The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Are Charismatics Christians?

Yes, I see your point, however, there are many that consider him Charismatic as well (Piper and Grudem accept MLJ as a "C."). Several Reformed individuals I know will not read him because of this very fact. Thus, I chose not to challenge Tom's statement (Martyn Lloyd-Jones could be called a Charismatic, though I may challenge this later depending on context...) as it may very well be correct depending on one’s definition of Charismatic.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a cessationist, however, he did teach the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as a distinct experience to conversion. But, he came out very strongly against the Warfield kind of cessationism. He deals with the cessationist arguments and decides that they are based on conjectures and arguments from silence in order to justify a particular prejudice. He states emphatically, "To hold such a view," he says, "is simply to quench the Spirit" (see Piper's sermon below). In addition, MLJ spoke of “Seeking the Baptism of the Holy Spirit,” but this is not the same as speaking in tongues.... He looked at this as happening after regeneration. As matter a fact in his book Joy Unspeakable he states, “The Spirit does give experiences. I have tried to show that there is no experience possible to the Christian in this world higher than this experience of the baptism with the Spirit.” While I do believe MLJ was much more balanced than many I see today, none-the-less, he held to a second work of the Holy Spirit. This second work is consistent with what some would consider a Charismatic doctrine (but again it depends on one's definition of "C"). In addition, MLJ said such things as:

MLJ also spoke out against what many Charismatics do as well; including tongues as seen today. An interesting, sermon on MLJ is A Passion for Christ-Exalting Power, by John Piper.