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August 27 2007; The Shocking Truth

Focus Text: Hebrews 1.1-2

Believe it or not, I have personally attended a few “tent revivals.” For the younger crowd, a tent revival was (I use the past tense because they are essentially a thing of the past) an evangelistic tool used to attract and gather crowds to listen to a singing and preaching service. It derived its name from the unique practice of erecting a large canvas tent in which people would gather at the time announced on the sign posted near the highway or printed on the flyers that were passed out throughout the community. The whole thing was typically a “traveling caravan” that would roll into a village or town, stay a few days and depending on their reception, move on to the next town when the time was right.

I attended one such meeting several years ago in my home town in Alabama. I admit my motivation included a large dose of curiosity and was not one of necessarily wanting to support the effort (unless of course their practices and preaching agreed with what I believed the Bible to teach). As it turned out, I did not wish to lend support to their effort because of what I observed. That is the main point of this little story entitled The Shocking Truth.

A group of singers and musicians occupied a makeshift platform, playing and singing over the loudspeaker system that helped their voices and instruments to be heard over the din of traffic and city noise that attempted to drown them out. During one particular song the female singer made some rather strange and jerky movements as she belted out her song to the accompaniment of the drums and electric guitars in the little band. In retrospect, I say her movements were strange and jerky, but today I doubt that they would even be noticed. After she finished her song, she announced that there had been a problem with the equipment and that she had actually been standing on an amplifier cord through which she was receiving an electric shock. She said, “At first I thought it was the Holy Ghost, but I knew I had never felt him like that!”

To think that someone would be so ignorant of God and of the scriptures to think that an electric shock could be just another manifestation of the Holy Ghost is beyond rational comprehension! God describes Himself, His motives, and His methods of communicating with man in the Bible. Though He spoke at different times and in different manners under the Old Covenant, He speaks to us in these last days through His Son (read Hebrews 1.1-2). He speaks! Let that part of the focus text sink in! He speaks! He does not hit us, knock us to the ground, twist our arm, and He certainly does not subject us to electric shock treatment! God is a God of reason who has clearly defined the methods that He uses to communicate His will to humanity; the Bible is that method. The weird contortions and convulsions that some fake under the guise of being used of God are just that – fake and weird contortions to try to prove that false teachers are plugged into God!

If we want to learn the truth, or compare someone’s doctrine with the truth, we have one and only one way of doing so; we must go to the Bible, read it, interpret it, and apply it to such circumstances. This mystery was revealed long, long ago – and that’s the shocking truth!

Questions:

1. Why would someone make radical claims such as the one to which the woman alluded? What advantage is there if such claims can appear to be substantiated?

2. If someone can “prove” by such actions that they are “plugged into God,” what happens to their credibility as a teacher or preacher?

3. What is the only source of truth by which all such claims and all doctrines must be tried?

4. During the Christian era, what conclusion can we unmistakably draw when someone attempts to prove by such shenanigans that they have a special connection with God?

"Refreshment in Refuge" from Gina Burgess

3 steps to peace...