Imagine a World Without Pentecostalism/Charismaticism

Imagine a World Without Pentecostalism/Charismaticism

I want you to use your imagination. How would the world have turned out if the Azusa Street Revival did not happen in 1906? Think hard. How many religious people would have studied more constructive theology and joined more rational churches over the years. It has been 101 years since this revival. Think of all the wasted minds and wasted energy of all the millions of people who wasted their lives within Pentecostalism. Could some of these people have figured out a cure for cancer? Think of how far we have advanced in science in the last 100 years. Now think of how much further we would be if a fraction of all these minds would have been studying chemistry, physics and engineering. Would we have stations on the moon by now? Would we have had a manned mission to Mars yet? Would we have some great form of energy to power the world that was safe and plentiful? Perhaps some of these would-have-been scientists would have found a way to make water be a prime source of energy like gasoline or something. The possibilities are limitless.

In politics, imagine if these people would have devoted themselves to public service and given themselves to their communities to make the world a better place. Would the 1960’s have been so destructive a decade if these people would have been helping out? Would Nixon have been impeached if more minds were working on problems trying to solve them? Would we have had World War II with Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini if we had more brains working on the entire world’ problems? Imagine. Expand your mind to think about the possibilities. How much cleaner our cities would be if these people would have been working on the public problems? How much more money would be in the national budget if these people would be more productive citizens? How much more money the states and the cities would have if they were more productive? Let’s say if they were not Pentecostals, their productivity in income, public service would be five times as much? How much richer society would be!

Imagine if all those families that were torn apart the last hundred years would all have stayed together. Imagine how much stronger our society would be. Image that all those psychologically damaged children would have been productive and strong members of their community. Imagine how much more imagination and creativity the kids would have been to invent, create, work and serve the community and the world. How farther along we would be in relations to opposing forces in the community? Would there be as many fighting groups in society tearing each other apart? Would we be working together instead at each other’s throats? Would there be more love to go around for the lonely, the elderly, the disabled, and the stranger? Would the orphans have more options to find a strong home? Would the abused have more options to find refuge and hope? Would those who were lonely be able to find love more quickly because the people within the community would be more trusting and public service oriented toward their fellow man?

Where would you be if Pentecostalism had not invaded your family? How far does Pentecostalism go in your family heritage? It takes usually two generations to establish a vocation within a family to make a solid contribution; how many of us have had broken vocations within the family tree because some fool in our family “felt a call of God” and became a preacher instead of pursuing the vocation that he was most suited for? Think about that very hard. How much of a loss to all of us, to the neighbors, the town, the state and the nation! Multiply this by the millions and this adds up to a staggering number of things that DID NOT happen in the last hundred years. We have been held back! Society has lost so much!

Now, after pondering this thought, now think of how we can restore society. How do we rebuild our towns and communities to remove the filth, the loss and the destruction that Pentecostalism has wrought? How to we mend the broken hearts? How to we restore community and trust where it has been destroyed? How do we help the child of Pentecostalism regain his bearings as he escapes this living hell called Pentecostalism? He is lonely and afraid. She is groping in the dark for answers. She does not know where to turn because she has been isolated. How do we reach her? How do we touch those who have grown cold? How do we restore the corrosiveness of cynicism in the Ex-Pentecostal, when in fact this cynicism is totally justified?

We are here to repair the damage. How do we do it? How do we help rebuild people out of the ruins to a new life? How does a person or an organization do such a large and huge task?

First we must imagine the world without Pentecostalism; then, we must take this vision and find a way to rebuild, helping those out of the corrosive fires of Pentecostalism.

How would you do it? What do you think needs to be done? How do we repair such widespread damage?