These Signs Shall Follow: the serpent-handling Christians of Appalachia

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aja L. Bain
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Gifts ◽  
Church Of God ◽  
Religious Institution ◽  
Current Position ◽  
Popular Opinion ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Speaking In Tongues ◽  
Serpent Handling ◽  
The Church

This paper traces the roots and development of the Church of God with Signs Following, a charismatic Christian group of worshippers that has been increasingly investigated and publicized by the courts and media in the last half century. A Church of God with Signs Following service is much like any other within the Pentecostal Holiness tradition, utilizing spiritual gifts such as “glossolalia” (speaking in tongues) and healing, but with a few important exceptions: members regularly take up poisonous serpents and imbibe deadly toxins during the course of worship. According to members, their ways are Biblically justified and they are subject to no law but God’s. This unique tradition has caused widespread notoriety and stigmatization of the group and to their current position as one of the least understood sects of Christianity. This paper also examines their particular beliefs and practices to explain and hopefully dispel the basis of the modern-day view of the group as deviants from Christianity, or as members of a barbaric cult. The presence of the church as a uniquely rural and southern phenomenon is also explored, as well as popular opinion and litigation that the church has historically faced. Above all, we seek an understanding of how and why this particular (and undeniably peculiar) denomination has endured and staked its claim as a legitimate religious institution in a land where it has been the object of fear and ridicule for decades.

Serpent Handling Endorsed by the Church of God

2008 ◽  
pp. 52-78
Author(s):  
Ralph W. Hood Jr. ◽  
W. Paul Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Church Of God ◽  
Serpent Handling ◽  
The Church

scholarly journals The Meaning of Speaking in Tongues: A Practical Strategy for the 21st Century Church

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-18
Author(s):  
John Sirengo
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Gifts ◽  
Church History ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Augustine Of Hippo ◽  
Speaking In Tongues ◽  
Positive Side ◽  
Practical Strategy ◽  
The Gift ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church

The meaning of speaking in tongues portrays a language that challenges the church in its interpretation in matters of spiritual gifts from God. This article focuses on the Old and New Testament perspectives on tongues; tongues reveal God’s judgment, promises, fulfilment and its negative usages such as selfishness, jealousy, and discouragement.  This is mostly for those who do not speak the language. On its positive side it looks at it as an initial sign of baptism in the spirit in which the Pentecostals and charismatic movements put their emphasis on the faith and practice. As it follows its usage in prayer, thanksgiving, truth, praise to God, the edification of the individual and prophecy to the entire church. Church history provides the understanding of the use of tongues particularly in reference to early church fathers, such as Eusebius, Irenaeus, Dean Ferrar, Chrysostom Bishop of Constantinople, and Augustine of Hippo and briefly on the reformation period. It concludes by proposing the practical strategies for discovering the gift of tongues, through workshops on spiritual gifts, small group discussions, gift discovery group and its application in the church and individual.

scholarly journals Theorizing Pentecostal Experiences Among Church of God (Cleveland, TN) Adolescents

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher D Fraley
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
The Body ◽  
Church Of God ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Emotional Intensity ◽  
Bodily Experience ◽  
Speaking In Tongues ◽  
Positive Experiences ◽  
The Church

This article describes and theorizes the liturgical contexts in which adolescents have Pentecostal experiences such as “speaking in tongues” and being “slain in the Spirit.” It is based on ethnographic research done at a Pentecostal church affiliated with the Church of God (Cleveland, TN).  I begin by offering a snapshot of modern Pentecostalism in order to demonstrate the framework that informed the context of the current study. Then I describe six factors of the liturgy that facilitate Pentecostal experience in adolescents: the language of encounter with God, the use of music to build emotional intensity, the prominent role of the body, the participatory nature of worship, the call for salvation, and the alter call as culmination of the liturgy.  My analysis reveals that adolescents are more likely to have positive experiences if they have been educated in a Christian environment, had a prayer partner, have experienced a sense of distance from God, have accepted a biblicist approach to Scripture, and have a common bodily experience. I argue that Pentecostal experiences are ultimately beneficial and that a thorough analysis of their underlying factors is essential towards the construction of healthier forms of religious experience. 

Reconsidering Roger Bacon's Apocalypticism in Light of His Alchemical and Scientific Thought

2012 ◽  
Vol 105 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Matus
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Church Of God ◽  
Scientific Thought ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Franciscan Order ◽  
Radical Ideas ◽  
The Church

“Since you have commanded me to write on the wisdom of philosophy, I shall cite to your Clemency the opinions of the sages, especially since this knowledge is absolutely necessary to the Church of God against the fury of Antichrist.”1 So wrote Roger Bacon to Clement IV. The pope had commanded Bacon to send writings of which Roger had spoken when Clement was still Cardinal Guy Folques.2 Clement's letter does not mention Antichrist, nor does it specify the subject matter of the aforementioned conversation. Still, since Bacon mentions Antichrist in what was likely a prefatory letter to either the Opus maius or Opus minus,3 the specter of Antichrist that lurks throughout Bacon's Opera and other works may not have come as a surprise. Yet, amid the clamor of Joachite apocalypticism that quickly coiled itself around the Franciscan Order in the latter half of the thirteenth century,4 Roger Bacon's own apocalyptic opinions remain underappreciated. This is not to say that Bacon's apocalypticism has gone unrecognized. Scholars have long agreed, as Brett Whalen has said recently, that Bacon “layered his writings with a sense of apocalyptic expectation.”5 Yet the historiographical tendency to separate Bacon's scientific writings from his religious beliefs and practices appears to have obscured Bacon's own radical ideas about the end of days.6

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