Holy Laughter or Cracking Up with the Saxons
|
|
||||
|
|
|
AdvertisementCodex SinaiticusNew Testament:from the famed discovery
The earliest,
oldest New Testament text has finally been released to the public.
You may read the Codex Sinaiticus online - but only if you
know Greek! To read it in THIS IS NOT A CHEAP, SCANNED-IN FACSIMILE. This is a first edition of the text published in easy-to-read Georgia font with plenty of room between verses for your notes.2 points between verses, hard or soft cover. |
Advertisement
The Nazarene Acts
|
Piano Roll
In his book,
The Charismatic Gifts and Wesleyan
Theology, the author Jackson Snyder writes in the third
person about his first experience with the (so-called) “laughing
spirit.”
[It
was] 1968: Freddie was in his early 20's and recently converted. He wanted to
be “filled with the Holy Ghost” and went to the altar of the Assembly of God
church after an evening meeting. As he tarried, several teen-agers knelt with
him to “pray him through.” After a long time in earnest prayer, one of the
teens got an anointing and laid hands on Freddie. He began immediately
to speak aloud in tongues, praising God. When this happened, a spirit of
laughter came upon all those who were around the altar (there were others there
too who were not involved with praying for Freddie). Everyone began to
laugh hysterically, unable to control it, nor want to. They all laughed
for a space of at least five minutes. The fellow that started it all rolled
down the aisle laughing and ended up beneath the piano.
{end quote}
That piano roller was me at age
fifteen. Can you imaging this refined
Doctor of Theology rolling across the church carpet and under the piano in fits
and torrents? I’m in better shape
now to roll under a piano, perhaps as a barrel would roll. (Actually, I’m not in that bad of shape.) No, I don’t have the strength now as
then. (Like when I asked the dear lady
in Austin how fat she was, she replied, “I do not
yet take up two seats on an aeroplane.” I thought that was really funny.)
French Laugh
The laughing spirit caught up with me again
in a Pace, Florida a few years ago. I
was attending a prayer circle held in the house of the apostle Ken Sumrall. We were all there to pray for the terminally
ill. A woman from France was visiting,
who spoke very little English. In the
middle of the meeting, while we were all very serious and silently praying for
the healing of a case of ovarian cancer, this rude French lady just started
snickering right out loud.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t understand a cluck of it because she was
laughing in French, which was somewhat rude, so I recall.
The lady sitting beside her was known as “the stone lady.” She was like the Norwegian missionary woman who
said, “Jesus never laughed” – the stone lady never laughed either. Hers was a very rough countenance, almost
frightening actually – not much to laugh about for fear she might hit
you one. But she caught the
laughing spirit from the French girl and started cackling like a chimp. Quickly, the “anointing” caught on, and
several ended up on the floor. It was
hilarity at a serious moment, but – I’ve got to tell you – it was pretty
glorious to take part in. I might add –
the woman being prayed over was healed of terminal ovarian cancer than night,
so we heard soon after.
From Nightclubs to Christ
Anyway, there was one other occasion when I experienced holy laughter
worth passing on. It was on a Sunday
morning – early. My partner in the music
business and I’d just finished up a lounge act.
We were both young and single, trying to make a career out of
music. He was a Catholic and I was an
AOG man, but neither of us had been to church in years. We got back to our hotel room at about 3 AM
after the show. We were relaxing for a
while then we looked at each other and both of us started in laughing and
couldn’t quit. We fell on the floor,
tears running down our faces, stopped for a while, and started up again. What was religious or godly about that? Nothing, except that we found ourselves
attending Easter mass later that morning at the Catholic Church miles away –
and we were greatly blessed from receiving the Eucharist together. I know I needed revival and am pretty sure he
did too.
That reminds me of the title of one of Jack
Van Impe’s first tapes he sent you if you made a donation to his ministry at
about that same time. The title of the
tape was, “From Nightclubs to Christ.”
What took him thirty years to do, according to that tape, took us only
eight hours, for Mass was at noon the next day.
That Mass was an awakening for me, as a non-catholic, non-sacramentalist
backslider going forth to the altar in that mystery-laden place of worship, receiving
what they believed to be the very body of my Savior from the hand of a
Roman priest and his blood from a common cup.
