This is the fourth in a series of articles written by Adam Ramsey of Liberti Church, Gold Coast, Australia, exploring what we can learn from Martyn Lloyd-Jones today in relation to the Reformed faith and a Scriptural understanding of spiritual experience.
The essays, of which there are five in total, need to be taken together. They are taken from original, yet- to-be published research undertaken by Ramsey for his Doctor of Philosophy thesis. They also, we hope, represent something of the generous-hearted, thoughtful, Biblical approach that en was founded 40 years ago in 1986 to embody. Next month: “The Book of Acts as paradigmatic in the theology of Martyn Lloyd-Jones.” While there are a number of ways in which the pneumatology of Lloyd-Jones bears similarities to elements of charismatic theology, it would be a category-error to label him as a Pentecostal or a Charismatic – either in theology or in practice – according to the ways in which those terms were understood during his lifetime.
Despite his increasing openness to the ongoing operation of spiritual gifts in the different eras of his public ministry, Lloyd-Jones consistently maintained a robust Biblical critique of several key aspects of charismatic theology and praxis, which will be considered below.
