Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit? (pt. 1)

I started reading Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit? this week. It is a collection of essays on the work of the Holy Spirit from a cessationist perspective that explores a middle ground between an overly rational and cold faith that "locks the Spirit in the pages of Scripture" and the excesses found in some charismatic circles.

The first essay in the book is an address given by Dr. Daniel B. Wallace at the 1994 Evangelical Theological Society's regional meeting titled "The Uneasy Conscience of a Non-Charismatic Evangelical". My first exposure to Dr. Wallace came in Jack Fish's second-year Greek class (where we used his excellent book Greek Grammar beyond the Basics). Shortly after my time at Emmaus I discovered the very helpful bible.org site and read this thought-provoking essay. It seems that the eleven theses put forth from Wallace in that address have provided some of the impetus and background for this volume.

I'm not going to waste time recounting the story (which you can read for yourself), but the gist is this: in the midst of extreme trial and difficulty, Wallace found his normal means of relating to God (through exegesis and Bible Study) to provide insufficient comfort and strength to cope. In his own words:

In the midst of this "summer from hell," I began to examine what had become of my faith. I found a longing to get closer to God, but found myself unable to do so through my normal means: exegesis, scripture reading, more exegesis. I believe that I had depersonalized God so much that when I really needed him I didn't know how to relate. I longed for him, but found many community-wide restrictions in my cessationist environment. I found a suffocation of the Spirit in my evangelical tradition as well as in my own heart.

As a response to this longing, he set out to wrestle with what he called "practial issues of pneumatology" and put forth eleven theses or questions relating to the Holy Spirit's work in the lives of present-day believers. I find myself resonating with several of these. In particular, Wallace cautions that an overemphasis on knowledge can produce in us a "biblioloatry". In other words, we can become so enamored with Scripture that God becomes a mere object of our study. The Bible points us to God, but we should not let it become a substitute for Him. I think this can be a temptation for anyone who spends time at a Bible college or studying from an academic perspective. We need to let the Spirit apply God's word to our hearts as well as our minds. But if our study becomes a purely academic pursuit this dimension will be lacking.

I am looking forward to reading, thinking, and writing about the remaining essays in this book. My prayer is that God would use them to draw me closer to Himself and increase my love and appreciation for His constant working in my life.