Two of our favorite subjects lately have been:
(1) Charismatic chicanery, and
(2) lawsuits
Well, like the old Reese’s® Peanut Butter Cup commercials used to say, “Two great tatstes that taste great together.” How ’bout we roll both subjects into one post? Here’s a lawsuit, brought on by Charismatic chicanery, right here in good, old K-Town (via Charisma Magazine):
A man is suing his former Knoxville, Tenn., church and its pastors for negligence, claiming he was severely and permanently injured when church “catchers” failed to assist him during a prayer service last year.
In a $2.5 million civil action filed last week, Matthew Lincoln, a 58-year-old recording engineer, accused Lakewind Church pastors Michael and Monique Sexton of not properly “supervising the catchers.” Both the church and the pastors are named in the lawsuit.
Lincoln, who had been a member of Lakewind since 1995, claims in the suit that in his many years attending the nondenominational church, he was always “caught” if he “fell out in the spirit” because altar workers were customarily in place during prayer ministry. According to the complaint, Lakewind Church typically positions altar workers behind parishioners who receive prayer to catch them in the event that they experience “dizzying, fainting or falling in the spirit.”
But during a service on June 6, 2007, Lincoln said visiting minister Robert Lavala slightly touched his forehead, and he “received the spirit,” fell backward and struck the carpet-covered cement floor with the back of his head and back. The lawsuit claims the fall aggravated a degenerative disc disease in Lincoln’s neck and back that he had “reasonably recovered” from before the incident.
“To me this is not a complicated matter,” said Lincoln’s attorney, J.D. Lee. “The [church] had a set duty that they recognized, that the [church] board recognized … and they didn’t catch him. The poor guy fell out, and they breached the duty that they had.”
But David Long, an attorney representing the church and the Sextons, disagrees with Lee’s premise and does not believe his clients should be held liable. “The church has not done anything wrong and was not negligent,” he told Charisma.In addition to losing income due to his alleged injuries, Lincoln claims he can no longer care for his disabled 25-year-old daughter. His wife, Shirley, is suing Lakewind for $75,000 as a “derivative action” that resulted from the “loss of consortium, loss of services and companionship of her husband.”
Oh….
My….
Gosh………..
Is there anything to add? Or does this story just kinda speak for itself?
OK, so let me get this straight. The guy “receives the Spirit,” which causes him to fall backwards. And it’s the church’s fault? Shouldn’t this guy join that Nebraska congressman who sued God over natural disasters, and the gay guy that’s suing Thomas Nelson and Zondervan over what God wrote in His word and sue God? Think about it folks: if it was the Holy Spirit that caused Lincoln to fall backwards–I mean, wouldn’t the Holy Spirit be able to know that there wasn’t going to be somebody to catch him? Or was the Holy Spirit too busy giving out tongues and interpretation and making people bark like dogs? And shouldn’t the Holy Spirit have told the evangelist to hold up a minute until He could get somebody to catch him?
See, this is the kind of thing that makes me shake my head over how people can believe this kind of stuff is of God. If these people would actually pick up a Bible and read what it actually says, rather than basing their doctrine on a bunch of “feelings” and experiences, perhaps this wouldn’t have happened.
Christ Alone Wyoming 
Just read that on FoxNews.com…. ARGH! Isn’t there a verse about God’s name being blasphemed among the Gentiles?
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Fourpointer,
Two other problems here that I can see. Slain with some kind of “spirit” and yet not divinely healed of his degenerative disk disease. Nor, has his daughter been restored to health.
Maybe he didn’t “WANT” to be healed when he supposedly bounced off the floor. If his faith was large enough, then God would have healed him, right???????????
So, NOW let’s get this straight – the man has a huge lack of faith, is not healed, bounces off a floor because of the Holy Spirit’s poor timing, and now this man and his wife are justified in taking other believers to court in complete contradiction to the Scriptures????
Conclusion – “Ananias” and his wife, “Sapphira” after blatantly lying to the Holy Spirit were brought to judgment and fear fell upon the whole church! Nope, guess that’s not happening.
Wrong doctrine + wrong teaching + no church discipline + greedy wanna-be believers = a fiasco that is definitely not Christ-honouring! One more word comes to mind – ICHABOD!!!!!!!!!!
The Desert Pastor
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The Desert Pastor said it well. Only thing I can add is that Biblically speaking , Ananias and Sapphira were the only two people ever literally slain in the spirit !
