There are two renewal movements gaining momentum and creating widespread impact in the evangelical churches and across the face of the entire Christian community today, both with deep biblical roots and powerful appeal. They are the charismatic movement and the renewal of a radical prophetic consciousness.
The charismatic renewal is a worldwide spiritual revival of large proportions, a flowing together of three tributaries: the classical Pentecostal stream beginning around 1900, the neo-Pentecostal revival in the mainline Protestant denominations of the sixties, and most recently a vigorous Catholic charismatic renewal, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Each of these branches, while differing in certain respects, represents a new and deep experience of the work and gifts of the Holy Spirit. God is demonstrating his reality to the modern world and at the same time bringing his people together in a most remarkable way.
No less obvious on the church scene today is a deep stirring of the Christian ethical conscience in the movement toward costly discipleship and prophetic biblical social witness. The message of radical discipleship has spread widely within the evangelical church, and the commitment to biblical faith has penetrated deeply into mainline religious liberalism. Its witness has demonstrated the credibility of the gospel to many outside the church. The social and political order are being evaluated biblically and the major cultural assumptions upon which it is based are being contrasted with the priorities of the kingdom of God. These new evangelicals concern themselves with the evangelistic commission of the church along with its biblical responsibility to seek justice for the poor and oppressed and its need to speak prophetically to society and to power while restructuring its own life by the standard of the kingdom. The new evangelicals are urging Christians to assert the lordship of Jesus in every area of life and to respond to their political calling.
Both of these renewal movements are responding to important biblical themes, the one to the outpouring of the Spirit as a mark of the Christian era, and the other to a concern for discipleship and social justice basic to the message of Jesus and the prophets. Therefore the two movements share a common biblical ground. These two truths are certainly compatible and complimentary aspects of the harmonious biblical message. Therefore we are challenged to inquire how the two insights, and therefore how the two movements, relate to one another. It would be understandable if some conclude there can be no relationship. After all, to the radical Christian the charismatic movement seems to be the personification of a spiritual and individual faith, as opposed to the ethical and public biblical gospel. How can a movement, they ask, whose chief communal expression is the prayer meeting, articulate the "full gospel" of the biblical message? It looks to them so much like a "cheap grace" rerun! On the other hand, to the charismatic believers, the radical movement seems to resemble the liberal and humanistic social gospel movement of the twenties which, though it had many laudable aims, did not seek its vitality and direction from the Spirit of God, but appealed to one's own innate moral sensibilities and commitments. There are many suspicions and misunderstandings to overcome before we will be able to bring the two movements into any meaningful dialogue. But it can and must happen.
It can happen because it has happened before. In the early church (Acts 2, 4), an immediate result of the outpouring of the Spirit upon a prayer meeting of the apostles was costly sharing, a new attitude towards possessions, a concern for the poor and the needy (see "The Acts Connection," The Post American, May 1974; reprinted in The New Covenant, February 1975). A true renewal of the Spirit need not stop in a prayer meeting, but can spill over into effective social concern and action. Indeed, God's people will need the Spirit of Jesus to fill them whenever they aspire to share his concern for the oppressed, because a truly Christlike love is a very costly gesture. Christian concern for spiritual renewal and for social justice are not contradictory drives within the Christian heart. They both belong to the larger scriptural renewal which God is wanting to bring to pass in us. Therefore, let us hear one another, and ask God to teach us both.
The dialogue must happen because both movements, the charismatic and the new evangelical, will be abortive if it does not. The charismatic renewal will be abortive if it ends its life in a prayer meeting, and does not become fleshed out in concrete love and service; and the evangelical renewal will be abortive if it turns away from the Spirit and seeks to implement its ethical concerns in the power and wisdom of the flesh alone. Surely the biblical teaching makes this perfectly plain.
Differences between old and new Pentecostals notwithstanding, charismatic Christians hold two fundamental convictions, both of them biblical. The first is that the presence of the Spirit can be experienced at the deep level of love and praise and boldness. In this they do not differ dramatically from other evangelicals, who would affirm this also. The difference is that they wish to go beyond affirming it as a proposition into the actualizing of it in daily life. Many Christians are, after all is said and done, living on the wrong side of Pentecost. They do not appear to have been experientially "deluged" with the Spirit, as the expression "baptism in the Spirit" implies. There is all too often a deep ineffectiveness, a leanness of soul, a lack of love and joy, and charismatics cannot see why this needs to be so. The charismatic renewal is essentially high-voltage evangelicalism; and the big question is whether the spiritual charge can be carried over the existing wiring. Charismatic believers expect to experience the Holy Spirit.
