Holy-Laughter

# The Holy Laughter Apostasy

Christianity is peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is forgiveness and enabling power to resist all sin, and walk day by day with our Creator.

Pentecostalism is far different: It is a happy flight of feeling, whatever type of group activities or excitement might induce a temporary abandonment of depressed thoughts.

—Enter “Holy Laughter,” the latest Pentecostal penetration. It is invading the churches of Christendom: Protestant, Catholic, and now Seventh-day Adventist. Beware! It may be offered to your local church before long.

A friend telephoned recently to tell me about an Adventist pastor on the East Coast who was laughing his way through his Sabbath sermons. The minister was telling his congregation that laughing was the long-anticipated breakthrough to a deeper religious experience. Just laugh, he told them, and you are closer to God.

What could all this be about?

I recalled the articles I read about five years ago, which told of “medical research” being carried on by Loma Linda University, or its Medical Center, about laughing. According to the article, telling jokes was an excellent way to help people, and Loma Linda was maintaining an ongoing program in doing just that. Old movies which were ridiculous, such as the Marx Brothers, were said to be especially helpful in assuaging negative feelings. This was making them feel better, and that was a Christian thing to do.

We all know that the laughter of the world is for the moment, and frequently leaves a person feeling emptier afterward. The solution is submission to Christ, giving Him our sins, dedicating our lives to Him, living in obedience to His laws, and trying to help and bless others. —This is the only real source of continuing-lasting-happiness.

Then I received a phone call from a friend in southern California, who told of a relative who had attended an Adventist meeting in the area. It was a spirit-filled gathering, and one side shouted “Jesus is God!” while the other side of the auditorium shouted back, “Yes, He is!” This went on until the young man injured his voice.

Then I was sent a news clip from the May 1, 1995, issue of the Pacific Union Recorder. It was blasphemous. Here is a paragraph which summarize its message:

“Billy Joel hits the nail on the head for many when he sings, ‘I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The sinners are much more fun.’ ”—Daniel Martella, “A Time to Laugh,” Pacific Union Recorder, May 1, 1995.

Martella is pastor of the Provo, Utah, church. Poor Provo, we feel sorry for the believers there. They have a pastor trying to destroy them, and both the conference and union offices approve of his efforts.

Here is another paragraph in that article, which describes Martella’s viewpoint:

“We can see humor in the way Jesus interacted with people. Jesus was quick-witted. He liked to hang out at parties. Kids and teenagers liked to get close to Him. Jesus knew how to throw back His head in a hearty laugh.”—Ibid.

According to Martella, people came to Jesus because He was a quick-talking jokester, not because He taught them eternal truths, forgave their sins, and pointed them toward heaven.

A little thought reveals that this strange religion of laughter, or religion which is laughter, is actually keyed both to Pentecostalism and its offspring, Celebrationism. A Pentecostal church service is an exhibition of excitement, and whatever it takes to evoke it. A Celebration church service is a little more toned down, and is useful in leading people into a full-blown Pentecostal experience. The “holy laughter” movement is another step-child of Pentecostalism, which is also effectively used to push people into the orgies of that emotion-based religion.

With the blessing of the Pacific Union Recorder, Martella says this:

“Sprinkled all through the pages of Scripture there are celebrations and parties, festivals and feasts, times of outrageous joy and laughter.”—Ibid.

Every earnest Christian knows that the above paragraph has nothing to do with true godliness and Christianity. It is a cheap, very cheap imitation.

The question immediately comes to mind: Why would the editors of the Pacific Union Recorder print such an article, which is more than useless; it is dangerous to the souls of those who read this publication, especially the immature. Would you want your child or teenager to read such an article?

Thoroughly aroused, the present writer decided to see if he could find out more about this spiritual counterfeit, which palms off laughing as though it were the highest level of religious experience one could achieve. Here is what he found:

There is a strange new wave of Pentecostal fervor gripping the Protestant churches. It is called “Holy Laughter.”

According to Charisma, a Pentecostal publication, the holy laughter movement began in the summer of 1979 in South Africa.

