pentecostal: warning

See previous two posts on the new age drugs to see God and the Pentecostal explosion.

(and I need to add: If I repeat myself, it is because I've been interrupted five times.)

Then read Herescope on the problem of Pentecostal religion.

It's quite long and links to a book about the problems that I plan to down load and read.

A lot of it has the name "Berean" in it's links: That is a very rigid SDA site (and of course, the SDA think the Vatican is the anti christ and Harry Potter  is demonic and Tolkien is occult, but never mind.)

One reason to read the right and the left (or the lax and the rigid) is to check if they have a point.

I agree with Pope Gregory the Great, who quoted Paul and advised that when discussing conversion, you take the good in what they people already believe in, and build on that. You "baptize" the culture.

This means American Christianity is close to Pelagianism, i.e. deeds not belief counts, because most American Catholics and most American Christians deep in their heart believe if they are good and kind and help their neighbors, they are Christians, never mind the dogma.

And in Africa, it means prayer and dancing for the Lord and feeling his spirit in you is normal and good.

Frank Sheed once quipped that the definition of a saint was an "Italian virgin" because they had so many ladies there having visions or stigmatas.

In Asia, the real danger here in the Philippines is not the mystical superstitions of the poorer types (use this relic for good health etc) but that the rich feel stealing/bribery (and girlfriends) are okay as long as you are generous to the poor and use the money to help your extended family.

And what has come into the Philippines with Protestantism is the "prosperity" gospel: if you follow Christ your business will prosper. Well, if you are honest that is true, but that easily morphs into seeing God as making you rich because you are better than the poor schnook sleeping under the bridge.

CS Lewis in Out of the Silent Planet has his professor try to translate the concept of Evil to beings who never fell from grace and have no name for it. He ends up translating it as "bent".


When Paul says everything is good if you love God, and that rules don't count, he is not saying everything is good and throw away the rules, but that if you are obedient to God's voice, you will stay within the narrow road and not go overboard into error.

The word for this is "Discernment".

So years ago I was warned that hypnosis (as a doc) was demonic and dangerous by a SDA doc friend of mine. Well, it isn't, but as I watch the infiltration of "meditation" and "mindfulness" ideas into medicine, I suspect that she had a point.

Hynosis, Centering prayer, Meditation and similar things are deep concentration. You block out the external noise and concentrate on one thing.

Hypnosis for pain control is good. Deep concentration while one plays music or writes is good. Deep concentration while sitting in the presence of the Lord is called the prayer of quiet. Catherine Doherty describes this as like sitting quietly holding hands with your husband, communicating without saying a word.

Hynotizing oneself and telling oneself that one should get rich is not. Discovering you were once the queen of Sheba while you do a "past life regression" is absurd and silly...And hypnotizing oneself that the cancer has gone away or that you don't need that antibiotic is downright dangerous.

Uh, fellahs, sometimes God uses persons and things to do his will instead of doing miracles.

So my take watching the "healings" in the video I cited a few blogposts back was: Heck, they think they can heal after a six week course, when all I had to do is study for 23 years to be a full fledged doc.

That doesn't mean I don't believe that God can heal, but it does mean that a lot of the stuff shifts over into "magical thinking".

So does Reiki and theraputic touch for that matter. Docs know about the power of touch, and the placebo effect, but unlike the nurses or nuns who use Reiki or other nonsense, I don't go around and claim it's me doing the job. (If I sound angry while I am writing, it is because I've had to treat patients who ended up sick or in pain or in deep psychosis because they stopped their medicine because they were "healed").

Reminds me of a charismatic priest who came and told us all to come to his healing service later that day: He kept saying "I healed this" and "I healed that".

 what nonsense! HE healed them? ....I was reminded of Pare's famous quote: I treated them, but God healed them.

Well, he had some type of power (the dentist I worked with ended up on the floor). But never mind.

