Liberals are freaking out today about a link going around that claims Ted Cruz is a "closet Pentecostal" and embeds a video that features his father, Pastor Rafael Cruz, talking about the gigantic liberal bugaboo of "dominionism."
The narrative of secular types who don't understand any of this is twofold: 1. Pentecostals, of whom Ted Cruz is secretly one, are wild-eyed lunatics who think they can speak in foreign languages they don't even understand. 2. Insane Jesus freaks are plotting to take control of government to transfer all wealth to Christians who will be named as "kings."
I've made reference to it numerous times on here, but in case you've missed it, I am Pentecostal. And there's nothing "closet" about it, nor would anyone from me to Ted Cruz or anyone else have any reason to want to keep it a secret. Much of what's being said about this reflects the total ignorance of the people commenting, and I'm going to explain all of it, but first let's set the stage for it. Here is the video of Rafael Cruz and others preaching, and of Ted Cruz being prayed over: (Video below)
And here is an excerpt from the piece written by Jacob Engels of the East Orlando Post, whatever that is, that presents this whole thing with such hysterics:
The name "Pentecostal" derives from the feast of the Pentecost, typically celebrated fifty days after Easter, and identified in the Acts of the Apostles 2:1-31 as the day when the Holy Spirit descended in "purifying fire" upon the Apostles of Jesus Christ, inspiring them to go forth from hiding in fear to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pentecostals believe the Apostles of Jesus were aided by the Holy Spirit's "gift of tongues" in what Pentecostals consider as "baptism by the Holy Spirit" deriving from 1 Corinthians 12:14, that gave the Apostles the ability to speak in a "God-enabled prayer language" that Pentecostals believe even today allows the unintelligible human utterances of an Pentecostal evangelist to be understood by foreigners who do not speak the Pentecostal evangelist's language.
That's not exactly right. I speak in tongues. Anyone who is filled with the Holy Spirit can, although there are many Christians who sadly don't understand or believe that so they never even try it. But contrary to what Engels seems to think, it's not a matter of speaking some earthly foreign language you don't know. When I speak in tongues I'm not speaking French or German or Italian, such that if anyone who understood those languages happened to come along they'd be able to understand what I was saying.
What Engels does get right (even though I don't think he really understands it) is that tongues is a "God-enabled prayer language" consisting of utterances that come from the Holy Spirit. When I speak in tongues, it sounds audibly like gibberish to me, but in my spirit I'm expressing something to God. My favorite way of explaining it is this: When I'm praising God and I don't feel that I have any human words left that really do justice to His majesty, I praise Him in tongues. I'm resorting to a heavenly language that I don't even understand because my earthly language is insufficient for the task, but because it's enabled by the Holy Spirit, the Father understands every word of it.
There are people who are gifted with the ability to interpret tongues, so if I were to start speaking in tongues and one of those people happened to be present, he or she would be able to tell me exactly what my utterances meant. Now, you might wonder, why offer utterances to God that I don't even understand? It's a fair question, but we're not talking about an intellectual exchange between me and God. We're talking about a spiritual expression that can only be discerned spiritually.
Most of the time when I pray, I don't pray in tongues. I just speak my normal language. But sometimes I am moved to a more spiritual expression and that's when I resort to this heavenly language.
So Jacob Engels doesn't quite understand what speaking in tongues is, which is one reason he mistakes it for something so bizarre. It is nothing of the sort. It's simply relying on the Holy Spirit to enable a form of expression beyond what you can do as a human.
Now, about "dominionism." There's no way of comforting secular liberals who are convinced that a certain sect of Christians want to hijack the government to set up Christians as kings over everyone else, especially when they hear this talk about the transfer of wealth from the wicked to the righteous. I'm sure they think Ted Cruz is going to take over the government and somehow enact laws that will enable crazy wild-eyed Jesus freaks to usurp everyone else's wealth and use it to forcibly turn America into Bible Land.
But when Rafael Cruz talks about this transfer of wealth, he continually stresses that this will happen via the market, not the government. God is going to raise up Christian business people and he will bless them with wealth they will earn via free-market, for-profit business endeavors, which they will then be able to use in various ways to bring glory back to Him. The wicked aren't going to lose their money because the government takes it from them. They're going to lose it because God enables that to happen via the free market.
Maybe this is why liberals fear Ted Cruz or any other free-market president. They're afraid that an unfettered free market would facilitate the success of Christian capitalists at the expense of their hedonistic allies, and the role of someone like Ted Cruz as president is not to bring about a government-mandated transfer of wealth but simply to take the regulatory shackles off the economy and let it happen naturally.
God is already raising up people in the seven areas of the culture Engels mentioned - family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business and government - and secular liberals are not going to stop this from happening by electing Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders president. They don't understand this because they see their god, government, as the most all-powerful thing there is. That's why they are so fearful of people who worship the true God getting involved with government. It gives our God authority over their god.
What they don't understand is that He already has it, and when He decides to use that authority, there won't be a thing they can do to stop it.
So that's how we Pentecostals think. I don't know if Ted Cruz is actually Pentecostal or if he speaks in tongues, but if he does, I'm sure he's not "closet" or secretive about it. And the fact that he belongs to a church that identifies as Baptist doesn't mean he's hiding anything. My church doesn't have the word Pentecostal in the name either, but I'm no less Pentecostal. It's not so much an official denomination as it is a way of identifying how you worship and how you are led by the Spirit.
I hope this helps. In fact, come to think of it, this might make people like Jacob Engels freak out even more. Because they think they can stop all this from happening by issuing urgent warnings to their political allies. Stop Ted Cruz and you can stop God!
Nope. You're not stopping God. No one can do that.
Liberals are freaking out today about a link going around that claims Ted Cruz is a "closet Pentecostal" and embeds a video that features his father, Pastor Rafael Cruz, talking about the gigantic liberal bugaboo of "dominionism."
The narrative of secular types who don't understand any of this is twofold: 1. Pentecostals, of whom Ted Cruz is secretly one, are wild-eyed lunatics who think they can speak in foreign languages they don't even understand. 2. Insane Jesus freaks are plotting to take control of government to transfer all wealth to Christians who will be named as "kings."
