I write this article because my heart is deeply troubled. For eight months I was a part of an charismatic church and though I was confused by some actions, I took them all as from God and never questioned, or when I did question, I was ashamed of myself. Let me go into more detail.
My first encounter with Charasmatic/Pentecostal services was when I attended a youth service in a “non-denominational” church. My first confusion was over the falling down, known as “slain in the spirit” What I thought then and still boldly question now is what good comes of it. The Bible says that the holy spirit is a comforter and guide. I don’t understand what good laying on the floor is. Some people claim that your in another realm. Sounds like extra-biblical revelation to me. I am getting ahead of myself. Week after week at these services I saw kids falling over left and right. I saw people praying and praying , laying hands on people, until that person fell over. When I was being prayed for, I wanted this so bad that I did fall over, it was easy, I just let stop holding my self up, fully aware and fully in this realm. Why, you ask, do we see people falling over? I believe will be believe anything people tell them and take a unreal experience and think it is real. I also feel that it is all on emotions. Something I will get to later. Of course, back then, I thought something was wrong with me. Why were these kids receiving from God and I wasn’t?
Then there was speaking in angelic tongues. This particular church and many others, I later discovered, say that everyman can speak in tongues and that they need to receive it by the laying on of hands. During a prayer service on person told us to , “speak in tongues, and if you can’t, we will prayer over you until you do.” I consulted people in the church about me not being able to speak in tongues and they claimed they had confirmation from God to pray over me. I was prayed over for tongues a total of three times and never received the gift. Each time, I believed with all my heart that God would give me this gift. I never got it. I felt the pressure from others to have it. So I started listening when others spoke in angelic “tongues” and soon started to do it myself. This is only the start of my deception into lies and as I said earlier, extra-biblical revelations.
One time, a girl was fully” taken over” by God and started speaking to his children using words like, “I see you…” I fear this gets worse. During a retreat, people were rolling on the floor laughing and being “drunk” in the spirit. Which looks like they are truly drunk. Once again, what good is this? Soon there was no reading from the word of God but just a time to let the “spirit” move. My heart was always troubled. Why is this happening to everyone but me?
Then I was told, by a member of the church, not the church itself, that it was a sin to not pray over someone for a healing. Like if you saw John Doe walking down the street and he had a cold, it would be a sin to not pray over him. Now, dear reader, please tell me where God says that in the Bible? During these “healings” people demanded God to heal, DEMANDED! (ie. “NOW LORD, NOW!”) I was also taught that it was always God’s will to be healed. I was once prayed over for a healing from chronic headaches, I wasn’t healed, but never told anyone for fear of discouraging them. So, please tell me, the charismatic that is reading this, if it is always God’s will for me to be healed, and I believed that he would with all my heart, why didn’t he? Either he is wrong or you are.
Another point. People claim that God has told them something to tell everyone. How can we know if they are right? See if it contradicts what we are taught in the Bible. God would not go against himself or his word, its not his nature.
I believe that these charismatic services are just one big emotional trip. People have stopped focusing on hearing a sermon and reading scriptures and in services all around the world, they want this “new wave” of the holy spirit. And in all those months and all the services I went to, we never said the Lord’s prayer once. The success of these services was measured on how many people were laying out on the floor, weeping, or “drunk,”
Even if these experiences were truly of God, which I believe they are not. It would still be clear that these churches have gone too far. I do have something positive to say. My old youth group and charismatic youth groups all around this country are leading more teenagers to Christ then ever. But is it all in vain?
I am still a young women and even younger in the faith having been a born-again Christian for a little over two years, but this is what I know. I know that Christ never guaranteed a easy life for us on earth once we repented and believed on him. He never guaranteed for us to have perfect medical lives. What we have is hope and courage to deal with whatever this short life throws at us. It is, after all, a quick wind that is here today and gone tomorrow. I may not have all the answers. But I have to go with my heart, and my heart says to stay away from such churches. It wasn’t easy to leave, and still isn’t, what do I say to the kids from youth group that asked why I left? Do I tell them what I think about all of this, Do I tell them what I think to be the truth? This I do not know. I’m afraid to say anything but afraid not to. I fear God will ask me to account for what I did with the truth he has shown me. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know this: I believe in Jesus Christ as the only begotten son of God and the savior of all those who call upon him, I live according to his teachings, according to my fathers will, and I live for him. About everything else, I am sad to say, leaves me confused and deeply hurt. How can so many people be deceived and even worse, will people discover the truth a moment too late? I just don’t know. I just don’t know.

