By Pastor Pam Sheppard

In both the Pentecostal and the Charismatic segments of the institutional church, it is  taught that anytime you question any supernatural manifestation as not being from God, but of being from demons, that you were blaspheming the Spirit, which was unpardonable. This is often  used as a fear tactic. Members were made to be afraid to question any supernatural manifestations, because if you doubted one and  you turned out to be wrong, you had just signed your own one-way death warrant.

To be on the safe side, you had to accept any and every manifestation and assume it was from God, in order to err on the side of caution.  Are members barking like dogs? Thrashing about, bumping into each other? Stumbling around, too drunk to walk? Speaking in a foreign tongue that sounds suspiciously similar to the tongues devil-worshipers speak in? “Well, you can’t put God in a box…