Had we not laughed in the middle of the night, we certainly would not
have experienced HIS suffering, death and resurrection at the sixth hour. And though this was in 1975, it
was the first awakening in my heart of the doctrine of the real presence, which
I believe fervently yet today.
Laughter Wesley’s Journal and Exploration
We think of this “spirit of laughter” as
some new manifestation, and, like the baptism in the holy Spirit, folks don’t
understand it unless it’s happened to them.
Wesley didn’t understand it when he first encountered it in a prayer
meeting in 1740. He wrote in his journal:
In the evening such a spirit of laughter was among us that
many were much offended. But the attention of all was fixed on poor
L[ucretia] S[mith], whom we all know to be no dissembler (i.e.
phony). Most of our brethren and sisters
were now fully convinced that those who were under this strange temptation
could not help it.
Only E[lizabeth] B[rown] and Anne H[olton] were of another mind, being
still sure anyone might help laughing if she would (i.e. keep from
laughing if she wanted). This they declared to many on Thursday; but on Friday
{the 23rd} God suffered Satan to teach them better. Both of them
were suddenly seized (with laughter) in the same manner as the rest, and
laughed whether they would or no, almost without ceasing. Thus they continued for
two days, a spectacle to all; and were then, upon prayer made for them, delivered
in a moment (Journal,
June 21, 1740).
Wesley doesn’t make a judgment on “holy laughter” one way or another,
except to say it was irresistible, and those who insisted it could be resisted
went to laugh land for two days themselves.
Twenty years later, Wesley reconsidered “holy laughter” as he studied
the journals of John Walsh, a Methodist reporter, who was attending the
Everton revival. Walsh writes and
Wesley quotes him in his journal:
On Monday, July 9, I set out, and on Wednesday noon reached Potton,
where I rejoiced at the account given by John Keeling of himself and others. He
was justified … on that memorable Sabbath, but had not a clear witness of
it till ten days after; about which time his sister … was also set at
liberty. {In those days, when a person was justified,
there was expectation of an outward sign of an inward change. Not so today.}
I discoursed also with Ann
Thorn, who told me of much heaviness following the visions with which she had
been favored; but said she was, at intervals, visited still with such
overpowering love and joy, especially at the Lord's Supper, that she often lay
in a trance for many hours. She is twenty-one years old.
We were soon after called
into the garden, where Patty Jenkins (also twenty-one} was so overwhelmed with
the love of God that she sunk down, and appeared as one in a pleasant sleep,
only with her eyes open; yet she had often just strength to utter, with a low
voice, ejaculations (i.e. interjections) of joy and
praise; but, no words coming up to what she felt, she frequently laughed
while she saw His glory.
(Journal,
July 29, 1759
http://www.evanwiggs.com/revival/history/riss3.html)
We might notice that, since Wesley records Walsh’s sentiment regarding
the “frequent laughing,” that he agreed with Walsh - that laughing manifested
irresistibly as the young lady lay prostrate in adoration, beholding the glory
of the Father. We might wonder what’s so
funny about G-d that sometimes even the staunchest conservatives are made to
fall on the floor, laughing in his presence.
But funny isn’t what it’s all about, except to those outside the circle.
Laughter as a Sign of Justification
Besides that of Yahweh laughing at the folly of man, I can’t think of
any passages in the Bible that actually condone holy laughter. But I know that it is indeed holy, even
though I’m not naïve enough to think that the devil has no counterfeit. But consider the passage in Luke 15 where,
just after the parable of the lost coin, when Yahshua reveals the moral of the
story (v.10): Just so, I tell you, there is joy
before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. In Wesley’s accounts, the “holy laughter”
followed someone’s justification or was an actual manifestation of
justification. (You
Baptists say “salvation” instead of “justification.”)
Remember Elmo? The last time I
spoke to him about his soul he doubted he’d been filled with the spirit even
though he’s a seasoned, gifted missionary.
I can’t imagine he could doubt any longer. He’s glad Yahweh made a laughingstock of him
for the sake of his justification, sanctification, not to mention for using him
as the unlikely catalyst for a prophecy revealing the answers the group sought
in prayer. When I was a youth and rolled
under the piano, the whole shebang started off when the fellow for whom we were
praying received the gift of the spirit for which he was tarrying. At that moment, I could no more keep my soul
from rejoicing over him than my lips and lungs from laughing.
