Charismatic Chaos | John MacArthur | Long overdue critique of a dangerous movement

Charismatic Chaos | John MacArthur | A "wakeup call" to all Charismatics to return to the authority of Scripture!

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Charismatic Chaos

	Charismatic Chaos John MacArthur Zondervan, 1993 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 136 reviews view larger image
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Long overdue critique of a dangerous movement

The charismatic movement claims to be the "second Reformation." Think again; in this superb critique, Dr. John MacArthur goes "behind the scenes" to expose the confusion, bad theology, and questionable practices behind the charismatic movement. Superbly argued and well-documented, Dr. MacArthur has produced a long-overdue full-length critique of the charismatic movement that, to my knowledge, remains unanswered to this day. This book is both frequently slandered and absolutely devastating to the charismatic movement. It refutes the best arguments used for the movement and shows exactly what's wrong with the movement as well as movements such as the "Third Wave" (which he shows differs from the charismatic movement mostly, if not only, in terminology, in spite of claims from the Third Wave to be distinct from the charismatic movement), the "health and wealth Gospel"/Word of Faith movement, the tongues movement (as one author points out, there isn't a "helps movement" or an "administration movement," even though these gifts appear in the same lists of spiritual gifts as tongues in the Bible), etc. Dr. MacArthur does a superb job demonstrating what's wrong with the charismatic movement.

He also gives some excellent evidence for cessationism. As a former charismatic myself, I left the movement after realizing (partially through reading Dr. MacArthur's book) that I misunderstood what cessationism means (and I think the vast majority of charismatics do), misunderstood the doctrine of the Sufficiency of Scriptures and Sola Scriptura, misunderstood the various "proof-texts" for the charismatic movement, and in particular misunderstood the nature and purpose of the gifts (which I think is inherent to the charismatic movement). This book corrects these confusions and many others, and presents an excellent case for cessationism. He proves that gifts such as tongues did not continue after the death of the apostles, and that the "gifts" practiced by charismatics today are nothing like the gifts that were practiced in the first century. For example, studies have shown that toungues are fundamentally NOT real languages and that tongues are learned behavior (multiple experiments and studies have demonstrated that people can learn "tongues" such as are spoken by charismatics very easily). Informal experiments (which Dr. MacArthur does not cite in this book, but I have seen elsewhere) have indicated that, if you give the same tape of someone "speaking in tongues" to five different people who claim to be able to "interpret" tongues, you will get five COMPLETELY different interpretations (although these experiments still need further duplication, which is probably one of the reasons they did not make it into the book). This is certainly not characteristic of the Biblical gift of tongues, but rather of the chaos that was going on in Corinth (1 Cor. 14)! Dr. MacArthur presents a great deal of Biblical evidence that the gifts were not intended to continue beyond the death of the Apostles, and a great deal of scientific, anecdotal, and Biblical evidence that the charismatics are NOT practicing the Gifts of the Spirit as they were practiced in the 1st century church. Although MacArthur presents some good Biblical points here, if you are looking primarily for a cessationist exposition of the texts on spiritual gifts, I would recommend Richard B. Gaffin's book "Perspectives on Pentecost" instead. MacArthur's main goal here wasn't so much to create a Biblical case for cessationism as it was to provide a critique of the charismatic movement, which he did very successfully. This book is still one of the, if not THE, most thorough and accurate critiques of the charismatic movement out there, which is why so many of the charismatic "reviewers" are obviously so afraid of it. If their system is really true (and it certainly isn't), then why are they so obviously afraid that people might read this book? Why are charismatics so afraid of having their beliefs closely examined, unless they are afraid that their beliefs won't hold up under scrutiny (which they don't)? The real reason that charismatics don't want you to read this book is because it conclusively shows that they are dead wrong.

I'd recommend ignoring the 1-star reviews of this book and reading this book, unlike a few of the negative reviewers who obviously did not read the book. I note, by the way, that the people who are most critical of Dr. MacArthur and his books and work are the people who have read little or nothing he has written. I would particularly recommend this book to those who think that cessationism is simply "powerless religion" or "has no Biblical support," etc. To this group I would say, as someone who was in this group myself, that your view of cessationism is very skewed.

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A "wakeup call" to all Charismatics to return to the authority of Scripture!

Is experience a valid test for truth? Does God still give revelation? Are tongues for today? Does God still heal? In "Charismatic Chaos" John MacArthur tackles these issues and many more.

