By George O. Wood, General Secretary
General Council of the Assemblies of God, USA
Copyright, 1995Recently a manifestation of laughing has become commonplace in many charismatic meetings. The phenomenon has been popularized through the so-called Toronto Revival, and the itinerant ministry of an evangelist who identifies himself as a "Holy Ghost bartender" inviting persons to "have a drink at Joel's place."
It has been named the laughing revival. Is it from God? We must look to His Word for the answer.
The New Testament has much to say about joy. Jesus has come that our joy might be full. The promise of an abundant life presupposes despair and depression will not have the upper hand in the life of the believer. One can hardly describe the boundless joy of resurrection morning, or meeting with the Risen Christ. The 120 on the Day of Pentecost appeared to others as intoxicated because they were full of the Spirit. Through times of great persecution, the church exuberated joy. And, joy remains as a quality in the fruit of the Spirit. This age will end in a great hallelujah: "Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!" (Rev. 19:6,7).
But, is this Biblically described joy the same as the current manifestation of laughter in church services?
The Responsibility to Inquire For some, the very act of making inquiry as to the validity of a professed spiritual experience may be criticized as a lack of faith, and an evidence of unspirituality. However, it is our duty to pass everything by the test of Scripture. The example of the Bereans is commended to us "For they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true" (Acts 17:11). In other words, the Bereans did not unscrew their heads, park them in the foyer during the service and the preaching, and then pick up and reattach their cerebrums as they left the building. It is not unspiritual or ungodly to ask questions as to whether the Bible validates any particular doctrine expounded or experience claimed. We are admonished by the Apostle Paul: "Test everything. Hold on to the good " (I Thess. 5:21) and "Weigh carefully what is said" (I Cor. 14:29).
Paul also warns leadership to "Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers...savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them" (Acts 20:28-30).
Exercising doctrinal vigilance, however, requires balance lest the contenders for orthodoxy become unloving judges in the body of Christ. The Lord commends the Ephesian church for its hard work expended in testing false from true prophets; but He corrects them for leaving first love. It's so easy to become unloving while contending for the "right" on any doctrinal battleground. Christian apologists, if not careful, may appear to be full of sour grapes, and come across as legalistic, Pharisaical, and nasty.
It is right that we should examine any matter in the light of Scripture, including the current phenomena of "holy laughter;" but, it is wrong to conduct such an inquiry with an unloving and nonjoyful spirit.
As Pentecostals, persons committed to the authority of Scripture, we would do well to heed the example of William J. Seymour, the elder at the Azusa Mission. During the great Azusa revival, Seymour and others were criticized sharply for their insistence on "checking everything out with the Word." But, they were unashamed. In fact, Seymour responded to the criticism in the September, 1907, issue of The Apostolic Faith.
"We are measuring everything by the Word, every experience must measure up to the Bible. Some say that is going too far, but if we have lived too close to the Word, we will settle that with the Lord when we meet Him in the air."
Normative vs. Unique We must ask two questions about "holy laughter:" (1) do incidences of it occur in Scripture, and (2) if the instances do occur, are they "normative," intended as a pattern for Christian experience?
Why should we ask such questions?
Suppose that someone appeared on the contemporary scene with the gift of healing; except something very unusual happened - people were getting healed by placing themselves in the shadow of the minister when he passed by. Suppose, further, that the word got around and other ministers began also claiming to have "the shadow ministry." Suppose that yet others came along and said, "All ministers can have the shadow ministry, and all who want to be healed should get themselves into the shadow." Finally, imagine then that books and clinics began to teach the entire body of Christ the importance and need for "shadow ministry," along with practical steps at having "shadow ministries" in every local church.
How would we evaluate such an emphasis, and such claims? By asking the two questions: (1) did such an experience ever occur in the Bible; and, if so, (2) was it intended to be normative for all?
The answer to the first question is "Yes." Acts 5:15 records: "People brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by."
However, the answer to question two is "No." None of the other apostles is ever recorded as having "the shadow ministry."
Only Peter appears to have had "the shadow ministry." Could you imagine what would have happened in the early church had the other apostles abandoned their less spectacular ministry of praying for the sick to fast and pray for "the shadow ministry?" What if Peter had held seminars on how to conduct a "shadow ministry?" The church would have become caught up in a particular method and abandoned the normative pattern the Lord had given to the apostles: "they will place their hands [not shadows] on sick people, and they shall recover" (Mk. 16:18). The regular procedure for the sick person is not that he seek "the shadow," but that he "call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord" (James 5:14).
What the "shadow ministry" of Peter illustrates is that the Holy Spirit may act sovereignly through an individual for a limited time and in a unique manner; but, that such working on His part may not be designed as normative in the experience of the church. We only know something is normative if it is explicitly approved, commended, repeated consistently, or commanded in Scripture.
