Are Pentecostals Too Emotional? by David K. Bernard Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript) Kind: teaching Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Mark 12:29-30, Psalm 100, Psalm 150 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--are-pentecostals-too-emotional Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ Emotion absolutely does have an important role to play and that's true both when you study anthropology or study humans and study theology, study the Bible. I will hasten to add since we are at least in our western culture and at least among historic Christianity such as Catholics and Protestants, we do emphasize emotion more than they do. It can seem a little extreme to people raised in those traditions. But that's just because they have a deficient view of what it means to be human apparently and also a deficient view of scripture. This also means that since we do emphasize emotion more, if we are going to go to excess, we would be more likely to go in that direction. So certainly you can give stories of Pentecostal people who went way off track into bizarre emotionalism or unscriptural emotionalism or used emotion to justify false doctrine or false teachings or you know unethical behavior or anything like that. So sure there are excesses but if we're going to have an intelligent reason discussion we have to not look at aberrations or excesses but we have to look at mainstream because we could also make the same argument on the other side the lack of emotion excessive reliance on rationalism. We could say the whole Protestant movement the mainline denominations have all become liberal and abandoned scripture abandon the miraculous because of excessive reliance on rationalism. So, I can easily argue I think Pentecostals have the much better argument because Pentecostals are more certainly more um uh faithful to the teaching of scripture than the mainline liberal Protestants. But I would refute the argument that we're excessively emotional or that we base our doctrine emotional. That first of all, that is historically false. So if you look at the beginnings of the 20th century Pentecostal movement uh you find that two key figures uh that as a matter of history you can read it my history of Christian doctrine volume 3. Charles Parm in Topeka Kansas began teaching the baptism of the Holy Ghost with initial sign of tongues and the the first people under his group started received the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues January 1, 1901. It was three days later before Pardon himself had that experience. And then the the person who really ignited the Pentecostal revival worldwide and in one form or another all Pentecostal denomination stem from the movement he started the Isuza Street Revival in Los Angeles, California 1906 to 1909. William Seymour likewise he had been taught by PUM. He believed this experience. He came out to Los Angeles and began preaching it. But he hadn't received it himself and several people when they heard his message and in the course of time they received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues several days before he did. So what's interesting of course I believe the Pentecostal movement goes back to the day of Pentecost. But if you want to look at just recent historical origins of the modern institutions and denominations or organizations, you would have to look at par and seymour as the primary igniters of it. I would argue the Holy Spirit ignited, not any one human being. So there we don't have one human founder. But God used these two people in special ways. But notice in both cases when they begin preaching, everybody needs to receive the Holy Spirit. and you'll know what happens because you'll speak in tongues. They themselves had not received that experience. They were not basing their preaching on emotionalism which they didn't have too much m more than other Protestants. They were not basing it on experience because they didn't have the experience. They were basing on scripture and apostolic authority and restoration of the apostolic church. So objectively speaking, we Pentecostals did not come from an emotional surge or from an experiential surge. We came from a scriptural from scriptural teaching and preaching and the emotions follow. So then the question becomes, is that legitimate? And if you study anthropology, human beings, we're holistic people. It's foolish to say we can isolate the emotional component and minimize it. And it would be undesirable to do so. Serving God is primarily about relationship, loving God, and our emotions must be an integral part of that. So my most precious relationship outside of the Lord is my family. So when I come home and my wife just looks up and just says, "Oh, you're here. Okay." And goes back to her stuff. Am I happy? Well, we don't want to be too emotional. No, I want a hug and a kiss and a smile and excitement when when our kids come for family reunion or I've got eight grandkids. If we're all together in the, you know, Christmas time or Thanksgiving and I come in the door and my wife says, "Granddad's home." Do I want everybody just keep looking at their phones or their devices or eating or talking to each other, ignore me, look up, say, "Oh, okay." No, I want excitement, love, joy, hug, kiss. Is that excessive? Is that crazy? No. That's part of being human. And so, in my worship, should I be stoic and reserved and don't speak above