The Pentecostal Paradigm: A Seductive Paradise

By Kenneth D. Johns

This is a book about super-sized Christian leaders and super-sized churches who attempt to achieve fame and fortune by manipulating their followers. It is about the grandiosity and emotionalism that is at the core of THE PENTECOSTAL PARADIGM A Seductive Paradise.

This book is for people who are concerned that their pastors and leaders:

Demand total allegiance and trust
Exaggerate miraculous cures
Emphasize self-promotion more than self-discipline
Make themselves into celebrities
Substitute ecstatic experiences for deep spiritual worship
Teach that you have to prime Gods pump to get any thing from God buy a book, give seed money, speak in tongues, attend their conference

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 6, 2007
• ISBN: 9781462819126

Kenneth D. Johns

Kenneth D. Johns is the retired President of the Simpson University Foundation in Redding, California. He also served as the Director of Development for Braille Institute of America in Southern California, and as Planned Giving Director for The Henry Huntington Library in San Marino, California. He is a Chartered Advisor on Philanthropy who consults with charitable organizations and individuals. Previously, he was the senior pastor of two evangelical churches. He lives in Southern California and Oregon.

Book preview

Copyright © 2007 by Kenneth D. Johns.

All Rights Reserved. This book and parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise) without prior written permission of the author, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. The only exceptions are brief quotations used in printed reviews and copies made for classroom use.

First Printing April 2005

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright by The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977.

Used by permission.

Scripture quotations noted NIV are from the NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION of the HOLY BIBLE. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted by THE MESSAGE are from THE MESSAGE. Copyright by Eugene Peterson, 1993, 1994, 1995. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Quotations from WIDE AS THE WATERS: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution it Inspired by Benson Bobrick, used by permission of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group. Copyright 2001 by Benson Bobrick.

Quotations from A DISTANT MIRROR by Barbara Tuchman, copyright 1978 by Barbara W. Tuchman, used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

Quotations from A THEOLOGY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT by F. Dale Bruner, copyright 1970 by F. Dale Bruner, used by permission of the author. This book was originally published by Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Quotations from CHRISTIANITY IN CRISIS by Hank Hanegraaff, copyright by Hank Hanegraaff 1993, published by Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR, used by permission of the publisher.

Quotations from CHURCH HISTORY IN PLAIN LANGUAGE by Bruce L. Shelley, copyright 1982, used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Quotations from BETWEEN TWO WORLDS by John R. W. Stott, copyright 1982, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI. Used by permission.

Permission requested for: MISTER GOD, THIS IS ANNA

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

39666

Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Appendix One

Appendix Two

Appendix Three

Appendix Four

Notes

Bibliography

Dedicated

to

Kimberly, Kurt & Kelly

God’s very best gifts

Introduction

My spiritual roots go deep into the Pentecostal church. My youth and young adult-hood were spent in churches carrying the names of the Assemblies of God, and the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. I attended regular church services three times a week. Furthermore, I faithfully participated in revivals, camp meetings, brush arbor services, youth camps, conventions, Bible conferences, and Bible colleges. My grandfather, the Reverend King David Johns, was an early leader in the Pentecostal church in Florida. He served as pastor and district superintendent for the Assemblies of God. He was born a Methodist, married a Baptist, and became a Pentecostal in the early twentieth century. He was a grand and formidable man.

My personal faith in God was first shaped by Mrs. Dwight Poundstone, the wife of a Presbyterian minister. Once a week my schoolmates and I participated in released time education at the Presbyterian Church in East Los Angeles. Mrs. Poundstone had a wonderful imagination; with the help of flannel graph and the Holy Spirit, the stories of Jesus, Moses, the Exodus, David, Daniel, and others, were fixed in my mind. Faith was created in my heart in that small, old, clapboard church. I hope she knows what she accomplished.

I am also grateful to many faithful Pentecostal preachers and teachers. I have no doubt that my fear of God and my faith in Christ and the Bible are due to their work, prayers, care, and preaching. I am certain that my fear of God (sometimes closer to terror) is due to their ministrations. And most of the time I thank them for it.

During my sojourn in the Pentecostal church I have seen almost everything there is to see—good and bad. In the summer of 1954 I was asked to lead the song service in a church in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas that had a combination floor—dirt and linoleum. When I announced that we would sing only three of the four verses of When We All Get to Heaven, the pastor jumped to her feet and publicly chastened me, We sing all the verses in this church, brother! and we did.

