Quotable

[F]ormer Quaker and rock guitarist John Wimber, founder of the...Vineyard ministries...openly advocates a “paradigm shift” away from thinking with Western logic into the exclusively experiential way of oriental thinking....He also claims that “first century Semites did not argue from a premise to a conclusion; they were not controlled by rationalism.” (John Wimber, Power Evangelism, Hodder & Stoughton, 1985, 74).

This is a highly erroneous and mischievous statement. Not only is it historically inaccurate but it...denigrates logic...[and] epitomizes the considerable confusion in the Charismatic Movement in its failure to identify the difference between (unhealthy) rationalism, whereby the miraculous is denied and the supernatural work of the Spirit is blasphemed, and (wholesome) rationality, whereby the Christian exercises necessary discernment....

The ultimate first century Semite was surely the Lord Jesus Christ; yet He continually used the most devastating logic to demolish His opponents....

Never before has a “sound mind” been so necessary in the life of the Church. To substitute mysticism for rationalism is the spiritual equivalent of moving...into a black hole.

—Alan Morrison, The Serpent and the Cross