* Dr. John Hannah /September 1, 1993



Prayer: Our Father, we gather as your children, to adore you, to praise

you, to ascribe, our Father, the affection of our heart, that you are

mighty and that you are good. We thank you for the day that you called

us out of darkness into light . . . . we anticipate, our Father,

collectively, the day that you will return and reign . . . . of whom the

Scriptures say we love having not seen . . . we want to labor for you .

. . as we study the Charismatic movements, that you will give some

insights, help us to lay aside our criticalness if we have it.....



* September 3, 1993



Prayer: Our Father in heaven, we gather today to worship and adore you,

we give our time to you, and say to you our Father that we love you, we

appreciate the gift of your Son to us, we appreciate the day that you

opened our eyes to him, and by your great power you have delivered us

out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of your dear Son, we are

very thankful. We thank you our Father for the prospect of a weekend to

enjoy, and we pray that it'd be good, that we be able to lay aside

diversions.. to relax and enjoy the good things you give us.. we thank

you for your mercy to us, and pray that as we think together for a few

moments, about this course, that you give us some insights; we give our

hearts to you, and we pray to you our Father, that we love you, and we

love your son, whom you have given to us, in whose name we pray, Amen.



One thing that seems clear to me that has happened is that

Pentecostal/Charismatic churches are really growing up, I don't mean

that they weren't grown up before, but they are becoming a major major

tradition.. and I think that this is seen in their literary production..

and they're beginning to put out scholars in their own camps.. [re:

Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements] this dictionary

addresses any questions you have that you'd want answered by a partisan,

which is better, and we don't have anything to fear from partisans.. my

prejudice has been that I have taken material from their camp, I'm not

very persuaded by the flame-throwing of a John MacArthur, as much as I

might appreciate his view and admire his tenacity, I'd rather just read

it and see if it is true.



The issue isn't really did the gifts continue.. if we trust the [church]

fathers for a variety of things when they go our way, why can't we trust

them when they don't, unless there is some massive contrary evidence

that would persuade us that we shouldn't? One rule of thumb is that the

people that are closest to the phenomena always have better insights.

Then it seems to me that the gifts indeed did die out in the church,

that in the first century, when the church is born, it looked nothing

like the church today. There was no resident clergy... they were

itinerants.. hustling teachers.. there was no idea of a canon.. the rule

of a prophet was that if they stayed more than three days, he was a

false prophet.. the rule was if he asked for money, he was a false

prophet.. so the early church did not depend on a residential ministry.