Unbiblical Tradtions: “Slain in the Spirit”

Is falling backwards a sign of judgment? I posted a clip from my recent podcast with David Lovey on the topic of tongues.

During that podcast, David dropped the mic with an epic side note about the practice seen in the charismatic movement today of falling out in the spirit, or as it's otherwise known, being slain in the spirit.

The clip generated some questions and some strange remarks, so I thought we should talk more about it.

Every single time in the Bible when it refers to someone falling backwards, it is a sign of judgment.

In every case. In 1 Samuel, when Eli hears that the ark has been taken by the

Philistines, he falls backwards. And breaks his neck.

Here, it says, they shall go and fall backward and be broken and snared and caught.

When the soldiers were going to arrest Jesus, and he said, who are you looking for?

They said, Jesus. He said, I am he. They all fell backwards. Every time someone falls backwards, it is a bad thing in the

Bible. Every time someone falls on their face forwards before the

Lord, they are worshiping the Lord. They fall on their face, not on their back. That practice that we see so often called the work of the

Holy Spirit on Christian, so -called Christian television, which is really not Christian at all. That practice of Benny Hinn pushing people over, garbage.

It's a sign of judgment. As you can see, I included the biblical references. I was not selective with this.

This is every occasion in the Bible where someone falls backwards, figuratively or literally. So David isn't making anything up with this statement.

This is not hermeneutical gymnastics, looking at the biblical data and drawing the conclusion that the Bible presents falling backwards as a bad thing.

It's pretty clear. Without talking about modern charismaticism yet, it's just a plain truth that falling back in the

Bible is indicative of God's judgment. Whenever it is referred to, it is in reference to God's people or God's enemies as the object of divine judgment or displeasure.

So listening to that by itself without any inference, if it's not clear, then I don't know what to say. But I think some of the confusion is coming from how people are perceiving our opinion of how impactful this observation is.

I posted this not as some standalone refutation of being slain in the spirit or charismaticism as a whole.

We're not building a doctrine off of this single observation. And that's what it is, an observation, plain as day from the scripture.

Is everyone who happens to fall backward or is pushed backward today in these services therefore under God's judgment necessarily?

No. Does everyone who gets on their face truly worship God in those moments? No. And so you as the viewer might be in an environment where people fall down.

You might like to fall down. Whatever. The observation remains true that every single time the Bible describes someone falling backwards, it's a bad thing, as David said.

That cannot be argued. So while it's just an observation, I believe that there are no wasted words in the Bible. And so while it certainly isn't like a silver bullet to charismatic practice,

I believe it holds some significance. Falling, going, stumbling backward is a theme in scripture. It's small, but it's there.

And if it's there, it's important. If we call ourselves Christians, we should take the Bible seriously and at least consider this.

Again, not because we've made something up, but we have pointed something out. What we should also consider in light of the observation from the

Old Testament is that there are no New Testament examples of people falling backward during worship or upon being filled with the

Spirit. It's not there. Now, at this point, I want to answer a couple of things people brought up in the comments. The first is, what about baptism?

Well, the Bible never describes baptism as falling backward. And the point we are making has to do with when the

Bible describes the action of falling backward. It doesn't describe baptism this way. However, going into the waters of baptism is identifying with Christ's death.

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?

Well, what kind of death was his? One in which our old self was crucified with him. Our sin was judged by God as it was placed on Christ our substitute.

His death was one under the judgment of God. He was judged in our place. Apart from Christ, we would all stumble backward to our ruin because of our sin.

But Jesus becomes the object of divine judgment. He falls backwards. He stumbles backward, as it were, so that he may raise us up with himself.

Now, the next thing I want to address is Goliath. Goliath fell on his face. First, that doesn't change anything about the observation that was made, which is every time the

Bible describes someone falling backward, it's a bad thing. That has no effect upon that observation. That doesn't change anything.

Here is why Goliath is unique. He had just been killed by a rock. He fell on his face before the armies of the living

God whom he had defied, just like his God Dagon did before the Ark. The author presents him as a type of the seed of the serpent.

This is portrayed through various details in the narrative from his origin to the scale armor that he was wearing.

And the author presents David as a type of the skull -crushing seed of the woman, the Messiah who was to come.

On your belly you shall go was the Lord's judgment on the serpent. Because the author portrays the conflict between David and Goliath as a typological fulfillment of Genesis 3 .15.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel.

It makes perfect sense that Goliath would fall on his face and have his head removed. So we step back and look at the

Bible and say, okay, the Old Testament seems to depict falling backwards as a divine curse or judgment.

We should also consider that the New Testament doesn't record anybody doing that during worship or being filled with the spirit.

And in light of that, don't you think that it's fair to at least ask the question, why do we do this?

What I'm afraid I'm seeing from some in the comments is a clinging to man -made traditions such that you must somehow brush aside a clear observation from the scriptures.

Now, I nor David are opposed to being genuinely overcome by the presence of God and being on our face before him, which is a posture the

Bible affirms as reverent. But many, many people tell me from their experiences in churches that do this kind of thing, how much of it was faked, how much of it was voluntary and forced from a feeling of pressure like you need to perform or to appear spiritual or whatever.

That is the consistent testimony of people who come out of these environments. In the Bible, the posture of acceptable worship and reverence toward God is always forward or down -facing.

The Bible doesn't indicate that a normal measurement of the Holy Spirit's presence or touch is somebody falling down.

These observations are not a stretch. What would be a stretch is to observe this and to conclude from this alone that the practice of falling out is unbiblical.

But what I hope is that this little nugget from the word is helpful to someone. It certainly is fascinating to me, and I just love how

God has written his book that we as Christians should seek to conform our lives to. Now, if I can be transparent for a second, this is one of the hesitations

I have with starting a Holy Yep page. Lots of people have asked for a page dedicated to Holy Yeps.

But I see a number of issues with trying to pursue that as its own thing. Among them is the fact that as many people agree with a

Holy Yep, there will be more who disagree. And the comment sections will be an even greater mess than they are with the

Holy Nopes. Now, I think I've demonstrated that I'm not afraid of pushback. But there are other accounts that are dedicated to posting that kind of thing.

Solid biblical content. Off the top of my head, I think of Biblical Unreformed, Hostie over there. If I'm saying that right, she posts a lot of clips that I would call a

Holy Yep. So I don't feel like there is this void in the Christian social media space that I need to fill in that way.

However, when I first edited this clip, I had a Yep sort of fade into the black there instead of the Nope logo.

So here's what I'm going to do. I do want to post more positive content.

Content that I think is good. That I think people should see and be edified by. And so what

I'm going to do is not start a new channel. But I am going to start a new playlist. A new series that I will add to occasionally.

It's not going to take over anything. But it will be an occasional thing that I post when I find something that I really like and that I want to share.