believe the miracles in the Bible were intended simply to help the Apostles get the church started. Most don’t believe they are available to believers today. Pentecostals do.

Since Pentecostals take their name from a passage in the Bible in which the Holy Spirit imbues the apostles with special gifts and powers, their outlook is hardly surprising.

Tags: Pentecostalism, worship, Pentecostal, sociology, Canadian, renewal, charismatic, spirit+filled, Holy+Spirit, Christianity, supernatural, miracles, signs, wonders, tongues, healing, kingdom, God, Evangelicals

Biblical Interpretation for Dummies

Mike McLoughlin — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 12:29:00 -0800

Is it the Truth?

That is the question my pastor would always ask me whenever I spoke publicly to our congregation. It was his concern that those who would presume to be teachers of God's people, be so acquainted with God's word that what they said was the truth, and nothing but the truth!

This concern for truth was engrained into me when I enrolled along with some other young men for a preaching course taught by our pastor at our church in 1992. We were to craft a sermon and deliver it to the rest of the group. My message was entitled, "How Then Should We Give?" My main point was that giving was a sacred duty for Christians and a measure of their spiritual maturity, so we had a spiritual obligation to give.

In my application, I concluded that since God's gift of salvation is offered us without the condition of our doing anything to deserve it, we should offer salvation likewise, we should give to the undeserving. I found support in a proof text from Matthew 5.42: "Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." A prooftext is a verse taken out of its context to support an assertion.

In case my audience did not understand my point, I concluded with the application that if a drunk on the street corner asks you for money for more booze you have a sacred obligation to give it to him! I backed that up with a proof text from Matthew 7:1: "Judge not, lest ye be judged."

After coming to that conclusion, you may well imagine what my pastor's response was! Also, the group was somewhat aghast at my application, since our church was located downtown and one often passed by panhandlers on the way into the building.

My pastor had some questions for me. Is that the truth, Mike? Is it really true that we ought not to judge when it comes to giving? Does the Scripture really teach that? Is it really true that Christians must give to anyone who asks them? Is that what Jesus was really saying?

These are very important questions to say the least. My simple reading of the text had led me to a rather strange conclusion. While it is true that giving is a spiritual discipline for Christians, if I had taken the time to research the rest of Scripture, I would have discovered that God loves a cheerful giver who gives voluntarily and not under obligation. (2 Corinthians 9:7)

So here I was standing before the group, preaching from the Bible and laying down an authoritative application that was simply wrong! Perhaps it was fine for me to do it, to empty my pockets to every passer-by who holds out his hand, but for me to preach that to our congregation and lay that burden on them as a matter of gospel truth was inappropriate.

In my naïve desire to read out of the text its proper application, I had read into the text something that was not there. I could not be faulted for bringing to the text a compassionate heart for the poor, an understanding about our duty to love our neighbors unconditionally, a spirit of extravagant generosity and a zealous desire to hear God's voice and obey it implicitly. However, I was wrong to discern that my Biblical interpretation was a universal principle and sacred obligation put on all Christians by their Lord. I believe there are universal truths in the Bible that require our acceptance and obedient application, but giving money every time someone asks was not one of them!

How did I get mixed up like this? What happened in my reading and thinking that led me to such a conclusion? Since I was so sincere, zealous and prayerful and thought I was following the leading of the Holy Spirit, how could I have gone so wrong? These are questions every believer must face at one point in their spiritual journey when they are confronted with the fact that they have not only erred in their interpretation of Scripture, but have also erred in its application.

Sincere believers will inevitably get it wrong when it comes to biblical interpretation as I did. Instead of giving up on it altogether, we ought to pick ourselves up from the dust of confusion and learn how to interpret the Bible better because it is an important responsibility of every Christian to "rightly handle the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).

So, let me share with you what I have learned over the years concerning the interpretation of Scripture. I call this my ten lessons in Biblical Interpretation for Dummies.

I. Evangelicals believe that The Bible is the final authority for faith and practice. (See National Association of Evangelicals Statement of Faith).

Everything needs to be judged by the standard of Scripture as found in the Christian Bible. In no way can we sit over top of Scripture and pass judgment on it, selecting passages that we approve of and ignoring others that we do not approve of. We must always sit under it and allow it to "read us" as we read it, otherwise we become the authority and not the Bible. So we interpret our experience in the light of Scripture and not the other way around.

