Convergence: Spiritual Journeys of a Charismatic Calvinist (2005)
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***IMPORTANT*** "Convergence" is NOT available for purchase outside the United States and Canada. Kingsway Publications in England has exclusive rights to all sales throughout the world, excluding the U.S. and Canada. Kingsway plans on releasing “Convergence” late in the spring of 2006. We apologize to those residing outside the U.S. and Canada for any inconvenience this may cause.
There’s no escaping the fact that a serious, and occasionally vitriolic, breach exists between Word-based evangelical cessationists and their more experientially oriented charismatic cousins.
“Many of my friends and colleagues over the years,” writes Sam Storms, “have questioned my wisdom, if not my sanity, in seeking to live and minister in both worlds. Some . . . have insisted, often zealously, that people who speak in tongues rarely engage in serious theological reflection. They’ve tried to convince me that people who pray expectantly for miraculous healings are inclined to minimize the importance of Greek exegesis. Quite a few have suggested that my being a Calvinist is inconsistent with belief in the spiritual gift of prophecy.”
Others “fear that my unflinching affirmation of the sovereignty of God will either kill my evangelistic zeal or undermine any sense of urgency in prayer, or perhaps both. They are often suspicious of my emphasis on the mind and the critical importance of history and tradition. Although few have said it openly, I can sense their uneasiness with my persistent and meticulous habit of subjecting all claims of supernatural phenomena to the test of Scripture. Beneath it is the worry that excessive devotion to biblical precision will either breed dogmatic arrogance or quench the Spirit or, again, both.”
Can anything be done about the mistrust, caricature, and often denunciatory recriminations that pass between these two evangelical groups? Is it too much to hope and labor and pray for a convergence of Word and Spirit, of mind and affection, of principle and passion? Convergence: Spiritual Journeys of a Charismatic Calvinist was written to answer those troubling questions.
Yes, it is controversial! One doesn’t often hear of someone defending the centrality of Scripture and the sovereignty of God, on the one hand, and the importance of the spiritual gift of prophecy and the affections of the heart, on the other. Sam unashamedly embraces both and demonstrates from Scripture and his own spiritual journey how their convergence is essential for Christian living today.
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