Many other examples abound in life of the apostolic church between the normative and the unique. For example, what is the normal pattern for church discipline? Is it not Matthew 18:15-20? How then do you explain the death of Ananias and Sapphira as a discipline for their lying? It surely does not fit the normative pattern of Matthew 18! What do we make of it? Is it to be the exception or the rule, unique or normative? To answer the question we look through Scripture. Is there any other example of church discipline by means of instant Holy Spirit execution? Are we ever enjoined to call upon the Holy Spirit to make liars fall dead onto the floor? Should the coroner or mortician's presence be requested during all church meetings? No! We follow the normal pattern of Matthew 18 and I Corinthians 5 in dealing with sin in the life of a church member.
Also, as another example of the difference between the unique and the normative, look at the phenomena present on the day of Pentecost: a mighty rushing wind, tongues as of fire distributed and resting upon the heads of the 120, and all speaking in other tongues as the Spirit causes them to speak. Are these three phenomena unique (one-time) or normative (the pattern for other believers)? It appears the wind and tongues of fire are unique. They never occur again in the Biblical text. We can't build doctrine on them, exhorting people: "Before you are baptized in the Spirit, there must be wind and fire." But, speaking with others tongues does reoccur in connection with being filled with the Spirit. As Pentecostals, we take speaking with other tongues as normative for the initial evidence of being baptized in the Spirit because we find it as a repeated phenomenon on other occasions and we deduce from the text that speaking in tongues always occurred when persons were baptized in the Spirit.
So, we inquire: is the laughing revival a normative pattern of Christian worship and behavior explicitly taught in the Scripture?
We must ask the same two questions of laughing as we have regarding "the shadow ministry," church discipline, and wind, fire and other tongues: (1) does the current phenomena of "holy laughter" occur in the Bible; and, if so, (2) is it meant to be a normative experience for believers?
In answer to the first question, the Bible is filled with admonitions to rejoice (Ps. 5:11, 32:11, 107:19-22, 126:1-3; Zeph. 3:14-17; I Thess. 5:16). Special examples stand out. Sarah laughed in unbelief at the prospect of becoming a mother since she was old, and later she laughed for joy when Isaac was born to her (Gen. 18:12-15, 21:6). John the Baptist leaped in his mother's womb when she greeted Mary; and Mary responded to Elizabeth by saying: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior..." (Lu. 1:41,46). The angel of the Lord heralded the birth of Jesus by declaring "good news of great joy that will be for all the people" (Lu. 2:10). Thirty-three years later, on resurrection morning, the women "hurried away from the tomb afraid yet filled with joy and ran to tell the disciples" (Mt. 28:8). Upon seeing the resurrected Christ, at first the disciples "did not believe it because of joy and amazement;" but forty days later, after the Lord's ascension into heaven they "returned to Jerusalem with great joy" (Lu. 24:41,52). Jesus in the course of His ministry told His disciples, when they returned with reports of having done exorcisms, "do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven" (Lu. 10:20). He promised to make full our joy (Jn. 15:11). The condition of joy characterized the early church, even when it faced difficult times (Acts 8:8, 13:52, 20:24).
Note, however, that the emphasis lies on joy rather than laughter. Joy appears to be an integral and indispensable quality in Christian experience, not rooted in subjective feelings of the moment; but, in the objective reality that God has granted us salvation, redemption, and deliverance in Christ Jesus, our Lord!
Amid all accounts of joy in the Bible, no direct claim or inference is made that persons were uncontrollably laughing, laughing in a crowd of worshippers with a host of others also laughing, or falling down unable to stop laughing.
Recognizing this lack of Scriptural precedent for the modern charismatic phenomenon of so-called "holy laughter" (some argue that it is neither "holy" nor "laughter"), the advocates of the experience point to Acts 2 and invite persons to "have a drink at Joel's place."
So, we turn to Acts 2. Is laughter the condition of the disciples on the day of Pentecost? Did they have the giggles, belly-laughs, or some in-between form of laughing?
Per the instructions of the Lord, the disciples had remained in Jerusalem. Ten days after the ascension, while the 120 were praying and worshipping the Lord in an upper room, a mighty rushing wind came and tongues of fire rested upon the heads of the 120. They were then all filled with the Holy Spirit and all spoke in other tongues.
They spilled out of the upper room into an area where a large multitude was gathered, probably the Gentile area of the temple. Some in the crowd thought they were drunk.
However, the laughing revival advocates have assumed that the crowd thought the 120 were drunk because they were laughing. That is not what the text of Acts 2 either states or infers.
