A Charismatic Response to “The Growing Crisis Behind Brazil’s Evangelical Success Story”
Julio Severo addresses misconceptions and missed targets on article by Brazilian Presbyterian theologian
By Julio Severo
In his The Gospel Coalition blog,
Brazilian Calvinist theologian Augustus Nicodemus Gomes Lopes said, “When Paulo
Romeiro wrote ‘Evangelicals in Crisis’ in the mid-1990s, a book that has
remained a bestseller among Brazilian evangelicals, he addressed just one of
the many ways in which evangelicalism had collapsed in Brazil, namely, its
inability to halt the spread of prosperity theology.” (Link: http://archive.is/hjNXb)
Even though Theology of Integral
Mission is a problem predominating among Brazilian Calvinists, Nicodemus
focuses nominally only on the Prosperity Theology, which is loosely followed by
neo-Pentecostal (neo-charismatic) churches.
In the simplest terms, Theology of
Integral Mission, which is embraced by theologians and leaders mostly from
wealthy Reformed churches, is an approach leaders employ to teach the poor to
look to the State as a provider for their material needs. In contrast,
Prosperity Theology is loosely followed and practiced in Brazilian
neo-Pentecostal churches, where the poor are taught to look after God as a
provider for their material and spiritual needs.
Basically, both theologies came
from the United States. In the 1950s, Rev. Richard Schaull, an strong adherent
of the Social Gospel and later a Princeton professor, taught in the largest
seminary of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil — the same denomination of Nicodemus.
Neo-Pentecostal churches began to
appear in Brazil especially in the late 1970s, when Brazilian evangelical
audiences were largely under the influence of televangelists Pat Robertson and
Rex Humbard and their famous shows in Brazil “The 700 Club” and “You Are
Loved.” Further, many were converted to Christ through these shows.
By the mid-1980s, Protestant
leaders, including Rev. Caio Fábio, were worried that the Prosperity Theology
taught in neo-Pentecostal churches was weakening the advance of the Theology of
Integral Mission throughout the Brazilian Church. You can find more information
in my free e-book here: http://bit.ly/15AJmMC
Caio Fabio, who was the most
prominent leader in the Presbyterian Church of Brazil, eventually fell from
grace over serious sexual and financial scandals in the late 1990s, after his
sordid assistance to former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and
his socialist Workers’ Party in drawing evangelical Christians.
The main enemies of
neo-Pentecostalism and its Prosperity Theology have been leftist Protestants.
Though not a leftist, Augustus Nicodemus finds it easier to attack nominally
Prosperity Theology than the Theology of Integral Mission. When he was Chancellor
of the Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo, Brazil, he admitted
theology professors who were adherents of the Theology of Integral Mission, but
no Prosperity Theology adherent was admitted.
Why has neo-Pentecostalism, not the
Marxist Theology of Integral Mission, been his main bone of contention? Because
of his theology, which has been in particular conflict with the vast
evangelical majority in Brazil. Nicodemus is the leading cessationist voice in
Brazil. Cessationism preaches that prophecy and other supernatural gifts of the
Holy Spirit ceased 2,000 years ago.
He has had a hard time
understanding how Pentecostal, charismatic and neo-Pentecostal churches have
experienced such phenomenal growth. Nicodemus says: “According to the latest official
census, evangelicals represent almost one-quarter of the total population of
Brazil (22.5 percent). This is phenomenal growth, seeing that just 40 years ago
they were only 2.5 percent.”
Pentecostals
24,810,921 (31%)
Charismatics
33,970,683 (42%)
Neocharismatics
21,168,395 (26%)
Total
Renewal: 79,949,999
According to the Portuguese
Wikipedia, the Presbyterian denomination of Nicodemus in Brazil has 980,000
members. This figure does not mean that all Brazilian Presbyterians are
cessationists. Many of them are charismatics.
His cessationism brings another
problem: if current prophecy and other supernatural gifts among Brazilian
Christians are not from God, who is provoking Pentecostal, charismatic and
neo-Pentecostal growth in Brazil? Who is performing miracles among them? Satan?
Brazil is the largest
spiritualistic nation in the world. Witchcraft, especially from African origin,
is rampant. The clash between the dark powers of these occult religions and
Pentecostal, charismatic and neo-Pentecostal churches and their spiritual gifts
has resulted in massive conversions to Christ.
