Second Great American Awakening - Cane Ridge
This was brought about by Barton W. Stone as he borrowed from the Methods their schemes and scams for bring in the SEEKERS. They brought in what is defined as ancient and modern Devil worship in Iraq. The fact is that many "itenerants" lifted up both the attractive women and their money.
See a bit of the 100% evidence that "musical" worship was charismatic worship and that promoted and involved perverted sexuality--usually with a beautiful youth as an "intern priest." Click for Charismatic worship. ANY music which excites the mind or "lifts it up" is charismatic and the induce "drug high" produces the effects of FIGHT, FLIGHT or SEXUALITY. That is why a church which add music (always charismatic) causes about half to FLEE for their lives without knowing what creates the revulsion.
"God in the Cow Pen, pictures an old-time camp meeting, with the local prostitute plying her trade in the woods adjacent. There is a relation between sex and the emotional and mystical aspects of religion that deserves a saner and more sympathetic study than it has yet received. Most mystics have been women and many were unmarried or experienced an abnormal sex life. Of the four hundred cases of stigmatization on record, over three hundred were women and all but twenty were unmarried. The language and imagery of the mystics are often extremely erotic" (These are "examples of persons in whom sexual abnormality and mysticism blended." Clark, Elmer T., The Small Sects in America, p. 90n, Abingdon)
Middleclass Protestants in POST-INDUSTRIAL America were increasingly literate producing and devouring newspapers magazines, histories, novels, and poetry in enormous quantities. At the same time, male and female roles were being redefined, and many men spent their energies in the business and politics of an expanding society. Those were arenas from which both women and ministers, by custom and/or law, were excluded. Religion itself was becoming a separate sphere, no longer directly linked to government and public affairs, and ministers had lost the prestige their forefathers had as scholars and advisers to magistrates. Together with their most faithful followers, middleclass women, they created a realm of intense religious experience, separate from the larger society, and gave it expression in poetry and hymnody. Gospel Hymns Sandra S. Sizer p. 186 - 187 Eerdman's Handbook To Christianity in America.
See how "christianism" hymns stem from Voodoo.
Too bad: the Bible repudiates "religion" and is the Synagogue of Christ: a School of the Bible and of Christ. A synagogue "has no praise service." Not even fools would try to bring in effeminate music into the midst of "how to the forest fire" instructions.
This is a perfect picture of "doing church" which honors Circe, the holy whore of Revelation. Even its "god" is named after Gad the hostile tribe and "god of fortune." its sexual and homosexual component runs underground but the SEXUAL STIMULANT of harmonic singing of "erotic praise song." Sometime the male organist runs away with the male "music minister." We are told that some of the female "backbone" of the change to a new style worship wants a greater display of female authority (Authentia: both erotic and murderous) as well as more tolerance for divorce and remarriage. Women cannot "preside" but they now HAND PICK the preacher: the soft mushy type (like hairdressers) are less threatening than a male oriented person. Some hucksters even sell books and CDs in the church building! We have noted that actors experience "gender bleed."
BOOK: Citizens of Zion: The Social Origins of Camp Meeting Revivalism by Ellen Eslinger Citizens of Zion does more than explain a particular instance of religious revivalism (Cane Ridge); it explores the creation of a new form of worship that enabled people to relate more comfortably to a changing society through an intense collective experience.About a decade ago the Laughing Exercises came to Nashville. That was to be countered by the Jubilee which has NO meaning aside from the Atonement. Tippy toe efforts to go charismatic: singing groups, instrumental music, raising "holy" hands and laying on of hands.
About the same time the preacher and a doctor planned to RESTORE the Cane Ridge "awakening" which, like the first one, was related more to witchcraft than Christianity.
The "change agents" have decided that the Old Bible has no value and that 'we must partner with God' to get a new one. The PARADIGM was not the school of the Bible Jesus founded but to restore the Caneridge Charismatic madness.
This has led to "musical" singing rather than TEACHING the Word as it has been taught. Like the frontier paganism, people see this as mind manipulation, sorcery or witchcraft and half or so flee for their lives. The cause not clearly understood to them is that they see the sexually perverted standing in the 'holy places' actually claiming that they can lead you into God's presence. What they are doing is scratching all of your pleasure centers so they can pick your pocket. There IS no law of giving.
"Many tribes supposed lunatics and sexual deviants to be divinely possessed. These men evolved techniques such as drugs, dances and music for deliberately inducing the abnormal forms of consciousness in which they believed themselves to be "in the presence of the gods." H. Bamford Parkes
Science and theology both acknowledge that musical worship calculated to produce an effect in the audience is "low level glossolalia" or speaking in tongues. Because such "praise" music runs scared from the Biblical text, it falls under the condemnation of Paul in First Corinthians chapter 13 and 14. This is true because such performance worship could not exist if the Biblical text was understood or tolerated. Even in ancient paganism, men who allowed themselves to get involved in the purely feminine arts in worship were the effeminate and were secretly held in contempt even by those who enjoyed the performance.
The word aeirô speaks of RISING people up to take their property: to lift, heave, raise up, to lift for the purpose of carrying, to bear away, of ships of burden (this is the burden Jesus died to remove) to lift up for oneself, to raise or stir up, to undertake a long war, metaphor to be lifted up, excited, [the dagger] hung always by the sword-sheath.This has the same meaning as: aeidô to sing, then of any sound, to twang, of the bowstring, to whistle, of the wind, to ring, of a stone struck, sing, chant.
Haireo and related words show that it means to choose to take over stolen property by lifting it up and carrying it away. Heresy, therefore, identifies the kleptomaniac. It means that they will lie, cheat and steal: only the law keeps them from killing you. The word aireô further defines heresy in the sense of LIFTING up for your own purposes. The word aeidô shows that the weapon or "instrument" of creating panic in order to steal as a heretic is: to sing, then of any sound, to twang, of the bowstring, to whistle, of the wind, to ring, of a stone struck.
The Greek word Heresy from Liddell and Scott: Haireô means "to take with the hand, grasp, hair. To take by force, to take a city, Il., etc.; to overpower, kill, often of passions, to take, catch, as in hunting, hairein tina kleptonta to convict of theft. To take for oneself. Another form means: take with the hand, grasp, seize as in the Komo or naked dance. Having taken up [the song].
The word Psallo or melody is not a musical word but a warfare word. The musical connection is that the harp or usually bow is TWACKED or TWANGED and it "sings." Psallo does not allow ano other "instrument" and explicitely prohibits the plectrum. The hand plucks away the literal heart. Not is SING a spiritual word. This is why Paul said SPEAK (why is that so hard to grasp) one to another using "that which is written," the Spirit or the Word of Christ. Both sing and melody is IN THE HEART because Jesus said that He would accept worship ONLY in the place of the human spirit--that is where David "worshipped" as he sang psalms "upon my bed."
We have noted on the charismatic movement that GRACE-CENTERED religion was musical and worshipped CHARA. She was a goddess along with the FAITH-CENTERED goddess. Music is charismatic because it raises people or lifts them up with excitement. Science knows that the result of music is FLIGHT, FLIGHT or SEXUAL feelings. Music clearly, by "let's pretend" according to Plato creates GENDER BLEED. It is important to know that music and the other antics at the "awakenings" was a product and a producer of sexual perversion. It comes as no surprise that charismatic speaks of the LOVE-CENTERED love for a man by a man. This was normal in all CRAFTS as pederasty.
P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses (ed. Brookes More) Book 4
- When that Hermaphroditus felt the change,
- so wrought upon him by the languid fount,
- considered that he entered it a man,
- and now his limbs relaxing in the stream
- he is not wholly male, but only half,--
- he lifted up his hands and thus implored,
- albeit with no manly voice; "Hear me
- O father! hear me mother! grant to me
- this boon; to me whose name is yours, your son;
- whoso shall enter in this fount a man
- must leave its waters only half a man."
- Moved by the words of their bi-natured son
- both parents yield assent: they taint the fount
- with essences of dual-working powers.
Women musicians were normally the givers of oracles. The priest "interpreted" the madness induced by gas from a fissure. They were Mousôn prophêtai. A male who sang and played and maybe danced had, according to evidence had to be drunk or perverted. The male prophets which includes any one who claims a superior connection to the Word or to God (Pharisees) engaged in an ORGEI which defines the use of ANY form of music to incite and excite. The episode of "the idolatry of talent" has the rhetorician or performer filling the role of pagan prophesying rather than "teaching that which has been taught." The affairs which go on among any charismatic movement such as Cane Ridge has a PRETEND or more than a PRETEND affair. That is why preachers have to be marginal to be loved by both male and female.
