Mike Waters
Well-Known Member
I have no firm answers to the question of Paranormality.
When I was a young Christian believer, and of an impressionable age, circumstances placed me in the company of three pentecostalists who asked if they could lay hands on me with a view to me receiving what they called "the baptism of the Spirit".
At the time I was aware that Glossolalia was practiced in non Christian as well as in Christian Circles.
I was also aware of instances where young children had recounted historically accurate descriptions of events that they could not possibly have known about via the realm of normality.
I also knew of Christians who had been cured of medical conditions that had been pronounced as incurable by medical experts, and who claimed that their cures were by divine intervention.
But I also knew of those who had similarly been cured despite medical prognosis but had no Christian faith whatsoever.
My inclination at that time was to believe that, alongside the power of God's Holy Spirit, other 'knock knock who's there' spirits, without the capability of omnipresence, roamed around seeking to inhabit the minds of those who were open receive them.
So, when I willingly agreed to submit myself to the laying on of the pentecostalist's hands, I did so prayerfully, asking that God would grant me whatever accorded with his will ..... but, being weary of the 'knock knock who's there' spirits, I declined the advice of the three pentecostalists to "completely empty my mind" whilst they laid hands on me.
Whilst they became more and more audible in tongues, normal prayer, and pressure of hands I remained exactly as I was at the beginning.
As for other spiritual gifts I have the same open mind ..... but seem to remain a pretty normal bloke with a solid Christian faith that I hope is consistent with the "Faith first delivered to the saints" from the beginning of the apostolic era.
A faith that existed centuries before Constantine, the nicene creed , and the subsequent canonisation of a selection of the 'apostolic writings', and the consequential production of Catholicism's new extended Christian Text Book, to become known as the Latin Vulgate Bible.
And BTW, I do not consider my post to be the result of "ignorance".
When I was a young Christian believer, and of an impressionable age, circumstances placed me in the company of three pentecostalists who asked if they could lay hands on me with a view to me receiving what they called "the baptism of the Spirit".
At the time I was aware that Glossolalia was practiced in non Christian as well as in Christian Circles.
I was also aware of instances where young children had recounted historically accurate descriptions of events that they could not possibly have known about via the realm of normality.
I also knew of Christians who had been cured of medical conditions that had been pronounced as incurable by medical experts, and who claimed that their cures were by divine intervention.
But I also knew of those who had similarly been cured despite medical prognosis but had no Christian faith whatsoever.
My inclination at that time was to believe that, alongside the power of God's Holy Spirit, other 'knock knock who's there' spirits, without the capability of omnipresence, roamed around seeking to inhabit the minds of those who were open receive them.
So, when I willingly agreed to submit myself to the laying on of the pentecostalist's hands, I did so prayerfully, asking that God would grant me whatever accorded with his will ..... but, being weary of the 'knock knock who's there' spirits, I declined the advice of the three pentecostalists to "completely empty my mind" whilst they laid hands on me.
Whilst they became more and more audible in tongues, normal prayer, and pressure of hands I remained exactly as I was at the beginning.
As for other spiritual gifts I have the same open mind ..... but seem to remain a pretty normal bloke with a solid Christian faith that I hope is consistent with the "Faith first delivered to the saints" from the beginning of the apostolic era.
A faith that existed centuries before Constantine, the nicene creed , and the subsequent canonisation of a selection of the 'apostolic writings', and the consequential production of Catholicism's new extended Christian Text Book, to become known as the Latin Vulgate Bible.
And BTW, I do not consider my post to be the result of "ignorance".
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