Purpose of Strange Fire The Lord calls His people to honor Him, to treat Him as holy. Leviticus 10 pictures the consequences of not doing so—of offering to Him strange fire… For the last hundred years, the charismatic movement has been offering a strange fire of sorts to the third Person of the Godhead—the Holy Spirit. And evangelical churches have chosen to be silent or indifferent on the matter. This hasn’t served the church or the Spirit of the church with honor... Strange Fire is a conference that will set forth what the Bible really says about the Holy Spirit, and how that squares with the charismatic movement. We’re going to address in a biblical, straightforward manner what many today see as a peripheral issue. On the contrary, your view of the Holy Spirit influences your relationship with God, your personal holiness, and your commitment to the church and evangelism.

Cessationism God no longer gives believers today the miraculous gifts, like tongues, prophecy, and healing, like he did to the apostles (and a few others) during the first century of the church.

Contiunationism God continues to give believers today the miraculous gifts, like tongues, prophecy, and healing, like he did to the apostles (and a few others) during the first century of the church.

Open But Cautious They are open to the possibility that these gifts continue to exist, but skeptical of much of what they see in the modern Charismatic & Pentecostal movements & are unsure of the nature & purpose of the gifts today.

Thomas Goodwin “Our worship is sometimes with the Father and then with the Son, and then with the Spirit. Sometimes the believer’s heart is drawn out to consider the Father’s love in choosing, and then the love of the Son in redeeming. And sometimes His heart is drawn to the love of the Holy Spirit that searches the deep things of God and reveals them to us.” … “We should never be satisfied with our worship until all three persons lie level in us and we sit in the middle of them while they all manifest their love to us.

Tom Pennington

Exodus 6:28-7:2 On the day when the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, the LORD said to Moses, "I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you." But Moses said to the LORD, "Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?" And the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land.

Exodus 4:15-16 You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.

Deuteronomy 18:15-18 "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers--it is to him you shall listen-- just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' And the LORD said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

Exodus 4:15-16 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back."

John 10:37-38 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

Acts 14:3 So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

Hebrews 2:3-4 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Ephesians 2:19-21 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

Hebrews 1:1-2 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

Hebrews 2:1-4 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Conrad Mbewe There is no doubt that south of the Sahara desert the charismatic movement has flooded the African continent. You can’t miss it. North of the Sahara you have the Islamic north. But the moment you cross that desert, you soon begin to see that this is what has become the most visible form of “Evangelicalism,” and I use quotes deliberately. The phrase “born again” seems to be equated with that form of Christianity…

Conrad Mbewe … This has come through public address systems, radio, TV, and free literature shipped across the Atlantic—largely from your shores—containing the kind of heresies that have become common diet in the health and wealth charismatic movement. That’s been shipped across over a number of decades. And more recently through broadcasting networks such as TBN, this has become the staple diet of many of God’s people over on our end.

Conrad Mbewe My question is: Why are Evangelicals on the African continent silent about this? I think it’s simply because this movement is practicing what many Evangelicals claim. And it is this: that the extraordinary revelatory gifts are still operational today. The moment you open that door a little bit, where do you stop? Where?