From anti-charismatic to… by C. Michael Patton

I’m swiping this from Patton’s site. The content is an old discussion, but it’s very fresh for many who are coming of age in the faith (whatever their age). Charismatics believe in the spiritual gifts for today; cessationists think those gifts are no longer used by God. Patton’s a cessationist.

What about you?

I grew up in a non-charismatic, Dallas Theological Seminary grad-led church. The church I was attending at the time had just gone through a difficult split due to the charismatics gifts issue. I stayed on the side that said “nay” to the gifts. All my life, my exposure to the Charismatic movement was defined by abuse, disillusionment, scandal, and anti-intellectualism. When I really started following the Lord in the early nineties, my newfound commitment to the Lord was facilitated by theology and apologetics….

My experience did not stop there. Growing up, I went to many charismatic services and events. Sometimes there were people going into convulsions on the ground during worship service. Other times, they would be doing something that can only be described as barking. One time, while eating pizza with a group of charismatics, we had a girl pray against the ”demons of fat grams.” Sometimes people would get knocked out as they were “slain in the Spirit.” Satan was behind every door, and healing was always only one faith-step away. At a singles event I went to in the mid-nineties, there was a charismatic guy in our small group who was constantly having “words from the Lord” which made no sense. I never wanted in his group. One time he was getting a word from the Lord and interrupted our otherwise fruitful discussion to let us know. We all stopped and waited for him to share the full complement of the transmission. “The Lord is telling us we need to stop . . . to stop . . .” Then he paused for a long time with his eyes closed. Finally he said, “I lost it. Let’s get back to the study.” Lost it?Lost it? Lost the word from the Lord? Get it back!, I thought to myself. The casual way in which they seemed to get a word from the Lord and lose it was incredibly discouraging. What was the Old Testament penalty for a “lost word from the Lord?” I did not know, but I assumed it was serious. All in all my expoure to the charismatic movement growing up was bizzare.

It may surprise you to know that things changed a great deal while I was at that charismatic Bible college….

The next curve ball sent me over the edge (relatively speaking!). Our textbook for systematic theology class was Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. [a charismatic]… How could all of these guys be wrong? Though I am, as 8:34 this Sunday evening, not persuaded of their arguments, I am no longer anti-charismatic….

I often tell people that I am not charismatic, but I want to be. I remain on the side of cessationism (the belief that the gifts of the Spirit such as tongue, prophecy, and healings ceased) for biblical, historical, and experiential reasons, but changing my position is not out of the question….

As an aside: I don’t pretend the position I represent during this series will be representative of all cessationists (or even that it is a cessationist position!). I don’t really even know how to classify myself. Either way, open or not, I suppose you could say I am a practicing cessationist….