Rodney Howard-Browne was praying for something, anything. Then he demanded that God give him something new, or he would go to heaven and take it from Him.

“ ‘Either You come down here and touch me, or I will come up there and touch You!’ ” —Howard-Browne, quoted in Charisma, August 1994.

Then, according to Charisma, a Pentecostal journal, suddenly in the midst of that blasphemous prayer, Howard-Browne’s “whole body felt like it was on fire. He began to laugh uncontrollably. Then he wept and began to speak in tongues.”—Ibid.

Elsewhere, in a book Howard-Browne wrote later, entitled The Touch of God, he said:

“I was plugged into heaven’s electric supply, and since then my desire has been to go and plug other people in.”

It is an intriguing fact that, as a result of receiving this “anointing,” Howard-Browne’s mind was filled with but one thought: He is driven by that spirit, which filled him, to get others to receive the same “infilling.” No thought or mention is ever made of putting away sins, studying God’s Word, or obeying it. All that matters is infecting others with the virus of demon possession that he, himself, experienced the day he uttered that blasphemous prayer.

And it is more transmittable than a virus! You can catch it at quite some distance from Howard-Browne. One of the outstanding characteristics of Howard-Browne’s “laughing revival” is the fact that it can be so quickly transmitted from one person to another!

Friend, if you and your loved ones enter a local church where the preacher starts talking about the need for “holy laughter,”—get out of there as fast as you can, and warn others to get out also.

Those “anointed,” by Howard-Browne, go out from him to “anoint” still others! The “spirit” that filled Howard-Browne back in 1979, has since then been filling thousands of others.

This thing is dangerous, in the extreme! You dare not let your loved ones near it!

Upon his arrival in the United States in 1987, with his wife and three children, Howard-Browne began holding meetings throughout North America. In every meeting he held, people were gripped by uncontrollable bursts of laughter. The astounding exhibitions convinced all present that this must be a “great revival of the spirit.” They are right; it is. Plural that is, “spirits.”

In 1994, a tremendous upsurge of Howard-Browne’s laughing mania occurred, as he was interviewed by a number of television stations.

In early spring 1994, a panel of guests were enthusiastically discussing “holy laughter” and calling it the latter days “outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit.” Equating it with the “joy” described in the Bible, they said it was the “joy of the Lord.” They say this because they can find no Scriptural support for their apostasy. More on this later in this report.

Several weeks later, the Trinity Broadcasting Network broadcast Rodney Howard-Browne, himself. He began the program by giving what appeared to be a serious sermon. Yet people were in the audience uncontrollably laughing. He seemed to take no notice, but kept speaking for a time about the need for a new Pentecostal experience. Then, when he mentioned the need for “holy laughter,”—laughing started all over the auditorium! The place became a bedlam. He hollered that it was the last-days’ expression of the Holy Spirit; it was Pentecost all over again! He said the audience before him was “drunk on the spirit.” By this time, the place was in a pandemonium.

In the midst of the noise and confusion, Howard-Browne stopped preaching, stepped down, and walked about the auditorium, occasionally breaking into uncontrollable fits of laughter himself, and, between outbursts, laying his hands on people and, with the words, “be filled,” telling them they were receiving the spirit. All about him, people were convulsing with laughter.

That same spring, Richard Roberts—the president of Oral Roberts University and son of Oral Roberts—spoke on “holy laughter” on a television program. His whole sermon was on that subject. He described how “revival” had come to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He said he canceled classes for two days, so the 4,000 students could intensively experience the “joy of the Lord” and “receive the gift of holy laughter.” He then went on to state that the gift had arrived when Rodney Howard-Browne came to speak to the students and faculty. From that moment on, a great wave of “revival” had “swept through the campus.”

