Strange Fire Conference - by John MacArthur

Found here. Our comments in bold.
-------------------------------------

We always find it dangerous for pastors and ministry leaders to single out and criticize and condemn other groups or ministers from the pulpit. The danger is to those pastors and ministry leaders, for they are tearing down, not edifying. They are creating enmity, not restoring. They are driving their followers to an ideology, not encouraging them to pray.

Dr. MacArthur does this, and in a most egregious fashion, for he lumps everyone who disagrees with his doctrine into the same category, all of them having the same practices, understandings, failings, and motives. He seems to believe charismatics are all deceived, all are preaching false doctrine, and all are believing unbiblical things. And there is absolutely no good at all that comes from charismatic churches. 

This is cultic thinking. It is a fear of someone having an independent thought. It is an intellectual and spiritual rigidity that demands that everyone who calls themselves Christian to walk in lock-step conformity with his ideas and practices. Any deviation invites condemnation, exclusion, derision, and persistent attack.

We'll be deleting (...) large sections of his presentation which do not come to bear on his argument.

Finally, we'll note that Dr. MacArthur will rarely quote or even reference Scripture in this long missive. For the most part, he will level unsubstantiated charges and make undocumented claims as well as broad generalizations.

It is a truly embarrassing presentation.
--------------------------------------------
Strange Fire Conference

(...)

We’re addressing a subject in the conference this week, the subject of the contemporary charismatic movement, under the title of “Strange Fire.” And this has been a concern to me for many, many years, a concern for many, many decades. You can go all the way back to the very early years of my ministry, when I began ministry and saw the early beginnings of this movement and was deeply, deeply concerned. Through the years, I have addressed this from this pulpit. Forty years ago a series on the charismatic movement on the issues that were at hand in the movement, a book The Charismatics some years followed, another book Charismatic Chaos, more series, more attention given to that to try to help our people to exercise discernment. (It seems that Dr. MacArthur is going to focus on the activities of a particular part of the church body, as opposed to the doctrines themselves.)

When people ask me, “What’s the biggest problem in the church?” I always say the same thing: The absence of discernment. That is the biggest problem in the church because if you can’t discern the truth with the Word of God in your hand, with the Bible in your hand, if you can’t discern the truth, you can die of 1,000 heresies. It’s like having spiritual AIDS. People who have a deficient immune system can die of 1,000 illnesses. The church can die of 1,000 heresies if it can’t exercise discernment. This is always the issue. (Ok, now he's concerned with doctrine. So will he explain doctrine, or talk about people?)

(...)

There are half a billion professed charismatics on the planet, half a billion. To put that in perspective, there are a billion Roman Catholics. To put that in further perspective, there are 14 million Mormons. Fourteen million Mormons, half a billion charismatics. It’s a massive issue. (They are all deceived?)

I don’t think anybody would fault pastors for confronting Mormonism, and they should. False view of God, false view of Christ, false view of salvation. Why is it that we have been so reluctant to confront this massive movement that has captivated 500 million plus people? (Huh? Hardly reluctant, if he has been doing it for 40 years. And there are doctrinal police all through Christendom, micro-examining people for any slip of the tongue. They have been very vocal. Indeed, there has been a vigorous and and ongoing debate about these things for decades.) 

(...)

The most serious crimes ever committed against God are committed in corrupt worship. That takes us to the point where we need to say the charismatic movement continually dishonors God in its false forms of worship. It dishonors the Father. It dishonors the Son. But most specifically, it dishonors the Holy Spirit. Irreverent ideas, irreverent actions, untrue beliefs, false claims, false promises, fleshly behaviors, all these things are attributed to the Holy Spirit, but they are a dishonor to Him that they would even be identified with His name. It’s more strange fire and the sad thing is it’s ground for judgment, it’s ground for judgment.

When I was talking about this some months ago to our church, I said, “It’s this severe.” Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, “You have attributed the works of the Holy Spirit that I have done to Satan.” In other words, they said Jesus did what He did by the power of Satan, Matthew 12, and He said, “You’ve attributed the works of the Holy Spirit to Satan.”

It’s fair to say that the reverse has happening in many places in the charismatic movement. They are attributing to the Holy Spirit the works of Satan. (We hope he provides some examples of this.)

