What about biblical error and imperfection? Do they invalidate a genuine movement of God?
Some posts regarding Asbury have stated that due to error Asbury cannot be real. We’ve already looked at the issue that one’s pet theological boxes don’t necessarily equate with essential scriptural truth. But, what of outright sin?
What do we see in past movements of God? Were there times of excessive emotionalism? Yes. Did they, at times, miss the mark? Yes. Was everything that happened biblically spot on? No.
When God moves, people are, by definition, involved; imperfect people. While repentance, and resulting change is the norm, especially the long-term norm, the process of sanctification, of living increasingly in line with Christ, is a life-long process. It seems to me that at least some seem to be demanding instant total change in people’s lives for any supposed movement of God to be valid.
That isn’t how the Scriptures describe things. Yes, there is an immediate turning to God; there is confession of sin, repentance, and asking God for forgiveness (many reports indicate that these are part of Asbury). After salvation, God, through the Holy Spirit that now lives inside the new believer, begins to clean up that person’s life, real change starts to take place. The point is those changes are post-salvation.
We don’t clean ourselves up to become saved: salvation is a gift of God, it isn’t based on our works, on what we do (Ephesians 2:8–10). The flip side is that if a person’s life never changes, if that person continues living in deliberate ongoing sin—as opposed to struggling with a sin and seeking to stop it—then the odds are the person isn’t truly saved (see much of the first half of Romans 8 regarding life in the Spirit vs. life in the flesh).
In the end, the point is this: God works through imperfect people, and any movement of God will have imperfect aspects to it. Christians do fail. One thinks of the scriptural example of John Mark leaving the work, the argument Paul and Barnabas subsequently had over him, and how their argument became so heated they had a ministry split. Remember, God wrote over half the New Testament through Paul, or those affiliated with him (Luke). Near the end of his life, Paul stated that Mark was indeed of value, and Mark ended up writing the Gospel of Mark.
What is being pursued? Even after times of failure, are people seeking to follow and obey Christ, for the Holy Spirit to continue to change them? That is what matters. Admittedly, those are long-term questions that cannot be answered after a couple, or a few, weeks.
In the next post, we will look at a specific issue raised by critics.
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