Chraomai
<>I. from the sense of consulting or using an oracle, he was endowed with a good heart, to have money to use for a purpose
2. in various relations, orgêi or thumôi chrêsthai to indulge one's anger, give vent to it,
3. of persons, to be intimate with a manWhen Paul told the males to lift holy PALMS he excluded the women waving hands which always stimulated sexual excesses called ORGE or WRATH. Paul outlawed this in 1 Timothy 2.
As used in the Bible: Airo (g142) ah'ee-ro; a prim. verb; to lift; by impl. to take up or away; fig. to raise (the voice), keep in suspense (the mind); spec. to sail away (i.e. weigh anchor); by Heb. [comp. 5375] to expiate sin: - away with, bear (up), carry, lift up, loose, make to doubt, put away, remove, take (away, up).
This does not mean Enthus O mania worship which makes you a SECTARIAN if you can't tolerate the raw paganism: it means to RAISE your voice to BEAR AWAY the church houses of widows. The word HERESY means to take YOUR peace and deliberately sow discord.
Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Eph 4:28
Paul told Timothy to WORK so that he could contribute to the AGAPE. This was a morning feeding of the destitute on their way to find day work. Paul's example was that he labored to te point of TRAVAIL so he would not burden others. To the Thessalonians Paul nails the burden lading false preachers.
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Eph 4:29
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Eph 4:30
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: Eph 4:31
This is as much a "singing" passage as Eph 5:18-19. From Cane Ridge a band of preachers who knew nothing but had a charismatic (sexual) style spread a band of men collecting the wages of widows.
These antics never remotely changed the Chruch of Christ (T. Campbell named it earlier). Rather, it spread into the Christian church movement, holiness groups and Quakers. Scholars note that Barton W. Stone contributed nothing to the movement where T. Campbell defined church as "a school of Christ" and worship as "reading the Bible and musing on its meaning."
Used with tettix --Apollyon's musical performers or locusts--a winged insect fond of basking on trees, when the male makes a chirping or clicking noise by means of certain drums or 'tymbals' underneath the wings. Plato calls them hoi Mousôn prophêtai. These are the MUSICIANS or Muses of Revelation 18. They will go back into the netherworld with the Babylon whore Christianism with the instrument players and CRAFTSMEN. The word is "techne" and speaks of HOUSE BUILDING whereas of the Temple and of the "synagogue of Christ" He spoke of the human SPIRIT as the only "house" God would visit those giving heed to the Word. They a prov. for garrulity, lalein tettix.
They were thought to sing continually without food or drink, or on a diet of air and dew. Amos in chapters 5, 6 and 8 and Isaiah 5 blame the leaders because they turned to frequent assemblies to take the tithe, to wine and music. The result was that the people hungered and thirsted for the Word but could not find it. Have you noticed that sermons puff out hot air and dew on the forehead.
Aeiro is regularly used with the latin TOLLO "to raise up consume in speech making." The rhetoricians, sOPHISts (serpents), singers and musicians performed the role of SORCERY and were therefore known as parasites. The MARK of the parasite was a musical instrument. the rites of their RITUALISM (Thracian worship) were called orgi-a
- The "lalein tettix" identified those who spoke in gibberish:
laleô to talk, chat, prattle, babble, the proper sense, to chatter, is sometimes opposite to articulate speech, as of monkeys, of locusts, to chirp; of musical sounds, aulôi lalein. The similar word babrazô to chatter, chirp, of the grasshopper. All MUSIC is speaking in tongues in order to silence the songs and sermons of God in Christ: the present Spirit.
Music as the domain of attractive, talented "presenters" is an attempt to "move the worshippers into the presence of God." In that sense such team assault on the nerves of the "audience" is just as charismatic as the belief that 'oinking like a pig' proves that you are "in the divinity." Those who participate in these neo-pagan rites are driven by pride in their own talent thinking that God needs talent or that the "audience" can be "spiritually revived through external means."
Children of a More Radical Emotional Nature
The father of the modern First Great American Awakening movement in America is thought to be John Wesley (1703-91) because of his teachings about a second crisis experience. This is different from Calvinism in that Methodists believed that one could be lost even after the "double cure." While John Wesley built his American success upon the anti-theater "gospel" he was a trained actor who could move people throught rhetoric if not the truth. Even those who did not understand a word he said thought that it was the best sermon they ever heard.
However, many groups came to denounce some of their earlier beliefs. Like Calvin's signs, Wesley taught the need for a "second work of grace" which has been interpreted by others as "speaking in tongues" or some other supernatural sign.
Methodists, generally, would actively seek a supernatural outbreak to prove that they had been selected or had been sanctified while Presbyterians believed that God would find you without teaching you through the Bible.
Like the Arian experience with responsorial singing, many songs have been composed to teach a false doctrine and still hide in our song books "tighter than a brother." For instance, the song "Rock of Ages" taught this theology by its phrase "be of sin the double cure." That is, as in all Calvinism or Calvin-influenced groups, one must be predestinated by God and accept Him. However, in order to be saved one must have a supernatural proof from God (the cornfield conversion). Throughout history, madness has been considered proof that one is "tecthed by god."
"'There is a second experience,' instructed his readers, 'distinct from the first--sometimes years after the first--a second conversion, as it is called.'...We express the two in the words of that favorite hymn, Rock of Ages when we sing, 'Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure.' It is worth noting in passing that in the nineteenth century The Methodist Church in the United States, symptomatic of its changing theological posture, shuffled off the Wesleyan phrase 'double cure' and substituted for it the words 'be of sin the promised cure." (Bruner, p. 43). Bruner, Frederick Dale, A Theology of the Holy Spirit, Eerdmans)
The Methodists were spiritual enough to understand that they were teaching false doctrine in their songs and made the change. However, those who rejected the change to Methodist theology went on to form the Holiness Movement and continued teaching the doctrine of the double cure each time they sang the song.
"It was this general 'shuffling off' of the double experience which troubled some Methodists, giving them occasion to question the aspiration after holiness in Methodist ranks and so to form the holiness movement for the restoration of this second experience and desire for it." (Bruner, p. 43).
When the theology changed, the song naturally changed. This rejection of a second work led to the beginning of modern Pentecostialism which still "sought signs." We follow them into music to "stimulate spiritualism" and even into tongues but "Locke" saves us from ourselves when we stumble over the poison and the snakes.
The major denominations of America: the Pilgrim fathers, Puritans, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists never experienced tongue speaking. It occurred only at these "joint meetings" called specifically to arouse the masses.
Along with the musical processions through the Ishtar gate came the move into Iran and later into Kuwait as the first nation building effort. Is it just accidential that they were sent "fiery chariots" which couldn't even be seen (Stealths) to destroy their army in plague-like proportions?
However, these models of reincarnation never cease and never occur without great damage to the people the "priests" are pledged to protect.
During the Second Great American Awakening at Cane-Ridge the tight groups around the stone-contained fires formed the intimate circles (the mystical circle rite around the sacred stone - pun intended) and engaged in emotional singing. Read Barton W. Stone's account of the magic of Cane-Ridge, add the elements others saw and then read a description of a modern--but ancient--Devil worship revival. This was described by Layard as Assyrian worship in about 1849. He was surprised that it was identical to that described by Herodotus as Egyptian worship which originated as Isthtar-Tammuz worship in Babylon. He also connects it directly to the Aztecs and other nations. This was also practiced by the women (singing Tammuz laments) in the Jerusalem temple and the men in the first Easter (Ishtar) sun-rise service (Ezek. 8).
Bishop Alexander Hislop in The Two Babylons immediately follows his description of the South American revivals with the Assyrian ritual which began when the sun went down only to be replaced with the worshippers own lamps and candles-
See Babylon Worship and Music"As the priests made their way through the crowd to perform their task (the people especially the children had their arms 'passed through the fire' for purification)... and as night advanced, those who had assembled--they must now have amounted to five thousand persons--lighted torches, which they carried with them as they wandered through the forest.
The effect was magical: the varied groups could be faintly distinguished through the darkness--en hurrying to and fro--women with their children seated on the house-tops--and
crowds gathering round the pedlars, who exposed their wares for sale in the court-yard. Thousands of lights were reflected in the fountains and streams, glimmered amongst the foliage of the trees, and danced in the distance.
