4
Peter Wagners background prepared him for a paradigmatic shift. Although Wagner
earned degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, and the
University of Southern California, his South American mission experience left the greatest
imprint. He served in Bolivia with the South America Mission and Andes Evangelical Mission,
leading the Andes Evangelical Mission as associate general director from 1964 to 1971.
11
Theologically Wagner espoused evangelical doctrines prior to his Third Wave conversion.
In fact, in 1970 Wagner identified syncretic elements of "the new radical left" in the Latin
American church. This syncretism by accommodation was due to their shifting the primary
emphasis of the church from the gospel message to the social gospel.
12
However, by 1988 John
Wimber noted:
Since 1980 I have noticed a dramatic transition in Peters understanding and experience of
the ministry of the Holy Spirit. No, he hasnt moved away from solid evangelical, biblical,
and theological convictions, convictions shaped during seminary studies, sixteen years on
the mission field, and many years as a faculty member at Fuller Seminary. His feet are
firmly planted in biblical orthodoxy, which makes his spiritual transition significant for you
and me.
13
While it is true that Wagner has undergone a monumental shift over the span of his ministry, his
present position is not "planted in biblical orthodoxy." His Third Wave emphases radically alter
the doctrines of Soteriology, Pneumatology, and the primacy of Scripture.
11
Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee, Wagner, Charles Peter," in Dictionary of
Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1989).
12
C. Peter Wagner, Latin American Theology: Radical or Evangelical? (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1970), 75. Wagners comments in Chapter Four, "Radical Theology as Syncretism,"
could well serve as the guidelines for the evaluation of the Third Wave.
13
Wagner, The Third Wave, 9.