More often than not when the subject of the Holy Spirit comes
up in Christian circles, controversy and confusion reign. This is
truly a sad state of affairs. Christ's great gift to the church
(Acts 2:33) has become the ground for great distress in the lives
of the saints.
There is an old children's tale that helps to illustrate this
problem: Goldilocks and the three bears. As you may recall, when
Goldilocks reached the home of the three bears, the bears were out.
Entering, she found three bowls of porridge. Being hungry, she
sampled each. The first bowl of porridge was too cold. The next one
was too hot. The last, however, was just right; so she ate it up.
For many Christians, the varied theological views regarding the
Holy Spirit and His ministry must be like those three bowls
Goldilocks faced. At one end, in the first bowl, are those who seem
to resist the Spirit and insist that the miraculous that typified
the early church was for that time only. The gifts of the Spirit
(particularly the more sensational ones) have "ceased" and there is
little expectation that what the Spirit used to do He still can and
will do. This view leaves many believers with the distinct
impression of being "too cold."
Those who take this "no miraculous gifts for today" approach
tend to relegate Luke's second work to the "helpful history" pile.
These teachers and believers insist that Acts _does_ have value --
but primarily (and sometimes exclusively) as a record of what God
did _then._ Thus it has little practical to say about what He might
still want to do _now._
At the other end of the table is the bowl filled with those who
wholeheartedly embrace all the miraculous and wonderful in the
Scriptures. These long for returning, somehow, to the "good old
days" of "first century Christianity." A concerted effort is made
to establish certain activities of the Spirit as mandatory for all
believers everywhere; to somehow ensure that exactly what happened
then happens now. For example, some insist that since all the
disciples in Acts 2 prayed in tongues, every believer everywhere
must also have this experience. This view leaves many with a sense
of extremism -- the view seeming a little "too hot."...
Source File: crj0084a.txt
Click on a filename to search for that specific newsletter. Only files found in the document are listed.