Translated from the original by Costas Balomenos
Assembly hall of Pentecostal
In the following article, you will see the “Differences between Pentecostals of FACP (Free Apostolic Church of Pentecost)” starting from the description of the space where they collected, how it is done the “function'” and how operate the “gifts'” - these terms used abusively, since none of them reflects the reality - and the Operation of Orthodoxy, to appreciate
more the immense spiritual
riches of orthodoxy, sometimes do not have comprehend those without left the Father's house and does not wandered in heresies eating
carob...
The space gathered
the Pentecostals has no
but any relation with the Holy
Temples of Orthodoxy. The first
thing one will notice is the lack of sacred images. The spaces, in which are
made the gatherings,
are rented but there
are also privately owned. They are
usually large rooms, while
are smaller in the province.
They are maintained with voluntary offer (the FACP
has not the tenth [1] as the other organizations of Pentecost,
that are tens and diverse in our country), but also with the contributions - regular
every Sunday - but also the
extraordinary.
Within these there are
benches with hymnals,
Bibles, and underneath small cushions to kneel at the hour of prayer
ecclesiastical (which
will be discussed below). At depth,
there is a elevated pulpit
with a microphone in
which is made the preaching and teaching. Beside, it is usually a
tank used as “godchildren”. The hymns are not
like in the Orthodox church that is praising God, the
saints, and Our Lady. There are hymns that used by the
ancient church, nor of course use the liturgical texts of Orthodoxy (e.g.
the Operation of John Chrysostom). His hymns are
addressed only to God (supposedly)
is their own devising,
which often promotes their
teachings and impart strong
emotions to the faithful. This is very important. It is the key to understand that
they operate evocatively, resulting the “charismatic” phenomena that occur in their area. Generally, Pentecostals
rely too much on
emotion and thoughts,
something which is wrong and leads to
errors in the
ascetic tradition of Orthodoxy. The blessed Father
Seraphim Rose in his book “Orthodoxy and the Religion
of the Future”, referring generally to the Pentecostal movement notes; “There are two basic forms of rover. The
first and most spectacular form arises when a person toiling for a
high spiritual status or spiritual visions
without having first cleansed from passions and complacency on his own judgment.
In someone like him the devil provides
great «visions». ... But there is
another, less spectacular form of spiritual beguilement that is not offering
victims of great visions, but only
exalted «religious feelings». This happens, as Bishop Ignatius wrote, “when the heart wishes and strives for holy and divine feelings while still being completely unsuitable for them. Everyone who has not
crushing, contrite spirit which recognizes any kind of value or
advantage to himself which do not keep constant the teaching of the Orthodox Church, but in one or another
tradition believes in his own
arbitrary judgment or has followed a non-Orthodox teaching - is
in this situation of fallacy”.
The Holy Scriptures
used by Pentecostals is a translation of the Orthodox Neophytos Vamvas, who translates the
text of "Masorites"
and not this of the “Septuagint”. This results the Bible that
hold, has several differences
(substantive or not)
with the translation of the "Septuagint" from which quote the apostles and the evangelists in
their writings, and contains ten
books less from them which the
ancient church accepts. This is because the Massoretic text from
which Vamvas translates it,
is of Jewish origin, which does not
contain the so-called “Second-canonical”
books, which is clearly
part of the rule of the books
of Bible. Otherwise, let's throw
from the Scriptures and the Book of Esther, which
belongs to the "second-canonical'' if in case the so called second-normally do not belong to the rule of Holy Bible. Therefore, the Bible who
use has 66 books instead of
76 which accepts the
Church. And of
course, no reason for the sacred images that not only adorn our churches, but already teach at
St John Damascene. “Because the image is
memorandum. And what is the Bible for those who know scripture and reading, this for
the illiterate is the picture.
And what is the reason for the hearing, it is the
image of the vision. And this unites us mentally. ... Because the picture is a triumph and revelation
and a column writing in memory of the victory of those who excelled and
preeminent and of the shame those were defeated and vanquished”. (To those who slander the holy Icons).
Their operation consists of two parts: The prayer and the preaching on weekdays and on Sunday added to the "cult'' and the celebration of the “Divine Eucharist”. Also, as a rule, one day a week or two (depending
on the'' responsible'' of each assemblage) instead of preaching is defined lesson. Usually it undertakes a "senior officer''. Here, exclusively developed the teaching of every Pentecostal movement. In
large gatherings, days is defined and co-study in which (after prayer)
are gathered and discuss
issues and questions through the Bible. Without resorting to
patristic interpretations of course, but in arbitrariness. And they are
limited to only the Bible,
it is itself arbitrariness, since the Bible
NOWHERE us not
limited SOLELY to this.
Pentecostals, give great
importance and attention in their teaching. Essentially, their
gatherings are more
reminiscent "a biblical school''
that produces inflated people with knowledge, than a spiritual hospital where people will find
their spiritual health.
