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Roughrider made some great points in his post about catchers and being slain in the Spirit. Rather than switch the subject of his comments I decided to ask this question in a new post. Is there any Biblical example of people under the overwhelming presence of God falling backwards? It seems that every Biblical example of people going down under the power of God records them being face first with God. The soldiers who came to take Jesus away fell backwards but that isn't an example I would want to follow.I ask this question because we have a couple of ladies in our church I would refer to as self taught Bible readers. I say that in a complimentary way because they spend hours on a daily basis studying the Bible. We discuss Sunday's message at Wednesday night Bible study and they keep me sharp by bringing out other insights. One Wednesday night one mentioned the fact that people always fell face forward and the other woman said, I studied that before and agree with you.

I have read falling on the face, falling as a dead man, etc.In my studies of revival through history, there have been people who have fallen.Let me ask another tough question: With Pentecostal and charismatic services very commonplace on television, has being slain or falling out become a fad among Pentcostals in an even greater fashion than ever before

In your opinion, are the demonstrations of falling/shaking/loud screaming you mentioned the results of the southern roots of Pentecostalism in the church today?Just asking hard questions.

I don't know enough about the history of Pentecostal practice to answer that question, to be honest. But I do know it's very common in neo-charismatic movements like Bethel as well. In fact, I would say it's more common and more extreme in places like that than in any of the COGs I have ever been to.

In your opinion, are the demonstrations of falling/shaking/loud screaming you mentioned the results of the southern roots of Pentecostalism in the church today?Just asking hard questions. There is a lot in that question. It is not to me, but one has to look back at the culture and people of southern roots. I knew people in my childhood who were ostracized, ridiculed and made fun of in public because they attended a COG. My sister was publically shamed because she was not allowed to 'dress out' for physical ed. The teacher 'tagged' with the name, Little Church of God Girl. In the 7th grade in Valdese, NC, I was called into the principal's office and asked if I was the new Holiness Preacher's boy. yes. I was told to keep my nose clean and I would do okay.These early people felt so blessed when in the company of their peers, they physically released the feelings. (IMHO). We stayed in or at church until midnight many nights just for the fellowship. That doesn't mean much to someone now, and there is no way you can understand your friends turning their backs once you associated with a 'Pennycostal, Holiness or Holy Roller bunch.'I just in the last few weeks after mentioning that my dad had been a COG preacher, I had a lady say, Those COG girls in stockings, long sleeves, long dresses and long hair scared me in school. You gotta put yourself there! So yes IMHO much of the shaking, shouting, rolling in the floor was many early 20,30,40,50's Holiness found physical release in a way. It wasn't fake, it was real. The Holy Ghost doing it? Not sure every time. Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/

Dave,

If they believe in those things, how are they NOT Pentecostal? I'm not asking that facetiously, but rather because those seem to be the distinctives of Pentecostals. Can you enlighten me on that?I think that our southern-fried Pentecostal style is a regional/cultural form of worship. Just as the African-American church has a distinctive form of worship, preaching, etc. (at least enough that we can tend to recognize black shouting as opposed to c. 1970s Florida-style Church of God shouting).People learn how to worship and shout. Today, if you got to some churches and the music is popping, you have a lot of people hopping/jumping. In older style Churches of God, if the worship is really going, you might see someone running the aisles, waving a handkerchief, raising their hands, etc. We all learned how to respond to the Spirit by seeing how others responded. It may not be JUST like they did it, but it is in the same ballpark, you might say, I guess.

The two Pentecostal distinctives are the baptism/infilling of the Holy Spirit as a distinct event subsequent to salvation, and the evidence of such as speaking in tongues. As you know, Pentecostals hold that this experience and evidence are promised to every believer. Non-Pentecostal continuationist churches typically believe the baptism/infilling of the Holy Spirit occurs in all believers at the time of salvation, and that tongues is a biblical gift that does function today but is not necessarily promised as an experience for every believer.Here is the paragraph on the baptism in the Holy Spirit from the beliefs page on the website of the church I attend:

If those people in the Bible had had some of our modern heavy handed head pushers lay hands on them, they might have fallen backwards, too

I haven't studied it in depth, but from the research I have done, it seems falling under the power or being slain the Spirit became more popular during the Charasmatic revival in the early 70s. I think I remember seeing it as a child in my home church, but I don't remember a lot of it. I do remember a lot of shouting & being Pentecostal.Looking back at my childhood experiences, perhaps some of the shouting was more emotional than spiritual, but I don't think there was a lot of teaching about that back then. People felt the presence of God on them, and they cut loose. Whether or not that was of the Lord is between them & the Lord More of Him...less of me.twitter.com/camiracle77www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=691241499&ref=name