CHARISMATIC-MOVEMENT

Nothing in Scripture teaches that the filling of the Spirit is accompanied by ecstatic experiences or external signs. To be sure, being filled with the Spirit does bring the believer tremendous exhilaration and joy, but the New Testament epistles reveal that being filled with the Spirit brings forth the fruit of the Spirit, not the gifts of the Spirit.

John MacArthur

Charismatic Chaos, Zondervan, 1992, p. 316.

Churches, mission agencies, schools and other Christian organizations that have tried to maintain unity by not confronting Charismatic influence and thus allowing it to come in and never be dealt with ultimately will all have to sacrifice their non-Charismatic position or split the organization. It does not bring unity, it brings the exact opposite because inevitably, you have the haves, the Charismatics who feel they've reached a higher level, and the have-nots and you have pitted two theologies against each other. One gives in or it splits.

John MacArthur

Does Experience Determine Truth? Sermon.

Demanding sensational proof is not evidence of faith but of doubt. To long for the visible sign, the big miracle, the dramatic proof is nothing but masked unbelief. It is the farthest thing from faith.

John MacArthur

The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Matthew 1-7, Moody, 1985, p. 94.

Any sensationalism inevitably is frustrated by the law of diminishing returns. People are never satisfied. They always want one more sign, one more miracle, one more show. To have maintained His influence over the people by the use of miracles, Jesus would have had to produce greater and greater sensations. Because the natural, carnal heart can never be satisfied, this year’s miracle would have become next year’s bore. His followers would only have been lovers of sensation, not lovers of God.

John MacArthur

The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Matthew 1-7, Moody, 1985, p. 94-95.

The fanaticism which discards the Scripture, under the pretense of resorting to immediate revelations is subversive of every principle of Christianity. For when they boast extravagantly of the Spirit, the tendency is always to bury the Word of God so they may make room for their own falsehoods.

John Calvin

As long as a person has a notion that he is guided by immediate direction from heaven, it makes him incorrigible and impregnable in all his misconduct.

Jonathan Edwards

(Divine power) is displayed not in dramatic manifestations that intrigue men but in lives of quiet confidence and steady persistence that glorify God.

Alistair Begg

Made For His Pleasure, Moody Press, 1996, p. 22-23.

The Holy Spirit never intended to occupy the center stage in the life of the church. Yes, He is the dynamic behind every Christian life. That is His role; that is His ministry (cf. Acts 1:8; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 5:18). However, when He is thrust into the limelight by man, such is not in accord with the will of God as revealed in Scripture. Our Lord Jesus Christ is to have the preeminence in all things (cf. Col. 1:13-18). The Spirit’s ministry focuses upon revealing the Lord Jesus Christ and in exalting Jesus before all (cf. John 15:26; 16:13-15)…When people talk more about the Spirit than the Lord Jesus Christ, such an orientation points to error in the church.

John Napier

Impressions, hunches, intuition, signs, and new revelation become the focus of the Christian instead of moment-by-moment dependence upon Scripture. Soon, even the lines of Christian fellowship are determined by “common experiences” rather than biblical truth. It is a fine line, but what a great deception. Again, Satan is willing to give ground, to gain a greater advantage.

John Napier

Scripture and…revelation itself (Rev. 22:13-14) closes with the book bearing the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke His last words to the Church as recorded in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Therefore, those who claim to speak new revelation from God today stand against the preeminence of Christ as the highest revelation of God.