Bob Hanks
http://www.bobhanks.wordpress.com
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Lawyers, this man’s claim has no merit. The Spirit of GOD will never allow you to fall and cause an injury. This man fell on his own. So many people get caught up in the thought of being slain in the Spirit because it looks like something. This man has an idea of what it looks like but he failed to get saved and receive the POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. Sir, (plaintiff) you clearly have no idea what power you are dealing with. You won’t win this lawsuit. I’d also advise the plaintiff’s counsel to pull back as well. You are about to lose everything. Matthew 15:14 “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” The plaintiff needs to be saved.
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I was slain in the spirit on old years night. No one prayed for me, I was not in a line, I was in the pew about to say the our father prayer in my catholic church. Suddenly I felt the presence of God and I had no control over my physical body it was like I had no strength to do anything: (stand or move) but I was fully aware of what was happening. I just fell backwards into my seat and began to cry. Some people really do throw themselves down, after this experience I realize that the other times I thought I was slain I really wasn’t, because I was in control of my bodily movements. I am certainly more aware of the presence and power of God to my personal life because he singled me out and it was totally his decision.
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So what spirit are we talking about then? Certainly, not the spirit of God!
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Tricia,
I second DPW’s question? How do you know which spirit you were “slain” in? 2nd Corinthians 11 tells us that Satan can disguise himself as an “angel of light.” There are many who have claimed to have “received a spirit” that were only being fooled by the “liar and father of lies.” Can you show me one Scripture that tells us about being “slain in the spirit”?
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I wrote about this precise topic a while ago in my own blog (http://tikkiro.wordpress.com/2007/11/16/slain-in-the-spirit-but-which-spirit/) – pointing out that there is absolutely NO basis in scripture for people to fall backwards when they meet with God in any form (i.e. Father, Son or Holy Spirit!). Every single person was awake, alert, talking, and most importantly – fell FORWARDS! And whoever they met, the purpose of the visitation was to empower them to undertake specific roles and tasks – NOT to lie on the ground feeling wonderful and “cogitating their onions” as my late hubby used to say (i.e. daydreaming). So no matter how or when it happens it is absolutely NOT God who is behind it!!! Satan loves it when people fall all over themselves (literally) for his counterfeit “blessings”!
ALWAYS test experiences/spirits against scripture!
Blessings, TKR
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I’ve analysed this case from two angles, perhaps this might interest your readers:
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All I am going to say is that it doesn’t hurt to fall under the power of God, if you are not faking it.
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I experienced a lot of things in the pent/charismatic movement. It all left me feeling empty. Go week after week to get a spiritual high. Get it on Sunday and it would be gone on Monday. Ultimately it left me a spiritual shipwreck. It wasn’t until I began to study the Bible for myself and understood that salvation is by faith alone that I finally found what I was looking for. No experiences can give the peace that faith alone in Jesus can give.
I have found nothing in the Bible to show that being “slain in the spirit” is from God. I would say on the contrary. Self control is one of the fruits of the Spirit. How can anything that causes you to lose control of yourself be from the Holy Spirit?
Yes, I have experienced being “slain in th spirit”. It gave me no answers or comfort. The same thing with being “drunk in the spirit”.
I will stick with the Bible and not experiences to determine what is right and what is wrong.
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Jerret- How do we fall under the power of God?
My Bible teaches that we are baptized with the Spirit upon being saved, and learn to walk in the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit as we go through this life obeying Christ, reading His word, and praying. I don’t read anything in the Bible about rolling around on the floor, or running around like a madman, or speaking gibberish claiming we’re speaking in tongues, and getting on all emotional. God is not a God of confusion and chaos, this too is taught in Holy Writ {For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints-1 Cor. 14:33}.
Salvation is by grace, through faith; it does not cause one to convulse, or act like a crazed animal. We are commanded to walk humbly with our God. I too have not found in Scripture any teachings on being slain in the spirit.
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unworthy1
I have tried to talk to family members about what you are saying. Even break out the Bible but, they choose their experience over the Word.
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Shane, continue to pray for them; as you know, only God can bring a dead in trespasses sinner back to life. It does appear these charismatic types cling to their emotional experience rather than worshiping the one true God in spirit and in truth. They don’t realize that demonic forces can and do work signs and wonders, leading these charismatics to believe that God is behind it. God isn’t anywhere close to what they are involved in.
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I was talking one of my family members about the security of a believer. They told me they didn’t want to know any different from what that they had been taught such as: life is a test, you don’t know if you are saved until you get to heaven, good works must outweigh the bad works, etc…)
I hope and pray that they truly did get saved but have been blinded by false teaching. I do pray that they will eventually see the truth.
A lot of the pent/char I have been around also base their salvation on how they are feeling at the time. Which shows me that they don’t have a cocept of what saving faith is. It worries me.
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