Once they had attributed to Satan the works of the Holy Spirit. Now it’s reversed. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the triune God is not to be trifled with. It is dangerous to all who offer strange fire. It is dangerous to all who offer corrupt worship. It is dangerous to declare things that the Holy Spirit has not done, has not said, would not participate in as works of the Holy Spirit. That is not a small matter. It is a radical seriousness in dishonoring the Holy Spirit that apparently escapes these people.

I was watching the other day some behavior among Hindus who are a part of what’s called the Kundalini cult, the Kundalini cult. They have certain body movements that appear to be perhaps best explained by demon possession. And they’re the absolutely identical body movements to people in the charismatic movement in the extreme behaviors that we see in so-called revivals. This is paganism. This is the work of Satan. This is the work of the kingdom of darkness, and it is not to be attributed to the Holy Spirit. (His first criteria appears to be, if it looks similar to a pagan activity, it must be pagan.)

It’s a tragic thing. In some ways it’s so ridiculous you might laugh at it. It is a tragic and agonizing irony, frankly, that those who claim to be most devoted to the Holy Spirit, those who claim to have a corner on His power, (Who claims this?)

those who claim to be experiencing His presence are following patterns that blaspheme His name, and that are the same as those who are engaged with demons. (All of them? Really? 

Still waiting for the biblical presentation...)

Attributing to the Holy Spirit deeds He did not do, words He did not say, experiences He does not author is a very serious crime, a very serious crime. (He summarily dismisses the entirety of the charismatic movement without evidence, examples, or scriptural reference. Hmm.)

In some ways, the charismatics have thrown their fantasies into the strange fire of mystical experience, and demonic power, and worship the false god that came out.

Am I discrediting everyone in the movement? No. (Um, yes.)

I think there are people in the movement who desire to worship God in a true way. They may be caught up in this false worship, as well, because intention is not enough. The movement itself - listen carefully - offers nothing to true worship. Can I say that again? The movement itself has brought us nothing to enrich true worship. (Painting again with a broad brush, he makes yet another bare assertion.)

Why do I say that? Because the charismatic movement as such has made no contribution to biblical clarity. It has made no contribution to biblical interpretation. It has made no contribution to sound doctrine. (This is an astonishing claim, again offered without documentation.)

We have had an accurate biblical interpretation long before the charismatic movement started. We have had strong doctrine long before the charismatic movement happened. (In other words, "We had it all figured out a long time ago, our interpretation is correct, and anyone who disagrees is apostate."

But Dr. MacArthur himself has changed doctrinal positions. By his own admission, he previously believed in the eternal sonship of Christ, and no longer does so.  So what happened to his "strong doctrine?")

We have had going back in the steady stream of faithful men, all the way to the apostles, a clear stream of truth that gives us a full rich understanding of the Word of God. (This sounds eerily like Catholic claims about the lineage of apostleship.)

That is why a Christian today can go back and read the apostles, and then go back and read the Reformers, and read the Puritans, and follow the flow of the truth through history, and find richness, and understanding, and clarity on every issue going all the way back. They didn’t add anything to that. They brought in chaos, confusion, misrepresentation, and misunderstanding. (Yes, of course, there is an unblemished history of the reformation church, one that has no controversy, no dissension, no error, no excess, until the charismatics came along. This assertion doesn't even pass the smell test.)

Do some in the charismatic movement believe the truth? They do. They do. Do some in the charismatic movement hold a sound theology on some issues? They do. But none of those true understandings have come to them through that movement. The true understandings have always been there in the long line of godly preachers and teachers that God has used to keep the truth and to keep the church on track. The movement adds nothing to that. It detracts and it confuses. It is not a source for any advancement of our understanding of Scripture or sound doctrine. (Well naturally he would say that. His premise is that his way of thinking is the truth, thus anyone else's thinking is automatically false. This is not scholarship, it is confirmation bias.)

