Dropping and Rolling on the Floor?

seashale76

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I attended a Pentecostal Church and people began dropping and rolling on the floor.
What scriptural support do they offer for this type of behavior?
None that was ever convincing to me (I was raised Pentecostal). It was called evidence of the Holy Spirit or some such.
 
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Radrook

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None that was ever convincing to me (I was raised Pentecostal). It was called evidence of the Holy Spirit or some such.


I am just curious as to what exact scriptural support they attempt to use since nowhere in the NT are the apostles or any other Christians described as behaving that way. Even during the day of Pentecost described in the Book of Acts tongues of fire over the heads of the attending Christians and their actually being provided with the ability to speak Understandable languages is described but absolutely no falling and rolling nor the uttering of garbled noises is mentioned.

1 Corinthians 14:33 New International Version
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace--as in all the congregations of the Lord's people.


BTW

Actually, the first church which I attended as a child was a Pentecostal church and i was baptized in a bathtub at our apartment. My parents were attending regularly but neither of them ever felt impelled to utter those sounds nor drop to the floor and roll.

Ironically. inability to do so was what caused them to stop attending. My mother who was praying for the gifts constantly, as advised by the pastor, began perceiving her inability as a rejection from God.

The pastor who had encouraged her to pray expressed a suspicion that her inability was due to secret sinning. That statement made her leave the church entirely because she had been in constant prayer and totally devoted and saw no reason for that rejection.
 
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radioTint

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My wife grew up Pentecostal, and I believe this was called being "slain in the spirit." As a teen she had no idea what she was doing or the reason for its practice; it persisted as some type of mass hysteria (according to her). Its origins seems related to some non-Christian cultural practices of demon possession. If I witnessed it I'd hightail it for the door!

As for a scriptural basis I think you'll find answers based on some very creative inferences.
 
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Radrook

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My wife grew up Pentecostal, and I believe this was called being "slain in the spirit." As a teen she had no idea what she was doing or the reason for its practice; it persisted as some type of mass hysteria (according to her). Its origins seems related to some non-Christian cultural practices of demon possession. If I witnessed it I'd hightail it for the door!

As for a scriptural basis I think you'll find answers based on some very creative inferences.


Thanks for the info. I vaguely remember their reference to king David dancing in the spirit and to OT prophets behaving like prophets but nothing beyond that. My aunt on my father's side was Pentecostal and all her children as well. She used to suddenly slam the palm of her hand on the table in the middle of a conversation and shout "Barkay!" then she would claim to be the Lord Jesus and begin to give advise. One of her daughters with whom I recently spoke over the phone suddenly claimed to be the Lord Jesus and began advising me to travel to collect an inheritance.

I find the whole display extremely unnerving.
 
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JackRT

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My wife grew up Pentecostal, and I believe this was called being "slain in the spirit." As a teen she had no idea what she was doing or the reason for its practice; it persisted as some type of mass hysteria (according to her). Its origins seems related to some non-Christian cultural practices of demon possession. If I witnessed it I'd hightail it for the door!

As for a scriptural basis I think you'll find answers based on some very creative inferences.

I would agree about the hysteria.
 
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Radrook

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I think they need an excorist

That's the impression I got as an 11 year old when I first saw my aunt going through those motions. She claimed to be Jesus and and admonishing me but I sensed something horribly wrong with claim so I bolted out the door as if running for my life. I still can't find scriptural support for it. I can't recall anyone at the Pentecostal Church we first attended doing that in that macabre exact way in which she did it. The closest I can compare it with is that scene in the film King Kong when those people were about to sacrifice the woman lighting fires and beating drums.
 
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Extraneous

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What part specifically focuses on that?

If they are WOF type followers, and i assume they are, then i would say its because their leaders are not following this scripture below. They cannot see, their leaders are blind. The darkness in this scripture refers to spiritual blindness, in my opinion.

Mathew 7:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The Lamp of the Body
22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
 
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Extraneous

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Revelation 3:14 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans[f] write,

‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,[g] I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

22 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’”
 
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justcoolforyou

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That's the impression I got as an 11 year old when I first saw my aunt going through those motions. She claimed to be Jesus and and admonishing me but I sensed something horribly wrong with claim so I bolted out the door as if running for my life. I still can't find scriptural support for it. I can't recall anyone at the Pentecostal Church we first attended doing that in that macabre exact way in which she did it. The closest I can compare it with is that scene in the film King Kong when those people were about to sacrifice the woman lighting fires and beating drums.
I know in the catholic church this is also done in charismatic churches, speaking in tongues and falling in the blessing. I have not seen the rest of the thigs like in the pentecostal churches. Nor have have i studied on the theological view on this for catholics...
 