The reason it is our authority is that it is God's truth. That is, what Scripture says, God says. It is God's revelation of his mind and heart to humankind. It comes to us through a written text which is 'God breathed' as Pauls says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. -- ...

There is Power in the Pain – How Authority is Earned Through the Cross

Mike McLoughlin — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:56:00 -0700

"I forgive! I forgive!" These were the dying words of Sister Leonella who was gunned down by Muslim extremists in Somalia last week. ("I forgive" whispers dying Italian nun).

I have heard it said, " Forgiveness is the fragrance of the violet which still clings fast to the heel that crushed it."

There is great power in the fragrance of Sister Leonella's forgiveness. Power that is greater than all the signs and wonders the church would hope to unleash to prove the love of God. Forgiveness is a power that does not overwhelm evil, but takes on board the full measure of the pain of evil. By allowing evil to do its worse and not returning evil for evil, it captures the evil act for God and uses it to demonstrate a power that is greater, the power of love.

Today I look at the notions of power and authority and how they work in the Kingdom of God. Power and authority are not the same thing. One can have power without authority. For example, those gunman in Somalia exercised their power to kill Sister Leonella. They had no authority to do it. There can be no rational legitimization for murdering an innocent nun.

On the other hand, one can have authority but have no power to exercise that authority. The recently deposed Prime Minister of Thailand has a legitimate authority to govern the country but without the military on his side he no longer exercises that authority.

One can have the authority to exercise power such as President Bush has, but by exercising that power unwisely and alienating people, it will reduce the legitimacy of the authority that stands behind the exercise of that power.

Finally, one can exercise power wisely and in doing so gain authority in the minds and hearts of the people who one wants to influence for good.

The Kingdom of God is all about that last approach. In this post I want to contrast the Charismatic approach to gaining authority through the exercise of power: signs and wonders; with what the gospel of Mark says is the true pathway to authority inherent in the gospel -- the Cross. In doing so I want to challenge the Charismatic church to earn its authority in and through the pain rather than seeking to earn that authority through the "raw power" of signs and wonders.

In a previous post on Bill Johnson’s book When Heaven Invades Earth: A Practical Guide To A Life Of Miracles, I talked about how the Charismatic Church needs to ground its hope in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the event that established once and for all that God intends to redeem creation. The resurrection is an affirmation of our creatureliness so we do not need to be insecure about the “natural” because as Johnson says “the anointing transforms the vessel it flows through.” That is, the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is at work even now in our naturalness empowering us to do God’s work.

Johnson’s stated purpose for his book is to raise up a generation that would walk in the “raw power of God”. By that he means demonstrations of God’s power to heal and set people free from spiritual oppression. His hope is for a Church that would operate in the authority of God and have a “dominating impact.”

He states that “vision starts with identity and purpose. Through a revolution in our identity, we can think with divine purpose. Such a change begins with a revelation of Him.” (p.34) So in his chapter on the Christian identity. Johnson states that “As He is, so are we in this world.” (p. 145) Since Christ is glorified, powerful, triumphant and holy so we are to be as well as his church. This is what ought to be shaping our Christian identity as Christ followers. This is what will give us the authority to have a dominating impact.

“His promises for the Church are beyond all comprehension. Too many consider them to be God’s promise either for the Millennium or heaven, claiming that to emphasize God’s plan for now instead of eternity is to dishonor the fact that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us. Our predisposition toward a weak Church has blinded our eyes to the truths of God’s Word about us. This problem is rooted in our unbelief, not in our hunger for heaven. Jesus taught us how to live by announcing, “The Kingdom of God is at hand!” It is a present reality, affecting the now.

We lack understanding of who we are because we have little revelation of who He is. We know a lot about His life on earth. The Gospels are filled with information about what He was like, how He lived, and what He did. Yet that is not the example of what the church is to become. What He is today, glorified, seated at the right hand of the Father, is the model for what we are becoming!” (p. 178)

Johnson goes on to give a list of “the heart of God for us right now.” Wise – especially as demonstrated in excellence, creativity and integrity. Glorious – with the Holy Spirit’s presence and anointing. Without spot or wrinkle; unified; knowing Christ; mature; filled with the fullness of God; with the gifts of the holy Spirit fully expressed; doing the Greater Works and seeing God’s Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. All these are attributes of the Church God wants manifest now. Johnson quotes the passage from Haggai, where the prophet says, “The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former.” (Haggai 2:9)

The problem is that most of the church is mired in powerlessness. Johnson attributes this to being on “the wrong side of the cross.”