This also describes the Feast of Tabernacles which at the time of Christ had become a giant fertility ritual for the peddlers of songs, dances, poems, instrumental performance and rhetoric. Other "wares" were also sold as they were in the great "revivals."
"As I was gazing on this extraordinary scene, the hum of human voices was suddenly hushed, and a strain, solemn and melancholy, arose from the valley. It resembled some majestic chant which years before I had listened to in the cathedral of a distant land.
Music so pathetic and so sweet I never before heard in the East. The voices of the men and women were blended in harmony with the soft notes of many flutes.
At measured intervals the song was broken by the loud clash of cymbals and tambourines; and those who were within the precincts of the tomb then joined in the melody... The tambourines, which were struck simultaneously, only interrupted at intervals the song of the priests.
"As the time quickened they broke in more frequently. The chant gradually gave way to a lively melody, which increasing in measure, was finally lost in a confusion of sounds. The tambourines were beaten with extraordinary energy--the flutes poured forth a rapid flood of notes-- the voices were raised to the highest pitch--the men outside joined in the cry--whilst the women made the rocks resound with the shrill tahlehl."
"The musicians, giving way to the excitement, threw their instruments into the air, and strained their limbs into every contortion, until they fell exhausted to the ground. I never heard a more frightful yell than that which rose in the valley. It was midnight. I gazed with wonder upon the extraordinary scene around me.
Thus were probably celebrated ages ago the mysterious rites of the Corybantes, when they met in some consecrated grove."
"Now, the reader cannot fail to have observed that in this Yezidi festival, men, women, and children were 'purified' (atoned for to enable the Jubilee) by coming in contact with the 'sacred element' of fire. (they also received a light from divinity). Therefore it was that 'children were made to pass through the fire of Moloch' (Jer. xxxii. 35), to purge them from original sin, and through this purgation many a helpless babe became a victim to the bloody divinity." (Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, p. 119-120, Loizeaux Brothers)
See More on Nimrod and Babylonian Worship
See other parallel History by Bishop Alexander Hislop
It seems very wise in Charismatic religion to say that "you cannot understand the Bible. Therefore, you need me to perform the worship for you so that you feel very spiritual as proof that God has touched the church." However, it was just the philosophy of unemployed but perhaps wealthy Greeks who had time to study, meditate and believe that they had achieved a higher spiritual development than you even if you were busy with "meals on wheels." Some of the false ideas are:
This most destructive doctrine can be seen to develop in several stages. In the beginning, it was stated by Calvin in his Institutes:
"Not all men are created with similar destiny but eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal damnation for others. Every man, therefore, being created for one or the other of these ends, we say, is predestined either to life or death." (Insti. 111, Ch. 23).
"By the decree of God for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated into everlasting life, and others foreordained into everlasting death. These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained,
are particularly and unchangeably designed;
and their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished." (Confession of Faith, pp 23-24).
No more destructive upsed of emotional stability could be conceived than to believe that your ship is about to sink and that certain people, chosen by the captain, would be able to get on the lifeboat. Others must sink with the ship. No other fact could overcome this mind-altering knowledge.
The outbreak of the irrational was felt in the Great American Awakening in New Jersey in the 1720's and in 1734-1735 in Northhampton, Massachusetts under Jonathan Edwards. It is noted that "masses" of people with no intellectual driving force of their own do in these meetings what the preacher wants them to do. This was true among Calvinists and non Calvinists alike--
"A 'gathered' church meant that each of the members,
as a prerequisite for admission,
must be able to narrate an experience of the new birth without which no one could enter the kingdom...Among many of the unregenerate they would find those prepared to listen to them, for such knowledge of Christian belief as had been spread abroad bred convictions or at least an uneasiness which would respond to the preacher who pled with the unconverted and urged them to repent and turn in faith to God." (Latourette, Kenneth, Christianity Through the Ages, p. 957-958).
See the connection between "believer's baptism" and pagan forms of baptism and initiation into the "clan."
This is what led the Baptist groups to disfellowship and eject the "Reformers" who could worship with those who actually believed that baptism was like the Catholic Eucharist. Read Richarson's notes in Campbell's Memoirs here and here.
This exists in several forms as a continuing belief among those who continued Calvin and Wesley theology--
"The basic and fundamental doctrine of this organization shall be the Bible standard of FULL salvation, which is repentance, baptism in water by immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, AND the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the initial sign of speaking in tongues as the Spirit gives them utterance." (United Pentecostal Manual, p. 22).
These later groups found that the tongues, dancing, singing, handling snakes and drinking poison (without being able to spell the words) could only be stimulated by music. Many don't hesitate to say that "if you ain't spoke in tongues you ain't goin' to heaven." This forces the weak-willed to want to get the proof to be "enfolded" within the clan.
"The doctrine of election, out of the Augustine heritage which was dominant in the churches of the Reformed tradition and which except for those influenced by Arminianism was generally accepted in New England and the Presbyterian churches,
would seem to have discouraged any appeal to the unregenerate.
"If one were among the elect, so the belief ran, God's grace would prove irresistible and would reach all those whom He had chosen for salvation. If, on the other hand, one were not among the elect no amount of preaching would change the status. Yet it was mainly in the (area)...called Calvinism and its doctrine of election that the Great awakening began and made its chief appeal." (Latourette, p. 958).
Calvinism felt no need to try to arouse those whom God would arouse if He wished. However, since God does not seem to come down and repeat the process Christ completed to "give gifts to men," the system simply would not work unless the various churches gave God a bit of help by providing the necessary excitement.
This explains why Thomas Campbell got into his first difficulty by offering communion to those who were not proven to be "regenerate" or "revived" and could "flash" the token given by the clergy. It also explains why the "flashing blue light" which offered salvation to anyone who could believe was eagerly "bought" by those who were not enfranchised--even if they didn't need a gross of something or another.
Campbell rejected the need for "experience" as a "ticket" to join the church and had--along with most Bible scholars--long understood that "faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God." That is why so many people malign him by claiming that he got "church of Christism" from John Locke rather than Jesus. However, Campbell knew that not many people had a genuine miracle in their lives and to be a member they had to manufacture the experience out of their head--to lie if you will. Barton W. Stone also admitted the same thing and claimed that the "exercises" were fanaticism and "did more harm than good."
John Calvin also knew that not many were predestinated but he rejected both preaching and music as a way to get the charismatic proof sign. If God had selected you then He would let you know without the "excitement." Later formulations of Calvinism, however, could not develop churches out of the tiny number of "cornfield conversions." Therefore, there must be a way for "me" to "revive you" in some way. The Babylonians, Hittites and Canaanites did this by "singing songs which were magical incantations and playing the lapis-lazuli flute or beating the drum to resurrect Tammuz" (Tabret=Topheth=Hell). Amos is believed to have warned against the Marzeah which is defined as a "feast with and for the dead" repeated by the women at the Temple while the men held the first sunrise service for their sun god.
Therefore, Paul warned that in Corinth all had the singing-speaking "exercises" but not all had the gift. This is a direct parallel to his less-severe warning to the Romans. If they had a gift it would not strike them down but give them the power to have wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, and etc. All of these would be for "the common good" and not for personal pride.
My Motive May not Be Pure
"The verb 'know' (yada') refers to the closest kind of personal relationship. In some contexts the verv is used for the intimate union between husband and wife (Gen. 4:1);
but here it reflects ancient covenants (or treaty) language, in which a Suzerain 'knows' (that is, enters into covenant relationship with ) a vassal, who in turn is obligated to 'know' (recognize) the legitimate authority of the Suzerain." (Anderson, p. 273).
Conversion, on the other hand is described in Romans ten and comes from teaching, hearing, believing, repenting, confessing and "calling on God" which is done at the time and place of baptism. The goal is not a mental and physical horsewhipping but it is to produce peace and confidence that we have accepted God by accepting His plan. They could have found revival through the words of Jesus which Barton W. Stone claimed to be the only means of conversion or revival--
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
- We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father,
- full of grace and truth. John 1:14
"The one who comes from above is above all;
- the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth,
- and speaks as one from the earth. John 3:31a (see Isaiah above)
The one who comes from heaven is above all. John 3:31b
- He testifies to what he has seen and heard,
- but no one accepts his testimony. John 3:32
The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful.
- For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God,
- for God gives the Spirit without limit. John 3:33-34
The reason Christ needed the "Spirit without limit" or without opportunity for change or addition was specifically to repeat exactly what God gave Him to deliver to the world.
Whatever the words, the message survives that God wants a certain conduct as a result of His instructions. This conduct rarely involves the rituals of either Judaism or paganism.