Many of the negative reviewers seem to miss the main point of MacArthur's book. The issue is not necessarily just about whether or not healing is for today, or whether or not people can speak in tongues. The issue is really about Biblical authority. Is the Bible sufficient? Does the Bible contain all the revelation we will ever need? Is experience or the Word of God THE valid test for truth? "Charismatic Chaos" is basically a plea for Charismatics and all Christians alike to return to the authority of the Bible.

It seems that many reviewers feel that Dr. MacArthur did not fairy deal with the Charismatics because he only opposed the extremes. This is simply not the case. The author stressed time and time again that he in no way was attempting to stereotype all Charismatics into the same category. On the contrary, he explained that there are many Charismatics who love the Word of God and are devoted followers of Christ. However, these "conservative" Charismatics are just as guilty as the extremists in many areas. I have personally found this to be the case as well. Most conservative Charismatic churches still believe in being "slain in the spirit," speaking in tongues, extra-biblical revelation, etc. Or in other words, they do not believe that Scripture alone is sufficient.

One of my favorite chapters was "Does God still give divine revelation?" Quite honestly, I picked up this book to learn only about healing and having no intentions of really learning anything else. I was shocked to find how wrong I had been in so many areas, including prayer. As I was growing up in the church, I constantly heard people say, "Well, God told me to..." And I would always want to say, "Wait a minute...did God really tell you that?" This chapter taught me an important lesson in Biblical authority: Does Scripture contain all the revelation that I need? Is scripture and scripture alone sufficient? Or better yet: Is the Bible the Complete Word of God? If God is still giving revelation, such as "God told me..." then the Bible is not complete. I used to be very open to people prophesying over me and other people. Now I consider it to be utterly pointless. Why? Because the Bible contains all the prophesy I will ever need! Scripture is sufficient and contains everything we need to live the Christian life! (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

Another chapter that I found particularly interesting was the chapter on Hermeneutics (biblical interpretation). Being a strong follower of Young-Earth Creationism, I've studied Hermeneutics quite a bit. People read the Bible and think its all about your interpretation. Nothing gets me more when people question my views on Genesis saying, "Oh, that's just YOUR interpretation!" No, I'm not really "interpreting" anything, I'm just reading what it says. Although this is a different topic, it illustrates how sloppily many Charismatics treat the Bible. Rather than read the Bible "plainly," understanding it as the authors intended it, Charismatics want to read the Bible and interpret it based on what it means to THEM. But its not about what it means to you, but what it means in general!!

Lastly, my favorite chapter and the whole reason I picked up the book, was the chapters dealing with miracles and healings. I've been to quite a few Charismatic churches in my life and have seen some pretty amazing sights. For a while, even up to this point, I was completely convinced that all this was real. My logic went something like, "This is too amazing to not be from God!" Sadly, this is the attitude of many Charismatics today. They don't look to the Bible as their source for truth, but rather look to experience. As for healings, I will admit that Charismatics do have a pretty descent case built up. And unless you search the Scriptures yourself and understand the historical contexts correctly, you will probably end up agreeing with the Charismatics. To sum up their beliefs on healings, it goes something like this, "Well Jesus and the apostles healed, so why can't we?" Space does not permit for me to go through specific verses, but I will tell you that the historical context means everything. As far as I know, MacArthur dealt with every major faith healing "proof verse" there is and debunked them as misunderstandings. Something else that came to my shock was the so-called miracles that are supposedly happening today. An important point that was pointed out was this: Faith healers do not understand the difference between organic disease and psychogenic disease. I was upset that I had not caught this before: that all the faith healings that I had seen growing up, all dealt with disorders and suffering that occurred in the mind such as headaches, earaches, bruised limbs, etc. At no point did anyone come close to healing someone who had their skull crushed in a car accident, or a child suffering from third degree burns on 99% of her body, or people with withered arms or no arms at all, AIDS victims, etc. Charismatics can't heal these types of disorders simply because they do not have the gift of healing. The gift of healing was given to Jesus and the apostles to authenticate their claims. After the word of God had been complete, there was no reason for miracles, because we would now have the complete word of God.

Overall this was an excellent book and would recommend it for every Christian. Chances are, if you haven't experienced a Charismatic church, your time is coming. Charismatic churches are growing rapidly and taking over. It is important that we, as Christians, be prepared for false ideas in this age as they become more and more prevalent as each day goes by. To be honest, I don't care to spend too much time researching the Charismatic movement, simply because I have bigger fish to fry. My war is the intellectual war that is going on in the public school systems and universities to get rid of God and adopt naturalism, thus undermining the completely sufficient Word of God.

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Once again MacArthur tells it how it is.

This is another must read for true Christians. He exposes all these false teachers that suck millions of dollars from immature Christians that are out for financial gain. Also exposes those who want experience over truth.

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