My parents are going to this new church. I've been trying to learn anything at all about this church. They go with faith healing, and push it on others. It's called "The River of Life." They are charismatic, new age, etc. They do all the dancing, hands waving praise, tambourine waving, on and on. I live in another state so I can't personally go there.

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, encouragement, suspicions, etc... will be more than welcome! Between this and the plans to visit the "healing center" based only on faith, I'm very concerned. I need to know with whom I am dealing. I equate them to pentecostal or perhaps assembly of god I guess.

Jane

well Jane, I exited a charasmatic cult in august. If i had to suggest a place of worship for someone, I wouldnt recommend pentacostal/charasmatic.

God is a healer, but they have too much emphasis on that. They also are heavy into tounges and prophecy and demons. If you find unbalanced preachers, they may over emphasize demonic activity too. If I was you, id be concerned. As far as how you can persuede them to attend a healtheir church, well, you know em.

I just suggest a more mainstream church.

I sure wouldn't recommend a pentecostal church, either. It concerns me because my parents are wealthy and in their 70's. The place is operating out of a strip mall and only got their corporate filing (501c3 non profit) in November of 2006.

I stopped communicating with them entirely because I am bipolar and they seem to trigger very bad reactions for me. I couldn't possibly persuade them to go to another church. They seem to have a desire to build their own church and be big shots in it.

I was raised with the fiery lake and demon talk, a lot of that. The pentecostal move is just recently though. I never thought (and who would) that my parents would go pentecostal. I am not sure how far they'll go into it, so I am trying to familarize myself with it.

The court case sounds horrible, and very extreme! I do wish for all the best outcome there.

I've found every church they went to, in fact my parents themselves, to be judgmental. I had a bumper sticker at one point that said "Non-Judgment Day is Coming." I couldn't understand why my mom was offended by it. :lol:

Oh I love the imitations of the pentecostal speaking. How bizarre is that?

It's all a vicious circle in these churches - chasing your tail. You will never catch the tail but you're always in pursuit of it. Thanks for sharing all the advice. I'm in for some learning I think.

Is it possible that they separated from the pentecostals but are based on them? They claim to be non-denominational. They seem very pentecostal to anyone else.

Janet

Janet, usually anyone working out of a strip mall is suspect LOL...

But seriously, Spiritual abuse, cults and spiritual elitism are often found in charasmatic/pentelcostal/assembly of God type churches. These are the snake-handler types!

I suggest you google ex-charasmatic and get informed about people that ahve left that movement. I KNOW that in yahoo groups, there is an ex-charasmatics forum. Not much action, but a few years of people talking about the movement.

Im bi-polar too, so i know where youre coming from. But id hate to see your parents get duped by con artist or fire and brimestone. F and B is an unbalanced messgae. It eliminates grace.

Okay, im tired its late. good luck!

I researched deeper and realized this "church" in a strip mall filed for their non-profit incorp. status in November of 2006. The "healing center" did same in 2005! So I gather this is a "new" cult????

Hello.
I'm not sure about that particular church, but I don't think it would be a good idea to reject the idea just because they are charismatic/pentecostal. I've been to a pentecostal church last summer when I was in Korea - Yoido Full Gospel Church, which is also the largest church in the world with 400,000 members.

I think people in U.S. generalize "pentecostal" or "charismatic" as a negative term because of their practice of spiritual gifts and stuffs. But at least the one I've been to, they were not necessary "unbalanced" as some people above have mentioned. They actively study the Bible, go help out in the community, etc. I think it really depends on the church and the pastor. Just because they are pentecostal does NOT mean they are unhealthy.

And during prayer meetings and stuffs, people do get healed time to times - both spiritually and sometimes physically. I doubt that they are fake.

Hope this helps.

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abigail1977
well Jane, I exited a charasmatic cult in august. If i had to suggest a place of worship for someone, I wouldnt recommend pentacostal/charasmatic.

God is a healer, but they have too much emphasis on that. They also are heavy into tounges and prophecy and demons. If you find unbalanced preachers, they may over emphasize demonic activity too. If I was you, id be concerned. As far as how you can persuede them to attend a healtheir church, well, you know em.

I just suggest a more mainstream church.

Although I am neither Pentecostal nor Charismatic, I'd still like to defend them (as I have several friends who attend such churches). From one side, you can view charismatics as emphasizing too much on spiritual phenomenons, but on the other side, (in particular in the U.S.) you can view other churches as not being spiritual enough. I think in the U.S. what you'll find is a very rational or logical view on the faith. I've traveled around a bit, and I must say that Americans tend to be some of the most spiritually dull people. Many worship with their mouths, but often times what appears on the outside doesn't really correspond with what's inside. Maybe I'm digressing, but basically what I want to say is that there is something great about Pentecostals and Charismatics. Although a bit on the eccentric side, they really have the earnest desire to tap into the Spirit of God ... something that is oftentimes missing in many mainstream churches. I think we're more likely to see God perform miracles through the one who believes in miracles than the person who believes in "miracles" ... am I making sense?

Yes, thank you bluesouljah.
I haven't been to many places, but there clearly is a difference in spiritual atmosphere b/w U.S. and Korea. Unfortunantly, Korea is also infamous for cults...