Passionately Wrong

This week  I received a comment from a man named Ethan who disagreed with my last post, in which I lamented Bible teacher Francis Chan's participation in an upcoming conference at the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City, Missouri.I share Ethan's comment below because I believe it is representative of a serious error that is being made by many people who are part of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement--namely, that the supreme virtue to be had by a professing Christian is being "passionate" about one's faith.Here is his comment.Ethan's Comment

I couldn’t be more excited to see Francis Chan at Onething 2013! I believe that God is using the ministry of IHOP to influence a generation of passionate people crying out Come Lord Jesus, Come. Its very sad to see blogs and comments like these that bring so much division in the church.  What I find interesting is that it’s always the SUPER conservative Christians (like most people who follow blogs like these) that are in a witch hunt to prove every Charismatic ministry out there is not of God. 

Personally, I dislike labels, but for sake of you reading this blog I’ll use them. ‘The Charismatic movement’ is allowing God to usher in HIS supernatural works.  We live in a day and age where ‘reason’ will not be enough.  Proving God by your writings and reason will not be enough.  People are hungry to see a supernatural God display his love to humanity.  God is raising up a generation that believes we are the modern church of ACTS that are willing to walk up to people and expect to see the lame walk, the blind see, the sick healed, and the death raised to life all in JESUS name!  Our BEST days as a church body are yet to come...

My Thoughts

I have two thoughts to share.First, I'd like to point out that Ethan has misrepresented my position by claiming that I am against every charismatic ministry. This is a common, logical fallacy known as a "straw man." My blog does not critique charismatic teachings,  but rather it critiques the teachings of the New Apostolic Reformation movement--which go way beyond traditional charismatic teachings.Second, notice that the reason Ethan admires the International House of Prayer is because he believes this organization is influencing "a generation of passionate people crying out 'Come Lord Jesus, Come.'" Indeed, passion is what attracts many people to the teachings of IHOP, as these IHOP followers often describe themselves as "passionate followers of Jesus." IHOP even holds an annual conference titled "Passion For Jesus."But passion, in and of itself, is not a virtue. One can be passionately mistaken. So, passion should be directed toward truth, which is found in God's Word--that is, the Bible.To be fair, many NAR followers will say they are passionate about Jesus. Even Ethan said IHOP's followers are passionately crying out, "Come Lord Jesus."In response, I must point out that many people name the name of Jesus--even people in cults and false religions. So, saying that people are passionate about Jesus is not enough. They must be passionate about the correct Jesus--that is, the Jesus revealed in the Bible.Furthermore, if you pay close attention to the words of NAR followers, it seems that they are especially passionate about being used by God to work miracles and be part of the glorious church of the last days. Recall Ethan's words again: "God is raising up a generation that believes we are the modern church of ACTS that are willing to walk up to people and expect to see the lame walk, the blind see, the sick healed, and the death raised to life all in JESUS name!  Our BEST days as a church body are yet to come…"Yet, these common NAR beliefs Ethan is reflecting--that God is raising up an end-time church that will walk in unprecedented supernatural power--simply cannot be found in the Bible. Sure, NAR followers will point to some verses they claim support these teachings--but the verses are cherry-picked and ripped out of context.So, the passion Ethan is so impressed with is a misdirected passion. It is like the passion of a runner in a race, sprinting as fast and hard as he can only to realize that he ran the wrong direction. It doesn't matter how passionate that runner was--his passion was worthless.Yet, people in the NAR movement like to point to the church of Ephesus--in the Book of Revelation--to support their emphasis on passion. This church was rebuked by Christ for losing its early love for him (Revelation 2:4). Yet these same people often forget about another church that also was rebuked by Christ--the church in Thyatira.Unlike the church in Ephesus, this church in Thyatira did have great love--or passion--but it also tolerated a false prophetess in its midst (Revelation 2:20). And Christ was not pleased--to say the least (Revelation 2:22-23). The lesson from these two churches should be clear: passion for Jesus is important, but so is faithfulness to God's Word.In short, Christians should be passionate--yes!--but they should be passionate about what is true.-- By Holly Pivec