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 The
June 25, Gospel Guardian reprinted an article by Pat
Boone entitled “I Received the Holy Spirit and Tongues!”
in which Pat says, “We don’t have to fear that the Holy
Spirit will lead us into doctrinal error: how could God’s
Spirit contradict Himself?” How indeed! It is obviously
consistent with this truth that all these “Spirit filled”
ones (including Dean Dennis, former minister, Northside church,
Santa Ana; and Ben J. Franklin, San Diego, Calif. preacher)
should now be free from any doctrinal error. Their writing
should reflect a marvelous purity, wholly consistent with all
the Holy Spirit has ever revealed. But is this so??
The
same article by Pat Boone uses “witnessing” in a sectarian
sense. He applies Matt. 3: 11 to his own claimed reception of
the Spirit; and his speaking (and singing) with “tongues” is
supposedly justified by a gross misuse of Rom. 8:16. He gets
Rom. 8:26 turned around; the H. S. (?) Intercession with
“groanings which cannot be uttered” become the words and
melody of a song, “composed spontaneously by God’s Spirit”
which were uttered. He seems to accept the Calvinistic
doctrine of “spiritual discernment” of the Word. (This is a
citing of cases only, not intended as an examination of them.
See articles in Guardian. )
In
the same G.G. article by Dennis it is not hard to see the “dead
formality” of his former preaching. He admits he had “read
the Bible to prove doctrinal points or to get sermon material,”
and thought he could answer Pat’s error with a briefcase
filled with books. He applies Acts 19: 2, to himself (with no
reference to the laying on of Paul’s
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hands); and accepts Thayer’s
doctrinal commentary on 1 Cor. 13: 10 in place of what ”I had
been taught by my Church doctrine.” Doesn’t sound like much
of a choice for a “Spirit filled” man.
Franklin
says, “We Have Miracles In Our Own Church of Christ” — and
apparently it is their own. He writes of something done by “nine
of the larger congregations of the non-instrumental branch of
the Church of Christ,” and of his becoming “the Minister for
one of the larger Church of Christ congregations.” (The Holy
Spirit never wrote or spoke like that.) He has discovered that
the Church of Christ is just another denomination, and that “During
Jesus’ ministry on earth, He moved about in various groups,
not joining Himself exclusively to any of them; so the Holy
Spirit, today, is moving in various groups, yet not belonging
exclusively to any of them.” How is that for Holy Spirit
truth, free from all doctrinal error, coming from one who is “now
pastoring Christ’s Center Church of Christ in downtown San
Diego.”?
Maybe
these men never did know the truth concerning the church of the
Lord. But if they did, it is obvious that whatever the now have,
it is leading them further away from the truth of God — and
this, the Holy Spirit of God would not do.
They
are not being led into such error by objective consideration and
submission to God’s Spirit, but by subjective faith in the
human spirit,
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