The Charismatic Movement and Gifts of the Spirit under a Microscope

Preface

As I write the preface to this book, I feel like the emperor with no clothes. I know what I have written must be spoken; I wonder why pastors haven’t stepped up to the plate and brought these issues to light more often.

I can page down through all the Christian channels, and the majority just assume a second-blessing baptism with evidence of speaking in tongues. It reminds me of our national media. If all you hear is one side and hear it often enough, it becomes truth. Most evangelicals or mainline denominations don’t believe this doctrine, but they don’t rebut it. It takes courage to go against the grain. Think of how much courage Martin Luther must have had to nail his ninety-five theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. We cannot let that happen with the church; we must rightly divide the Word of truth. God is still doing the supernatural in the church today, but we can’t make it up as we go along.

This book is about truth seeking wherever it takes us. You won’t read very far before you see you can’t be politically correct and be a truth seeker. At times, you’ll think I’m too direct and to the point, but these things must be said to be a truth seeker.

The book covers tongues, the history of the Charismatic movement, gifts of the Spirit, baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the thirty-three things people instantly receive when they become Christians. We’ll explore real and counterfeit tongues and how to tell the diff erence. You’ll see a view on spiritual gifts different from what you’ve heard before. We’ll separate the gifts (charisma) from the ministries (diakonia) as well as the effects or manifestations (energema) of the Spirit.

Once most Christians come to Christ, they believe they’ve arrived and thus become less teachable. We must stay faithful, available, and teachable. All of this is from the eyes of a layperson, not a theologian. I’ll make my point that tongues are a manifestation or a ministry and not a gift of the Spirit. I’ll make my point that we all have one and only one gift. I’ll make my point that there are only seven gifts of the Spirit. Jesus is the Word, and we must have faith in that Word to form proper doctrine.

The most amazing thing about this book is that I had no intention of writing it. Don’t ask me how I did; it just happened because I had trouble sleeping at night. I don’t have a very large library, but I didn’t have to buy a single reference book. As I started writing, I started remembering the books I had, some of which I hadn’t thought about for years.

None of this would have been possible without my brother-in-law, John, my brother Wil, and my sisters, Dorothy and Doris. But my son, Phil Polson, and his wife, Sarah Polson, did most of the heavy lifting. I call a computer Kryptonite from Superman movies. Let’s just say I made many computer calls to John, Phil, and Sarah. Phil helped me put my chapters together, and Sarah did most of the editing. I’m especially grateful to John, Phil, and Sarah because they made it possible.