Snickers

I remember hearing Scottish preacher, David Robinson quite regularly on the Unbelievable podcast some years ago. What impressed me about him is how he’d tell you all about his personal life and tastes. He wasn’t just acting holy. I was quite intrigued that he liked the Manic Street Preachers 😀. I wouldn’t classify myself as a punk rocker nowadays, but it’s all been part of my life. I sometimes wonder how you’d write a Christian song in this genre. I have come across a few heavy metal Christian groups, but I’d never listen to that. It would probably just sound silly. Wagner’s music sometimes makes me feel energetic, but that wouldn’t be Christian either. Some hymns that use military metaphors might make me feel energtic. Examples include:

• Onward Christian Soldiers
• Soldiers of Christ Arise
• Fight the Good Fight
• Marching On in the Light of God
• The Son of God Goes Forth to War
• A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
• Who is One the Lord’s Side
• He Who Would Valiant Be
• Our God is a God of War
• The Lord Has Given a Land of Good Things

These aren’t about earthly wars, though they sometimes touch on the Old Testament battles, which were earthly wars. They’re about spiritual battles, mainly fighting sin within or encouraging a sense of togetherness when engaging in Christian projects.

What else gives me energy? At a secular level, my morning cup of coffee and the prospect of going out for a walk. But let’s get to spiritual matters.

The New Testament presents one God in three persons. I can see how that might sound complicated to someone hearing it for the first time. But the Bible, especially the New Testament, does present one God, and it teaches that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. If I were making up a new religion, I might keep it simple and say that there was just one person. And if I were teaching science, I might say that the atom was the smallest particle. But in both cases, it’s more complicated 😀. And why shouldn’t it be?

What I want to focus on here is the Holy Spirit. Before Jesus returned to heaven, he promised the Holy Spirit. You could say that the Holy Spirit energized the early church and continues to energize Christians. When I first moved in evangelical churches back in the early 1980s, a big debate went on about the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals and charismatics believed that we should expect the Holy Spirit to manifest himself in the same way that he did in New Testament times. This meant enabling people to speak in tongues, give prophecies, perform miracles and so on. Others, known as cessationists, believed that such things were very much related to the beginning of the New Testament church. Such things ceased after the New Testament era. Maybe you could compare them to boosters on the Space Shuttle. These got things off the ground. So, cessationists who’d hear Pentecostal speaking in tongues, claiming miracles etc. would dismiss it as wishful thinking.

I’ve been on both sides. My current position is that I think such things are largely restricted to the New Testament, but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of them occurring today, albeit in a milder form. And some cessationists believe that the Holy Spirit might give special powers to Christians working in new places, where people are hearing the Christian message for the first time. But the Holy Spirit is always at work. He is the one who draws me to read the Scriptures, which he inspired. And he is the one who draws me to pray. And when I do pray, he guides me and makes my prayers effective. Here I’ll list three example references to the Holy Spirit.

John 14:26
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Romans 8:26-27
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

I frequently mention theologian theologian, Wayne Grudem, in this blog. Getting back to the charismatic/cessationist debate, he would be on the charismatic side. But I’ve always found him very engaging and sensible. You do get some very wacky people in the Pentecostal/charismatic scene. But it’s often forgotten that there are many sensible people in it too. Maybe, it’s so big that any scandal that appears in the evangelical scene is likely to be in a pentecostal/charismatic church. Roughly 60–70% of evangelicals may be Pentecostal or charismatic in theology or practice, depending on regional definitions and denominational affiliations

Anyway, I often point to some free online lectures by Wayne Grudem. The Holy Spirit would probably be touched on in all the lectures, but he specifically covers the Holy Spirit in chapter 30.

He covers the Trinity in chapter 14. I first bought his Systematic Theology in 1995. It’s such great value. I’ve read it again and again, and I never get bored with it. In recent years, I bought the audiobook of the second edition on Audible. I had several other systematic theologies, but Grudem’s is still my favourite.

I’ve known a lot of sound and sensible Pentecostal/charismatic people and lots of sound and sensible cessationists.

But Kendall and his predecessor at Westminster Chapel, Martyn Lloyd Jones, were eager for revival and were open to a move of the Holy Spirit, which for whatever reason sometimes manifests itself in unusual ways.

The interesting things is in so many of the great revivals of the past, you’d get all sorts of silly extremes. So maybe when the Holy Spirit moves, sensible people are a bit too cautious and stick to their traditions, and silly people go with it but mingle it with all sorts of silly stuff of their own making. Someone might even argue that if the Holy Spirit moves, the devil swiftly moves in with silly and sinister people to discredit it.

If I go to a new city, I might see a silly church with 200 people and growing and a sensible church with about 20 people that’s declining. Which one should I go to? Maybe, I’d go to the silly church but not engage in any of the silliness. They’d probably see me as unspiritual, but who cares? 😀 Seriously though, in my experience, when you go to a church that’s regarded as being a bit too silly or “happy clappy” or whatever, you find that most people aren’t really very silly at all. In any group of people, you get annoying people who loom large, but the majority will be fine. I just stay away from the sillies 😀. I’m an introvert, so maybe I stay away from most of the sensible people too. And sometimes we can thank silly people for their creativity. In both the Christian and secular music scene, some of the best modern music has been produced by people who you’d be advised to avoid in everyday life 😀.

Or I could go to the sensible church. But going to an elite group that looks down on all the silly Christians feels a little like joining the scribes and pharisees. Surely there’s a happy medium.

Anyway, here are a couple of hymns about the Holy Spirit. To be balanced, I’ll choose a modern charismatic one, and an old traditional one.