On another occasion I wore a new, baby blue sport coat to a revival service in a Foursquare Church in Brea, California. I thought I looked pretty good, maybe even dapper. The revivalist did not share my opinion. He not only mentioned my worldly style of dress in the sermon, but when I didn’t raise my hand for salvation he came down the aisle, stood beside me, and strongly urged me to get right with God.

Everything I write about in this book is based on my own experiences and personal observation: speaking in tongues, people being slain in the Spirit, Jericho marches, and ministers who call out people in the audience to address their personal problems. One time I watched in horror as an anointed prophet of God pointed to a very overweight man in the congregation and publicly shamed him for his obesity.

I have heard hell described so vividly that in the middle of the night I could see flames on the wallpaper of my bedroom. I was only nine or ten years old at the time and while the fear of God is a good thing, I think my soul was damaged by those horror films.

I have also heard countless sermons on the difficulty of satisfying God’s holy demands: No man shall see God with sin in his life; Without holiness it is impossible to see God. It does not surprise me that many people decided not to return to church and others simply lost touch with reality. I understand the torment of people who feel the burden of attempting to be good enough to receive the blessings of God.

I have ministered in Bible conferences where I was warned in writing not to broach certain aspects of the grace of God. A formal letter arrived on my desk in the summer of 1974 forbidding me to even hint that the believer in Jesus Christ could feel safe from final condemnation. And once when I was teaching in a Pentecostal college the examinations I had prepared for the students had to be cleared by the president of the denomination. I was really not that much of a threat to denominational orthodoxy, but he wanted to make sure I was not putting forbidden thoughts in the minds of the students, however biblical they might have been.

Some of what I have seen is like taking a wrong turn and one block later getting back on the right road. We all do that, every church and pastor makes mistakes. At other times, I have seen destruction run amok. I am thinking of the guaranteed promises of deliverance made to people desperate for help . . . impoverished people promised financial miracles . . . addicted people told that the need for drugs and alcohol would diminish if they spoke in tongues . . . emotionally and physically battered women told that their brutish husbands would change if they would submit to their husbands’ every need . . . young adults, mentally and emotionally damaged by parents and pastors, warned that psycho-therapy was evil, a work of the devil—only God can heal you.

Saddest of all, I have known ministers who attribute all sin and failure to demonic activity. They took no personal responsibility for behavior in themselves, or others. Every sin was to be cured by the casting out of demons: except of course, their own imperious egotism.

I have been in churches where human sexuality, the urge to intellectual pursuit, and normal human ambition have been so denigrated that young people shrank in horror from acknowledging any interest in these God-given capacities. More often than not, these denouncements originated from ministers whose personal lives were so twisted that they could not even recognize their own faults. I have known men and women preachers so caught up in their spirituality and callings that they completely marginalized their spouses.

The inhumanity of religious abuse is not only manifest in charismatic and Pentecostal circles; every denomination and Christian sect seems to have its malformed teachings and practices. Consider these comments on Roman Catholic experiences as told by Pierre Solignac, a psychiatrist who has treated many Roman Catholic priests, religious and lay-people over the past twenty years (1962-1982):

The consequence of traditional Christian education is considerable immaturity: a number of priests cannot communicate with themselves. Some regard psychotherapy as dangerous manipulation . . . Digestive troubles are particularly frequent among priests, as among . . . neurotics who do not express their anxieties . . . . Everything happens as though their position as pastor of the flock prevented them from getting involved in their own problems. (1)

One of Dr. Solignac’s patients was a man who suffered from anxiety neurosis. On one occasion he brought his Catholic family notebook, given to him on his marriage in 1939. On the last page, in large letters, had been written the following text:

You are a Christian. Remember that today you must serve and glorify your God, imitate Jesus your saviour, pray to the Virgin his mother, atone for your sins, save your soul, perhaps even suffer death, escape hell, attain heaven. This was followed by a prayer that had to be recited to receive full forgiveness and avoidance of purgatory, especially if recited in Latin or French. (2)

In these aberrations from biblical Christianity there was and always will be something more to do to receive God’s best gifts. There is always something more to do to meet God’s standard or to induce God to act on the seeker’s behalf: give seed money; fast more often or longer; pray more intensely or regularly; observe the sacraments; speak in tongues; worship in a certain manner (usually with intense emotions and in compliance with the leader’s ideas of worship); memorize Scripture; believe in the Full Gospel; and always, there is something else to achieve before the seeker can rest. It is small wonder to me that many people give up, live in denial, and deeply resent the sanctification of oppression.