“The Christian life is not found on the Cross. It is found because of the Cross. It ...

When Heaven Invades Earth Twenty Four Seven! Grounding the Charismatic Hope in the Resurrection.

Mike McLoughlin — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 11:10:00 -0700

My pastor was preaching last Sunday on heaven invading earth. He wants to see heaven poured out in our worship gatherings so that God’s presence would be so manifest that anything would be possible: salvations, healing, forgiveness, restoration, etc. “Not just fifteen minutes, but an hour and a half or even two hours of extended worship would see this start to happen…” At that point in the sermon I shouted out “TWENTY FOUR SEVEN”! He paused. “Okay! Now that’s faith! Who said that?” He asked, looking over in my direction. I raised my hand. He said “that’s good, that’s right on!” and went on with his message.

He seemed surprised it was me expressing such faith. Perhaps, it was because him and I are having a friendly debate over the nature of reality and how God heals. My wife is a medical doctor. She believes healing is from God whether it comes supernaturally through prayer or naturally through medical skill. For her and I, one way is not necessarily better than the other way.

Our pastor disagrees, preferring a supernatural manifestation of healing. He is taking his cue from a book by Bill Johnson, Senior Pastor of Bethel Church in Redding California entitled When Heaven Invades Earth: A Practical Guide To A Life Of Miracles. Johnson’s states “our mandate is simple: raise up a generation that can openly display the raw power of God. This book is all about that journey… the quest for the King and His Kingdom.” (p.27, online here)

As a member of a charismatic church, I believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit are a vital part of the ministry of the church. Healing is one of those gifts. I support and I have benefited from prayer for healing in all its various forms at our fellowship. I have personally seen God’s power at work in our congregation through prophetic utterances, physical manifestations and demonic deliverance. I believe that God is alive and aggressively active in establishing his kingdom on earth through his church.

So I enjoy hearing stories of “power encounters” as John Wimber used to describe them. This is when God’s power confronts, overwhelms and undoes demonic powers in the form of healing or deliverance. I attended a Wimber conference in Edmonton in 1989 in which the power of God was so manifest that it blew the electrical system, dimmed the lights and brought the City emergency services to the building. I have been in prayer meetings and seen evangelistic gatherings where light bulbs blew out and street lamps fizzled and went dark. I believe in the visible tangible demonstration of God’s power.

Bill Johnson’s book is full of these stories and they are of great encouragement to the church. However, I take issue with the way in which he constructs his version of reality. David Ruis, one of the founding pastors of our church, spoke recently on a Sunday morning and one thing he said struck me as capturing this problem. Ruis said, “there is a gospel that can come that puts one thing down to elevate another and that’s always a temptation in the church.” This is what I see Johnson doing in his book.

In the Foreword to the book Jack Taylor sums up Johnson’s view on reality.

“I love this book because it points us toward primary reality in a world almost totally preoccupied with secondary reality. The reader of Scripture is aware that it ultimately defines primary reality as “unseen and eternal” while secondary reality is temporal, that is, it doesn’t last (see 2 Cor. 4:18). Bill Johnson’s beliefs, teachings, and ministry center on primary or Kingdom reality and finds that reality sufficient to change the face of “that which is seen.” (p. 18, online here)

Here is Johnson’s description of the “primary reality”.

The invisible realm is superior to the natural. The reality of that invisible world dominates the natural world we live in…both positively and negatively. Because the invisible is superior to the natural, faith is anchored in the unseen…

Unbelief is anchored in what is visible or reasonable apart from God. It honors the natural realm as superior to the invisible. The apostle Paul states that what you can see is temporal, and what you can’t see is eternal. Unbelief is faith in the inferior. (p. 45, online here.)

For example, Johnson is fond of making the point that there is no cancer in heaven, so when heaven invades earth cancer must go!

