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The Dark Side of the Gospel people of apostles. Spirit. wonders, Through the years, preached, the joys of His resurrection through 1 themselves as the taken over from the arose at the turn of . fully appreciating the has led to a kind of triumphalism, emphases upon health and of the great parabolic work of Christ Jesus, from being servant, high thought resurrection, of Christ, caught the spirit of For the most part, Pentecostals have understood the “Full Gospel.” It is an appellation Holiness Movement out of which Pentecostalism this century. Inherent in it was a claim that unlike much of what was preached around them, the Gospel preached and practiced by Pente- costal people was the same Gospel preached and practiced by the The way it was portrayed was that the “apostolic faith,” that “faith [which] was once for all delivered to the saints” had been restored in this new movement through a fresh outpouring of the Holy That Gospel was a miraculous Gospel, full of signs and of evidences and triumphs. the emphasis of “Full Gospel” people has been on the triumphalistic side. To be sure, Jesus the crucified has been but Pentecostals and charismatics alike have often hurried to power without depths of His humiliation death on the cross. Their rush to claim the power of His resurrection even to heretical teaching and misplaced wealth and signs and wonders. The apostle Paul spoke repeatedly in the form of God, to taking on the form of a to humbling himself to the point of death on the cross, to a exaltation in which he was bestowed with the name which is above every name (Philippians 2:5-11). But in recognizing this, he also it important not only to know Christ and the power of his but also to participate or have koinonia in the sufferings even in his death (Philippians 3:10-11). In his commentary on Hebrews 11:1, the reformer John Calvin Paul when he noted _ ‘ ‘ .. To us is given the promise of eternal life- but to us the dead; ‘ ‘ ‘ . . . . . . A blessed resurrection is proclaimed to us- meantime we are surrounded by decay; We are called righteous, and yet, sin lives in us; We hear of ineffable blessedness, but meantime we are oppressed by infinite misery; We are promised an abundance of all good things, we are rich only in hunger and thirst; God proclaims that He will come to us immediately, but seems to be deaf to our cries yet . . Indeed, there is a role for suffering in the church as Paul noted and Paul was even able to rejoice in his Calvin realistically acknowledged. 1 2 overemphasize however, just (Lk. 9:23-25). 1:24). To own sufferings for the sake of the church (Colossians this aspect of the Gospel is to truncate the Gospel, as to overemphasize the triumphant aspect of the Gospel is to have less than a “full gospel.” For ultimately there is a dark side to the Gospel. The Church has been called to follow Jesus, by taking up the cross Christians are not called to reign with Christ yet, even though they may already reap some of the benefits of Christ’s triumph. to suffer with him. The power of the resurrection becomes the possession of the individual Christian only to the extent that the Christian is willing first to share in the fellowship of Christ’s They are called first sufferings. resurrection, There is a straight ployed replacing line between the cross and the triumphs of faith. To ignore an important aspect faith. a line which is unbroken. North American Pentecostals and charismatics have tended at times to forget this. In this issue of Pnewna, several of our authors remind us, in different ways, that the “Full Gospel” includes both triumph and suffering. Ray Gen studies the miracles in Luke-Acts and discovers that there are “dark” miracles as well as miraculous these “dark” or “malignant” miracles is to ignore of the Gospel message which elicits Karla Poewe compares the symbolic language which Augustine em- in his Confessions with the language of contemporary charis- matic Christians. She goes on to warn that in the pursuit of power and with the tendency to confuse miracles with magical acts, many charis- matics are in danger of losing the reality of the transcendent and it with an immanence that gives way to manipulation and an obsession with techniques. Ultimately; this leaves no Gospel at all. Charles provides us with a well written and insightful exami- nation of the synoptic account of John the Baptist’s prophecy and con- cludes that fulfillment of that prophecy includes judgment and purging as well as gracious blessing. Finally, William Kay provides a short assessment of how the British Assemblies of God fared during the late 1930s and 1940s. Daryl gratification, legitimate, recognition the Dark Side of With this issue of Pneuma, then, we acknowledge the Gospel, a side which in a day of wonder drugs, quick fixes, instant and material prosperity in some places, acknowledges a even a powerful role for suffering in the church. Renewed of this fact may temper extreme claims made in a spate of contemporary and may enable those of us in the so-called first and second worlds to participate more fully in the life and suffering of our sisters and brothers in the third world. charismatic literature Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. Editor 2