Have people truly been saved in charismatic churches and under the preaching of charismatic preachers? Answer: Yes they have, but nothing coming from that movement has been the reason they were saved. The gospel is the reason they were saved, and it wasn’t invented by that movement. In some places, it is still intact. In some it’s not. (Whaaa? Who thinks that a movement or doctrinal position saves a person? Of course it's the gospel that saves a person. People get saved, not because the church is charismatic or cessationist, but because the Holy Spirit moves in a person's life. 

This is an anti-intellectual assertion. He's essentially claiming that the only reason people get saved in charismatic churches is because of cessationism. Nonsense.)

Nothing coming from the charismatic movement has provided recovery or strengthening of the biblical gospel. Nothing coming from the charismatic movement has preserved truth and sound doctrine. It has only produced distortion, confusion, and error. The faith of the biblical gospel has been intact. It has survived. It will survive because God protects it and raises up faithful men in faithful churches to pass it from generation to generation.

Yes, there are people in the charismatic movement who know the truth, who love the truth, who are orthodox on the gospel, and heterodox on the Holy Spirit. Not all of them are heretics. But I say again, the contribution of the truth to people in the movement doesn’t come from the movement. It comes in spite of it. (We'd love for him to provide some actual evidence, a Scripture, even an anecdote. But all he has done up until now is spout vague accusations and unthinking opinion.)

But on the other hand, the charismatic movement is loaded with non-Christians, people who don’t know God, people who are involved for carnal reasons, carnal desires, and emotional experiences. (Again, Dr. MacArthur... Proof? You have apparently a very unique gift, one that allows you to discern the hearts of millions of people, and you can pronounce with finality that they're not saved! This is quickly becoming embarrassing.)

I’m grateful for those who do know the truth and are faithful to the truth, but the vast majority, I fear, are in the dark. (He backtracks his smug certainty a bit, and now wonders how many might be in the dark. By contrast, it appears he believes that most everyone in cessationist circles is saved and living in truth.)

And this is the greatest delusion of all. The mass of people that you see in Matthew chapter 7 who are the many, many who say to Me, “I did this in Your name, I did that in Your name, I’ve preached in Your name, I did miracles in Your name.” And Jesus says to them, “Depart from Me - ” what? “ - I never knew you.” This is a prophecy, certainly in one sense of this movement. (We have a long way to go. Thousands more words, and we are growing weary of his rhetoric. Will he at some point actually document all these claims?)

I glorify God for His grace to sinners who are in those churches and under those influences, and God has allowed the truth to reside in some of those environments. And I give Him the glory for that grace that is given to sinners who are in those churches. It is possible in spite of the movement to become a believer, but not because of it. (Undocumented assertions.)

The world over, my great fear is that people are lost, lost in the movement, chasing carnal desires and false promises, with little or no understanding or interest in the true gospel, true repentance, the true Christ, and true salvation. No movement supposedly based on an orthodox gospel, has done more damage to the church than this movement, no movement. (Undocumented assertions.)

As I said, you only have 14 million Mormons. The damage that 500 million people can do to an orthodox understanding of Scripture and divine truth is monumental, and I fear that its success comes not from its connection to the truth, but its success comes from its connection to the kingdom of darkness. It is successful because it is promising what unregenerate sinners already want. Evangelicalism has thrown its arms open and welcomed the Trojan Horse of the charismatic movement into the city of God, and its troops have taken over and placed an idol in the city of God, not the truth. (Undocumented assertions.)

Is there anything more serious than this? There can’t be. By contrast, reformed theology, sound doctrine, is not a haven for false teachers. (Undocumented assertion.) 

It’s not where false teachers reside. Reformed theology, sound doctrine, faithful, biblical exposition among the long line of godly men is not a place for false teachers. It’s not where frauds go. It’s not where greedy deceivers end up. It’s not where you find liars and those who misrepresent the truth. (Sounds like the perfect church. No error, no fleshliness, no sin. As opposed to those deceitful charismatics...)

You’re not going to go to an association of reformed churches - those who believe the doctrines of the reformation that take us back to the doctrines of the New Testament - and find false miracles, false visions, false prophecies, false anointings, bizarre mindless pandemonium breaking out. You’re not going to find people shaking, and babbling, and rolling over, and falling down, and saying bizarre things about the Holy Spirit. (Duh. Can the good doctor be any more pedantic? After prattling on for many paragraphs about how wonderful the reformed faith is and how evil and mistaken the charismatics are, he brags that there are no charismatics in reformed churches? What? What charismatic would feel welcome in such an environment That's like saying that only red and green are allowed in art class, then bragging that there's no blue or orange.)

