Question: Is the charismatic movement Biblical?
Answer: While the charismatic movement emphasizes the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts, they are not channeled in a manner that is biblical. The unbiblical practices observed in this movement are as follows:
1. The Bible
It goes against what the Bible teaches about the true gift of speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 14: 27-30, 39-40).
2. The Prosperity Gospel
It promotes the “prosperity gospel” that teaches that the believers need to be financially prosperous as evidence of their faith in God. In the “prosperity gospel,” blessings are dependent on the believer’s words and “positive confession.” They teach that the believer’s words have creative power and they determine his destiny. In contrast, the Bible teaches total dependency on God (James 4:15).
3. Miracles
It stresses “miracles” as the basis for giving credibility to a preacher’s message even if the message is unscriptural. The Bible teaches that miracles are not always evidence for God’s power because the Antichrist will use miracles, “signs and lying wonders” to deceive the world (2 Thessalonians 2:9-11).
4. Healing
It puts unscriptural focus on physical healing. The believer is encouraged to demand healing instead of being submissive to God’s will as Paul was (2 Corinthians 12:1-10). The Bible teaches that God may use physical afflictions for refining and correcting His children (Hebrews 12:3-11; Job 23:10).
5. Physical Response
It calls the believers to “come under the power,” where leaders “lay hands” on people causing them to “faint, swoon, have holy laughter, or experience the power,” etc. These practices are not found in the Scriptures.
6. Worldliness
It encourages a spirit of keeping up with the world instead of holiness in actions, speech, lifestyle, music, entertainment, etc. (1 John 2:15-17).
7. Ecumenical Movement
It promotes the Ecumenical Movement the compromises Biblical truths for the sake of “unity in the Spirit” (John 17:17)
8. Liberalism
It promotes liberalism as taught in the “New Evangelical Movement” that doesn’t adhere to the Scriptures (Isaiah 8:20).
9. View of Satan
It teaches unbiblical truths concerning the believer’s dealing with Satan (Ephesians 2:2) where the believer is called to “step on Satan” and “bind him” by mere words instead of the biblical way of resisting Satan (1 Peter 5:8, 9; James 4:7) in every thought and action (Ephesians 6:10-17).
10. God’s Law
It places little emphasis on obedience to God’s law (Exodus 20:8-11). But the Bible teaches, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin [break the law], because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid” (Romans 6:14, 15).
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In His service,
BibleAsk Team
