Can anyone tell me what their experience/belief is on speaking in tongues now that you’re no longer a Pentecostal? I’m strictly wanting agnostic/atheist/non Christian’s to respond. It’s the one thing I can’t reconcile now that I no longer believe.

I’m an ex Pentecostal. I never considered myself “Pentecostal” since I wore makeup/pants but I went to church regularly and believed all the oneness doctrine etc. I was one of those that really lived what I believed and I prayed for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in my bed one night and began speaking in tongues. Now that I’ve been an atheist for a year and a half I’ve found myself really distraught. I can’t believe what I no longer believe (another story in itself) but I still have the ability to speak in tongues and when I’m anxious or depressed, speaking in tongues still makes me feel better. What is this thing if there is no God/Jesus??

Me and my husband haven’t been back to our UPCI church since Mother’s Day.

I am wanting to cut my hair and possibly color it, it’s already short and thin because it’s dead but just wanna ask, how much did you get cut for your first cut after leaving the Pentecostal movement and how’d you feel?

I’m so ready to be able to express myself this way!

i need help. i am afab and was raised apostolic pentecostal. but i dont know if i was just groomed or if i was in a cult that just used the pentecostal name
was any one else taught that there were 7 heavens, earth being the 3rd? i’ve never heard any one else mention the 3 types of sin and the fact that hospitals were heavily discouraged. what about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? it wasn’t an apple but a fig tree and the reason that people weren’t condemned to the lake of fire (and hell- but that’s a different place) is because we were already born knowing good and evil. unlike most other versions of christianity, being born isn’t the sin, being human is. every time you remember a sin you’ve been forgiven of, you must repent of it again and god must forgive you of it again because when you are forgiven all your sins are thrown into the sea of forgetfulness.
if it is a thought crime of an abomination or a blasphemy it is automatically just a sin.
was this normal or was it raised in a nameless cult?

I was shocked when I saw this and had to replay it due to disbelief. It is delusional. They have normalized abuse. If churches was secular corporations they would release the people who continually harm others. I have been pulled into HR investigations and the next thing you know the person is terminated.

What she said is basically hazing. The only difference is it is not in clubs, teams, or college sororities and fraternities it is in churches.

If a coach told you we have a really great dues paying soccer team over here and we want you to join during your free time, but we know that you will get harassed and abused by your teammates but do not worry it is a right of passage. Really would anyone join?

https://youtube.com/shorts/Eeb0DV6LeEU?si=2SfaVdKmMswRasZJ

EDIT: A Residence Director tried to tell me that mess that I needed to learn to deal with people when I was living in the dorms. I told him when you start paying my dorm fees then you can start to call the shots. As long as I am paying my money I will not tolerant foolishness. A month later guess who got my own dorm room? I will not be disrespected and pay for it. Period.

I sometimes wonder like do the prophets know they’re lying to the people or do they really think they’re really doing miracles, I witnessed a prophet do that one miracle he will make one leg or arm shorter than the other one grow the same length, I remember years ago seeing a video on YouTube expose this trick and showed how easy it is to do, do they know it’s all fake or do they just have religious psychosis?

This pastor describes biblical monsters, and I make fun of him :-)

I have been asked by several people in my DMs to give my story on this subreddit because of some comments I have left in other people’s posts.
So I thought I might as well take the time to type it out for you guys.

I was raised in the Midwest as a pastors son. My dad was the pastor of an ALJC church my whole childhood and then when I became a bit older, roughly when I was about 17 he became licensed through the UPCI instead.
Either way, he was oneness Pentecostal my whole life.
As I got older, as may boys in these churches are, I was pressured into considering becoming a preacher as well. I eventually attended IBC and was in the music ministry program while there. I helped write some originals and played on a three live recordings. I also worked toward my “calling” as a preacher and eventually came home to start preaching at my dad’s church. In this time I also was told that I needed to be licensed in the UPC, so I did just that.
The girlfriend I had, the ONLY girlfriend I had ever had quickly became my wife and we started working for the church.

Eventually I got the call to move to another state and serve at a small home missions church. So we moved. After this I was quickly put into leadership on the district level and was even asked to consider being open to becoming our district youth president. I was not interested in this for a few reasons, which I’ll dive into soon.