See Martin Luther's connection of water, Word and Spirit in baptism.
This total "focus of the Spirit" makes God's power through the Word possible to anyone who seeks it as a truth lover. It will give life even if it doesn't fit your sermon outlines--
"The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. John 6:63
Stone quoted this to deny that revival came from fanaticism and demanded that God's power comes through God's Word. He, like Paul, reminded us that:
"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. Rom 1:16
Perhaps this is why Paul told Timothy to devote his time to reading the Word and explaining it, and why the early churches focused upon reading the Bible for hours at a time. This guaranteed that the group would take on the character of God and not that of the leader.
Kildahl (Kildahl, John P., The Psychology of Speaking in Tongues, Harper and Row, 1972) goes on to say that the dramatic displays are explainable by the fact that key people were softened up through cult-like "meetings" which go on and on--
"Many meetings begin about eight o'clock in the evening with prayer and continued testimonies, Bible study, and intermittent prayer until midnight. Only at that late hour might speaking in tongues begin.
The length and intensity of the meeting produced a stressful situation which lowered the normal healthy, conscious resistance of the participants to excessive behavior. Because the situation was open-ended--that is, no one knew when it would finish--it generated a tension which called for closure. It became an anxiety-ridden, structureless occasion.
One way an individual could structure it was to become a member, to join the others. Crowd psychology works on the individual in such an event." (Kildahl, p. 72).
Even the most "spiritual feeling" music has the effect of lowering the normal healthy, conscious resistance. The rational (spiritual) left brain is shut down and the emotional right brain takes over. This removes the ability to make rational judgments. However, when the endorphin-induced "buzz" from the music dies down you are just like the people who take the morphine straight -- you are at a lower emotional and spiritual level than when you began.
However, either "exciting" singing or preaching with a "musical cadence" accompanied with loud noise and motion can induce the same endorphins--morphine! This is often a common feature of great revivals.
"To some extent they were contrived, both by those who exhorted and by those who listened and responded.
Certain techniques, which ministers conscientiously learned, helped push audiences toward an ecstatic frenzy.
Certain hymns, certain tunes worked better than others.
Certain repeated and familiar verbal images, those with great resonance for an audience, worked better than others.
In many of the greatest revivals the spark was a type of confession--the telling of what had happened to oneself there or at an earlier revival.
Some ministers learned the most evocative ways of telling their stories. Several sermonic devices--timing, phrasing, pauses, and above all the display of intense feeling--worked." (Conkin, Paul, Cane Ridge America's Pentecost, p. 106, U of Wis.)
"God has found it necessary to take advantage of the excitability there is in mankind to produce powerful excitements among them before he can lead them to obey... it is necessary to raise an excitement among them till the tide rises so high as to sweep away the opposing obstacles." (Bruner, The Holy Spirit, p. 41).
In ancient religions men became "gods" after their death because they had composed a song (magical incantation) or invented a musical instrument. Their "worshippers" repeated the magical incantation (songs) and found that they could "get the worshippers up" faster by playing musical instruments.
However, during the charismatic outbreaks on the frontier none of the churches would have dared use instrumental music because it was so thoroughly repudiated by Old Testament testimony and New Testament allusions to the pagan charismatic "exercises." For instance, Calvin's influence caused the organ pipes to be melted down because to be "fair" you must not use "childish toys" to induce any form of feeling which might be taken as proof of spirituality. You must allow God to do it.
However, spirit-inducing songs and singing methods coupled with the "musical cadence" of the speaker could get the job done if you provided the other environmental conditions.
Later, however, men discovered that they could make the job easier if they added instrumental music. This has always been for the purpose if "inducing mild or even fanatical ecstasy." There probably are no charismatic churches which have not "paved the way" by the gradual introduction of sing-song preaching, performance singing, instruments for "off hours" finally escalating to drums, cymbals and other noise producers to excite the crowd. This, in turn, calls for "an increasing dose of endorpins"--
"... there is action from beginning to end and it is in large part a musical service... Through there is much singing and when these people sing, they sing not only with their voices but with their hands, and their feet and their bodies...
songs and choruses usually constitute in fact the liturgical element in the Pentecostal meeting...
The music is animated and loud with decisive rhythm; it is often accompanied with
congregational clapping of hands." (Bruner, p. 133).
Aristophanes, FrogsHere is what you find close to the doors of hell.
Dionysus
Now, by the Gods, besides these there should be
Whoever learned Kinesias' pyrrhic dance.Heracles
Dionysus
Next a breath of pipes will surround you,
you'll see a shining light, just like up here,
then myrtle groves, and happy choirs
of men and woman mixed who loudly clap their hands.
And who are these?
Heracles
These are the Mystic celebrants.
Xanthias
By God, I am the donkey at the Mysteries!
But I won't put up with this for one more minute!
Heracles
And these will tell you all you wish to know,
For they live closest by the way to Pluto's door.
And now farewell, my brother.
Dionysus
Thanks, and you too
prosper. But you, take the baggage up again.
Xanthias
What, before I've laid it down?
Dionysus
Yes, sir, at once.
Xanthias
No, please, I beg you, but hire someone
from the funeral party, who's coming just for this.
Early Christian writers condemned any adoption of these activities which they identified as "the Egyptian clapping of hands." One writer noted that to "be in the deity" you had to be "out of your mind"--
"In post-Homeric times the cult of the Dionysiac (Bacchus or wine god) orgies made their entrance into the Greek world. According to this, music, the whirling dance, and means of intoxication had power to make men 'full of deity,' to produce a condition in which the normal state was left behind and the inspired perceived what was external to himself and to sense.
The soul was supposed to leave the body, hence the word 'ecstasy,' a being out of oneself, while other expressions used were 'to rave' and 'to be in the divinity,' the latter expressing the thought that in its absence from the body the soul was united with deity, and so the deity spoke in and from the person in that condition. At such times the ecstatic person had no consciousness of his own." (Schaff-Herzog, Speaking with Tongues, p. 38).
Another device (Campbell and others called it machinery) was to establish the need for a deep inward experience--you are not likely to commit such outrages unless some "authority figure" who "desires power" demands it of you. This was promoted during private prayer meetings and transmitted through the emotional atmosphere of the mass-meeting.
"Much excitement and many emotional disturbances accompanied the revival. Although the expressions were different, one is reminded of the Flagellants whom we have met in Roman Catholic circles. There were screaming, laughing, trances, visions, and convulsions. Some of the preachers and lay exhorters deliberately stimulated these phenomena." (Latourette, p. 960).
Latourette shows that the Flagellants came out of a popular movement outside of the monasteries. He points out that the singing guilds which began in Italy in the twelthy century, became organized in the thirteenth century. "They went in procession thorugh towns, or met in the evenings on piazzas or before some shrine to sing hymns of penitence and adoration. In 1259 "By a kind of contagion men, women, and children bewiled their sins and many of them marched through the streets, naked for loin cloths, crying to God for mercy, and scourging themselves until the blood ran" (Latourette, p. 448). This group became unpopular but arose again later and emphasised popular songs.
Like ancient Paganism, this ritual always needed a few trained "arousers." When this was used on Saul, David induced "an evil spirit from the Lord" to drive him mad because Saul had rejected the Word of God. The "exercises" occurred primarily because God withdrew His Holy Spirit. The charismatic "prophesying" was an evil spirit "from God" because God gave His permissive will.
Latourette shows that the Flagellants came out of a popular movement outside of the monasteries. He points out that the singing guilds which began in Italy in the twelfth century, became organized in the thirteenth century as they added musical instruments (1250 AD). This is the about the time music began to be used in some churches.
These "musical worship teams" often created a horrifying charismatic response.
Like the Arians who introduced antiphonal singing in the West to teach error--
"They went in procession through towns, or met in the evenings on piazzas or before some shrine to sing hymns of penitence and adoration. In 1259 by a kind of contagion men, women, and children bewailed their sins and many of them marched through the streets, naked but for loin cloths, crying to God for mercy, and scourging themselves until the blood ran" (Latourette, p. 448).
The Flagellants became unpopular but arose again later and emphasized popular songs as opposed to the almost universal demand to sing "portions of Scripture."
"Awed by the mysteries of his own spirit no less than by those of nature, primitive man was likely to attribute to divine influence any abnormal emotional state, whether above or below the usual level. Medicine men customarily went into states of trance in which they were believed to be in communication with the gods, and many tribes supposed lunatics and sexual deviants to be divinely possessed.
