arapahoepark
Puritan Board Professor
How do you argue theologically that what some Pentecostals do (shaking, passing out, screaming, etc.) Is not only weird but wrong?
Pentecostal weirdness
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Scott Bushey
Puritanboard Commissioner
Most any occurrence like this in scripture is equated with illness or demon possession. Matt 9:17
It’s hard to argue theologically with most Pentecostals who have that mindset. 
Bill Duncan
Puritan Board Freshman
I think Taylor's blog speaks much to this though you would have no success with those who are being tossed by the waves and blown by the winds. However many eventually are carried by the tumult to a safe harbor in Christ. Praise God we may see his hand in rescuing many from Satan's lies.
https://taylorlsexton.wordpress.com...ger-of-ignorance-of-the-scriptures/#more-2108
https://taylorlsexton.wordpress.com...ger-of-ignorance-of-the-scriptures/#more-2108
Bill Duncan
Puritan Board Freshman
This helped me remember a story an PCA Elder once told me. He was baptized at a Jim and Tammy Baker show while traveling home from a Florida vacation. Just happened to stop by their PTL Club facility in Charlotte. He then joined a Calvinistic Pentecostal church, what ever that is, in his home town. Got into reading Arthur Pink and John Stott. He became one of the best bible teachers I new. Great story of God's deliverance.
ZackF
Puritan Board Professor
Taylor beat me to it but I’d ask, ‘Is this how God wants us to honor and worship him?’
What do you expect would be the reply? Sadly, more often than not, I think you'll be met with shock, alarm, and accusations of narrowness or stifling the "Spirit".
ZackF
Puritan Board Professor
Maybe. Chances are the person hasn’t even thought about it.
I suppose it depends on the person, but I'd say from experience that most in those circles take the supposed wonders for granted.
My memory of my Pentecostal upbringing feels confused. I had no concrete sense of what I actually believed, just a collection of loosely-held doctrines bobbing about like boats cut from their moorings. Shouting, flailing, babbling... The truth of the doctrines was just assumed. I didn't even know of another kind of Christianity.
Digressing a bit now, but that ignorance was better than indoctrination would have been. It was that ignorance that, one day, led me, unknowing of the differences, into a Presbyterian church.
chuckd
Puritan Board Junior
Very true. I'd try to outdo them in their convulsions and tongue speaking until they tell you what you're doing is fake. Then have them prove theologically what you're doing is not true worship.It’s hard to argue theologically with most Pentecostals who have that mindset.
Hmm, interesting! I wonder if that one’s been tried!!
Physeter
Puritan Board Freshman
I used to go to Pentecostal churches years ago. It's emotionalism. Their whole system rests on emotion rather than the sure foundation of scripture. I ended up leaving it behind when their 'prophets' starting prophesying over me about things I never did and saying things about me that were flat out untrue. I knew then and there that the experience was fake.
JimmyH
Puritan Board Senior
At 36 years old I came to believe by reading the Bible, alone, with no instruction, interpretation, outside of my own. I did this to prove to myself what I had heard as a kid, that, 'the Bible contradicts itself. Beginning at the Gospels I got to Romans chapter 1 and knew I was a sinner in need of a Saviour.
I began to go to a local AOG church, it was the closest to me. I had resolved to commit myself to attending every Sunday for 3 months, whether I liked it or not. I did not like it. The congregation was about 100 on average, and only a handful broke out in tongues, and less in prophesy. One man seemed to be the self appointed interpretor of the tongue speaking.
By the time I had the 3 months under my belt I was fed up with it and found a Baptist church. What stood out for me in that AOG church was the 'gifts' tended to be self aggrandizing, and loving your neighbor, by being friendly to new individuals, like myself, was not a gift they received. In 3 months I don't think 3 people ever said hello to me.
I began to go to a local AOG church, it was the closest to me. I had resolved to commit myself to attending every Sunday for 3 months, whether I liked it or not. I did not like it. The congregation was about 100 on average, and only a handful broke out in tongues, and less in prophesy. One man seemed to be the self appointed interpretor of the tongue speaking.
By the time I had the 3 months under my belt I was fed up with it and found a Baptist church. What stood out for me in that AOG church was the 'gifts' tended to be self aggrandizing, and loving your neighbor, by being friendly to new individuals, like myself, was not a gift they received. In 3 months I don't think 3 people ever said hello to me.
But to the OP, there is of course a theological argument, and it’s the ramifications of the RPW- we may only do in worship that which God has prescribed. Over time one who really loves the Lord and wants to know his will be convinced in that way that such things are not only weird, but wrong.
Also church history could help. Knowing how Pentecostalism began in this country and who its key players were can help. Ian Murray has a pretty good book about it, as I recall.
It’s such a big topic. The kinds of dramatics you’ve described go back to the First Awakening and Pentecostalism eventually flowed out of that.
Also church history could help. Knowing how Pentecostalism began in this country and who its key players were can help. Ian Murray has a pretty good book about it, as I recall.
It’s such a big topic. The kinds of dramatics you’ve described go back to the First Awakening and Pentecostalism eventually flowed out of that.
Santos
Puritan Board Freshman
It is extremely difficult to show a Pentecostal their error from scripture precisely because their system is based so much on emotionalism and continued revelation. When feelings and personal revelation are raised to the same or higher authority than scripture it's impossible to use a scriptural argument that would be effective. I come from several generations of Pentecostals. I am free from that by the grace of God.
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