Category: Theology

47 years ago, after an honest evaluation of the Scriptures, I concluded that I had been wrong to reject the charismatic gifts of I Cor. 12 and 14 as for today. This was a matter of intellectual honesty. Did I believe that the Bible in context supported a charismatic orientation that would continue between Pentecost (Shavuot) and the Second Coming of Yeshua, or did it support a cessation of these supernatural gifts and manifestations after launching the Yeshua movement and seeing the canon of the Bible established? It was a matter of intellectual honesty. In addition, did I believe in a distinct experience of being immersed in the Spirit, distinct from the salvation experience. Again, a study of the Bible and history convinced me that this distinct experience was essential. It sometimes is simultaneous with being born again, sometimes as part of water immersion and sometimes after that. This was my an intellectual conclusion. What would I do about it?

Shortly after these conclusions, I found myself in ministry to hurting people for whom ordinary counseling was ineffective. I discovered prayer ministry for overcoming strongholds, healing from traumas and releasing from demonic oppression. Many were healed. I found that when I prayed in tongues, I knew much better how to proceed in the counseling and in healing prayers. Then, I also began to pray for people to be filled with the Spirit and prayed to see the gift of speaking in tongues released in them.

As I connected to the charismatic world, I was impacted by men and women who walked powerfully in the gifts of the Spirit and the prophetic. I somehow believed that such levels of gifting were for specially chosen vessels in leadership.  The ordinary or normal believer could expect to prophecy in exhortation and to pray for people with some results, but ministering at a high level of gifting was for special leaders. After all, did not Paul say that in exercising the power gifts, he showed himself to be an apostle? Did we not see the greatest gifting through people who one prophet called “God’s men of power for the hour?” Did I experience some amazing signs and wonders in my own ministry? Yes, but it was periodic. I was not a “power minister” but a teaching and governing minister. 

There were indications that my orientation was skewed. One prophet at a Vineyard conference with John Wimber, preached that God said that He would raise up a last days movement of the people empowered. Signs and wonders and Gospel progress would come from the people and not primarily the leaders. This would be characteristic of the last days before the coming of the Lord, no longer “God’s man of power for the hour.” Yet we drifted back into the understanding that the only special leaders were to walk in great power in a more constant way. 

Recently, I have been challenged by the ministry of Dr. Randy Clark. His writings and the writings of the theologian Dr. Jon Mark Ruthven to which he referred, the late Professor of Theology at Regent University in Virginia Beach, have convinced me finally that this theology of the greater power being mostly limited to those specially chosen leaders was wrong. Rather, a life of miracles in the supernatural power of God though His prophetic gifting in his people should be normative.  

Mark 16:17,18 speaks of the miraculous signs following “those who believe,” and not only specially chosen leaders. The list is astonishing: “that they will drive out demons, speak with new languages, … handle snakes, drink deadly things without harm, lay hands on the sick and they will get well.” 

This text is an addition to Mark 16, in my view an apostolic addition, that summarizes what was believed by the communities of Yeshua’s followers at the end of the first century. 

John 14 is just as clear, “Amen, amen I tell you, he who puts his trust in Me will, the works that I do he will do, and greater than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (TLV)

I can hardly believe how I explained away these texts in my rationalistic period many years ago. I and others taught that the greater works was preaching the Gospel after Pentecost and seeing people born again. We argued that it did not have to do with miraculous works. It is so obvious that in context Yeshua was talking about the same kind of miraculous works that characterized his ministry. These texts say the works were done by those who believe, not only leaders who believe.  Leaders add to these works the ability to establish congregational movements and govern them. 

I recall some years ago our dear prophet leader, David C. Rudolph would release people into accurate prophetic words of knowledge. Yet, somehow, we did not see our people characterized by walking a more supernatural walk in an ongoing way. As I look at the ministry of Dr. Randy Clark, I see him being an instrument to activate many people to believe and walk in such way. Signs and wonders on the cutting edge of preaching and sharing the Gospel of the Kingdom are taking place, especially in Southern Global Christian movements. It is growing here in the West as well, though such power is not widely known. I now believe that the day is coming that we will see the fulfillment of the prophecy giving at the Vineyard some 34 years ago. I want to be part of that fulfillment. In addition, I want to see this in Jewish ministry, in a movement of Gospel power in Israel and the Diaspora.   

We should all be instructed that living in such a way only comes from walking in intimacy with Yeshua, a depth of devotional life individually and corporately. As Yeshua said, it flows from abiding in the Vine. (John 15:1-6). Dr. Randy Clark’s great book Intimacy with God is a great book on walking in intimacy and in the supernatural life of his prophetic leading. 

