Pagan Frenzy: A Theory

      At the beginning of my Christian life, I was immersed in the charismatic movement. Having trusted Christ as my Savior in my apartment one evening and proclaiming my new life in Christ during a lunchtime Bible study the next day, I became immersed in the culture of charismata, with one workplace acquaintance having served as the head usher for Katherine Kuhlman, a second workplace acquaintance serving as the head usher for Frederick K. Price, and being swept along by the group into involvement with the Shekinah Fellowship on Saturday evenings in Long Beach, headed by the notorious Brant Baker, Greg Laurie’s mentor.

I did not grow up in a Christian home. I probably attended fewer than ten church services my entire life. Everything was new to me. My knowledge of Scripture was approaching zero. The Shekinah Fellowship conducted a wonderfully choreographed experience with impressive production values, expertly performed music by the orchestra, and a captivating women’s choir featuring slender and attractive young women with long and perfectly coiffed hair. The effect on the 5 senses was overwhelming.

My problems began by reading the Word of God and being invited to a Church service after several months. I always wondered why none of my charismatic colleagues ever asked me to Church. But it was at Church, a Baptist Church that I observed a contrast between the charismatic approach to Christian worship and that on display at a Baptist Church.

The charismatic guys were always talking about what happened to them, their experiences, and how they felt. The Baptist guys always talked about what the Bible teaches. I came to an important conclusion before I had gathered all the necessary facts. Sometimes decision-makers have to conclude all of the information can be gathered. My life since then has persuaded me as I continue to gather facts that my conclusion was the correct one.

There are two ways to approach biblical truth and personal experiences. One can either use the Bible as a means of interpreting and understanding experiences, or one can use personal experiences to understand and interpret the Bible. The former approach is correct because it relies on the Bible as the final authority. The latter approach is the most popular and is the prevailing approach to life experiences and the use of the Bible in most churches today and by most who profess to be Christians in our day.

Advance 49 years, with me now serving as a pastor who has recently undertaken a series of messages focused on the evidence found in each Bible book of satanic and demonic activity. Over the years, I have noticed that most Bible commentators overlook and seem to minimize the evidence found in so many books of the Bible for the existence of and the activity of Satan and his minions. My ministry experiences, demonic activity that I have personally dealt with, and demonized people I have ministered to, spurred me to a concern that people attending Church be alerted to what the Bible shows and what translations into English sometimes minimize.

While preparing my message for the book of Exodus and the pieces of evidence in Exodus showing satanic and demonic activity, I became curious about the worship practices of Egyptian idolaters and how they affected the children of Israel. Try as I may, I could not find source material that spoke to their practices during the pagan worship of laypeople. Everyone knows what pagan priests did, their sex rituals, and the sacrifice of infants. But I wanted to know what the moms and dads did while the priests killed the babies. I was at a loss.

One Egyptologist used a phrase that caught my attention, “pagan frenzy.” Unfortunately, the term “pagan frenzy” did not register in my mind until days had passed after reading it. For the life of me, I have not discovered where I originally read the phrase. If you can provide a source for me, I would be very appreciative.

During my study of Exodus, I recall the occasion when Moses and Joshua descend from Mount Sinai. Exodus 32.17-18: 

¹⁷ And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.

¹⁸ And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear. 

Commentators suspect that Joshua’s conclusion was based upon him being a man of war. I beg to differ. I am persuaded Joshua was mistaken about what the children of Israel were doing because he was a man who grew up in Goshen. Moses correctly perceived what was happening because he had grown up in the court of Pharaoh, and he recognized the sounds of “pagan frenzy.”

When the Law of Moses was given to govern the nation, the religious practices of the children of Israel bore no resemblance to the religious observances of the surrounding nations. Pagan idolatrous worship was characterized at the grassroots level by “pagan frenzy” and is easily explained.

When God deals with people, He exposes them to the truth that is to be ingested into the mind and subsequently hidden in the heart. False religion has no truth and must rely upon external stimuli to provide a counterfeit sense of religious experience. God works from the inside out, with inwardly impactful truth working to externally exhibited conduct. False religion imposes, in the form of external stimulus, a false religious experience.

Described by the Egyptologist as “pagan frenzy,” it is a feature of false religion throughout the world and history. There must be loud music emphasizing rhythm. More than anything else, there must be rhythm. There must also be dancing and chanting. Whether on the steppes of Asia, the plains of North America, the jungles of Africa, or the Middle East's dervishes, the drums, chanting, and dancing is characteristic of pagan worship. Such conduct is never seen in the prescribed worship of the Jewish people under the Law of Moses.