a situation that has been a problem in the church from the very beginning. Read some of Paul's early letters, especially Corinthians I and II, Colossians, Romans and Galatians. These letters were memos that Paul wrote in response to crisis situations that boiled up. The early house churches were getting out of control due to the behavior you are describing. Or opportunists were sowing discord, trying to horn in and take over the churches by hinting that Paul was teaching incomplete doctrine and cheating people. (Galatians) In Corinthians Paul was dealing with a situation similar to the one you describe: a church going nuts because people were getting out of control with visionary experiences, turning a church into a seance.

Its good to know you are a new Christian, but dont let people push you around. Some people may try to 'take you over' and turn you into the kind of Christian they think you should be. That's a power trip and be careful. Dont let a mentor turn into a jailor. Dont hang around in situations where you always feel ashamed of falling short of some standard. The Gospel is supposed to be Good News not Bad News. I recommend reading some Christian Church history to get a context. Paul Johnson's History of Christianity is a good start.

You may be a 'baby Christian' but you have gut instincts and common sense. Trust those! They are gifts of God. If you ever have to choose between trusting your gut and relying on someone's interpretation of Scripture, rely on your gut instincts every time. I have learned that my mind can play tricks on me, but my gut instincts have always been reliable. I recommend getting yourself a notebook and listing your gut feelings, and then write down when they were verified. That way you can train yourself to become skillful at reading your deeper feelings. THats the best way to become a mature Christian. You must learn to 'read' people, preachers and churches, just as you do Scripture.

Look for a minister who is part of larger denomination--Lutheran, Presbryterian, United Church of Christ. 'Lone Ranger' ministers who are not accountable to a denomination, who dont meet regularly with other ministers and who have sole control over their congregations run the risk of getting tyrannical and eccentric.

Dont look to Scripture for answers. Its a book to be wrestled with. The Jewish tradition has never forgotten that. Scripture isnt like a lawbook. Its full of contradictions and part of becoming an adult is to figure out for yourself where you stand. You dont find answers in Scripture. You learn to live with its open questions and become a stronger, more patient person. YOu find out there are times when its better to live with your open questions than someone else's answers. In the mean time, you try to be as kind as you can to people, and you dont go looking to make enemies.

Too many churches need to identify enemies to have a sense of purpose. Beware. Unity in the Gospel is totally different from unity in a shared grudge or unity from a cause. Learn to tell the difference.

The churches came first and began to have problems understanding and living out the Gospel and Paul wrote his earliest letters precisely to address various conflicts and crises as they came up. WHen he wrote, 'Let everything be done decently and in order' he was referring to out of control situations of the kind you describe. And later, when too many people got worried about when the End Times would arrive and stopped working, and just sat on their fannies, Paul reminded them, 'Let the one who does not work, not eat.'

Its important to measure spiritual teachings by the effect they have on a group and on a larger community. In the first century AD, when Jesus and Paul taught, remember that life was very hard. People lived in subsistence economies. Everyone had to be reliable and do their work or the crops would not be planted and harvested and everyone would starve. Even cities lived in danger of famine. There was no safety net. An entire community could die out in a few years if an epidemic or famine hit the area.

