A new Charismatic fad - Toronto blessing repackaged?
http://www.cbn.com/700cl...bios/Arnotts_022108.aspx

Stay away. Best advice ever. lol

lol I thought I would be right to the point on this one :D

I actually had to come to terms with it a few years ago. I was once one of these people who loved all this stuff, I actually was pro-toronto blessing when it was happening back then when I were a teenager.

The reason I had to deal with it that was after we left Christianity we were asked our opinion on a preacher called Todd Bentley. We went through what he was actually saying instead of believing it all - and this is what we found: TBexposition.pdf

But anyway - the working of the "Holy Spirit" in those kind of ways is pretty much exactly the same as any New Age experience you can read.

The full thread that was posted on the Todd Bentley Florida outpouring can be found here: http://yadanews.com/yaf_...st1011_Todd-Bentley.aspx

It's very hard to talk to people like this, because what they have experienced is very real. Whether it is a fabrication of the powerful human mind or an actual spiritual encounter, these types of Christians put a lot of weight on the them. They know it was the one true God, because it made them feel great, relaxed, free... etc etc. They do not test the experience, as we can see from the Todd stuff above.

Christians like this believe they have a 100% true connection to the truth and to Yah because they can feel it inside or they hear a voice or they are overwhelmed. This is how I have felt many times when I was a Christian.

The only good thing is that for most people that kind of emotional high can not sustain itself, they will come down and they will go back up again. Christians call it walking the mountains and valleys as to say - one min you are on top of the world, the next darkness is closing around you (just to test your faith of course).

I got out because I truly wanted Yah, and I told Him that - it took a long time to get to the point where my eyes could be opened, but it happened. Then it was about fact and logic, looking at what Scripture says and what my actions in response to that were.

What I have come to know is this - you are not responsible for someone else's eternal destination. Yah never puts the emphasis on you "saving" people, He is the one who does that. Our role is to speak the truth, and those who hear will hear, whether that be today or in 10 years time. We just have to tell it like it is, each person then has the responsibility to respond in the way they choose. It is also almost impossible to convince someone who does not want to listen, or thinks they know all the answers.

I suppose what I was trying to do in that last paragraph was give you some peace. Those who will hear, will hear :)

Starlight's description of the Toronto Blessing caused me to remember an instruction from Dad that we are not to learn the ways of the nations around us. It sounds to me like the creators of the movement learned meditation techniques from their unbelieving neighbors. Sure enough, that disobedience led to their corruption, just as Poppa warned us it would. That's what happens when people adopt the "Leviticus - who needs it?" mindset towards the Torah. It is heartbreaking.