In most early societies, moreover, men evolved techniques for deliberaly inducing the abnormal forms of consciousness
in which they supposed themselves to achieve union with divine power, sometimes by the use of drugs and other physiological stimuli, sometimes by hypnotic dances and music. The wild utterances to which they gave vent on such occasions were regarded as the words of a god and were interpreted as divine commands or predictions of future events." (Parkes, p. 32-33).
Implicit in this statement and a lot of recorded history (especially among the Greeks) the most successful priest-king would profit from being a lunatic and a sexual deviate. The concept of "knowing God personally" has been likened to "having sexual intercourse with God" or as a homosexual relationship with God.
"God in the Cow Pen, pictures an old-time camp meeting, with the local prostitute plying her trade in the woods adjacent. There is a relation between sex and the emotional and mystical aspects of religion that deserves a saner and more sympathetic study than it has yet received.
Most mystics have been women and many were unmarried or experienced an abnormal sex life.
Of the four hundred cases of stigmatization on record,
over three hundred were women and all but twenty were unmarried. The language and imagery of the mystics are often extremely erotic"These are "examples of persons in whom sexual abnormality and mysticism blended." (Clark, Elmer T., The Small Sects in America, p. 90n, Abingdon)
The men who induced charismatic antics had well-known qualifications in which the "sermon" was really a ritual drama or play by which the audience was manipulated to applaud the speaker even if the watching world would see him and them as insane. Therefore, we will look at some of the historical warnings which can prevent modern religious breakdowns.
Paul warned that the contest was between the "super apostles" or "trained speakers" who were really theatrical performers and the Word of God coming from an unattractive teacher. He warned of men who needed to be silenced because they were deceiving whole families for their own selfish interests (Titus 1:11)
"Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. Titus 2:2
Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Titus 2:3
Then (and only then) they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, Titus 2:4
Paul issued this warning because some of the Cretans were just lying. Tatian told us what this meant--
"Your modes of acting are contrary to reason, for you make a pompous appearance in public, but hide your teaching in corners... The tombs of Olypian Zeus is shown among you, though some one says that the Cretans are liars (probably Callimachus) (Tatian to the Greeks, Ante-Nicene, Vol. II).
- Those who came after adopted the worship (of Zeus) without examination.
- The Cretans always lie; for they, O king,
- Have built a tomb to thee who art not dead." (p. 145)
"The Cretan, in whose country he was buried, will show him to you, -- I mean Callimachus, in his hymns:--
- For they tomb, O king,
- The Cretans fashioned (p. 181).
It is important to hear what Barclay said of the process which brought on madness at Corinth. Combined with the other background material we have examined, what was happening in Corinth was what could happen on any street corner or even in pagan temples. Therefore, none of it proved that a Christian assembly was taking place. Rather, won't they say that you are mad just like the temple down the street?
This attempt to find the lost god might be like the Feast of Tabernacles as the "men of note" performed their rituals to acquire a name as a "man of good deeds" while the people "lived in tents" and bought sick lambs from the commercial religious institution. Barclay says of common gatherings of that time--
"They made their voices sweet with musical cadences and modulations of tone and echoed resonances. They thought not of what they were saying, but of how they were saying it. Their thought might be poisonous so long as it was enveloped in honeyed words.
Philostratus tells us that Adrian, the sophist, had such a reputation in Rome, that when his messenger appeared with a notice that he was to lecture, the senate emptied and even the people at the games abandoned them to flock to hear him.."
All singing and musical terms were contrived as the art of the sorcerer. That includes anyone who intends to manipulate your mind to make you think or feel a certain way. The religion of the Mother of Harlots is defined by John"You might hear many poor wretches of sophists, shouting and abusing each other, and their disciples, as they call them, squabbling; and many writers of books reading their stupid compositions, and many poets singing their poems, and many jugglers exhibiting their marvels, and many soothsayers giving the meaning of prodigies, and then thousand rhetoricians twisting lawsuits, and no small number of traders driving their several trades."
"The Greeks were intoxicated with fine words; and to them the Christian preacher with his blunt message seemed a crude and uncultured figure, to be laughed at and ridiculed rather than to be listened to and respected." (Barclay, p. 19-20)
[289e] For not only do these speech-writers themselves, when I am in their company, impress me as prodigiously clever, Cleinias, but their art itself seems so exalted as to be almost inspired. However, this is not surprising; for it is a part of the sorcerer's art,
[290a] and only slightly inferior to that.
The SORCERER'S art is the charming of snakes and tarantulas and SCORPIONS and other beasts and diseases,
while the other is just the charming and soothing of JURIES, assemblies, crowds, and so forth. Or does it strike you differently? I asked. [The other being lyre-makers in regard to their lyres]Sorcery is: Pharmakon 3. enchanted potion, philtre: hence, charm, spell, [used with Epôidê,]
Epôidê, Ion. and poet. epa^oidê , hê,
A. song sung to or over: hence, enchantment, spell, epaoidêi d' haima..eschethon Od.19.457 , cf. Pi.P.4.217 ; ou pros iatrou sophou thrênein epôidas pros tomônti pêmati S.Aj. 582 oute pharmaka..oud' au epôidai Pl.R. 426b ; charm for or against
Homer, Odyssey 4. Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, took other counsel. [220] Straightway she cast into the wine of which they were drinking a drug to quiet all pain and strife, and bring forgetfulness of every ill.
Nimrod knew that singers do that: they are called LOCUSTS under Apollyon.
Re.17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: Re.18:3
Re 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:14 And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.
Rev 18:20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
Rev 18:21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
Rev 18:22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians [Apollyon's muses or locusts] and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, [theater builders and stage managers] of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone [called a pipe, made a wistling sound to attract] shall be heard no more at all in thee;
Rev 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
However, then and now, the lover of truth cannot be duped by these mind manipulators--
"A fluent tongue and an elegant style afford pleasure and such praise as vainglory delights in, to wretched men who have been corrupted in mind; the lover of truth does not give heed to ornamented speeches, but examines the real matter of the speech." (Theophilus to Autolycus, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 89).
In discussing the Sophists and the music connection Clement quotes some poets--
- "For mortal's tongues are glib, and on them are many speeches;
- And a wide range for words of all sorts in this place and that."
- A river of silly words--not a dropping."
- Such a hive of sophists have ye examined."
- "And similarly Iophon, the comic poet, in Fluteplaying Satyrs, says
- For there entered
- A band of sophists, all equipped.
"Of these and the like, who devote their attention to empty words, the Scripture most excellently says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise." (Clement, The Instructor, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 304).
This may allude to the rituals described by Tertullian where the show was to make a spectacle or play out of worship--
"And then there is scarce any other object in going to the show, but to see and be seen. When a tragic actor is declaiming, will one be giving thought to prophetic appeals? Amid the measures of the effeminate player, will he call up to himself a psalm?" (Tertullian, de Spectaculis, Ante-Nicene, III, p. 89).
In the same way, Calvin taught that hearing the Word might have been the original method Jesus used to create faith. However, once "predestination" is in force one receives faith as a supernatural sign that one is among the chosen--
"But they do not consider, that when the apostle makes hearing the source of faith, he only describes the ordinary economy and dispensation of the Lord, which he generally observes in the calling of his people;
but does not prescribe a perpetual rule for him, precluding his employment of any other method; which he has certainly employed in the calling of many, to whom he has given the true knowledge of himself in an internal manner, by the illumination of his Spirit, without the intervention of any preaching." (Calvin's Institutes, Westminster Press, Vol. II, p. 622).
Many people--especially some historical charismatics--deny that this is the dispensation of the Lord. Therefore, why use the methods of the Lord? Now, we live under the "dispensation of the Spirit" and you had better not be caught trying to legalistically find God's message in Scripture--that "dead letter" that "written word."
Paul said that "charismatic worship is insanity" but liberals say that searching the Scriptures is insanity. Perhaps this is why liberals cannot find any meaning in Scripture and demand the "leap"--
"God can never be found along any way of thought; for indeed this idea of God bursts through and destroys all the fundamental categories of thought;
the absolutely antithetical character of the basic logical principles of contradiction and identity.
To want to think this God for oneself would mean insanity." (Brunner, Emil, Revelation and Reason, pp 46f.)
John Locke is the "bugbear" of modern critics of the restoration movement in their (new--but ancient--hermeneutic) because, while rejecting inspiration as it is now defined by Calvinism, Locke claimed that "we have nothing in our minds which has not been put there through one of the human senses." Those who believe they might be inspired, however, feel that these God-ordained senses are not adequate. Jesus refuted this and said that "My words are spirit and life" and the apostles felt that what they knew needed to be recorded. Barton W. Stone accepted this as forcefully as did Campbell. But then, Jesus lived under "the dispensation of Jesus."
