The revivals of yesterday handled their critics with the ‘message’ of the Word. The revivals of today handle their critics by finding out sin issues of the ‘messenger’ to expose them.

The revivals of today believe that if you can somehow discredit and ‘kill’ the messenger, that automatically discredits and ‘kills’ the message even if the message is true.

Besides, uber-Pentecostals have this idea that “If it’s stupid and crazy, it Must Be Of God! And the stupider and crazier we get, the Holier We Must Be!”

My writing partner (a burned-out country preacher) preached his last two Sunday sermons against this sort of thing. One Pentecostal church in his area had started their own Lakeland knockoff (“Rhonda-Khonda-Shonda-Yoing-Yoing-Yoing!”) and the rising fuel & food prices were triggering a general Rapture scare in his area.

Sermon title and theme? “Don’t Go Stupid On Me!”

This is done via the reasoning that if the previous revival had similar manifestations and the body of Christ deemed them as being ‘of God’, then because the revival of today has the same manifestation, then they must by default be deemed as being ‘of God’.