Josiah Batton writes………
The issue of John MacArthurβs recent Strange Fire Conference (and forthcoming book) is all the rage in the Evangelical blogosphere right now. Truth be told, Iβm impressed by the attention the whole thing is drawing. If you know anything about MacArthur you know he is a cessationist, and that he has promoted cessationism publicly for quite some time.
I gather the issue is not MacArthurβs cessationism, which is well-known. The issue is that MacArthur has thrown down the theological gauntlet. Heβs not merely saying continuationism is wrong, heβs saying itβs wrong and dangerous. While I was not at the conference, reports I read had MacArthur likening Charismatics to Mormonism, saying that Evangelicals will challenge 14 million Mormons, but are silent in the face of half a billion Charismatics. This is inflammatory, perhaps even reckless, speech.
But as you may have gathered from the title, Iβm not writing this post to point out MacArthurβs errors or where I disagree with him (though such disagreements do exist). That Iβm writing in general support of Strange Fire implies I have particular differences with the conference and some of its themes. This post is about my support of the conference, not my differences with it.
You might be curious about how I, as a Pentecostal pastor, could possibly support any conference that fundamentally challenges the theological foundation of my movement and condemns many of its practices. My reasons are simple: Read the rest of the article here …. http://questiontradition.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/a-pentecostal-in-general-support-of-the-strange-fire-conference/
A Call To The Remnant 