Fanaticism explained

Front matter

Class _3fi__U4

Book.

Copyright^

Contents

Chapter. Page

I. A Warning Voice 7

II. What is Fanaticism 13

Preface

The first impression the author had of writing on the subject of Fanaticism was after giving a discourse on the subject at the Dimondale camp meeting of the Apostolic Holiness Union of Michigan, on Sunday morning, August 21, 1904. The said discourse created such an interest that several persons requested him to put it in print. While praying over this matter, the need of a book on this subject presented itself. We examined the catalogues of several large book publishers and found that the field was open for a book on this subject. While meditating over the advisability of publishing such a book, and while praying over the matter, the plan of the book came to us chapter after chapter until we were convinced that God was in it. The author can truly say that the contents of this book were his honest convictions for several years ; but had no thoughts of publishing them. The outbreak of Fanaticism in the Holiness ranks and especialty in the last few camp meetings we attended, is no doubt the cause of publishing this book at this time. It is the honest conviction of the author that it is high time that the Holiness people have some teaching on these lines. "Necessity is the Mother of Invention."

To strengthen our arguments we have added articles from the pen of Rev. G. D. Watson, Rev. M. W. Knapp and Rev. W. B. Godbey. In giving this book to the public, we call special attention to the fact that it is largely written from the experience of the author, who was himself ruined by fanaticism, but was rescued by the power of God.

May this little book, under the blessing of God, be a beacon light to many a tempesttossed soul, and enable it to stear between the rock of formality and the rock of fanaticism and thus make the haven of eternal rest in safety, is the prayer of the author. A. H. KAUFFMAN.

November 5, 1904.

CHAPTER I. A Warning Voice

We have heard it said, "If you are afraid of fanaticism your place is at the mourner's bench." And then we have heard a preacher say, "Some folks are awfully afraid of fanaticism these days, but they don't seem to have any fear of formality." We want to say that both are not only to be feared, but also avoided. The above language proves how ignorant some folks are of fanaticism. Very few people know what fanaticism is; in fact, fanatics themselves don't know what it is ; if they did, they would not be fanatic ; hence the great need of having ''fanaticism explained," and with it, "words of warning."

We frequently read articles on fanaticism, but the authors do not seem to have the correct idea of real fanaticism. Most everybody thinks that when a person becomes somewhat of an extremist on churchanity, water baptism, pork eating, dress, or divine healing they are fanatics. We sometimes hear the expression, "She is a fanatic on dress," or "he is a fanatic on divine healing," etc. We want to say that such expressions only show that the persons that make them are destitute of the knowledge of fanaticism.

We admit that a fanatic person is always an extremist, but all extremists are not fanatics. The definition of fanaticism is "excessive enthusiasm." — Webster.

We have met many extremists that were a long ways from "excessive enthusiasm. " They were as dead and dry as a door nail. Their work is always to tinker on the outside; as a rule they don't go deeper than to the skin. Their burden is mostly on clothes, sometimes on buildings, color of paint, or wallpaper. We knew of one that rebuked a preacher for having false teeth. He took them out and lived, ate, and preached for thirty years without teeth, to please the extremist. He did not want to be a stumbling block to any one. Extremists generally deal in material things, because they are too dead to understand anything about spiritual things ; but fanaticism is a thousand miles beyond an extremist.

Extremists are very plenty among the legal and formal churches, while fanaticism is not found there at all. It would not be accepted; it would not fit; hence, it is not found there.

Neither fanatics nor extremists are found among the worldly popular churches. They are perfectly free from either of these parties, but both these parties are found among the Holiness churches. The question is asked, "Why is this?" Well, we will explain. The formal churches have not much of the Spirit; with them it is mostly all laws, forms, customs, habits, ruts, grooves, channels, and works ; more after the letter than after the Spirit; hence a good field for the extremist, but no field at all for the fanatic.

The worldly, popular churches have neither forms nor Spirit; everything that fills the house and swells the treasury is allowable, yea acceptable ; both the discipline and the Bible are to a large extent a dead letter to them. Now, this would be no field for extremists ; folks would laugh them to scorn if they would talk against dress, or fashion, or false teeth to them. No extremist will work among them. Nor is it a field for a fanatic. They would send for a police and the patrol wagon and take him out every time. These churches are too worldlv for the extremist and too dead for the fanatic. "Excessive enthusiasm" would not fit in either, hence is not found there.

