How has God chosen to deal with us?

Pentecostals "slain in the spirit"

Imagine, if you will, that it is Sunday night. You're sitting on an old oak wood pew with about six others and intently singing a praise song while the band pumps out a real toe-tapping, high-energy tune. All of a sudden somebody at the end of the pew where you are seated pops up out of their seat and begins frantically shaking their body with their arms rapidly waving in the air. You can hear their shoes banging into the pew as they "dance" in place. Just as suddenly as they had popped up, they collapse into their seat, "speaking in tongues" which otherwise sounds like gibberish to you. Enter a Pentecostal "worship experience." I had participated in quite a number of these when I was a Pentecostal.

After I witnessed a "worship experience" similar to the one I just described, I chatted with several people about the experience and heard statements such as "God shook him like a rag doll" and "God sure did speak to him!" The consensus amongst us was that God was immediately "talking" to the person having the experience. Of course, nobody really knew what God was saying, since the whole affair was utterly subjective. The person having the experience could interpret it any way they so desired, just as long as it "gave glory" to God.

About 500 years ago the fathers of Lutheranism were well aware that people in their day claimed to have similar immediate experiences coming from God as those claimed by the Pentecostals. These people are known in the Lutheran confessions as "Enthusiasts." Luther writes about these "Enthusiasts" in the Smalcald Artilcles,

"And in those things which concern the spoken, outward Word, we must firmly hold that God grants His Spirit or grace to no one, except through or with the preceding outward Word, in order that we may [thus] be protected against the enthusiasts, i.e., spirits who boast that they have the Spirit without and before the Word, and accordingly judge Scripture or the spoken Word, and explain and stretch it at their pleasure, as Muenzer did, and many still do at the present day, who wish to be acute judges between the Spirit and the letter, and yet know not what they say or declare." (III, VIII, 3)

We find a similar statement in the Augsburg Confession where Melanchthon rightly tells us, "That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ's sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ's sake" (AC V, 1).

Returning to the Smalcald Articles, Luther makes it abundantly clear that the Schwaermer (Enthusiasts) have fallen to listening to the Devil and our fallen natures and not God when he insists,

"9] In a word, enthusiasm inheres in Adam and his children from the beginning [from the first fall] to the end of the world, [its poison] having been implanted and infused into them by the old dragon, and is the origin, power [life], and strength of all heresy, especially of that of the Papacy and Mahomet. 10] Therefore we ought and must constantly maintain this point, that God does not wish to deal with us otherwise than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. 11] It is the devil himself whatsoever is extolled as Spirit without the Word and Sacraments. For God wished to appear even to Moses through the burning bush and spoken Word; and no prophet neither Elijah nor Elisha, received the Spirit without the Ten Commandments [or spoken Word]. 12] Neither was John the Baptist conceived without the preceding word of Gabriel, nor did he leap in his mother's womb without the voice of Mary. 13] And Peter says, 2 Pet. 1:21: The prophecy came not by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Without the outward Word, however, they were not holy, much less would the Holy Ghost have moved them to speak when they still were unholy [or profane]; for they were holy, says he, since the Holy Ghost spake through them." (SA III, VIII, 9-13)

A coin in the coffer

Notice that Luther is far from being "politically correct" in dealing with this insidious problem of enthusiasm. One of the reasons for that is clear from the quoted text above; namely, enthusiasm finally rejects the one true Gospel of salvation by God's grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ and replaces it with our own works righteousness. Rather than trusting in God's means of Grace to sustain us in faith, the Enthusiast instead looks to their own experiences. The object of faith for the Enthusiast is the variety of experiences they seek.

What the citations from the Lutheran confessions point at is absolutely true. While I was a Pentecostal I constantly sought after my own "blessings of the Holy Spirit," which usually meant strongly feeling God's presence such that I spoke in tongues, or went into a trance through earnest prayer, or perhaps "danced in the spirit." Of course, hearing a preacher speak the "word of God," or earnestly "praising God" during the "worship service" could induce these "immediate experiences" with God.

If I wasn't feeling the Holy Spirit, or being "blessed by the spirit," then I would examine my heart for sins, since I believed my lack of obedience to God's laws brought on a "dry time in the spirit." It could have also been true, so I thought at the time, that God was testing me, and so He was withholding the outpouring of His "Holy Ghost powers" upon me to see if I would pass muster as His faithful servant. The bottom line was that all these "blessings" and "gifts" were contingent upon my faithfulness, upon my works. Such is a peek into the experiences of a modern day Enthusiast.

Before we Lutherans start shaking our heads at the Pentecostal experience I share above, we might want to take a good look around us first. Luther writes that "enthusiasm inheres in Adam". Do we find such enthusiasm amongst us?

Look around and you will easily find LCMS congregations on the Enthusiast's "hamster wheel" of experiences. We see this plainly in Contemporary Worship where the "highs" wear off and the worship services must become more intense in order to grant a greater worship "fix." There has to be more flair, since waving banners accompanied by light shows and "liturgical dancers" get boring when seeing it day in and day out. Something "fresh" and "new" has to always be presented lest those sitting in the pews lose that "burning in their bellies" and become pilot light Christians rather than Christians on fire for God.

Some justify their journeying on the roller coaster ride of enthusiasm in the name of growth. The Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), the praise band, the lights, the fog machines, and big screens, are all meant to attract the "unChurched" with the hope that they will like the spiritual smorgasbord laid out in front of them and will be converted. The excuse for practicing Pentecostal worship forms is "doing mission." Interestingly enough, as a Pentecostal I never met a single "unChurched" person who wanted anything to do with CCM or any other Church Growth program that could be offered to them. The only people who were into what we did as Pentecostals were those from other churches. As a side point, I think it fair to ask the Contemporary Worship supporter whether or not music is a means of grace? Is the ambiance created for the "unChurched" a means of grace? If not, then why are they treating these things as if they will bring the forgiveness of sins to the "unChurched?"

An interesting comparison here, too,  is with my Pentecostal experiences of "blessings" and that of the Church Growth minded's obsession with numbers. They like to point at increasing numbers of visitors and new members as evidence that the "worship experiences" they are creating have been blessed by God. Are we to believe that an increase in numbers means that God is responding to our works? Here is something to think about, according to this US News and World Report article Mormonism is "one of the country's fastest-growing religious groups." According to the missional enthusiast's logic, Mormons must be really "blessed" by God with growth! 

The sad reality is that the enthusiasm which "inheres in Adam and his children" is alive and well in the LCMS amongst the Church Growth and Contemporary Worship adherents.  Grounding mission work in anything other than God's chosen means of grace is the Devil's farce employed to ensnare Christians with the  broad net of synergism. 

Being "Christ centered" means just that. God doesn't want to deal with us other than through His chosen means of grace: Word and Sacrament. That means that God doesn't want to deal with the so-called "unChurched" through any other means than that which He has chosen. God kindles faith in us through Word and Sacrament and not through some special revelation given to us by a Church Growth guru or a praise band leader on how to increase attendance numbers.