The prayer lasts
one hour. Everybody kneel on cushions,
and each one begins
to pray to God low voice (initially). The chief urges
chanting hymns through
them. To open their
hearts and thus the believers to get started. Although hymns are
referred to the worship of God,
more excite themselves
to be freed spiritually and to co-seduce together in team autosuggestion,
order to
produce a series of “charismatic phenomena”. For example, a hymn
he says ... “Give
a fiftieth now
to your people to be
filled, give us charismas, make new miracles Jesus
to prepare your church”, or another who says ... “The Holy Spirit,
the Holy Spirit inflame my heart I want to pray, I want to testify, after he arrived in
the Holy Spirit”. And there are too many hymns for every occasion.
They say more to
listen to them selves and urging themselves, rather than for God to
hear. For example,
the first hymn I
mentioned, they ask repetition
of the event of Pentecost, asking for charismas and miracles, to prepare for the imminent coming of Jesus
Christ. So without preparation by repentance, without catharsis, without distinction, are ready to
accept everything as coming
from God. These, however, are unlike what our teach the saints of our Church, whose the objective was not the gifts
and fanfare, but
sanctification and humility, in
the saying of the prophet Isaiah ... “In quietness
and the conviction
he shall be your strength”. And who
acquired with toil and struggle (always by
grace) real gifts of the Holy Spirit. «Having little or no
foundation in the original sources
of Christian spiritual experience
- the Holy Mysteries
of the Church, and spiritual teachings
delivered by Christ and the Apostles through the Holy Fathers - the
followers of the" charismatic "movement have no way to
distinguish the grace of God from the imitation. All "charismatic" writers show to a greater or lesser extent, a lack of attention and discrimination in the experiences that have ... St. John Cassian,
the great Orthodox father of the West (5th c.),
who wrote with great distinction for the
work of the Holy Spirit in
his Contribution (Collatio) for “Divine Gift”, notes that "sometimes the demons (thaumaturgy) in order to raise man to pride
believing that holds great gift,
so to prepare him for an even bigger fall. They pretend burned
and are drawn off outside bodies inhabited because
of the (supposed) holiness
people who in
reality know that is unholy. In the Gospel we
read: It will display false – Christs
and false –prophets ...» (Contribution XV: 2) ... Any reader of
biographies of Orthodox
Saints and other spiritual literature knows that
all these spirits - both "good" and "bad", the "upper" and "lower" - is equally demons, and that the distinction between really good
spirits (angels) and those evil
spirits can not be based on personal feelings and impressions of someone». (Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future).
His chanting operates as
a driving force for what will follow. In contrast, the psalmody in Orthodox church directed toward
God and brings our hearts in devoutness,
because it addressed to the mercy
of God toward us and his glorious holiness. The eminently request is the forgiveness and His mercy to us. Subsequently, after create a climate appropriate, start the “charismatic phenomena”. They sound various incomprehensible, called “speaking in tongues”, and that is
proof that the “holy spirit” is
present. In the 10 years I was there, I never heard any known language. But if I heard something, it
was never what they say, but something such as for example, once I heard something in
Russian but it was not clean. Some claim
that the languages they speak are genuine.
No objection. And in the shamanism [2] talk! Have the Holy Spirit; The Christians
must be very careful, especially when we have primordial sources which tell us that the
gift of tongues after the third to fourth century does not
existed (e.g. Chrysostom
and Augustine). It is very suspicious that
reappeared in the 20th century, and even outside
of the church that Christ left. The suspicions are reinforced by the fact that great hermits who possess terrible gifts, do not refer to
speaking in tongues. Even more, the fruit. Father Seraphim Rose says ... «After the first
or maybe the second
century is not mentioned in any Orthodox source, but
it's not happening even in the great Fathers of
the Egyptian desert, who was so
full of the Spirit of God, who made many amazing miracles, including and
the resurrection of the dead. The Orthodox behavior
to the original speaking
in tongues, then, can be summed up in the words of St. Augustine
(speaking to John, IV: 10): “The first
year the Holy Spirit
was falling on those who
believed and they spoke with tongues that
were not learned, as the Holy Spirit gave them reason. These were signs
adapted to the era. Because he was fitting
to have this point of the
Holy Spirit in all
languages, to show that the Gospel of God was to propagate
through all languages across the globe. This was done as a point, and passed”. And as
if wanting to respond to
contemporary Pentecostals with the strange emphasis on this point, Augustine continues: “It is now expected that they will laying on of
hands [3] will be speaking in tongues? Or when will laying on of
hands these guys expected from you to see if they speaking in tongues? And when he saw that no speaking in tongues was none of your so perverse in heart, as
to say “they have not received the Holy Spirit?” Far from being given
freely and spontaneously, without
the interference of man - as the real gifts of the Holy Spirit - speaking in
tongues can be caused by a completely predictable
common technique of concentrated prayer group,
accompanied by evocative psychological
Protestant hymns («He coming! He
is coming!»), to culminate
with a "laying on of hands", and sometimes involve purely
physical efforts such as the repetition of a
given phrase again and again (Koch, p
24), or just the execution sounds with mouth”.
