Old Time Religion

I dunno, that doesn't sound like "old" time religion to me, that sounds more like "chaotic" time religion and has nothing to do with "old". Maybe it's for some people, but I prefer a little order at church.

 

natters...once you experience a God led (not man controlled) service you wouldn't want to go back! I know from experience what it's like to be in services that are led by the Holy Spirit. People start testifying, tears are free flowing....and there is nothing chaotic about it. People are getting right with God!

 

Sounds just like Pentecostalism and isn't much further from it. Emotionally based, theologically bankrupt messages that stir people into a "confession" is not "getting" right with God.

This is not old time religion, but rather a product of the revivalism of the mid 1800's and continues on till this day.

 

Believe me...it is a million miles away from Pentecostalism and our sermons are Bible based so their is nothing bankrupt about it. God's Word does not return void! People have become so afraid of letting God take control of a service because of the charismatic movement.

Maze Jackson was in a service once where a lady stood up and started testifying and the host preacher said, "Brother Jackson I think you need to sit her down!" Maze Jackson replied, "Brother, I ain't sitting her down because I ain't the one who stood her up!"

We have had services where it took almost two hours to get to the preaching because the song service "got on" and then people started praising God for the blessings he poured on their lives and the church. You can tell lives are being changed all through the service. Why would you not want that?

 

Amen, FBCPastorsWife!

Maze Jackson was a wonderful preacher and he would do nothing to hinder the moving of the Holy Spirit in a service. I used to listen to his 'Truck Drivers Special' on the radio back in the 90's.

People need to be sensitive to the Spirit. Too many churches are programmed with bulletins and time schedules and if they don't let out at a certain time, they are afraid they will miss the last baked potato at Picadillys or their favorite restaraunt.

Slow down folks, listen to what the Spirit is telling you. Get the flesh out of the Way. God will only move in your life as you allow Him.

 

I believe there is truth in what both of you are saying. Emotion is a legitimate part of worship and spirituality... but it is a result, not the object nor the means of spirituality. Saying something is "Good preachin'" is never an excuse for poor theology. A man who purposes to preach or teach to others has a responsibility to search the scriptures and educate himself on the context.

What I mean is that I have known services that were emotional and reflected genuine repentance. I have also known emotional, supposedly spirit-filled revivals where the "conviction hangover" didn't even make it into the next week... including some preached by Bro Maze (who I happened to have loved). He preached a revival at our church every year when I was growing up.

 

Scott J what you say makes perfect sense! I too have been witness (in one of my old churches) to the type of meetings where people get right and then go back to their old ways almost immediately. It's sad but all too common now. It has to be a delicate balance of certain elements. A preacher of the Word needs to be well-studied and fully surrendered to preach what God lays on his heart but the key is for him to yield the service to God and not try to control it for time sake. I don't believe in "every service has to be a hollerin service." I believe some of the most convicting and moving times can be when there is pure silence.

 

1 Cor 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion/tumult/commotion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

There's a difference between being sensitive to the Spirit, and letting emotion control (or uncontrol is perhaps a better word) a church service.

And again, where does the "old" come in? Still not clear on that.

 

"Old" is relative then, I guess. To me, "old" is not just the last 5% of church history. It seems a bit ironic to me to refer to those days as "old time religion", when those days are so recent.

 

The carryings-on of the revivalists and the "Higher Life"/Holiness crowd aren't all that "old-timey," unless your view of Church history starts somewhere around 1850.

Also, I don't think men like Whitefield and Spurgeon were into the hooting and hollering. For them, the Word faithfully preached was central.

"Old time religion" should mean what is preached from our pulpits is the same truth preached by faithful men like Paul, Timothy, Augustine, John Chrystostom, Athanasius, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Spurgeon, and other wise and great men of God - not the shouting, hollering, Bible waving, and other emotional warm fuzzies we get from going to meeting.

 

From my understanding part of the old time religion is when people responded to God and stayed right! When Grandparents, parents and children all went to church together. It is about keeping the main thing the main thing.

Some have commented on "bankrupt theology" and that is a danger. However, that is not something I have seen in the OTR. They knew their doctrine.

They may have not known the finer points of calvinism vs. Armenianism, or the 27 step plan to leading someone to the Lord, or 17 different ways to understand a single verse, but they did live righteous lives, they did lead souls to the Lord and they did love their Lord without shame.

It seems they were simple times, comparitively, and they got the job done!

(And Augustine and Spurgeon in the same sentence! )

It is because of the effects of the OTR religion that many of us are here today and why fundamental churches still exist.

Whether it can "officially" be called "old time" I don't know, and don't really care, but would to God those days would come back!

I am 25 and never heard any of the preachers others here have mentioned. But you can be sure my life has been affected by them.

mnw

 

So true.
I think what one call OTR has alot to do with his age and what he has seen. I'm in my 60's and there is a former pastor who goes to church with us and his view of OTR is much different than mine on a lot of things. My older daughter is 40 and my son is 35 and their view of OTR is much different than mine and I'm sure my 10 year old daughter's would be much different than mine and her older brother and sister. But the true Gospel is the same.
What ever happen to the city wide services that most of the churches in town all backed( all churches can't be wrong but mine). They were great and many a person came to the Lord in those services. Look at the different churches that backed an Oliver B. Greene service coming into town or a John R. Rice and many others, what happen to that.

 

I think the closest I have come to what I think of OTR is through the preaching my pastor.

My pastor, Tom Dotson, sat under the preaching of many of the preachers mentioned here. He is originally from Georgia in the USA and is one of the best preachers I know.

 

DependentOnJESUS said:

Did I say Shouting, hollering, etc was Old Time Religion? No,

Er, yes, you did. In your second post to this thread (on page 1), you set out to explain what you meant by "Old Time Religion," and the entire post was about Grandma and Grandpa shoutin and hollerin in a way most Baptists would think was foolish.