06/25/19

Spiritual Gifts in the Early Church, Part 1

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According to the Pew Research Center, there are 584 million charismatic and Pentecostal Christians worldwide. This means that pentecostal and charismatic Christians make up about 27% of all Christians and more than 8% of the world’s population. The majority of Christians who believe that spiritual gifts are for today reside in the Americas and in sub-Saharan Africa. Interestingly, there are regional differences between where charismatic and pentecostal Christians reside. “Almost half (49%) of all charismatic Christians in the world live in the Americas, a region in which 16% of the population is charismatic. Nearly 30% of charismatics live in the Asia-Pacific region.” However, about eight-in-ten of the world’s pentecostals live either in the Americas (37%) or sub-Saharan Africa (44%).

Charismatic and pentecostal believers seek to revive “1st century Christianity,” which they believe included the manifestation of spiritual gifts in worship and praxis (how you live out your faith). The concept of spiritual gifts or charismata is primarily found in the writings of Paul, particularly in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12. With the exception of 1 Peter 4:10-11, charismata is used with this technical sense only in Pauline texts.

Classic Pentecostalism originated in the early twentieth century. The charismatic movement grew out of a growing acceptance of charismatic teachings and ideas within mainline denominations in the 1960s, namely that the spiritual gifts are available to contemporary Christians through the infilling or baptism of the Holy Spirit.

There is evidence from a variety of sources in the early church to the presence of charisms or spiritual gifts with its worship and praxis. According to Kilian McDonnell and George Montague in Christian Initiation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit, by the end of the fourth century John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) nostalgically referred to the charisms as “long gone”; a part of the life of the church during apostolic times “but now no longer.” Despite this pronouncement, there were references to their presence through the beginning of the eighth century. Ronald Kydd concluded from his survey of the early church that, generally speaking, the church was charismatic prior to A.D. 200. However, in the first half of the third century, things began to change; the importance granted to the charisms weakened.

In Charismatic Gifts in the Early Church, Kydd said he formed this impression from observing that a lower proportion of Christian authors made specific reference to the charisms after A.D. 200. He did not have a theory for this, but McDonnell and Montague did. They suggested the controversy over Montanism resulted in a theological position within the church that undercut the validity of both the so-called ‘new prophecy’ movement of Montanism and the continuation of the charisms within the life of the church. Jaroslav Pelikan agreed with this assessment and identified the work of Hippolytus (c. 170-236) as a key factor in this adjustment. Montanism was a negative example of early “charismatic” practice, and a key factor in the passing of the charisms from the life of the church.

The earliest evidence for the charisms in the life of the church comes from the letter of Ignatius to the Philadelphians, and three documents whose authorship is either anonymous or in question: the Didache, 1 Clement, and The Shepherd of Hermas (all are found in The Apostolic Fathers). Ignatius (35-108 AD) is an important source, as he personally claimed the gift of prophetic utterance in his exhortation to the Philadelphians  to obey their appointed leaders: “I called out when I was with you, I was speaking in a loud voice: ‘Pay attention to the bishop and to the presbytery and deacons.’” Noting that there were some who questioned the credibility of his prophetic word, he again affirmed that: “the Spirit itself was preaching.”

The Didache was most likely edited into its present form towards the end of the first century from materials written around 70 A.D. It is composed of two parts: the “Two Ways” (I.I–6.2) and a manual of church order and practice (6.3–16.8). The Two Ways is a summary of basic instruction about the Christian life that was to be taught to those preparing for baptism and church membership. The way of life was essentially the two great commandments to love God and your neighbor, as well as the negatively stated golden rule: “whatever you do not wish to happen to you, do not do to another.” The Lord’s commandments were to be followed; neither adding nor subtracting anything.

Abortion was one of the activities the Didache condemned as sin. The way of death was “evil and completely cursed”, encompassing murder, adultery, lust, fornication, theft, idolatry, magic arts, sorcery, robbery, false testimony, etc. The church order and practice section assumed the existence of traveling apostles and prophets alongside a resident ministry. While a specific form of prayer was recommended to be said after the Eucharist, believers were to “permit the prophets to give thanks however they wish.”

Some scholars have speculated from this reference that the prophets may have had a liturgical role in the Eucharist service. The local church was to appoint men as deacons and bishops who were true and approved; humble, but not greedy. They were to be honored as the prophets and teachers were, for they carried out the ministry of the prophets and teachers within the local church.

