Alive in the Spirit

Alive in the Spirit
By Rob Warner
Hodder & Stoughton. 188 pages. £6.99
ISBN 0 340 64197 5

In some ways this is a disappointing book from a respected charismatic leader who (on those issues over which evangelicals divide) will only convince those already predisposed to believe him.
This is a pity; after many years in which discussions and friendships have been established between charismatics and non-charismatics, one might have expected a rather more nuanced and charitable argument.
This weakness is especially demonstrated in the first section of the book 'Discovering the Spirit' (pp. 3-67). Fundamental to Warner's argument is that many evangelicals have been inadequately 'birthed' as Christians. Christian initiation involves 'repentance from sin; saving faith in Christ; water baptism; and finally Spirit baptism'(p. 55). The latter is a 'definite experience of God's presence' (p. 55) - a crisis as op-posed to the process of spiritual growth. This crisis is understood in a moderate but definitely 'charismatic' way and certain passages in Acts viewed as prescriptive (i.e. describing not simply what happened then but what we should expect for ourselves).

Caricature

To emphasise the validity of his case, Warner regularly makes widespread generalisations about other evangelical believers. Many are too 'head-centred' (p. 4), have 'ignored the Spirit' (p. 7), 'never mentioning the Spirit' (p. 40), 'want to be 'Jesus only' believers' (p. 19), worship 'Father, Son and Holy Bible' (p. 20), refer to the Spirit as 'it' (p. 21), are 'arrogant' and cover up 'unbelief' by emphasising that the Christian received the Spirit at conversion; are repressed, 'locking away their pent-up emotions deep within' (p. 44) and cover up 'the fact that we want to keep control of our own lives' (p. 51). All this is caricature to the point of being untrue. Sometimes this is assisted by quoting authors who would differ from the author but in a context which seems to suggest that they support Warner's position (e.g. Stott and Packer on page 62f.)
The latter two sections of the book are entitled 'Fruit and Gifts' (pp. 71-130) and 'Receiving and Giving' (pp. 133-188). The former section offers a good chapter on holiness and a further chapter on 'Gifts to the body' which, from a charismatic perspective, offers a renewed statement of the anabaptist vision for church life; some excellent challenges here to many areas of church life (whatever one's view of the charismatic movement).

Theological engagement?

Wedged between these two chapters is one provocatively entitled 'Popular excuses for avoiding the gifts of the Spirit'. Here, again, Warner's basic failings re-emerge. The 'cessationist' position is caricatured and dismissed without real engagement with the theological basis of the position and it includes statements such as: 'Many modern Christians would not think this kind of prophecy (the prophetic warning to the Jerusalem church to flee to Pella before AD70) to be credible or possible' (p. 100). As a non-charismatic sympathetic to many of the emphases within the modern charismatic movement, I have to ask: 'Where are all these modern believers?' Most believers I know have had 'numinous' experiences. Nevertheless, there is some sane advice in the chapter concerning the evaluation of spiritual experiences.

Evidence of the Spirit

The final section offers an outline of what the reviewer would (with one or two reservations) call 'the normal Christian life', but which the author seems to view as the marks of his understanding of a 'Spirit-filled life'. In fact, he seems nowhere in the book to grapple with the fact that most things he regards as the clearest evidence of a Spirit-filled life are found in the lives of many (if not most) non-charismatic evangelical believers. Nevertheless, his material on assurance and boldness in witness is generally helpful and the chapter dealing with the Spirit and the Word, mind, tradition and matter is basically sound, though one might wish for a greater emphasis on the Spirit revealing God in the Word, rather than the suggestion that the words point beyond themselves to a personal encounter with God (p. 167).

Stephen Dray
Moorlands College

© Evangelicals Now - March 1997
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Main Articles

• Ethical challenges for our green and pleasant land
  Discussion of moral and ethical aspects of farming which should concern Christians
• One things leads to another
  Discussion concerning doctrine and fellowship (Acts 2.42)
• Inerrancy - the larger discussion (Bulldog for March)
  Observations concerning the knowledge of God (as revealed in his Word) and the current humanistic scene
• Europe - God's experiment?
  Consideration of God's purposes as shown in the history of Europe (paper adapted from address at 1993 New Europe Forum in Brussels)
• Waiting without knowing
  An interview with the wife of one of three missionaries kidnapped in Panama (reprinted from Just Between Us)
• A Rocha
  Account of the A Rocha Trust project to express biblical convictions about the environment in practical ways
• Definitely maybe - can our future be in Europe?
  Tongue-in-cheek comments on Acts 16 with reference to the current debate on Europe
• Weighing up Polkinghorne
  Discussion of Dr Polkinghorne's writings on the relationship between science and Christian theology

Other articles

• No Mercy? - Testimony of a former prisoner who found Christ while in prison - extract from the book No Mercy?
• Evita - The story of Maria Eva Peron
• When a Church Becomes a Cult - The Marks of a New Religious Movement
• Alive in the Spirit - The gifts of the Spirit in the lives of believers
• I Believe In The Family - Family and marriage in a fast-changing world from a Christian standpoint
• Sermons on Romans 8.1-4 - Sermons of the Puritan preacher Thomas Jacomb
• To Preach or Not To Preach - The Church's Urgent Question
• Children in Renewal - The involvement of children in the use of the gifts of the Spirit