Critical Responses
Controversy stirred by John Wimber’s teachings on Signs and Wonders brought on a wave of critical responses.
The most persistent criticism centered upon the claim that effective evangelism cannot properly be exercised without the accompanying miraculous work. Such a situation, it was argued, added to the Gospel message and ultimately distorted its message from being one of salvation to being one of experiencing God's blessings now. While many critics did not deny that God could perform the miraculous, they also claimed that it was a fallacy to assume that miracles could be expected - as though God could be "forced" to act as it were.
The following works represent some of those who entered into the dialogue: J. Woodhouse’s Signs & Wonders and Evangelicals: A Response to the Teaching of John Wimber, K. L. Sarles’ An Appraisal of the Signs & Wonders Movement, K. M. Bond’s Signs and Wonders: Perspectives on John Wimber's Vineyard and D. H. Shepherd’s A Critical Analysis of Power Evangelism as an Evangelistic Methodology of the Signs and Wonders Movement. In the late 1990s, R. E. Jackson would produce An Evaluation of the Evangelistic Emphasis of the North American Power Evangelism Movement, 1977-1997 as an aid to skeptics, D. Williams produced Signs, Wonders, and the Kingdom of God: A Biblical Guide for the Reluctant Skeptic.
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