That’s not going to happen in that environment because they’re anchored to the truth. (Undocumented assertion.)  Once experience, and emotion, and intuition becomes the definition of what is true, then all hell breaks loose.

(...)

What is the work of the Holy Spirit? He convicts. He regenerates. He justifies. He illuminates. He cleanses. He converts. He sanctifies. He adopts. He baptizes. He indwells. He endows. He empowers. He guides. He delivers. He produces fruit. He secures us. This is what Scripture says. (We generally agree with all of this, but we long for a single Scripture from him that illustrates these things. And we wonder how these things might differ from charismatic doctrine. Will he ever get around to explaining?)

And what it doesn’t say is this: The Holy Spirit knocks us down. The Holy Spirit makes us laugh in a silly way. The Holy Spirit amps up our body heat. The Holy Spirit gives us the hiccups. The Holy Spirit gives us convulsions, puts us in a stupor, makes us look drunk, causes us to fall down, speak gibberish, make primal sounds, jump, roll. Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.

(I guess it is left to us to actually produce Scripture. We do not claim all of those things in his list, or every instance, is the work of the Holy Spirit. However, many of these things are not without biblical precedence.

Fall down/stupor:

Ez. 1:28 Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell face down, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

Ez. 3:23 So I got up and went out to the plain. And the glory of the LORD was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell face down.

Da. 8:17-18 As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. “Son of man,” he said to me, “understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.” While he was speaking to me, I was in a deep sleep, with my face to the ground. Then he touched me and raised me to my feet.

Da. 10:8-10 So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground. A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands andknees.

Re. 1:17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.

Drunk:

Ac. 2:15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!

Ep. 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

Gibberish:

Ac. 19:6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 

1Co. 12:8-10 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

1Co. 14:5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues... 

1Co. 14:39 Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 

Jump up and down:

2Sa. 6:14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might...

Ac. 3:8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 

Unlike Dr. MacArthur, we document our claims with Scriptures. He is supposed to be a scholar of the Bible, but he has never read these passages?)

(...)

There’s a warning in Hebrews 10, if you want to look at it for a minute. (Hooray, our first Scripture!)

Hebrews 10:29, “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” We camp on the front half of that verse, about there’s a hotter hell for people who trample the Son of God. There’s a hotter hell for people who trample the Son of God. We don’t like it when people trample the Son of God. (So now he seems to be inviting the wrath of God upon those with whom he disagrees.)

Over the last 25 years or so, there has been a well-thought-out and extremely important defense of the gospel, organizations, institutions, coalitions, groups, I can think going back to before Jim Boice went to heaven, and he started the Association of Confessing Evangelicals, and everybody was jumping onboard. We have to defend Christ, defend His deity, defend His character, His nature, defend His cross work, defend His resurrection, defend the doctrines of justification, and the panoply of great truths that are related to His cross work and resurrection.

There has been a ground swell that has continued, and continued, and continued, and continued, and maybe even gotten a little carried away, where now everything is to point to the cross, and everything is to look at the cross, and everything is to contemplate the cross. We have defended Christ with a vengeance (Apparently vengeance doesn't belong to the Lord, and Christ is defenseless.)

and a relentless commitment whenever He is attacked.

And we’ve pretty much done the same when God is attacked. When some theologians came along and suggested that God didn’t know the future, couldn’t plan the future, had no idea of what the future was going to be, it was called “openness theology.” There was a ground swell and many scholars, and writers, and preachers began to gather together and empower the community of evangelicalism to answer this attack on God the Father.

But in this verse, you need to be reminded that there is a severer punishment for one who has insulted the Spirit of grace, insulted. The verb enubrizō in the Greek, the noun form is hubristēs, from which we get the English word “hubris.” It means “audacity, insolence, a violent insult, or an outrageous insult.”