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Thanks for the info. I vaguely remember their reference to king David dancing in the spirit and to OT prophets behaving like prophets but nothing beyond that. My aunt on my father's side was Pentecostal and all her children as well. She used to suddenly slam the palm of her hand on the table in the middle of a conversation and shout "Barkay!" then she would claim to be the Lord Jesus and begin to give advise. One of her daughters with whom I recently spoke over the phone suddenly claimed to be the Lord Jesus and began advising me to travel to collect an inheritance.

I find the whole display extremely unnerving.

Honestly, I'm glad to read that people other than myself have felt unnerved by such behavior. I had a friend who I met through a home bible study. He was the teacher and it was his home. But after several years, he started getting into Pentecostal things and started going to those churches and he changed so much that nobody could really relate to him anymore. Everyone else abandoned him but I stuck around because I thought maybe he was onto something big! I went to those churches with him and witnessed the behavior and noise around me and was very uncomfortable. My friend told me that I have to break out of my comfort zone, and that it's not about being comfortable. So I kept going and prayed that the Spirit would enter me. I even walked up to the front so the pastor would put pray for me and put his hand on my head and then I'd fall backwards like everyone else. Well, I didn't fall. He gave me a little nudge, but I managed to stay upright. Eventually, I walked back to my seat.

He also was a big fan of the "Toronto Blessing" and spent himself into debt going there repeatedly. He told me that the "Spirit manifistations" there are 10 times that of what I saw in the church he brought me to. I never went and am glad I didn't.

Since all of this, my friend married moved to another state. I still watch his Facebook posts where he has said some crazy stuff intermingled with statements about how "it's all about love". Some of the people he's made reference to as being such great people with good hearts give me the creeps! It all just makes me shake my head with amazement and disgust sometimes.
 
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That's the impression I got as an 11 year old when I first saw my aunt going through those motions. She claimed to be Jesus and and admonishing me but I sensed something horribly wrong with claim so I bolted out the door as if running for my life. I still can't find scriptural support for it. I can't recall anyone at the Pentecostal Church we first attended doing that in that macabre exact way in which she did it. The closest I can compare it with is that scene in the film King Kong when those people were about to sacrifice the woman lighting fires and beating drums.

I've heard of something similar to this. I had a friend (see my previous post about him) who formed a small like-minded people after he became charismatic/pentecostal and they were doing things like taking on names of people in the bible. My friend was supposedly David, his wife was the Holy Spirit, and so forth. After awhile, his wife told him that the holy spirit wanted her to go on a mission trip with another guy. So my friend thought he should be obedient and let her go. She never came back. They eventually divorced and then he married another woman. I asked him about all this and he tells me that it was God's will for them. Oy! :sigh: It sure doesn't line up with what I read in the bible about what God thinks of divorce!
 
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JackRT

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He also was a big fan of the "Toronto Blessing"

Went there with my pastor and several members of the congregation. It was bedlam and hysteria! There was nothing of God there.
 
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Went there with my pastor and several members of the congregation. It was bedlam and hysteria! There was nothing of God there.

That really makes me wonder how my friend got into it so much. He's really into computers, knows his bible very, very well, and thinks very logically about things. How he could get caught up in such emotional things like this is troubling.
 
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Radrook

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I've heard of something similar to this. I had a friend (see my previous post about him) who formed a small like-minded people after he became charismatic/pentecostal and they were doing things like taking on names of people in the bible. My friend was supposedly David, his wife was the Holy Spirit, and so forth. After awhile, his wife told him that the holy spirit wanted her to go on a mission trip with another guy. So my friend thought he should be obedient and let her go. She never came back. They eventually divorced and then he married another woman. I asked him about all this and he tells me that it was God's will for them. Oy! :sigh: It sure doesn't line up with what I read in the bible about what God thinks of divorce!

So he chooses to believe that his wife actually was guided by the holy spirit to leave him instead of imagining she is putting on an act or perhaps was guided by something else? That shows just how strongly they sincerely believe that such manifestations are of a heavenly origin.
 
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Radrook

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I know in the catholic church this is also done in charismatic churches, speaking in tongues and falling in the blessing. I have not seen the rest of the thigs like in the pentecostal churches. Nor have have i studied on the theological view on this for catholics...

What I would like to know is what they are basing their behavior on. Nowhere in the NT do we see anyone being rendered unconscious by the touch of a hand, or one making garbled noises via holy spirit or being forced to go rolling on the floor via holy spirit. Neither is the holy spirit described as making a person lose his mental consciousness and become possessed by Jesus or any other righteous biblical personage. The only rolling on the floor and losing of bodily control mentioned in the Gospels is of the demon possessed. Yet there they are doing all those things and claiming to have full biblical support.

See the woman showing only the white of her eyes?
That's the same expression my aunt had when she rose from the floor and began coming toward me with arms extended me saying she was Christ.
 
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