African Pentecostalism

[dwilkins]

I was reading the blog post at the following site today and thought people here might have some interesting comments on it.

http://www.conradmbewe.com/2013/07/why- ... ng-in.html

The point of the article is that Reformed Baptist leaders are concerned that charismatic efforts in Africa might simply be a matter of putting Christian labels on local pagan practices, which sounds a lot like the argument that the Roman Catholic Church did the same thing as it evolved.

My response to another blog in support of the author's contention is below:

I’m curious about how far you think these groups are actually drifting from the scriptural worldview. Scripture, and the orthodox approach of the church, shows exactly the same four layer structure to reality that the Africans use (though maybe not the nuanced characteristics of each layer). But, you both seem to be arguing more that the structure itself is in error. Scripture is clear that God is a transcendent being, that there are invisible spirits that affect our daily lives, that departed saints participate actively in the ongoing reign of Christ, that Apostles had authority and power over average believers, and that people’s struggles were set in this context. Focusing on the issue of ancestors, because Amillennialism hasn’t gotten much publicity in this generation you may have forgotten that scripture describes martyrs and other saints assisting Christ in his reign from heaven during our age. We don’t have scriptural advice to pray directly to them, but the personal participation by glorified saints in the reign of Christ is a very ancient concept. As far as demon possession and such goes, we see dramatic anecdotes of this throughout scripture. Are you saying that Christians are supposed to be out of the demon business entirely? What would you propose is the proper modus operandi to deal with demons in every day life? I gather that you would say the era individual miraculous gifts is over, but are we saying that demons are no longer a problem as well? Isn’t your insistence that detailed, technical teaching be the primary effort in a church service merely European Christianity pushing cultural assumptions into Christianity in the same way that you are accusing Africans of doing? Do you have any scriptural evidence of church leadership teaching detailed lectures about systematic theology to the congregations? Or, are you proposing that we go back to Apostalic advice found in such documents as the Didache to reset the culture of Christianity back to the first generation? If so, keep in mind that there is no Calvinism found there or anywhere else in the first several hundred years of the church. From what I can tell of the patristic era they weren’t as interested in hearing sermons about things like the doctrines of Grace as they were about individual contemplation, prayer, and fasting (their culture led them up against a Christian version of Stoicism). I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make, other than that you feel uncomfortable with high energy people acting out and you don’t like people taking advantage of them (something about which we agree).

Doug

[steve]

That's a good response, Doug!