It was the end of October 1967.  I was in a time of great skepticism as I worked hard on courses in my junior year at Wheaton College.  A chapel forum included the pastor of a nearby church who claimed that the people of his church had received the supernatural gifts of the Spirit and practiced their expression.  Maybe I could find a miracle to confirm faith.  Soon after I found myself on a double-blind date with a new friend.  As we left the women off at the Wheaton College nursing school, we spoke about the chapel speaker.  We both wanted to go, and so we went together in my car the following week for their Sunday evening gathering.   

The church would later grow to over 600 in its evening meeting with many Wheaton students and a handful of professors as well.  At this point in time, the gathering was small, maybe 35 people.  There were tongues and interpretations, prophecy and prayers for healing.  It was a small intimate meeting. The questions loomed.  “Were these people really speaking from a supernatural Spirit?  Is this really I Corinthians 14 in practice?  I attended this church from then until the end of May 1969.   At that time, the church represented what was happening in the early charismatic movement.  It was a movement whose leaders and people were zealous to practice the supernatural gifts of the Spirit and who would regularly manifest tongues, interpretation, prophecy, healing, deliverance, and more.  For those who experienced those exciting days, it was like a return to the book of Acts.

In recent years I have connected to leaders, congregations, and movements of congregations that were zealous to practice the gifts and manifestations of the Spirit and to see miracles.  More recently, I pointed to the famous John Wimber and his Vineyard congregational movement.  His large congregation of 7,000 in Anaheim, California, which I visited in 1989, was notable for the manifestations of the Spirit and even in the very large congregation. This included tongues, interpretation, prophecy, words of knowledge prophecy, amazing healings, and more.  There would also be manifestations of prophecy and healings on the cutting edge of evangelism.  Wimber practice a freer orientation in his large gathering than in our practice where only those who were vetted for maturity would minister publicly in the spoken gifts.

In recent years we have been concerned that our congregations really experience the gifts of the Spirit as a normal part of their life together.  We have invited Sid Roth, Robbie Dawkins, and last year Randy Clark.  I think our last conference in Tikkun America made the greatest gains.  We desire that our congregations’ experience be a supernatural normal.

I have noticed that many congregations that claim to be charismatic or Pentecostal seem to rarely practice public gifts of the Spirit if at all.  They are not manifested in the larger service or in home groups (the house gathering is rightly understood as the context in I Cor. 14).  We see many that do not promote immersion (baptism) in the Holy Spirit on a regular basis.  Perhaps the majority of congregations in Israel are known as charismatic.  However, one senior leader who has been ministering for decades told me that most congregations simply do not practice seeing people immersed in the Spirit by speaking in tongues or the other gifts of the Spirit.  I see this in America too, even with Vineyard congregations that were formerly very oriented to gifts and manifestations.  How can this be?

I have written before on what I call the second law of spiritual thermodynamics.  The general second law of thermodynamics says that the Universe is in a process of entropy increase, meaning that the Universe is using up energy and will come to energy exhaustion.  Unless there is an infusion of energy outside of the Universe, this entropy will lead to the death of the Universe.  In the same way, it seems that individuals and congregations need periodic infusions of the energy of the Holy Spirit.  As one person said, the Bible says we are to “Be being filled by the Holy Spirit” (Eph. 5:18), but we are leaky buckets.   This might be part of the explanation. Unless we are zealous to live Spirit filled, this can indeed happen.

However, I think part of the problem is that leaders have been sold on directions that are producing a sub-normal congregational life.  My sense of this was greatly increased after reading Randy Clarks two books, Baptism in the Spirit, and Intimacy with God through Obedience. The magisterial book The Cessation of the Charismata by John Mark Ruthvan was also an amazing read.

Here is my sense of the reasons.

1. First, many leaders though having had a charismatic experience, baptism in the Spirit and speaking in tongues, just do not know how to impart the experience to others or promote it in their congregations.  They do not have confidence in themselves to promote it.
2. Secondly, many leaders to not have confidence to govern a gathering with charismatic manifestations.  They back off due to their insecurity.  This could be overcome by training under those who are capable in this, but they do not seek out this training. They may give themselves to the excuses in the next reasons given below.  These reasons, however, are not necessarily due to insecurity but may be.
3. It is thought that charismatic manifestations will be a distraction in large gatherings and will turn away seekers who will be confused and put off.  Of course, that may happen but if done in right order with good government, my experience is that this reality really draws people.  There are churches like Wimber’s that had many thousands, and the reality of real words of knowledge and healings drew thousands.
4. Some leaders of large congregations see that what they are doing is drawing large numbers.  The multi-media, upbeat professional type worship, and engaging message with humor draws many.  These services are managed to the minute and all is planed out to perfection.  There just is no space for spiritual manifestations. These are in two groups.  Those who believe that ministry with the gifts is important and foster it in small groups and those who do not foster it at all though they may have experienced immersion in the Spirit and pray in tongues.

