The Return of Enthusiasm in Modern Evangelicalism: Recovering the Spirit Through the Means of Grace

Last Sunday, the church celebrated Pentecost—the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the church. And yet one of the great errors of contemporary Evangelicalism is the return of Enthusiasm. Not “enthusiasm” in the modern sense of excitement, but Enthusiasm in the historic Reformation sense: seeking God apart from the outward means He Himself has ordained.

Ironically, Pentecost itself refutes Enthusiasm. At Pentecost, the Spirit did not bypass the Apostolic Word. He came through it. Peter stood and preached Christ publicly, outwardly, audibly. And through that preached gospel the Spirit cut hearts, created faith, and brought sinners into Christ’s church through baptism.

The Radical Reformers wanted:
• Spirit without means
• inward immediacy
• revelation detached from Word and sacrament
• direct access to God apart from the external gospel

Luther saw the issue clearly. God deals with us “first outwardly, then inwardly.” Outwardly, He comes to us through the preached gospel, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. Inwardly, He gives the Holy Spirit, faith, and His gifts.

As Luther writes:

“Out of his great mercy God has again given us the pure gospel, the noble and precious treasure of our salvation. This gift evokes faith and a good conscience in the inner man, as is promised in Isa. 55[:1], that his Word will not go forth in vain, and Rom. 10[:17], that ‘faith comes through preaching.’ The devil hates this gospel and will not tolerate it” (Luther’s Works, 40:146).

But the enthusiasts reverse the order.

They say:
“God told me…”
“I felt led by the Spirit to…”
“Just follow the Spirit…”
“Forget doctrine, creeds, and sacraments…”
“You need to give the Spirit space to move.”
“We are more organic.”
“You have theology. We have the Spirit.”

I once had someone tell me, “I am leaving your church to find a church that has the Holy Spirit. You have theology. I have the Spirit.” That sounds spiritual. But Luther says it is actually a rejection of God’s appointed way of giving the Spirit. Luther writes,

“With all his mouthing of the words, ‘Spirit, Spirit, Spirit,’ he tears down the bridge, the path, the way, the ladder, and all the means by which the Spirit might come to you” (Luther’s Works, 40:147).

This is the danger of Enthusiasm: the problem is not that it speaks often about the Holy Spirit, but that it seeks the Spirit apart from the external Word and signs where God has promised to be found.

And ironically, Enthusiasm often produces not humility, but spiritual pride. It creates a Christianity where those who emphasize Word, sacrament, doctrine, and the ordinary means of grace are viewed as spiritually cold, rigid, lifeless, or lacking the Spirit. The enthusiasts become the truly “spiritual” Christians, while confessional and liturgical Christians are subtly looked down upon as second-class believers who merely have “head knowledge.”

And this critique must be rightly understood. The point is not:
“No encounter with God.”
“No work of the Spirit.”
“No inward experience.”

The Holy Spirit truly encounters sinners. He truly gives faith. He truly regenerates, comforts, sanctifies, convicts, illumines, and assures. But He does so through the outward means Christ instituted.

The Holy Spirit is not opposed to means. The Spirit works through means:
• the preached Word
• baptism
• the Lord’s Supper

So the Reformation’s concern was never less of the Spirit, but the Spirit rightly sought where Christ has promised to give Him. To seek the Spirit apart from these outward means is not deeper spirituality. It is Enthusiasm.

And historically, Enthusiasm always ends in confusion, subjectivism, instability, and spiritual tyranny—because the final authority becomes the self and its inward impressions rather than Christ speaking through His ordained means of grace.

The Reformation was not anti-Spirit. It was anti-Enthusiasm.

The Spirit binds Himself to Christ.
Christ binds Himself to His gospel.
And His gospel comes to us through outward means.