The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke

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Summary: My book summary for my Fuller-Seminary class
Review: Luke-Acts offered an interpreted narration of the Holy Spirit's endowment of power to the early church for service, in contrast to the Pauline epistles' complementary focus on the person and ministry of Holy Spirit for the believer's salvation and sanctification. Luke-Acts' narrative of the Spirit's charismatic activity echoed those in the Old Testament. Acts' theology on the gift of the Spirit was, however, unique from the Old Testament's, in Acts' emphasis on how the Spirit's outpourings actualized the universal potentiality of the priesthood of all believers.

The office elemental to each of Israel's political-religious historical periods was charismatic; the Spirit's charismatic activities were focused successively upon Israel's founding fathers, Judges, kings, prophets, and priests. The Spirit's activities authenticated or accredited the new leadership; and the Spirit endowed appropriate skills for the new leadership's responsibilities. At Israel's national founding, the Spirit imparted craftsmanship skills, empowered national leaders, and inspired prophets. This earlier variety in the Spirit's endowments became restricted exclusively to military prowess for the Judges as charismatic warriors. At the subsequent founding of the monarchy, an outburst of charismatic activities focused on the first two kings, Saul and David. During David's hereditary dynasty, kingship lost its charismatic character, but charismatic prophets (such as Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel) arose, calling Israel from its apostasy back to faithfulness to YHWH. The post-exilic Chronicler consistently associated the gift of the Spirit with inspired speech, especially of prophets and priests --- with the unvarying literary pattern of a mention of the gift of the Spirit followed by a report of inspired speech to imply prophetic inspiration for nonofficial prophets.

The Old Testament's vision of the Messianic age portrayed the Messiah's ministry as not merely by hereditary rights of royal or dynastic succession, but by right of divine call. The Messiah was also to be charismatically equipped for ministry. Moreover, when God was to restore his people, the Spirit of prophecy will no longer be restricted to Israel's leaders but will be universal in extent and status throughout the elect community, through the Spirit's renewal inward of each person in the community.

There, however, existed no experiential continuity of the Spirit's charismatic activities across the aforementioned historical periods. Because it was Israel's God who gave his Spirit at these key epochs of Israel's political-religious development, the continuity rested in God and not in the recipients of the Spirit. During the inter-testamental period, Judaic piety was marked by its devotion to the Law, which by nature precluded charismatic activity of the Spirit. Luke-Acts offered an interpreted report of the restoration of prophetic activity after four centuries of silence. Acts' charismatic activity of the Spirit stood in continuity with that in the Old Testament and in Jesus' ministry.

The significance of the gift of the Spirit on Pentecost was the disciples' forthcoming role as witnesses, not the profound and moving experience of tongues-speaking. The Pentecost narrative told of the eschatological transfer of the charismatic Spirit from Jesus to the disciples, like similar transfer of the Spirit in the Old Testament from Elijah to Elisha. The language in Acts 1:5,8 of "clothed with power from on high" echoed the Old Testament for Gideon, Amasai and Zehchariah. Luke-Acts' use of its characteristic phrase "filled with the Holy Spirit" is modeled after the Old Testament. By this transfer of the Spirit, the disciples became heirs and were equipped to continue Jesus' earthly charismatic ministry. In Acts, the gift of the Spirit was for service, rather than for salvation-sanctification. By this empowerment-for-service functional paradigm, rather than a salvation-sanctification oriented paradigm, the Charismatic Christ had launched the mission of the disciples rather than had created the Church on Pentecost.

Acts' theology on the gift of the Spirit was, however, unique in comparison to the Old Testament --- Acts' post-Pentecost story of the early church told of how the outpourings of the Spirit actualized the universal potentiality of the priesthood of all believers, and of how the prophetic gift of the Spirit effected the charismatic calling and equipping of these various groups for service in the gospel's advancement and being "filled with the Spirit" was both an individual and a collective phenomenon. Acts' account of Saul's encounter with the risen Lord emphasized Saul's calling for service, not his salvafic conversion. The gift of the Spirit to the disciples on Pentecost was not an isolated event, but one of several occasions both before and after the Pentecost. It was not once-for-all-time experience, but a repetitive phenomenon as for Peter and Paul.

The New Testament revealed three inter-dependent and complementary dimensions of the Spirit's activity: (1) salvation, (2) sanctification, and (3) service. The Reformation emphasized the Spirit's activity for the believer's salvation; the Wesleyan spirituality emphasized the Spirit's activity for the believer's sanctification; the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements now emphasize the Spirit's activity for the believer's service.

Rating:
Summary: awesome!
Review: This book is by far the best book which shows the distinct difference between classical pentecostal beliefs and the beliefs of more modern charismatic churches. In this book you get a clear picture of the spiritual gifts as God intended them to be used. With this book we have finally reached true scholarly height within the Pentecostal camp. This book boosts classical pentecostalism into the acedemic field. Roger has written an exciting yet purely biblical study of the differences between the holy spirit as Paul understands it compared to Lukes view. Both views are equally important, but also different in that Paul looks at the Holy Spirit as an indwelling prescene at our new birth while Luke looks at the Spirit's gifts to us. Overall this is an excellent book and a perfect book that shows true pentecost at its best.

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Summary: Strong defense of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
Review: This short book (85 pages) is a strong defense of the subsequent experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as seen in Luke-Acts, and as taught by Pentecostals. I find it interesting, that the author doesn't seem to believe (though he never flat out says so) that tongues is "the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit." Instead, he seems to believe that any prophetic type speech (prophecy, praise, tongues) accompanies the baptism of the Holy Spirit... though he never uses famous term, "THE initial physical evidence."

This book is a must have.

Rating:
Summary: Strong defense of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
Review: This short book (85 pages) is a strong defense of the subsequent experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as seen in Luke-Acts, and as taught by Pentecostals. I find it interesting, that the author doesn't seem to believe (though he never flat out says so) that tongues is "the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit." Instead, he seems to believe that any prophetic type speech (prophecy, praise, tongues) accompanies the baptism of the Holy Spirit... though he never uses famous term, "THE initial physical evidence."

This book is a must have.