My answer to this is that this may be a sociological phenomenon but may not have the last that some think.  When Paul said his preaching was with the manifestation of power so their faith would not rest on the merely human (say psychological and sociological, can we have a superior position than Paul and his instructions in I Cor. 12-14?

I believe that the progress of the Gospel will of course be much greater when we walk out fully the pattern that is in the New Covenant Scriptures. I do want to affirm that the preached word itself does have power to convict and can be effective.  However, this is only one great tool in the Holy Spirit tool box.

Here are some guidelines for change.

1. If you as a leader and are not experiencing the full New Covenant gifts reality in your community, submit to someone who is and learn to foster and govern.
2. While I believe we should make space for gifts in all our gatherings, the way this is done in large gatherings I believe is best done through vetted people who have proven their quality and who minister in submission to moderating elders.  This is a key to success.  In the smaller house gatherings, as Paul says, there is time for all to express themselves in word gifts.
3. Read books that will motivate you so you will not accept “charismatic in name only” as acceptable.
4. Famous Pastor Don Finto, at 92 years old, exhorted us in our Tikkun Israel leaders retreat, to be constantly laying hands on people until we see physical healing, impartation, and soul healing.

I wanted to also say something about prophecy and public tongues that are meant as a spoken word given for interpretation.  I Corinthians does not limit the number of people who can prophecy or give tongues and interpretation.  This would obviously contradict I Cor. 14 which says all can speak in turn. It rather limits us to two or three messages of prophecy or tongues and interpretation at a time.

Paul seems to elevate prophecy for its ability to encourage and convict by supernatural knowledge. Yet, he then notes that tongues with interpretation can really be important was well.  People have asserted that tongues when interpreted is the same thing as prophecy. However, the great Pentecostal scholar, Gordon Fee (my wife Patty’s professor at Wheaton College over 50 years ago) argued that tongues is usually prayer to God and prophecy is a message from God to the people (His Empowering Presence).  My view is that Fee’s analysis of Scripture was correct.  The general sense both in Romans 8 of the Spirit interceding for us beyond what we can speak or comprehend and I Cor. 14 that the one who speaks in tongues speaks mysteries to God, shows that tongues is usually prayer to God.  Fee proves that the phrase praying in the Spirit means praying in tongues.  When tongues and interpretation is exercised in a congregation, the Spirit is searching the deep things of God and expressing the heart of God in prayer beyond mere human ability.  When interpreted it shows this heart of the Spirit and can lift a congregation to great heights in prayer.

It was a strange thing to me as young man to find that classic Pentecostal congregations had tongues and interpretation but few or no prophetic words.  It almost was a culture that was saying that without tongues being spoken first people could not speak by the Spirit. In charismatic circles, prophecy was common but then it was as if their culture was saying why give a public message in tongues since tongues and interpretation were thought to be equivalent to prophecy.  It was as if messages in tongues were superfluous.  Gordon Fee clears up that misunderstanding.  Tongues and interpretation are not superfluous.

I believe we are seeing trends and events today that could mean that we are very close to the return of Yeshua.

I was recently at a convocation-dialogue with 40 key Church leaders and Messianic Jewish leaders, including leaders of Pentecostal denominations and prayer movement leaders.  It was an amazing time.  Our thrust was to see a much more effective growth in Jewish numbers in the Messianic Jewish movement because the increase in the saved remnant is part of what leads all Israel to be saved, to life from the dead (Rom.11:14, 15).   

Other efforts are being made whose leaders see their efforts as carrying eschatological (last days) implications (last days) leading to his return.   First, there is a huge effort to see every people group have the Bible in their language and to be given an adequate witness of the Gospel by 2033.  I believe that the best scholarship places the death and resurrection of Yeshua at Passover/ Firstfruits in the year A. D. 33.  So, it really could be 2000 years.  I don’t believe in date setting but this is an amazing project with an date that is intentional.  Their vision is rooted in our shared understanding that the Gospel of the Kingdom must be preached to every people group before He returns. (Matt. 24:14, 15).

