Why I can't recommend Pentecostal Holiness

[rockytopva]

I remember the old Pentecostal Holiness church...

1. Salvation - As easy as asking the Lord Jesus into ones heart
2. Sanctification - When the Lord Jesus was born into the heart. If the experience was not there we would tell you to come back tomorrow night, and smile a little as we said it.
3. Holy Spirit - If a message in tongues was given out they would wait for an interpretation. If none was given someone was considered disobedient. None of this, however, had anything to do with salvation.
4. Divine Healing - Would take time to anoint people with oil and pray prayers of faith.
5. Altar service - People would take time to pray at the altar after the sermon.
6. Revival - It was a conference rule that we had at least so many revivals in a year, and they would report to conference the results. Our pastor would take time to invite wonderful evangelists and we would have wonderful times in revival.
7. Doctrine - I have no problems with Pentecostal Holiness doctrine and the results in our church was many saintly gentleman and ladies, both in spirit and in appearance.

I have no problem with Pentecostal Holiness doctrine and the the picture below is our church pictured around 50 years ago was a wonderful place and I am still a member there. But... The Spirit simply is not there anymore. In which case, even though I like the doctrine, I cannot recommend the church because it is no longer a place to grow in the Christian faith.

Our church remained a wonderful place until just a few years ago when our pastor retired. I remain worried that we live in a time in which the doctrine may be correct... But the Spirit simply is not there. Here is a video of just a few years ago when our old pastor held wonderful service....

 

[AustinC]

Rocky, did you write this?

Why I am no longer a Pentecostal

 

[rockytopva]

Rocky, did you write this?

Why I am no longer a Pentecostal

That was from a William Charles Davis Jr...
Biography of William Charles Davis Jr.

Unlike him I do not disagree with the doctrine...

 

[rockytopva]

I was brought up GARBC Baptist and firmly believed all that Pentecostal stuff was of the devil. Until I came down to Virginia and stayed the summer with my grandmother. Pictured below is farmer I would work for in the hay field that year... Dallas would shout at work, shout in the hay field, and shout in church. He would also speak in tongues and run the aisles. He and his wife would operate a dairy farm and he would also work at the local ammunition plant. A very large soul his shouting would ring through the building. In the altar services he would kneel behind me in prayer and tears would roll off his cheek and onto my shoulders. A wonderfully large soul. Along with Dallas there were many others like him who would let the praises roll during church service. During the altar service old Evans Linkous used to weep like a baby. And if he were to look back to catch the amazed look in my eye he would weep, "The Holy Ghost! The Holy Ghost!" And point to all the souls being blessed around the altar. After I experienced these things for myself the people would make a fuss, or in the words of the Apostle Paul, glorify God in me.

One day, after a beautiful autumnal week of beautiful Virginia fall and revival I lay on my bed with open door, listening to the Katydids sing their praises to God, reading Run Baby Run, with fireflies lighting up the mountain as they would fly, and heard the Spirit ask... "Put the book down" and then continue, "Where is all that hatred, strife, and bad feeling?" In which examining my eternal man there was nothing there but sheer beauty. I thought to myself... Oh my! I got exactly what those folks got!

And in the words of George Clark Rankin, "It was the third Sunday in September, 1866 (in my case much later), and those Church vows became a living principle in my heart and life. During these forty-five long years, with their alternations of sunshine and shadow, daylight and darkness, success and failure, rejoicing and weeping, fears within and fightings without, I have never ceased to thank God for that autumnal day in the long ago when my name was registered in the Lamb's Book of Life." - The Life of George Clark Rankin

 

[rockytopva]

So... After experiencing all those wonderful things Pentecostal Holiness why am I not promoting it? The reason being is that I have learned that both evil and good spiritually can befall us under the same church doctrine. And generations later, there are different things that are experienced with different generations. It is important that we stand out as saintlike ladies and gentleman to those of us who profess to be Spirit filled Christians. Which in my denomination is not always the case. Even to the extent that members can leave the sanctified environment and do things actually illegal and end up behind bars.

 

[Salty]

When it comes to speaking in tongues - all I ask is that all three rules be followed.

 

[rockytopva]

When it comes to speaking in tongues - all I ask is that all three rules be followed.

I do not know of any Pentecostal Holiness churches these days where I could take someone and expect to hear someone speak in tongues. And as far as tongues I go along with William Seymour that if people weren’t expressing the I Corinthians 13 kind of love, then, “I care not how many tongues you may have, you have not the baptism with the Holy Spirit.” William Seymour also warned that, “Whenever the doctrine of the baptism in the Holy Ghost will only be known as the evidence of speaking in tongues, that work will be an open door for witches and spiritualist and free loveism. That work will suffer because all kinds of spirits can come in.”

To me the most important experience is sanctification...

"Sanctification makes us clean on the inside." - William Seymour. To me the most important experience is one of sanctification where one ends up as a Christian lady or gentleman. In beholding society these days it does not appear but few are seeking a clean and sanctified look. It is seldom messages are given out in tongues in the services I attend these days, if they are there is a wait for an interpretation as well. The Apostle Paul did not wish for tongues to dominate a Christian service however he would go on to say...

Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. - 1 Corinthians 14:39

And the Pentecostal Holiness services I attended for so many years were done...

Let all things be done decently and in order.- 1 Corinthians 14:40

With the old Pentecostal Holiness ways dissipated away I also do not mind going to Baptist churches and have went to several Thomas Road Baptist Virginia Christmas Spectaculars in which I made a video...

But... After reading of the affairs of Jerry Falwell Jr I cant help but to wonder if they are not experiencing the same thing I referred to in the Pentecostal Holiness church and wonder if this is not the cold spirit of the Laodicean church age that we are experiencing.

 

[rockytopva]

The Jerry Falwell scandal, in which it was reported, "On August 7, 2020, Liberty University announced that Falwell would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from his positions following controversy around a photo he had posted on social media, which showed him with his pants unzipped and his arm around the waist of a woman whose shorts were similarly unzipped." Which was important to we Pentecostal Holiness as we send many of our members and pastors to Liberty University for education, especially as we have no universities of our own this side of the Mississippi. I supported a niece going to get a bachelors degree in IT programming at Liberty around five years ago.