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Adding this for perspective;

John MacArthur and the Strange Fire Conference

According to the video someone who has a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. They don't really know God.

We know that there are people the Lord will turn away, who thought they knew Him;

Matthew 7:21-22
21"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'

They must have believed they knew Him. Isn't that the impression you get from the text?

Someone who just feel like they are Christian. Someone with an external faith, one that is superficial and attached to miracles. It is the concern of the speaker in this video that the Charismatic movement is so focused on mass experience and getting healed. Getting rich. Getting prophecies, letting Jesus speak to you, being happy.

Some excerpts from the video;

From the start, John the Baptist and Jesus preached repentance. Jesus always preached a recognition of your own spiritual bankruptcy, spiritual emptiness, called for sorrow over sin, brokenness, eager to turn from sin, eager to be rescued from its judgment, and understanding that you have nothing to offer. So the beatitudes go, the people who enter the kingdom are spiritually bankrupt and they know it. Therefore, they mourn over their condition. Therefore, they are meek and broken. Therefore, they hunger and thirst for a righteousness they know they don’t have.

I don’t see that kind of preaching. I don’t see that kind of invitation in the charismatic movement. It’s join the party. Jump on the bandwagon. Get healed. Get rich. Get prophecies, let Jesus speak to you, be happy. That’s a far cry from what our Lord says.

You must enter. You must enter this gate. You must enter this gate alone. You must enter with difficulty. You must enter naked. And you must enter submissive to the Lord. A few years ago, I wrote a book called Slave and that’s really what you become. That’s a hard sell for the early church in a world where slavery existed and was hated and people wanted to be free to tell people “Here’s the gospel. You need to become a slave. You need to give up your family, hate your family, your father, your mother, your sister, your brother. You need to hate your own life. You need to drop all your possessions. You need to abandon everything, and then submit yourself completely to the Lord.”


Excerpt;

Thirdly, you must enter this gate alone. It’s a narrow gate. It’s not a group event. You leave the crowd behind. This is one of the very disturbing things about the mass hysteria that goes on in the charismatic movement. It’s the same kind of mass hysteria that happens at a rock concert, just the words are different. Jesus’ words, but it’s the same emotional, elevated, out of control kind of hysteria in many cases.

When you come through this gate, it’s a very narrow gate. Think of it as a turnstile, one at a time. It’s exclusive. It’s intensely personal. In fact, it’s so personal you may have to break with your father, and your mother, and your sister, and your brother, and all your friends and family, and everyone you know. This is not a group event. This admits one person at a time. And we’ve said that for years. The kingdom of God advances one person at a time. One soul at a time. You come alone.

The video in text format.

That is true, and I apologize if I am coming off as if I am saying all charismatics are not real believers. Personally I believe that the focus on emotions and signs can and will for some charismatics stand in the way of real salvation. Our job as Christians are to bring other individuals to Christ, but also to conduct ourselves in a way that represents Jesus and the Gospel message well. There is a lot of unscriptural things going on in the charismatic movement (slain in the Spirit, drunk in the Spirit, uncontrollable laughter, rolling on the floor, animal noises, talking in tongues as the only sign of being saved, some prosperity theology. This is not how we are told a Church should look like if we look to the New Testament for instruction) that does not bring knowledge of Jesus or gives glory to Him, and not many charismatics who are willing to correct their brothers and sisters, or even point these things out though I know for sure that there are people that are charismatics in authority who has the means to do so. Often people will listen more when critique comes from within a group, than from someone who does not belong. I am not saying this to throw rocks and kill, but out of concern.