Evangelicals and being 'annointed'

[byzgirl]

A two-part question:

Is it my imagination, or is there a new use of the term ‘annointed’ amongst Evangelicals? It seems like it has become a popular expression and that most EVERYTHING is termed ‘annointed’. Everything, as in ‘annointed pastors’, ‘annointed music’, ‘annointed this’ ‘annointed that’. What is that all about?

Also, is it another figment of my imagination, or are certain Evangelicals using ‘prayer cloths’…as in, ahem, sacramentals? I see that they pray over them, and mail them (for a price)…as objects that can relay ‘healing’. What is with that (they usually reject the physical realm).

 

[COPLAND_3]

Like you said, it has become a popular expression for them, that’s it. It is their own little church lingo.

 

[byzgirl]

Doesn’t that sort of diminish the real meaning of being annointed (the Catholic Sacrament)? Again, it’s taking something that has a long history of Tradition, and making it into something like an ‘expression’. I don’t like it. I find it very unappealing. It’s sort of like the tendency that Evangelicals have for using the term ‘real believers’ and ‘worship’, incorrectly (as in, "We’re the true believers, and YOU’RE not). Who are the TRUE believers? Everyone that believes all that they do (and nothing different). Who is ‘really worshipping’? Those that worship the way they do (and Protestants can’t often decide what ‘real worship’ consists of).

I don’t like to see biblical terms misused, abused, overused, and misconstrued…for popular definitions that become accepted (like “personal relationship” in leui of more biblical ones like "following Christ). It’s just a shame to see modern culture saturating Evangelical Christianity. I think it’s a bad trend that can lead to incorrect understandings.

 

[byzgirl]

It seems that Evangelicals, for as much as they like to distance themselves from Catholic sacraments, seem to try and re-present them with popular culture. Like what it means to be ‘annointed’ , and the use (though invalid) of prayer cloths. I think they’re dipping into Catholic Tradition and pulling out things like sacramentals, and re-applying them with a very different approach (and not a good one).

 

[COPLAND_3]

You are sure speaking the truth!!! What I am afraid of is that when things get real bad in this world and in our country we are going to a see turn to Faith, and in the process we are going to see the wheat get seperated from the chaff. People are going to gravitate towards substance, not the kind of fluff that you get in many of these so-called hip churches that are based upon more entertainment and less WORSHIP. When it comes down to it people will look for a Faith that they are even willing to die for, and fluff won’t cut it.

 

[KGM]

I used to go to a church where the members were considered bible believing Christians. The word anointed was used quite a bit to mean that a person was truly blessed by God perhaps with some special gift.

I also went to a healing service one evening and a guest pastor, who is fairly well known in the world of bible Christians, was either handing out or informing us to send away for her prayer cloths. At the time I was very ignorant of the concept of a Sacramental and never thought anything of it, but in hind sight and in light of the fact that some of these Christians frown on the Catholic experience it is odd to see that they have incorporated this practice into their way of doing things.

 

[byzgirl]

I used to go to a church where the members were considered bible believing Christians. The word anointed was used quite a bit to mean that a person was truly blessed by God perhaps with some special gift.

I also went to a healing service one evening and a guest pastor, who is fairly well known in the world of bible Christians, was either handing out or informing us to send away for her prayer cloths. At the time I was very ignorant of the concept of a Sacramental and never thought anything of it, but in hind sight and in light of the fact that some of these Christians frown on the Catholic experience it is odd to see that they have incorporated this practice into their way of doing things.

It is odd, but, when you ponder it, not that suprising. I remember apologist Steven Ray, himself a convert from the Baptist denomination, explain how the Catholic Church is like a ship (THE ship representing the Church)…and that, when Protestantism decided to ‘leave the ship’ they could only ‘take’ supplies that were on the ship in the first place (they have no other source to draw from). The closer they stay to the Ship, the more orthodox they remain (they can resupply from the original)…but the further they float away, the less chance they have of remaining orthodox in their beliefs (they are away from the original source).

I think about that, when considering the incorporation of ‘Catholic’ things, into Evangelicalism. They lost the original connection, and try to bring it back, under a new guise (something not quite Catholic).

Isn’t that rather ‘hypocritical’, though…? They always condemn us Catholics, mistakingly, as supersticious ‘article worshippers’…and, then, when it suits them (when they note the mention of what we call ‘sacramentals’ in Scripture) decide to use them.

I think they can’t float very far without us…so they just pick up things, along the way, that the ship has had all along (and in its proper, fullest, biblical, and Traditional sense).

 

[byzgirl]

I used to go to a church where the members were considered bible believing Christians. The word anointed was used quite a bit to mean that a person was truly blessed by God perhaps with some special gift.

That’s what I mean…in their efforts to revive and reform Catholic things (even vernaculars/definitions) they dilute them and, almost make them meaningless.

For if everyone and everything is annointed, then nothing is.

If they argue over who is a ‘real believer’ and who is a ‘truly worshipping’, amongst their own ranks, then what sense does it make (none).

I don’t like the trend, and I think it’s leading down path that will only prove to separate Evangelical Christianity from orthodox Christianity, even further (their rafts are adrift and moving further away). Words, and meanings of words, are very important for dialogue (ecumenical and within apologetics). It only makes our evangelization efforts more difficult.

 

[byzgirl]

used to go to a church where the members were considered bible believing Christians

.

another perfect example. Ho-hum…what does it even MEAN anymore, to be a bible-believing Christian???

I have met enough quote “Bible-Believing” Christians that DO NOT agree on what the Bible says, to totally dismiss that little modern designation, as less than ‘definitive’!

 

[byzgirl]

You are sure speaking the truth!!! What I am afraid of is that when things get real bad in this world and in our country we are going to a see turn to Faith, and in the process we are going to see the wheat get seperated from the chaff. People are going to gravitate towards substance, not the kind of fluff that you get in many of these so-called hip churches that are based upon more entertainment and less WORSHIP. When it comes down to it people will look for a Faith that they are even willing to die for, and fluff won’t cut it.

Yes. Evangelicals are big fans and propogators of ‘fluff’ and modern phraseology (they love their slogans). While not ALL of them are completely bad…the general tendency is toward ‘pleasing the modern sensibilities of American Evangelicals’, and not, necessarily, what these represented ideals meant to early Christianity and what they actually mean, in context, within the Holy Scriptures.

You’re right. “Fluff is definitely NOT going to cut it”. It may actually work out to be a good thing…Evangelical Christians may find themselves attracted to the Sacramental nature of the Church, and Christ will draw them closer to His one Church, via their own ‘imitations’. After all, we Catholics have the Eucharist…and while you can certainly ‘try’ to imitate with a lesser, incomplete, and unscriptural ‘altar call’…There’s only one real altar call that leads straight up the aisle to Jesus, Himself (Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity)!!!