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2) John MacArthur is WRONG – Word of Faith and Prosperity preachers are false, but they are not the heart and soul of charismatics today. This is the problem I have with many of the more virulent cessationists – their tendency to paint the extremes of the C/P movement as the norm.
I’ve seen some of those same people complain about those who have applied the same technique with Calvinists and Calvinism. A lady in my previous church once asked, “Why do you guys spend so much time on these outreaches. If God wants to save them, he will.” That is an extreme and dangerous viewpoint. But it is not representative of the Calvinist movement as a whole. In my church, some of the most actively evangelistic and “missional” people in our church are the “five-point” club (with a few 4 point members). Calvinists do not want their viewpoint defined by those extremes, nor is it fair or accurate to do so. Cessationists, many of whom are Calvinists, should not employ this unfair tactic and define charismatic/Pentecostals by the extremes.
I think it is unfair to sit back in our spiritual enclaves and paint our theological opponents in extreme terms. Calvinists are the enemy. Anti-Calvinists are out to destroy the Calvinists. Charismatics are wackos. Non-Calvinists don’t like the Holy Spirit. When we paint our theological opponents as extremists, we damage the Body of Christ.
So, I appreciate Dr. MacArthur’s willingness to draw theological lines against false doctrine and those who promote them, but I think he goes too far when he tends to paint the extremes of the movement as the norm.
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I’ve seen some of those same people complain about those who have applied the same technique with Calvinists and Calvinism. A lady in my previous church once asked, “Why do you guys spend so much time on these outreaches. If God wants to save them, he will.” That is an extreme and dangerous viewpoint. But it is not representative of the Calvinist movement as a whole. In my church, some of the most actively evangelistic and “missional” people in our church are the “five-point” club (with a few 4 point members). Calvinists do not want their viewpoint defined by those extremes, nor is it fair or accurate to do so. Cessationists, many of whom are Calvinists, should not employ this unfair tactic and define charismatic/Pentecostals by the extremes.
I think it is unfair to sit back in our spiritual enclaves and paint our theological opponents in extreme terms. Calvinists are the enemy. Anti-Calvinists are out to destroy the Calvinists. Charismatics are wackos. Non-Calvinists don’t like the Holy Spirit. When we paint our theological opponents as extremists, we damage the Body of Christ.
So, I appreciate Dr. MacArthur’s willingness to draw theological lines against false doctrine and those who promote them, but I think he goes too far when he tends to paint the extremes of the movement as the norm.
source
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it's ok. no worries
