All posts by Micael Grenholm

Writer, speaker and charismactivist residing in Örebro, Sweden. Doctoral student of church history. Love revival, peace, justice and evangelism.
Economic Justice, Spirituality

Signs, Wonders and Social Justice

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You know what’s awesome? Miracles! You know what’s also awesome? Social justice! Let’s combine the two, like Jesus did. The Spiritual gifts that God has equipped His church with are supposed to be used to serve others (1 Peter 4:10), and obviously our activism for a more equal and just world will be even more effective when the Holy Spirit empowers us with supernatural abilities. A couple of years ago, I held a lecture on this idea of charismactivism:

It’s obvious that miracles and social justice go hand-in-hand in the Holy Scriptures: the Old Testament prophets exercised many miraculous gifts while promoting the rights of the poor and marginalised (see for example the book of Amos); Jesus healed the sick and cast out demons right before His famous Sermon on the Mount about social ethics (Mt 5); and as the apostolic church was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues they eradicated the gap between rich and poor through community of goods (Acts 2).

In the lecture, I go through these and other relevant Bible passages, as well as sharing testimonies from people today who combine miracles and social justice, like Simon Adahl and Heidi Baker. I also bring up and criticize theologians and philosophers who deny the existence of miracles (or at least its presence in the life of the ordinary believer), like David Hume, Rudolf Bultmann and John MacArthur. Enjoy the video!

ska%cc%88rmavbild-2017-01-06-kl-21-17-02Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

Spirituality

Greg Boyd on the Existence of Demons

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Greg Boyd combines apologetics, Anabaptism and charismatic spirituality in a very interesting way. He is both famous for advocating nonviolence as well as open theism and the reliability of the New Testament. Two years ago, he held a sermon on the demonic, acknowledging that many Westeners have trouble believing in the existence of such creatures. And yet, not only does the Bible tell Greg that they do exist, but he himself has actually encountered some!

In this video, Boyd shares how two girls once manifested demonic activity after he had rebuked satan at a church meeting. One of them grabbed him with surprising strength, rolled her left eye counter-clockwise three times and tossed him away from her. Thankfully, both of the girls were delivered and joined the church. Continue reading Greg Boyd on the Existence of Demons →

Economic Justice, Spirituality

Shane Claiborne on His “Charismatic DNA” and When He Ministered With Bill Johnson

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Shane Claiborne’s Red Letter Revival in Lynchburg, Virginia, was a success. Not only did it gather 300 people celebrating Jesus and justice, but it also caught a lot of media attention thanks to Jerry Falwell Jr’s Liberty University.

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The letter sent to Shane Claiborne (click to enlarge)

Shane had asked Falwell Jr., who is a passionate Trump supporter, if he could come and pray at the University. Rather than receiving a respectful “no”, he was sent a letter from the Liberty University Police Department telling him that he would be put in jail and/or fined 2,500 dollars if he just showed up at the University grounds. The threat was similar to the one Pentecostal speaker and author Jonathan Martin received in November when he tried to organize a prayer there.

It’s ironic, to say the least, that a Christian University will arrest and prosecute those who pray – I’m telling you, pray – at their campus. It’s also ironic that Falwell Jr. killed the campus newspaper story about the Claiborne incident while claiming that free speech is a core value of his school.

If you haven’t already, you should check out the comments Claiborne made on Trump and American idolatry in an interview with us. In this post, I want to share some of the other things he said in that interview regarding miracles, revival, and Bethel Church pastor Bill Johnson.

I asked him if he thinks that it’s possible that God can help us in our social justice campaigning by doing miracles? Continue reading Shane Claiborne on His “Charismatic DNA” and When He Ministered With Bill Johnson →

Interviews, Politics, Spirituality

Shane Claiborne: Trump is the Result of American Idolatry

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This weekend, activist theologian Shane Claiborne and his friends at Red Letter Christians will arrange a Red Letter Revival in Lynchburg, Virginia. That’s right, the town where Liberty University, the world’s biggest Christian university whose president Jerry Falwell Jr. is a passionate Trump supporter.

The Revival will be themed “Jesus and Justice” and include sermons, worship and workshops on how to fight Trumpism by going back to the Sermon on the Mount. I got the chance to speak with Shane Claiborne on this historic event.

– The reason we do the Lynchburg Revival is that Christianity and Republicanism have been fused together, Shane Claiborne says. They have become almost indistinguishable from each other. When you have the First Baptist Church in Dallas singing ”Make America Great Again” as if it was a hymn in worship, when the American flag is bigger than the cross, what happens is that you begin to see a discrepancy between the values of America and the values inherent to the Gospel. Continue reading Shane Claiborne: Trump is the Result of American Idolatry →

Politics, Spirituality

Article in Washington Post on Pentecostal-Charismatic Trump Support

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Yesterday, PCPJ’s director Erica Ramirez and professor Leah Payne were published in the Washington Post as they explained the Pentecostal-charismatic support for Donald Trump.

They note that while several evangelical Trump supporters were initially skeptical to the candidate, Pentecostals and charismatics who support him did so early on. They identify five reasons why American P&Cs might have had an easier time accepting Trump as a great president compared to other Christians:

  1. Pentecostal-Charismatic celebrity culture
  2. Prosperity teaching
  3. Lowbrow know-how (anti-institutionalism)
  4. Zionism
  5. Monarchy Theology

We really recommend you to read the article in its entirety at Washington Post. Below is an excerpt from the last point, on how Trump is viewed as a divinely appointed monarch:

When Pentecostal-Charismatic advisers to Trump talk about their role in this divine drama, it is as godly intercessors on the president’s behalf.

