The charismatic movement in Christianity seemed to appear out of nowhere in the 1970s and has become a dominant force in that religion. It has largely fed off the growing dissatisfaction with Catholicism and the mainline protestant denominations. But there appears to be more to this story.
I researched a key feature of this movement which is, in their terminology, speaking in tongues. This practice falls under the more general heading of ecstatic utterances since the faithful are whipped into a frenzy by the service and respond with what is typically shouted babble.
Ecstatic utterances are/were practiced by:
· The prophets of Aphrodite (female and male prostitutes whose influence infiltrated the church in Corinth.)
· Priestesses at Delphi
· "In ancient times the practice of speaking in unintelligible languages during religious ecstasy was not unknown. From eleventh-century B.C. Egypt come reports of ecstatic speech, and later in the Greek world the prophetess of Delphi and the Sibylline priestess spoke in unknown tongues. Amongst the Roman mystery religions, the Dionysian Cult was known for this practice.” Millard Erickson's Christian Theology and Walter Elwell's Evangelical Dictionary of Theology
· Virgil in his Aeneid stated that the pagan sibylline oracles on the island of Delos spoke in ecstatic utterances
· Shakers - established in the US in 1776, by mother Ann Lee, who claimed she was the embodiment of God. Declared that all sex is evil. To purge the sexual desire she instituted the practice of dancing around naked while speaking in tongues. They also had séances to call up Indian guides.
· Irvingites - founded by Edward Irving. Irving taught Christ was a sinner and the second coming would be in 1864.
· Joseph Smith stated "arise upon your feet speak or make some sound, continue to make sounds of some kind and the Lord will make a tongue or language of it."
· Sects of Buddhists
· Sects of Hindus
· Sects of Muslims
· Pentecostals
· Charismatics
· Word of Faith
In my research I also discovered Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order was also fond of this practice:
Later, in order to examine and discuss the election I had made, I took out the reasons I had written down to examine them. I prayed to our Lady, and then to the Son and to the Father, to give me their Spirit to examine and distinguish, although I was speaking of something already done, and felt a deep devotion and certain lights with some clearness of view, I sat down, considering, as it were in general, whether I should have complete or partial revenue, or nothing at all, and I lost all desire to see any reasons. At this moment other lights came to me, namely, how the Son first sent the Apostles to preach in poverty, and afterwards, the Holy Spirit, giving His Spirit and the gift of tongues, confirmed them, and thus the Father and the Son sending the Holy Spirit, all Three Persons confirmed the mission.
It should not surprise anyone that the current Jesuit Pope is also a fan::
“I don't think that the charismatic renewal movement merely prevents people from passing over to Pentecostal denominations,” Pope Francis said. “No! It is also a service to the church herself! It renews us."
“The movements are necessary, the movements are a grace of the Spirit,” the pope added, speaking of ecclesial movements in general. “Everyone seeks his own movement, according to his own charism, where the Holy Spirit draws him or her.”
It is not unusual for Jesuits to use the term charism. It essentially means magic, and it is the root of the word charismatic. The Pentecostal church is growing really fast in what have been Catholic countries such as Mexico. It's not like Pentecostalism was started by a guy nailing theses to a door. It appears to be another form of Catholicism, which in turn appears to be a form of Gnosticism.
They were in fact accused of being drunk, its the plain reading of the text. Conditioning would have the same effect on the the resurrection event - maybe Jesus was just tired after being crucified and just fell asleep.....
You asked why they were accused of being drunk and I told you I did not know. I did not disagree with what was stated.
You see people in church having a visceral physical response to God and think its gnostic. And they thought the same thing in Acts 2, and thought it was wine. If you were there then, would you be the one of the people having an interaction with God, or would you be one of the ones on the outside being critical? I'll take a guess!
Huh?
You would guess based on the same conditioning that causes you to think this is an interaction with God. This is what is referred to in Matthew 12 as the unpardonable sin. You identify evil spirits as good and good as evil. Thus the Holy Spirit can not lead you to do what is right because you mistake God's guidance as evil. That is the whole point of this occult practice. It is my hope for you that you can find your way back somehow. Looking at the history of this practice could be a good first step.
How do you conclude that if you don’t believe in something, it’s therefore demonic? You want to talk about history? I’m taking the position from the plainest reading in scripture:
Act 2: Initial outpouring, spoke with tongues
Acts 8: Apostles laid hands and something happened to make Simon want to buy the ability. What happened? Acts 10: Gentile outpouring, spoke with tongues Acts 19: apostles laid hands, spoke with tongues.
18 times in scripture this practice is mentioned in connection with the Holy Spirit. This is the Biblical position. Perhaps it is you who is in violation of Matt 12 and under the influence of demons. Just think about it. You are literally calling God a demon. Thin ice.