There is also a great move of unity. We may not see it in each local region, but I hope this will change. However, in China or Indonesia or many other regions, the unity is very strong. The World Evangelical Alliance networks 600 million Evangelicals. Four-hundred million are Pentecostal and Charismatic. They agree with the vision of the 2033 project and see completing the task of world evangelism as preceding the Second Coming. They expect more and more revivals to push this forward. However, on the unity front, they see themselves working for John 17:21 unity. The prayer of Yeshua that his followers will be One that the World might believe is seen, and I believe rightly, to be about the Second Coming.

Our part is the emphasis on making Israel jealous, leading to life form the dead (Rom. 11:14, 15).  This is so important. However, we are joined in the other regards.

These are all happy thoughts.  However, there is a sad aspect to last days events that peoples will be given to gross sin which leads to terrible judgments.  The book of Revelation shows this. Some years ago, the great jurist Robert Bork, a nominee for the Supreme Court, wrote Slouching Toward Gomorrah.  It was a profound book that outlined how the culture was defining freedom in terms of allowing more and more debauchery.  Western culture is no longer slowly slouching toward but running headlong to debauchery.  Some debauchery is even being celebrated as a new “wokeness.”  However, this could be a sign. Could revivals hold back this headlong rush? But as Coach McCartney of Promise Keepers said some years ago, there will be revival on a platter of ruin.  We don’t really know for sure.

However, all of this together could indicate that His coming is soon.

In recent years I have been again challenged by the truth that there is so much more Presence and power (ability) in the Holy Spirit available but not received or walked out. In recent years, we have been challenged by Robbie Dawkins who spoke for us in Israel and in America, and Dr. Randy Clark who was our keynote speaker and ministry leader at the Tikkun America Conference at the end of May and early June.  Since that time, I have been reading more books by Randy Clark. I have found his books to be theologically solid and very challenging. (Especially see his Intimacy with God.) He also recommended a book by John Mark Ruthven, The Cessation of the Charismata, an amazing work of scholarship by the late professor of theology at Regent University with over 600 footnotes.  Previously I read Dr. Craig Keener’s monumental Miracles.  Keener’s two large volumes are amazing scholarship, both a theology of the miraculous and its role in evangelism and among believers, while documenting real miracles all over the world.  His book on the Holy Spirit, Gift, and Giver is also a great read. Some years earlier, I read the great volume by Dr.Gordon Fee, His Empowering Presence, on this doctrine in the Pauline writings.

Here is my summary.

The writings show that so much more is available than even most Pentecostals/Charismatics believe and walk in.  Miracles, signs, and wonder will be a key to the harvest in the West just as it is in the majority world.  Much is based on coming to a place where we know the prophetic word (rhema) of the Spirit and the prophetic in us leading us to speak, to pray for, and to see the work of the Spirit in our sharing and in our ministering within the Body and outside to those who do not know Him.  Ruthven proves that the prophetic is a central aspect of the meaning of the New Covenant, a foundational benefit.  However, few really attain it.  For Clark and Ruthven, it should be a normal and very frequently experienced reality.  Clark does a great job of showing how much the Glory of God in the New Covenant Scriptures is connected to his revelation through the miraculous.  Of course, there are other aspects of his Glory, but so many miss how much the desire of Yeshua to reveal his Glory through us is through using us in signs, wonders, and miracles.  Glory of course, has other manifestations including the love etched into the face of a saint or acts of sacrificial love.  However, the miraculous is a central part of fulfilling the prayer of Yeshua in revealing His Glory through us.

Once we understand this, it is hard to understand how people who are charismatic can easily be joined to communities that are not passionately pursuing the Spirit and his power.  For me, I must be joined in a community of people who are in unity in seeking God for more of his presence and power.

We have now come to this last short essay.  We have covered the basics of Classical Dispensationalism and our difficulties with this theology.  Now I want to address Israel.  I believe that Classical Dispensational theology is a foreign imposition upon Israel. It is true that we cannot do our Messianic Jewish/Israeli theology without reference to the scholars and theologies that have dominated the Christian world.  In addition, we should have reference to the Messianic Jewish scholars of the Diaspora.  We do affirm the emphasis of Dispensational Theology that Israel, the Jewish people, continued after the first century to be God’s elect people and are still elect.  However, the dispensational ways of definition, that there are two peoples of God, two plans, an earthly plan and salvation for Israel, and a heavenly salvation and plan for the Church are very problematic.  We especially see this breakdown in Paul’s calling Messianic Jews the saved remnant of Israel and also the first fruits that sanctify the rest of the nation of Israel (Rom. 11:5, 16).  At the same time, they are the Jewish part of the one new man of Ephesians 2.  Dispensational ways of defining grace over against law, the tribulation period with the absent church, and more are very problematic.  The sometimes narrow mentality that is so critical of others is not helpful. 

