A BOOK REVIEW OF SHOWING THE SPIRIT: A THEOLOGICAL EXPOSITION OF 1 CORINTHIANS 12-14 BY ARNOLD DALLIMORE Aaron P. Swain Wake Forest, NC March 2, 2013
D.A. Carson, Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12-14, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987) 229 pages. D.A. Carson earned a Ph.D. from Cambridge University and serves as Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. Carson is a New Testament scholar and has written multiple commentaries and theological works, such as the Matthew volume in the Expositors Bible Commentary series, Exegetical Fallacies, and his culturally engaging works like Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church and Christ and Culture Revisited. Carson previously served as a pastor in several local churches. Carson's book Showing the Spirit is a theological exposition of 1 Corinthians 12-14, as the subtitle indicates. In this book Carson seeks to make sense of the widespread confusion surrounding the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He pays particular attention to the "miraculous gifts" such as prophecy, tongues, and miracles, though as a Continuationist he does not prefer to subdivide the gifts of the Spirit into different categories. Because the Charismatic movement is so increasingly widespread, Carson notes that understanding what the Scripture says about these issues is important, especially since proponents on all sides of the issue seem to retreat to reductionistic understandings of the issue (11). Showing the Spirit did not begin as a book, but instead began as a series of lectures delivered at the Moore College in 1985. Only after those lectures did Carson format them into book form. Carson's exegesis leads him to argue for a humble and careful charismatic position which seeks to avoid the extremes of both sides of the argument. This book is divided into five chapters. The first chapter, dealing with 1 Corinthians 12:1-30, addresses The Unity of the Body and the Diversity of Gifts. Before diving into the verse-by-verse commentary, Carson sketches out the situation and background in Corinth. Included in the many disputes in this church was that of the miraculous gifts. One faction was pro-miraculous gift; the other was not. The "charismatics" (though Carson does not prefer that term) were elevating the significance of their gifts to an exclusive and unhealthy level
and wanted Paul's approval, and the non-charismatics wanted Paul to rebuke their opponents (26). And in chapters 12-14, Paul addresses both of these factions. In order to shed light onto this debate, Carson begins by commenting on the nature and diversity of the spiritual gifts. Carson reminds us that every Christian is a charismatic because all are given spiritual gifts by the grace of God (21). He says that understanding the spiritual gifts in this way should really "flatten" the modern distinctions between "charismatics" and "non-charismatics"(34). The point here is that charismatics and non-charismatics really have more in common than perhaps they want to believe. Carson concedes that Paul does mention the gift of tongues last in his list of gifts, but disagrees that this necessarily indicates that speaking in tongues is the "least" of the spiritual gifts. His understanding is that Paul lists this gift last in order to give the overzealous tongue speakers in Corinth a humility check (36). That there is a diversity of spiritual gifts which every believer is given is an important fact since the believers in the local church together constitute a single, unified body. Carson points to Paul s use of the Greek word gar ("for") to make this logical connection. Instead of the diversity of gifts being a reason for disunity, they should be the basis for unity. After all, all of the gifts are intended to edify all of the body. It is here in this section that Carson rejects the idea of a second experience of baptism of the Spirit apart from the initial reception of the Spirit at conversion. The Corinthian church as a whole (even the non-charismatics) had been baptized into the Spirit. Or, as Carson puts it, "All Christians have been baptized into one Spirit; all Christians have been baptized into one body" (47). Carson insists that if the modern Charismatics would forsake the idea of second-blessing theology, then the gap between them and the modern non-charismatics would shrink significantly (50). The second chapter is entitled The Most Excellent Way; or, When Does Perfection Come? and deals with 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13. Carson spends a significant portion of this chapter exploring two different interpretations regarding the meaning of the phrase "eagerly desire the greater gifts." One
interpretation views zelote as an indicative statement. In this view, Paul is making an accusatory statement towards the Corinthians, namely, that they are guilty of pursuing what they consider the best (greater) gifts. Carson ultimately rejects this view after naming multiple difficulties and discrepancies that arise. Instead, Carson favors the interpretation that takes zelote as a command. He says, "The opening adversative of 12:31 is rather mild: not all prophesy, speak in tongues, and so on (12:30), but you must easily desire the greater gifts." Thus, the command is to desire the greater gifts. However, the greater gifts to be desired are not necessarily the so-called "miraculous," but something else not yet defined by Paul. Paul then transitions to discussing the more excellent way, which he says is a life characterized by love. Love is the answer to the Corinthian disputes. Love is that which will continue into the eschaton, not the spiritual gifts. Chapter 3 is entitled Prophecy and Tongues: Pursuing What is Better. Carson defends the view that tongues are real, legitimate cognitive languages, even if they are sometimes difficult to understand or interpret (83). As he describes the gifts of apostles, prophets, and