But a real true Holiness church has both the form and the power, the letter and the Spirit, the discipline, the Bible, and the Holy Ghost, and hence is just the field for both the extremist and the fanatic to work in, and they do work in it if not rebuked. But some one said "we keep the fire so* hot it burns them out." That is just where many folks make the mistake. The hotter the fire and the higher the tide, the more the fanatic is at home if not detected and rebuked, and the lower the tide the more the extremist is at home. The fanatic can not do anything at low tide, hence when a church gets to be extreme in material things they have not much spiritual power; and when she is real spiritual she has not much form or fuss about material things ; she regulates herself without law or discipline. The Holy Ghost prayer meeting, the Holy Ghost revival, the Holy Ghost camp meeting are the harvest fields for the fanatic devil. He usually does his best work around the altar, and in some cases has control of it entirely. He usually does his work so successfully that preachers, evangelists, £nd presiding elderfe do not detect him, and they often praise God for his counterfeit stuff, which in their judgment is next to perfection. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge/' is as true today as it was in the day in which it was spoken. We remember hearing a preacher say not so very long ago, "While one is carried off by fanaticism, formality carries off its thousands." We would not dispute with the brother, there are a thousand formalists to one fanatic, but we also make this statement: "That one fanatic can (and does) more harm to the real cause of Holiness in one camp meeting than one thousand formalists can do in a whole year; one enemy in disguise in the camp is more to be feared than one thousand in uniform on the outside."

Again, formality always takes the back seat in these holy convocations, but fanaticism is always in the front, and generally close to the leader, and is apparently carrying the burden of the meeting; hence we raise the warning voice, and trust the good Lord will send the sound of it far and wide, so it will echo and re-echo to every nook and corner in this wide world, and reach the ear of every member of the Holiness movement on the entire globe, for they are the only people that need the warning. None else is in danger of becoming a fanatic; no more so than a polar bear is in danger of being sun struck in his home land.

CHAPTER II. What is Fanaticism?

We answer — ''Excessive enthusiasm ; wild and extravagant notions of religion ; religious frenzy/' — Webster.

What is a Fanatic?

44 A person affected by excessive enthusiasm, particularly on religious subjects; one who indulges wild and extravagant notions of religion ; and sometimes exhibits strange motions, postures, and vehement vociferations in religious worship. Fanatics sometimes affect to be inspired or to have intercourse with superior beings.'* — Webster.

If a fanatic is a person affected by "excessive enthusiasm'* the question naturally arises, "What is enthusiasm?"

i. A belief, or conceit of private revelation ; the vain confidence, or opinion of a person, that he has special divine communications from the Supreme Being, or a familiar intercourse with him.

2. Heat of imagination ; violent passion or excitement of the mind, in pursuit of some object, inspiring extravagant hope and confidence of success.

Hence the same heat of imagination, chastined by reason or experience, becomes a noble passion, an elevated fancy, a warm imagination, an ardent zeal, that forms sublime ideas, and prompts to the ardent pursuits of laudable objects. Such is the enthusiasm of the poet, the orator, the painter, and the sculptor; such is the enthusiasm of the patriot, the hero and the Christian. " — Webster.

What Then is An Enthusiast?

"One who imagines he has special, or supernatural converse with God, or special communications from Him/' — Webster.

When a person is converted (born of God) he has life (spiritual life) enough to be enthused over it ; he talks about it, sings about it, tries to get others to seek it, he enjoys it, manifests it in his daily walk and conversation; his imaginations are warm indeed; he talks with God ; gets blessed ; has a good time ; loves God ; hates sin ; bears fruit, and is indeed a new and a happy creature. When this same person gets sanctified wholly, or in other words, receives the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire, he gets the life more abundant, and hence the manifestation of it will be more abundant also. He bears the same kind of fruit, but more of it; he loves God more, because his loving capacities are increased; he hates sin more; his motives and designs for doing good are intensified ; he is a power in the hands of God for good : has wonderful experiences and blessings from God. The Lord takes him into fellowship (partnership) with Himself and uses him as an instrument for the Holy Ghost to preach, pray, or work through for the salvation of the lost, and also to bear soul burdens for the sick, for the penitent, and in many other ways He uses them to carry on His divine work on earth. This is enthusiasm that is of God and is alright; wish to God we had more of it. But "excessive enthusiasm" means to be pushed over; to go too far; to exceed the Spirit; to not only have a warm imagination, but a heated one ; and like a hot box on a car wheel, gets hotter and hotter, until it throws off a flame and stops a whole train of cars, or causes death and destruction. So a person that is a fanatic was once cold, then warm, and then pushed over by the devil into "excessive enthusiasm" runs ahead of the spirit of God, ahead of the spirit of the meeting, ahead of the God chosen leader, and becomes like a hot box; sets things ablaze with the wrong kind of fire ; things go wrong; the Holy Spirit is grieved ; the saints are divided ; the crowd gets disgusted ; the multitude unmanageable ; conviction is driven away ; things run riot ; the train has a hot box, and must stop to cool it off, or destruction is certain.