“Real faith is not living in denial of the natural realm. If the doctor says you have a tumor, it’s silly to pretend that it’s not there. That’s not faith. However, faith is founded on a reality that is superior to that tumor. I can acknowledge the existence of a tumor and still have faith in the provision of His stripes for my healing…I was provisionally healed 2,000 years ago. It is the product of the kingdom of heaven—a superior reality. There are no tumors in heaven, and faith brings that reality into this one."

While I endorse the fact that there are “no tumors in heaven” and that there is healing in the atonement, and that the prayer of faith brings healing, I cannot endorse the language that divides reality into that which is ‘superior’ verses that which is ‘inferior’.

It is language that puts one thing down (the natural) in order to elevate another thing (the supernatural). It reflects a fundamental insecurity in our creatureliness, (the Latin ‘natura’ means ‘that which we are born with’) as if something is fundamentally wrong with who God made us to be, where God intends us to exist and how God intends us to work...

TAGS: resurrection

It’s a Bird! No! It’s a Plane! No! It’s The Christian Carnival CXXXII!

Mike McLoughlin — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 21:43:00 -0700

This week the Christian Carnival is HOT! Lots of HOT Topics to match the summer HEAT with a little humor thrown in!

Thank you to Donald Bosch at the The Evangelical Ecologist for helping me as a rookie host for the Christian Carnival and for John Howell at Brain Cramps for God for forwarding all those great entries and for the much esteemed Dory at Wittenberg Gate for giving us the opportunity to host.

Tom Gilson at Thinking Christian discovers two “tin woodmen" in his short snippet of a story - Only Natural.

Polly at Life is a Buffet (as opposed to a box of chocolates J? ) does a review of her Book of the Month: - The Holy Bible!. “Synopsis: God creates the universe and a man and a woman and then the story blasts off from there with an ending that is out of this world.”

The Deputy Headmistress shares an inspiring story of the authenticity of the Bible in her post: The Common Room: Ancient Manuscripts.

Sprittibee has some practical insight about God's Smoke Alarms from her reading of Bruce Wilkerson’s The Secrets of the Vine.

Dave Lorenzo at Career Intensity promotes The Power of Prayer at Work. My question is, does prayer serve business success or does business success serve God’s purposes in the marketplace? Perhaps Carnival readers would care to comment on the role of prayer for prosperity’s sake or the power of prayer for God’s glory through our work?

Trivium Pursuit posts an article by Mike Evans on Spiritual Depression, Rest, and ASSISTANCE Buttons.

Prince of Thrift discusses debt, specifically, becoming and staying debt free in Understanding The Great Misunderstanding.

Diane at CrossRoads in commenting on the Emergent church “thinks the children of the Baby Boomers have learned their parents' teachings quite well” which perhaps is not such a good thing. Check out her concerns at Where Faith and Inquiry Meet: Emerging into Emergent.

Martin LaBar at Sun and Shield looks at What's really important. And that is showing Christ’s love!

Jeremy Pierce at Parableman discuses Mark Roberts’ argument against doubting the traditional authorship of Mark & Luke. His post is entitled Mark, Luke, and Pseudonymity.

Mandi at Praising Fool in a quest for a church asks “Am I being too harsh since I don't want to go back based on the fact that not a single person welcomed me into their church?”

Jim Nutt at A Nutt’s View asks the question, God has not given us a spirit of fear, so what are we all so scared of?

Andre Yee at Every Square Inch exhorts fellow believers to See God in the Monotony. He offers a quote from G K Chesterton, “But perhaps, God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon.”

Brandi at LongStarAcademy shares an incredible story of Words of Affirmation from the Lord.

Father David Jennings at Left of Calvary takes issue with the city of Las Vegas for stopping the service of mobile soup kitchens for homeless people in his post Does Vegas share in Sodom’s real sin?

Katy McKenna at Fallible.com discusses how blogging started for her “as a way to relieve my poor husband from a small measure of his listening duties” at The Beauty Of Budding Bloggers

Mary Yerkes of Releasing the Artist Within discusses her experience with the return of a prodigal son, specifically her 23 year old son returning home to live. Her jumping off point is Henri Nouwen’s Encounter with a Painting. Read it at http://maryyerkes.com/blog/?p=418

Rev Bill makes the point that we all need to Cross the road to see (and understand) what's on the other side! He quotes Henri Nouwen on neighborliness.