These excesses and more have had a devastating effect on millions of people who have trusted their spiritual leaders to guide them. In the past the influence of these hapless leaders has had certain limitations. Their distortion of the Bible message was limited in its dissemination to preaching in the local church, classrooms of a college or seminary, books, and radio programs. In the last thirty to forty years all of that has changed because of television.

Corinthian televangelism (see Note) changes the parameters of influence because of two factors. One is the persuasiveness of visual media. Here, we don’t have to think; we don’t use our critical faculties. We no longer have to weigh and decipher words. We do not go to our Bible dictionaries when we watch the televangelists. Passively we let play upon our minds visual images, theatrical stage-settings, crowds that fill every seat, orchestrated music, professional performers, charismatic singers and preachers, miracle-workers performing supernatural signs at a distance that makes verification impossible. It is simply too grand and magnificent to question.

The second thing that makes televangelism so persuasive is the carefully crafted celebrity of the actors. Every aspect of their appearance, from hair style to those earnest gestures of looking right at us through the lens of the camera, is calculated. Their clothes, jewelry, and demeanor are all designed to make us think of them as God’s elite who have found the divine secrets of the good life, the highest God offers. For many people they are irresistible.

Televangelism has reached a level of power and influence that makes me believe that we may be on the verge of a new, world-wide, Christian dynasty. It could become more powerful than any authority the Roman Catholic Church has ever exercised. By virtue of its global accessibility, televangelism, in its Corinthian form, is reconstructing the Christian message for millions if not billions of people.

Two years ago a friend of mine went on a humanitarian trip to Swaziland, Africa. He was there to distribute Bibles and to help in the AIDS crisis. While there he met many evangelical believers. Among them was a young man, a serious follower of Jesus Christ, who said to him, I am sorry to tell you that we just don’t have the miracles here that you do in the United States. His only knowledge of American Christianity had been through television. My friend said, We don’t have them either. This was not an apology for a lack of miracles, but an honest admission of the duplicity of the televangelists. This young man and millions more like him are coming to believe that the exaggerated and unbiblical expectations of supernaturalism, as portrayed by the televangelists, represents the norm for Christians.

Since Corinthian Christianity is omnipresent on television sets around the world it becomes the principal resource for people who feel a hunger for spiritual life. While there are other sources of information, it is television that is most accessible and therefore most influential. Frequently, when people of differing backgrounds and beliefs learn that I am a Christian minister, they ask, What’s going on with those crazy televangelists? What is that all about?

People are bewildered and often, I believe, saddened. Many of them are searching for answers to troubling questions. They have little knowledge of the Bible, or Christianity in general, and they wonder if what they are seeing really represents what God offers. Their puzzlement only increases as they watch strange-acting people do bizarre things in his name, and they wonder what kind of God could possibly be behind this silliness.

In my opinion, based on years of observation, the promise of grand and glorious miracles for all occasions never really has to come true. No one actually has to produce them. Their proponents just have to keep the expectations alive in the imaginations of their followers. As long as that sense of anticipation remains active, the leaders have all the power. And that is what is happening on a global scale. The image of a romantic, prosperous, miracle-filled Christianity is the model by which true faith is measured. It is a gigantic illusion. And it is becoming monolithic, institutional, and unquestionable, the gold standard of gold-seeking promoters.

There is another dilemma that I want to address in this book; Pentecostal television and Corinthian Christianity can not only be abusive, but addictive. While I was researching and writing this work (and for many years before) I came across people deeply troubled about leaving Pentecostal and charismatic churches. They asked, Why did I feel so guilty when I left the Pentecostal church? . . . . Why did it take me so long to withdraw? . . . . Why did my family and friends give me such a rough time? They disowned me for years, and still don’t accept my decision. These people were not abandoning church or God. They just needed a healthier approach to spiritual life. When they tried to find a way out they experienced withdrawal symptoms, confusion, rejection, and pain. Those who need to leave, and not all do, face a long and arduous journey. Some cannot find the courage to travel that far. But unless they do they will remain frustrated and immature.