As a cessationist, Nicodemus
prefers denial and he sees many problems in the explosive Pentecostal,
charismatic and neo-Pentecostal growth. He said, “How did evangelicalism reach
this point of success and concurrent crisis in Brazil? Reformation theology and
practice has never been fully known or adopted in our country, even among the
Reformed churches.” So the evangelical crisis in Brazil stems from the fact
that they have not, as he said, “known the doctrines of the Reformation in
their fullness and power.”
Nicodemus also said, “By disdaining
centuries of tradition and theological interpretation, evangelicals found
themselves vulnerable to any new interpretation, such as open theism, theology
of prosperity, a new perspective on Paul, and so on.” No mention about the most
important threat to the Reformed churches in Brazil, namely, Liberation
Theology and its Protestant counterpart Theology of Integral Mission.
The leading advocate of the
Theology of Integral Mission in Brazil is Rev. Ariovaldo Ramos, minister of the
Reformed Christian Church. Recently, he praised Hugo Chavez as a hero for the
weak and poor. His prominent leftist activities have gone unchallenged by
Nicodemus and other Reformed leaders.
At best, Ramos has been silent
about attempts by the Brazilian socialist government to legalize abortion and
pass PLC 122, a bill criminalizing Bible criticism of homosexual acts. He
supported the election of this government. In
contrast, Marco Feliciano, a congressman and
Assembly of God minister, has been outspoken against abortion and PLC 122.
Feliciano also supported the
election of this government. But when a clash between values and government
came, he chose values. Because of his public moral stances, he has been
consistently attacked by the secular and religious Left, including Ramos.
In a darker
contrast, Nicodemus is a member of ANAJURE, a Christian group in Brazil created to defend
Christians and their civil rights, whose president has issued a public
statement against Feliciano. Also, in 2010, after gay
activists protested a public manifesto against PLC 122 posted on the website of
his university, Nicodemus ordered its removal, bowing to gay demands.
Apparently, nothing of this has
been a concern for him.
As a cessationist, he is worried
only about Pentecostals, especially because of their lack of theological
direction. Even among neo-Pentecostal churches practicing Prosperity Theology,
the diversity of interpretations and practices is gigantic. For example, the
most aggressive neo-Pentecostal denomination in Brazil, Universal Church of the
Kingdom of God (UCKG), is cessationist, believes in miracles only by positive
confession and prayer and rejects prophecy and other supernatural gifts of the
Holy Spirit for today. UCKG preaches that manifestations of these gifts today
are demonic — a stance not differing from the stance of their cessationist
Reformed counterparts. UCKG founder Bishop Edir Macedo has been an outspoken
abortion supporter. But in these two points — cessationism and abortion — UCKG
has been an exception among neo-Pentecostal churches in Brazil.
There is an explanation for these
immense differences. According to “The New International Dictionary of
Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements”: “The diversity of global pentecostalism
makes it impossible to speak of ‘a’ pentecostal theology, especially since a
full-blown theology of the Christian faith from a classical pentecostal
perspective has not yet been written.” This is especially true in Brazil.
Because he thinks basically in
theological terms, Nicodemus probably sees little hope for such theology-less
churches. In fact, for him this is a “crisis.” He said, “There is no easy way
out of this crisis. However, there are some encouraging signs of change that I
cannot leave unmentioned. One of them is the surprising growth of Reformed
faith among Pentecostals. There are innumerable examples of Pentecostal pastors
turning to the Reformed interpretation of the Scriptures. Sometimes even entire
Pentecostal churches have undergone this change. I quote here an e-mail I
received some weeks ago from a former Pentecostal pastor: Your book Spiritual Worship [first published in 1998 and now in
its 5th edition] made our whole church stop speaking in tongues and changed our
whole liturgy. We even had to change the sign on our building from ‘Assembly of
God’ to ‘Reformed Church.’”
Here is the Brazilian reality:
Millions of lost souls are perishing. Spiritualism is widespread. Liberation
Theology is rampant in the Catholic Church. Theology of Integral Mission is
rampant in Reformed churches. And a Reformed theologian is interested on
churches leaving charismatic experiences and becoming Reformed?
This is a very frivolous and
irresponsible concern.
For decades, Theology of Integral
Mission — not to mention free Mansory — has been a major problem among Reformed
churches, and Nicodemus’ major worry is growth of Pentecostal, charismatic and
neo-Pentecostal churches?
