Recker's World
Reason 14
The Holy Spirit is a fraud
In the early 90s my wife and I attended Bays Christian Fellowship on the North Shore of Auckland. It is now known as City Impact Church run by Peter and Bev Mortlock and has its own TV show. My wife had been part of it since the 80s when it was just a small church starting out. As a Christian I loved it. The praise and worship was amazing and Peter Mortlock was an inspiring and entertaining speaker. And he appeared to know what God was saying and who needed prayer and for what.
One day my wife and I arrived at church about 20 minutes late and the praise and worship was under way. As soon as we walked in we felt something hit us. Something which seemed to raise our spirits and felt amazing. We put it down to the Holy Spirit.
But was it really the Holy Spirit?
I’d love to know what my Uncle John would have thought. When I left home in 1985, I boarded with him and his wife Ailsa for about a year and we attended the Royal Oak Baptist church in Auckland. People filled the auditorium and the had a great band, which gave a real modern and exciting feel to it. (Still nowhere near as good as the Bays Christian Fellowship stage show though) Nevertheless, it was still like nothing I’d ever seen before having been brought up in smaller churches in country towns.
Uncle John criticised the Royal Oak Baptist as a “happy-clappy” type of church, but as far as I was concerned it was great and what was wrong with “happy-clappy” anyway? People should be happy at church. There are plenty of churches out there where people seem to be miserable to be there… as if they wished they weren’t wasting their sunny Sunday morning in church.
Of course, the thing Uncle John was getting at, was it lacked a serious anointing – moving of the holy spirit within it. At least in his opinion.
You can be sitting in church as the preacher speaks his sermon and as he’s rounding up and an altar call draws nearer, his words become emotional. His words seem to take on that much more meaning and you can feel the alluring of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the speaker’s words have reached you deep down and you feel God’s presence. Perhaps God wants you to go up for prayer. Perhaps he just wants to challenge you or encourage you. Perhaps you’ve just been deeply touched by something that was preached.
The Holy Spirit?
But wait! What’s that playing in the background as the preacher speaks his stirring words? That’s right. Music. Gentle music played by the band or maybe just an organist. I never thought much about it back then, but now I most definitely ask why. The answer seems obvious to me now. It’s played to enhance the words of the speaker, to make you more susceptible to what’s being said. Yes, it’s a form of hypnotism. The speaker has that music playing because he knows that with it, his words are going to have more impact on you than if he just spoke them.
You have just been manipulated. Your mind has been fooled into believing that God has anointed his words, but he hasn’t. It’s just music has that kind of effect on us. That’s why the Holy Spirit has a habit of moving during praise and worship.
Do pastors really do this deliberately? Are they aware they are manipulating you? It’s hard to believe when so many pastors seem very sincere, but perhaps they aren’t meaning to be sneaky? Perhaps it’s simply done out of tradition or because they think it makes for a better atmosphere? Whatever it is, church goers should be very aware of it and ask themselves a serious question. Why would God need music to aid in him getting his message across? Why would he need music to challenge your or stir you or anything like that?
Of course, he wouldn’t. Music is nothing more than a way of opening your mind and making you feel at ease, relaxing you to the point that any words spoken are going to have that much more impact on you.
What is clear to me now, is that the Holy Spirit as simply the hypnotic atmosphere within the church itself. The electricity in the air with all those people packing out the auditorium singing praise songs at the top of their voices. The “Holy Spirit” is even more profound with a really cool band providing the music and singers on stage performing like they are in a rock concert.
It’s nothing supernatural and nothing like Christians portray when they speak to non-Christians, even though it can blow you away if you arrive in the middle of it!
When it comes to testifying to non-Christians, the Holy Spirit is often described as something powerful and profound, but in church, when your fellow Christians are involved, then it’s just that tingling feeling you get, warm fuzzies, that light-headedness maybe, the sense of wellbeing, the slight high you get, or simply that little voice in your head.
I now see the use of music in churches as being the same as the use of music on television and movies. I think about a scene from a movie or a TV show. Without music, it may seem just like an average scene, but as soon as you put in music, your brain suddenly sees the scene in a completely different light. Add in scary music and suddenly it becomes a horror scene and your start to feel tense, maybe even a little afraid. Add in silly music and suddenly it becomes a comedy, which may cause you to smile or laugh. Put in sad music and you may feel a tearing at your heart strings. You may even feel the need to hold back tears.
Studies have shown that the human brain will respond to something in a completely different way when there is music added. We as humans now know just how to use music to manipulate a person’s emotions. It’s why romantic music is used to woo that date. It’s why we sing lullabies to babies to sooth them. It’s why a preacher uses music when he’s about to conclude his sermon and offer that altar call. As long as the music being played is gentle and stirring, it’ll have that magical effect of enhancing his words and stirring your emotions. A preacher could have “Stairway to Heaven” playing in the background and his words would still have the same impact.
I have occasionally attended churches since I lost my faith. I can feel the old familiar stirring of the Holy Spirit within me. ME, an ex-Christian experiencing that stirring, the same way I did as a Christian.
Funny that.