Dispensational theology becomes part of the mentality of people.  People may not have ever been given a systematic presentation, but the way they talk about law (often quite negatively) and grace (often as hyper-grace salvation that requires no repentance or change of life) is very sad.  “You are not going back under the Law, are you?”  “Are you Judaizing?”  In addition, there is no passion for Last Day’s revival and unity.  These hopes should motivate and excite. Even if we do not see them fulfilled in our lifetime, these hopes can lead to greater passion in prayer and cooperation in unity.  There is a profound optimism that the best is yet to be, even the very best for the Body of the Messiah before the return of the Lord.  Yes, darkness will cover the earth, but there will also be a great harvest through world revival. 

Non-Dispensationalists use more adequate language when speaking about the Gospel.  They speak of extending the Kingdom through the Gospel of the Kingdom, whereas dispensationalists only speak of people being saved (not wrong but needs additional language too).  The more adequate language of George Ladd (The Gospel of the Kingdom) and Dallas Willard (Divine Conspiracy) is very helpful.  The wrong language produces some blindness.  We “see” through the language we use. 

Will we in Israel become a movement of supernatural power, revival, and signs and wonders confirming evangelism?  Will we attain John 17:21 unity in Israel and with our church partners?  We believe that all this will happen, but this will require going beyond dispensationalism. 

Sometimes Dispensationalists ask us if we cannot see that it is obvious that there are dispensations, different periods demarked in Scripture that show God’s working in different periods of time with different requirements and tests for the human race.  The answer is yes and no.  Reformed theologians and Calvin himself used the term dispensation to refer to a unique period with unique requirements.  We could all probably use the term dispensation more frequently if it was not associated with a total system of theology, Classical Dispensationalism.   In this essay, I will accept the use of the term but will explain how the problem is Classical Dispensational definitions and descriptions of these dispensations.

There clearly was a change after Adam and Eve fell.  There was a pre-fall period however brief and then the period from that fall to Noah.  The period until Noah was not one without law for it is clear that Noah knew that standards from God (law) were being severely violated by the society of his day.  After the flood, a new era had begun. The salvation of Noah and his family was by grace but required his faith obedience.  After the flood, the promise was given of never again destroying the earth with a flood. Laws were also given, to not eat blood from animals killed for food and to exact the death penalty for murder.  Certainly, many other standards of right and wrong were known.  These standards were no doubt known to Abraham. Before the Covenant of Abraham, we can thus count three dispensations, Innocence, Pre-Flood, and Post flood to Abraham. There is no contrast of grace versus law in these periods. 

A new dispensation began with Abraham and his family but most of the world continued under the covenant God made with Noah. The Noahic Covenant does not end.  However, for Israel, there was a new order of promise.  Dispensationalists sometimes call the period from Abraham to Moses a dispensation of promise, and that it was.  The Abrahamic Covenant continues to be in effect until today.  It was not without law.  Indeed, Abraham was declared righteous because he believed God (Gen. 15:6) but in Genesis 26:5 because he obeyed God’s statutes, ordinances, and judgments.  Abraham knew at least part of the Law of God that was later incorporated into the Mosaic Covenant!  

God hundreds of years later made his constitution for Israel through Moses, the Mosaic Covenant material from Exodus 20 through Deuteronomy (Davarim).   The Abrahamic Covenant is not replaced but is permanent.  Thomas McComiskey asserts in his fine book, Covenants of Promise, the Mosaic Covenant was a temporary administration of the Abrahamic Covenant.   It is a covenant of grace, not a law covenant that challenged Israel to find salvation through law-keeping.  We have already written about this.  This brings us to a fifth dispensation.  

The Mosaic Covenant is not abolished but is superseded in the New Covenant.  All that is applicable from Moses for the New Covenant order is assumed to be applied in the New Covenant (Matthew 5:17,18, Romans 8:4). The New Covenant in Yeshua is made with Israel but then is applied to those from the nations who embrace the apostolic witness and are grafted into the Jewish olive tree.  The New Covenant is the permanent administration of the Mosaic Covenant and comes to fullness in the Millennial Age. 

After the return of Yeshua, we will enter the Age to Come or the seventh dispensation, the Millennial Age.  It is also a dispensation of grace with a response of obedience to the law. 

The New Heavens and the New Earth are eternity and not one of the seven just as eternity past before the creation is not a dispensation.  We can therefore see that there are dispensations, but we describe the contrasts and continuum in very different ways.