Graham Cooke is a prophetic voice in Christian Ministry for the church today. He spoke at New Life church in 1999. He told a story about three men who regularly attended his meetings with the purpose of critiquing everything he said. About that time, he had a dream in which the Lord showed him a statue of himself beautifully carved. As Graham was admiring the statue, the Lord asked him if he would like to know who carved the statue. Graham was excited to know who it was. So the Lord took around behind the stone figure and there were those same three men chipping away at the rough stone with sharp hammers. Graham was convicted that he had been judging these men all the time they were examining him. So after that at each event he made room for these three men in the front row.

God uses Disputants to Shape the Church

Since the early days of the church God has used disputants to shape the identity and character of his church. Many of the New Testament documents were written in response to or in the context of persecution by religious authorities such as Synagogue rulers who were bent on maintaining religious orthodoxy among Synagogue attendees.

"Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, arose and disputed with Stephen. Acts 6:9" 

Disputants are often Self Appointed Apologists

The disputes are often started by self appointed apologists for the Christian faith who will go to great lengths to warn everyone on the internet of the heretical tendencies of their opponents. See my article  here about heresy hunters.  

For a sample of disputant blogs check out Steve Camp's - Camp on this! & Emergent No & SurphSide.  

Sincere Concern for the Integrity of the Gospel

Chief of all the disputants is John F. MacArthur. His book Charismatic Chaos was strongly critical of the Vineyard Church Movement  and other Charismatic churches.

To be fair to Dr. MacArthur and to others who are strongly critical of various Christian movements. They do this out of a sincere concern for the integrity of the gospel. I think this is healthy. It is a good thing for there to be examination of what people believe to be the gospel.

I have recently gone through a similar examination that you can read.  The Gospel rightly understood as my Frame of Reference for Faith at Work.

If these concerns are received in a gracious spirit, they will help shape a response that will better define the identity and character of the person or group responding.

How the Acts 15 Dispute Shaped the Early Church

An example from the Bible of the benefit of disputation is the story of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. The council was convened to decide what stipulations would be required of Gentile converts.  It was the Jerusalem council that laid to rest any question about Christians having to keep the Jewish law to be saved. This opened up the Gentile world to evangelism, since Gentiles would not need to become Jews so as to become Christians. This decision effectively resulted in Christianity moving from being a sect of Judaism to its own religion.

How to Response Appropriately to Disputants

However, as I have discovered recently, the real test comes in how we respond to negative, untruthful or hurtful criticisms by these disputants. (See my blog Civil Discourse among Christian Bloggers or How to have a Godly Christian Bun Fight!.)

The Vineyard Church has a series of Position Papers including one written by John Wimber Why I Respond to Criticism on an appropriate response to such disputants. Another paper A Response to Charismatic Chaos by Rich Nathan points out the weakness in MacArthur's approach. Rich Nathan has subsequently written a book entitled Empowered Evangelicals: Bringing Together the Best of the Evangelical and Charismatic Worlds that discusses how Charismatic and non Charismatic evangelicals can work together.

Another example of an appropriate reply to disputant apologists specific to the blogosphere is this post concerning the growing interest in the emergent church. emergent-us: Our Response to Critics of Emergent

Here are the first lines of six point this article makes in replying to critics of emergent. You can discern the tone of their response in these opening lines.

First, we wish to say thanks to our critics for their honest feedback on our books, articles, speeches, blogs, events, and churches. We readily acknowledge that like all human endeavors, our work, even at its best, is still flawed and partial, and at its worst, deserves critique. We are grateful to those who help us see things we may not have seen without the benefit of their perspective. We welcome their input.

Second, we have much to learn from every criticism – whether it is fair or unfair, kindly or unkindly articulated…

Third, we regretfully acknowledge that in our thought, writing, and speech, we have at times been less charitable or wise than we wish we would have been…

Fourth, we respect the desire and responsibility of our critics to warn those under their care about ideas that they consider wrong or dangerous, and to keep clear boundaries to declare who is "in" and "out" of their circles…

Fifth, because most of us write as local church practitioners rather than professional scholars, and because the professional scholars who criticize our work may find it hard to be convinced by people outside their guild, we feel it wisest at this juncture to ask those in the academy to respond to their peers about our work…

Sixth, we would like to clarify, contrary to statements and inferences made by some, that yes, we truly believe there is such a thing as truth and truth matters…

While the Emergent Church only gets a brief mention in MacArthur's latest disputant book Fool's Gold?: Discerning Truth In An Age Of Error. Most likely, MacArthur has his sights on it for future writing.

It is not surprising to see John MacArthur on the firing end of another disputant. John MacArthur Exposed!

Apply Four Way Test to Keep Disputation Civil

It will be interesting to see how this debate plays out in the Christian Blogoshpere. Applying the Four Way Test to Christian Blogging will keep the disputing civil.

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