Some of our readers will recall that the man who, until just recently, had been president of Andrews University Medical School for years—David Hinshaw—had previously been the dean of Oral Roberts University! Upon his return from Tulsa, he said that Oral Roberts was one of his closest friends. In the early 1980s, Loma Linda hosted Oral Roberts for a great “Prophet” conference, of sorts. During the introduction to Robert’s keynote address, Hinshaw said there have been “two great prophets” in the our century: Ellen White and Oral Roberts. He said that both were equally prophets of God, sent to help His people. We commented on it in Waymarks at the time.

A San Francisco Bay church, a branch of the Vineyard Christian Church, was experiencing what was being described as a “great new spiritual revival.” When asked what it was all about, they said it was “holy laughter.” Church members were breaking into fits of laughter. When visitors stopped in, they were also gripped by the uncontrollable laughing. Hundreds of people were being “hit” with “revival.” They said it was like being “hit with something,” since the impulse would suddenly sweep over a person, and he no longer could control himself.

They also called it “being soaked in the spirit,” since it was such an all-absorbing event. People would lose consciousness for up to several hours after falling to the ground with “holy laughter.” They said it was “awesome” and “it had to be the work of the Lord.”

How did that Bay area church “get the spirit”? Their pastor had recently flown to Toronto, Canada, where he got it!

A large Vineyard Christian Church, pastored by John Arnott, in Toronto, Canada, held an international “holy laughter conference” in the summer of 1994. Over 2,200 pastors, from countries as far away as Cambodia, came for the event. They had arrived to observe the “laughing revival” which had come to be known as the “Toronto Blessing.”

Keep in mind that many of these visiting pastors were quite skeptical, and came for the purpose of gathering information to disprove it. —But most of the pastors were “hit by the spirit”—even many of the skeptical ones!

It is dangerous to dally with the spirits! Just stay away from them. But know that, if confronted by them suddenly while you are doing your duty and staying close to God, you can send up a prayer to heaven and ask for “another angel,” as Ellen White did when confronted by a hypnotist. In your holy, trustful reliance upon God in an emergency, you can withstand any unholy influence, such as the spirits of laughing devils. In Christ, you are safe.

But if you do not have to meet them, then stay away from them.

The Toronto gathering was entitled, “Signs and Wonders Campmeeting 1994.” Pastors of huge charismatic churches and Celebration churches were present. They were endued with this new spirit, and took it back home with them. All the more reason to avoid the Celebration churches! First it was excitement and hot music. Then the “meditation” hypnosis, taught by William Loveless of Loma Linda to our pastors in retreats, was added. Now the “laughing revival” is starting to come in.

Will our church leadership do anything to stop it, or keep it out of our local churches? Very unlikely. History reveals that the only thing our leaders oppose are those who plead for reformatory returns to our historic beliefs and standards. Any type of new-fangled modernization is accepted, as long as it does not disturb organizational control.

Leading pastors of the big Celebration churches were at that Toronto meeting, and they stumbled around the stage as though they were drunk. This brought hysterical shouting from the congregation, as though from a mob gathered for violence: “Drunk with the spirit; they are drunk with the spirit!” The seemingly “drunken” condition of these leaders became their testimony. Their halting speech, when brought to a microphone, was itself supposedly “proof of the power of the spirit” that they were filled with.

The congregation roared in approval as pastor after pastor laughed uncontrollably and then fell to the floor. Standing alongside the “drunken” pastors was revivalist Rodney Howard-Browne, the man who calls himself the “Holy Ghost bartender” who serves up this “new wine of the spirit.” What a blasphemous name he has given himself!

One of those visiting pastors at Toronto, after there being “slain by the spirit,” returned to the Bay area and gave a host of spirits to his flock. Since then, nightly meetings have been held at that Vineyard Church, so the spirits can invade the minds and bodies of still more people. The people are flocking in, wanting to be “touched” by this “move of God.”

Soon books began coming off the presses. Charles and Frances Hunter authored a volume, entitled Holy Laughter. The flier advertising it said, “God is filling the church with holy laughter! Come and receive a baptism of joy! YOU will never be the same! Don’t miss this unforgettable move of the Holy Spirit!”

