Dog Days of a Texas Summer
I haven’t kept up with writing for a while because of work and also because of the lovely high pressure zone that has plopped itself over the Dallas-Fort Worth area all summer.
As a trial lawyer (or you might say “court lawyer” because nobody goes to trial anymore), my schedule is at the mercy of the judges and other lawyers. Consequently, I have long periods where there is not much to do and then other times where a 40-hour day wouldn’t be a bad idea. Luckily, things have sort of cleared out and I’ve refashioned my office yet again so I should be up and at’em in a few.
Today there has finally been a break in the weather. We’ve had over 30 days over the 100 degree mark and it gets oppressive after a while. While that shouldn’t be an excuse for not writing, it is.
Charismaniacs
This week I breezed through some stories about the Lakeland Revival and how it’s gone kablooey. I am not surprised. I had noted how some of the leaders used Kenneth Hagin’s name and ministry to make themselves look credible, but that kind of thing never works. Revivals are to be about the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work and he doesn’t share his glory with anybody, even Kenneth Hagin or Kenneth Hagin wannabes.
Anti-Intellectualism
Many of the articles written about the Lakeland revival refer to anti-intellectualism. Apparently, many of the charismatic leaders involved said that any criticism of Todd Bentley was demonic or something to that effect. Frankly, even as a guy who has been to Pentecost-meetings, revival meetings, and even Bob Tilton’s old Word of Faith church, I don’t get that at all. Contrary to popular belief, at Rhema they taught us to check out everything by the Word and that didn’t mean to throw out your sensibilities. Whenever a revival hits a point that they disregard scripture, I hit the door running. Intellectualism and the move of God’s Spirit are not mutually exclusive.
Word of Faith Reformation
After the brouhaha over Lakeland, there is sure to be talk about “reformation” of Word of Faith doctrine. During the revival, Todd Bentley aligned himself with the Word of Faith movement by invoking Kenneth Hagin’s name, books, and what-have-you. I’m already aware of one site that has drawn a line in the sand about how Word of Faith doctrine is not biblical, not historic Christianity, and so on (everybody wants to be a hero). A few ignorant charismatic “leaders” and revival novices will not as much put a scratch on my view of the Word. Sometimes walking alone can be a good thing.
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Peter,
Could you work up a synopsis, maybe not quite TULIP-like, of what you consider the fundamental (and what should be the non-negotiable) foundation of WOF doctrine? The Assemblies has it’s 16 Tenets, other groups have short or long statements of some sort or another. I don’t want to read the entire Hagin library (I like the Bible best when it comes to theology), but I’d like to see the Smythean Synopsis. Has a nice ring, don’t you think?
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slw,
I’ve thought about that, but it still is on the shelf. Like you, I like the Bible best when it comes to theology and I’m hesitant to try to encapsulate a particular “theology” in a book. I think if I put anything together, it would be in the vein of Kenyon’s approach - particular subjects fleshed out with scriptures. I put together a small ebook in the past, but now that there is Blurb and Lulu, I might try to put a real book together (Blurb looks more promising).
When it comes to Hagin, I believe that all of his teachings were pretty orthodox except for Jesus being made sin and the steadfast confession of faith (both of which I believe are scripturally correct). Hagin wasn’t alone in these two teachings, along with Kenyon, there were many early Pentecostals who preached the very same thing, especially those involved in the healing ministries (A.B. Simpson comes immediately to mind). I might be wrong on this, but I think it was the Jesus being made sin teaching that took Hagin out of the Assemblies of God (in reading the 16 Tenets, I don’t see any variation in Hagin’s teachings from what I know of it).
The “problem” with the Word of Faith doctrines today is that many of Hagin’s so-called students didn’t sit for any length of time under his ministry and they have gone well beyond both the Word and his teachings (the same can be said about Kenyon, A.B. Simpson, and many others).
In the early days of the blog (The Real Faith days), I didn’t want to be categorized, but I received lots of emails from folks who were flummoxed about their pastors’ preaching and Word of Faith doctrine/teachings. I didn’t set out to be a Word of Faith defender blog, but I decided that many of these people needed to know that doctrines such as Jesus Made Sin and Healing in Redemption are both intelligent and doctrinally sound.
One of the great things about being a rogue is that when I write on things such as the non-indwelling of the person of the Holy Ghost, everybody gets mad.
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