So any 'prophet' who stirred up trouble, generated obsessions, instigated riots and caused people to forget to harvest and store their crops could create sufficient turmoil to destroy a community--either by disrupting its food production, or by causing riots that would cause a crack down by the authorities. The Romans had ineffective police powers so if there was a riot, the only way to restore order was to massacre enough people to scare everyone else into order.

So look at your old church. Would people like that be able to run a farm in a competant manner? If the answer is no, that's sick spirituality, right there.

I recommend a book by Father Leo Booth Entitled When God Becomes a Drug. Many people repress their strong emotions and then look for churches that create crazy situations that are an outlet for emotions. You can get addicted.

Altered states of consciousness do not prove holiness. Look at what Paul listed as the fruits of the spirit. Dont be afraid to rely on kindness and common sense. And we were given minds--use yours and dont let anyone tell you what to think or how to feel.

One sign of an off kilter church is they rely on just a few parts of scripture (this is called 'selective reading') and ignore the rest. If a church or preacher focuses only on those parts of scripture that inspire fear and look for enemies and ignore those parts of scripture that give comfort, help you forgive your enemies --beware. There are certain Christians who are more interested in who goes to hell than in the Gospel.

Any church or preacher who demands that you prove yourself worthy by making sacrifices--avoid them.

Somewhere Paul wrote 'Now that you are free do not submit again to bondage.'

And somewhere else, he wrote that the Good news means you no longer have to concern yourself with spirits, astrology, or what the planets are doing.

Go to different churches. Pay attention to the ways they work with scripture and the kind of group atmosphere created. Dont let anyone boss you around.

Dont rush to get married. And beware of people who are great at giving thrilling soulful sermons, but who are not reliable people when it comes to showing up and taking action.
People who preach that the world is a scary evil place are trying to spook you into hiding out in their church. And they deny that God is at work in even the supposedly 'pagan' world.

good preaching opens doors. It doesnt close them. It gives you a larger world, it doesnt shrink your world. And it doesnt tell you what emotions you should have or what you should think, or limit whom you associate with.

And good preaching should not make you unable to socialize with or enjoy the company of non-Christians.

I used to be a Christian and am now a Buddhist, but can remember what a good church can and should accomplish. Your misgivings are on target and you are asking good questions.

I am not Pentecostal, but I'd like to give my view on this. The greatest of commandments is to "love the Lord thy God with all thy soul and all thy mind" and to "love thy neighbor as thyself" Mark chapter 12 verses 30 and 31. That is a sign of being a Christian, not speaking in tongues or rolling on the floor. Taken as a whole, the Bible doesn't say a whole lot about the subject. My point is that every person comes to their own convictions about God on their own, it's not dictated by the church. I came from a Reformed Baptist church that is steeped in obeying commandments, but lacking in Christian love. Leaving the church and my so called friends was very hard for me, but it was for my own good. There are a lot of "follow the leader" attitude out there. It's much easier to let someone show me the way or instruct me than to think it out for myself. Your not alone in your thoughts in questioning things. It's part of maturing. Best of luck----------- Larry

It seems like you are looking for confirmation of what you already know in your heart to be true, that something is off in the group you mentioned. The first thing I do is look for the fruit of a teaching or a group; is it loving, does it help people grow and mature, does it lift up Jesus or does it lift up men or a man, does it serve others or does it exploit others?

Slaying in the spirit can also be performed by stage hypnotists, as you already know, it has nothing to do with God and everything to do with emotional/psychological manipulation. In regard to healing, if God intended for everyone to be healed, then why did he tell Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach and frequent ailments, why didn't he just tell him to confess and claim his healing? Yet we can and do pray for healing, and not just physical healing.

it looks like you are on the right track, that even as a young christian you have a good deal of discernment. Stay away from the mesmerists in the charsimatic churches! We were in one of those non-denominational churches for four years, and it has been drifting further and further from orthodoxy with every passing service. I believe that the charismatic churches are the great apostasy in the Church universal that Bible prophecy speaks about. Some of them are only barely Christian anymore.
I think that knowing scripture like the back of your hand is the best defense. There are some very basic principles of hermeneutics that, once mastered, will protect you very well against all these heretical and destructive ideas that have crept into our faith thanks to ministries like TBN. Let the scriptures form a rigid grid in your mind, and anything that cannot conform to that grid must be rejected outright. Scripture is the only reliable foundation we have on which to stand. Also, always doubt people's assertions that the Bible is "full of contradictions." It is my experience that the bible always justifies itself after investigation. Sola Scriptura!

