You mean hip-hop?
Posted on 04/24/2006 9:43:14 AM PDT by george wythe
To those outside the movement, Pentecostals have always seemed exotic, a strange subculture with weird, even frightening, practices. How then to explain that according to the World Christian Database, it is now the second-largest and fastest-growing Christian group in the world, behind the Catholic Church, with about 580 million followers? Or that formal Episcopalians and contemplative Catholics include Pentecostal practices in their services? Or that nearly every mainline and evangelical denomination has been influenced by Pentecostal musical styles, as anyone who has been to a contemporary worship service can attest?
Bishop John Howe of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida, who once pastored a church with "charismatic" leanings, says the Pentecostal movement has been "a tremendous blessing" to all Christian churches.
[snip]
Speaking in tongues is probably the practice that puzzles and alarms non-Pentecostals the most. In some Pentecostal denominations, such as the more traditional Assemblies of God, the practice is downplayed and not much in evidence. Cecil M. Robeck, professor of church history at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., said in a recent interview that only about 40 percent of Pentecostals speak in tongues, and the number is lower in Third World countries, where the movement is growing the fastest.
[snip]
But some traditions are openly hostile to the practice. Earlier this year, the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board adopted a policy that forbids any of its future missionaries from having a "private prayer language." The new policy reflects a longstanding antipathy among Baptists for speaking in tongues, which they regard as based on a faulty interpretation of scripture.
(Excerpt) Read more at theledger.com ...
Yep...AG is trinitarian. UPC is "Jesus-only", and believes, IIRC, in "immediate dunkification" subsequent to confession of faith.
Hare Krishna?
You mean hip-hop?
The only unknown tongue I want is Latin!
If it's not Latin it's not rite!
Good one!
**THE FASTEST GROWING CHURCH does not mean much. The broad road that leads to destruction has most of the people traveling on it, so this does not prove much of anything.**
True.
Growing or not, "few there be that find it".
yes, there are some groups, that are not Pentecostal, that encourage women to not cut their hair, and to wear dresses/skirts.
As a truck driver, I hear all sorts of comments over the CB radio. When in heavy traffic, the 'noise box' is filled with comments about what a woman is wearing. While they prefer oxposed skin, tight slacks/jeans still set off the chatter. How the woman is sitting (leg positions). But when a woman has a dress on (that goes below the knee), the comment is usually something like, "Nevermind, she's got a long dress on".
I am grateful that my God-fearing wife let the Spirit guide her to be modest in dress. Nobody forced her. She has maintained a terrific figure for our nearly 28 yrs of marriage; but for the last 24, (wearing a dress or skirt that reaches about halfway between her knee and ankle), I haven't noticed male friends (yes, friends!!) and strangers staring at her lower half.
I believe the Word mentions that it's not good to cause others to sin.
She's always had long hair, and I just love it!
Pentacostals are by and large much more conservative than your average church goer.
Charismatics however, who may or may not be pentacostals, tend to be more liberal in dress, rock music and letting music overtake services, allowing women to drive services with emotional outburst and not focus on preaching as much.
This can work both ways. I graduated from an Assembly of God college and was at one time a licensed minister in a Pentecostal denomination. Today, I am an ordained Southern Baptist pastor because I could not justify the bizarre activities plaguing the pentecostal and charismatic circles. Unfortunately, experience has often become their authority rather than Scripture. A playground for demonic activity. Do I believe that many or most pentecostals have been born-agin? Absolutely! Will I share a place with them in heaven? Absolutely! Do I believe they have been led astray in many cases by error and false doctrine? Yes! Not only in the areas of tongues and prophecy, but in the area of "maintaining salvation by works." Most pentecostal and charismatic movements teach doctrinally that one can lose their salvation. Do I love my Pentecotal and Charismatic brothers and sisters? Absolutely, I just think they have gone astray with experience and also have failed to denounce doctrines promoted by predominately pentecostal groups such as Word of Faith and their false teahings. By the way, I am a firm believer in the Holy Spirit and believe He is and wants to be active in the local church. However, He always points to Jesus and not Himself. Remember, T.D. Jakes is a Pentecostal who denies the Trinity with impunity from other Pentecostal and Charismatic organizations. Scripture must always be the final judge of all things!
Very good observation. Islam is outgrowing many Protestant Christian denominations. Does that mean they are the true religion?
No Shana Tova for them!
600 million Pentecostals? So Pentecostalism is approaching the size of the Catholic Church? I find this hard to believe.
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