Why did some in the crowd in the temple think the 120 were drunk? Not because they were laughing! Luke tells us straight out what the reason was: "Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: 'Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native tongues...we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" The "sound" which attracted the crowd is explicitly identified by Luke as the other tongues spoken by the 120.
There were three reactions to this supernatural speaking of praise and worship to God: amazement, perplexity, and those who made fun by saying the 120 were inebriated. Note that only "some" thought they were drunk. The use of the word "some" suggests only a smaller part of the main body of people. We are left with the impression, from Luke, that "most" did not assume them drunk; rather, they were amazed and perplexed -- and these persons asked "What does this mean?" But, others were not looking seriously for an answer and immediately discounted the behavior by mocking and attributing the tongue-speaking to drunkenness.
Nowhere does the text in Acts 2 suggest the appearance of laughter: it is the speaking with other tongues which draws the various reactions noted by Luke. "Utterly amazed they asked: 'Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?'" (Acts 2:7-8). Clearly, the 120 are not described as laughing, but praising God in languages they had never learned!
Further, even if the 120 had been laughing rather than, as the text states, "declaring the wonder of God in our own tongues," things get very serious quickly. Peter uses the question: "What does this mean?" [a question referring to speaking in tongues, not laughing] to preach a strong sermon to unbelievers on repentance. A powerful response follows: 3000 men confess Jesus as Lord and are baptized.
Even if one granted the premise that the behavior of the 120 in Acts 2 was that of laughing (a premise that cannot be true since they were articulating praise to God in languages they had not learned, not emitting incoherent guffaws or cackles) -- then, for consistency with the premise -- one would expect the laughing revival, if the Holy Spirit has sent it, to have Pentecostal results: great evangelism.
If the church had been laughing in Acts 2, they soon got down to the business of preaching -- a remarkable contrast with some manifestations of contemporary phenomena where the laughing either crowds out all opportunity for preaching or continually interrupts it. The day of Pentecost concluded with 3000 getting saved and being baptized; not 120 stuck to the floor laughing.
Can there be occasions where one "laughs" in the Spirit? Absolutely! The Lord knows how deep depression lies upon the souls of some. He may choose sovereignly to manifest the joy of His presence and miraculously lift their gloom and sorrow. But, the occasion of manifested laughter in the body of Christ while it worships is not something described as normative in Scripture. In fact, since "holy laughter" is not mentioned in the New Testament as an aspect of public worship, it would have an even lower status than something that is mentioned: the gift of tongues. And, the gift of tongues is tightly regulated by order and love lest some unbelievers come and "say that you are out of your mind" or the church itself not be edified (I Cor. 14:24.26). How much more then does a non-Scriptural phenomenon need the regulation of order and love lest it become divisive or detractive. When churches split over the laughing revival, it truly is no laughing matter.
Obviously, there are examples from past revivals and church history where unusual manifestations, such as laughter, have characterized persons upon whom the Spirit has come with great joy. Such accounts also, however, include weeping as well as laughter. The laughing advocates err in citing the past outbreaks of laughing in revivals as a basis for justifying the current wave of laughing. What they often fail to note is that such laughing in past revivals was done by the few rather than the many; and, was the exception rather than the rule of behavior.
We should treat the phenomena of laughter in the same fashion as Peter's shadow: rejoice in the sovereign and unique ways God may choose to demonstrate His blessing; but, avoid the temptation of making assembly lines of copy-cat laughter in our churches, or having copy-cat laughing evangelists and pastors. And, our major emphasis must never be on laughing, or any other spiritual experience or gift; but, upon Christ Himself. It is unimaginable that the Apostle Paul would ever denigrate or diminish his calling and office, or the work of the Holy Spirit, by identifying himself as a "Holy Ghost bartender."
Novelty As people of the Spirit, we live a very experiential Christianity. When we attend church we expect to "feel God's presence." Rightly so! The Bible clearly teaches that Christ's presence fills not only our minds, but emotions as well.
However, our openness to experience may also make us prey to novelty. That is why is it so important for Pentecostals to be Bible-based. The Spirit of God flows within the river of Scripture. The Spirit of God does not venture where the Word of God does not also go.
Sad to say, in our quest for experience, there is often a dearth of solid Bible-based preaching by our ministers or personal Bible study by our people. When such is absent, then novelty enters as a device for attracting people and crowds.
Years ago, a friend wisely counseled me: "What you do as pastor to get people is what you will have to do to keep them. If you are always riding the latest fad, then you will have to keep the fads going to keep the audience; but, if you will preach God's Word and make Christ central, then that is all you will need to do to keep people."
