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Originally Posted by OBW
My comments about pray-reading were more about the kind of practice of dicing a verse into single words, parts of phrases, etc., and interspersing them with other words and phrases (lots of "Oh Lord," "Amen," as well as other things) that seem unassailable because it seems impossible to use them incorrectly (but alas, I believe that we often did). The sum total is to derail the meaning of a verse or larger passage because it is almost never spoken as a unit, but as pieces divorced of context and even completeness of sentence (not to mention the loss of grammar). I do not believe that Christ intended man to learn of Him by repeating disjointed words in a manner that causes them to be almost meaningless.
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I agree with your conclusions, but I also think the issue of “calling” and “pray-reading” are so interconnected that they cannot exist separately. I have been to many of “Bible studies”, where it’s almost impossible to get anything out of the written word, because of insertion of constant repetitions and mantras. I always refused to read the nonsensical headings inserted there by the locals as I was told it’s somehow now should be read as a part of the text, since it “explains what the text is about to say”.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
Having come from a background of Pentecostalism, I can attest that tongues are not really worth a lot unless they are made to be useful to a native hearer. Oddly, I believe that the way that pray-reading was so often practiced in the LC was not much different that trying to get something of lasting value out of hearing someone always talking to you in German. I am not saying anything against German. And I am not saying that it would be useful to a German because to them it would be the same as having someone speaking to them in Swedish. And so on.
I still will say that some aspects of "calling on the Lord" as the LC practices — especially in a corporate way — are more of an exercise in emotional release and mind centering than in making any kind of real call to the Creator and Savior.
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I was recently invited to attend a wedding, in which the bride comes from the Pentecostal Church. During the prayer, it was a total chaos. I actually had to step out for a bit, because it was like PTSD from my experience at the LC. Every time I hear it, makes me sick.
I spent a lot of time in research of this issue specifically. It never made sense. When I first came to the meeting, I was basically told I knew nothing about “correct prayer”, even though I was a Christian and been around it my whole life. Things didn’t add up, could never be found in the Word, tested against the Bible. It’s all make sense now, and I can totally see and understand why it’s an addicting exercise that has no true spiritual purpose or value, other that to make one feel as if they are oh so very spiritual for some fleeing moments, only to crave it again and again to camouflage the true reality that cannot be hidden. It brings damage and deception to all levels of the human being. Spiritual/emotional/phsycological and even physical.
All these practices are just retapped variations of the past, going back to like 3 century. (at least that’s as far as I can find them). They have destroyed millions of people, just as they are doing it now. Very hard to watch people close to you, be totally duped, and suffering. God have mercy.