Assemblies of God Church
On
a major street in the city where we were staying was an Assemblies of God church
whose sign advertised a Wednesday evening Bible study. After driving by it for
several weeks and tired of the
conservative churches' ignorance
of and lack of interest in
spiritual warfare, I pulled into it one Wednesday evening on
my own.
The Bible study, led by an old Assemblies of God pastor and an equally old elder, was fine, so I waited until they had bid everyone else goodnight at the end of it, and then approached and asked them if they had any experience in spiritual warfare. The pastor said yes, so I presented what Kristin is dealing with, the abuse she had suffered from her Satanist father, and asked if they could help her. As they listened, their stares of confident authority evaporated and were replaced by flushed faces and looks of uncertainty, even fear. The pastor finally replied, "My wife handles this type of stuff," and led me downstairs.
Really? I was skeptical but followed him downstairs, where his wife was holding his jacket and waiting for him, along with two children, whom I presumed were their grandkids. The pastor took his jacket from her and told her to go into his office and talk to me. She looked bewildered but complied, led me into his office, closed the door, and sat down behind his large desk. I sat down across from her and began to repeat to her what I had told her husband, but stopped because her hands began to shake and she began to look petrified. She then said she knew of a pastor who leads Chi Alpha Campus Ministries at a university in a neighboring state and then named a name with which I was already familiar.
When a Chinese student of mine who had responded to the Gospel in China informed me that she will be transferring to that university in USA and is eager to meet American Christians her age, Kristin and I had taken her out to dinner to encourage her but to also warn her that she will meet many people in America who claim to be "Christian" but are not; she will need to qualify everything they say through the Bible. The vivacious girl with a bright smile had replied that she will.
A couple of months after transferring, she emailed me to say that when she arrived on campus for orientation, a Christian group called Chi Alpha had a booth, so she approached them and told them that she had heard about Jesus in China and wanted to know more. They welcomed her with open arms and she said she was having a lot of fun with them. I didn't know what Chi Alpha was so I looked them up online and found it to be unbiblical. I shared with her what I learned and advised her to join a more conservative Christian group on her campus, but it was too late. She replied that she loves Chi Alpha and is off to another one of their gatherings. When I checked up on her several months thereafter, her joy was gone, she said she wants nothing to do with Chi Alpha or Christianity, and stopped answering my emails.
I advised the Assemblies of God pastor's wife that I already knew about that female "pastor," which is an oxymoron that violates 1 Timothy 2:12, thanked her for her time, walked out of her husband's office with her, thanked him as well, and left. I didn't blame the pastor's wife, but what sort of man, let alone a pastor, hides behind his wife and pushes her out in front of him when he gets scared? And if they are so scared of spiritual warfare, why do Assemblies of God and other Pentecostal churches claim that they engage in it?