Spiritual Gifts
Their second conviction has to do with spiritual gifts. Charismatics are convinced that the supernatural dimensions of early Christian ministry and experience can be known today. They read in the New Testament about gifts of prophecy, of miracles, of tongues, of knowledge, and they ask themselves why they should not wait on God to give them and joyfully receive them. It is hard to fault them for this. Scripture nowhere teaches that these gifts have been withdrawn, and it promises rich blessings on those who trust God radically and do not place limits on his power. The charismatic movement is characterized by its radical faith in the promises and gifts of God, and is an example in this respect to the whole church (cf. Mark 11:22-24).
Nevertheless, while recognizing the biblical roots of the charismatic renewal, we have to recall what our Lord said about spurious charismatic activity in the Sermon on the Mount. "On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers' " (Matthew 7:22-23). I do not for one moment believe that this devastating judgment applies to the charismatic movement as we see it today. But it does raise an important question. It is not enough to profess Jesus as "Lord," not even enough to experience charismatic power in one's ministry, unless there is a determination to do the will of the Father (v. 21).
Paul makes quite a similar point in 1 Corinthians 13:1-4 where he singles out four quite spectacular charismata--tongues, prophecy, miraculous faith, and martyrdom--and judges them all quite useless unless they mediate love and service to people. The gifts are not an end in themselves. They are meant to translate love into action. When they do not do so, they are counterfeits and do not stem from the Spirit's working, because his desire is to lead people into loving service.
Or consider the list of spiritual gifts in Romans 12:6-8. Out of the seven gifts referred to no less than four (serving, contributing, giving aid, and mercy-showing) have to do with the practical assistance of people in some kind of need. It is further proof of the fact that love and service stand at the very center of genuinely Christian spiritual and charismatic experience. And, we should add, if this quality of social concern was prominent in the primitive church in spite of its poverty, how can it be less prominent in the life of the affluent churches of the West today which face a world starved and poor? The New Testament example is a rebuke to us all.
If the charismatic movement is experiencing the fullness of the Spirit of Jesus, as I believe that it is, then it must move out from the prayer meeting and into the marketplace. Not in order to placate another wing of the church; certainly not in order to jump on a current secular bandwagon. But because that is where the Spirit himself always directs his people to go. Charismatic Christians ought to be the most radical of all in their passion for obedience to their Lord. The very fullness of power which they know, the very wisdom of God which they receive, makes them potentially the most radical and also the most effective Christians in the area of social concern.
But let not those whose conscience has been pricked to respond to the radical evangelical message sit back and gloat, as though we had something to teach charismatics about radical Christianity and nothing to learn from them. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Radical Christians need to be charismatically renewed.
Have we forgotten how time after time in this century, movements for social justice have petered out for want of theological foundations and spiritual power? We are not engaged only, or even primarily, in a political program to restructure worldly systems. We are embroiled in a spiritual war, contending not against flesh and blood alone, but against principalities and powers, as Paul says, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, we need to be strong in the Lord, and clad in the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). God's work will not be done in this area of social justice, any more than in any other area, by human wisdom and strength. We will have to be divinely equipped in order to do it. The radical community needs to be deluged with the Spirit, and prayerfully open to all the gifts of the Spirit God has for us to use. There is a "charismatic approach to social action," an approach that waits upon the Lord in simple faith for his enabling and direction, and which allows God to take the initiative in his work.
Spiritual gifts are God's grace-gifts to his people enabling them to function as a servant presence in the earth. We have referred already to the list of gifts in Romans 12. Let us now think of the list in 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 and briefly consider it.
First mentioned are gifts of "wisdom" and "knowledge." Have we not all at one time or another been perplexed and unable to discern what the gospel means in a new situation which confronts us? Dealing with economic injustice and social oppression can be a very complicated business, producing at times a spirit of paralysis, uncertainty, and inaction. How desperately the radical community needs to wait upon the Lord to give it clear direction of what to do and what to speak. Only the Spirit can enable us to speak God's word with its unchanging sharpness into the contemporary situation.