I can tell you, when the spirit of laughter comes upon people who are
solemnly praying, there’s nothing funny at all – the hilarity (Gr. cheerfulness) is a
response to something other than a good joke. Somebody is justified, somebody is
spirit-filled, someone is healed, someone is set free, somebody gets to
rejoicing in the spirit for the supernatural works of grace that Yahweh has
done through his Son of Man – and it’s a good thing, a great thing, and it’s an
awesome thing that it’s contagious.
Bennett Cerf,
the writer and publisher (who you old-timers will remember as a
long-time panelist on What’s My Line) was right on when he said, “The
person who can bring the spirit of laughter into a room is indeed
blessed.” I don’t know if he was
speaking about holy laughter, but his words are nevertheless an impeccable
truth.
No Laughing Matter for Teachers in the Judgment
I looked to the Internet to read what the teachers had on “holy
laughter.” Almost all the search engine
results were extremely negative – it’s unscriptural, occultist,
psycho-phenomenological or, of course, right out of the devil’s toolbox. (For instance, see John Mark
ministries article “Holy
Laughter and Company.”) The
teachings found through a Google Search remind me of the Norwegian missionary who
angrily cried out against some who were laughing during the service on time –
she shouted in her deep, heavily accented voice, “JESUS NEVER LAUGHTED!!” It amazes me that Bible teachers want to tell
you that making a joyful noise unto Yahweh isn’t permissible because it isn’t
biblical, but eating foul unclean animals if just fine because, though such is
prohibited in the bible, that’s been annulled.
No wonder the Teacher of Righteousness warns us
James
3:1. LET NOT
many of you become teachers, for you know that we who teach shall be judged
with greater strictness.
I also noticed that all the teachers
who are against manifestations of the spirit consider themselves the pillars of
evangelical Christianity. One positive
source I found on Google in regards to Holy Laughter uses some scripture.
One source is Psalm 42:5 quoting it as, “God has a smile on His
face.” I didn’t remember that verse, so
I looked it up. Psalm 42:5 really says, “Why
are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in
Yahweh!” – they just slightly misquoted the psalm-singer.
Another positive source uses Judges 19:6. “Let your heart by merry.” But in checking the context of the passage,
an innkeeper and his daughter are commending a Levite and a harlot to make
merry as they drank wine. It’s amazing
how the Scripture can be used out of context to prove about anything.
The fact of the matter is, people were
praying earnestly, something happened to somebody spiritually, and that
person’s reaction to the supernatural goes around contagiously. It seems to me in the contexts of the
laughter I’ve mentioned, if the devil made them do it, he’d rather have them
writhing in torment or rolling upon each other {in orgiastic fashion} as he has
his own in Hollywood movies doing. If
the devil made them do something, the more authentic doings would seem to be
swearing a blue streak, cussing up a storm or engaging in a Christian
pugilistics (a fist fight).
Hilarity in Mercying
So let me conclude by giving you scriptural authority for “holy laughter,” then give you some advice. I’m not afraid of being judged with extreme strictness. Oh, I did find one Scripture proof text on the Internet that might refer to laughing – it was on my own site. Paul talks about the charismata – the seven spiritual graces: prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership and mercy. Regarding mercy, the RSV has Paul saying in Romans 12:8 “he who does acts of mercy, (let him do them) with cheerfulness,” but literally, Paul says, “the one mercying, (let him do it) in hilarity.” Hilarity means, “with a big hardy-har-har.” That must mean with holy laughter. And here’s one more – a bit more complicated though.
The Sons of Laughter
When the Angel of Yahweh promised to make a
great nation out of the child of Abraham and Sarah, they both laughed at Yahweh
– in derision, disbelief, or in joy – I don’t know. Abe and Sarah were too old for fooling around.
(Genesis 18:12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, “Now that I am past the age of childbearing, and my husband
is an old man, is pleasure to come my way again?” NJB)
Yahweh heard Sarah laugh and she denied
it, then Yahweh said directly to her, “Yes, but you DID laugh” (Genesis
18:15). Well, Sarah didn’t mean to; she just couldn’t
help herself.
When that son did make his headway, he was named Isaac, which means
“Laughter.” I’ve heard of girls named
“Joy,” nobody in this country is called “Laughter.” Anyway, this Isaac surnamed “Laughter” had a
son named Jacob, who had twelve sons, known as the Patriarchs. Jacob and his sons and his sons’ sons, and
even his daughters, came to be known as the Sons of Isaac or the Sons of
Laughter or “Isaac’s sons.” (Get
the classic book with maps,
Tracing
Our Ancestors: Traces the European American Back to Father Abraham and Beyond by
Haberman - $10!)