The writer of 1 Clement claimed that his exhortation to the Corinthian church was “written through the Holy Spirit.”  The writer of the Shepherd of Hermas described how tell a real prophet from a false prophet: “Determine the man who has the divine Spirit by his life.” He will be gentle, quiet and humble. He will avoid all evil and futile desires of this age and consider himself to be poorer than others. He does not speak on his own, but when God wants him to speak. Both 1 Clement and The Shepherd of Hermas were highly regarded by the early church. Some church fathers even considered them to be canonical writings.

Witnesses from the second century include: Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Origen. In his apologetically inclined Dialogue with Trypho, Justin Martyr (100-165 AD) boasted to the Jewish Trypho “that the prophetic gifts remain with us,” having been transferred from the Jews.  Referencing the work of Irenaeus (130-202 AD) in The History of the Church, Eusebius commented that “He makes it clear that right down to his own time manifestations of divine and miraculous power had continued in some churches.” The dead were raised; demons were cast out of some—who often then believed and became members of the Church. There were some who had knowledge of the future, visions and prophetic utterances. The sick were healed and restored to health by the laying on of hands.

Eusebius quoted Irenaeus as saying: “Similarly, we hear of many members of the Church who have prophetic gifts and by the Spirit speak with all kinds of tongues, and bring men’s secret thoughts to light for their own good, and expound the mysteries of God.” In Against Heresies, Irenaeus commented that they were truly unfortunate, “who, realizing there are false prophets, take this as a pretext for expelling the grace of prophecy from the church.”

Tertullian (160-220 AD) and Origen (184-253 AD) were said by later theologians to have questionable doctrines. Regardless of the final assessment of their theology, they remain significant witnesses to the presence of the charismatic gifts in the life of the church. With Tertullian, we directly encounter the impact of Montanism upon the church itself, for Tertullian himself became a Montanist. However, before his renunciation of orthodox Christianity, he wrote of the association of the charisms with the rite of baptismal initiation.

Tertullian said as the neophyte came up from the water, they were to raise their hands and pray insistently for the bounty of the charisms to be given to them. Charisms were evidently facts of everyday church life; they were expected to be given—to those who asked—within the rite of baptism.  Along with Tertullian, Origen associated baptism with the charisms listed in 1 Corinthians 12. This seemed to have been the common teaching in the early third century church. Although the presence of the charisms was not what it was during apostolic times, Origen said that traces still continued in the church. Although by the Council of Constantinople in 543 there had been two separate condemnations of the “speculations” of Origen, his teaching that baptism was the principle and source of the charisms was never condemned.

In Part 2 of “Spiritual Gifts in the Early Church,” we will look at the unique influence of Montanism on the life of spiritual gifts in the early church.

05/13/16

Inspite of Delusions

© Bruce Rolff | 123rf.com

© Bruce Rolff | 123rf.com

At the height of his popularity, Edward Irving decided to complete a preaching tour of Scotland in May of 1828. He timed his visit to occur during the gathering of the ministers of the Church of Scotland for their annual General Assembly in Edinburgh. He decided to give a series of twelve lectures on the Apocalypse. So that his lectures would not conflict with the sessions of the Assembly, he held them at six o’clock in the morning. Although he had engaged one of the largest churches in the city, it was immediately overcrowded. He moved to the largest church in Edinburgh, with the same difficulty. Two ministers almost came to blows when one accused the other of bribing an usher to let him in through a back door.

Less than ten years before, he had been the assistant to Thomas Chalmers, the most celebrated minister of Scotland at the time.  Even Chalmers failed to gain entrance the first time he went to hear Irving. He was eventually able to hear Irving and said: “I have no hesitation in saying it is quite woeful.” Nevertheless, Irving continued to speak to packed audiences throughout his twelve lectures. Everywhere he went in Scotland, he drew large, excited crowds.

About thirty-five miles northwest of Glasgow, in the Gare Loch district, Irving met a ministerial probationer named A.J. Scott. Like Irving, he believed that the charismata (the miraculous spiritual gifts of the Apostles) had been withdrawn from the Church because of a lack of faith and coldness of heart. Where Irving believed these gifts would be restored in the soon-coming Millennium, Scott held that they were still available. Irving was so impressed with Scott, that he asked him to be his assistant in London. Irving would later write:

 … as we went out and in together, he used often to signify to me his conviction that the spiritual gifts ought still to be exercised in the Church; that we are at liberty, and indeed are bound to pray for them.