Another book praising the spirit-gripping experience is called Fresh Anointing: Another Great Awakening, by Mona Johnian. It is the story of the laughing revival which took over her church in Boston, after she and her husband attended a meeting led by Rodney Howard-Browne.

The August 1994 issue of Charisma magazine had Howard-Browne on its cover. The cover story, entitled Praise the Lord and Pass the New Wine, was about this great new blessing. Earlier in this report, we noted some of what that article said. In the same issue was a prominent ad for a video which the unwary could purchase by mail—so they could be invaded by the laughing devil in their own living room! The video is entitled The Laugh that Was Heard ’round the World.

Rodney Howard-Browne’s “laughing revival” officially entered the Christian mainstream, partly through that summer 1994 Toronto laughing spirits conference. But the final step was taken when, in October of that year, Pat Robertson, on his popular 700 Club telecast, recommended it to viewers across the nation:

“What this says to me is revival is taking place in the world in a mass wave . . We look to the coming of the Lord. I think this is a very encouraging sign in the middle of all this trouble and all these wars and all this confusion. God is saying, I’m on the throne and I’m going to touch multiplied millions. It’s wonderful. I applaud it.”—Pat Robertson, 700 Club broadcast, October 27, 1994.

The final step occurred in the spring of this year (1995). Pat Robertson’s organization (the Christian Broadcasting Network) sent out an announcement of a major interdenominational gathering. It was entitled, Signs and Wonders—with Rodney Howard-Browne—The Fire of the Holy Spirit. The CBN conference was held March 9-12, 1995, at the Founders Inn and Conference Center, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The announcement sheet said this:

“Why you should attend:

“Experience a Spiritual Revival: Witness first-hand the signs and wonders of God and how He fills lives with joy. Let Him lift your sorrows and worries and become healed by the rapture of relief.

“Witness Amazing Manifestations of the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit speaks and acts in ways you can learn to recognize. During this inspiring program, He will anoint those hungry for a Spirit-filled life.

“Become Filled with the Charism of God’s Spirit: Experience the power that has sent thousands of Dr. Howard-Browne’s revival attendees into uncontrollable laughter as God lifted the weight of their burdens and filled their hearts.

“Discover God’s Calling on Your Life: Let the faith of Rodney Howard-Browne nurture your spirit as he pours ‘new wine’ into your soul and renews you through the presence of the Holy Spirit and a rejuvenation of your own personal faith.

“Rejoice in Christian Fellowship: Meeting other Christians seeking the joy of the Lord and share fellowship with them during an invigorating and Spirit-filled weekend.”—CBN Conference announcement, Christian Broadcasting Network, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Following the above, the reader is instructed where the four-day meeting would be held, speakers, and other details (as well as advance notice of a forthcoming July 13-16 Feast of Tabernacles meeting). Then, farther down on the announcement sheet, this information is given:

“Experience Spiritual and Emotional Healing through the Personal Ministry and Inspiring Messages of this Electrifying Speaker!

“Rodney Howard-Browne has been called by God from his native South Africa as a missionary for a mighty revival. Wherever Dr. Howard-Browne ministers, true revival comes, with account after account of believers being filled with a ‘holy laughter’ and other unusual manifestations of the Holy Spirit taking place in every meeting. Wherever he ministers, miracles, signs and wonders are accompanied by salvations, rededications, water baptisms and baptisms in the Holy Spirit. In recent meetings throughout the country a miraculous joy and hilarity descended on all present. It is not unusual for hundreds to come forward and be saved.

“Arriving in the United States in 1987 with his wife and three children, Dr. Howard-Browne began traveling the country, bringing God’s message to congregations everywhere. After experiencing one of his revivals, a fellow minister called it ‘the greatest move of God I’ve ever seen.’ Another pastor declared it ‘a manifestation of joy.’ Oral Roberts called his ministry ‘another level in the Holy Spirit.’