I have now lived long enough to see many winds of doctrine blow through the body of Christ: the Latter Rain movement with its emphasis of oil miraculously appearing on the palms of hands, the submission and shepherding movement, absorption in demonology, positive confession, the health and wealth gospel, kingdom now, holy laughter, and on it goes. I notice that often the leaders who ride these waves tend also to be riding the next wave when the old wave has ebbed out. Thus, some former shepherding or extreme faith people are now laughing advocates; and, the body of Christ forgets their old roles, how their extreme emphasis left countless persons spiritually shipwrecked and divided churches while the financial nests of these rootless teachers were nicely feathered by their naive and gullible audiences.
If not careful, the Pentecostal church can quickly assume the comedian Flip Wilson's caricature and be known as "The Church of What's Happening Now," doing anything to attract a crowd, driven by expediency rather than Biblical principle.
The Apostle Paul, at the very end of his ministry, had this concern heavy on his heart. He warned us about those who come into the body of Christ with fads and novelties: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths" (2 Tim. 4:3,4).
At times, I have been asked "What's the Lord been saying to you lately?" I get the inference from the questioner that unless I have a "late" revelation I must not be in tune with God, or not "hip." My heart cries out to answer: "Here's what the Lord has been saying to me lately. 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind soul and strength; and your neighbor as yourself.'" We need to long for a bedrock experience in Christ rather than chasing the chaff blown by every wind and whim of doctrine.
A trusted spiritual mentor admonished me regarding my responsibilities as a minister: "The main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things." That's certainly true as you read the book of Acts. The early believers "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching [i.e., doctrine] and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer" (Acts 2:42). Note how the main things were the plain things.
Novelist Lloyd Douglas tells about a man who went to visit his old violin teacher and asked, "What's new?"
"I'll tell you what's new" said the teacher. He grabbed his tuning fork and banged it. The tuning fork, at 440 cycles per second, vibrates an "A" -- the "A" came out loud and clear.
"Do you hear that? That's an 'A,'" he proclaimed. "Now, upstairs a soprano rehearses endlessly and she's always off key. Next door I have a cello player who plays his instrument very poorly. There is an out-of-tune piano on the other side of me. I'm surrounded by terrible noise night and day."
Plunking the "A" again, he continued, "Do you hear that? That's an 'A' today. There will be an 'A' tomorrow. It will never change."
As believers, we must find our "A" in the central themes of the Gospel: Jesus Christ -- our Savior, Baptizer, Healer, and Soon Coming King!
The Current Revival of Gnosticism Toward the end of the apostolic era, and at the beginning of the second century, a heresy developed in Christianity called Gnosticism. Its title came from the Greek word "gnosis," knowledge. The Gnostics claimed extra-Biblical revelation, and were inordinately fascinated with the unseen world, and hierarchies of angels. You were not "spiritual" unless you bought into their so-called secret knowledge, their mapping of the world of principalities and powers. Paul warned the Colossians against those who foisted onto the body of Christ such "secret" knowledge which had no basis in apostolic doctrine: "Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head from whom the whole body supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews grows as God causes it to grow" (Col. 2:18-19).
The next time a new "wave" of doctrine hits your church, ask yourself: "If this is so important, why didn't Jesus mention it? Why didn't the apostles teach it? Why is it not referred to or commanded in Scripture? Why does it not seem to have been thought of or practiced by the early Church?
Obviously, we did ask those questions at the turn of the century in the modern outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We found that the doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the "full Gospel" had been taught by Jesus, the apostles, the Scripture, and the early church. The reason the doctrine fell out of practice was that the Church neglected and abandoned biblical teaching on the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit brought the Pentecostal Movement into being to recover what had been lost; He never brought us into being to invent what was never there in the first place!
The Gnostics looked down on the Bible-based Christian. They prided themselves on their "secret" knowledge. They had the "meat" while others had only the "milk." They were mature because they understood "the deeper things of the Spirit." We must be on guard regarding the reemergence of a new Gnosticism in the church today which leads people beyond the sure foundation of Scripture into the orbit of persuasive personalities who promote and sell their own ideas and experiences. Such do not obey the apostolic injunction to "Preach the Word" (2 Tim. 4:2), preferring instead to pawn off on the body of Christ, for an offering or for notoriety, their new, heretofore secret spiritual elixir.
Further, we must be on guard lest this Gnostic emphasis, a twin to new age eastern mysticism, subtly invades Christian worship. Such an emphasis seeks to bring the seeker into an altered state of consciousness wherein rationality is suspended and the worshipper floats inert in the divine "om," the yoga state of mental void. New Testament worship, while impacting the senses and the emotions, involves also the mind and will. To the spiritual mystics at Corinth, Paul gave the reminder that "The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace" (1 Cor. 14:32,33).
Scripture Only Have you heard of the weeping Madonna? In mid-April, 1995, I was in Italy and the weeping Madonna was attracting far more media attention there than the laughing revival has attracted in North America and Western Europe.