This kind of business has been carried on to such an extent that some camp meetingcommittees had to have from 10 to 30 police to keep order. Some camp meetings have been cut down to one week because of the rabble and disorder of the disgusted multitudes. The cause of this disturbance is generally laid to the straight preaching against the popular sins of the day. We will not dispute this ; we know such cases in and outside of the Bible. But we also take the stand that in many cases, if not in most cases, it is the shrieking, screaming, henious cries of the fanatics ; the devil knows how to drive conviction away, divide the forces of God's people, break the meeting up, and bring the real work of the Holy Ghost into disgrace. This is one way of defeating God's people, and he has done it very successfully in many places.

Reader, if you have any doubts in your mind of the reality of these things, keep on reading this book till you get to the end ; and when you go to the next Holiness camp meeting lift up your eyes and you will see the folks whose photo we are now taking. We are not going to have it retouched, so it will just be real and you can't help knowing the folks when you see them ; but be verysure that you are not in the group, I know you are so sure that you are not there that you will not look to see yourself, but you had better be sure about it, examine the group closely, carefully, prayerfully.

CHAPTER III. Symptoms of Fanaticism

If fanaticism is really understood, it is not hard to locate. Its symptoms are very clear and in all cases much the same; but the trouble is that very few people are posted in this craft and ascribe it to the workings of the Holy Ghost, hence are not suspicious and do not look for symptoms of any wrong thing. The devil is very cunning in selecting his material and always takes such that have the confidence of the people, and unless they are posted on this subject, will be so hoodwinked by their confidence that they overlook and do not notice things that in other persons they would detect. It has been said "that love is blind," but we have come to the conclusion that in many cases it is deaf also.

Symptom First.

All fanatics will have much to say about dreams, visions, and experiences. They will have much to say about the extraordinary things that God is doing for them ; the deer lessons He is teaching them ; the wonderful things He is showing them ; everything is wonderful ; the answers to prayers are wonderful. Well, you sit and listen and it is wonderful indeed; you hear them tell it again and again ; you believe them , you love to hear them; you talk about them yourself; you relate these wonders to others. The wonderful Sister P. ; the wonderful Brother D. There is always something w r onderful about the fanatics. We never saw it fail. They are w r onderful persons and unless they were they would not be noticed. This is a sure symptom.

They Spend Much Time in Their Closets. It is there where they get these visions and learn these wonderful things ; hence they will tell you much of their experience that happens while in their closet. "God showed me while on my knees" is a very common expression of a fanatic. They have much more to say of what God told them while in prayer than what they learned in reading the Bible. You will notice that the study of the Word is of second importance to them, as they get their messages on their knees. The Lord told me, the Lord told me, the Lord told me, are words that are spoken over and over again by them. The Lord don't seem to speak much to them through the Bible, but through the voice that speaks to them in the closet, and the words they hear there are law and gospel to them, whether they agree with the Bible or not ; they contend that they are of God because they heard them while in prayer, and will not be persuaded otherwise, for they actually believe all they hear in the closet is of God. They Are Not Teachable.