Pentecostals in a state of ecstasy 'speaking in tongues'
Personally I heard repeatedly people "speaking in tongues'' having many years at Pentecost,
but after prayer not want to be spoken between them. The theme of the
article is simply a description
of what happens. Anyone who wants to see more can be seen in the following articles;
(a) The distortions
of the Pentecostal prophecy of Joel, Undo heretical text (b) Undo heretical text (c), and the series of excerpts from the book by Fr Seraphim Rose: The Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future.
The supposed "speaking in tongues'' to make it
(informal) more spiritual than your brother who still is not claimed by this “gift”. Instead to fill with humility, you fill with pride. You think you have get
into the realm of the invisible
spiritual world of God. Certainly
not saying it with
the lips, but pride is ready to manifest itself in every detail. Another
point I would like to focus on is the big messiness
that is created because of
“speaking in tongues”. Especially when there are
many people that come into a
trance, they start voices
and incomprehensible with
the prompts of the
"responsible'' and
this becomes even cause of
scandalization for some (mostly
neo-catechism). Even fear. Once, I saw
some new, who upon hearing speaking in tongues, opened the door
and fled from the aggregation! Nothing to do with series and the order that exists in
the Orthodox church. A wild enthusiasm many times is “baptized” “spiritual revival”, which after some time
vanishes and the faithful re-immersed in the problems of everyday life. Many times, the "speaking in tongues''
causes that the other can not pray, but he
who is "speaking in
tongues'' can not be built internally
as reported by the Apostle Paul in his A’ Epistle to Corinthians. Neither themselves
they are not able to provide a
complete interpretation of what
they feel precisely in the "speaking in tongues''. No genuine
according to God experience.
The best of case, are deceiving themselves. At worst, are deceived by the enemy of the soul. The best interpretation
in chapters 12, 13, 14 from the First Letter to
the Corinthians and response to
false-
experiences of Pentecostals, is the tradition that
gave us the great monks and ascetics
and saints of the church. Precious heritage on the
distinction missing from Pentecostals.
Approximately the same
happen with the prophecies. There, whoever has the
gift after filled "with
the Holy Spirit'' and reach full ecstasy, gets up and
speaks in God's name, mentioning
a message from God, which is usually
general and vague and that impresses the
gullible who believe. Whenever they attempted to prophesy specifically, dropped out. Therapies that never
came, blessings and promises that were never realized,
and became cause some later to turn their backs not only on Pentecost and God
yet. Indication that the evil spirit acting and here. Nothing to do with the charismatic Elders us who with humility and in any spiritual gift became cause to turn deceived many people to the Savior Christ. The funny thing is that sometime I asked two “seniors” about how it works
the gift, but I received completely different answers, proof that everyone gives the interpretation as he perceives (trust in his calculus, namely while they not have passed through the stage of purification).
More generally, lacks class
in Pentecostal gatherings.
Missing God. God
is a God of order, says the Apostle Paul. The prophecies, both those
that were made personally
and individually and those concerned all Pentecostals
never were fulfilled. The souls there inconvenienced more than cured. Scandalized despite are built. Others listen and watch others. Away from the true grace
of Christ, far from the holy and
modest mysteries of the church, outside the church who left the Lord. A cheap imitation
of the secret tradition of the saints of the church, a fake and a human creation with
arbitrary interpretations of
Scripture and inexperience
on the spiritual.
I would like to
finish with some words of St. John of the Ladder, and
of St. Isaac the
Syrian ...
“There are some unclean demons that someone just started studying the Bible they reveal its interpretation. This particularly
loves to make in hearts of snobby
people's and even educated with the worldly
education. And they aim to throw them into heresies and blasphemous ideas deceiving them slowly. We
do perceive well this demonic theology
or better vattologie
from the scrimmage, the messy and naughty
pleasure that is creating in the soul at the time of explanation”. (Reason Twenty – sixth. About Discrimination
of distinguishable, Scale).
“We, holy brother,
let's work with our
heart the works of repentance and
pure state, which
pleases God, then,
the gifts of the Lord, such as health, apathy, theory, come on their own, without to ask if our heart naturally
become pure and
undefiled. Yet the high
gifts of God we ask not and wait when they come, because
the Church of God does not
approve something like that. And those who received gifts in such way they acquired
pride and they are forfeited
from the grace of God. To behave one in
such a way is not a sign that he loves God, but
is sickness soul. And how can we ask
the high gifts of God at a time when the divine apostle
Paul brags about his sorrows, and considers his
society in the Christ's sufferings that are great gifts
of God?” (Ascetics, Isaac the Syrian).
FOOTNOTES
[1] Tithing: As
the Jews being forced to
give a portion of their production (mainly cereals) for the
maintenance of the priests of the Temple,
many Pentecostal Movements has enacted something similar,
i.e. their followers give part of their incomes.
[2] Shamanism:
It’s a complicated cultic and magical - religious
phenomenon that is shaped around the technique of
ecstasy. Derived from the word
shaman who is the priest or the magician-doctor. Were
developed mainly in primitive
peoples of Oceania, North and South America,
Siberia, Indonesia,
etc.
[3] bless by placing the hands on the head of the
faithful (for priest)
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