After a few years, I decided that I needed to start questioning some of the things that I had always struggled with within the doctrine being preached within the Pentecostal church. When doing this I was told that I was 1. Rebellious, 2. Confused, 3. Backsliding, 4. (And this was the weirdest one) possessed by a spirit that jumped from a coworker onto me.

I backed off given that if I pushed the subject too much that I would face major repercussions within the organization, and possibly lose my whole community and possibly most of my family.

In 2020 I really hit a wall with my skepticism around the ideas being pushed, as well as the legalistic dictatorship that was in place as the standard to which we were all meant to live by. I also struggled with the fact that I just don’t align with the dress standard, the path to salvation, the corruption, the gossipy attitude, etc. all found in the church.

So I spoke with my wife and she didn’t talk to me for almost a month. All the while she was talking to the pastor behind my back. The pastor eventually sat me down and said that I needed to “fix my stinkin thinkin” and “get back on the straight and narrow before I walk off a cliff spiritually” his exact words.
Meanwhile he wouldn’t answer any of my questions, just kept telling me that I was a rebellious sinner that needed to get my act together.

Fast forward to 3 years later (when keeping my nose down and serving at the district level while avoiding preaching topics that disagreed with when preaching at about two churches per month aside from my own) was just too much to handle any more, Andi told my wife and pastor that I was done.

About two weeks later it came out that my now ex wife was cheating on me with two different men, and the pastor had covered it up to avoid conflict in the church. I then told them both that I would be filing for divorce.
That statement was followed by a very small rebuttal from my former pastor which went as follows, “then you’re done, we’re done, you’re gone, have fun in hell”.

From this point I stopped hearing from everyone within that church and the district with the exception of an old lady that loved me and was missing me every Sunday. She still calls me by the way.

It has now been almost three years and I still have not spoken to my former pastor or anyone from the district.

I attend a local church that loves me to death and uses me in music ministry full time. The pastor, who wears jeans and a baseball cap to preach in… and wait for it… has a BEARD, has been the greatest example of a Christian I have seen in my whole life.

I remarried and found the one that I was always meant to be with. She serves along side me on the worship team,she encourages me, she loves me in spite of my past hurt.

My child, who is almost in middle school age, is now asking questions and getting answers that will hopefully direct them to make good choices for their spiritual life down the road and will lead them toward God and not an organization.

I’m happy to share any aspect of my story you need and to give any advice I can to those looking for the courage to leave the UPC, ALJC, WPF, etc. and find where thy really belong.

Just don’t ask intimate details, ie where I live, which church specifically I came from, etc. cause I won’t cross the line of slander or gossip. But if you want to talk, please message me.

I attend a Pentecostal church. I actively separate the “values” of the CHURCH from the values and lessons of Jesus, because I love Jesus and a pastor is a human being that will never be perfect or close to.

That being said, I genuinely do not understand the fixation on the church and Pastors views and beliefs on the freaking make up, nails, earrings etc etc when it come to women only. My pastor went on a tangent on how we-women- should not want to wear make up because God loves us for us. That once he saw a woman from church at a grocery store and was so “shocked” that he could not recognize her without her make up… that women would not wear fake nails and earrings blah blah. Modestly and all that
FINE sure whatever … but they NEVER EVER get into it with men. The men at church especially the you get ones are able to follow “ worldly”trends much easier than women because .. they’re men.
They’re are men in my church who come dressed in jeans so tight you can see the outline of their crotch. We have men who’s cracks are always showing. They also never mention to men that they shouldn’t be darting or marrying women 10 years younger than them. Also if they’re really following scripture men shouldn’t be remarrying after divorcing … which is what this pastor has done.

Any way I’m just so tired of these double standards.
It sucks because the women in church completely agree like please …. Lipgloss will not condemn you.

When I say okay the game, I mean how to destroy their doctrine ? Cause I want to do that on my pastor. I want to ask several questions to know if he will call me a guy to kick out of church.

Hi. I’m a deconstructed PK with religious trauma that has significantly and seriously impacted my life. I’ve recently learned how HARD it is to sue a church. Things people would get fired for in any other job are excused in a church. Why is that?