They are so sure that they are right in these things that they are not teachable, but are teachers; at it, all the time. The new light they receive is mostly on eating, drinking, dressing, fasting, etc. ; some things that are in advance of the common run of things with the Holiness folks. Some of them that we knew said that God told them that they must not eat anything that has sugar in it; no candy, no cake, no pie, no jelly — nothing sweet ; and because God told them they had to obey ; and if it was wrong for them it was wrong for others ; that God was no respector of persons, and so they are everlastingly at it, telling their experience and exhorting others to obey God, because they heard it in the closet while on their knees it must be of God. The same with eating of meat, pickel, fruit, etc., until some have just almost starved themselves. We know a dear precious soul who went on these lines until reduced to almost a skeleton. Now when told that there are no such things in the Bible they will declare that God talks to folks today the same as He always did, and the reason you did not hear Him was because you did not live close enough to Him. They are not teachable ; they will not be convinced that they are wrong. If you oppose them they will tell you a number of cases where their prayers were answered, and of things God told them that came true ; and they can generally find plenty of them and they will have it their way. They are not teachable because they are in advance of you.

They Are Not Under Authority. "There are no straps on me/' "I am not afraid of clay any more." They have a bold, defying spirit; the tone of their voice is authoritative. If they have a message it must be delivered. "God wants me to tell this/' and they will tell it. I am not afraid of the preachers any more ; and it is true, they will obey their impression no matter what the leader of the meeting may say. The tender, mild, gentle, humble dove-like spirit is gone; it is authority now with them.

Harsh, raspy, sour, cutting, commanding, they say they are free now; don't have to obey any one but God. It is I, I do, I go, I am, I, I, I with them ; all admonition, warning, advise, instruction and opposition is persecution to them. They count all who differ from them their enemies and keep themselves on the defensive side. Another Symptom Is the discerning of spirits ; all fanatics have it, and all fanatics use it. This is, no doubt, the devil's best weapon. They say they can tell by looking at a person whether he is right in his soul, or not; and as they advance in the craft they get the impression that they must tell folks that they are deceived ; and if they don't warn them they will be lost ,and they will be held responsible for their souls. So driven by this impression, they will boldly face anybody and tell him he is not right with God, and say the Lord laid it on me to tell you this. And no matter what the approached will say, they will not give in. God told them so, and if they did not get dow r n and get right with God they would wake up with the rich man in hell. In this way many are led by them to the altar, without any conviction of wrong, but by the persistance of these folks are driven to doubt their experience and confess that they are deceived, cast their former experience all away, plunge into darkness and dispair, and have an awful time getting back to God again ; and when they do find God again will go on and tell how they were deceived by the devil, and if it had not been for Sister So and So, hell would have been their portion. We have noticed much of this kind of work in camp meetings. We have also noticed some cases where folks got discouraged, gave up in despair and backslide. Again, in some cases they hit it, and some sin is dug up, the person repents and gets to God and is saved. This then is taken as an evidence that their work is of God, for the devil would not uncover himself. But is not this the devil's way of doing his satanic work? He mixes enough truth to hide the error; enough truth to make it take, and enough error to kill ; that is the way to poison rats, enough meal to hide the poison and enough poison to kill the rat.

Still Another.

They will not take advise, nor obey rebuke. They are so sure that they are right that they will take neither. They say the reason that you oppose them is because you don't understand these things, and they are so sure of this that to obey would bring sure defeat to the work of God. So firm are they that they would no doubt lay down their lives rather than give in that they are wrong. These are not all the symptoms by which fanaticism may be located, but if these will be observed it can be located every time; and if the accused will apply these tests to themselves they may know whether they are really of them or not.

CHAPTER IV. The Cause of Fanaticism

Having explained the symptoms of fanaticism, we will now explain the cause of it.

The originating cause is the devil. It is one of his satanic plans to side-track God's people and defeat God's cause. But the devil can not do his work without an agent or instrument to work through. Ever since the Holy Ghost came into this world it has been the devil's delight to imitate him ; he can not imitate Jesus because Jesus had a body, a human form ; but the Holy Ghost being a person without a human body or visible form, it is very easy for the devil to come as an angel of light and imitate the voice and work of the Holy Ghost. Let us read together, "But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion ; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers, also, be transformed as the ministers of righteousness." 2 Cor. 2: 12-15. Again, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils/ 1 etc. 1 Tim. 4:1. If these departed from the faith they must have been "to the faith" before they could depart from it. We have proved that fanaticism is "excessive enthusiasm," "a going too far," a pushing over. This makes it clear that these folks were alright once, but were pushed over, went ahead of God, ahead of His Spirit and of His word.