“Dr. Howard-Browne says his purpose is to lead those who thirst for the Lord to Him so they may touch the hem of His garment, experience true manifestations of the Holy Spirit and be forever changed. While uncontrollable laughing often erupts during his meetings, Dr. Howard-Browne says revival, not laughter, is his mission. The laughter is God’s way of shaking people up and out of their ‘business as usual’ routines so the Spirit can enter and implement His plan.

“Dr. Howard-Browne can help you discover God’s calling on your life and succeed in it. He understands how to help you rise up in your anointing and, with the fire of the Holy Spirit, cut away the counterfeit to experience the genuine move of the Spirit in your life.”—Ibid.

Notice that the changes made in you by the laughing spirit are guaranteed to be forever, and that Howard-Browne’s laughing spirit will drive out any Spirit it considers “false.” Also note that “the spirit enters” through laughing “to implement his plan”—but nothing is said about repentance, forsaking sin, or obedience to God’s Inspired Writings as being part of that plan.

Also notice that it is said that “The . . spirit speaks and acts in ways you can learn to recognize.” After an infilling of this special spirit, you will recognize laughter to be the sign of the spirit’s presence, not serious thought or prayer. Henceforth wherever you encounter mirth and hilarity, you will imagine you are having a spiritual experience.

Stay far away from where this spirit is offered to you or your loved ones.

A month before the Virginia Beach laughing spirit convention, an article appeared in the February 20, 1995, issue of Newsweek. Entitled, The Giggles are for God—Religion: A Charismatic ‘Blessing’ of Laughter, it reported on one of the many subsequent Toronto meetings. At this particular gathering, 1,500 were present, primarily laymen and laywomen:

“On a recent weeknight in Toronto, 1,500 worshipers gathered in the Vineyard Christian Church and had a good laugh. It began when a dozen pilgrims from Oregon got up to introduce themselves and then began to fall to the floor, laughing uncontrollably. An hour later, the huge new church looked like a field hospital. Dozens of men and women of all ages were lying on the floor; some were jerking spasmodically; others closed their eyes in silent ecstasy. A middle-aged woman kicked off her pumps and began whooping in a dance. Scores of others proclaimed deliverance from emotional and physical pains. ‘I’ve been living in my spirit,’ said a woman from Long Island, New York, still giggling after 20 minutes on the floor.

“These communal laugh-ins have been going on six nights a week, every week, for over a year at the charismatic congregation near Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. In all, more than 100,000 people have experienced ‘the Toronto Blessing,’ which believers interpret as an experience of the Holy Spirit much like the ‘speaking in tongues’ mentioned in the New Testament. Hundreds of visiting pastors have taken the Blessing home to roughly 7,000 congregations in Hong Kong, Norway, South Africa, and Australia, plus scores of churches in the United States. ‘It’s a gusher of the Holy Spirit,’ says Pastor John Arnott of the Toronto Vineyard, who now travels around the world spreading the ‘hilarity of the Lord.’ ”—Newsweek, February 20, 1995.

The “hilarity holocaust” began gaining full momentum in January 1994, when its pastor, John Arnott, first started holding regular initiation meetings, which grew larger and larger as people from all over the world began coming. Participants included people from many denominations, from Anglicans to Pentecostals to Catholics.

“In its most visible form, the Toronto Blessing resembles Pentecostal revivals of days gone by, like the ones that shook Azusa Street in Los Angeles or Topeka, Kansas, almost a century ago,”—Charisma magazine, February 1995.

The leading spreader in England of this laughing virus has been Holy Trinity Anglican Church, in Brompton. The movement began there in May 1994, after its pastor, Vicar Sandy Miller) returned from Toronto. So many people began coming for the Saturday night “filling of the spirit,” that, in October, the church had to begin holding two of them. By early 1995, that one British church, alone, was attracting 1,600 people to its several services each week. Each one lasts about 90 minutes, and charismatic, non-rhyming songs are sung. That helps add to the confusion. The people are asked to come to the front and “be touched” by the spirit.

They get what they have come for. Some people faint, the hands of others shake, while course laughter fills the hall. It is spirit time in Sandy’s church.