The parish priest of a small community forty miles northwest of Rome purchased a slender 18-inch-tall plaster of paris statue of Mary while on a visit to Croatia the previous summer. The statue supposedly represents the Madonna of Medjugore, a town in Bosnia where the virgin Mary allegedly appeared to children a decade ago.
The Italian priest gave the statue as a present to his neighbor, who installed it in a specially built niche in his garden.
On February 2, 1995, the five-year-old daughter noticed the Madonna weeping blood, and 14 times since then it has so wept. Front page newspaper photos have shown the blood-smeared checks of the Madonna. As word got out, thousands flocked to see the weeping Madonna. The local bishop, at first skeptical, took the statue into his own house to ascertain whether the phenomenon was genuine, and reported that the Madonna wept while he held it in his hands.
Since I was in the area, out of curiosity, I stopped by the small parish church of St. Augustine, outside the city of Civitavecchia -- the parish to which this Madonna belongs. I talked with several locals. Some women at the church told me they had themselves seen the blood on the Madonna. DNA tests have already determined that the blood is human and male -- supposedly, the blood of Jesus (or the blood of someone who is faking the phenomenon). Another local person I talked with speculated that the DNA would match the blood on the Shroud of Turin, the supposed burial cloth of Jesus.
Thus, during Easter Week of 1995, the talk of the town and of a great deal of Italy, centered not on the death or resurrection of Christ; but, a statue of Mary weeping blood. National news media trucks, with satellite dishes, were parked outside the parish church to beam the latest news of the weeping Madonna to Italy and the world.
As Protestants and people of the Book, we would not hesitate to evaluate this phenomena of the weeping Madonna by the light of Scripture. We hear the warning of Luther ringing in our ears: "Scripture Only." We recognize this weeping Madonna is occurring within a religious system which has openly embraced teaching not found in the Bible: praying to the saints, purgatory, transubstantiation, indulgences, papal primacy, praying for the dead, the immaculate conception and perpetual virginity of Mary, and her bodily assumption into heaven where she is a co-mediator before God.
Why am I relating the story of the weeping Madonna within the context of an article on the laughing revival? If we blindly accept all non-Scriptural phenomena simply on the basis of our feelings, experience, or that there is no human explanation -- then we risk drifting into a dangerous subjectivity which will in the course of time pull us, like the Roman church, further and further away from Biblical Christianity. Such a drift can ultimately produce a generation easily prey to a complete deception away from Christ (Mt. 24:24).
It is not improper for Pentecostals to err on the side of caution. We would do well to remain within the circle of Scriptural safety, and not traverse into the danger zones of spiritual phenomena just outside the circumference (the penumbra) of God's written Word.
Why place major focus on peripheral experiences or doctrines when we may instead give central focus to our Lord, His doctrine, and that of His apostles?
The Antidote How can the body of Christ become immunized to the constant winds of doctrine which buffet us today? I have found the best answer is not to become a negative critic, a brittle apologist, or an unloving doctrinal sword rattler. Neither the world nor the church is helped by mean-spirited persons. Sad to say, there are many examples of persons whose theological orthodoxy is sound, but the manner in which they behave is inconsistent with the fruit of the Spirit. They shoot arrows of discord, selfish ambition, dissensions, and factions rather than demonstrate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:19-22). (By the way, since self-control is a fruit of the Spirit, why is the trait of lack of self-control so celebrated in the laughing manifestation?)
In the late seventies and early 1980s I was pastoring in southern California. I became especially strident against the so-called word-of-faith movement. Their claim? Failure to be healed is a person's own fault: either sin or unbelief are the only two things which can prevent healing. One dear distraught believer said to me, "Because of them, I not only had to deal with the burden imposed by my illness (multiple sclerosis); but, I now also had to deal with the heavier burden that I was responsible for having and keeping the illness."
I noticed, however, that my preaching against this emphasis became very shrill. One day, I felt the Holy Spirit gently say: "You have no right to criticize the positive faith movement. You don't give an opportunity regularly in your services for the sick to be prayed for, so you have no right to condemn others."
I immediately realized where I had erred. In seeking to correct an imbalance, I had gone to the opposite end of imbalance. Immediately, I moved to the center -- and almost no service went by thereafter in which there was not an opportunity for the sick to be anointed with oil and prayed for.
Why this emphasis today on laughing? Is it possible that most church services and the individual Christian's spiritual life resemble a funeral more than anything else? There's no life! Nothing's happening!
Has the joy of the Lord gone out of your church or personal experience? Is there a deadness in the body of Christ?
The correction is not to get on the other extreme; but, to become centered in Christ Jesus. The best alternative for "wild fire" is "real fire!"
