Robin,

Nowadays, I'm an Internet lurker, but what you've written is sufficient to stir me to momentary online action.

As a long-time ExCharisma subscriber (going back to when it was named X-Charisma), I am glad to read that you are not willing to hold yourself responsible for the falling away of those unnamed former ExCharisma subscribers. You are unequivocally 100% right to count yourself innocent of any such charge. Scripture is plain: it is absolutely impossible for any man, angel, or demon to cause one of God's Elect to fall away. Nay, every true adopted son or daughter of God is so held and sustained by the gracious power of God that (s)he cannot possibly be snatched away from His Hand. Although a true child of God can indeed backslide temporarily and even look and act very much (for a season) like a child of Satan, he will inevitably be restored to repentance. Therefore, if anyone claims that they left the faith because of you, me, or any other professing Christian, they are flat wrong. If they really, truly left the faith, they were never in the faith to begin with! Moreover, anyone whose "faith" was so tenuous as to teeter on the brink of apostasy, or even fall into it, because of this or that incident in the history of an Internet support group has revealed that their faith was in no way directed in a proper way. If I put my faith in a man or a creation of man--whether a handmade image, Internet support group, or religious organization--I will sooner or later find myself spiritually shipwrecked. If my faith is in this or that church, ExCharisma, Robin, Tom, Dick, or Harry, instead of in Christ, I will sooner or later show myself to be no child of God.

As I've followed ExCharisma over the years, I think Robin's purpose has been exceedingly plain: to steer folks who have become disillusioned by the often idolatrous faith of charismaticism to a solid Reformed, Scripture-based faith. What some missed, I fear, was that it's not good enough to learn how to cross and dot all your Reformed "t's" and "i's". Any "faith" in Reformed theology that fails to grasp that the very center of that theology is Christ is just as much idol worship as the Charismatic's common misplaced emphasis on the Holy Spirit above Christ. You've just traded your faith in a false Holy Spirit for a faith in a Christless Calvinism, and a Christless Calvinism is no Calvinism at all!

So just what does the would-be ex-charismatic need to do? In a nutshell, put away his idols and cleave to Christ alone. In doing so, he'll need to cultivate a right knowledge of Christ. He'll do so by becoming acquainted with solid Scriptural theology. As ex-Charismatics like Robin and me have learned, the brand of theology that's truest to Scripture and most honoring to Christ is Reformed theology. Reformed theology is indeed intellectually satisfying, but if this great system of theology fails to draw you to Christ you've missed the whole point: you'll be a "good Calvinist" but a terrible Christian.

Besides a solid theological foundation, the ex-Charismatic needs to place himself under the ministry of a reasonably solid Gospel-preaching church. ExCharisma, the Highway, etc., are no substitutes for the local church. To rely upon Internet or non-Internet parachurch ministries in place of the local church is a grave error. Local churches are, of course, made up of sinners. Robin's experience with his PCA church is a sad reminder of this fact. The local church will sometimes drive us to despair, but yet God's plan is clearly to gather His Elect into local churches. Robin is doing the right thing by seeking out another local church to replace the one he'd been forced to leave. Although it will take time for some victims of grievous spiritual error to work up the courage to give the local church another chance, to find and join another church is a duty that cannot be postponed indefinitely.

Although I am saddened to hear of the former ExCharisma members who have turned away from Christ, I cannot grant that they can in any way blame Robin or ExCharisma for their apostasy, and neither will God. In the final judgment, God will hold each individual personally responsible if they refused to repent and trust Christ alone. Thus, if anyone left the faith "because of ExCharisma" and never returns to Christ, he will have proven that he had in fact never truly trusted Christ to begin with.

Dave U.