Fallen Christian Puts Faith in the Law

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from Religious News Online, September 26, 2002 with a headline:“Fallen Christian puts Faith in Law.”Lorraine Dailey arrived at church armed with her faith, but that faith proved to be misplaced when the spirit of the Lord entered her body and she hit the floor and there was nobody there to save her.Now Miss Dailey, 40, is suing the Assemblies of God affiliated Waterloo church, the Sydney Christian Life Center, arguing that the church breached its duty of care that Sunday, August 8^th, 1996.Miss Dailey of West Como is claiming up to $750, 000 in damages including future loss of earnings telling the New South Wales District Court she suffered brain damage from the fall, leaving her with disabilities including headaches, nausea, memory loss, impaired concentration, and a feeling of vagueness.The court was told by Miss Dailey’s lawyer that the Sydney Christian Life Center had been negligent in failing to insure there were enough catchers, people appointed by the church to cushion the fall of those experiencing what is referred to within the Pentecostal movement as being “slain in the spirit.”It was also claimed that the church had also failed to insure that the “catchers” were in position before the Reverend Tim Hall started the prayer service which usually brought on such fainting episodes.And the church had not provided falling members of the congregation with a sufficiently padded area to prevent injury.Instead, when Miss Dailey’s spirit was slain, she fell backwards onto a concrete floor covered only in a thin layer of carpet.Nobody came forward to assist her.The court heard sworn statements from friends of Miss Dailey who claimed her personality and behavior dramatically altered after the incident.

Tom:

Dave, when we were tracking manifestations such as the Toronto Vineyard, Airport Vineyard, Brownsville and so on, there are manifestations that are just unbelievable.Not just the world, but to those who are believers.It just stood out like this could not be of God.Now these things have sort of entered the courts.Why didn’t this church—that believes in these sorts of things—is there a gift of catching?Why didn’t they have people available?What about that?

Dave:

Tom, if the Lord caused her to fall, then he would have caught her.That’s one of the problems.I don’t read of any catchers in the Bible, number one.Number two, if you fall backwards, it’s not a good sign.In the Garden when Jesus said to the soldiers and whoever came to arrest him, I AM—indicating he is God.It says they all fell backwards to the ground, but if you are falling before God, in worship, you fall on your face.That’s very clear in scripture.So now we’ve got another problem.Why do people fall backwards?This is not biblical.And what is the big blessing that comes with falling?Why do these people—they even seek to fall.They want to fall.Some of them go forward over and over and over to fall again.This supposedly is a touch from God.But if this were a touch from God, she wouldn’t have hit her head on the concrete floor.The Lord would have not only touched her, but would have held her.So it’s just a tragedy.I think it was Katherine Kuhlman who started this fad and I can remember very shortly after Katherine Kuhlman became popular, if you went to a Charismatic church, if you couldn’t touch people and cause them to fall down, you were not really doing what ought to be done.You were not moving with the flow.

Tom:

You didn’t have the anointing.

Dave:

That’s right.But it’s a tragedy that people want some outward manifestation like this.What happens?You’re knocked unconscious?What did you learn from the Lord?Is there some blessing that came?Is there some lesson that came?We live in the day when as Paul wrote to Timothy, “They will not endure sound doctrine.”Paul Crouch is called doctrinal doo-doo.This is boring stuff.We want some excitement.We want people falling down.Well, the only slaying in the spirit which is what they call this, that I know of in the Bible would be the case of Ananias and Sapphira who were really slain.They dropped dead because of their sin.And I am sure they fell backward.So—

Tom:

And that was a deterrent.It was the beginning of the church and scripture says clearly the church—I hate to use the word,—but sobered up with regard to what God was doing and how your position before God had to be as one on their face before God.

Dave:

Tom, it is really grievous, because having just been in Australia, in fact, I spent some time,—one of the men who arranged meetings for me that was in Brisbane was the former General Secretary of the Assemblies of God.And he was put out when he began to desire to examine some of these things from the scripture.And I talked to others, who had asked questions, probing questions of the leaders in the Assemblies of God in Australia.Now the Assemblies of God in Australia are somewhat different from here in the United States.Here in the United States they seem to be independent.There are some good and some bad as there are in every denomination.But in Australia it seems you have to go along.The central leadership has a pretty tight reign.A tighter rein than they would here.And [if] you don’t go along with these things, then you are put out.There are other Pentecostal churches, Charismatic churches there where really unbiblical manifestations seem to be the order of the day.It seems to be what the people look for where they are chasing signs and wonders.And this is exactly what Christ warned about.There would be false signs, false wonders, false prophets who would lead people astray and one day Jesus will say to them (Matthew 7), they will say “Lord, Lord did we prophesy in your name?We cast out devils and so forth.”He will say, “I never knew you.”So we have a real sign of the last days and a real tragedy that is being played out in many people’s lives.