Are Pentecostals Too Emotional?

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.

Emotion Has a Role — and the Excess Charge Cuts Both Ways

• The question posed, from a podcast listener: a criticism heard frequently — that Pentecostals rely on emotions too much in our worship and in our spiritual life. This person referenced more than one person he knew who actually ended up leaving because they felt their faith was too much based on emotion; and others throw the same charge — that all the speaking in tongues and the worship, the shouting and the dancing, elevate emotion above scripture and sound doctrine. What role should emotion play? Does emotion have any role in our faith and spiritual life, and if so, what is that role?
• Emotion absolutely does have an important role to play — that's true when you study anthropology, study humans, and when you study theology, study the Bible. He will hasten to add: in our western culture, and 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 because they have a deficient view of what it means to be human, apparently, and also a deficient view of scripture. And since we emphasize emotion more, if we are going to go to excess, we would be more likely to go in that direction: 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, false teachings, or unethical behavior. Sure, there are excesses. But if we're going to have an intelligent discussion, we have to look at the mainstream, not at aberrations or excesses — because we could make the same argument on the other side, the lack of emotion: excessive reliance on rationalism. The whole mainline denominations have all become liberal, abandoned scripture, abandoned the miraculous, because of excessive reliance on rationalism. He would argue Pentecostals have the much better argument — Pentecostals are more faithful to the teaching of scripture than the mainline liberal Protestants. But he refutes the argument that we're excessively emotional, or that we base our doctrine on emotion.

Historically False: The Movement Began from Scripture, Not Experience

• That charge is, first of all, historically false. Look at the beginnings of the 20th century Pentecostal movement — you can read it in his History of Christian Doctrine, volume 3. Charles Parm — as the captions render the name — in Topeka, Kansas, began teaching the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the initial sign of tongues, and the first people under his group received the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues, on January 1, 1901; it was three days later before he himself had that experience. And then the person who really ignited the Pentecostal revival worldwide — in one form or another, all Pentecostal denominations stem from the movement he started — the Isuza Street Revival in Los Angeles, California, 1906 to 1909: William Seymour. He had likewise been taught by Parm; 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, received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues several days before he did.
• Of course he believes the Pentecostal movement goes back to the day of Pentecost; but if you look at just the recent historical origins of the modern institutions and denominations, you would have to look at these two as the primary igniters. He would argue the Holy Spirit ignited it, not any one human being — we don't have one human founder — but God used these two people in special ways. And notice: in both cases, when they began 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 — they were not basing it on experience, because they didn't have the experience. They were basing it 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 scriptural teaching and preaching — and the emotions follow.

What It Is to Be Human: Love with All Your Heart

• Then the question becomes, is that legitimate? Study anthropology: human beings are 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. His most precious relationship outside of the Lord is his family: when I come home and my wife just looks up and says, 'Oh, you're here. Okay,' and goes back to her stuff — am I happy? 'We don't want to be too emotional.' No — I want a hug and a kiss and a smile and excitement. When our kids come for family reunion — I've got eight grandkids — if we're all together at Christmas time or Thanksgiving and I come in the door and my wife says, 'Granddad's home,' do I want everybody to just keep looking at their phones or their devices, or eating, or talking, ignore me, look up and say, 'Oh, okay'? No — I want excitement, love, joy, hug, kiss. Is that excessive? Is that crazy? No — that's part of being human.
• So in my worship, should I be stoic and reserved, not speak above a whisper, not raise my hand? Human emotions are normally expressed in bodily form in some fashion. Just study what it is to be human — life celebrations, family interactions, things that excite people such as sports events, 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 worship be the one place in life where emotions are excluded and minimized? That doesn't even make sense.
• And he has scripture for that: Deuteronomy 6:4 and 5 — which he'll read from the words of Jesus, who 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' — as the captions render Jesus's words. 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 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 you can have a relationship. Which is why we believe our relationship is not with three different people, but with one. But you're to love him — that's emotion — right in the heart of the first commandment: love, emotion. And then it fleshes out heart, soul, mind, strength. We don't believe these are separate parts of humans — just different ways of talking about the human — but there are different aspects, and it encompasses your whole being: it would include rationality, and it would include emotions. It is not a passive, casual, meek and mild, minimal type of expression, but a strong, vigorous, vibrant, enthusiastic expression. Looking at heart, soul, mind, strength — where would I get the idea: don't be emotional; if you feel a little emotion, suppress it; don't let anybody see you're emotional; don't raise your hands, don't clap your hands, don't shout, don't dance, even if you feel it? Nothing in that passage would indicate that — to the contrary.

Scriptures: Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Mark 12:29-30

The Psalms: Sing Them — and Do What They Say

• And actually, the book of Psalms — of course it was the song book of ancient Israel, but he thinks 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 on one occasion; and in Colossians, when Paul talks about what Christian worship should be like, he includes psalms as part of that. So it's legitimate to look at the Psalms: if the Psalms are inspired by God and it's okay to read them and okay to sing them, then it's okay to do what they say — and it would be wrong to prohibit us from doing what they say.
• 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. 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 — he'll just summarize with this: 'Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary' — that would be, in our version, in corporate worship. 'Praise him in his mighty firmament. Praise him for his mighty acts. Praise him according to his excellent greatness.' How? Praise him with the sound of the trumpet, with the timbrel and dance, with instruments and flutes, with loud noises — 'Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.' So musical instruments, singing with your voice, loud noises — dance is your body. 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. It's foolish to think emotion should be diminished, minimized, or excluded; Pentecostals are correct to say emotions are an integral part of being human, and therefore emotions should be an integral part of worshiping God.

Scriptures: Colossians (book-only); Psalm 100; Psalm 150

Balance: Decently and in Order

• 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 for in the word of God — which is another subject. But First Corinthians talks about being led of the Spirit, but it also talks about doing all things decently and in order — so there's a proper order for all things. Anybody that's talking about the excesses: he repudiates them. But if they're talking about standard worship and praise — what he has just described — if their church is not participating in that kind of worship, then he thinks they're the ones who have to answer why they're not following the word of God.

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians (book-only)

Scripture index: Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Mark 12:29-30; Colossians (book-only); Psalm 100; Psalm 150; 1 Corinthians (book-only).