ALPHA Program The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[islandboy]

Some friend's of mine attended a Alpha program at their church, and although they said the program contents were lacking in some respects, during the 10 week course they enjoyed most of it. However, it was the weekend away that freaked some of them out. They said between the singing and prayers, it had a hypnotic affect on them causing uncontrolible laughing and strange noises from people around them and people falling over for no reason. They said the group leaders said all this was normal in receiving the Holy Spirit. Is this normal behavior? Has this happened to anyone else?  Is this just normal stuff in some churches these days that no one questions it?
What do you think?

[Soldier4Christ]

Hi islandboy,

Welcome to Christians Unite.

Actually what you are referring to are two separate things, although the Alpha course brought about the other one. One is the Alpha course and the other is referred to as the "Laughing Revival". The Alpha course is used by many different denominations because of it's general, unspecific doctrines. I do not agree with the "Laughing Revival" movement. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a laughing matter although it is able to bring a peace that passeth all understanding. This movement creates confusion and dis-array in the church. ( 1Co 14:33 )

As for the course itself, as I already said, it is very general in it's doctrine allowing many different interpretations. It is so general that it does not refute false doctrines.

[Brother Jerry]

I am not going to state that this is normal.  What I am going to state is to take a look at the Bible and what the Bible has to say about it.  We do not see examples of people falling over, talking weird, and convulsing or things like that as a "normal" effect of being filled with the Holy Ghost.  The Bible tells us that once we accept Christ as our savior the Holy Ghost/Jesus takes up residence in us.  So we are always filled with the Holy Ghost. 

But there are threads that talk about some of these topics already around.  One in reference to talking weird can be found here
http://forums.christiansunite.com/index.php?topic=12433.0

The short of this is that people may react in different ways.  This does not make them wrong or right.  We are not to judge people by what they think.  Paul tells us that we should not count it against a person who does not eat meat, if they believe that God does not want them to eat meat, then let them not eat meat.  Who are we to judge them if they are good enough for God then they are good enough for us.  The core of it comes down to what do they feel about Jesus, is He the son of God, is He the savior of man, is He God.  Also what do they feel about salvation, is it a gift from God, is it a gift by grace and not of works, is it eternal. 

If a person has accepted Christ for who He is, and accepted the gift of salvation by grace from God then it does not matter the rest of it.  God has accepted them so should we.  However this only goes to the point of if what they say does not directly go against what the Bible teaches....no Christian group would be out there embracing homosexuality, polygamy, murder, etc., etc.

[islandboy]

In some churches such as the one my friends attended it seems that they must be combining both Alpha and this "Laughing Revial", together. It was a very confusing and scary time for them. All of my friend's that attended this course are strong christians and it generally takes alot to shake them up. They attended the course by invitaion as they wanted to see if it was productive enough for use at their church. Now they are convinced it is best to avoid the whole thing. However, they are also concerned about non-believers that attended the course, that now believe that kind of weird stuff is the norm. I have heard this program is being used world-wide and that is a cause of concern for christians, a red flag should be going up, shouldn't it?

[Soldier4Christ]

Yes, red flags do go up when things are not in accordance with the Bible. Unfortuantely many people today are not reading their Bible as they should and are very receptive to the deceptions of the devil. We live in a time that more and more such things are coming into the churches. It is sad that people are being misled but we are told that this will happen and that we need to put on the whole armour of God that we may withstand the devil. We do this with much fervent prayer and studying of God's word.

[russ44k]

The alfa course is something to be to be weary of.I heard about it 10 yrs ago on the bible answer man program in Cali at that time.
Its being promoted by a church in England that is a big  promoter of the holy laughter movement .My church that i was attending in Nebraska was looking in to the course.I did research on the course and asked the elders if they had done any research and they left it up to the pastor.(In my opinion thats not what they should have done,they should have looked into it.) so I went to the pastor and showed him my conserns for the course.I tryed to be a leader in the coures but the way I felt about it being a warm and fuzzy form a Christianity course .I couldnt  lead the way the pastor wanted  call sin what it is sin.Being a Christian is a daily battle against the Evil one.And a personnel relationship with Jesus Christ as my Lord an Savior

[Soldier4Christ]

Hi russ,

Welcome to Christians Unite. You are very correct. When the Gospel is whitewashed or made to be less than it is then it is nothing but the gospel of the devil. We as Christians must stay alert and battle evil when it shows up.

I hope to see more posts from you and to be able to enjoy some wonderful Christian fellowship with you.