We also need to recognize that our society is one which prefers the microwave to the oven. We want it all "now." The "laughter" experience is joy microwaved. I have talked with some who have, through laughter, experienced a genuine and instant deliverance from depression (and I have been in services where the laughter seemed very forced, guttural, unnatural, and attention-getting). At the same time, however, we must also recognize that joy, as a fruit of the Spirit, is developmental. It takes time to grow, even as does love and patience.
By the way, wouldn't it be wonderful if we had a "patience" revival, where with one quick inoculation we could be spiritually immunized against impatience. But, would a "patience" emphasis attract the same interest and crowds as a "laughing" emphasis?
Joy should be part and parcel of our Christian experience. It flows out of our relationship to Jesus Christ Since we know He is Victor over sin, death, hell, the devil, and the grave -- we are alive with triumph! Jesus Himself gave us a picture of the true laughing revival when he told the stories of the things that are lost. His permission to rejoice is a welcome antidote to any false or aberrational emphasis present in the current laughing revival.
When the shepherd finds his lost sheep, what does he do? "He joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." (Lu. 15:6,7)).
And when the woman finds her lost coin, what does she do? "She calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me: I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Lu. 15: 9,10).
Finally, when the lost son returns home, what does his father do?" "'Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again: he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate. (Lu. 15: 23,24).
The true laughing revival, spoken of by Jesus Himself, is one which comes to a church doing the work of evangelism, which knows the unlimited joy of seeing lost men and women, boys and girls, come to Christ.
Before that kind of revival occurs, there must be work and effort. The shepherd searches for the lost sheep, the woman seeks the lost coin, the father agonizes over the lost son.
As this century draws to a close, may the body of Christ experience that kind of a revival -- an unprecedented hour of evangelism with believers who truly celebrate over the lost being found!
The Neurotic and Disturbed Finally, I hesitate to explore an issue which every Pentecostal pastor has had to deal with. I am concerned about being misunderstood, and of appearing judgmental rather than honestly evaluating. But, the problem is real and needs to be addressed -- so I risk being thoroughly criticized.
In the body of Christ many kinds of believers are found: new, immature, mature, young, old, carnal, spiritual, balanced, and imbalanced.
I have observed that every time revival occurs a good number of persons enter in who could be described as mentally, emotionally, or relationally disturbed, neurotic or psychotic. The Spirit literally draws them out of the woodwork. It is a time, when like the Gadarene demoniac (Mark 5), they can be helped or delivered. Most are unstable believers, who float from church to church.
Sometimes, during a genuine move of the Spirit, they act in very extreme and even inappropriate ways. In fact, their behavior, if not dealt with in loving firmness, can quickly become a sideshow. Others lay aside their own seeking of the Lord because of the distraction; and some are so repelled by the behavior they either leave or determine they want none of "that."
Let me make clear that I am not referring to the valid demonstration of spiritual gifts; but to extremes in conduct or expression of spiritual gifts wherein the worshipper seems to be reaching out to get the attention of others.
I once asked the late J. Edwin Orr about this phenomenon in revival: the eruption of silliness, craziness, "the flesh," or extremes in behavior. Dr. Orr studied and wrote more on the history and nature of revival than anyone in the whole twenty centuries of Christianity.
He explained to me: "When revival begins, the church is like a cabin on the Maine coast boarded up for the winter. A strong nor'easter begins to blow. If you are on the premises, what do you begin to hear? The sound of all the loose hinges and shutters now making noise and vibrating in the wind.
"So," Dr. Orr explained, "it's that way in the church. The wind of revival comes and what you first begin to notice is the sound being made by persons who are loose hinges and shutters."
That explanation helped me. Many people want nothing to do with revival because all they know of it is its first effect: the loose shutters and hinges rattling and attracting attention.
By Dr. Orr's understanding of revival, given some of the craziness in some charismatic circles today, the Spirit is coming powerfully to revive the whole church. The wind of His Presence has begun to blow!
Let us lift our attention from the loose hinges and shutters to the Person of the Spirit Himself whose central mission is to exalt Christ!!
Practical Suggestions May I conclude by offering some counsel to those pastors and Christian leaders who are sincerely concerned for revival, who want to embrace what the Spirit is doing; but, desire to avoid pitfalls which bring harm to the body of Christ and individual believers in particular?
1. Self-examination.
The laughing phenomenon should prompt us to look inside ourselves. Do you have the joy of the Lord?
Developmentally, joy flows out of our personal relationship to Jesus. It is the second fruit of the Spirit, following after the first, love (Gal. 5:22). Note the connection: love; then, joy. The New Testament continually gives us practical help on becoming a loving person (Rom. 12:9-21 and I Cor. 13). Our temptation is the desire to receive love rather than give it: but, in Jesus we have received by grace through faith the love of God in overflowing measure. A loved and loving person produces a life of joy.
