The Gypsy, Bojidar Marinov, continues to steer the Theononmic movement into paths that are completely contrary to what either the Reformed Church or Theonomy specifically speaking, has ever believed except perhaps among assorted cranks, crackpots, and innovators. In this case Mr. Marinov is seeking to turn the Reconstructionist movement into a haven for Charismania.
“… the Bible is full with support of what is called by some “continuationism,” that is, the view of the continuing validity of the spiritual gifts of 1 Cor. 12-14 in our present times. Not because my position is not supported by historical theology; to the contrary, cessationism as a systematic doctrine didn’t appear until long after the Enlightenment hit the church, in the second half of the 19th century. Before that, there were only isolated statements gleaned out of context from isolated names here and there, while the practice and the teaching and the beliefs of the church were in favor of God continuing to lead and guide His people throughout history by all means He has given in the Bible, including miraculous and revelatory gifts. Contrary to the cessationist claims, the question is not “Where were the Charismatics for the last 19 centuries?” but “Where were the cessationists before the second half of the 19th century?” Not because my professed theological tradition—the theology of the Reformation—doesn’t support the view of the continuing validity and operation of the gifts today. To the contrary, Calvin very clearly rejects the nonsense and ignorance of cessationism in his commentary on 1 Cor. 13, and a careful reading of 1 Cor. 12-14 shows that he expected specifically the gift of prophecy to be operational in the church today. The practice of the Reformers and their heirs is also on my side, given the multitude of prophecies and miracles performed by Reformed ministers from John Knox to Charles Spurgeon, and reported by many Reformed missionaries….”
And again elsewhere,
“The early Puritans… prophesied, and they did not despise prophetic utterances. Kings and barons and bishops trembled at the sound of their prophesies, and the church didn’t compromise, and no one cast off restraint. That’s why we have America and the West today: because of those prophecies.
But that was before the Enlightenment explained to the church that the supernatural is out of vogue and that an enlightened person doesn’t care for prophecies.
Mr. Marinov is well known for making statements that are not factual. This is another such case.
Above Mr. Marinov wrote, “Calvin very clearly rejects the nonsense and ignorance of cessationism in his commentary on 1 Cor. 13, and a careful reading of 1 Cor. 12-14 shows that he expected specifically the gift of prophecy to be operational in the church today.” and yet Calvin very specifically says just the opposite of Mr. Marinov as evidenced below,
“For in [Christ] ‘all treasures of knowledge and wisdom are hid’ (Col. 2:3) with such great abundance and richness that either to hope for or to seek any new addition to these treasures is truly to arouse God’s wrath and provoke him against us. It is for us to hunger for, seek, look to, learn, and study Christ alone, until that great day dawns when the Lord will fully manifest the glory of his Kingdom (cf. I Cor. 15:24) and will show himself for us to see him as he is (I John 3:2). And for this reason this age of ours is designated in the Scriptures as ‘the last hour’ (I John 2:18), the ‘last days’ (Heb. 1:2), the ‘last times’ (I Peter 1:20), that no one should delude himself with a vain expectation of some new doctrine or revelation. ‘For at many times and in many ways the Heavenly Father formerly spoke through the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken in his beloved Son’ (Heb. 1:1-2), who alone can reveal the Father (Luke 10:22); and he has indeed manifested the Father fully, as far as we require, while we now see him in a mirror (I Cor. 13:12)” (Institutes 4.18.20).
“This, however, remains certain: the perfect doctrine he has brought has made an end to all prophecies. All those, then, who, not content with the gospel, patch it with something extraneous to it, detract from Christ’s authority. The Voice that thundered from heaven, ‘This is my beloved Son; … hear him’ (Matt. 17:5; cf. Matt. 3:17), exalted him by a singular privilege beyond the rank of all others. Then this anointing was diffused from the Head to the members, as Joel had foretold: ‘Your sons shall prophesy and your daughters … shall see visions,’ etc. (Joel 2:28). But when Paul says that He was given to us as our wisdom (I Cor. 1:30), and in another place, ‘In him are hid all the treasures of knowledge and understanding’ (Col. 2:3), he has a slightly different meaning. That is, outside Christ there is nothing worth knowing, and all who by faith perceive what he is like have grasped the whole immensity of heavenly benefits. For this reason, Paul writes in another passage: ‘I decided to know nothing precious … except Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (I Cor. 2:2). This is very true, because it is not lawful to go beyond the simplicity of the gospel And the prophetic dignity in Christ leads us to know that in the sum of doctrine as he has given it to us all parts of perfect wisdom are contained” (Institutes 2.15.2).
“And when he speaks of the last times, he intimates that there is no longer any reason to expect any new revelation; for it was not a word in part that Christ brought, but the final conclusion. It is in this sense that the Apostles take ‘ the last times’ and ‘the last days.’ And Paul means the same when he says, ‘Upon whom the ends of the world are come’ (I Cor. 10:11). If God then has spoken now for the last time, it is right to advance thus far; so also when you come to Christ, you ought not to go farther: and these two things it is very needful for us to know. For it was a great hindrance to the Jews that they did not consider that God had deferred a fuller revelation to another time; hence, being satisfied with their own Law, they did not hasten forward to the goal. But since Christ has appeared, an opposite evil began to prevail in the world; for men wished to advance beyond Christ. What else indeed is the whole system of Popery but the over-leaping of the boundary which the Apostle has fixed? As, then, the Spirit of God in this passage invites all to come as far as Christ, so he forbids them to go beyond the last time which he mentions. In short, the limit of our wisdom is made here to be the Gospel” (Comm. on Heb. 1:1).
Note that Calvin wrote long before the Enlightenment which Mr. Marinov insists is the fountainhead of all Cessationism.