From this vantage point, it hardly matters whether Trump behaves morally, won the popular vote or even colluded with Russia. Trump is not just a leader selected by the people: he is an intervention — God’s anointed, divinely elevated ruler. Actually, the sheer unlikeliness of Trump’s win fits the Pentecostal-Charismatic imagination for miraculous intervention, and moves Trump far above the reach of critique.

When viewed through the prism of Pentecostal-Charismatic tastes and theologies, the enthusiastic support among the faithful for Donald Trump becomes clear — to them, he’s God’s anointed king.

ska%cc%88rmavbild-2017-01-06-kl-21-17-02Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

Gender Equality

Heidi Baker on Gender Equality in the Church

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Heidi Baker, founder and CEO of Iris Global – a missionary organization based in Mozambique – has inspired thousands of Christian women to aspire for leadership positions and reach their full potential. In this video from God TV, she explains some of the reasons we should embrace gender equality in the church. Who honestly thinks their daughter cannot change the world, or that a donkey would be more worthy of sharing God’s word than a woman?

What is the best argument for gender equality according to you?

Nonviolence

It’s Impossible to Both Love and Kill Our Enemies

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Jesus told us to love our enemies (Mt 5:44). This has been the cornerstone of Christian pacifist theology; whether you look at the early church, or the Anabaptists or the early Pentecostals, they all agreed on that loving enemies is incompatible with killing them, and hence they refused to wage wars or use violence against other human beings.

For this reason, the Christian non-pacifist has to argue for one of the following positions:

  1. Killing is an act of love towards the one you kill.
  2. We should not follow Jesus’ command to love enemies when we decide to kill people.

There are serious problems with both of these ideas. Let’s start with the first one. Continue reading It’s Impossible to Both Love and Kill Our Enemies →

Spirituality

Charismatics Have A Hope the World Doesn’t Have

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lucy peppiattLucy Peppiatt, principal at Westminster Theological Centre, has written an excellent piece on why all Christians should be charismatic and why the risk of “charismania” shouldn’t put us off from seeking the gifts of the Spirit. One of the reasons she gives relates strongly to what I call charismactivism, the fact that Spiritual gifts ought to promote peace, justice and a better world:

I think that most of us feel overwhelmed by the world’s problems. It’s enough to deal with our own and our family’s problems let alone terrorism, unemployment, war, addiction, crime, disease, homelessness, abuse, etc. etc. I’m always astonished and deeply moved by how resilient human beings are in the face of horror, and this seems regardless of whether they have a faith or not. Sometimes humans are just extraordinarily strong. All Christians should carry a hope that good will triumph over evil in the end, because that is the promise of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection.

Continue reading Charismatics Have A Hope the World Doesn’t Have →

Economic Justice, Gender Equality, Spirituality

The Indian Women’s Rights Activist Who Became a Pentecostal Before Azusa

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Ramabai on an Indian post stamp
Ramabai on an Indian post stamp

One of my favourite Pentecostal saints of all times is Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922), Indian activist, evangelist and holy roller. Over a hundred years before Malala she campaigned for women’s right to education, and she was extremely active in helping the poor and discriminated.

Born in a Brahmite family in what is now the state of Karnataka, she started to study at an early age and learned Sanskrit along with sacred Hinduist texts, astronomy, physiology and more. This was controversial since she lacked a penis, but her father encouraged her as she learned more and more about society, religion and activism.

In 1883 she went to England and taught Sanskrit at an Anglican monastery in Wantage. There she was saved. “I realized,” she later wrote, “after reading the fourth chapter of St. John’s Gospel, that Christ was truly the Divine Saviour he claimed to be, and no one but He could transform and uplift the downtrodden women of India.”

Continue reading The Indian Women’s Rights Activist Who Became a Pentecostal Before Azusa →

History, Nonviolence

Free E-Book on Early Christian Pacifism

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Hopefully, you’ve already discovered our resource pages filled with free articles, book recommendations, and links to other great ministries and podcasts. We’ve just added our first free e-book on the Books section: The Early Christian Attitude to War by Cecil John Cadoux.

Published almost 100 years ago in 1919, Cadoux did the first – and many argue still the best – comprehensive review of basically everything early Christian leaders and church fathers said regarding war, violence, soldiers and peace. His conclusion is that most of them were pacifists, and that the strong Christian commitment to nonviolence was overturned by the Constantinian influence in the fourth century.

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Cecil John Cadoux (1883-1947)

It’s amazing to see how Cadoux debunks arguments still used today by non-pacifist Christians, for example the idea that Tertullian only became a pacifist after he joined the “heretic” Montanist movement, or that Origen supported Christians becoming soldiers even though he wrote:

“You cannot demand military service of Christians any more than you can of priests. We do not go forth as soldiers.” (Against Celsus VIII.7.3)

Cadoux’ book is a well-worth read if you want to understand how the earliest Christians interpreted the Sermon on the Mount. Also, it’s very interesting to see that when Christians abandoned pacifism in the fourth century, the charismatic gifts and ministries also faded. The Holy Spirit clearly doesn’t like when God’s children start killing others.

ska%cc%88rmavbild-2017-01-06-kl-21-17-02Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!