Charismatic Christianity focuses on various manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in the lives of individual believers. These manifestations can be rather common and practical, like the gift of administration, or hospitality, or teaching, or can be quite spectacular, involving such things as visions, revelations, prophecies, miraculous healings, speaking in tongues, and the interpretation of tongues.
One very good thing about charismatic Christianity is that it takes the Holy Spirit very seriously. Too often among Christians the realities of the Kingdom are reduces to what is true and what I think. Thus, the Word of God is true, and communicates truth. In fact, that’s it chief (and perhaps only) purpose. And the Christian’s job is to believe it–because it’s true. Nothing about power. But the Kingdom of God is not only about truth, but power. The charismatic Christian gets this. The Holy Spirit is power, and He is real, and He is our there to be experienced.
From the point of view of a Confessional Lutheran, a belief in and a focus on charismatic gifts does not necessarily present a problem. Lutherans have often considered whether the miraculous manifestations of the Spirit–heals, tongues, etc.–continue to exist today something of an open question. There’s nothing in Lutheran theology that would forbid a Christian from believing he saw a vision, experienced a miraculous healing, or spoke in an unknown language or tongue. And sometimes, the only issue is whether such things happen anymore. That is a matter of the proper interpretation of Scripture as to what these various gifts are, and whether they continue to exist among Christians. A Lutheran can believe that they do, or that they don’t.
But charismatic Christianity sometimes teaches things that Lutheran theology simply cannot accept. For example, Lutherans reject 1) the teaching that miraculous manifestations are necessary signs that accompany the Spirit at work; and 2) that the experiencing of certain miraculous manifestations is necessary to know that one is saved or born again.
Lutherans tie the work of the Spirit to the Word and Sacraments. Where these things are, the Spirit is at work. We know this, because the visible Word and Sacraments manifest this. You simply cannot have the Word of God and the Sacraments and no Holy Spirit empowering them! These visible things are meant show to our eyes and ears that the Spirit is at work and what He is doing. Now, that does not mean that the Holy Spirit cannot be operating apart from the Word and the Sacraments also, but to the extent that that might be so we cannot know when, where, or even whether that is happening. The Holy Spirit can work a miracle–a healing, say–but we should not expect such a thing, and if a miracle does occur we cannot know for certain that it was the Holy Spirit that did it, or what the miracle meant. The Holy Spirit is free to go where He likes and do what He wishes. However, we can only know what that is when He acts through the Word and Sacraments.
This is especially the case when a Christian seeks proof that he or she has been called by Christ to be saved or has been born again. A miraculous manifestation of some kind is not how the Holy Spirit speaks to us or gives us such assurances. That happens only in the Word and Sacrament. Perhaps at some time I experienced some vision or spoke in tongues. Fine. But that does not mean that I am saved or born again. Even if the Holy Spirit did it, I cannot know that for sure. Yet I can know for sure that I have been born again because that is what baptism does and I know that the Holy Spirit was in my baptism doing exactly what baptism always signifies.
To the extent that charismatic Christianity directs Christians away from the Word and Sacraments and to spectacular manifestations in order to divine what God is up to, it directs them away from the certain and toward the uncertain.