- John Locke risked his life and liberty to define a method of fellowship.
It was not uncommon, therefore, that the very persons who said that it was "insanity" to try to think about God or to preach to bring about salvation want to "teach" and "preach" that which cannot be taught or preached. You can't grasp it but I can teach it. This was why even songs had to be "presented" by one ordained and certified as a type of "mediator" between the Word retranslated into songs and delivered to you as a "sacrament."
Speaking in tongues is held to be the absolute sign that one is saved. However, because people rarely spoke in tongues out on the frontier, there arose a style of preaching which largely ignored the Word and concentrated on trying to "meet the needs" of arousal--
"At associations and great meetings, where there were several ministers, many of them would exercise their gifts at the same time, in different parts of the same congregation; some in exhortation, some in praying for the distressed, and some in argument with opposers... others fanned them, as fire from heaven. It is not unworthy of notice,
that in those congregations where the preachers encouraged them to much extent, the work was more extensive.... and many preachers 'fanned them as fire from heaven'." (Stone Biography, p. 357).
To understand early forms of preaching you have to understand Jewish and Calvinistic "experiences." The pagan's hired "Arousers" or "awakeners" or today, Musical Worship Facilitators, who were often foreign women who could "sing the magical incantation or play music to arouse the worshipper to make them feel that god was aroused." Later, when Scripture could not support women clergy singers (preaching is now allowed if you use a tune) to "arouse" the church, they choose young boys who "looked and sounded" like attractive women but were males and therefore capable of being clergy.
Before women were even allowed to sing in some of the historical churches, the clergy knew that it needed a choir to elevate the crowd and bring them back next Sunday. Early choirs were made up of young boys who when maturing had to leave the choir or be castrated to prevent the loss of a feminine voice. When women were allowed to sing, then as now, the vocal qualities and physical appearance got the most votes--
"These Valesii, as they were called, never gained the official approval of the church, but until the accession of Pope Leo XIII in 1878 some of the choir boys of the Sistine Chapel in Rome were castrated to prolong the period in which their voices remained in the soprano range." (Garrison, p. 95).
This, of course, was after musical instruments and mixed choirs were common in many Protestant churches. Even the Jews in their synagogues had "christianized" and adopted the "arousal" practice. Many of the Psalms are "arousal" hymns, and during the Inter-Testament period an attempt was made to prevent their being sung.
The ancient pagans literally had a sexual connection with their favorite prophetess or priestess by which they "knew their god personally." This continues in that before people can "abandon" their mind they have to first give it over or "submit" to a charismatic leader with whom they have formed an unhealthy attachment. This "disunity in diversity" had to happen in Corinth before the charismatic outbreak occurred. Because they said "I am of" certain groups--
"Another group phenomenon which evidenced itself among glossolalists was a tendency toward histrionic display.
It is true that the group usually took on the character of the leader.
"When the leader was exhibitionistic, so, too, were the followers.
Where the leader tended to be quiet and reserved, the groups developed that quality of meeting...While we were conducting our study we witnessed tongue-speakers entranced by visions, exorcising demons, foretelling world events, and attempting bizarre methods of spiritual healing." (Kildahl, John P., The Psychology of Speaking in Tongues, Harper and Row, 1972, p. 71).
The subjective leader can survive only so long as he is able to transfer his own personality into the head of his disciples. If he is not able to make the audience feel what he is able to perform then the crowd will migrate to the next church and take its money with it. This may explain the false prophets who "get their wounds in the house of their friends."
These "wounds" afflict the modern ministry to such an extent that personal rejection is seen as rejecting his "ministry" and he crawls back into secular work. Stone did this for awhile. The problem was not the fickle "house of his friends" but expectations which should not afflict a non-charismatic preacher. His authority comes from God but--
"In the cargo cults of Melanesia, the glossolalia likewise verifies the charismatic leader's claim to authority. This seems to be a major social function of glossolalia as practiced by many shamans and priests as reported in many ethnographies." (Pattison, quoted by Jividen, Glossolalia, p. 157).
This infatuation is often necessary to induce ecstasy but it is also damaging to the honest preacher because the validation of authority the leader feels when everyone is on a "spiritual high" can turn around and gore him like an angry bull when the ecstasy-induced drugs wear off--usually before Sunday night.
This, we are assured, was the driving motive for the "super apostles" and "trained speakers" whom Paul condemned in Corinth which James also warned against--
"We see here a somewhat melancholy picture of the struggling self-assertion of rival claimants to attention... The glossolalia had probably been promoted by Syrian enthusiasts, perhaps of the Petrine party; the egotism of oratory and itch of teaching now described (Jas. iii. 2) may have been developed in the Apollonian party... The object is moral improvement, not idle self-display, not the ostentation of individual gifts." (Pulpit Commentary, 1 Cor., p. 459).
This writer supports the notion that James' restriction of the number of teachers was really a warning against charismatic tongues which might break out as a "fire from hell" when later leaders competed for attention.
The conclusion from the Second Great American Awakening at Cane Ridge's aftermath is that the clergy was there to "get their share of the sheep." The only way they could do this was to do "performance preaching" to gain personal allegiance. This gave them power over their "flock." Therefore, rather than being a spontaneous outbreak, from all of the evidence on similar events the exercises were aroused by the leaders who, themselves, needed validation--
"Since experience was essential, and that experience had in it much emotion, seasons were to be expected when a community was aroused and tides swept through it changing many individuals. There were those, especially among the clergy, who prayed for such seasons and sought to encourage them." (Latourette, p. 960).
Perhaps Stone did not get his full "share" of the charismatics after Cane Ridge because he was not personally charismatic. He was "sober" and a careful student and preacher of the Bible as he saw it. This could never compete with those trained specifically in crowd manipulation. Stone seems to agree.
"loving God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. This implies that no wrong temper, none contrary to love, remains in the soul; and that all the thoughts, words, and actions are governed by pure." It is "love expelling sin and governing both the heart and life of a child of God." (Wesley quoted by Bruner).
Stone also had no tolerance for any form of sin in the lives of converts. This love, as we have noted, has meaning only to those who have also received the Spirit as proof of one's new perfection. It does not extend to those who do not believe the exercises or feelings.
As we noted in the beginning, however, this is the ultimate legalism because people are not normally changed and, therefore, the "sweetness" is "sachrine" and leaves a foul taste in the mouth.
"The Gospel, now as then, has to encounter the demand of those who ask for signs. Do we not see the craving for sign--for the display, that is, of supernatural power to crush and silence all doubt resulting in the superstitious corruptions of Christianity? For what is superstition but an appeal from wisdom to power, an effort to silence the reason by the terrors of the senses?... Superstition is still the Nemesis, not of faith, but of unbelief. And every such superstition necessarily grows always grosser and darker as it grows older. For the desire of the teacher for power, combining with the desire of the taught for certainty, must tend always to efforts at making the sign, which is to secure both, still more awful and convincing, by still greater and more awful attestations. A fresh miracle must be provided to silence each fresh heresy, a new prodigy to confirm each new dogma." (Hastings, 1 Cor., p. 7).
Writers who promote "speaking in tongues" (John Sherrill) warn that you may never have the experience again and that you are likely to "feel worse for the experience." However as music produces a drug-high there is a demand for more and better "worship services" to achieve the same level of excitement. When you experience "withdrawal" (often before you get home) you are ready for another "program" certainly by Monday.
The primary reason, however, that the experience could not be "frozen and kept" was that the manipulator had feet of clay. The "experience" which you had shared did not mean that the speaker wanted a "permanent relationship"--he might condemn you for drinking too much wine. The experience which "enfolded" you into the "approved group" did not stretch to the "real world" and the "love affair" turned to hate when the "group" was not there when you needed it (Stone experienced this). The "exercises" provided excitement but Stone demanded a changed life. This demand for a "rigid moral life" could not compete with excitement.
This often happens among more sober--but still untaught--groups when someone feels that "you haven't met my needs." However, it is critical in charismatic religion and other groups which cannot function without the "focus" leader to stand in for Jesus--
"The drop in euphoria occurred when the tongue-speaker ceased to feel good about the experience itself, when he no longer fully trusted the leader who first taught him how to speak in tongues; sometimes this was because the sense of acceptance from the leader was missing. At other times it was because the follower no longer looked at his leader with admiration." (Kildahl, p. 52).
