Pentecostalism’s low view of the Holy Spirit

Posted on 31/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

In previous posts I’ve covered ground already trodden by many others in pointing out the dangers to individuals and churches of doctrines of Holy Spirit baptism and spiritual gifts that cannot be sustained from Scripture. I’ve also done a few posts (like this one) on how the theology of revival deeply associated with Pentecostalism, which has become the entire “evangelical” model, can actually pitch us against revival happening in other ways, through the Sovereign Lord’s wisdom and power. But today I want to make the claim that the Pentecostal/Charismatic “reclamation of the Holy Spirit” has paradoxically promoted a very low and limited understanding of the the third Person of the Trinity.

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A personal example of error disguised by truth

Posted on 29/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

In my reply to Steve’s comment on my most recent post, I explain why I’m concerned about the doctrinal errors of even moderate Charismatics. Essentially, my point is that Satan uses apparently small deviations to corrupt entire churches, because contrary to the Hypercharismatics’ advice to “eat the meat and spit out the bones,” discernment is a gift that many immature believers, and not a few mature ones, do not possess.

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And talking of le meme chose…

Posted on 27/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

Back on the Charismatic theology wagon, a podcast I did with John Collins of Leaving the Message is now out on YouTube, and seems to have mainly positive feedback so far. It’s here. I’m actually recording a follow-up in January, so we’ll see what that’s all about when we get there.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 4 Comments

C’est chaque fois la même chose

Posted on 26/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

It was a writer on COVID, which one I’ve forgotten, who recently pointed us to this 1898 book by the great Alfred Russel Wallace (co-discoverer, with Charles Darwin, if you’ve forgotten, of the theory of evolution by natural selection, though he was far better than Darwin in realising its limitations). So I’m reinforcing that modern writer’s application to the present here, rather than discovering anything new myself.

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Nativity edification

Posted on 22/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

I anticipate our church’s annual Nativity Service with the trepidation probably shared by anybody not having angelic, or at least haloed, children in the church, and undoubtedly less anxiety than those adults roped in to dress up in tea-towels for the grown-up lines. But this year’s, yesterday, was actually an uplifting surprise.

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One more on Whitehall carols

Posted on 20/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

The Church Times’s downbeat report of the evangelistic carol service in Whitehall last Saturday, to which I’ve addressed the last two posts, quotes “the C of E’s co-lead bishop for racial justice, suffragan Bishop of Kirkstall Arun Arora”:

Referring to Mr Robinson by his real name, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, Bishop Arora said that he was “delighted” that he had “recently come to faith in prison”, but suggested that “having embraced and accepted God’s welcome he can’t now restrict it from others who may be equally lost.

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Post-christians and post-post-christians

Posted on 17/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

And so on my return from a family gathering last Saturday, I flicked through the YouTube footage of the Whitehall Carol Concert, as organised by Tommy Robinson, real name unknown to all but himself since his conversion in prison (see Revelation 2:17).

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Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 2 Comments

Strange bedfellows

Posted on 07/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

In a comment on my most recent post reader Steve links to a reply to an open letter apparently signed by the entire religious Establishment of Britain, condemning “Christian nationalism” in the form of the spontaneous expressions of Christian faith at the Tommy Robinson rally a couple of months ago. Since my blog mentions the forthcoming mass carol concert in London, also organised by Robinson’s people, it’s worthy of further comment.

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Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 3 Comments

The wrong kind of revival

Posted on 02/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

Twenty-two years ago I came to the conclusion that the perennial Evangelical (and Pentecostal) hunger for revival is, in effect, an attempt to put God in a box shaped like the First Great Awakening under Wesley, Whitefield and Edwards two centuries ago. In fact, in my view, this was a unique work of God for a particular time and circumstance, and not a biblical template for the renewal of Christianity. Indeed, like every work of God in history, it was in large part a psycho-social, as well as a spiritual, phenomenon, which was both a good thing and a bad thing in God’s providence.

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Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology | 2 Comments

Was Einstein wrong?

Posted on 30/11/2025 by Jon Garvey

Every once in a while, some sciencey YouTuber posts a video about a new scientific discovery that casts doubt on Einstein’s theory of relativity. I’ve no idea whether any of these have validity, but instead I want to ask whether scientific progress has refuted his view of God – that is to say his theology rather than his relativity.

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Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology, Theology of nature | Leave a comment