(topic suggested by dear friends)
I am like you. I had that same revelation. It was a very irritating moment of revelation. I was in church when I realized almost every worship and choir song I had been singing was written by someone who does not believe they need to speak in tongues to get to heaven.... and if we're following the logic here, this meant I was probably singing a song that was written by someone who by all accounts is going to hell...
After much headache, here's the five possible solutions you can take to resolve this dilemma...
Options:
1) You can become that punitive cynical Pentecostal who continues to go to church that supports the Acts 2:38 message, but behind closed doors you tell all your friends that you don't believe Oneness Pentecostals will be the only one's saved and that it's not our purpose to judge other people's salvation while here on earth.
Which means = Cowardly Christianity.
You support a church's judgments about Acts 2:38 but act like it's not as serious as what Oneness Pentecostal preachers make it out to be. In other regions of the world we call this decaffeinated Christianity. I call it castrated Christianity.
It's like those silly UPCers who say cutting your hair is not a heaven/hell issue... Which is dumb. Because if it's a sin like all other sins, it's hateful to pretend like God won't hold people accountable if they are sinning.
Either hair cutting is a sin, and it's a heaven-hell issue OR it's not a sin and if it's not a sin it's absolutely heretical and sinful to make it a standard about holiness.
2) You could reason that while most songs are written by non-Pentecostal worship leaders, it is true that God can use people without the Holy Ghost to write great music that will be used in Oneness Pentecostal churches. In other words, the whole "if God can speak through a donkey" bit....
The key will be to ignore that God seems to have a weird plan where he never bothers to let the non-Pentecostal songwriter that he needs to speak in tongues and yet at the same time never inspire an Apostolic Pentecostal songwriter to write a song that is anything as close to being as good as the music that comes from non-Pentecostal Christian church.
Which means = God is severely misguided about where he's placing his anointing.
3) You could hope beyond hope that Oneness Pentecostals get their act together and actually write songs that are as anointed as the non-Pentecostal worship music. In other words.... music like this.....
Which is just downright encouraging....
Until you realize that this song completely ripped off a country song that has swear words in it.
But we've made this whole point before. (Tell that Haney character that we're on to his shenanigans)
4) Consider the whole ordeal a test of your faith and/or Satan.
5) Take that thought about non-Pentecostals writing all the music your church uses and throw it into the sea of forgetfulness and hope it never resurfaces.
It's easier this way.
A UPC Pentecostal Hoedown or a Grechen Wilson Boogie Woogie (it's all Babylonian Music btw) As Rebbi Nachman said: "Music has a tremendous power to draw you to God. Get into the habit of always singing a tune. It will give you a new life and send joy into your soul. Then you will be able to bind yourself to God. It is especially good to sing on Shabbat and the festivals, and at a wedding celebration." (the festivals...the ones COMMANDED by God...they weren't Christmas and Easter for anyone interested in 'truth'.)
ReplyDeleteEverything comes from the Creator, HaShem, (blessed be his name)! See how small it is to put a label a melody as a "non-Pentacostal"? Ask this question, Is God in the Devils heart? God is everywhere... even in the Devils heart.
Tongues and interpretation (or "interpretation") occur frequently at a church I've attended. Typically the interpreter is the preacher who uses it as an occasion to reiterate points he already made in his sermon. I've often doubted the divine inspiration for these interpretations, as they often appear to mimic the speaker's own thought processes and speech patterns. (Do I believe that tongues and interpretation can occur and be divinely inspired? Yes. Have I been in situations where I believe I've experienced it? Yes. But do I believe every instance is God-driven? No.)
ReplyDeleteAll that said to say: I recently experienced a tongues and "interpretation" that sealed my opinion of the veracity of such messages in this particular church. The preacher interpreting actually said (supposedly speaking directly to us on behalf of God), "You plus me equals a majority."
Seriously? We're now quoting 1970s children's church songs in our interpretation? ("Me and Jesus, we are a majority - against principalities - he fights our battles with ease...") Either God has a real sense of humor or this preacher was speaking out of his own thoughts, opinions and world view.
I've also heard interpretations where I felt relatively certain it was happening of a person's own accord, rather than a move of God. I've seen someone lose their train of thought during them, and they'll trail off and kind of forget the point they were trying to make - so they start filling in and it all falls to pieces. Or sometimes the message will end up with some sort of personal rant that you know is likely the result of the person speaking, rather than God. I don't know if the person is mistaking their own thoughts as being God's thoughts...or if they are just trying to give themselves a spiritual gift.
ReplyDeleteThis point, as well as many others, is why I finally had to say goodbye to the UPC. I got to the place where I had exhausted all of the excuses and reasoning that I could come up with to justify the insanity, and I just couldn't do it any more. Just because people are "good people", does not justify them perpetuating bad religion. It was not easy to make that break, but it had to be done.
ReplyDeleteDizzyDe - That's exactly why I left. After years of trying to make the Word agree with what I saw or believed, it was liberating to allow my beliefs to agree with Word instead. The "Word of the Lord" in interpretations was more times than not the "Word of Brother or Sister So-and-so."
ReplyDelete