CHRISTIANITY AND THE SUPERNATURAL
By Christopher Brearley
Zaccmedia. 132 pages. £6.99
ISBN 978 1 909 824 133
Any book with such a title and offering a viewpoint on such a subject will, inevitably, be looked at carefully, even critically.
The author takes a very gentle and tolerant tone throughout, which some may find a little too bland for their taste.
He deals with the subjects typically argued about, such as the gifts, miracles, angels and demons, etc.
He is careful, reasoned and reasonable, and orthodox – placing God’s Word as the constant plumb line by which we test everything.
Nothing new
However, I could not help feeling a little bit flat at the end because it all seems to have been said before by others.
There were times when phrases rang home powerfully. Like these:
‘Demon possession is answered by demon expulsion.’
‘Our life is not a bed of roses but a crown of thorns.’
‘The strength of any church is the holiness of its members.’
But I so wanted more of that instead of safety first passages.
Brearley states his kindly view as: miracles take place but not commonly; the gifts are for today but many, who claim them, are currently not experiencing the real ones; every Christian has at least one gift so is charismatic in that sense; Christians can be oppressed by the enemy but not possessed.
He makes a very telling point in the book about passively yielding to the Spirit but also working in co-operation with the Spirit. For him healing is possible but remains an unfathomable mystery.
Brearley, who has been an elder in a church for many years and a travelling Bible teacher, maintains a placid, gracious loving attitude to all differing views, but some like me just wanted a bit more of that Pentecostal fire!
