| Oct 30 @ 8:12 AM |
WHAT ARE SOME EFFECTIVE ANTIDOTES AGAINST PENTECOSTALISM IN OUR CHURCHES?
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yashaenka
Posts: 8,236
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An antidote is a remedy to counteract the effects of poison. What are some antidotes, some remedies by which we can counteract the poison of Pentecostalism in our churches? What are some positive things we can do to protect ourselves and our churches from Pentecostal error?
One thing that we must do is carefully maintain a God centered theology. Pentecostal theology centers in man and his Spiritual experience. "I’ve never felt so good," they often say in discussing their religion. Personal feeling and human experience are more important than Christ in their theology. Pentecostalism is egocentric rather than Theocentric.
Biblical theology centers in God and His Christ, and one of the most important and effective antidotes against the poison of Pentecostalism is maintaining a God-centered theology. Today’s preachers would do well to emulate Paul in what he says in 2 Corinthian 4:5, "For we preach not our ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord."
There is a conspicuous absence of Pentecostal error in churches which have a God-centered theology and this is no accident. The theology of God’s sovereign grace is the opposite and antithesis of the man-centered theology of Pentecostalism. Brother, when God is rightly exalted and man is therefore abased, you won’t have Pentecostalism in your church!
Second, to protect our churches from Pentecostalism we must encourage proper reverence for God and His majesty. Modern Pentecostalism has lost the sense of majesty, the dignity, the grandeur, the greatness, the awesomeness of God. There is no real reverence in their worship. Rather there is shouting and laughing and running and clapping and religious rock and tongues and all kinds of experiences and the whole charismatic circus.
The circus atmosphere in many of our churches today does not reflect that we have any Scriptural concept of the majesty of Almighty God. When a church gets a right view of God, a Biblical view of God, the people immediately cease from all such shenanigans and they will prostrate themselves instead in the dirt at the feet of the Awful Sovereign of the universe! They worship in true reverence and dignity in awe of the infinite majesty of God. They know something about the meaning of Habakkuk 2:20, ". . . the Lord is in his holy temple; Let all the earth keep silence before him."
A third antidote against Pentecostalism in our churches is that we must give cautious and prayerful consideration to the music that we use. Pentecostalism marches itself right into some otherwise sound churches today by means of the so-called "gospel" music that is used in their services.
Music is so powerful a medium of ideas that it can bring Pentecostalism into a church even when that church at first stands solidly against it. Connected to the right melodies, the message of the music can he hung in people’s minds for years to come. Radio and television advertisers learned this long ago with their beer jingles.
The message that much of this contemporary music carries today is a Pentecostal message. It is a shallow, sentimental, sensual, irreverent, and cheap view of God and centers in man and his experiences rather than in God and His glory. The word "I" is exceedingly prominent in this music. Music that tends to Pentecostalism is egocentric rather than Christocentric.
Music that is pleasing to God is Theocentric. It centers in God and His Christ, worshipping Him and praising Him and adoring Him and thanking Him. Theocentric music makes up the psalms and hymns and Spiritual songs of which Paul speaks in Colossians 3:16.
One of the best examples of godly, Spiritual, Theocentric church music to be found today is in the 1956 "Baptist Hymnal" where we find such hymns as: HOLY, HOLY, HOLY LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, COME THOU ALMIGHTY KING HELP US THY NAME TO SING, O WORSHIP THE KING ALL GLORIOUS ABOVE, TO GOD BE THE GLORY GREAT THINGS HE HATH DONE, GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS O GOD MY FATHER and GUIDE ME O THOU GREAT JEHOVAH!
A fourth antidote against Pentecostalism is we must discourage our people from watching the Pentecostal preachers on religious television. Great numbers of our people invite Assembly of God and other Pentecostal preachers into their homes every day and listen to their messages and music. It’s no wonder our churches are so infected with Pentecostalism!
CONCLUSION
Historically God’s people of every age have rejected Pentecostalism in whatever form it has arisen. God’s people in every age have rejected the extraordinary gifts recognizing that they are not given in this present age.
