Jack Levison says in his
recent book Fresh Air: “I am one of
those Christians who has one foot in the mainline Protestant church, and one in
Pentecostalism, more or less…I am a sympathetic outsider to Pentecostalism and
a Methodist insider who craves a direct and dramatic experience of the holy spirit…The
holy spirit, that is God’s mystical, practical, expansive, unbridled presence
in the world…is in every breath we take, in social transformation, in
community, in hostile situations and in serious learning…I have noticed that
the Hebrew word for Spirit ruach, (spirit-breath),
occurs nearly 400 times in the Old Testament alone (Fresh Air, Jack Levison, Paraclete Press, pp. 3, 4, 5, 6).
Levison’s work has some good
insights in his exposition of Old Testament ruach
references. Yet, as he describes the spirit-breath in the New Testament, he
shows a surprising lack of understanding of the Holy Spirit as a part of the
Trinity, and the one who comes into believers with gifts and character
transformation – for individuals and communities. His presupposition is that the
spirit of God is in all people at birth. He frames the charismatic understanding of the
sign gifts negatively – in part because he and his pastor wife were part of an
“otherwise healthy church that…split…Some people in the church had attended a
lay meeting and begun to speak in tongues. They came back energized, enlivened,
perhaps too much so, and met a wall of resistance. What followed? Distrust. Dismissal. Disdain.
Some left. Others of those who had experienced this charismatic renewal
remained, and remained, in the eyes of many of the traditionalists a thorn in
their side. This spirit has spawned schisms rather than harmony and the
dividing line was not the person of Jesus or the character of God. The battle
had been fought over whether the Holy Spirit inspires spontaneity or a sober
spirituality” (pp.
196, 197).
Although Levison says he does
embrace both traditional and charismatic understandings of Holy Spirit, he consistently
emphases learning over ecstasy (re: tongues and the Antioch church) and derides
literature on the Spirit that focuses on the Spirit as the source of “a rich
spiritual life, the spring of a vibrant prayer life, the power of a lovely
church life, the sources of a life of intense but not always friendly
discussion about Jesus with unbelievers,…what he calls “personal fulfillment on
steroids” (pp.
180, 88). Levison emphasizes, instead, the
spirit’s purpose to “drive believers into persecution and martyrdom” (p. 182). His caution is well taken but his negative understanding
of the Spirit’s gifts, as well as the omission of the Holy Spirit as part of
the Godhead does grave injustice to a New Testament understanding and
experience of the Spirit in the early church and now. Not recommended. - Dr. M.L. Codman-Wilson 2/14/14
Excerpts that illustrate his understanding of the
spirit:
In the book of Job “despite Elihu’s claim to inspiration, a quick read of his advice to
Job tells us how uninspired Elihu is, how clumsily he wields the blunt edge axe
of advice. These are not words of the spirit-breath of God, given at birth as a
long life source of wisdom, the spring of virtue for all people…We have much to
learn from Elihu’s mistake. Too often, I think, we associate the presence of
the spirit of God with a feeling. Even a physical sensation. From something as
simple as goose bumps to falling on the floor and twitching. Too often we
attribute to the holy spirit our inability to shut up, pulled by the compulsion
to offer our own two cents” (pp. 49, 51).
“The spirit of God, the Excellent Spirit in Daniel, does nothing. The spirit transforms no one, baptizes
no one, teaches no one, overwhelms no one, inspires no one to speak in tongues.
The spirit [in Daniel] is simply a deep, resonant, rich pool of wisdom,
knowledge and insight that permeates the character of this young man over the
course of three generations and two empires…The spirit-breath within Daniel is
rooted in a wholehearted faithfulness to a simple life…God’s breath is more
than just physical life, it is God’s breath, God’s spirit-breath. Ruach in everyone born of a mother” (pp. 56, 60). “From
Daniel’s story the lesson is clear: the spirit breath of God pulses in people
who opt for simplicity and humility rather than ambition and acquisition,
people who choose simple veggies over lavish meals and fine wines…The spirit-breath
in Daniel is a source of sheer wisdom, the reservoir of understanding, the
spring of knowledge…Tend God’s spirit-breath with ever increasing care by
living simply and by studying hard so that the spirit-breath may be a
sustainable source of wisdom” (p.62, 65, 67).