Quote

Originally posted by flowers123
My first encounter with Charasmatic/Pentecostal services was when I attended a youth service in a “non-denominational” church. My first confusion was over the falling down, known as “slain in the spirit” What I thought then and still boldly question now is what good comes of it. Week after week at these services I saw kids falling over left and right. When I was being prayed for, I wanted this so bad that I did fall over, it was easy, I just let stop holding my self up, fully aware and fully in this realm. Quote


Well, I know exactly how you feel. I still experience this. But I still experience God. Just focus on the Lord in your mind and forget what is around you while you are at the altar or in prayer at your house.



Then there was speaking in angelic tongues. This particular church and many others, I later discovered, say that everyman can speak in tongues and that they need to receive it by the laying on of hands. into lies and as I said earlier, extra-biblical revelations.[B}Quote

The Bible states, "will everyone speak in tongues, will everyone prophecy." Of course not. The gift of tongues in an outward expression of the Holy Spirit to a believer.


Then I was told, by a member of the church, not the church itself, that it was a sin to not pray over someone for a healing. Like if you saw John Doe walking down the street and he had a cold, it would be a sin to not pray over him. Now, dear reader, please tell me where God says that in the Bible? During these “healings” people demanded God to heal, DEMANDED! (ie. “NOW LORD, NOW!”) I was also taught that it was always God’s will to be healed. I was once prayed over for a healing from chronic headaches, I wasn’t healed, but never told anyone for fear of discouraging them. So, please tell me, the charismatic that is reading this, if it is always God’s will for me to be healed, and I believed that he would with all my heart, why didn’t he? Either he is wrong or you are.

It is not always God's will to heal right then and there. But it is His will to heal. Maybe not in the manner we think, though.


Another point. People claim that God has told them something to tell everyone. How can we know if they are right? See if it contradicts what we are taught in the Bible. God would not go against himself or his word, its not his nature.Quote

The Bible says if (I am paraphrasing), someone comes with a prophecy, a word from the Lord, then let it be examined by the elders of the church or by two or three witnesses.


I am still a young women and even younger in the faith having been a born-again Christian for a little over two years, but this is what I know. I know that Christ never guaranteed a easy life for us on earth once we repented and believed on him. He never guaranteed for us to have perfect medical lives. What we have is hope and courage to deal with whatever this short life throws at us. It is, after all, a quick wind that is here today and gone tomorrow. I may not have all the answers. Quote


Not it won't be easy at times as a believer in Christ. I have had many disappointments in my walk. My first pastor got sat down because he was stealing money and doing stuff that the elders of my ministry said not to do. But he did them anyway. It affected me. But I still stayed in the ministry. God dealt with him. I have been in this ministry for over 7 years now. Is everything right, no. But I know we strive to be.


About everything else, I am sad to say, leaves me confused and deeply hurt. How can so many people be deceived and even worse, will people discover the truth a moment too late? I just don’t know. I just don’t know.

One more thing, read the Bible. It is the word of God. It is God's word. It is truth. Look for the Bible for all of your needs and answers for your questions.

This is how it works. They play loud music and with the preacher shouting, you mind gets numb and dizzy. You fall because you see others fall ... in other words, u are expected to fall or else you will be labelled abnormal or evil, unclean etc. It's a matter of suggestibility.

Love is all u need.