The churches in the second century rejected Montanism with its claims of the gift’s of prophecy and speaking in languages and its women preachers. None of our Baptist forefathers from the time of Christ to the present have claimed the extraordinary gifts. The Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s was the greatest revival of Christianity in all history and none of the reformers ever exercised or even claimed these extraordinary gifts. None of them ever healed or worked miracles or spoke in tongues. The churches in the mid 17th century were greatly troubled by and then rejected the Quaker brand of Pentecostalism which claimed direct revelation from God through the so-called "inner light" in every man.
http://www.pbministries.org/Theology/Laurence%20Justice/embrace_pentecostalism.htm
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| Oct 30 @ 9:12 AM |
WHAT ARE SOME EFFECTIVE ANTIDOTES AGAINST PENTECOSTALISM IN OUR CHURCHES? |
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dizzydoll
Posts: 597
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Hi Yash 
I just want to ask you, why is it important to you what people believe?  Surely we are allowed to follow whatever makes us more comfortable. I do agree mouthing off verse from the bible is wrong, but let those who gain peace from the words do so. It really shouldnt hurt or offend you unless they are attempting to convert you.
I must tell you, on my way to Dubai i was sitting next to a reborn Indian fellow. Well he thought he'd found a christian in me i think. Anyway, somewhere along the line i told him i prefer to follow the eastern philosophies. Well then he thought he was going to convert me and began mouthing verse. I told him that the bible was put together by Constantine and i was more interested in what had been left out like the book of Mary Madeline .
He tried to sway me by saying there was more than one christianity and i told him there was 34000 denominations of christianity and a church divided was no church at all. It got quite heated and he kept reminding me that he was an educated man, like thats going to make a difference... to me, you know how i am. And all this in a the airplane, eventually he gave up realizing i am not convertible. (I am a sudan  motorcar, get it? )
We ended up being quite chatty as Indian fellows are.
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| Oct 31 @ 9:24 AM |
WHAT ARE SOME EFFECTIVE ANTIDOTES AGAINST PENTECOSTALISM IN OUR CHURCHES?
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yashaenka
Posts: 8,236
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I must tell you, on my way to Dubai i was sitting next to a reborn Indian fellow. It has been clearly illustrated in India and greater Asia that those people do not toss away their belief systems to embrace Christianity. Christianity just is an add on insurance policy for them.....
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| Nov 1 @ 9:23 AM |
WHAT ARE SOME EFFECTIVE ANTIDOTES AGAINST PENTECOSTALISM IN OUR CHURCHES? |
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dizzydoll
Posts: 597
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Christianity just is an add on insurance policy for them.....
yes they do seem fearful of death, we have many Indians here and they pray several times a day 
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| Nov 3 @ 7:17 PM |
WHAT ARE SOME EFFECTIVE ANTIDOTES AGAINST PENTECOSTALISM IN OUR CHURCHES?
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Bj864
Posts: 3,960
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Remember I told you that I had one uncle that was a pentecostal preacher?
His church members loved him dearly right up to his death and sat around the clock with him when he became very ill.
However, his way of teaching about God was to instill fear of doing the wrong thing (and they had a lot of wrong things on their list).
My aunt (his wife) was going through a very stressful time. Her mother was living with them and believe me when I tell you she could put a person under a lot of stress!  Anyway my aunt was near tears one day and confessed to me that she was living in terrible fear that she might die before she could be forgiven for her sins. She was petrified she would go to hell. When I asked her what terrible sins she could have committed, she said that she had mean thoughts about her mother sometimes. I laughed and said who wouldn't? We then got serious and I asked her if she had so little faith in her God that that she wasn't even allowed to make a mistake, after devoting her life to God for so many years? I asked her if she wasn't allowed to be a human being with human emotions? I ask her if she would treat people in such a horrible manner. She said no, she would never do that. I asked, do you really think God is that petty and mean? Somehow she had never thought about it like that. She said, but the bible says. I said, think about this; the bible was written by MAN many years ago. They put in there what THEY believed to be true. Are you going to let THEM decide for you that God is that vengeful and petty that you would be in hell for eternity for a normal human reaction?
Anyway, I think using common sense and pointing out some things to her helped her a lot. She said it did and many years later, when she died, she was ready to go and she went without fear............
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| Nov 6 @ 11:51 AM |
WHAT ARE SOME EFFECTIVE ANTIDOTES AGAINST PENTECOSTALISM IN OUR CHURCHES? |
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yashaenka
Posts: 8,236
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It is easy to get around the fear of dying. Do we die or does our body simply stop functioning. Everything is recycled given enough time.
We are a duality a body in form and a life force [energy] Eastern mysticism talks about our true nature and religions talk about Soul, Spirit etc. All of these are thought to be immortal, not of the body yet residing within the body.
So if you think the true you is not your body but one of the above and accept that as true you and your true nature was never born and so it never dies 
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