“The Corinthians
had traded the transformation of the holy spirit for something that let them be
merely human…by quarreling, by indulging in jealousy…What a candle snuffing way
to believe…The Corinthians…understood the holy spirit as the pocket- sized
presence of God. Paul urges them to understand that God’s spirit does not dwell
in the midst of pockets in the church. Its presence cannot be sequestered among
cliques with a peculiar claim to superior wisdom, or the best pastor or the
most striking spiritual gifts” (pp. 122-123, 128). “The Corinthians were splintered, fractured
by rival claims to leadership, and the use of what they called spiritual gifts
– teaching healing, generosity – to generate hierarchies, based on whichever
gifts were thought to be best. The Corinthians lacked a hunger for holiness
and, instead, allowed reprehensible moral lapses to fester before their very
eyes…The Corinthians, with their flair for speaking in tongues, their obsession
with an experience that entailed an unproductive mind, failed to cherish the
truth…We ought to be careful not to allow the autonomy of the individual to
reduce the scope of the holy spirit which fills temples with life and holiness.
Neglect of this dimension of the spirit breathes a Christianity of personal
preference, a dangerous preference for certain leaders. And the result of this
take on the holy spirit is schisms…reprehensible divisions in the church”
(pp. 134, 137).
“The
gentle descent of the holy spirit (on Jesus at his baptism) turns on a dime
when the spirit drives Jesus out into the wilderness…Drives is an explosive
verb. The holy spirit drives Jesus out in the same way that God drove out Eve
and Adam from Eden (Gen.3:24), in the same way that Jesus would drive out demons in
the days ahead (Mark
1:34,39)…This was a violent force of the
spirit. In any number of popular books on the Holy Spirit you’ll be told that
the Holy Spirit is the source of power: power to work miracles, power to bring
joy, power to preach well. All of this is true. Just not here…the Holy Spirit
exercises the power to drive Jesus out into the battlefield of Satan…where
Jesus can learn that God, embodying the promises of Psalm 91, commands angels and
animals alike to serve him…Not in the peaceful confines of a visionary
experience but in the hostile wilderness, locking horns with the
personification of evil, would Jesus learn of God’s ability to care for him” (pp. 173-174, 176-177) “The lesson is so clear…the Holy Spirit is not just
the giver of the fruits of the spirit… or the gifts of the spirit… or the power
of the spirit…The Holy Spirit also drives us out with tremendous force…in the
presence of our enemies” (p. 178).
“Jesus singles out only one
context in which the spirit is available to the disciples. Jesus promises the
holy spirit exclusively to people in mission who are handed over, against their
will, to official councils, who are about to be punished through official
channels, who are dragged before high government officials. Then and only then,
will the spirit speak for them and in them” (pp. 179-180). “The
spirit will speak a word of testimony to the nations. The Greek word for testimony
is martyrion…The spirit speaks for testimony and not for relief, for the spread
of the gospel and not for succor and support” (p. 182).
At Pentecost
when the spirit came in a mighty wind, the disciples spoke in tongues (ecstasy)
in order “to communicate the work of God with complete and utter clarity…The
purpose of ecstasy is to communicate a clear and comprehensible word that
recounts God’s praiseworthy acts…The Gentile Pentecost (at Cornelius’ house),
like its Pentecostal predecessor in Jerusalem, combines comprehensible praise
with the mystery of speaking in tongues. Again, there is no ecstasy for
ecstasy’s sake. Ecstasy produces a particular message: the inspired recitation
of God’s praiseworthy acts” (pp. 192-193). “Paul does not discredit nor discount ecstasy. But “in
a list of spiritual gifts, Paul refers first to wisdom and knowledge and last
to speaking in tongues. And their interpretation…Today’s Christians have not
inherited the magnanimity of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians or the expansiveness
of the book of Acts” (pp. 199, 203).
In Antioch the early church was vibrant because there was “a love for learning
(the leaders included prophets and teachers)...they had created an
environment for prophecy by embracing the right practices – worship, fasting
and prayer” (p. 152,
156). “Where there is prophecy, there
must be a discernment process to know if the prophetic word is true. The Antioch Christians were regular
responders to prophetic words, such as the one Agabus delivered about the
famine in Jerusalem. So after receiving a word about Saul and Barnabas they
went back for more fasting and prayer…Put all these virtues together- a thirst
for leaning, extreme generosity, an ear for prophecy and the practices of
worship, fasting and prayer – and you have the makings of a remarkable
community in which the holy spirit can speak a word that sets mission in
motion…This church was a conduit of the grace of God" (p.160, 164).
"Throughout the New Testament, the holy spirit anchors an understanding of Jesus to the Scriptures of Israel. The spirit's primary vocation, its principal task, in fact, is to illuminate the person of Jesus by setting his words and actions in the context of Israel's peotry, stories and prophecies...My hope is deeply rooted in the early Christian belief that the Holy Spirit sheds light on the life of Jesus through the study of Israel's scriptures” (pp. 210, 212).