Blowin’ In the Wind
That we may no longer be infants - Billow-tossed and shifted round with every wind of teaching. - In the craft of men, In knavery suited to the artifice of error (Ephesians 4.14, Rotherham)
ow it is that Pentecostals are so prone to faddism?
I was introduced to Pentecostalism in my late teens. I had been raised as a Roman Catholic and had dutifully attended mass virtually every Sunday and also CCD (Catholic Sunday school). Over the course of time, many of the church’s teachings didn’t come to make sense to me and I was very skeptical of viewing tradition on the same level of scripture. In my late teen years, I heard about things such as healing and tongues and desperately wanted to go spelunking. My mother took me to a small Assembly of God church that was pastored by a former Methodist preacher who had been given the left foot of fellowship by the Methodists because he had been baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.
It was at this little church that I fell in love with the Word and my experience in the Spirit went deep. I not only learned the basic teachings of things like the authority of the believer, new creation realities, healing, and gifts of the Spirit, but I was also introduced to various movings of the Spirit consistent with what we see in the book of Acts. In fact, manifestations of the Spirit were a kind of normal phenomena. It wasn’t extraordinary to get “drunk” in the Spirit a la Acts 2 while speaking the Word at Denny’s or to hear words of knowledge on Sunday nights that would make the hair on the back of your head stand on end.
From that little church, I went on to college and Bible school and experienced more of the same. We’d hit the books and learn the Word in the mornings and have wonderful moves of the Spirit during our occasional/kind-of-regular services during the semesters. I recall one service where I laid hands on a lady next to me for healing and the power/lightnings of God sparked through me and went on through to the other folks who were also laying hands on her. She gave a message in tongues that night that she had been healed of a disease that she had had for so many years (I can’t remember the exact interpretation) and that healing triggered other healings all over the arena. The Word and the times were wonderful.
Since my time in school twenty years ago, it seems as if my camp in the Body has been mired down in virtually every wind of teaching that one can dream up. We’ve had services and teachings with debt “altars,” “money cometh” confessionals, hundred-fold pep rallies, year-of-the-whatever prophesies, word power, applause as praise, political campaigns and endorsements, money anointings, “faith” goals, tithing activation, nights to “honor” Israel (whatever that means) and the list goes on (and on and on). Very rarely do we hear clear and orthodox teaching on redemption, living in the Spirit, or even on the man, Jesus Christ (see 1 Timothy 2.5 - “the man Christ Jesus”), although this camp has got the doctrinal goods.
When I read the teachings of those who have gone ahead, the Prices, Lakes, Yeomans, Hagins, and MacMillans, I see orthodox teachings (albeit controversial in today’s church, so what’s new?) that exalt the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the life in the Spirit. Hopefully, as some of these fads ebb and ministry becomes less big-business, at least a few of my contemporaries will dust off Paul’s statement -
Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus (Philippians 3.12, NASB)
- and return to our basic liberating teachings.
Peter, I, too, have scores of fond memories of yesteryear that contributed to what I am, today…oh, the stories. Yet, my early encounters with the Holy Spirit and genuine moves of the Spirit with marvelous services lasting well into the night, pales in comparison to the experiences of some of the pioneers of the faith. Yet, nothing compares to the dramatic salvation of one, lost soul.
Peter, I clearly see your heart and mission. There are issues that concern me, too, and have for some time…the reason for Rebellion: From The Pew To The Pulpit. The one thing that Kenneth Hagin so emphasized was balance. Hence, my reason for posting the wolc.com link because the flip side of the ills of the church is that, as a whole, the present day church is probably better off than it ever has been before, reaching more people than it ever has before.
When I see the church, I see dysfunction, much like a family but still prospering and doing a good work. I remember sitting in a congregation…dismal, discouraging and not challenging, spiritually, at all. I cried out to God, “There is more than this!!” He heard my cry and set me in a church that placed my feet on solid ground…a church that was doing something. As I told our brother, Mel, we sometimes, major on the minors and get in the ditch with our rightfully motivated intentions. I love Kenneth Hagin’s example of how error and problems can be addressed in the midst of running this race, full speed ahead, with fruit to bare witness “that we know what we are talking about.”
In 2000 (or thereabout) Kenneth Hagin held a “prosperity summit” where he called many of today’s Word preachers together and he addressed doctrinal errors regarding prosperity preaching. His main question was “Where is this in scripture?” Obviously most of the attendees didn’t listen because they’ve continued with the same teachings.
I believe that that same attitude has crossed over to other areas of scripture, such as identification, healing, etc. As I recently wrote, the scriptural means to scriptural ends have been jettisoned (and that is not to say that some of the Word preachers’ scriptural ends are actually scriptural).
Personally, I do see not where the church is probably better off than it ever has been before. In school, Hagin repeatedly spoke of our generation losing knowledge of the move of the Spirit and that might have come to pass.
Some Bible scholars and preachers say that the churches in Revelation are reflective of the church age (Charles Price was one of them). I look at Jesus’s complaint to the church at Laodicea and wonder if we have passed Philadelphia.
Peter - I share your experience and I hunger for the return of these experiences. I believe if we hunger and thrist for righteousness we shall be filled and satisfied. It is up to the individual to keep himself in a place where God can still do the impossible. All things are possible with Him.
This scripture ministered to me early this morning, - “[Let there be] no coarse, stupid, or flippant talk; these things are out of place; you should rather be thanking God” (New English Bible) - Lord, help me to be thankful today.
I just read through this post — AMEN!
Love the emphasis on the Word. Thanks for putting it out there and letting the chips fall where they may!
Peter, I agree with you on the Philadelphia and Laodicea note….just exactly where are we? I am the first and have been for many years (resulting in two books on the subject), to see the hangups and errors of the modern church. But my overall inventory may be different from yours. I am beginning to believe that it varies…so much from even one congregation to another and within the same circles there can be wide variations. Over these 59 years, I have come to understand this is still the church of Jesus Christ and He will do as He said in His Word… “with us or without us.” The “without us” is rhetorical, as He will always find a man/woman to work through to get the job done or “the rocks will cry out. “ :-)
When the wind of the Spirit blows , it bends down low every doctrinal position we hold dear. Some of those weak positions will break and snap under the pressure as they were meant to. As the wind subsides (between moves of God), and we enter the eye of the hurricane ,we try to build again weak doctrinal positions.The wind begins to blow once more, and anything without true scriptural foundation is blown away. Lord, let the strong Winds of your Spirit blow again…….