Scott would later return to the Gare Loch area and preach to some of the Godly people there. Among them was a woman named Mary Campbell. Scott was not able to convince her of his belief that there was a distinction between regeneration and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. So as he left, he charged her to read through the Acts of the Apostles with that distinction in mind, “to beware of how she rashly rejected what he believed to be the truth of God.”  In a letter to her minister a few weeks later, Mary Campbell described her new relationship with the Holy Spirit.

She expected to receive two of the Apostolic gifts—tongues and prophecy. In her thinking, these gifts were tied to the calling of foreign missionary work. She believed the educational system  for ministers was of the Devil. “If God has promised to furnish His servants with every necessary qualification for their great work, what have they to do but step into the field, depending upon Him for all?” She believed “no language study was necessary” for her to be a missionary, because all the requirements would be met supernaturally. A group of individuals had gathered around her who began to pray for her healing from “consumption” and to receive the gift of tongues. Arnold Dallimore, in his biography on Edward Irving, quoted her minister as saying:

On a Sunday evening in the month of March [1830], Mary, in the presence of a few friends, began to utter sounds to them incomprehensible, and believed by her to be a tongue such a of old might have been spoken on the day of Pentecost, or among the Christians of Corinth.

Mary was certain she was speaking the language of a people group she had been reading about, the Pelew Islanders of the South Pacific. Mary also began to exhibit another “gift,” that of automatic handwriting. Dallimore said she would pass into a trance-like state and fill pages of paper with script. “The characters she used were not those of the English nor any other known language.” So they were believed to be miraculous; the writings were attributed to a foreign language.

News of her ‘gift of tongues’ spread rapidly and others in the Gare Loch area began to report receiving gifts of tongues, prophecy and even healing. After receiving a letter from one James McDonald, commanding her to arise from her sickbed, Mary Campbell herself was ‘healed.’ Unfortunately, Mary’s brother Samuel, wasn’t so fortunate. Rising from his sickbed below the room where Mary and her friends met to sing and pray, he entered their room and asked them to be quiet. But the dying man was told by some of Mary’s companions, “Get behind me, Satan!” He returned to his sickbed and died a few days later.

The news of Gare Loch events led to a party of Londoners traveling to visit the area and see for themselves what was happening. This was about five months after Mary Campbell’s initial experience. The group visited the Campbells and the McDonalds, where they heard people speaking in tongues. After three weeks, they returned to London to report their findings. J.B. Cardale, a lawyer who was part of the group said: “The persons, while uttering the unknown sounds, as also while speaking in the Spirit in their own language, have every appearance of being under supernatural direction.”

Several people in London opened their homes to prayer meetings that earnestly sought for the outpouring of the Spirit. These meetings continued throughout the autumn and winter of 1830-1831. Then in April, Mrs. Cardale ‘spoke in tongues.’ A few days later, a young woman who attended Irving’s church, both spoke and sang in tongues. The work continued through the summer, and by the beginning of September, a number of people in Irving’s church were claiming to be able to ‘speak in tongues’.

Mary Campbell had also moved to London and began attending Irving’s church. Along with five others, including Mrs. Cardale and her husband’s sister, an inner circle of ‘the gifted ones’ formed abound Irving. But Irving himself never claimed or received a charismatic gift of any kind. It was suggested by Dallimore that he sought an experience that was so clearly miraculous “that it would constantly affirm his faith and strengthen his conviction that the whole activity was of God.”

By September of 1831, division over speaking in tongues had occurred in Irving’s church. The traditional, more Presbyterian members denounced the exercise of tongues during Sunday worship as a disgrace to the House of God. The supporters of tongues said that criticism was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The dispute continued for several months. Finally the Trustees demanded that Irving forbid the use of tongues in the church services. Certain that forbidding tongues at any time would be silencing the Holy Spirit, Irving refused. As a consequence, many of the traditional members left the Church.