As you know by now, this book is about televangelism and Corinthian Christianity, the people who lead these movements and the harm they do. It is about manipulative methods, idolatrous loyalties to preachers and healers, false promises of supernatural cures and miracles, some silliness, and the narcissism of most of the televangelists and Corinthian celebrities.

Were it merely entertainment, Corinthian television would fit into the inane amusements offered on television and in movie theatres. But it is not entertainment. The televangelists claim to speak for God. In fact, they have no doubt they speak for God, and in his best voice. Yet, it is so shallow it could slide under a squeegee.

There are three things I ask God to do with this book: (1) Help those who are abused by Corinthian Christianity to find a healthier, biblical experience of God; (2) Fill the televangelists with the Holy Spirit so that they will submit themselves to Jesus Christ and his Word; (3) Encourage ministers of the gospel to become Christ-centered (The Word of God) and Spirit-sensitive (The Teacher). These themes will be woven into this book in many patterns, but all are designed to help the reader know and love God.

Note—As you read this book please refer to the appendices from time to time for clarification and perspective. In them I provide perspectives on: Corinthian Christianity, the Apostle Peter, Expository Preaching, and Will Televangelists go to Heaven? It is my hope that these brief appendices will make this book more useful to all readers.

Note—The advocates of THE PENTECOSTAL PARADIGM are varied. They include pastors and preachers, televangelists, purported miracle-workers, super-apostles, charismatic bishops, official potentates, various Christian celebrities, and many other suspect characters. For the most part I have used their titles and designations interchangeably to give them equal time.

Acknowledgments

My journey with God has been marked by a deep need of grace and timely provisions of his unmerited favor. These appearances of love have come in surprising circumstances—divine serendipities. Most of them, however, have entered my life through God’s servants: friends who offered kindness and affirmation.

No list can be complete, but the following people have been used by God to beget and sustain life in my soul: Chester Allen, F. Dale Bruner, Miss Charles, Jim Clark, Leslie Eno, Gordon Flinn, Clarence Hall, Jack Holcomb, Coleman Luck, Jack Morrow, Gladys E. Nicholl, Wallace Norling, Don Pickerill, Paul Royer, Arnold Schooley, Don Schmidt, James Stifler, Valerie Stone, and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave. I thank all of them for love, wisdom and friendship.

I also thank the many scholars not mentioned above who have made a lifetime commitment to studying and expounding the Holy Scriptures. I see their names on my bookshelves and consider them friends.

Kenneth D. Johns

Chapter One

ECSTASY ON SUNDAY NIGHTS

In this book I would like to help you decide which church and which Christian ministry is good for your soul. I would like to give you a perspective on how to avoid those that might be bad for your spiritual life and those that will, although imperfectly, provide you with biblical nourishment and spiritual direction.

I want to do this by looking at contemporary music, preaching styles, patterns of worship, charismatic experiences, a few superstitions, and the character and motivations of the leaders who give shape and content to churches, Christian television programs, and denominations. I will consider pastors, missionaries, worship leaders, televangelists, popes, authors, singers, Christian entertainers, self-proclaimed prophets, and assorted miracle-workers. My purpose is not to lay blame or to pronounce judgment (there may be some serious questions along the way), but to set forth biblical principles for ministry and spiritual development that will guide you in finding still waters and good pasture.

Let’s begin by visiting an old fashioned Pentecostal church on a Sunday night. The Pentecostal church I knew as a young adult was an exciting place—deliberately so. Remember, that was before the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Jerry Lee Lewis. It was even before Jimmy Swaggart sanctified piano boogie. But we did not need them. They did not compare to the music of a Holy Ghost meeting.

You never knew what might happen when you went to church, especially on Sunday nights. There were some things, however, you did expect. The hymns were faster than on Sunday mornings, the piano player improvised more freely, the prayers were more fervent, and revival and soul-saving were in the air. You could count on the unexpected.

There is nothing in today’s church or the secular music culture that is more rhythmic, toe-tapping, pulsating, and emotionally-charged than the music of an old-fashioned Pentecostal church service on a Sunday night. The music of the Grand Ole Opry does not even come close. For sheer entertainment and emotional power it cannot be touched. Of course, entertainment was not the target on Sunday nights. Soul-saving, Holy Spirit baptisms, speaking in tongues, miracles, and deliverance from sin were the goals.

