makesends said:
But for the thing about tongues, (in its many expressions (sorry, couldn't resist)), mainstream Christianity has departed from Orthodoxy pretty much the same way the Charismatics have. Their gospel is just as corrupt, and in the same things.
Agree.
The non-Charismatic jeer at the Charismatic over the tongues thing and other related things but at the core, the real problem is bad doctrine, beginning with a weak Doctrine of God, a silly understanding of Sin, an anthropology derived from the authority of self—even to the point of believing that self is entirely capable of fully grasping truth —NO! Even causing truth!— and a miserable notion of who Christ is and what he has done—all of it failing to make it through to the core of the believer, that this life centers on Christ and what God has decreed/ God is doing. This is not about us, and it doesn't depend on us.
I am glad you brought that up about a weak doctrine of God, as in TG videos (and in my forum conversations with Arminnianists) that has become a starkly vivid problem. And when they are told that, had it demonstrated to them from scripture, it is like they went blind and deaf.
To use TG as an example, in mocking manner, he asks the question, "If God is good and he is all powerful, why is there evil in the world. Why are there tornadoes and hurricanes and earth quakes, and murders?"
The only thing that has been taught of the doctrine of God is that he is, sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. Beyond that, he is good and love. And they can't reconcile the first three with the last two, so they don't bother to do so, and create doctrines that satisfy, in their thinking, with good and love. In the process of course, the sovereignty, goes out the window unnoticed, and with it the omnipotence. They bridge the gap by saying things such as God sovereignly chose to not violate man's free will, as that would be evil (not good and not love), and place Jesus's success on the cross squarely in the hands of the sinner.
Which brings us to the lack of understanding sin you mention. And sin is treated more as just a word, a concept, (the world just calls it mistakes)rather than relating it to the holiness of the one who made them in his image and likeness. It does not take into consideration who God is at all. Part of the doctrine of God is not his holiness. Other than it being a word attributed to him. It is great to have my sins forgiven is pretty much the surface scratched in dealing with the matter.
What is missing in the doctrine of God among A'ists, be they Charismatic or not? He is good always and in all his ways. Yet he also reveals himself as vengeful (not revengeful) as destroying, as bringing calamity, of commanding wars and killing. The understanding of this seeming paradox does not come by pretending it doesn't exist, while at the same time asserting that God would be evil if only chose some to save and did not give everyone an equal chance.
The solution to the paradox is found in who God is, really. All his attributes are equal and equally active all the time and in everyplace. Including both his love, his goodness, and his justice. Perfect love cannot passively accept evil, it is love that brings wrath against what is not love. Perfect good cannot dwell with what is not good. It is good that brings wrath against the not good. Perfect justice cannot leave sin unpunished. It is justice that lays the foundation for the substitutionary atonement of Christ. It is justice that pours out his wrath against against the unbelieving sinner and the father of lies, the deceiver, for the sake of the Son and those he has given to him. it is love.