When God rocks our box
April 22nd, 2006Currently listening:
Passion – Everything Glorious
My mom recently shared this story with me. I have met this man, and I think that until recently he would have confidently stated that God no longer does this sort of thing:
Pastor [name] just came back from [an Asian nation of >1.3 billion people]. He got to preach in a state church and was not censored in any way. He spoke on the security of the believer, a doctrine that is not taught in [that] church. The congregation wept as he preached through an interpreter, somewhere along the line Pastor [name] realized that the congregation was understanding him before the interpreter translated. The translator realized this too and was also weeping. It was like what happened in the book of acts where they heard the message in their own language. Pastor [name] was apparently profoundly impacted by the trip.
I love it when God shatters the boxes we build around Him.
Yes, it is important to submit our experiences to Scripture: First, I don’t think God is the only supernatural being out there who gives people “spiritual experiences,” and second, I don’t think all experiences attributed to supernatural beings are actually supernatural—or spiritual, for that matter. We should use Scripture as a guide to know better who God is and how He acts in this world and thereby be wise in determining how God is acting in our lives and in our gatherings.
However, whenever we include in our creeds universal statements about how God acts (or acted or will act or doesn’t act) in the world, we had better have awfully good scriptural reasons for doing so. In my opinion, it requires more evidence than is available for certain beliefs widely held in conservative fundamental circles. “Tristan, you’re such a liberal!” Nah. I just think we’d better have (I’ll say it again) awfully good scriptural reasons for the things we intentionally and systematically teach about God (and what God thinks about people who believe somewhat different things than we believe). “You’re… ecumenical!” Well, that’s not a curse word or an insult. It is, however, an abused word.
Last night I attended an ecumenical prayer service at a Catholic church. It was both worshipful and theologically sound. It exalted Jesus Christ. Since I’m not Catholic I wouldn’t have participated in Eucharist had they offered it, but I greatly enjoyed worshiping with them. I don’t know whether we were all Christ-followers or not. I only know that I am, and that God used people there to encourage and inspire me, and that it is not my job to decide who is in the faith and who is not. That’s God’s job, and He is not required to share with me the decisions He makes regarding other people. He just tells me to love them, and to speak the truth in love as He moves me.
So does the Holy Spirit still move people to speak in different languages (tongues)? I don’t know. But I’ll bet that pastor and that Asian church now believe He does. I’m not going to tell them they’re wrong. You can if you want to, but you had better make sure you’re doing it because—having carefully studied the options—you firmly believe Scripture clearly says so, and not because it would make you more comfortable if God would just stop it and fit in your box. Oh, and while you’re at it, just to be safe, you had better not preach in any other countries. Because God delights in rocking our boxes.
God, what boxes am I trying to put you in? On the other hand, what boxes are right? We ask for wisdom.
Actually, the pastor spoke in English and the people understood—a miracle. The pastor probably still doesn’t believe that the sign gift of speaking in tongues still happens.
That’s very possible. At the very least, he probably doesn’t believe in the “gift of tongues” as it is practiced now in some churches. But then, that common practice doesn’t necessarily seem (to me, anyway) to conform to the scriptural pattern of “tongues”. What happened to him does.
We don’t know what the apostles themselves heard coming out of their own mouths (other languages or their own). What we do know is: The crowd was bewildered “because each one was hearing them speak in his own language,” and they said, “how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?” Essentially, that seems to be what the pastor experienced—God working a miracle with language for His purposes.
It reminds me of another true story Bruce Olson tells in his book Bruchko. Everyone, if you haven’t read this book, you need to buy it now and read it, simple as that.