“We have been taught that it is negative to be…

Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars

“We have been taught that it is negative to be against anything. We are the “for” people. It is become an absolute “no, no” to tell a man when he comes into the Church that he must straighten up. As a result, the hippie spirit with its bare feet and no shirt, with its flesh revealing clothing (or lack of clothing), has come in, sat down on the front seat of the church, and added Jesus to dope, illicit sex and perversion. Anybody who would dare lift their voices is immediately branded as having no love in their heart. So instead of lifting these kids up to Christ, they have pulled the kids of the Church down to their level. In our haste to make Christ popular with the political “big wigs” and the Hollywood “jet set” we have torn down every hedge and have been bitten by the serpent. In our ranks have come big name entertainers, letting us know how great a favor they have done us by letting God save them. If the price is right, they will entertain in the Church on Sunday, but will be in Cesar’s Palace on Monday. They will speak in tongues with one breath and entertain the devil with the next and you are branded as a reactionary if you suggest that this is not Christianity. No wonder Christians who once walked with God and had a strong conviction, are now found in night clubs and theaters, yet still professing that all is well. We have brought the big boys off the circuit and stood them in the pulpit as examples of the Grace of God.

I do not blame the “hippie” or the “celebrity.” I place the blame on the pulpits across America. I am sure that many have had a genuine experience with God and would have followed Jesus, if the pulpit had had the courage to speak. To tell a man that he can have this world and Jesus too is high treason. There is no love in telling a man he is right when you know he is wrong.

The early Christians were killed, burned, starved, butchered, and hated for their testimony. Their trouble did not stem from preaching another god. Rome had thousands of gods and welcomed the competition of other gods. They got into trouble for preaching their God to the exclusion of all other gods. John the Baptist did not lose his head for preaching, he lost it because he exposed the enemy; he refused to play safe. The three Hebrew children did not go the fiery furnace because they professed to believe in God; they went there because they refused to acknowledge or pay homage to another god.

Those early Christians and Prophets needed no entertainment programs to keep them interested. They were at war and knew it.”

B. H. Clendennen