Then Paul speaks about the gifts of "faith," "healings," and "miracles." Each refers to one particular manifestation of the miraculous power of Jesus flowing in and through the community. The gift of "faith" was demonstrated by the prophet Elijah when he called down fire from heaven, so convinced was he that God was ready to act. The radical community needs people with this gift of "faith," those who can confront others with their conviction that God is ready to reveal his power, righteousness, and mercy. Paul also speaks of "healings" and "miracles." Why is it that we treat these gifts as a Pentecostal peculiarity, as a harmless sideline, or even as sheer quackery, instead of seeing what it means for social concern? God said, "I am the Lord, your healer" (Exodus 15:26). He delights in relieving human suffering and manifesting his powerful reality by rolling back the claims of death. It seems as if in our skepticism we share the naturalism of our secular age, and are as doubtful as non-Christians concerning the miraculous power of God. Scripture tells us that the miraculous power of Jesus is flowing through the body of Christ. Is the radical community a believing community? Why would we accept God's ethical claim on us and fail to believe in his rich spiritual benefits and gifts given for the obedience to that claim?
The gift of "prophecy" is related to the earlier gifts of "wisdom" and "knowledge." Prophecy is not usually or basically foretelling, but forthtelling the word of God, whether for present or future. In prophecy, God makes his word clear, communicating his mind and will to the people. Therefore, it has a place in the Christian community. In the spontaneous utterances of the Christian prophet, God speaks to the people regarding the concrete situation they face, and offers them comfort and direction.
Paul also speaks about the "discerning of spirits." This was the gift Peter exercised when he saw through the duplicity of Ananias and Sapphira, and later when he was able to expose the wickedness of Simon Magus (Acts 5:8). In the world today Satan is often disguised as an angel of light, and his servants appear to be agents of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). Therefore, we have to be able to test the spirits to see whether they are of God (1 John 4:1). When we stand against entrenched wickedness in society and call for radical change, we will find opponents desperate to deceive us as to their actions and intentions. We need the gift of discernment in such a context to know how to act and what to do in relation to them.
Paul closes his list with the gift of "tongues" and the "interpretation of tongues." Undoubtedly, one of the weaknesses of the charismatic movement has been a distorted overemphasis on the gift of tongues. Never in the history of the church has so much attention been paid to it. Two factors may help to make this understandable. In the first place, the opponents of Pentecostalism have derived enormous amusement from ridiculing the gift of tongues. Therefore, the Pentecostals in reaction have taken pride in it. Secondly, the gift has often been used as a handy external test for determining when a person has been "baptized" in the Spirit. Needless to say, this approach lacks any support in the epistles of the New Testament, and less than unanimous support from the Acts of the Apostles. In our passage here at any rate Paul does not overemphasize its value. Quite the contrary, he tries to convince the Corinthians to make less of it, at least in the public assembly.
Nevertheless, "tongues" and "interpretation" are bona fide spiritual gifts which he includes in his list and which he values. From his discussion in the fourteenth chapter it appears that "tongues" is a prayer language which edifies the individual practicing it because it enables his spirit to pray above and beyond what the mind can pray. It is precognitive praying, and as such self-edifying. The gift of "interpretation" is a complimentary gift which renders the tongue intelligible to the assembly, making it comparable in nature and value to prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:5). When interpreted, "tongues" is yet another mode by which God gets through to his people and declares his word to them.
Paul's doctrine of spiritual gifts points to the Christian church as a charismatic community. That is its essential nature. It is a fellowship of the Spirit, and ought to be open and pliable to its leading and direction. It points us in the direction of communities whose inspiration and equipment for social service are born and nurtured in prayer, in the presence and under the inspiration of the Spirit. The works of mercy which the community undertakes are those which it is convinced God has set before it. And with that powerful conviction there is the assurance that what God has initiated, God will support. For this reason the work of mercy is carried on in conscious dependence on the Spirit with an eagerness for all of its gifts. This charismatic emphasis on the involvement of the Holy Spirit in social concern ought to pervade the lives of radical Christians as well.
There is charismatic activity that is not fully Christian because it does not minister love and service, and there is ethical concern which does not spring up out of an encounter with the Spirit of Jesus. Both are defective because each lacks the concern of the other.
There is a word for us in the prophet Isaiah who predicts: "the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations" (61:11). Righteousness and praise--the first, righteousness, is the ideal of the radical evangelical renewal, and the second, praise, lies at the heart of the charismatic renewal. God wants both righteousness and praise, not one but both, to spring forth in our day. He wants those who hear his commands to praise and delight in his name, and those who appreciate his greatness to respond energetically to his will.
Let us all pray that the worldwide charismatic renewal will become prophetic in the face of the needs of the world and so attain the end God has for it, and that the new evangelical movement will be charismatically renewed, equipped with all spiritual gifts, and enabled to act in the power of the Spirit. When this happens, there will be a healing and reconciling community in the earth such as we have never seen before.
Clark H. Pinnock was a Sojourners contributing editor when this article appeared.
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