Position

The whole church and every member must live in close fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ so that believers' lives, individually and communally, may always show the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Christ, through his Spirit, sovereignly distributes his gifts to the body of believers when and where he wills, and he empowers the members of the church in every age with whatever gifts he judges necessary for the building up of his body. Individual congregations should provide within their communal fellowship for the free exercise of all genuine gifts of the Spirit, so long as all things are done for edification and in good order, and they should provide full opportunity for kingdom service in ministries appropriate to the gifts received by their members.

The churches should be alert to the many errors and excesses involved in the exercise of claimed "charismatic" gifts, such as tongue speaking, faith healing, and exorcism. The churches should accept in love and patience those members who claim to have been baptized with the Holy Spirit as a "second blessing" distinct from and received after conversion and should deal firmly with them in a pastoral way to correct them in their belief. According to biblical teaching, a believer receives baptism in or with the Holy Spirit at the time of conversion.

Those involved in neo-Pentecostalism are urged to remember that all believers have received the Holy Spirit and that all religious experience is to be judged by God's written Word, through which the church must discern the leading of the Spirit. Furthermore, gifts of the Spirit must be confirmed by the presence of fruit of the Spirit and must be used for the good of the whole body of Christ.

Church members who believe the second-blessing teaching are disqualified from holding office, but not everyone who claims to have certain charismatic experiences is by that fact alone disqualified. The Spirit-filled church must judge what gifts of the Spirit may or should be employed in the exercise of the offices.

History

Because of the influence of neo-Pentecostalism on the CRC and its officebearers and especially in response to two overtures in 1971 and the denial of candidacy to a seminarian in 1970, Synod 1971 appointed a committee to study the teachings and practices associated with this movement in the light of biblical teaching on the Holy Spirit. Synod 1973 adopted several statements that are summarized in the position stated above. At the same time that synod acknowledged a painful lack of assurance of salvation and a lack of overt displays of joy and power among the members of the CRC, it also firmly rejected some teachings and practices of the neo-Pentecostal movement, including the second blessing of baptism by the Holy Spirit. Synod 1974 adopted guidelines for officebearers in regard to this subject.

References

Acts of Synod 1970, p. 12
Acts of Synod 1971, pp. 97-98, 102, 147, 642, 671
Acts of Synod 1972, pp. 31-32, 112, 485
Acts of Synod 1973, pp. 71-79, 398-493, 745-46
Acts of Synod 1974, pp. 31, 623-25