Charisma Magazine has a great interview with Gordon fee who is in my mind one of the worlds leading Bible Scholars.
He says;
For the most part, though, Pentecostals remain resistant to—or indifferent toward—theology and scholarship. After all, modern Pentecostalism was birthed in spiritual experience, not intellectualism. As the movement spread, Pentecostals simply didn’t see a need for theological pursuits. “We don’t need scholars; we just need the Holy Spirit!” has been the mainstream Pentecostal cry for the last 100 years.
In answering the question if Pentecostalism needed Bible scholars, he replied. The question we need to ask is if we will embrace Bible Scholars.
In the article he gives a stinging rebuke to any prosperity gospel and health movement teaching
Another area of contention for Fee is the prosperity gospel, or what he calls “health and wealth” teachings. His book The Disease of the Health and Wealth Gospels is a blistering rebuke of prosperity and perfect health teachings, which he claims have no basis in Scripture. What he describes as the “false gospel” of health and wealth has caused “immense damage” to the charismatic movement, he says.
He continues
Twisting certain scriptural passages to fit their theology, proponents of health and wealth are “guilty of selectivity,” Fee says, and then they “avoid … texts that stand squarely in opposition to their teaching.”
He highlights 3 John 2 as a key example: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (KJV). Fee says prosperity teachers interpret this verse as saying, in effect: “We should prosper and be in good health.”
He contends, however, that the Greek word translated as “prosper” in the King James Version means “to go well with someone.” The equivalent of it today would be if someone wrote: “I pray this letter finds you all well.”
Finally on a brighter note; he speaks about the place of women in ministry. Here he affirms their place by saying
“It’s a given,” he says. “The real question is, Which comes first, gender or gifting? What [opponents of women in ministry] are trying to tell me is that gender comes above gifting. How can that be? The Spirit gives the gifting. If a woman stands and prophesies by the Spirit, and men are present, does the Spirit not speak to them? Come on! How dumb can you get?”
I like Fee… should ones commitment as a Christian be first to ones denomination beliefs or should it be as he says…firmly committed to the Bible’s teaching?
Read more: http://charismamag.com/index.php/news/29379-a-professor-with-spirit#ixzz16QzSXCui
Trinitarian Dance 