Caroline
Puritan Board Sophomore
It's been a while since I visited Puritanboard (other responsibilities having taken over for a while), but my husband and I were wondering if anyone else had dealt with something like this and had any advice to offer ...
My husband's father is suffering from terminal lung cancer. His family is wildly Charismatic, and thus there has been all kinds of prayer for healing (which we have no problem with) and naming and claiming (which we DO have a problem with) and the ol' Satan's-trying-to-get-him-but-we're-not-gonna-let-that-happen nonsense.
My husband's father has now completed about 2/3 of his chemotherapy, and he had a scan which showed that the tumors are diminished (note: diminished, not gone). The family immediately began whooping it up and saying God had healed him. And stuff like, "The doctors said nobody recovers from this, but the Spirit is showing those doctors what's what!" And so on.
For my husband, this is just agonizing, because he cannot say anything about it or ask how his father is doing without them getting really offended and saying that he doesn't have faith. He is the 'backslider' who became a Presbyterian, you see (under my evil influence).
This feels like a hostage situation. We are afraid to say much of anything, and they are loud and bold and going around shouting slogans in every direction. "We've got the victory!" etc. And I am afraid that anything that I say will get shouted down because I don't have the Spirit. (In fact, I'm the worst kind--someone who spoke in tongues and then renounced it, and I didn't even do so quietly). But what they are doing is so disrespectful to my husband while his father is dying. I want to say something, but in my experience, Charismatics only get louder if you try to stop them.
What do you do about things like this?
Edited to add: for those of you unfamiliar with Pentecostalism/Charismaticism--the references to backsliding, etc, are only representing their views. My husband was at no time a real apostate. But anyone who leaves the 'Spirit-filled' realm for those 'dead churches' (their terminology) is 'backslidden' and some would say that we blasphemed the Holy Spirit. My husband's father is a former Reformed minister who now has a website against Calvinism, and so he wasn't thrilled when we became Reformed. He hoped at first we were only going to try to get Reformed people to see the light: "Well, maybe you can minister to them."
I replied, "Maybe they can minister to us." I was desperate for spiritual understanding, and I had no illusions that I was any fountain of spiritual knowledge.
But that was five years ago now. But that raises another question: Should one try to talk to a former Reformed minister about his soul?
My husband's father is suffering from terminal lung cancer. His family is wildly Charismatic, and thus there has been all kinds of prayer for healing (which we have no problem with) and naming and claiming (which we DO have a problem with) and the ol' Satan's-trying-to-get-him-but-we're-not-gonna-let-that-happen nonsense.
My husband's father has now completed about 2/3 of his chemotherapy, and he had a scan which showed that the tumors are diminished (note: diminished, not gone). The family immediately began whooping it up and saying God had healed him. And stuff like, "The doctors said nobody recovers from this, but the Spirit is showing those doctors what's what!" And so on.
For my husband, this is just agonizing, because he cannot say anything about it or ask how his father is doing without them getting really offended and saying that he doesn't have faith. He is the 'backslider' who became a Presbyterian, you see (under my evil influence).
This feels like a hostage situation. We are afraid to say much of anything, and they are loud and bold and going around shouting slogans in every direction. "We've got the victory!" etc. And I am afraid that anything that I say will get shouted down because I don't have the Spirit. (In fact, I'm the worst kind--someone who spoke in tongues and then renounced it, and I didn't even do so quietly). But what they are doing is so disrespectful to my husband while his father is dying. I want to say something, but in my experience, Charismatics only get louder if you try to stop them.
What do you do about things like this?
Edited to add: for those of you unfamiliar with Pentecostalism/Charismaticism--the references to backsliding, etc, are only representing their views. My husband was at no time a real apostate. But anyone who leaves the 'Spirit-filled' realm for those 'dead churches' (their terminology) is 'backslidden' and some would say that we blasphemed the Holy Spirit. My husband's father is a former Reformed minister who now has a website against Calvinism, and so he wasn't thrilled when we became Reformed. He hoped at first we were only going to try to get Reformed people to see the light: "Well, maybe you can minister to them."
I replied, "Maybe they can minister to us." I was desperate for spiritual understanding, and I had no illusions that I was any fountain of spiritual knowledge.
But that was five years ago now. But that raises another question: Should one try to talk to a former Reformed minister about his soul?
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