I was once a cessationist. Back in junior high, I had joined a Southern Baptist congregation, and the pastor there taught us from the old Scofield Study Bible that speaking in tongues was not for today, that it had passed away, so if anyone is speaking in tongues today, they are doing so by the power of the devil!
Then I got involved in a coffeehouse ministry. I was now in high school. I loved Jesus, and I was happy to find a place where I could hang out with other kids who loved Jesus, and we wanted to tell other kids about Him. One of those kids said something that made me take another at tongues. After some study, I discovered a connection between tongues and Jesus! So, I became a Charismatic and started speaking in tongues.
Back in those days, the pro-tongues position was called "restorationism," that is, that God was restoring tongues and the other gifts of the Holy Spirit. But, non-Pentcostals / Charismatics also believed in a form of restorationism that started with the Protestant Reformation. In recent years, the term "continuationsm" has taken over, as Pentecostals and Charismatics now say the gifts have always been available.
One factor that confounds the issue is the use of the phrase, "move of God" to refer to a new push or surge of activity in Pentecostal / Charismatic circles. Are they truly moves of God, or something else?
I can't say for sure about this, I can only give my view based on what I have learned. And I like to look at things from different angles than everyone else.
A while back, I began to wonder about reform movements before Luther. I knew his was not the first, just the first to have a major impact that lasted.
I learned of the Waldensians, the Lollards, and the Hussites. These were definite precursors to Luther because they sought to bring understanding of the Bible directly to the people.
Were they moves of God? That is, did He start those movements? Or, did a hunger for God spark them?
I believe that people had seen that Christianity had changed from a vibrant faith in it's earliest centuries into an institution that was riddled with superstition, ritualism, and corruption. They wanted to recover what was lost.
Considering those movements along with those that followed, I would now call myself a recoverist. That is, I believe the Body of Christ has been trying to recover what has been lost since it's early days.
Of course, Satan does not like this. When God's people seek Him, Satan wants to derail those efforts. He tries to draw our attention away from God and His Word to our own emotions, our own experiences, to his lies, to 'hidden knowledge,' all under the guise of spiritual growth. Men without honorable intentions will also seek to exploit the good intentions of believers for their own greed. That is why we see so much false doctrine, so many false prophetic words and faked healings and miracles, ministers falling into sin, and their followers trapped in abusive cults.
But all is not lost. The posers are being exposed. People are escaping cults, and recovering from the emotional damage.
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