More Begining
I was saved as a direct result of the Jesus People revival which began on the West Coast of California in 1967.
That movement itself was an offshoot of the hippie, alternative movement that had its heyday in San Fransisco, California in 1967.
Woodstock, which happened in 1969, was the beginning of the end of the hippie movement which just fizzled out as disillussioned alternatives gave up and re joined the system.
Some, like BillGates, Branson, Steve Jobs went onto become incredibly successful armed with the lateral and revolutionary thinking that hallucinogenics brought them.
But God was much more interested in the lost and dissillusioned youth, who having put their faith in youthful zeal and hallucinogenics to change their world found only a huge vacuum peopled with the usual evil people wanting to exploit them.
On the beaches of California in 1967, Jesus was suddenly the "in person".
Thousands of young people were converted and beach baptisms were a daily occurance.
This revival brought to it allsorts of older christians, some to see what they could get out of it others to help in the work the holy spirit was doing and encouraging these young people in their new found faith.
The movement spread all over the world, but for our purposes it came to Britain in 1971. There were many shades and hues in the original movement but what ended up here in Britain was a radical, disciple making movement with an emphasis on bible reading and memorisation.
It was important to be radical and sold out for Jesus because the Antichrist was coming and we all faced imprisonment and martyrdom.
This is what I was born into as a new Christian.
It has been rightly said that whatever century or political system or whatever you are born into, you will assume that that is the norm. Unless someone or something comes along to challenge your worldview it will just remain the same.
One of the deadliest effects of the fall is the tendency to laziness, especially laziness in the area of thinking through a topic or subject.
In fact, there is no labour from which man will shrink from more than the labour required for consecutive thought.
What passes for thinking in the modern world is just an accumulation of slogans.
"If it saves just one life then it has to be good", is a real Sun newspaper slogan trotted out to replace a well thought out piece of writing.
Pilates negative reply to Jesus when Jesus declared he was the truth shows that this state of mind was ever so.
"What is truth", Pilate replied showing his search for reality had been overwhelmed by the politics of Caesar and a world overun with false Gods and religions based on pure superstition.
Being extreme in nature the religous movements picked up on the exremes of the day.
The MODERN DAY incarnation of the charismatic movement began in 1961 with an Anglican minister called Michael Harper. It quickly took off with a life of its own and began to evolve immediately. It is still evolving.
Spring Harvest, New Wine, Alpha and many other branches of the charismatic movement are all from the same Anglican root.
I am always tickled when charimatics are shocked to discover that what they considered "New", is in fact plain old Anglicanism with a large dose of modern music and some Spiritual phenomena which they label charismata.
The movement experienced a seismic change when Catholics began to speak in tongues at a place called Ann Arbour in Michigan in 1966.
After a little bit of umming and arring the pope decided, if you cant beat them join them and gave it his blessing and allowed his followers to jump onboard.
Inevitably you now had anglicans and catholics in the same room apologising to each other for all the past indiscretions (mutual torture and murder) of each other.
People who wouldnt have been seen dead with each other a year previously now were having "fellowship" with each other.
ALL O N THE BASIS OF A SHARED EXPERIENCE. And therein lies the true danger of the Charismatic movement.
No longer was doctrine or right belief important. What was important and became the glue that held everything together was that christians were sharing a common experience.
Faithful old preachers who were great biblical exponents were ridiculed and lampooned.
The bible was smoothly slid aside in favour of stories, anecdotes and testimonies of the latest experience going the rounds.
Quotations which seem wise and spiritual at first glance have as much depth as a chinese fortune cookie.
Worse still, as things have progressed, some statements have more in common with New Age than biblical christianity.
The biggest casualty in all this is the truth.
Sadly, there have been many human casulties along the way as well.
The most recent prominent example is Steve Chalke. For a number of years he has been sliding off the path of true biblical christianity . Now it appears he has jumped off the narrow way altogether. Its well documentated so you can look for yourself.
How does all this happen?
Who is behind it?
Why are some people intent on leaving the well known path in favour of something "new".
We will look at that next time.
Oh, but before I go any further, just in case you are thinking,
"Who does this guy think he is sitting in his evangelical armchair taking potshots at other believers because they dont fit his narrow view". This would be a fair comment except for the fact that in the 70's I was doing all these things that are happening now. I was in the charismatic movement, at the extreme end. I have even looked over the edge at the far end and I saw (and experienced) extreme demonisation and insanity.
I have sailed into unchartered territory and I have sailed into the areas where the old maps ended and there was just the warning,"Here be dragons".
