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Pentecostalism: The religion where you worship God with your mind in neutral! |
Pentecostalism: The religion where you worship God with your mind in neutral! What this means: Pentecostals confuse the inward deception of their own feelings with the supernatural activity of God. There is a strong tendency in all forms of Pentecostalism to clear the mind of all thoughts and await the actions of the Holy Spirit in their life. Sometimes this is done in private by speaking in gibberish for long periods of time (they call it tongues). Sometimes it is done within the design of the worship service where emotionally seductive music is combined with gibberish. What is incredible is that this very type of worship is totally foreign to the Bible yet seen in occult world religions EXACTLY the same as in Pentecostal churches. |
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Montanus 150 AD |
Montanus opposed formalism in the church and boldly intimidated Christians by claiming his followers were more spiritual than those who had only the "dead letter" of the Scriptures. (Earle E. Cairns, Christianity Through the Centuries (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954), 110- 11.) (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 74) |
Quakers |
At its best Quaker silent worship involves a kind of letting go, a lack of strain or effortful attention, a willingness to "flow" with the leading of the Spirit and with the larger movement of the entire meeting. ... As in the case of glossolalia, the process of speaking out of the silence and of listening in the silence involves a resting of the analytical mind, a refusal to let deliberative, objective thinking dominate the meeting. Rather, one tries to "center down" and become open to the ''inner light" within himself, to "that of God in every man,'' to the "leading of the Spirit.'' (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Richard A. Baer, 1976, p 154) |
Shakers |
In the best part of their worship every one acts for himself The Shakers consequently saw no need for Bibles but gave themselves up to be led and guided entirely by the operations of the Spirit of God. And whatever manner the Spirit may dictate, or whatever the form into which the spirit may lead, it is acceptable to Him from whom the Spirit proceeds. Without the presence of the Spirit, they believed there can be no true worship. |
Emotionalism, ecstasy in ancient pagan religions: |
"But perhaps nothing was more characteristic of the mystery religions than what they called ecstasy. Believers in the mystery religions sought to cultivate a magical, sensuous communion with the divine. They would do almost anything to get themselves into a semiconscious, hallucinatory, hypnotic, or orgiastic spell in which they believed they were sensually in contact with deity. Some used wine to assist in the euphoric experience, as Paul implied in Ephesians 5:18. Whether from literal intoxication or emotional exhilaration, when worshipers fell into a state of euphoria, it was as if they had been drugged. They assumed they were in union with God. According to S. Angus, once professor of New Testament and historical theology at St. Andrews College, Sydney, the ecstasy experienced by the mystery religion worshiper brought him into "a mystic ineffable condition in which the normal functions of personality were in abeyance and the moral strivings which form character virtually ceased or were relaxed, while the emotional and the intuitive were accentuated." (Angus, The Mystery-Religions and Christianity (New York: Dover, 1975), 100- 101) In other words, the worshiper would get into a state where his mind would go into neutral and his emotions would take over. The intellect and conscience would give way to passion, sentiment, and emotion. This was ecstasy, an intoxicating condition of euphoria. Angus further reported: "[Ecstasy] might be induced by vigil and fasting, tense religious expectancy, whirling dances, physical stimuli, the contemplation of the sacred objects, the effect of stirring music, inhalation of fumes, revivalistic contagion (such as happened in the Church at Corinth), hallucination, suggestion, and all the other means belonging to the apparatus of the Mysteries.... [One ancient writer] speaks of men "going out of themselves to be wholly established in the Divine and to be enraptured." (Angus, The Mystery-Religions and Christianity (New York: Dover, 1975), 100- 101) As the mystery worshiper experienced such ecstasy, he was lifted above the level of his ordinary experience into an abnormal sense of consciousness. He experienced an exhilarating condition in which he believed his body ceased being a hindrance to his soul. According to Angus, ecstasy could "range anywhere from nonmoral delirium to that consciousness of oneness with the Invisible and the dissolution of painful individuality which marks the mystics of all ages." (Angus, The Mystery-Religions and Christianity (New York: Dover, 1975), 100- 101) In other words, ecstasy could emancipate the soul from the confinement of the body and enable a person to commune with the spirit world. It created an extraordinarily buoyant sensation. In that state a person supposedly had capacity to see and understand things that only the eyes of the spirit can behold. (For further information on tongues speaking and ecstasies in the pagan world, see the Encyclopedia Britannica articles "Mystery Religions," "Mysteries," "Religions of Primitive People," and "Gift of Tongues." See also A. R. Hay, "Counterfeit Speaking in Tongues" in What is Wrong in the Church? Vol. 2 (Audubon, N.1.: New Testament Missionary Union, n.d.), 15-53.) Testimonies by Pentecostal-charismatic believers describe exactly the same kinds of experiences. Charismatics who experience various states of euphoria attribute their experiences to certain gifts of the Holy Spirit, particularly tongues. The common testimony is, "It feels so good. I never felt this way before! It must be of God." But does a good feeling mean their experience is from God? Not necessarily, as we are about to see from the Corinthian experience. (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 164) |
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"What happens here is the person must do it and not understand how it works." "only when the mind becomes calm and serene does one's bioenergy becomes strong enough to produce spontaneous movements. The first appearance of spontaneous movements represents significant progress along the qigong learning curve. One cannot seek them out. They must come along spontaneously, in their own good time." |
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whatever happens in the spiritual exercise of Subud is entirely the Will of God What we have to surrender is our mind, our hearts and our desires, because those are the instruments that form an obstacle to our coming closer to God. we surrender ourselves completely; we do not make use of our mind, heart or desires -- but we only accept and receive whatever God sends The only thing we do is surrender ourselves completely and only accept and receive whatever God sends or wants us to have. |
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"just be joyful ... God is not serious ... this world cannot fit with a theological god " |
Personal testimony of former Pentecostal Pastor |
While I was a student at U of M through the influence of some friends I went to a series of meetings called "Life In the Spirit" seminars hosted by the Word of God Community. At the end of the 6 weeks two brother laid hands on me and I began to speak in a language that was not my own, nor did it seem to originate from my conscious mind. I had received the subsequent baptism in/of the Holy Spirit. From that point on my prayer life took a dramatic change. I began to spend hours each day praying in the spirit. Over the years I estimate that I spent 90% of my time praying in other tongues. Praying in a way that (1) I did not understand what I was praying, (2) that I had no way of knowing if my prayers were being answered. I was taught that while I prayed in the spirit my mind was unfruitful, and we were told this was a good thing. Over the years I spent at least 5,000 hours in "prayer" with my mind in neutral, not knowing what I was saying, not really knowing my prayers were being answered. . .but somehow I was being edified mystically by this practice. I was taught that whenever we had questions . . . pray in tongues. |
Copeland, Kenneth |
Believers are not to be led by logic, he writes. We are not even to be led by good sense (The Force of Faith, 7) I don't preach doctrine, I preach faith. (Following the Faith of Abraham I, side 2) |
Howard-Browne, Rodney |
"You really cannot understand what God is doing in these meetings with an analytical mind," he said. "It's not a move of man, it's a move of God. The mind is never going to understand what God's doing....The only way you're going to understand what God's doing is with your heart." ("An Evening with Rodney Howard-Browne" (from the Newswatch column of the Christian Research Journal, Winter 1995, page 43, by Julia Duin) and (Holy Laughter, Albert James Dager, 1996) |
Kilpatrick, John |
John Kilpatrick said "Let (yourselves) go" ... "do not think about what you are doing" ... "just give yourselves completely to the Spirit'". (Revival ... or Satanic Counterfeit?, Jimmy Robbins, 1996) |
Go to 20th Century tongues refuted section
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