There are many numerous bad things that have come out of the Pentecostal / Charismatic church. I could literally state many numerous errors and abuses that has happened 'in the name of God'. However, I would like to concentrate on six major faults of the Pentecostal / Charismatic church that will be described using the acronym 'THORNS'

• T = Total blind allegiance.
• H = Hypocrisy is a double-standard between the leadership and the congregation.
• O = Ongoing works to obtain salvation and to obtain 'anointing'.
• R = Repentance is always a never ending process.
• N = New experiences, prophecies, songs, signs and wonders supersede the Scriptures.
• S = Submission and authority is overemphasized and lorded by leadership over the congregation.

Since the inception of the Pentecostal movement to today's Third Wave / riverite movement, we have seen these topics within the 'THORNS' acronym experience the most teachings of error and abuse that have resulted in hurt people, people walking out of Christianity, and people never realizing their full calling in Christ because of our flippant arrogance and haughtiness done 'in the name of God'.

Concerning the "T" in the acronym mentioned above, we went from the concept of questioning the teachings of our Spiritual leaders to following the leaders blindly without question. Where Paul commended the Bereans in Acts 17:11 for searching the Scriptures to see if Paul's teachings were true, many of today's leaders enforce through misapplied teachings such as 'touch not mine anointed' that questioning the leaders teachings and leadership style is equated to question the sovereignty of God himself. In other words, you are expected to fulfill the pastor's wishes without question. You are expected to be a mindless clone robot and never to think but do. Questioning and disagreeing with leadership brands you as a 'heretic', an 'agent of Satan', or 'rebellious'. In many churches today, to ask for access to the church's budget or financial status is a big no-no. In other words, you are supposed to give and give and give more, but you are to never question the spending of the church's money.

Concerning the "H" in the acronym mentioned above, even though the Scriptures apply to all people who deem themselves as Christians, there is a 'hypocricy' and 'double-standard' that exists in the church between leadership and the congregation. This can arrange from how sin is handled to the perspective of human suffering. In many churches today, open and blatant sin of leadership is tolerated and 'kept secret' using the misapplied theology of 'the curse of Ham'. If the congregation asks if leadership has repented for the secret sin no longer secret, they are told that leadership has repented and you are supposed to accept that. If a member of the congregation sins, it is brought out in the open with shame, scorn, and ridicule asking for a 'repentance' in public. The congregational member who 'sinned' (and the question of the 'sin' has to be asked because the 'sin' in question could actually be the pastor's personal dislike instead of gross Biblical sin) and has stated that they have repented is not accepted by leadership until they make repentance a public spectacle full of a bucket of tears and some emotional hoopla. The leadership who sins and is temporary removed for a month of 'counseling' and brought back to their leadership position is in stark contrast to the congregant who sins and is submitted to 'counseling' and leadership no matter how much tears are shed, sorrow is expressed, etc. never sees the person 'fit' for ministry in their church again. In fact, every time the repentant grows in Christ, leadership is first to point the finger back to the past sin washed in the blood. In other words, Christ has to die numerous times for something He had to only die once for.

See the hyprocricy in the realm of human suffering. If leadership or their family gets sick, loses a job, etc. the suffering imposed is seen as an 'attack of the devil'. The congregation is supposed to fast, pray, and 'ra-ta-ta" with Spiritual warfare to make the suffering leave the leadership because it 'hinders' God's move. However, if you the congregation member gets sick, loses a job, etc. the suffering imposed must be due to some 'lack of faith', 'secret sin', 'not praying hard enough', 'not placing enough money in the plate', etc. When leadership experiences suffering, they are like the Bible character Job. However, when you are suffering, leadership then believes that they are entitled to act like Job's three friends by default to analyze our circumstances as 'your fault'.

Concerning the "O" in the acronym mentioned above, many churches love to express themselves as a 'grace' church. However, acceptance / rejection of the individual is based on works done 'in God's name'. Are you saved in many of these churches only by grace and the blood of Jesus? No, along with these things, there are numerous legalisms and works-based acts that must be done to be seen as 'anointed' and in extreme cases still saved. Yes, some churches believe that leaving their fold or discontinuing some level of service to the church then negates God's salvation on your life. Many cases, the 'works' done are really personal agendas of the pastor's vision and not God's mandate of the Great Commission.

From what many survivors of spiritual abuse told me, there was something going on every night at their churches. From Sunday Services, Monday Music Practice, Tuesday Prayer for the congregation's needs, Wednesday Discipleship via home kinship groups, Thursday Warfare and Intercession for the city, state, and nation, Friday Night Witnessing, and Saturday cleanup and maintenance of the sanctuary and grounds, to be seen as 'anointed' was measured by how many times you entered the doors and participated in the extracurricular activities beyond going to church, not by the standards of the Bible. There was unwavering loyalty demanded and missing a day in many cases was seen as either being slack or 'being in the flesh'. Ex members of a nationally known 'renewal' that volunteered to be prayer warriors or ushers told me that they were chewed out in public by leadership for wanting to take a week long vacation with their families. Wanting a break from being a prayer warrior due to burnout of church service was seen as 'yielding to the flesh'. In fact, it is amazing that these churches that practice these nightly activities at the churches also advertised themselves as a 'family worship center' where the emphasis was based on the family as a cohesive unit. However, there were so many nightly activities that were demanded and implied as 'increased anointing' that the family that was supposed to be stronger became fractured. Why? Because spending time with the family was seen as idolizing their families by misapplying one of Jesus' parables found in Matthew 10:34-39. Marriage and family life is already a very demanding and tough thing to do. But when the institution called the church that is supposed to strengthen the family actually breaks up the family. Something is wrong. Then the family is separated, the marital strife is seen not due to the wrongful establishment of priorities of placing personal agendas over a family, but some secret sin, lacking faith, or even rebellion of the spouse who wants their mate home more with the family. You are placed with the unreasonable burden of both providing 24 by 7 service to the church and your family and when the marriage breaks down, it's your fault and not the teachings of leadership. It is no wonder that in these 'family worship centers' that express this mentality, the divorce rates are very high? It is no wonder that Christian marriages have an lesser chance at a successful marriage as the unsaved marriages.