This is done by the devil coming as an angel of light, and in the same way ; with a voice like His, to get the ear of the listener, and thus accomplish his satanic deed. Uncle Sam has had much trouble with thieves that would counterfeit his large gold coins. It is done in a very cunning way. They take a very small bit and drill a small hole in the edge of the coin and drill out the inside, fill the space with some cheap metal, plug up the hole with the genuine and pass it on the public. The devil does his work much in the same way. A fanatic is a ruined saint; in many respects is just as he always was, but in other respects is a counterfeit. There are only three ways to test gold coins — first, by the ring; second, by the acid, and third, by weight. The common people might never find any fault with the coin, but the banker is always on the lookout for the spurious. He throws the coin on the counter and the ring is not right, he compares it with another coin, but the ring is not genuine. He applies the acid; it stands the test alright. He next puts it on the scale. Ah ! there it is ; it is too light. The coin is closely examined and he sees a little hurt on the edge. The coin is cut in two and, behold ! the whole mystery is solved. The coin is ruined. These three tests can be applied, and should be applied to the doubtful — the ring, the acid and the weight. The shouts, hoots and yells of the fanatic have a brazen thud about them that does not sound like they used to. The charm is gone out of it : the music has left it ; it is much like a cracked bell ; something is the matter with it, but like the ruined coin, they will stand the acid test. Advice, rebuke, suspension, imprisonment, yea death will not color it. It will stand all that. But the third test, to weigh it with Bible truth, it will be found wanting. It will not stand the

Bible test, and when, like the coin, the thing is split open, then the nasty work of the thief will be exposed.

The devil hates the real Holy Ghost work, because it does his work too much harm ; but he can not overthrow it with the scourge, the sword ,or the torch. He tried all that and made a miserable failure of it. The more he persecuted the saints the faster they multiplied. So he turned himself over as an angel of light and ruins the workers of God and uses them to imitate, or to produce counterfeit manifestations of the Holy Ghost, and in this way wrecks and ruins many precious saints and drags their souls to hell. Thus the devil is the originating cause of fanaticism.

There could be no fanatics without a devil. But the devil is not alone to blame for this. He must have material, and he must have helpers. No one has ever thought of drilling out the inside of a copper, for it would not pay. This is only done to valuable coins. The devil can not make a fanatic out of a hike warm professor. He must have a spiritual person. Why so? Well, you can not push a person over the line before he gets to it. A person can not be an

"excessive enthusiast" until he is an "enthusiast." The box of a car wheel always gets warm before it gets hot. So a person can never go too far that has not gone far enough. A person has never gone far enough that is not filled with the Holy Ghost; for it is a common command of God. Hence fanatics are persons that once had good experiences in the things of God ; nor could the devil imitate the Holy Ghost and his work if they had no experience on this line, and again he could not use them in

1 i: c work if they did not work on Holy Ghost lines and in Holy Ghost ways. The Next Cause is Ignorance.

If a person is posted on these lines and will watch and pray the devil can not push him over, but the fact is that all fanatics are ignorant on fanaticism. They may be well posted on all other lines, but they can very seldom be convinced that they are fanatic even though they are well advanced in the craft. This shows that they are entirely ignorant of his satanic devices on this line ; and because of this he traps them in bis snare ; puts the halter of fanaticism upon them ; spoils their usefulness ; ruins their souls, and brings disgrace on the cause of

Holiness. Ignorance then is the second cause of fanaticism.

Spiritual Pride is no doubt another cause of fanaticism. It has been said that "very few people can stand prosperity/' and when persons are once filled w r ith the Holy Ghost and are used of God in the salvation of souls ; walk and talk with God, and begin to tell of their experiences, the people will admire and applaud them, and want to hear them ; and the devil will come and whisper to them that they are somebody, and they will begin to feel good when they tell it, and next they tell it to feel good, and when they get something new they tell it again, the people applaud again, they forget to keep humble, and the devil will sow a little seed of spiritual pride and self esteem in the heart ; it grows every time it gets a little sunshine or a little shower and there is a desire for more visions, dreams and voices, and more desire for the wonderful. It is here where the little weed is started. The devil takes advantage of the desire and gives a little at first, and a little more later on, unnoticed, until the Holy Ghost is driven out and the angel of light does the talking, and by and by takes full possession.