In a lecture recently Mr. Marinov says, “Cessationist has never been the Historical position in the Church” and again, ” It was an accepted wisdom that every age and place had its apostles and prophets, including the Reformed nations after the 16th century. Puritan England and Presbyterian/Covenanter Scotland had their prophets, healing ministries, miracle workers, etc., and no one saw a problem with that. Reformed missionaries in America and South-East Asia reported about Biblical miracles, and no one back home saw any problem with that. Supernatural healings were everywhere and taken for granted by the church. Even women prophesied to the Puritan government in England in the 17th century, and the government took their prophesies very seriously, without a single trace of theological dismissal. There’s hardly a successful missionary whose ministry didn’t start with supernatural, direct, and very concrete revelation about what he must do. Mr. Marinov makes the wildest of claims in the face of the direct record. Here is just a bit from two Church historians and scholars,
“The Quaker movement was a product of the turmoil of the English Civil War (1642-1651), when familiar social, political, and religious boundaries were swept away by the tides of the conflict and when tried and true religious practices and beliefs no longer seemed to carry their former weight. Numerous individuals, many of them raised in a Puritan environment with its emphasis on radical depravity and the need for the sovereign, converting work of the Spirit, had begun seeking for a work of God to bring peace to their souls in the midst of the massive upheaval of the times. Some of these so-called Seekers longed for a restoration of the charismatic vitality and simplicity they believed to be true of the apostolic church. As J. F. McGregor points out, they (the Quakers) regarded the sign of the true Church to be ‘its possession of the grace given to the Apostles and demonstrated through miracles.’ since none of the Puritan congregations claimed to be in possession of such charismatic or extraordinary gifts, the Seekers felt that they had to withdraw from those churches and wait for what they hoped would be a divine dispensation. For many Seekers, that divine dispensation appeared with the advent of the Quakers and their message.”
Beeke & Jones
A Puritan Theology; Doctrine for Life — pg. 431
Finally, the founder of the Theological movement that Mr. Marinov is infecting reflected on this subject during a question and answer session,
“Now, the so-called speaking in tongues is something that is very ancient, it is pagan in origin. You had it in the Frisian cults and in various African cults, cults of Asia and of Europe, long before Christ; this babble of meaningless syllables. In the modern age, it has sprung primarily from influence of non-Christian groups. Negroes have been prominent in the revival charismatics. The origin in this century was in … a negro church incidentally.”
[Audience] What is to be our attitude towards charismatic people? Do we treat them as Christians?
[Rushdoony] Unless they give specific evidence of being Christian our first attitude towards charismatics should be that it is paganism. Now there are charismatics who in spite of that are Christians, but we should make it clear that the charismatic movement is pagan. It is occultist.
Beware the leaven of the Gypsy Marinov.
Also, one wonders where are the denunciations of the high profile Theonomists and Reconstructionists against this theology that Rushdoony referred to as “pagan?”
This article, by my late friend Dr. F.N. Lee, helps put the Marinov heresy in perspective.
http://www.dr-fnlee.org/pentecostalism-new-outpouring-or-ancient-heresy-the-pagan-worship-of-baal-and-dionysus-and-modern-pentecostalism/
I would love to own the works of F. N. Lee Ian.
Seems unclear. Not sure why you say Mr. Marinov is a Gypsy.
If he is not, would that not be a straw man argument in which you have smashed your knuckles into the solid granite of the 9th commandment?
If he is, does that mean that he is of a lesser ethnic category? Are you saying that Gypsies somehow are less image bearers than others?
Seems somewhat ambiguous.
Sorry Marquitos … you could never know that Mr. Marinov and I play this little game where he calls me a “Calabrian Butcher” and I call him a “gypsy.” It is all in good clean fun you see. We know each other is joking.
Hello Pastor,
The closing RJR quotation seems a bit ambiguous.
How can an occultist (or pagan) be a Christian, unless he is in fact, not an occultist but a Christian, i.e. providing specific evidence.
We could apply the same standard to anyone we meet, including Reformed Christians.
Thank you Richard for your comment.
Here is the quote from RJR that is in question,
“Now, the so-called speaking in tongues is something that is very ancient, it is pagan in origin. You had it in the Frisian cults and in various African cults, cults of Asia and of Europe, long before Christ; this babble of meaningless syllables. In the modern age, it has sprung primarily from influence of non-Christian groups. Negroes have been prominent in the revival charismatics. The origin in this century was in … a negro church incidentally.”
[Audience] What is to be our attitude towards charismatic people? Do we treat them as Christians?
[Rushdoony] Unless they give specific evidence of being Christian our first attitude towards charismatics should be that it is paganism. Now there are charismatics who in spite of that are Christians, but we should make it clear that the charismatic movement is pagan. It is occultist.
______________________________________________
1.) I’m confident that what is going on here is that RJR is suggesting that one may be in a situation where they are going to meet with self acknowledged Charistmatics. In that situation one’s disposition is that one will be meeting with occultists and pagans. The only reason one would change their mind is if the Charismatics one was meeting with began to demonstrate orthodoxy and orthopraxy in broader areas of theology. BUT, even then, you would know you were dealing with felicitous inconsistencies.
If one was meeting with those known to be “Reformed” one would not go into such a meeting thinking that they were likely going to be meeting with pagans and occultists. At least in theory.
2.) RJR is saying also that while some individual people in the Charismatic movement may well be Christian, the charismatic movement as a whole, in its theology and recommended practice is pagan and occultists. This is the same as saying that while there may be Christians in the Roman Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic movement is anti-Christ in its theology.
It is a careful distinction but one that is necessary in matters like this.
Thank you Pastor