Pentecostals

4. I have noticed that among Pentecostal Churches, in most cases, when a pastor or a preacher speaks of holiness, he does not say that believers must abstain from certain things (such as going to the beach, wearing jewelry, expensive and provocative clothes) in order to perfect holiness; could you tell me why that happens?

That happens because the pastor himself does not pursue holiness because he gives himself over to the pleasures of life and of the flesh, that is, to those things from which he should abstain in order to be an example to the sheep. How then can you expect him to preach that we must not do this or that thing? Do you not think that if he spoke in that way, someone immediately would point at him saying to him that the first one who must do what he says is he himself and so he would be put to shame? Therefore if he himself goes to the beach to get sun-tanned, or he goes to the amusement parks with his family or he watches television or he follows the fashion of this world or he and her wife set their minds on high things, be sure that he will not expose these things. At most he will say to the sheep that they must abstain from going to dance, from smoking, from murdering, from committing adultery, which are things from which he himself abstains, so in this case he can’t be accused of being a hypocrite, but as far as many other things are concerned, he will say absolutely nothing against them during his sermons. He will speak about holiness without exhorting the saints to abstain from certain evil things (from which we must abstain in order to please God).

Then you must keep in mind that these pastors have a great interest in not speaking against certain things, for they know that those who love the world (who are very numerous in the Church) don’t like those sermons on holiness which expose certain worldly lusts, and are ready to leave their present church and attend another church where these worldly lusts are tolerated by the pastor. Do you understand then why you don’t hear not even a word against going to the beach, against watching television, against jewelry, against the plunging necklines, against slit skirts, against miniskirts, against close-fitting dresses, against wearing make-up, and against many other things?

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