My son is apostolic and we always had a great relationship. He doesn’t live to the standards of the church either. He doesn’t his own thing but goes to church and lives the life in front of everyone.
Recently I ask him about it and now he won’t speak a word to me. I have not slept or eaten in days because I so broken and confused to how he could treat me this day. He won’t let my grandkids speak to me or come over. His wife said I ask my grandson to do something without ask them first. It was only to walk down the driveway. That was it and grab my trash can. They tell me I have to ask them everything before speaking to the kids. Ok but you allow the one child to date someone that their father said no to and that is ok? They said that was different they are not being fair to them so they can do go against his wishes.

I am over them life and the whole church

Ngl even tho I became orthodox christian I still go to my moms pentecostal church just to accompany her but the pastor be throwing shade at me while preaching, he was trying to use hell to try and scare me into becoming pentecostal, what is it with pentecostal pastors trying to convert people with threatening them that they’re going to burn in hell, like I’m not falling for your fear tactic lil bro

Do oneness Pentecostals really believe 98% of other Christian’s around the world and throughout history are going to hell if they don’t 1. Believe “one god”, 2. only wear skirts 3. don’t cut the hair. 4. Speak in tongues? Like any oneness people explain if you actively think people are going to hell if they don’t do these things? Or do you think they have to at least believe one god and speak in tongues and the other stuff isn’t salvational? Like I really am genuinely curious at what point do you think someone is going to hell and genuinely what do you think about the vast majority of Christian’s who didn’t and don’t believe what you believe? Genuinely so curious no hate or ill intent. I am so fascinated by the oneness people’s theology and really want to know how and when they place people in hell or assume they aren’t saved like what is the line crossed. Thanks!

This is the nonsense I grew up with.

I have a strong background in the UPCI/WPF. I attended PEAK services in Tulsa this week and it was… something. Anyone going through this? I’m certain my decision to leave was the right one. But when you get told your whole life salvation is a certain way… some days are harder than the others.

First of all, you need to know I'm old. I've been thinking a lot about perspective and my UPC past.

My life would have gone a completely different direction had I not been raised Pentecostal. It wasted years of my life.

However, even if I hadn't been Pentecostal, chances are that my life would not necessarily have become "happy" and a success.

I may have crashed and burned in college. I may have married a horrible non-Pentecostal guy. I would definitely have made mistakes.

In the '70's, society felt it could judge women for every flaw, moral or physical. The job market treated women badly, and women made much less than men. A lot of women were molested and used without a second thought. I could have carried a load of un-Pentecostal regrets, or not.

This idea has taken a lot of the strength out of my Pentecostal fears and memories. Those events happened years ago, and most of the people involved are dead. The "would have, should have, could have" contains too many variables.

If I kept seeing Pentecostalism as the cause of all my problems and outcomes, those thoughts could ruin the rest of my life. I don't intend to let that happen.

I just found out that pentecostalism is just a revival of a ancient heresy that was condemned in the early church, I find it kinda funny how sometimes I will accompany my mom to church and her pastor will try to argue and debate with me that the early church was pentecostal but historical evidence shows that they were condemned as heretics

Anyone here attend these events back in the day?

I’m curious your experience, how you felt, etc.

I am currently in an evangelical church against my will bc My parents don't let me (been through mega churches, pentecostal and currently non denominational), and when i say this i mean it. I see similar patterns to the JWs and Mormons in these environments (obviously without being a cult, You can leave freely), mostly in the reject of doubt, intellect and reason, and how most of the people repeat things like if they were manthras and absolute truth (bible verses with extreme out of context interpretation).

I'd like to hear your opinion on this. Have You noticed?

I'm currently deciding to convert to either catholicism or orthodoxy

I was browsing through this sub a while ago and someone sent me a link to Nathaniel j Wilson’s wife, Mary Wilson, saying absolutely absurd things like “if you don’t listen to the pastor God will curse you” and stuff like that. I know super vague but if anyone could help that would be awesome

Recently a friend said their church turned the public sermons to where just the church members could listen to them. They stated the pastor said that the sermons was having the public reach out about things and he chose to shut the outside world out. Is this normal? And yes I am ex pentecostal but wasn’t there long enough for it to matter