Let the Pentecostals Stand Up and the Reformed Sit Down: A Few Things Nigerian Reformed Christians Must Learn From their Pentecostal Counterparts – Part 3
by: Moses Jestola
Spiritual Warfare
Even MFM, in spite of her ungodly obsession with demons, has something to tell Reformed Christians: demons, the spirit world, and spiritual warfare are real! The Pentecostals need to stand up and tell Reformed Christians to stop pretending as if all the demons have gone on holiday! Yes, we are seated with Christ far above principalities and powers! (Eph. 2:6). Nevertheless, principalities and powers still hunt believers! They hate those who disrupt their works. They’re wreaking havoc in our world. The prince of the power of air is still at work in your unsaved siblings and children and neighbours (Eph. 2:2). The god of this world is still behind spiritual blindness (2 Cor. 4:4). Spiritual warfare is real.
Further, even Christ Jesus himself indirectly asserts that exorcism, done biblically, is ultimately redemptive in that it affirms the comprehensive reality of Christ’s redemption on the cross and anticipates the consummate defeat of all the forces of darkness (Lk 10:17-20; 11:20; Col. 2:15). The same is applicable to healing! Every miraculous healing in the Bible (and the ones that may happen in our day and time; even the ones that are not miraculous in fields like medicine, etc.) is redemptive in its orientation.
What about the Prosperity Gospel?
To be clear, the prosperity gospel is heresy! It is riding on the wings of envy and covetousness and materialism. The prosperity gospel is a distortion of the true gospel. Christ, the Bible says, came into the world to die for the sins of his people (Matt. 1:21; Jn 1:29). Nevertheless, prosperity gospel counterfeits a biblical teaching and therefore discerning and mature Reformed Christians can learn from it. The prosperity gospel distorts the fact that Christ’s death and resurrection has cosmic impacts. The prosperity gospel distorts the fact that believers can work and make money to the glory of God. The prosperity gospel distorts the fact that believers can be ambitious in a godly way. The prosperity gospel is a distortion of a godly desire for excellence and success in your craft!
A few years ago, some brothers and I made it a point of duty to read Gbile Akanni’s “Tapping Divine Resources for Life and Ministry.” I was Pentecostal at that time. Part of the book narrates the suffering of Akanni at the beginning of his ministry. Akanni is a strong critic of the prosperity gospel. However, Reformed Christians have much to learn from the prayerful reliance on God for his daily provision that a man like Akanni exhibited. Even some prosperity preachers emphasise faith in God for financial provisions in such a way that is embarrassing to Reformed men who enjoy Western funds with little to no prayers, only to recline in the chairs in their well-lit, air-conditioned offices to call down fire upon their Nigerian Pentecostal counterparts!
It goes without saying that prosperity is not evil; the prosperity gospel is! As such, Reformed Christians must learn to steer clear of a pietistic Christianity that repudiates any call for cultural reformation, which is most times manifested in a godly desire for human flourishing!
Emotional Expression in Worship, as well as, Belief in and Expectation of the Miraculous
The Nigerian Pentecostal/charismatic movement emphasise the emotional elements in the general makeup of human being and how it ought to find expression in worship. They emphasise the experiential elements of the Christian faith. Nigerian Reformed Christians have much to learn from this as well! How often do we sing our hymns and Psalms with contagious joy? Are we moved at all by what we sing? The Psalmists themselves exhibited a healthy balance of right doctrines accompanied by appropriate emotions!
Additionally, Pentecostals are people who are far from being deists, especially with respect to life-threatening circumstances! How expectant are we, the Reformed Christians, of the jaw-dropping miracles of God? Or has our cessationism truly boxed God? How expectant are we of God’s ability to do the unusual? Or has our dry prayers made us create a distant God in our minds?
Conclusion
In conclusion, Nigerian Reformed Christians must sit down to hear their Pentecostal/charismatic counterparts well in the spirit of biblical unity. In spite of their errors, the movement has much that Reformed people can glean from. Reformed orthodoxy must marry spiritual dynamism! In addition, we must appreciate the strengths of the Pentecostal/charismatic movements as much as, if not more than, we criticise their weaknesses.
Moses Jesutola is a missionary to Meiran, Lagos State. He sent this article to TextandPublishing.
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