Concerning the "R" in the acronym mentioned above, there is always some sin whether secret or in public to expose to the church. As the sin becomes exposed, there is this constant call to repentance as the congregation is always compared to the Israelites in the wilderness in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy by deeming the people as 'sin in the camp' while teaching the blessings of the New Testament church. When blessings flow out, it is always by the teachings of the New Testament in the Amplified version of the Bible but when it's time to "expose sin", then every Old Testament verse in the King James Version using the Old English Shakesperean verbage of 'thees and thous' dealing with judgment and people (I guess the Old English words 'thees and thous' sounds more 'holy', instills more fear, and more 'authoritative') dying because of some sin is brought out and over interpreted as people are labeled as "spiritual Onan's", "spiritual Achan's", "spiritual Saul's", etc. while all this time being a "spiritual Nadab and Abihu" lighting strange fires unto the Lord calling it pure and holy. In the eyes of those obsessed with exposing sin and repentance, there is always some sin to repent for and after a while, many either feel like they will never be considered pleasing and acceptable in the eyes of the Lord or they leave the dysfunction of a scripture took out of content and context and go to a healthy church.

In fact, we constantly see 2 Chronicles 7:14 overemphasized that the reason our lives are in chaos is that we have not fully repented or did not repent hard enough. The elders always imply that if we just repent, that revival will occur. The people 'repent' over some sin or even in many cases 'repent' over the pastor's personal dislikes. However, revival never comes. Why? Is it that maybe it is not the right time for revival? It could be but unfortunately, many just think and decide that 'we just need to repent more', 'we did not repent enough', or there is some other sin holding us back from the big reward of revival. What happens is that the people never grow and progress into the people God wants them to be. Instead, they find themselves in a cyclic pattern of repenting and repenting again and never moving forward.

Concerning the "N" in the acronym mentioned above, new songs, new experiences in the Spirit, and new theologies are validated over the Scriptures. Instead of the Scripture validating that the 'revelatory' teachings, songs, etc. are from God, the 'relevatory' teachings are written and twisted to appear like they validated the Scriptures. In other words, the Scriptures cannot stand on their own, a new dance step, a new worship song, a new river, a new teaching must enhance the Scriptures. Have we forgotten that one day, Heaven and Earth and all the things within will pass away but the Word of the Lord shall endure forever? In fact, some have expressed their concern over the value of experiences over Scripture and are told that they are either 'the Spirit of Rome', 'Pharisees', or Cessationalists. Yes, God will reveal to us many things but the revelation is verified and confirmed per the Scripture not the manifesting experiences. We have people today that think God did not show up in a service because they did not get to dance to a fast beat, experience 'carpet time', or did not get to 'shake' or 'make weird animal sounds'. The same people who are bent on breaking the 'paradigms' have paradigmed themselves to exposing paradigms (whether true or made up) in the same way Pentecostals made a tradition out of exposing and breaking traditions.

Concerning the "S" in the acronym mentioned above, the Pentecostal / Charismatic Church is guilty of over hoarding who the leaders are in their churches. Instead of anointing showing people who the leaders are, these people love to strut their authority and flaunt it over all in their midst. Why is this? Very simple, control. In churches where authority and submission is overemphasized, there is an attempt to control people to where the leadership is overexalted and the congregation is undervalued. In some churches, there are organizational charts that are drawn to the point showing authority in an over / under fashion.

Shepherding and Submission has been extremely abused within the Pentecostal / Charismatic movement. From Watchman Nee's concept of covering to the horrible abuses of the shepherding movement founded by the 'Fort Lauderdale 5' (Ern Baxter, Charles Simpson, Derek Prince, Bob Mumford, and Don Basham) in the late 1950s. These men formed the "Holy Spirit Teaching Mission," later renamed "Christian Growth Ministries." They began producing tapes, books, and a monthly magazine called New Wine. These movements, which was formulated around the idea that every believer has to have an over shepherd to guide him through life's decisions, caused much hurt and damage to the church. There are still tendencies within charismatic circles to accept extreme authoritarianism in their midst. The shepherding movement taught that discipleship involves submission to the shepherd as he points the way-and points out flaws in behavior. It got so extreme to the point that those being discipled must consult with their shepherd about many personal decisions. In some cases, shepherds forbid marriages, reject school and vocational plans, demand confession of secret sins. I have heard stories from old Christians where shepherds went as far as to command their 'disciples' to do the menial tasks the Shepherds did not want to do such as paint the house, wash the car, etc.

This Shepherding movement came to a close in the late 1970's as the abuses outnumbered what little good teachings came out of the movement. Today, it has made a comeback in the Charismatic movement via the 'armorbearer' concept or in many riverite churches, the 'security' teams that protect and isolate the pastor from the masses. Even the disciples tried to forbid the Children from coming to Jesus (Matthew 18:13-16). But Jesus embraced them and used them as the example to show us how to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Please Click here for part four of this article.