Passing out with a blessing is called being "slayed by the spirit": I've seen rational people that this has happened to, so it is a real phenomenum. But no, it hasn't happened to me, even when I was blessed by a famous and holy priest. Maybe I am too sceptical, or maybe the spirit knew I was schtupping my fiance at the time and decided I wasn't worthy of receiving the gift. Never mind.

Well, anyway, the Herescope article points out how some groups are claiming that the Holy Spirit is leading everyone to a higher power.

Summary: The book The Physics of Heaven (TPOH) boldly attempts to launch a new theology. Pastor Larry DeBruyn's 12-part series has provided our readers with a solid apologetic to refute both its pseudo-science and mystical teachings. When he wrote Part 1 Pastor DeBruyn observed that “some within the Charismatic movement are asserting that a Quantum merger is taking place between the powers of heaven and the energies of earth.”

Hmm... Quantum merger?

sounds familiar... sort of like BarbaraMarx Hubbard's quantum evolution... she gave a speech to the Sisters-from-the-church-of-what's -happening-now a couple years ago, telling them they are at the vanguard of evolving to a higher power (and buy her books and tapes for only 300 dollars). Here they are, singing and dancing in front of their beloved guru.

For modern nuns, orange is the new black...

She called this "quantum evolution"... guess delusional minds think alike.

it says a lot for Benedict XVI that after this he tried to shut them down, and Francis agreed with him, but alas they are still at it, albeit claiming they repented.

Of course, Hubbards quantum evolution happened in 2012, and I haven't seen a lot of change for the better on earth, so maybe it didn't work.

/s (end sarcasm)

As a scientist, the exaggeration of the New ager and the charismatic are both egotistical and illogical.

You might object and say that all religion is illogical, but that is not true, as JP2 and other modern philosophers like Peter Kreeft point out.
But don't take my word for it: There is a nice course from UCLA on Science Magic and Religion that goes into the differences in detail.





My point is that exaggeration and megalomania are not the way to the Lord.

Catholics have long experience with mystics, and tend to lock them away (e.g. Padre Pio or Sister Lucy).

And if and when they die, the decision if they are saints or not does not depend on their visions, but on the sanctity of their daily life.

A good example of a fake mystic is Margary Kemp.

A good example of a mystic with common sense is Teresa of Avila.

Ah, but a good example of a saint with only one or two mystical experience sin her life who served God in their mundane daily duties is Therese of Lisieux. The Little way.

The problem is that, just as a married couple can lose love if all we do is work and not renew our love both with kind gestures and lovemaking,  we weak humans need a positive experience to keep going, and this is where God sends us his version of Eros.

Pointing out that God's love for men resembles eros more closely than a disinterested agape is not a new idea: This is why the Song of Songs is in the Bible, and why Hosea's love for his wife is a symbol of God's love for Israel.

or as Benedict XVI wrote:

The one God in whom Israel believes, on the other hand, loves with a personal love. His love, moreover, is an elective love: among all the nations he chooses Israel and loves her—but he does so precisely with a view to healing the whole human race. God loves, and his love may certainly be called eros, yet it is also totally agape...

I think that what I am trying to say is that, like eros, the pentecostal experience is a powerful means that God uses to keep people near to him.
But like eros (especially in today's world), confusion, egotism and ignorance could lead many away from him.

On the other hand, an atheist or agnostic could actually find God in his medical or new age meditation. As CS Lewis pointed out in the Screwtape letters, God is sneaky, and uses all sorts of pleasurable things to lead people back to him.


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update: An Ancient saying (that is still used in Orthodoxy) was that God became man so man could become God. In Christianity if we allow God in our heart, he uses us as his hands and our mind and heart becomes transformed with his grace until we are like him...or we are his instruments, or when we do things, we are standing in his stead, as a priest is Christ when he says the mass. Or as Corrie Ten Boom put it: We are like a glove, and God is the hand.

But this is too often misunderstood so that saying and the idea behind it it is rarely used in the western church, which is more rational and word oriented.

Excuse the choppiness of the essay: Life keeps interrupting.