Some would say, ”But David danced before the ark of the Lord.” Yes, he did. However, David’s dance of delight as he led the procession to transport the Ark of the Covenant was not worshipping in compliance with the dictates of the Mosaic Law. It was a public demonstration of delight in front of the people during a parade down Main Street!

With this contrast between pagan worship and the prescribed worship of the Jewish people according to the dictates of the Law of Moses, there is no question about the worship that took place when God’s people gathered in Churches at the beginning of the Christian era. There was no “pagan frenzy” on display when God’s people gathered, especially considering that the fruit of the Spirit described by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5.22-23 includes temperance, self-control, and is nothing like what is frequently seen on display during Pentecostal and charismatic worship services in our day.

Now for my opinion. I am persuaded that the beginning of Pentecostalism that occurred in Lawrence, Kansas, in the year 1900 and later spread to the state of Texas and then to the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles was not a work of God. It was a successful ploy by the devil to introduce into Christian worship “pagan frenzy.” And the scheme has been successful throughout the world.

I have some experience with “pagan frenzy.” Owing to my father’s career, I grew up among Native Americans throughout the United States. My parents frequently took me to the Saturday night “war dances” on Indian reservations in North and South Dakota. These dances have evolved over the years from what they used to be, pagan worship designed to seek the favor of spirits in preparation for battle to showy demonstrations and contests.

There is no longer any “pagan frenzy” that I am aware of among Native Americans, but being away from the reservations for more than half a century, I may be wrong. The “pagan frenzy” is now seen in Pentecostal churches, charismatic worship, and increasingly in Baptist churches.

God help us all as  more and more Churches wrongly seek to worship God the “pagan frenzy” way.

“The Challenge Christian Parents Face With Unsaved Children.”

Proverbs 10.1 reads,  “A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.” 

Setting aside the implications of the parallelism of this verse, focus with me on the dilemma parents face with their unsaved children, more so as their children reach adulthood and various stages of what passes for success in the world. Perhaps a child is handsome, athletic, personable, academically successful, or successful as an entrepreneur but remains unconverted to Christ. What a challenge Christian parents face!

It is one thing to like your child, to love your child, and to want to get along with your child without conflict and contention. At the same time, it is always the case that an unsaved child is God’s enemy (Romans 5.10) and in desperate need of regeneration, and reconciliation with God, which only comes with a relationship with Jesus Christ.

One of the traditional congregational hymns our congregation sings occasionally is titled “Who Is On The Lord’s Side?” The song was written when the lines of demarcation between the saved and the lost were more clearly drawn than they seem today. And in many families, there is a tacit acknowledgment by moms and dads that their offspring (some or all of them) are not on the Lord’s side, so the issue is never addressed, referred to, or alluded to. Sometimes Christian parents never witness to their children, while others are oblique and suggestive without the directness that honesty dictates. Why so?

There are various reasons, including spiritual cowardice by professing Christian parents (which seems to fly in the face of Second Timothy 1.7. Sometimes the cause is a genuine perplexity about addressing your child’s lost condition without excessive agitation or provocation (Ephesians 6.4). Sometimes parents want to kick the can down the road hoping someone else will address their son or daughter’s lost condition. There are even Christian parents who seem oblivious to the spiritual situation of their child and do not seem to appreciate their danger as someone condemned already (John 3.18).

Note the word “glad” in Proverbs 10.1, translating a Hebrew word found in more than 140 OT verses, as frequently translated “rejoice” as “glad.” Having a wise son makes a dad glad and causes a father to rejoice, with the same obviously true of mom. However, many parents seem to be glad and rejoice, although their son (or daughter) is not wise, does not fear God, and does not embrace the Savior.

How can this happen? Pretty easily, actually. When parents are not Bible students, not continually reminded and reinforced about God’s will, God’s delight, and God’s purpose, they can quickly be caught up in their uninformed and uninstructed love for their child, their delight in their child’s worldly accomplishments, while not attending to the terrible plight of their child as someone estranged from God.

You like your kid. You love your kid. Nothing wrong with that. You are tempted to rejoice in your child’s temporal accomplishments. And you want no conflict at Thanksgiving, Christmas, or birthday celebrations. And when there are grandchildren, the temptations to get along are more pronounced. But the fact is that your beloved son or daughter is condemned already, and you dare not forget your parental duty in the hopes someone else will step in and witness to your child for you.