"In our interviews with persons who had formerly spoken in tongues and were now indifferent to the experience, the common cause in each case was a falling out with the leader of the tongue-speaking group. Consequently, each was deprived of his feeling of acceptance and contentment and well-being." (Kildahl, p. 53).
"Our study has produced conclusive evidence that the benefits reported by tongue-speakers which are subjectively real and continuous are dependent upon acceptance by the leader and other members of the group rather than upon the actual experience of saying the sounds.
Whenever a tongue-speaker broke off the relationship with the leader or the group, or felt rejected by the group, the experience of glossolalia was no longer so subjectively meaningful." (Kildahl, p. 55).
Because of the same sexual-like need to be joined to the leader, the process and the group, those who have not been struck down feel that they are inferior. A recent TV evangelist advised young girls not to marry one who had not spoken in tongues because "they are going to hell."
"Initiate tongue-speakers told us that religious services had
further intensified their feelings of worthlessness,specifically because they made them feel inferior for not yet having spoken in tongues, when many of the congregation could already do so. Their feeling of worthlessness lifted and was replaced by a tremendous euphoria as soon as they learned to speak in tongues." (Kildahl, p. 64).
Because most of the members will never have the experience, the vast majority are forced to manufacture the sign (they have books to teach you) or go through life feeling inferior. Indeed, this may have led to Cane Ridge. But even there, if 1,000 out of 30,000 "got it" then the rest must have felt left out--or relieved as things turned out.
This was 6.6% at best or possibly as low as 1%. This compares favorably with Paul's giving speaking in tongues .05% of the value of teaching the revealed Word of God (1 Cor. 14:19).
Therefore, John warned--
"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. -- 1 John 4:1
This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, -- 1 John 4:2
but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. -- 1 John 4:3
Tippett describes what could be pagans in the African jungle but was really in a great American city. He says that "the world of organized animism is not far away"--
"Mamma and Papa began shaking and writhing... Her jerking became more violent. She flung her arms towards the black north sky, and her head rolled violently on her shoulders as if her neck were broken. A scream ripped from her throat... curses and sacred words poured from her lips. She was possessed. The god (demon) had accepted her as an oracle... Papa presented Mamma with a bowl of warm blood from the sacrificial kid. She drank..." (Montgomery, p. 167). Montgomery, John Warwick (Editor), Demon Possession, Bethany House Publishers
Tippett quotes a study of 120 religious societies which showed that in North America 97% (higher than Africa or South America known for its Spiritism) of them practiced "forms of altered states of consciousness." Scholars, for instance, know that most forms of singing is really "low level glossolalia" because the words are out of one's own head and the goal is for me to move you to a level of excitement.
To the extent I do anything to force you to feel "excitement confused as worship" I may be inducing an "altered states of consciousness." When you finally "catch on" to the fact that I have manipulated you then I will have done more harm than good.
Many of the exercises were considered the work of demons. However, by having those present who could cast out demons some real conversions were believed possible. Par added
"(First) if some should be esolved into purely natural causes, (second) some into real enthusiasm and (third) others into Satanic imitation... (fourth) some will remain which cannot be explained." (Stone Biography, p. 360).
Of course this has always been the case. You can't tell the real "spirit" from the false "spirit" (1 John). Others were not reluctant to claim that these outbreaks were demonic--
"These exercises "extended over a great part of Germany, especially affecting the inmates of the convents... These affections were then regarded as the result of demoniacal possessions... They hardly ever appeared, or continued, where they were not approved and encouraged." (Stone Biography, p. 364).
Still others, according to Paul to the Corinthians, may be real insanity--
"...these nervous agitations are of frequent occurrence in all times of strong excitement; it matters little whether the excitement arise from superstition, fanaticism, or the preaching of the truth. If the imagination be strongly affected, the nervous system is very apt to be deranged, and outcries, faintings, convulsions, and other hysterical symptoms are the consequence." (Stone Biography, p. 367)
Rogers then closely associates the experiences with "a convent or camp-meeting." While Wesley saw these "exercises" as proof of his own power, he did not hesitate to show how destructive many were. Rogers quotes Wesley recording a "sitting in the tombs like" experience where the "demoniac" could not be restrained. He was "moon struck" which meant that he acted like an epileptic--or demoniac. Notice the man wom Jesus healed--
"This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. -- Mark 5:3
Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. -- Mark 5:5
When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. -- Mark 5:6
At Cane Ridge they gathered in the groves, on a hill and possibly many camped among the graves in little circles around campfires. This would provide an environment for disaster. The demoniac (epileptic in some texts) was healed by the gentle words of Jesus and--
"When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. -- Mark 5:15
However, the "spirits" or "demons" which possessed him found a suitable home in pigs who, repeated the "exercises" and "went running out of control" and "wounded themselves" by being drowned in the lake. Modern "exercises" are described in the same terms which would describe an epileptic who is excited into a seizure--
"some were torn with a sort of convulsive motion in every part of their bodies, and that so violently, that often four or five persons could not hold one of them. I have seen many hysterical, and many epileptic fits... Here we have a description of that exercise, which in this country has been called the jerks."
"Soon after, I was sent for to one of those, who was so strangely torn by the devil, that I almost wondered her relations did not say, 'much religion hath made her mad.' We prayed God to bruise Satan under her feet... She cried out vehemently, 'He is gone, he is gone!" and was filled with love and a sound mind. Alas! poor human nature." (Wesley, in Stone's Biography, p. 351).
Like Jesus, these men did not see this as a sign of super spirituality but of demon possession. The prayers and quiet speech drove the demons out. The sign of the cure was that she was no longer a demoniac--she did not continue the "exercises" or "sickness" after she experienced the cure.
Many others believed that the exercises proved that they were damned because they had given themselves to the devil. They prayed to the devil (See 1 Cor. 12:1f), asked the "good devil to come and take them away" and promised that "I will be yours." It was only after the expectations of those praying for them had been expressed, that they came out of the delusion. Perhaps, they were demon possessed. If so, the "exercises" were proof of possession and needed to be prayed away (See Stone Biography, p. 352).
However, if you have a demon don't use it to prove that you are more spiritual than the rest--demon possession is not part of the Christian revival process as people obviously believed--
"No intimation of their beating themselves against the ground, tearing it up with their hands--running against a wall--praying to the devil, and calling upon him to dash out their brains--to take them to hell--no such ravings and evidences of mental derangement, or the most pitiable fanaticism as these. Nor did they fall into trances, or ecstacies, exclaiming, 'He's come!'... 'I've got Christ." (Stone Biography, p. 374)
In Romans, chapter ten, Paul will warn against being "carried away" by demons as Israel had at Mount Sinai. And the danger in Corinth was that some of those who were still attached to idolatry might allow their mind to be carried away into the ecstatic speech and actually vent their rage against God by saying that "Jesus is cursed."
We have noted that more than just speaking strange sounds was taking place at Corinth because the "ignorant auditor" could not agree but thought that they were crazy--
"The ignorant auditor cannot say 'amen' to it. For unbelievers it can only be a sign of their hardening, namely, that God permits them to be spoken to in this unintelligible manner, as Paul makes known with a peculiar use of a pronouncement from Isaiah." (Ridderbos, p. 466) Ridderbos, Hermon, Paul, an Outline of His Theo., Eerdmans
While the children see the Old Testament and Paul telling them that their giddy games are proof of their Divine approval a more mature look shows, in the words of scholars, that--
"The sense of the Old Testament quotation which is inserted in this context (v. 21) is more serious than may appear on the surface: the effect of tongues is to harden, not soften the hearts of unbelievers. Tongues are a divine 'hardening-instrument'." (Bruner, p. 299).
Bruner then describes a charismatic businessman's luncheon which had been entertained by a high school choir. When the charismatic exercises began, the choir slowly stole away from the embarrassing scene, while teaching may have held one of them.
In Isaiah, those whom Paul identified as tongues speakers are called "arrogant speakers in tongues" and they would ridicule God's people for a time but would be sent a "strong delusion" so that they fled--
"Heb., with stammerings of lips, Sept. (LXX Isa. 28:11), By reason of contemptuous words of lips... The point of the quotation is that speech in strange tongues was a chastisement for the unbelief of God's ancient people, by which they were made to hear His voice 'speaking in the harsh commands of the foreign invader.' So in the Corinthian church, the intelligible revelation of God has not been properly received." (Vincent, p. 271).