This led to the Trustees bringing charges against Irving before the London Presbytery to the effect that “he had allowed the services of the Church to be disturbed.” He was ordered to stand trial before them on April 26th of 1832. On the morning of his trial one of his inner circle of gifted ones, Robert Baxter, came to see Irving.  Baxter proceeded to tell Irving he had come to the conviction that the manifestations were merely a grand illusion. Baxter had been the strongest advocate of the manifestations. The decision of the Presbytery was that Irving was unfit to remain a minister of the National Church of Scotland and he was removed from his position as a minister in the denomination.

Several other core members experienced a loss of faith in the manifestations of the gifts. Miss Hall, one of the six original ‘gifted ones’, said she had given up all belief in the manifestations. She even admitted that she sometimes rehearsed the utterances she intended to speak at the church. A.J. Scott could see nothing supernatural in the tongues and healing practices of Irving’s church. So he withdrew himself from fellowship with Irving.

Mary Campbell and her husband traveled to Europe with her husband, intending to become missionaries. “But they were immediately forced to recognize her gift of tongues did not enable her to speak any of the languages they came upon.” They returned to England and Mary gave up the missionary idea completely. Within a few years, she has also largely dropped her belief in the charismatic gifts.

Irving and those members of his church who supported him organized an independent church. In their new church, all authority lay in the hands of gifted ones called Apostles and Prophets. Irving was subject to them and their leadership. He functioned as little more than a servant to them. Lacking any of the gifts, he was subject to their declarations and commands. “He preached only when the Prophets wished him to do so and they exerted their control over what he said.” He gave up writing. He became a recluse and seldom ventured from home.

In September of 1834 a church Prophet declared it was the command of God for Irving to leave London and travel to Glasgow, for “God had a great work for him to do there.” By now Irving’s health was seriously failing, but he went anyway, believing the Prophet spoke for God. He hoped that God would not only heal his consumption, but also grant him the whole array of charismatic gifts, resulting in a powerful and lasting ministry. Irving believed that prayer and faith alone should be employed to deliver him from sickness.

He once said, “No Christian ought ever to be overcome by sickness.” The Lord would either maintain believers in perfect health, or grant them healing in case of sickness. All you needed was sufficient faith. If a healing didn’t take place, it was because your faith was lacking. When there was a cholera epidemic in Britain, Irving called for nation-wide prayer and fasting as the only means of deliverance. He believed the cholera epidemic was sent by God as a judgment for sin.

When he arrived in Scotland, a minister’s wife said Irving bore all the marks of age and weakness from consumption. He was only able to preach on two Sundays, sitting in a chair, “with little strength and very feeble voice.” After being in Glasgow only three weeks, he was so weak he had to remain in bed.

Ultimately realizing he would not be healed, his last spoken words were: “if I die, I die unto the Lord, Amen.” Fittingly, Irving died on a Sunday. His life-long friend, the Scottish philosopher and writer Thomas Carlyle, said Irving was the sun in his firmament.

But for Irving I had never known what the communion of man with man means. He was the freest, brotherliest, bravest human soul mine ever came in contact with: I call him, on the whole, the best man I have ever . . . found in this world, or hope to find.

Tragically, Irving stubbornly clung to his mistaken understanding of Scripture with regard to the second coming of Christ (see “No One Knows”) and the charismata. His enthusiastic endorsement of these wrong interpretations seems to have contributed to both his meteoric rise to popularity and his rapid fall from favor. They also seemed to play a part in his early death, as he felt compelled to obey the spoken word of the “Prophet” to travel to Scotland despite being so ill with tuberculosis (consumption).

Irving’s mistaken belief with regard to spiritual gifts was that those who had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, confirmed by their speaking in tongues, were of a higher spiritual level. His biographer Arnold Dallimore noted where this brought him into subjection to the Prophets. Since they spoke in tongues, they were in a superior spiritual position to him. So he submitted to their control. “The Irving we have seen in the last two years of his life, a recluse, robbed of his liberty and with little ambition to write or be active, was the results of his acceptance of the Prophets and their gifts.”

Carlyle wasn’t alone in his assessment of Irving as a person. Robert Murray M’Cheyne wrote the following of Irving when he heard of his death: “I look back on him with awe, as on the saints and martyrs of old. A holy man, in spite of all his delusions and errors. He is now with his God and Saviour, whom he wronged so much, yet, I am persuaded, loved so sincerely.”

The above discussion was largely taken from: The Life of Edward Irving: The Forerunner of the Charismatic Movement, by Arnold Dallimore.