Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians - Way of Life Literature

An Unscriptural Emphasis on MiraclesShortly aer Wimber became a Christian, he became avoracious Bible reader. e Scriptures excited him. Finally,aer weeks of reading about life-transforming miracles in theBible and attending boring church services, John asked one ofthe lay leaders, “When do we get to do the stuff?”“What stuff?” asked the leader. “You know, the stuff here inthe Bible,” said John. “You know, like stuff Jesus did--raisingpeople from the dead, healing the blind and the paralyzed.You know, that stuff.”“Well, we don’t do that anymore,” the man said.“You don’t? Well what do you do?” asked John.“What we did this morning,” replied the man.In frustration, John responded: “For that I gave up drugs?”Wimber should have heeded Jesus’ warning in Matthew16:4, “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh aer asign,” but his itch for “doing the stuff” only intensified as hegrew older, even though he was never successful at it.Wimber taught an influential course on “Signs, Wonders, andChurch Growth” at Fuller Seminary in the early 1980s.Later he traveled to many parts of the world with his “signsand wonders” crusades, promoting his doctrine that theChristian life and ministry should be accompanied byexperiential miracles to be authentic and that miraclesproduce faith and make evangelism effective. In his popularbooks Power Evangelism and Power Healing, Wimberpromoted this thinking: “Clearly the early Christians had anopenness to the power of the Spirit, which resulted in signsand wonders and church growth. If we want to be like theearly church, we too need to open to the Holy Spirit’spower” (Wimber, Power Evangelism, p. 31).In reality, kingdom power and the manifestation of the sonsof God in glory will be enjoyed when Christ returns, and wewho live in this present world must patiently wait for thoseevents . Romans 8:23-25 is very clear about this. Timothy was403