Even after Isaac’s sons went into captivity after 784
BC, some stuck together, ending up on the south shore of the Caspian Sea,
corresponding to modern-day north Iran.
The place to which they resorted came to be known as “Sakland” or “Beth
Sak” – meaning the land or house of the Isaac’s Sons – the sons of
laughter. By King Josiah’s time (6th
Cent, BC), they were on the move again, settling in and ruling Scythia, i.e.
modern-day Ukraine. There they became
known as the Sacae, which means, “Isaac’s Peoples.” In Scythia, the Sacae met up with kinsmen
who’d been wondering for twelve hundred years, known as the Angles. These people wore the horns of bulls and
worshipped calves, just as they had back in Samaria so long before. Their tribal name betrays their origin –
Angle (Engle) means “calf” in Hebrew, as in “golden calf.”
The Angles, or “calves” and the Sacae, now known as
“Saxons” for “Isaac’s Sons” or “Sons of Laughter,” teamed up as they had in
Israel a millennium before and continued westward from Saxony in modern-day
Germany to northern France and, by 300 years after Yahshua, to England, which
still bears the name of the Anglo-Saxons – “Sons of Laughter; People of the
Calf.” England means “Calf-land.” It could just as well have been called
“Laugh-land,” since the Saxons were there too.
The Anglo Saxon peoples, in the years to come, spread through Great
Britain, South Africa, the New World, India and Australia by way of the British
Empire. So you see today the origin of
our common tribe – every person in this room has descended from the Saxons, the
Sons of Laughter, the Sons of Isaac.
It’s absolutely no wonder at all that Yahweh should, in these end times,
visit his people Israel with the laughter of our birth mother and father –
Sarah, the laughing princess of the world, and Abraham, the father of many
tribes – who named their son – the one promised to become as prolific as
the sands of the sea and the stars of the sky – Isaac, laughter.
To my knowledge, this holy laughing doesn’t happen in Christian
worship anywhere else but in those lands where the progeny of the Saxons
now dwell, awaiting the return of the one Elohim who spoke to their father four
thousand years ago,
Genesis 12:1-3 “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's
house to the land that I will show you.
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make
your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who
curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall
bless themselves.”
You have something great to rejoice
about. You have just received an
indication of your heritage and inheritance, and a reminder of a promise made –
that HE will gather you in like chicks to the hen.
Surprised by Joy
In the examples I had time to provide, it means that when people of our
heritage stand in expectation of a sign then loosen up how we think it’ll
manifest, something unexpected, new and FRESH may come our way. I can tell you, Brother Elmo knows what it
means to be a “son of the promise” now – nothing more unexpected could have
possibly confirmed his justification in a more Scriptural sense than what
actually happened to him. And likewise,
maybe the thing you want the most for your ministry and assembly will come to
pass in the way you least expect it.
Someone sows, someone reaps, someone partakes of the holy food. All families of the land are blessed.
My hope for you is that in this next year, the unexpected will break
forth like the spring calves break their fences – that Yahweh will smile on
your efforts in such a way that you’ll be surprised by joy. Amen.
April 16, 2005
Jackson
Snyder bio
Jackson Snyder is available for your Motivational Gifts,
Temperament or Leadership Training Event.
Jackson has been a pastor, sacred musician, Bible teacher and missionary for 27 years. He was called to preach as a youth in A. A. Allen miracle ministries. Since that then, he has continued to work in and teach the Gifts of the Spirit. Jackson received his Bachelor degree magna cum laude from Indiana University, Master of Divinity from Emory University cum laude and Doctorate from the Wesley Synod. He also studied with the University of Biblical Studies, Earlham School of Religion and St. Vincent DePaul Regional Seminary. He is an ordained minister currently serving churches in the Marianna / Panama City (FL) District of the United Methodist Church. Jackson has been offering Gifts seminars since 1990. He has a popular Internet ministry that includes much information and assessment material in Motivational and Spiritual Gifts at www.JacksonSnyder.com. He is also a Certified Professional Pneumatologist (CPP). Contact him here with an internet form.