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Re: Dropped By & Somewhat Dismayed But Not Surpris
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Originally Posted by not4saken
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When I was about 8 and had been baptized and was praying to be baptized with the Holy Ghost there were times I went to the altar (I knew I was expected to) and just didn't have much emotion about it that night so I would imagine my dad dying and that would bring tears to my eyes. That kind of haunted me a few years later when my father died when I was a teenager.
Our church goes through books of the bible one at a time (earlier this year we spent six months on Genesis!) and last Sunday we started Revelation. We generally cover one chapter each Sunday with the preacher reading every verse and preaching from the word. My wife went to our pastor and told him she is looking forward to going through Revelation now since she dreaded it so much when she was young in an old time Pentecostal church. There it was a time of fear and scare tactics
Back in the late '70's Richard Heard (who ironically enough left the UPC and has been a totally different type preacher the last 20+ years ) was one of the main guys who could pull them in by the bus loads giving six week long revivals on Revelation that would bring an influx of converts who left as soon as the fear did. I remember some pregnant women in the church really having to battle depression after six weeks of doom and gloom because they felt so horrible about bringing a child into the world in the middle of it.
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"I think some people love spiritual bondage just the way some people love physical bondage. It makes them feel secure. In the end though it is not healthy for the one who is lost over it or the one who is lives under the oppression even if by their own choice"
Titus2woman on AFF
"We did not wear uniforms. The lady workers dressed in the current fashions of the day, ...silks...satins...jewels or whatever they happened to possess. They were very smartly turned out, so that they made an impressive appearance on the streets where a large part of our work was conducted in the early years.
"It was not until long after, when former Holiness preachers had become part of us, that strict plainness of dress began to be taught.
"Although Entire Sanctification was preached at the beginning of the Movement, it was from a Wesleyan viewpoint, and had in it very little of the later Holiness Movement characteristics. Nothing was ever said about apparel, for everyone was so taken up with the Lord that mode of dress seemingly never occurred to any of us."
Quote from Ethel Goss (widow of 1st UPC Gen Supt. Howard Goss) book "The Winds of God"
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Did I learn from MY experience tho? Of course not! I was the atypical Apostolic- my children were all baptized before age of 6 and all had the HG by age 8. I feel that I was done a grave disservice by all the scare tactics preacher's used in my generation. It accomplished what THEY wanted- a full altar, and high #s to talk about the next time the 'good ol boys' club got together and bragged about their many exploits. I have even heard Pastors talkin about saints like they were on the auction block. "Ahhh, now Doc- if u take the 'So and So family' off my hands, I will pay tithes to YOU..." Or.."You sure you wont take the 'So and So's' off my hands, doc? I will give'em the gas money to drive across town!" HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR.... Even the memory makes me want'a puke. Wonder how it makes God feel, to hear MEN talkin about sumthin so precious to HIS HEART that He gave His life for it? 
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