"Signs are not for the positively unbelieving, since, as we have seen, they will exercise no power over such as harden themselves against the truth; these will resist or evade them as surely as they will resist or evade every other witness of God's presence in the world." (Trench p. 31)
Being aware of the parabolic languages of Genesis, early theologians understood that that the charismatic worship of Cain and his decendants -- Jubal, Jabal, Tubal-Cain and Naamah -- acted as a control agent but the effects were a form of warfare. In modern terms, it was the New Lights against the Old Lights. Of Cain, Clement wrote:
"For he was a murderer and a liar, and with his sins was not willing to be at peace with respect to the government. Moreover, those who came forth by succession from him were the first adulterers. And there were psalteries, and harps, and forgers of instruments of war. Wherefore also the prophecy of his descendants being full of adulterers and of psalteries, secretly by means of pleasures excites to wars." (The Clementine Homilies, Homily III, Chapt XXV, Ante Nicene Fathers, Vol 8, p. 243).
Among many preachers in these exercises it was important to see mental and physical convulsions as "divine attestations of the truth of Calvinism." This was the affirmation that they were "doing it right." However, of the Wesley record--
"... it would be very easy to show, from Mr. Wesley's Journal, that disorders, fearful declensions, and numerous apostasies, followed upon the heels of these exercises." (Stone Biography, p. 379).
"Those under its influence pretended to a power of discerning spirits, of deciding at once who was, and who was not converted; they professed a perfect assurance of the favor of God, founded not upon Scriptural evidence, but inward suggestion." (Stone Biography, p. 382).
During both the first and second "awakening" while the emotional high of the moment--like a drug high--was seen as proof of super-spirituality, when the drug wore off, observers could say with Paul to the Corinthians, "your meetings do more harm than good." (See Isa 29 above). It is not surprising that after the "exercises" are over and the "booty has been divided up" the jealousy and conflict had not benefited the church much as revival.
"Divisions in the churches accompanied and followed the Great Awakening. The more ardent preachers of the revival had sharp words for those ministers whom they deemed unconverted. Whitefield occasionally spoke caustically of those who did not follow him. Others were even more vehement. On the other side were many, both clergy and laity, who were alienated by the emotional excesses, were angered by the denunciations of the more ardent itinerant preachers... 'New lights' 'Old lights' in Presbyterian and Congregational churches often separated into distinct units." (Latourette, p. 960).
"These excesses split the American church in twain. The New Lights vehemently denounced the customary order of things and the saner preachers as 'an unconverted ministry.' (Critics laimed that)
"Our presses are forever teeming with books and our women with bastards' as a result of the stir." (Clark, Elmer T., The Small Sects in America, p. 90, Abingdon)
Those who "have it" usually belittle and effectively disfellowship those who "don't have it." This runs counter to the claim that "we are the spiritual people"--
"They have not hesitated to denounce persons opposed to these extravagancies, however regular and orderly in their conduct, as cold formalists,
having a name to live, while dead; and if they were preachers they have been stigmatized as dumb dogs--as blind leaders of the blind--as standing in the way of the work of God.
Meetings in which these exercises were not experienced, were regarded as cold, formal and uninteresting--while those in which there was much noise and confusion, much of these bodily agitations, were regarded as spiritual, and very profitable." (Stone Biography, p. 375)
This repeats the common first century practice of turning Paul's theology upside down. He would stress that "nothing good dwells in my body" and that to be spiritual one must be rational (Rom. 12:1) where one's worship is in terms of service to others.
Of later "Cane-Ridgism" Kildahl states that in the charismatic churches he studied "the word passed rapidly as to who was the latest to 'have the gift.' And almost as quickly, an emotional barrier was thrown up between the new tongue-speaker and those who did not yet participate." He also points out that the "spirit of love"--which is the hall-mark comment about charismatic groups--is turned inward to the "in" group while at the same time the "out group" is "marked" just as it was in Corinth where the "emoters" condemned the old "Jesus" party--
"If, for example, after an emotional experience, a person becomes exceptionally loving, he may continue at the same time to be terribly angry with those who represent his former way of life. That is, he redirects his anger at them.
We found that tongue-speakers we studied were generally very loving toward the members of their own groups.
Their social concern extended to members of congregations like themselves
and to people who potentially could become like them.However, they exhibited a subtle disrespect for non-tongue speakers and toward those who showed no interest in joining their numbers... Nonglossolalist were often made to feel inferior in the presence of a tongue-speaker." (Kildahl, p. 68-69).
Adventist experiend
So it was that some of "our beloved brethren" were caught up in the post-1844 era in demonstrations similar to those that transpired in Indiana in 1900 which Ellen White clearly labelled as a carnival for Satan. They were beguiled by excitement, noise, confusing music, jumping, dancing and shouting. At that time, some were even having false visions and falling to the floor! One could surely not deny that these deceived brethren were the neopentecostals of their day! Right?
What should be our attitude toward such individuals who are caught up in deception or in neopentecostalism? Are we to slam the door shut upon them, leaving them alone to perish in their deception? No! Ellen White spoke of them, even while they were under their deception, as "our beloved brethren, " whom we should be "longing to help!"
Ellen White explains: "I went into their meetings"-why? Not to "celebrate" with them, but for a higher purpose. "I bore my testimony in the name of the Lord, placing His rebuke upon these manifestations." Surely, this is the only reason that we, today, should ever consider attending such demonstrations! Unless we go to rebuke them and warn them of their danger, we would surely not have the protection of the heavenly angels. The only way we can help these deceived brethren is to lovingly present truth, rebuke their errors and point out their dangers. In no case should we join them in their heathenish practices.
As in the golden calf episode at Sinai, the fanatics after 1844 also engaged in nudity nakedness with both sexes. Sensuality was the result. See Exodus 32:25; and Maranatha, 234
Some Consequences
Through Ellen White's testimony of rebuke and warning, shortly after 1844, some souls became undeceived, were brought into their right mind, and were afterward "among our most reliable men and women!" (This should be an encouragement to us in our struggle to help our brethren today who have gone into deception.) Others were sad and remained depressed ever afterward for having so dishonored their Master. They seemed unable to strongly witness for truth.
Still others who had been "pressed beyond measure to receive" this erroneous carnival-like worship, were unable to cope with the tension between the new "excitement and tumult" and their own previous precious experience with the Lord. Their minds became so unbalanced that they became insane. If we once give our minds over to Satan's control, we too, could be taken in his snare and lose eternal life, as well as our sanity in this life!
Kildahl's study supports the fact that when church division occurs it does not mean that one half stays and one half goes and forms another church. If such were the case then perhaps division would be God's instrument to spread the church out as He taught in the example of good leaven. However, about one third stays, one third goes, and one third disappears from the roll of any church. While this might be the extreme example, notice what Kildahl says as a result of his study--
"While there were examples of church groups which increased in numbers and strength as a result of the appearance of glossolalia,
more usually friction and divisive factions developed.
In extreme examples, up to one-third of the congregation stopped going to church and/or dropped their formal membership." (Kildahl, p. 66).
Isn't that a fulfillment of prophecy? We repeat Zechariah who warned against the murderous influence of charismatic prophets who "wound" themselves in their effort and usually scatter two-thirds--
"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me!" declares the LORD Almighty. "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones. -- Zec 13:7
In the whole land," declares the LORD, "two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it. -- Zec 13:8
This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.'" -- Zec 13:9
This has been repeated at all of the artificial revival efforts. Later, we will see a striking parallel to the Stone movement after "the sheep were scattered."
Many northern churches (churches of Christ in Kentucky northward will usually have instruments) returned to the formation of a denominational structure, the missionary society, conferences to keep everyone on the same track, and to the adoption of instrumental music. There was nothing in the "exercises" which could prevent self-seeking from introducing these charisma-producing devices into the churches when they knew beforehand that division would result.
While Campbell initially promoted organizational efforts he saw the error of his way. Churches of Christ, therefore, have largely resisted any effort to control the "denomination" by central organizations and have allowed every congregations to go its own way. Again, only self-seeking causes one preacher to try to impose his structure on a "sister" congregation.
By refusing to add anything "not necessary to faith and practices" it has been the churches of Christ which have allowed religious liberty to prosper--union is not unity.
Neither the Great American Awakening nor the Second Great American Awakening can be faulted for its goals and many good things came out of it. However, the methods used and the use of a legalistic force to get the job done may better be classified as building civilization on bare ground than establishing the Spiritual Kingdom of God.
Kenneth Sublett Comments Welcome
Great Awakening Cane Ridge Index
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