Dr. Peter May, a Southhampton physician and member of the Anglican general synod, has studied claims of miraculous healing made by revivalist preachers, but so far has not found a case that is genuine. The people were fooled into thinking they were physically better, when they really were not.

Surprisingly, the recently elected Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, told a radio interviewer in October 1994 that, while he himself had had no personal dealings with it, friends of his at churches influenced by the “laughing revival” had reported that it was ‘not necessarily a bad thing. In fact,” Carey said, “I have seen evidence myself through the lives of one or two people I know for whom it has been a very refreshing event.”

So religious leaders—such as Richard Roberts, Pat Robertson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and over 2,200 Toronto pastors—may say these laughing fits are from God. But what does the Word of God say?

There are 40 references to laughter in the Bible, 34 in the Old Testament and 6 in the New. Of those 40, 22 refer to scornful laughter (such as Nehemiah 2:19, “They laughed us to scorn”). Of the remaining 18, 7 refer to Abraham and Sarah’s astonishment at the announcement that they would have a son in their old age. None of the remaining ones indicate “holy laughter” or a “baptism of laughter by the spirit.”

Keep in mind these passages:

Ecclesiastes 2:2: “I said of laughter, it is mad.”

Ecclesiastes 7:3-4: “Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”

Ecclesiastes 7:6 “For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool; this also is vanity.”

Ecclesiastes 10:19: “A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry.”

The last three references to laughter (the only authentic references to laughter in the New Testament)—warn against engaging in it:

Luke 6:21: “Blessed are ye that weep now: for you shall laugh.”

Luke 6:25: “Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.”

James 4:9: “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughing be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.”

It is clear that there is no Biblical precedent for this present fanaticism, called the “holy laugh.” But we do find sorrow which leads to holiness in the Bible.

“Joy” is not “laughter,” and the two should not be equated.

The “holy laughter” advocates say nothing about “testing the spirits,” yet that is what the Bible warns us to do.

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”—1 John 4:1.

Instead, the Celebrationists and Pentecostals urge us to accept whatever comes along, and accept it by sudden impulse—without any study or prayer. What a dangerous way to live!

“Once you begin to walk in the supernatural, you really have to be ready for anything and everything and never question the way God does it!”—Francis Hunter, Holy Laughter, p. 65.

But the Bible is clear:

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”—1 Timothy 4:1.

“For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”—2 Corinthians 11:4.

Rodney Howard-Browne got the spirit when he demanded that his will be done, not God’s. So a spirit entered into him and gave him his will, not God’s.

“A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.”—Matthew 16:4.

“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”—Matthew 24:24 (2 Thessalonians 2:9).

The Bible warns against those who suddenly lay hands on people. “Lay hands suddenly on no man.”—1 Timothy 5:22.

The “laughing revival” brings chaos and confusion. But the Bible says, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.”—1 Corinthians 14:33.

Throughout this article, we have said that it is a laughing spirit. And, indeed, it is! The devil is laughing at how easy it is to fill people with devils!

The tragedy is that so many are not studying the Word of God and obeying it.

A shallow religious experience and a remarkable lack of understanding of Scripture is evinced when people believe that the height of religious experience is laughing uproariously.

BECOMING A BEAST

The devil tries to make animals out of people. I recall reading an article in the 1960s, in which Andrew LaVey (the individual who started the First Church of Satan, in San Francisco, in the 1950s) was interviewed. He said that he received guidance from Satan, but that he was Satan’s master (the devil even had him fooled). LaVey said he teaches everyone that we are only animals, and should obey any and every animal urge that comes along.

The “laughing revival” is now moving in that direction.

Some of the people who are now getting the spirit at Toronto and other meetings, are roaring like animals. The pastor of the Toronto church (John Arnott) says this is good. He and others declare that roaring like animals is Biblical, since Jesus is called the “Lion of the tribe of Judah.”

EVERYTHING ELSE A FALSE RELIGION—According to the August issue of Charisma, Rodney Howard-Browne is quoted as saying, “I disparage people who try to apply theological tests to what I am doing.”