Looking back there were two prerequisites for a Pentecostal service to be considered successful. First, the Holy Spirit needed to be present in a palpable and emotional way; you had to feel him. There had to be ecstasy; you had to be lifted outside of yourself. Secondly, there had to be some form of seizure—God had to take control. Blended together these created a state of rapture. Not the rapture of course, but the rapture of euphoria.

One method for achieving ecstasy was the Jericho March. This required the entire congregation to move into the aisles and parade around the assembly hall. This march was like a conga line at a wedding. If you were in the right mood, it was fun, but the march was not easily achieved.

As I remember, ample space was needed for a complete circle to be made around the inside of the sanctuary. Having your route blocked by pews, pulpit furniture, altar railings, or heavy doors was a distraction and could quench the Spirit. The use of the lobby was required if the church had no aisle at the back of the auditorium. It was quite enjoyable to exit the church sanctuary and conga right through the lobby. Non-marchers usually gathered there. Many times people would snub them for their non-participation. Think of how they would feel when the walls came tumbling down.

When you re-entered the church you could watch the entire marching host. Those who remained seated would often be singing, clapping, and raising their hands in encouragement, expecting to reap the benefits of full participation. Cheering went hand in hand with marching.

Getting the march started was often quite difficult. But once the majority of the congregation entered into the aisles the hard work was over. Most of us resisted the march, primarily because we felt vulnerable. I certainly did not want to be one of the first ones to stand up and march.

It seemed to me that the march must have required deliberate planning because certain things had to happen to create a proper Jericho March. For one thing the leader needed a unique charisma. He was similar to today’s praise-and-worship pastor. I can still remember one leader who had a strong, mesmerizing singing voice, a supple body with a bobbing head, and windmill arms. He relied heavily on the pianist, not just any pianist, but one who could rock and roll with Chuck Berry. It was helpful if the other musicians could play by ear.

We didn’t march to songs such as A Mighty Fortress is Our God, Crown Him with Many Crowns, or Holy, Holy, Holy. Those songs were for worship. We sang songs that said, Tonight we’re marchin’!

Furthermore, the song had to be sung in that old Pentecostal style. Fervency did not do it justice. This was an all-out four-alarm fire! Marchers were known to damage vocal chords and experience hoarseness on Mondays after a good march. The pulsating beat was up to the pianist and the song-leader’s flailing arms and rhythmic bobbing. A powerful, loud beat was essential. Like riding a bicycle, if you quit pedaling or rode too slow, you fell off.

Excitement! Excitement! Excitement! That was the key! The increasing tempo and volume of the marching song, sung over and over again, created the Jericho March frenzy. One time I remember singing On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand twenty-two times before the first person stepped into the aisle: On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand, And cast a wistful eye, Oh, won’t you come and go with me, I am bound for the Promised Land. To tell you the truth, I was relieved to see it, only because I wanted to get home. That night I was hoping the parade was short.

As far as I could tell we did not know why we were marching. There was no Promised Land, Jordan River, or even stormy banks for that matter. We were pursuing euphoria; we wanted to be carried off into ecstasy. More than likely we wanted to stand outside the worries and stresses of life for a few hours. But when the march was over I never saw people’s lives changed. Nothing had or would be different: certainly not in my life.

When the Jericho March was not launched properly, or the songs and praises lacked the energy required to achieve ecstasy, there were several other Spirit-filled techniques that could be used. Remember, back then, ecstasy was not optional, you had to get to the Promised Land someway.

Week after week trying to manage the Holy Spirit on Sunday nights put heavy pressure on the leaders. On Sunday mornings you only needed a song-leader who could move his or her arms three beats to a measure, or four. But on Sunday nights there was a mandatory outcome which demanded high levels of charismatic energy. It was as though we had a rating system for leaders and a chart for songs. On Sunday nights only certain people could lead songs, only certain songs could be sung, only certain types of sermons could be preached, and the service was preceded by very intense, emotional prayer to create the mood. It seemed like there was a persistent pressure and determination to arrive in the Promised Land. Spoken or unspoken, everyone expected Sunday night to end in a crescendo of spiritual power.

If perchance, the preacher was not up to the task of preaching us into spiritual elevation, there were alternative methods. One of those was giving a message in tongues. Often I thought I could feel it coming, maybe even predict it. The sermon was mediocre or at least a little too long on information and short on emotional heat. Usually the preachers were feeling it too; at that point they often gave a message in tongues.

The ideal time for this divine