Question:
Coming up through the Pentecostal era, as a child I’ve been taught God’s Word, I have seen many moves of the Holy Spirit, but it is recently I’ve been questioning some things I took as Gospel. Can you tell me is it scriptural to “Dance in the Spirit” or to “Laugh in the Spirit? I’m not talking about how David danced before the Lord.
Answer:
The dancing of the Pentecostal/Charismatic/Third Wave Movements is not scriptural, because they are immodest, and it is mass confusion. The Bible is very clear in I Corinthians 14:33, “For GOD IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF CONFUSION, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” Pentecostal/Charismatic meetings are a mass confusion of people dancing around, speaking out loud, and wild, rock music. The Bible clearly says that God is not the author of such confusion. Then who is? The devil.
Down at the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, the pastoral staff has even admitted that a good number of UNSAVED YOUNG PEOPLE come in down in the front, and exhibit the same manifestations as the “saved” people. So they have concluded that a person does not even necessarily have to be “saved” to experience the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. That is the opposite of what the Bible teaches. Romans 8:9 says, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” A person cannot have the Holy Spirit, unless he is saved. If a person does not have the Holy Spirit, then he is not saved.
The whole realm of “dancing in the spirit” that Pentecostals/Charismatics exhibit is much like the wickedness recorded in Exodus 32:15-25, “And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. 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. 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. And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and THE DANCING: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strowed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:).” Joshua thought it was “the noise of war” going on, and Moses called it “the noise of singing.” Moses was not happy with their “noise” and with their “dancing.”
As to “laughing in the Spirit,” that is also an unscriptural, unholy practice. There are numerous occasions when preachers have been preaching that lost sinners are going to go to hell, and the congregation laughs hysterically about it. That is totally against the Bible. We are to weep over lost sinners — not laugh at them because they are going to hell. Jude 22,23 says, “And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” Psalm 126:5,6 says, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
God is not the author of the Pentecostal/Charismatic “noise, dancing, laughing, and confusion.” Find a good Bible-preaching church in your area, and start attending it faithfully. There is a good list of churches at the Web Site “http://wayoflife.org/~dcloud/fbns/!unitedstates.htm”.
For more information on the errors of the Tongues/Charismatic Movement, see the Web Site “http://wayoflife.org/~dcloud/fbns/charfbns.htm”.