I have just scanned an article (with some markings) into my computer which I would like to share here. The article is from the charismatic Festival of Priase (FOP) magazine for that year of 2000, written by Canon James Wong when he was still the President of FOP. At that time, I was still sortof a Charismatic, and had went for FOP2000 (was it Hillsongs then?) Anyway, when I read this then, I was upset over the type of illogic and demeaning of evangelicals in this article of his, even though I would at that time consider myself a Charismatic. After all, coming from a more conservative Presbyterian background, I still had emotional ties with non-charismatic evangelicalism, and Canon Wong came across as insulting all of them as denying/not having the Holy Spirit and as having "no power in their evangelism and service". This is not to mention his misquoting of bible verses as supporting such blatent biblical errors such as "baptism in the Holy Spirit with the initial evidences of speaking in other tongues", which even then I realize that it is wrong to make tongues THE evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit. In fact, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this article have an opposite effect on me in that I was put off by what I saw as the arrogance of "extreme Charismatism" then, and thus while I was sortof Charismatic, I was never a full-fledged one; always having some sort of anchor to non-charismatic evangelicalism despite my forays into first the Charismatic and then the Third Wave Neo-Apostolic movements (which incidentally led me further and further away from God, even experientially).
I would be interacting with the paper probably sometime later, but for now, you may read the eisegetical article written by Canon James Wong here:
P.S.: There was another issue which severely troubled me back then. Anyone wants to venture a guess?
8 comments:
Whoa, that was a painful article to read - but thanks for putting it up. If only they had a basic understanding of medicine and linguistics, they would recognize that most "manifestations" do not seem to have a supernatural element.
And the issue that troubles you: does it have something to do with the Catholics and/or ecumenism?
Yongchun:
>If only they had a basic understanding of medicine and linguistics
Well, I believe they think we shouldn't "quench" the Spirit by being too critical. =P
>And the issue that troubles you: does it have something to do with the Catholics and/or ecumenism?
Haha, yes. The subtle denigration of the Reformation wasn't something I didn't notice.
Canon James Wong... *shudder*
I had 2 years with him in chapel at SAJC. This isn't any personal attack on him or his personality, but he made me dislike services so much I'd skip chapel services and play cat-and-mouse with Atomic Leow every Friday morning.
Isaiah:
:P
BTW, brother, the images you uploaded cannot be viewed as there's some kind of "load" message. I usually upload my images to Flickr then link to them. Hope that helps. :)
Isaiah:
Eh.... I don't know; I use html code to code the link. Perhaps you can right click, click on 'Copy shortcut', and then paste the URL on the address bar and then press enter? If there is still problem, do inform me.
Anyway, the link should work, 'coz I have tried them out, and the hosting site is my own website...
In Mid-Michigan the rheteric against calvinism is very strong from among many charismatic pastors....mostly Word-faith and not from the Trinitarian Penticostals like The Assembly of God churches.
Ken:
=) No CC (Calvary Chapel) churches in mid-Michigan?
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