Perversions of the Pentecostal Movement -- Getting Drunk in the Spirit

If there is one metaphor misplaced, misapplied, and just plain misused, it would be the nonsensical disruption of "being drunk in the spirit."

This phrase appears in the second chapter of the Book of Acts, following the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. The Jewish adherents in Jerusalem were surprised, to say the least, but others only laughed it off:

"And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?

"Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine." (Acts 2: 12-13)

Peter nipped that nonsense in the bud right away:

"But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:

"For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day." (Acts 2: 14-15)

Thereupon Peter gave the first evangelical sermon, quoting the Psalms and the Prophets, explaining that the Holy Spirit of God was being poured out on all flesh, and that by grace through faith in the Finished Work of Jesus Christ.

"They are not drunken." Peter could not have declared in more plainly! They were not drunk!

Peter even told believers in one of his epistles the important of temperance:

"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;" (1 Peter 1:13)

By living in the Holy Spirit, we enter into a quiet, powerful sobriety, not frenzied drunken-like excess. Peter cautions once again for sobriety:

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:" (1 Peter 5:8)

Paul confirms the necessity of being keen to the Word of God, not given over to excess in one's life and thinking:

"Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

"For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

"But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation." (1 Thessalonians 5: 6-8)

"Getting drunk in the Spirit" is just perversion, a complete misunderstanding and gross misapplication of Scripture.