Is that not why Paul can write the letter of joy, Philippians, from a prison cell? He is not, at that moment, experiencing gales of laughter -- but, he can continually say: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Phil. 4:4).
Our joy must be integrally related to the formation of Christian character. Joy must not be elevated to the pinnacle of Christian virtue, as though it should be the singular dominant trait of the Christian life. Rather, joy walks together with the companions of love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
The life of too many believers is marked by joylessness, despair, depression, bitterness, and anger.
The Holy Spirit's task to replicate the life of Jesus in us -- and Jesus, although never recorded as laughing, continually manifested joy (Lu. 10:21, Jn. 15:11). His joy desires to dwell in us! We must, therefore, ask ourselves if we are consciously or unconsciously blocking out His joy from our lives? Is there unconfessed sin? Unforgiveness? Failure to trust Him in trial?
Thus, our initial reaction to the so-called laughing revival is not one of censure or condemnation; but, of introspection. Does His joy radiate through my life? If not, then my emptiness must be turned into hunger for His presence. We must let the Holy Spirit point out any corrective measures we need to take; and, then let Him pray though us in languages learned and unlearned.
Paul reminds us of the value of praying in unknown tongues -- that we ourselves are edified or built up (I Cor. 14:4). Surely, an aspect of praying in the Spirit is the replenishment of joy in the inner life. If, in my own personal communion with Him, the Lord wants to download a great measure of joy so that I laugh before Him, then may I be willing to receive all He wants.
2. Regulation.
Quite clearly, the apostle Paul distinguishes between personal edification and the edification of the whole church. Thus, in I Corinthians 12:14, he places a relegation on the public use of the gift of tongues. In private, he speaks in tongues even more than the Corinthians; but, in public when a believer functions in the gift of tongues by giving an utterance for the whole church, such must speak one at a time, the utterance must be interpreted, and a maximum of three utterances occur per service.
The Corinthian church enjoyed speaking with other tongues. They were as fascinated and drawn into an excessive public expression of tongues as some in the contemporary charismatic church are drawn to laughing or other phenomena. But, keep perspective.
- Unbelievers must be considered. If even a Scripturally established gift such as other tongues without interpretation turn off the unbeliever to the claims of the Gospel, how much more a non-Scriptural gift such as laughing: "Will they not say you are out of your mind?" (I Cor. 14:23).
- The church must be edified. What builds up one individual may not build up the whole. Suppose, in I Corinthians 14:4-5, we substituted laughing in the place of the gift of tongues? We would have a helpful rule for regulating laughter in the church: "He who [laughs] edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. I would like every one of you to [laugh], but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies [i.e., preaches or speaks with anointing] is greater than one who [laughs], unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified."
Now, in the above passage, I don't for a moment think Paul would elevate the phenomenon of laughter to the same status and place as the gift of tongues; therefore, it is most unlikely he would say "I would like everyone of you to laugh." But, my point is this: we must be concerned for the building up of the church. To the persons who misused the gift of tongues in the Corinthian church and to the contemporary advocates of laughing, Paul says, under inspiration of the Spirit: "Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church" (1 Cor. 14:12).
- Love, not spiritual gifts or laughter, must be at the center. That's why I Corinthians 13 lies between the chapters on spiritual gifts, 12 and 14. How sad to see persons who insist on exercising laughter at the expense of dividing a local church. Both laughers and non-laughers would do best to regulate all conduct by the test of I Corinthians 13.
Romans 14 and 15 also must be considered as part of the rule of love. Believers may sometimes divide on peripheral practices -- therefore, we do well to paraphrase Paul's admonition to believers who divided over the issue of eating meat offered to idols: "Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of [laughing]" (Rom. 14:20).
3. Remember the cold water.
Many Pentecostals had the unpleasant experience of initially sharing their testimony of the baptism of the Spirit with a pastor or spiritual person whom they thought would rejoice with them; only to find that the trusted Christian poured cold water on their experience.
As leaders, our task is not to pour cold water on persons who testify to a fresh experience with God. Our first responsibility is to rejoice with them for a victory or deliverance they have had. As we embrace them in their newfound joy, we also make it possible through our personal bond to become encouragers and models to them in further growth in Christ.
For example, Paul knew there were problems in the Corinthian church; but, he does not begin his first letter to them by attacking the believers or denigrating their value or their faith. He offers them "grace and peace." Having established his bond with them, he is then able to proceed in helping them mature in Christ. Sometimes, he corrects gently and at other times, sharply; but, always Paul communicates his love and pastoral care for the flock of God. Let us do the same.