teachers mentioned in 1 Cor. 12:18, he comes to a few interesting conclusions. In agreement with Wayne Grudem, Carson argues that the New Testament apostles were the equivalent of the Old Testament prophets, and that New Testament prophets were inferior in their authority to apostles (88-90). He also agrees with Paul that prophecy is superior to tongues because it has immediate benefits for the church whereas tongues are most likely intended for private prayer. Furthermore, tongues are profitable only if an interpreter is available in a corporate setting (104-105). Cognition and intelligibility are important in Carson s understanding of the miraculous gifts. He concludes, Whatever the place for profound, personal experience and corporate emotional experience, the assembled church is a place for intelligibility (106). Chapter 4 deals with the Order and Authority that governs the use of the charismata, particularly in the context of the local church. As far as tongues are concerned, there are three
restrictions. First, there must be an interpreter present second, only one tongues-speaker may speak at a time; and third, only two or at the most three may speak (118-119). Regarding prophets, Carson discusses who should evaluate and weight any prophecy given. His answer is that it is the role of the congregation, not just other prophets, that have the ultimate job of weighing the truthfulness of a prophecy. The only exception here is that women are to be silent in the churches in regards to weighing prophecy (122). Thus, women are permitted to prophesy (since it is not equivalent to Old Testament prophecy), but could not participate in the weighing of that prophecy, because it would be an exercise of teaching or authority (130). Carson concludes, I suspect there is biblical warrant for thinking that there were aspects of corporate worship characterized by a great deal of spontaneity, Spirit-led sharing, mutual edification (136). He exhorts churches to consider making room for that same kind of spontaneity and participation today. Unleashed Power and the Constraints of Discipline: Toward a Theology of Spiritual Gifts is the fifth chapter. Here Carson provides a potpourri of thoughts and summary remarks revolving around the miraculous gifts in general. Concerning tongues, Carson reiterates his thought that tongues were cognitive, human languages. Even so, he suggests that a widespread Pentecostal experience is not normative for the life of the church and rejects the idea that these tongues had an evangelistic purpose (142). Arguing for continuationism, Carson says though tongues are tied to the inception of the messianic age, that it does not follow that Luke expects them to cease once the period of inception has passed and the new age is under way, for the manifestations of the Spirit are tied to the Spirit, to the new age, fulfilling Old Testament prophecy, and not merely to their inception (155). Carson admits that miraculous gifts were used for the purpose of attestation of Jesus and the apostles, but denies that it was the only purpose of the gifts. Thus, that Jesus is no longer here and the apostles are no longer functioning does not necessarily mean that the miraculous gifts would have ceased as well (156). Finally, Carson argues that though the exercise of miraculous gifts has been scattered throughout
Church history, that there is certainly enough to argue for a consistent continuance of the gifts, especially the gift of prophecy (168). ANALYSIS Perhaps the most obvious benefit of this book is that Carson, who argues for the continuationist s position, does so in such a way that the soft cessationist or the open-but-cautious proponent would find appealing. Carson avoids the emotionalism, triumphalism, and overconfident anecdotal evidence that accompanies most continuationists writings. One gets the idea quickly that Carson is less concerned with pushing a particular theological position than he is making the best sense of out the Corinthian text. But more specifically, one of Carson s strongest arguments comes in his discussion on 1 Corinthians 13, regarding the passing of the partial at the time of the parousia. It is there that his argument that the Scriptures testify that the spiritual gifts continue throughout the church age seems to solidify most clearly and convincingly. Even more so, Carson argues that the exercising of these miraculous gifts are actually indicative of the church being between the times or, as he says it, being in the not yet (75). Furthermore, Carson s point that the New Testament prophet was significantly different than the Old Testament prophet is also helpful. Carson took careful time to wade through the definitions of each miraculous gift as it appeared in the text. And as he did so, he noted that in the New Testament prophet was actually less authoritative than New Testament teachers a point to which most cessationists would object (91-95)! Even so, there were a few points in Carson s writings that were hard to swallow. One example is found on the discussion of the intelligibility of tongues. There, Carson hypothesizes about the possibility of tongues being communicated in some sort of secret code, absent of vowels (84-86). He does this, I believe, to perhaps legitimize the unintelligible tongues that are common in some Charismatic circles
while still maintaining that they are legitimate, cognitive languages. The discussion seemed forced and unnatural. CONCLUSION Showing the Spirit was a helpful book. Carson, writing as a humble and precise exegete, has really contributed positively to the on-going discussion of the miraculous gifts. He has been successful in moving the conversation away from the second-experience Charismatics and towards a more responsible portion of evangelicalism. And even though the book fails to connect all of the biblicaltheological dots that I had hoped it would, it is still a must-read for one working through the text of 1 Corinthians 12-14.