derkrash-at-yahoo-dot-com
There is a phenomenon in Pentecost that I notice that might be called: Reprogramming to Fit the Experience. We all hear the rants from many apostolics that “some, but not all” churches are abusive and teach things not in the Bible, or according to established Christianity. The ideal that they hold on to, the speaking in tongues, the emotional explosions and abreactions, are the things they will refuse to give up on. Any contrary evidence that is presented to them revealing these things to be either inventions of the past 100 years, or emotional nonsense – they have to either ignore the evidence, or they attempt to obfuscate their own experience and try to say it is “not the same thing” as the “fake” stuff. They are always the real thing, while all the apostolic and Pentecostal experience we have had in the past, you know, they say we were in a bad church, that was not the “real” Holy Ghost, or we had one of those bad pastors, but not all are like that, etc. Well, I am here to tell you that this process is encapsulated in one word: Evasion. Evasion is the refusal to recognize the facts of reality in front of your face. In order to evade the facts and stubbornly keep the evil lust after an emotional high, which they call “God” or the “Holy Spirit,” they have to reprogram their minds in some contorted way to accommodate the facts in their own minds, when in practice they are simply making up something to justify the fantasy. Their minds, like computer code, must reprogram itself to accomplish the task of assimilating information to conform to the end: tongues, emotionalism, etc, while evading the facts.
When we point out that tongues have been analyzed by experts and nobody has found evidence that it has no elements of language and it is simply simple sounds stringed together with a few common sounds like “shun-da,” they say, of course it sounds like gibberish to someone who has not “experienced” it. This is straightforward evasion.
When we say that we have been in Pentecost for decades and know the doctrines and the practices in and out, then we reject them, they say that we never experienced the “real thing” and that we had been faking it for all those years. This is another case of pure Evasion, and the stubborn refusal to recognize the fact that Pentecost does not stand up under serious scrutiny. We have linked the phenomenon to West African tribal religion repackaged under Christianity after Azusa Street. We have gone to places and shown that tongues are stringed together sounds with no meaning. We have shown that all this “receiving the Holy Ghost with tongues” as they practice it is Self-Hypnosis, and it is fully explainable. We have shown how Pentecost isolates people from their cultural roots like friends, family and community. We have shown that Pentecostals are general less moral people than traditional Christians. We have shown that there are extremely high levels of sexual promiscuity among Pentecostals from all the emotionalism making the people vulnerable to sexual con games. We have shown that many preachers will cause divorces if one partner in a marriage refuses to become Pentecostal.
They take all this evidence and blank their minds out upon hearing it. Tongues fake? Blank out! Preachers abusing people’s money? Blank out! People practicing Pentecostalism, then rejecting it because it makes no sense? Blank out! Reprogram the computer code! Does not compute! We cannot have the software work without tongues, hell fire, holiness, and running around the church shouting! We have to have it! We cannot live without that “tingling feeling within our bellies” when what we think is the “spirit of the Lord!” We have to have it!
And so, they go on. They cannot accept the facts. The entire movement is a fake and a fraud draining the life out of people, families and communities. Children go to bed at night crying because they are not allowed to live life. Kids are beaten because they are “rebellious” because they do not live up to some standard of holiness. Women are taken from their natural inclinations to dress like a woman and wear her hair like a woman, to being some empty person drained of will, spirit, and natural freedom to live life. Men become cruel, emotionally manipulative, and prone to anger explosions from all the bottled up frustration.
But guess what? Some will go on, read this site, and still refuse to accept the Truth about Pentecost. It does not compute, it cannot be, in their own minds. And, so they will make up anything in their imaginations to make the painful thoughts from this site go away.
These people desperately need our prayers.
4 comments:
Well said. I know someone who if you mention anything at all about the fact that many of the pentecostal tv preachers having ludicris amounts of money, over the top mansions and tons of luxury cars, this person says the verse, touch not my annointed. Its like you can point out the problems and just like you say they block it out and refuse to at least.look into it. Its crazy. Im finding out that this denomination revolves around money and Jesus would not be happy just like when he threw over the tables of the money changers in the temple. Yeah sure sow a seed of $999 and watch how God will pour out his blessings....um the only thingbpouring out is your money into the pockets of greedy tv preachers who claim they have so many bmws and rolexes thst they turn them down. Mike Murdoch is who Im reffering to. He says he gets asked by people if they can give him a.gift of an expensive car like a bmw and he stated on tv that he turned them down because he already had to many luxury cars in his driveway. Hmmmm so yeah keep siwing the money seeds. I feel bad for the people who fall in this trap of prosperity gospel.
Oops sorry for the mispellings. In a hurry.
Thank you for taking on these topics so thoughtfully. My grandfather, uncle, and father were all Pentecostal preachers and it led them to be cruel and immoral. Informed by several psychiatrists I consulted,I believe my father suffered from a treatable mental illness that his evasion, as you put it, kept him from getting help for. As a result my family life was a violent roller coaster of a nightmare even as Pentecostal congregations worshipped him. I was that rebellious kid you mention who took beatings because he wouldn't bow down to the fraud. I am tough as nails, as you mention us ex-Pentecostals being in your writings elsewhere, but I could have used some nurture as a child. In my humble opinion, Pentecostalism took it all instead. It is an emotionally greedy religion by nature. Once again, thanks for being there for those of us who've been through this particular journey.
Thank you for taking on these topics so thoughtfully. My grandfather, uncle, and father were all Pentecostal preachers and it led them to be cruel and immoral. Informed by several psychiatrists I consulted,I believe my father suffered from a treatable mental illness that his evasion, as you put it, kept him from getting help for. As a result my family life was a violent roller coaster of a nightmare even as Pentecostal congregations worshipped him. I was that rebellious kid you mention who took beatings because he wouldn't bow down to the fraud. I am tough as nails, as you mention us ex-Pentecostals being in your writings elsewhere, but I could have used some nurture as a child. In my humble opinion, Pentecostalism took it all instead. It is an emotionally greedy religion by nature. Once again, thanks for being there for those of us who've been through this particular journey.
Post a Comment