I know what it is like to love a lost child, to want to smooth over any ripples in your relationship with your lost child, and to wonder how best to be faithful to God first, with your youngster not being your primary concern in life and service. It should strongly motivate you to pray and study God’s Word. And there is a danger to be avoided: being glad for your child though he is not wise, not reconciled to the Savior, and does not fear God.

How does that posture help your child? It does not, but it makes it easier for him to maintain his delusion of spiritual safety. I encourage you to seek wisdom from God to love your child, get along with your child, like your child, and enjoy what you can in your child’s life. But avoid being duped into the gladness, the rejoicing as a father (or a mother) that should be reserved for the child who fears God, bends the knee to Christ, and seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first.

This installment is titled “The History & Theology of Calvinism” by Curt Daniel, Chapter 51, The Destiny of the Unevangelized.

 

This chapter is worth the book by itself. The author also utterly refutes the late evangelist Billy Graham’s profoundly unscriptural tripe uttered during his interview with Robert Schuller on his “House Of Power” broadcast #1426 in December 1997 ( https://youtu.be/INPyY0QjgpY ) without directly mentioning him. 

The chapter begins, “we now come to the third hard case concerning election and reprobation. What is the eternal destination of those who never hear the gospel? Are they in the same situation as dying infants? If some are saved, they are elect; if not, non-elect. The issue touches on other issues relevant to the debate distinctive doctrines of Calvinism.”

The chapter is divided into seven subsections. 

The Reformed Position: Thirteen paragraphs. The author includes a repudiation of the changing Roman Catholic positions. He mentions the liberalism of noted author Pearl Buck and the expulsion of J. Gresham Machen over missions from the Presbyterian Church in the 1930s. References are also made to John Calvin, Charles Hodge, and Jonathan Edwards. 

All Men Are Already Under God’s Wrath: Four paragraphs. 

The Only Answer: Four paragraphs. 

Christ Alone: Three paragraphs. 

Objections: The author addresses the following objections:

Objection 1:  “God is sovereign and is not limited to the gospel.”

Objection 2:  “The heathen who never hear the gospel are like Old Testament saints who never heard but were still saved.”

Objection 3:  “Did not Christ say that many will come from the East and West (Matthew 8:11) and that He had other sheep (John 10:16)?”

Objection 4:  “What about Cornelius the Gentile who is called a God-fearer in Acts 10:2?”

Objection 5:  “What about the good Muslim or the good Hindu?”

Objection 6:  “What about non-Christian Jews?”

Objection 7:  “What about the Greek philosophers?”

Objection 8:  “Middle Knowledge gives the answer how the un-evangelized might be saved.”

Objection 9:  “Since Christ died for everyone, nobody is condemned except for rejecting the gospel.”

Objection 10:  “There is a second chance after death (1 Peter 3:19) or reincarnation. Eventually everyone hears. God owes everyone the right to hear the gospel.”

Objection 11:  “Does God not bring the gospel to people in ways other than the Bible?”

Objection 12:  “Could God not bring the gospel by dreams, visions, and angels as He did in the Old Testament?”

Objection 13:  “What about the many stories of non-Christians who were saved by faith before they heard the missionaries?”

Objection 14:  “If a person who never hears the gospel lives up to the light that he has, God will get the gospel to him so that he can believe and be saved.”

Objection 15:  “It would not be fair to God to condemned those who never hear of Christ.”

Four paragraphs follow the responses to these objections. 

Election and the Problem: Three paragraphs. 

Conclusion:

If the unevangelized had any other way of salvation, then the need for evangelism and missions would be killed at once. A true view of the lost state of the unevangelized and the good news of the gospel gives us a greater encouragement and urgency to bring the gospel to everyone. Charles Hodge observed: “The proper effect of the doctrine that the knowledge of the gospel is essential to the salvation of adults, instead of exciting opposition to God’s Word or providence, is to prompt us to greatly increased exertion to send the gospel to those who are perishing for lack of knowledge.

We should also be where words supposedly spoken by the Hyper-Calvinist John Colette Ryland to a young William Carey when Carey proposed to send out missionaries: “Sit down, young man. When God wants to save the elect, He will do so in His own good time without you or me.” Fortunately, most Hyper-Calvinists do not believe that, but few of them send missionaries out, support evangelism, or tell the gospel far and wide.

The unevangelized are not just in so-called deep, dark Africa, for there are millions of Christians there. There are millions of unevangelized non-Christians in ‘Christian Europe’ and ‘Christian America.’ Let us bring the gospel to all of them.