I had a wonderful time the last four days teaching at the West Coast Chinese Christian Fellowship. The theme verse was 2 Timothy 4:1, "Preach the word in season and out of season." Most of my focus in the three plenary sessions was on being faithful to preach the word. A couple of things occurred to me as I was teaching on this passage that have to do with this "new movement of the Holy Spirit."

Many of you know about the so-called Toronto Blessing which has--I'm happy to say--just recently been disowned by the Vineyard Fellowship. But many think this may be the Holy Spirit. How can we say it isn't? After all, God can do anything He wants, right?

I answer that yes, God can do anything He wants. But something is amiss here. I am troubled that the burden of proof about these manifestations is always shifted to the naysayer, to the doubter, to the skeptic, to the one who is uncertain. Even though there are bizarre things going on, the attitude has been that unless you can prove this is not of God, you are obliged to go along with it.

While at the conference, I had a tearful conferee who confided in me, deeply grieved by what was going on in her church. She saw not only the division between those who approved and those who did not approve of these manifestations. She also saw that people who were otherwise sound and vital in their Christian life who had been providing useful services to the Body of Christ being marginalized and discouraged from being involved in ministry because they were not participating in this new "blessing." They were being made to feel they were not good enough anymore. They were not really filled with the Spirit. Instead, they were actually opposing God. One by one they had dropped out of Christian service.

More and more the people who continued to serve God were the people who embraced the new blessing. This wasn't because the blessing empowered them in some special way that made them excel above the rest. It was because the others were intimidated. They felt they weren't good enough because obviously they were not in tune with the latest working of the Holy Spirit.

Those who promote this movement are quick to say, "Of course this is of God. Look at the fruit." What is the fruit they speak of? People get excited, they laugh, they bark like animals, they growl, they roar, and they have a new infusion of joy. They allegedly have a deeper experience with Christ. Their lives are allegedly changed. This is the evidence that God is deeply involved in this new blessing. Test it by the fruit, they say.

Let me tell you a secret. That which looks like good fruit is always the first thing to manifest itself. It's easy to demonstrate an emotional reaction to something and call that good fruit. It's easy to go to a service, get all worked up, and say, "I feel great," and call that good fruit. The critical test is what fruit remains. A week, a month, a year later one wonders whether there is this deepened Christian life because they have been out there barking, or laughing, or whatever it is that your latest evangelical-joy-toy-Holy-Spirit-blessing happens to be.

Bad fruit is almost never obvious in the beginning. My friend at the conference told me that as time went on in her church, she saw the division, the discouragement, the people dropping away. She saw the high-minded, super-spiritual attitudes of the participants.

I said to her, "This is also fruit, but this fruit isn't immediately obvious. It shows up later, but it's the fruit that has a deeper and more long-lasting impact." The rotten fruit you don't see right away, yet it cuts deep into the health of the local church.

So even if you were to simply "judge by the fruit," there is as much bad fruit as good that's present here: arrogance, high-mindedness, super-spirituality, discouragement, and disqualification from service. So-called ordinary Christians who are not caught up in this thing, who are a little bit skeptical, who are trying to be discerning, find themselves on the bottom rung of the spiritual ladder--or off the ladder all together--second class spiritual citizens.

Let me put the matter in a different light, and I'll state it bluntly. Even if the Holy Spirit is in this, so what?

Let me tell you why I can say that, and why I feel completely safe before the Lord in uttering such a thing

In 2 Timothy, Paul's last letter, Paul was passing the baton to Timothy. His repeated challenge to Timothy was to guard the truth, to retain the standard. Timothy was to guard it and continue in the things Paul had begun.

Paul identifies a couple of problems that Timothy should be prepared for. Paul writes, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths" (2 Tim. 4:3-4).

Timothy, Paul says, the time will come when radical, weird things will happen in the church. Is the Toronto Blessing one of them? Maybe, maybe not. But my point here is I don't have to answer that question. Paul is telling Timothy that the time will come when people will turn away. Now, what was he to do when that time came? Paul has already given him the answer in chapter three.

He starts by saying, "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2 Tim. 3:1-4).

Well, that time has come. And Paul gives Timothy the antidote: "You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them" (2 Tim. 3:14).

