Some say, “If you have not had the experience you can’t critique it.” Maybe the opposite is true. Having “experiences” like those in the “new wave” make one less able to be objective, biblical and sensible when it comes to discernment. This “new wave” is shot through with contradictory messages.
Author Eric Wright has all his faculties, facts and discernment intact as he analyzes John Wimber, the Kansas City Prophets, Rodney Howard-Browne, John Arnott (Toronto) and a host of other cross-pollinating extremists in the new Charismatic extremism.
This may be the definitive text on the issue. It not only examines the “barnyard” worship services of the “Vineyard” in the bright light of Scripture but looks at the history of the major revivals and explodes the myth that there is any comparison to the Charismania of today’s so-called “new wave.”
Wright makes perfect sense as he looks at the physical phenomena and shows how these things can be viewed through the lens of expectation, suggestibility and altered states of consciousness. He shows the eerie similarities between hypnosis phenomena and the physical results produced by proponents of Vineyard-like activity.
His chapter titles are catchy and give a flavor of what to expect in this well documented book. They include: “Surfing the Third Wave — Without Going Under,” “Confusing Signals — Diverse Vineyard Interpretations of Events in Toronto,” “Phenomena — Biblical or Bizarre,” “Divine Disorder or Cultivated Chaos” and “Putting the Cart of Experience Before the Horse of Scripture.” There also is an appendix on Jonathan Edwards and another on the Great Awakening.
PFO has surveyed other books on this topic. They falter, fudge, flounder and fail. They give with one hand while taking back with the other. Wright remains biblical and consistent throughout.
You can call him a cessationist, but he makes an incredible
case. He does a meticulous job and cannot be ignored from either
side of the debate. If we could only have one information source
on this topic we would vote for Strange Fire?. The title says it
all. We applaud Eric Wright for his exhaustive research.
—GRF
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