Recently, my blog exposed
Nicodemus’ cessationism, and one of his fans commented that if the concern of
Christians opposed to cessationism is healing, vision and prophecy, they should
visit spiritualist temples to see all of this. So the false doctrine of
Nicodemus and other Reformed theologians has inevitably led their followers to
see just “spiritualism” in the Pentecostal, charismatic and neo-Pentecostal
churches in Brazil.
This is a gross misrepresentation
not only of God’s power, but also of His essential role in the phenomenal
growth of the Brazilian Evangelical Church.
Why would you live in France if you
disliked French? Would you try to convert French-speaking people into
Portuguese-speaking people? Brazil is not France, but its evangelical
population is massively Pentecostal, and Nicodemus wants to convert them to Reformed
and, hopefully, to cessationists.
The prospect of Pentecostal
churches turning into Reformed churches entails Reformed pitfalls.
Yes, Reformed contact could be
helpful to Pentecostals in Brazil, but first Reformed leaders need to renounce,
denounce and fight the Theology of Integral Mission prevalent among them.
Otherwise, greater Reformed contact for Pentecostals will only bring more of
the same crisis and confusion that started to defile Pentecostal, charismatic
and neo-Pentecostal churches in the late 1990s by the literature and
conferences of Caio Fábio, Ariovaldo Ramos and other Reformed leftist leaders
advocating the Protestant counterpart of Liberation Theology.
Among Reformed (Presbyterian,
Calvinist) churches, the defilement began in the 1950s! There is a liberal
crisis plaguing Reformed churches in Brazil, but Nicodemus and other
theologically trained leaders refuse to tackle it directly. Brazil is a cradle
of Liberation Theology. Even so, Nicodemus never mentioned it in his article
designed to point out only the crisis over Pentecostalism.
In the 1990s, I attended a
Presbyterian church, of the same denomination as Nicodemus. They were greatly
concerned about Prosperity Theology. To protect themselves, all the local
Presbyterian churches encouraged collective subscriptions by their members to
Ultimato magazine — the foremost Brazilian Presbyterian voice for the Theology
of Integral Mission.
For years I have denounced Ultimato
— which have consistently attacked conservatives. But Nicodemus and his
cessationist comrades have never denounced it the way they denounce
neo-Pentecostals.
There is a Reformed crisis in
Europe and America, where mainline denominations are ordaining gay ministers
and leading anti-Israel boycotts. Liberalism crept in largely unopposed, and
the result is widespread apostasy. And since its beginning in Brazil, the
Theology of Integral Mission movement has had prominent Reformed leaders.
“Caminhada Presbiteriana pela
Cidadania” has partnered with spiritualists and Afro-Brazilian religions. Its
leader, Rev. Marcos Amaral, has publicly expressed his wish for a long life for
Hugo Chavez and a stroke for Marco Feliciano, because the Pentecostal minister
has been hated by secular and Protestant leftists over his conservative stances
on abortion and homosexuality. In fact, Rev. Amaral has even joined prominent
secular leftist Brazilians to protest against Feliciano. Nicodemus has an
article blasting March for Jesus, but no article against the Presbyterian march
led by Rev. Amaral.
Pentecostals do need help,
especially because they are under heavy attack from leftist secularists and
Calvinists. Yet, are Reformed leaders really the correct and complete answer?
What about cessationist blindness
and the Theology of Integral Mission?
Is there deliverance from these Reformed pitfalls in Brazil? Yes — to
be filled with the power and knowledge of the Holy Spirit.
Portuguese
version of this article: Uma
Resposta Carismática à “Crise Crescente por Trás da História de Sucesso
Evangélico do Brasil”
Spanish
version of this article: Una Respuesta Carismática a la “Creciente Crisis por detrás de la Historia del Éxito Evangélico en Brasil”
German
version of this article: Eine charismatische Antwort auf ‚Die wachsende Krise hinter Brasiliens evangelikaler Erfolgsstory‘
Reviewed by Don Hank.
Recommended
Reading:
i certainly dont approve of either liberation theology or Prosperity theology. both are false, the true gospel was preached by David wilkerson whose gone now to be with the Lord.
ReplyDeleteWonder if anyone who reads my blog ever clicked ur link, added u to my list of favorite blogs. most of my readers arent Christian though and are liberal