whisper? Don't raise my hand? Don't you know any emotion human emotions are normally expressed in bodily form in some fashion. So just by studying what it is is to be human by analyzing human is at life celebrations at key moments families u family interactions things that are exciting to them such as sports events uh when they get a large raise. How do people react? Emotions are part of that. Should emotions guide us necessarily? No. But should emotions be excluded from the important things of our life? No. So why should worshiping be the one place in life where emotions are excluded and minimized? That doesn't even make sense. And in fact, I've got scripture for that because uh Deuteronomy 6:4 and 5, which I'll read from the words of Jesus, he quoted it. What's the first commandment of all? In Mark 12:29-30, Jesus answered, "The first of all the commandments is here. Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Now notice verse 30. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. Notice the the reason why it's important to know one God is for relationship. Not for intellectual satisfaction, not for theological accuracy, not for creeds. It's so that you can have a relationship. Which is why why we believe that our relationship is not with three different people, but with one. But you're to love him. That's emotion. So right in the heart of the first commandment, love, emotion. And then it fleshes out heart, soul, mind, strength. Now, we don't believe these are separate parts of humans. It's just different ways of talking about human. But there are different aspects. So you can figure out what that was addressing in ancient Hebrews, what it was addressing at the time Jesus spoke in u you know Aramaic and and then the Greek speakaking culture of Mark's gospel and what it means today. But I think if you say heart, soul, mind, strength, that would include rationality, it would include emotions. It encompasses your whole being and includes strength. So somehow there's it is not a passive casual meek and mild and minimal type of expression but it's a strong vigorous vibrant enthusiastic expression. So looking at all that heart, soul, mind, strength, where would I get the idea? Don't be emotional. If you feel a little emotion, suppress it. And certainly don't let anybody see you're emotional. So don't raise your hands, don't clap your hands, don't shout, don't dance. you know even if you feel that don't do it nothing in that passage would indicate that but to the contrary and actually I think the book of Psalms um it of course was the song book of ancient Israel but I think it's also the song book of the early church because when Jesus and the apostles worshiped they used the book of psalms in fact it even says they sang a psalm one occasion and Colossians when Paul talks about what Christian worship should be like he includes psalms Psalms as part of that. So I think it's legitimate to look at the Psalms. If if we're okay if the Psalm Psalms are inspired by God, it's okay to read them. It's okay to sing them, then I think it's okay to do what they say. And it would be wrong to pro to prohibit us from doing what they say. So Psalm 100, make a joyful shout to the Lord all ye lands. Joy, that's emotion. Shout, that's expressing your emotion physically. Serve the Lord with gladness. That's emotion. Come before his presence with singing. There's a demonstration. Um, enter verse four, enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him. Bless his name. That certainly sounds like a lot of emotional involvement and a lot of expression of emotion. And then Psalm 150, I'll just summarize with this. Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. So that would be in our version in in corporate worship. Praise him in his mighty firmament. Praise him for his mighty acts. Praise him according to his excellent greatness. How should we praise him? Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with the looten heart. Praise him with the timber and dance. Praise him with strange instruments and flutes. Praise him with loud symbols. Praise him with clashing symbols. Let everything that had breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. So musical instruments, singing with your voice, uh loud noises, dance is your body. So, not only is there emotion woven into all this, but all the various bodily expressions of emotion are woven into this. If we're supposed to sing these psalms, we're also supposed to enact these psalms. So, I think it's uh foolish to think that somehow emotion should be diminished, minimized or or excluded. And I think Pentecostals are correct to say emotions are integral part of being human and therefore emotional emotions should be an integral part of worshiping God. Is it possibly excessive in emotion? Of course. Is it possible to be diminishing emotions too much? Of course. So there has to be a balance. And the balance we find guidelines in the word of God, which that's another subject. But first Corinthians talks about being led of the spirit, but it also talks about doing all things decently in order. So there's a proper order for all things. So anybody that's talking about the excesses, I repudiate them. But if they're talking about standard worship and praise, I've just described it. If they're church and they are not participating in that kind of worship, then I think they're the ones who have to answer why they're not following the word of God.