This is Yahweh’s Ruach. This is the breath of the Almighty. This is God the Holy Spirit. While we would all agree that hell will be hotter for people who trample underfoot the Son of God - meaning they know the truth of His life and death and provision and they trample it - but the same warning is given to people who are audacious, and insolent, and violently insult the Spirit of grace.

And the next verse says, “ ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ ” His people. “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” People should be terrified, insulting the Holy Spirit, terrified. (Wait. we thought the author was touting his own vengeance?)

The New Testament reveals to us that the Ruach Yahweh, the breath of God, the Holy Spirit, creates life, and transforms life, and purifies, comforts and conforms sinners to Christ, and equips, and empowers, and seals, and secures, and illuminates. These are the things for which He is to be honored and loved.

Here’s a quote. “The greatest Satanic deception which has ever been offered is the false doctrine of once saved, always saved.” Who is it that secures us forever? Who is it that seals us forever? Who is the earnest of our inheritance? The Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit is to secure us forever.

This is a quote from a charismatic leader. (Hooray, our first actual quote from a charismatic! Unattributed, however.)

“The greatest Satanic deception which has ever been offered is the false doctrine of once saved, always saved.” You’ve just accused the Holy Spirit’s work of being the work of Satan. “Because of the work of the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, everyone who is called is justified, and everyone who is justified is - ” what? “ - glorified,” Romans 8. This is insulting the Holy Spirit. This is dangerous stuff, dangerous stuff. (Wait, wait, wait. There is honest disagreement about the nature of salvation, with thoughtful people on each side. There are Scriptures about the elect and predestination, as well as Scriptures about working out one's salvation and enduring in the faith until the end. It's not so cut-and-dried as the Dr. MacArthur seems to think.

But he takes it a step further. His doctrinal opponents are all dangerous charismatics, and they're satanic. This is insanity.) 

Benny Hinn says this. “No, no, never ever go to the Lord and say, ‘If it be Your will.’ ” Don’t ever say that. “The acting of the Holy Spirit is dependent on my words. He will not move until I say it.” Really? You’ve just in two quotes seen the Holy Spirit accused of demonic activity and His sovereignty called into question. Benny is sovereign. The Holy Spirit is not. (Ahh, finally. An attributed quote. Unfortunately for the author, Benny Hinn is not a theological spokesman for the charismatic movement. He's not the leader of the movement. In fact, most charismatics reject his teachings. 

Once again, we see it's just easier for Dr. MacArthur to lump everyone together and make broad generalizations and stereotypes. This is simple intellectual laziness.)

This, by the way, comes from a false teacher who says he has the anointing from God. By the way, that’s a manufactured fantasy, that anointing, and he received his, he says, from visiting the graves of two dead women preachers: Aimee Semple McPherson and Kathryn Kuhlman, and while visiting their graves, he received the anointing.

I don’t want to waste time going through all the ridiculous claims that they make. (This is known as Fallacy of composition, or a Fallacy of Arguing the Specific to the General. Dr. MacArthur takes a specific example and uses that example to portray all his doctrinal adversaries as being the same.)

I just want to highlight how serious this is.

(...)

You know, it does amaze me that the movement has survived the way it has. I just have to - people say to me, “Why doesn’t God strike these people down?” (We hope he rebuked such unholy talk. We kind of doubt it, though.)

Because He is by nature patient and because His purposes are unknown to me. I don’t know any more about the secret councils of God than Job did. And God isn’t obliged to have to tell me everything. But I do know this. The growth of the false charismatic movement will not stop the hand of God in judgment, in God’s time.

(...)

The charismatic movement has successfully demanded acceptance on the basis of love and tolerance. (Undocumented assertion.)

So it’s been welcomed, corrupting the church, cultivating emotionalism to the extreme, confusing people about prayer, worship, praise, faith, contentment, humility, sovereignty, and a myriad of other things. And another time, another part of history in the past, they would have been rejected as either heterodox, or heretical.

(...)

We can't begin to tell you how dismaying this has been. Dr. MacArthur is supposed to be a learned man, a teacher of doctrine and faith, an example of sound mind and spiritual maturity. But his presentation comes off as a junior high class presentation. He makes wild and spurious claims and undocumented assertions, impugns his adversaries, stereotypes, and accuses them of doing satan's work.

Truly sad.