Francis Hunter in her book, Holy Laughter, says the skeptics who refuse the “Blessing,” are God’s “frozen chosen.”

Mona Johnian, in her book, Fresh Anointing, writes that “skeptics, hesitaters and procrastinators do not get anointed,” and that “any person or church that wavered could be elimininated” by God.

OUTSIDE OF CHRISTENDOM

The devils are working to unify everyone on earth under a common banner of emotional control.

Indian Guru Bhagvhan Shree Rajneesh was admiringly called the “divine drunkard” by his followers. He also imparted spiritual experiences to his followers. Hundreds of Sannyasins journeyed to India to “drink from Bhagvhan’s wine.” When he touched them, they would experience feelings of great exhilaration and joy.

Disciples of the yogi, Dwami Baba Muktananda, would often go into uncontrollable fits of laughter after the guru touched them.

Barbara Marx Hubbard is a spiritualist, who is well-known as a New Age leader. In her book, The Revelation, she says that Christ will soon give “a planetary smile” towards Planet Earth, and when He does, “an uncontrollable joy will ripple through the thinking layer of the earth . . From within, all sensitive persons will feel the joy of the force, flooding their systems . . It will create a psychomagnetic field of empathy, which will align the next wave of people in synchrony, everywhere on Earth. This massive, sudden emphathic alignment will cause a shift in the consciousness of Earth” (Hubbard, The Revelation, ‘pp. 234-235).

SIGNIFICANT QUOTATIONS

“Every hour of the day we should realize that the Lord is near, that He sees all we do, and hears every word we utter . . Cheap, earthly, unchristian words may be represented as ‘strange fire,’ and with this God can have nothing to do. The loud, boisterous laugh is a denial of God in the soul, for it reveals that truth is not ruling in the heart . . By our vain words and unchristian example we dishonor God, and imperil not only our own souls but also the souls of those with whom we associate.”—That I May Know Him, 138.

“Between the associations of the followers of Christ for Christian recreation, and worldly gatherings for pleasure and amusement, will exist a marked contrast. Instead of prayer and the mentioning of Christ and sacred things, will be heard from the lips of worldlings the silly laugh and the trifling conversation. The idea is to have a general high time.”—Faith I Live By, 238.

“If when the people come into the house of worship, they have genuine reverence for the Lord and bear in mind that they are in His presence, there will be a sweet eloquence in silence. The whispering and laughing and talking which might be without sin in a common business place should find no sanction in the house where God is worshiped. The mind should be prepared to hear the Word of God, that it may have due weight and suitably impress the heart.”—5 Testimonies, 492.

“But there has been a class of social gatherings in ___ of an entirely different character, parties of pleasure that have been a disgrace to our institutions and to the church. They encourage . . hilarity and trifling. Satan is entertained as an honored guest, and takes possession of those who patronize these gatherings . .

“All want to be thought brilliant, and give themselves up to hilarity, foolish jesting, cheap, coarse flattery, and uproarious laughter. The eyes sparkle, the cheek is flushed, conscience sleeps.”—Counsels to Parents and Teachers, 340.

“We have not come here [to a Christian gathering] to indulge in jesting and joking, in foolish talk and senseless laughter.”—2 Testimonies, 589.

“There are in the ministry men who gain apparent success by swaying minds through human influence. They play upon the feelings at will, making their hearers weep, and in a few minutes laugh. Under labor of this kind, many are moved by impulse to profess Christ, and there is thought to be a wonderful revival; but when the test comes, the work does not endure. Feelings are stirred, and many are borne along by the tide that seems to be setting heavenward; but in the strong current of temptation they quickly float back as driftwood. The laborer is self-deceived, and he misleads his hearers.”—Gospel Workers, 382.

For further study: 1T 136, 505; 2T 180, 455, 585; 3T 220; 6T 182; AH 463, 512; CH 628; CT 336-337; Ev 640-642; FE 195, 457; GW 166; 1MCP 314; 6MR 91; 18MR 369; MYP 388, 430; TM 83, 142.

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