Fundamentalists, Charismatics, questions and answers

[DavidGYoung]

Fundamentalists hate it when people ask questions.
Charismatics hate it when people give answers.

A fair description or not?

[Athanasius]

Fundamentalists hate it when people ask questions.
Charismatics hate it when people give answers.

A fair description or not?

In a broadly reductive way, maybe.

[RabbiKnife]

Fundamentalists hate it when people ask questions.
Charismatics hate it when people give answers.

A fair description or not?

Just as true as the axiom "all people named David are wombats, and all wombats are people named David."

[IMINXTC]

Might as well be factional politics.

[Slug1]

Fundamentalists hate it when people ask questions.
Charismatics hate it when people give answers.

A fair description or not?

Not

"Hate" cannot be in the life of anyone who is faithful in Christ.

[DavidGYoung]

My experience of the two groups is as follows:

Fundamentalist:

You have the following instructions: Convert to Christianity. Persuade other people to convert to Christianity. Die.

Don't ask questions, as this gets in the way of The Lord's work.

Charismatic:

Everywhere around you is uncertainty and lots of questions, which all means the occult revelation that comes from having the Holy Spirit in you and having my life experience is where you should look next. Please don't show that any questions have concrete, verifiable answers because that means that I haven't got any reason to tell people about the voice in my head, what I dreamt last night, the fact that I am older than some people, my testimony, my age, my marital status, an anecdote I heard when I was in a developing country doing voluntary work for two weeks, my having been on this earth longer than some of you, my age, a story about my children, something I heard at Greenbelt or Spring Harvest, my age, a nice feeling I had at a praise-and-worship meeting and my age.

[Athanasius]

I'm sorry to hear of your poor experience. It's all too common.

[tango]

My experience of the two groups is as follows:

Fundamentalist:

You have the following instructions: Convert to Christianity. Persuade other people to convert to Christianity. Die.

Don't ask questions, as this gets in the way of The Lord's work.

Charismatic:

Everywhere around you is uncertainty and lots of questions, which all means the occult revelation that comes from having the Holy Spirit in you and having my life experience is where you should look next. Please don't show that any questions have concrete, verifiable answers because that means that I haven't got any reason to tell people about the voice in my head, what I dreamt last night, the fact that I am older than some people, my testimony, my age, my marital status, an anecdote I heard when I was in a developing country doing voluntary work for two weeks, my having been on this earth longer than some of you, my age, a story about my children, something I heard at Greenbelt or Spring Harvest, my age, a nice feeling I had at a praise-and-worship meeting and my age.

Sadly there is a growing movement within what's labelled the charismatic church that does align with what you describe. I'm not sure it has very much to do with genuine Christianity though.

Some people do act as if the impressions they get can only possibly be God speaking and therefore there is no option but to obey. Which is all very well and good when they are the ones obeying but when they demand that others obey that's when the problems start. If God is calling me to do something he is quite capable of making that clear to me by whatever means it takes. That may include someone approaching me to share some impressions they got but if the call is to do something significant it's going to take more than just one person.

When people start to act as if they are a prophet and demand that everyone else fall into line with their words it's pretty safe to disregard what they say.

[RabbiKnife]

My experience of the two groups is as follows:

Fundamentalist:

You have the following instructions: Convert to Christianity. Persuade other people to convert to Christianity. Die.

Don't ask questions, as this gets in the way of The Lord's work.

Charismatic:

Everywhere around you is uncertainty and lots of questions, which all means the occult revelation that comes from having the Holy Spirit in you and having my life experience is where you should look next. Please don't show that any questions have concrete, verifiable answers because that means that I haven't got any reason to tell people about the voice in my head, what I dreamt last night, the fact that I am older than some people, my testimony, my age, my marital status, an anecdote I heard when I was in a developing country doing voluntary work for two weeks, my having been on this earth longer than some of you, my age, a story about my children, something I heard at Greenbelt or Spring Harvest, my age, a nice feeling I had at a praise-and-worship meeting and my age.

I find caricatures to be essentially meaningless…

The real question is “who do you say the Jesus is?”

All the rest is mental pseudo religious or philosophical masturbation.

[Slug1]

My experience of the two groups is as follows:

Fundamentalist:

You have the following instructions: Convert to Christianity. Persuade other people to convert to Christianity. Die.

Don't ask questions, as this gets in the way of The Lord's work.

Charismatic:

Everywhere around you is uncertainty and lots of questions, which all means the occult revelation that comes from having the Holy Spirit in you and having my life experience is where you should look next. Please don't show that any questions have concrete, verifiable answers because that means that I haven't got any reason to tell people about the voice in my head, what I dreamt last night, the fact that I am older than some people, my testimony, my age, my marital status, an anecdote I heard when I was in a developing country doing voluntary work for two weeks, my having been on this earth longer than some of you, my age, a story about my children, something I heard at Greenbelt or Spring Harvest, my age, a nice feeling I had at a praise-and-worship meeting and my age.

As a youth, my experiences concerning church can fall within your description for Fundamentalism. And Lord forbid, you didn't have a KJV Bible despite (as a kid), not being able to understand much of the obsolete English words.

Later in life, I was led to a church that fell under the Pentecostal branding over the next 12 years, experienced varying degrees of what is labeled as "Charismatic.

From these years, I know there are balanced brethren that test the "spirits" and when such revelation is given, sock it away, study the scriptures in relation to the revelation, or through discernment have rebuked either a false teacher or at worse, rebuked the spirit behind a false prophet. Unfortunately, the "me, me, I want it NOW" brethren do run amok and not only instantly jump on any revelation, but run wild with the revelation. Then, when all comes crashing down, look for more revelation to jump on, and more and more. Seems some can be addicted to the "high" they receive during such so-called charismatic antics.

My season in a Pentecostal church is in the past, can I say I was hurt or that I witnessed many get hurt, yes. But due to many, many balanced brethren, who do operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit in an ordered manner Glorifying to God, there are many Charismatics that don't fit in your description, while there are many, who do.

One thing I was blessed with, I am one to ask MANY challenging questions and during that 12 years in a Pentecostal (charismatic) church, MANY of my questions were answered. To the point that in time, I led Bible studies and I encouraged questioning and when needed, presented challenging questions to those in the class.

Presently I attend a church under American Baptist Churches USA and not only has my questioning continued during several Bible studies over the last 3 years, but in unity we dive into God's Word seeking understanding to any challenging question(s).

Don't allow a bad/negative experience push you away from God.

[ProDeo]

@David - In my early Christian years (I was just24 years) I immediately felt attractive to the charismatic movement, this was new to me, these people lived their faith and I could enjoy their enthusiasm without participating in all the emotions myself because (as I later found out) I am a introvert.

My 25 years wandering in various charismatic movements in a nutshell - some people were pushing, sometimes too hard hurting people. In my early years I sometimes did that too and later repented from that. Some people spoke in the name of the Lord and too often damaged people because they weren't prophets although they were convinced they were. I don't believe those wanna be prophets had bad intentions, they just fooled themselves. I once became a victim myself of a false prophecy by a guest speaker and it really hurt. I mentioned it by the leadership and the guest speaker wasn't invited any longer. That charismatic church was okay.

I feel sorry for your bad experiences, it's true there are bad examples which hurt the positive message of the Gospel. In the end Christians remain what they are, ordinary people who sin, but saved by the love and grace of God who gave his Son as ransom for sin for those who want to believe.