4. The continuum away from Scripture.
The modern Pentecostal revival is replete with examples of persons who got caught up in a non-Scriptural emphasis or experience, and as their so-called ministry progressed, they journeyed further and further away from Scripture. Few in the present generation remember O. L. Jaggers or William Branham -- great Pentecostal preachers at one time; but, who wandered far away from apostolic doctrine.
Laughing in the Spirit appears to be on the edge of the circle of Biblical doctrine. Unlike the gift of tongues, miracles, or discernment, for example, laughing in the Spirit gains no mention or approval in Scripture. Neither is it condemned.
There are two very apparent dangers, however, inherent in the current laughing phenomena:
(1) That it will assume a higher value than the Biblical experience of the baptism of the Spirit, or praying personally in other tongues. Sometimes I wonder if the unspoken sentiment of the laughing advocates may be: "You've had tongues, now let's go on to something new." In that context, Spirit-baptized believers, who have had a Biblically taught experience, are made to feel that they are incomplete. They have "only spoken with other tongues, but they haven't laughed."
The Pentecostal revival will collapse within a generation if we even unthinkingly begin to devaluate genuine Bible taught experience in favor of new experiences not commanded or exampled in Scripture. One can truthfully say from the Bible, "If you have not been baptized in the Spirit. you have not received all God has for you;" but, one cannot say: "If you haven't yet laughed in the Spirit, you do not have all God wants for you."
Laughing is unique; speaking with other tongues is the normative Scriptural pattern.
(2) Once you depart from experience which is rooted in Scripture to embrace spiritual phenomena of any sort, in all likelihood there will be further development in extreme manifestations. Witness the current phenomena: in some charismatic churches, roaring and even barking has begun. The roaring is explained as "The Lion of Judah." I do not know what the barking represents. I do know that if the spirit of prophets is subject to the prophet (I Cor. 14:32); then, surely the spirit of the roarer and barker is subject to them. Sometimes we need to call things by their real name: and I do not hesitate to say that barking and roaring is "weird." It either comes from a mistaken fleshly notion (the human flesh is capable of making a lot of commotion) or it is the devil roaring and his dogs barking.
Let not the Pentecostal church get caught up in such mysticism totally devoid of any Scriptural root.
The Advice of Gamaliel Finally, you may feel it has been inappropriate for me to address this matter of the current laughing revival. If I have erred in any way, with all my heart, I want the Scripture and the Spirit to correct me.
Some have counseled, in regard to these matters, that we should not attempt any examination "For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God" (Acts 4:38-39).
Remember who spoke those words? The teacher of Paul -- Gamaliel. They were true words as applied to the apostles and the church of Jesus Christ. However, Paul never takes the advice of his old professor when it came to dealing with false doctrine in the church. Read his letters and note that he does not base the validity of any doctrine on its outward success, acceptance, or growth; but, upon fidelity to Jesus Christ. If Gamaliel's test were always to be used, then we would have to affirm many things as being from God which are not. Islam has not yet died out, nor Buddhism; nor cults such as Mormonism or Jehovah Witnesses. The fact that these religions are still growing is not a testament at all to their validity.
Recently, I visited in Rome the prison from which Paul is believed to have written 2 Timothy prior to his own execution by Caesar. He would have been lowered into the cell through a hole in the ceiling. In the cold dampness of that dimly lit cell, his words brilliantly reach us today and illuminate our hearts. He closes the letter with a charge to Timothy and all Christian leaders: "PREACH THE WORD" (2 Tim. 4:2)! He does not say, "Preach your own experience. Preach fads. Preach minor things as major things." No! He says: "PREACH THE WORD!" Why does he say that? Because "the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine" (2 Tim. 4:3).
There are all kinds of doctrine, but only some are sound. Only sound doctrine produces spiritual health and well-being, Christ-likeness and Godliness.
Most needed in the church today are those whose emphasis lies with the preaching of God's Word, the faithful exposition of eternal truth given us by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. As preachers of the Gospel, let us guard with diligence the trust given us. When the Word of God is not faithfully proclaimed, persons fall quickly into error and deviate from the centrality of Jesus Christ and His work of grace in our lives.
We are all praying today for God to wonderfully revive us, and empower His church to bear witness to His name throughout all the earth. And, the Holy Spirit has already begun His renewing work. When revival occurs it is always marked by deep repentance, passion for holiness, travailing, fasting and prayer, resurgence of spiritual gifts and fruit, unity in the Body, deliverance of the oppressed, anointed music, Christ-centered living and preaching, signs and wonders, ardent evangelism and missionary efforts, resurgence of young people preparing for full-time ministry, diminishment of social problems and crime, and -- most importantly of all -- the salvation of the lost!
"Oh God, send that kind of revival upon us!"
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