Then Paul goes on: "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

What is Paul's solution when all of these things begin to happen? He tells Timothy to stay steady at the helm. Don't worry about being left behind with the new things that are happening. Instead, continue in the things which you have already learned.

Do you hear that? The things which you have already learned. We read other places where Paul talks about staying true to the truth. He says to the Colossians, "Put on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him." He says in Colossians 2:2, "Attaining to the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery that is Christ Himself."

Peter writes the same thing in 2 Peter 1:3, "Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through...." What? The new working of the Holy Spirit? The special blessing? Through the new thing that is happening? No. "Through the true knowledge of Him who called us."

Here is the point. Paul tells Timothy to continue in the things he has already learned. All the other things Timothy is meant to continue into--to be fruitful and productive, to have training in righteousness, to have profitable teaching, to be equipped, adequate for every good work--has already been revealed.

Another way of putting it is this: The old is still good enough. That is why I say to stay away from any thing new.

As Paul says in Ephesians 4, "No longer children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming."

"Are you saying that this new blessing is the trickery of men, the craftiness and deceitful scheming of men?"

I'm saying I don't have to answer that question. I'm saying I don't have to be carried away by the new things because the old things are good enough. How do I know that? God says they are.

Paul tells Timothy, steady at the helm. Paul tells Timothy, continue in that which you have learned. I'll take the chance that I may be grieving the Holy Spirit rather than take the chance of being carried away by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming.

And anyway, you can't grieve the Holy Spirit if you continue in the things God has already revealed. You can't grieve the Spirit by obeying the Spirit in what He's already revealed. That's my point. I, for one, am not going to take the chance, nor should you.

Now, listen, dear friends. Too many of you are getting beat up by this. That is why I am so worked up today. Too many of you are getting beat up simply because you are trying to be discerning, trying to apply biblical principles to these alleged new movements of the Spirit.

I am not at all convinced that it is the Holy Spirit. But guess what? I don't have to decide. This is our safety valve. This is why I can say, "A new movement of the Spirit? So what? I don't have to have anything to do with it. I don't have to take that chance." And neither do you.

Guess what else? God won't be bugged. How do I know that? Easy. How can God be angry if I am faithfully executing that which has already been revealed? You can be completely faithful to God, completely effective in ministry, completely effective as a Christian worker without ever participating in any so-called new blessing or any so-called new movement of the Holy Spirit.

"But what about new wineskins?"

The New Covenant is the new wineskin. It's already come. The blood of Christ has already established the new covenant.

Now if you want to climb on the bandwagon of some new evangelical toy because you are tired of the same old thing that's already been revealed, go ahead. But I'm not going to climb on. I'm not going with you. Why? I've got my hands full with what Jesus and the apostles laid out as the original marching orders. I'm still busy with the old movement of the Spirit: the commands of Scripture that include the Great Commission.

No where that I know of does the Scripture tell Christians to look forward in time to be obedient to some new movement of the Spirit that is yet to be revealed. Instead, it says to stay faithful to what has already been handed down to us. That was Paul's dying command to Timothy. He said to guard and protect the old stuff, not look for the new.

Friends, how can you possibly be left out of God's plan if you are already obeying what He has told you to do in the Scripture? You can't be. That's why you don't have to answer the question of whether these new manifestations are from God or not. That is why you are always safe in ignoring all the latest silliness that passes for spirituality

Even if it is not silliness and Koukl is wrong on this one--which is always a possibility--you couldn't be faulted by God for not participating since He has already given you marching orders that fill your day. And if you follow those marching orders, they still apply because any new orders handed down do not supersede those that have come before. They don't cancel out the prior orders. The prior orders are still there and you can find safety in them.

You don't have to feel like God has left you out. You don't have to feel that you are substandard. You don't have to feel that something is wrong with you spiritually if you don't climb onto this bandwagon. You can say you're not sure about the new blessing, but one thing you are sure of: These 66 books of marching orders are from God and you've got your hands full with them.

I say again: When it comes to the new movements of the Spirit, so what? I've got my hands full and so should you. You don't need any new stuff. All the old stuff is plenty good enough. It's been good enough for 2000 years of Christendom. It will be good enough for the next 2000 years.

My counsel to you is not to be distracted by new-fangled Christianity, but instead be diligent to know and practice the faith that's been once and for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).