Nerd Mom from the Nerd Family explores the trend of Denominations and Colleges Breaking Ties. She thinks denominations are a good idea and wonders why people who disagree ought to still stick together. I can think of some pretty good reasons from Scripture, but perhaps Carnival reader could take up her challenge.

Lennie Jarratt at CrossBlogging discusses the important issue of Stem Cell research at Stem Cell Treatment Allows Girl To Walk.

Anthony at Fides et Veritas responds to Christians proclaiming the imminent return of Christ at Keep on keeping on.

A Penitent Blogger reflects on the attitude that should be maintained by ministers and indeed all the faithful at Ministry with an attitude.

Eric Williams in Ales Rarus asks the question "Must Christians always support Israel?" in his comments about the recent conflict in the Middle East at http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/2414/

Leslie Carbone takes issue with Senator Ron Wyden’s Tax Reform initiative but agrees the tax code needs reform because it is unwise, unjust and immoral in Is the Tax Reform Man Coming?

Mark Olson at Pseudo-Polymath discusses arguments against eugenics from a purely utilitarian viewpoint http://www.pseudopolymath.com/?p=1642.

Barbara Sanders of Alabama at Tidbits And Treasures comments on the ministry of Bill & Gloria Gaithers, some of the best, if not the best, Christian artists of our time God's "Interruption" of the Gaithers

Rey from the Bible Archive looks at his lawn and thinks "Man, there's a lot of work to do in the Church." The Bible Archive - Why Lawn (and Church) Work Doesn't End

And last but not least Mike (that’s me) of the Faith at Work posts his solution to “The Clergy Conspiracy – Decode this Post to Uncover An Explosive Truth!” in his short article commemorating the passing of Kenneth Lay - So Dark the Con of Lay Man.

Thank you everyone for participating. Don’t forget to check ...

Platonic Dualism is Boring!

Mike McLoughlin — Tue, 23 May 2006 12:44:00 -0700

Another Transitions column from our local New Age Guru, Ross Freake at the Kelowna Daily Courier. Ross writes every two to three weeks on spirituality. Every once and a while I challenge what he has to say. (See Pantheism Panned: New Age Spirituality cannot deal with the Problem of Radical Evil & It's Easter time and I am Passionate about the Resurrection!) Here is the introduction to ...

Why not Women?

Mike McLoughlin — Fri, 05 May 2006 22:17:00 -0700

I posed a question at Steve Camp’s Weblog concerning Article XVI of the Together for the Gospel Statement (See my previous post Together for the Gospel or Together in the Twilight Zone? for the text & Links)

Deo Volente prepared an in depth response to my question - Together for the Gospel Article XVI and My Opinion. The author is a woman who supports the position that women are ...

Pantheism Panned: New Age Spirituality cannot deal with the Problem of Radical Evil

Mike McLoughlin — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 23:35:00 -0800

Ross Freake, the City Editor of our local newspaper, the Kelowna Daily Courier, has just written a glowing tribute to New Age Spirituality entitled “Can’t you feel the energy?” He mixes together concepts such as Quantum mechanics , Field Theory, ancient Vedas and Cosmic Oneness. He says “The Absolute is the writer, director, actor, the makeup artist, the audience and the seats the audience sits on!"

Wow! I ...

Is Heaven Really our Home? Advent Hope is for New Creation not Heaven

Mike McLoughlin — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 19:52:00 -0800

Advent is the season of hope, that time to celebrate the birth of Jesus and look forward to his coming again. No surprise then that Barbara Walters has done a special on Heaven. (ABC News: Heaven — Where Is It? How Do We Get There?).

Pastor Ted Haggard, President of The National Association of Evangelicals and listed by Time Magazine as one of The 25 Most Influential ...

Biblical Authority and Faith at Work in Professional Practice

Mike McLoughlin — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 15:38:00 -0700

My wife and I will be attending the annual meeting of The Christian Medical and Dental Society (CMDS) of Canada. St. Andrews-by-the-Sea in New Brunswick, this week. An important item for discussion at this meeting is the Society's statement of faith including their belief in the authority of Scripture.

This discussion has been brought about by a recent challenge presented to the CMDS Executive Board by one of its ...