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Someone once remarked that Pentecostalism is an’experience
looking for a theology, as if the movement lacked roots
in biblical interpretation and Christian doctrine.
The first
Historical
occurred in England (beginning in 1830) during the ministry
Hackground
of Edward Irving and the second in the southern tip of India
(b e gi.nning around 1860) through the influence of Plymouth
Brethren theology and the leadership of the Indian churchman
J. C. Aroolappen
With the coming of late seventeenth- and eighteenth- CHAPTER
century revivalism in Europe and North America, Calvinist, 1 Lutheran, and evangelical Arminian preachers emphasized repentance
and piety in the Christian life.5
This teaching spread to America and inspired the growth
of the Holiness movement.” With the focus on the sanctified
life but without the mention of speaking in tongues,
Those who sought to receive the “second blessing” were
taught that each Christian needed to “tarry” (Luke 24:49, KJV)
for the promised baptism in the Holy Spirit; this would break
the power of inbred sin and usher the believer into the Spiritfilled
life.
among them Dwight L. Moody and R. A.
Torrey. Even with this enduement of power, however, sanctification
retained its progressive nature.” Another pivotal figure
and former Presbyterian, A. B. Simpson, founder of the
Christian and Missionary Alliance, strongly emphasized Spirit
baptism and had a major impact on the formation of Assemblies
of God doctrine.‘O
GENESING
In nineteenth-century Germany, ministries that highlighted
prayer for the sick (especially those of Dorothea Trudel,
Johann Christoph Blumhardt, and Otto Stockmayer)
‘Appeal to this promise effectively laid the foundation for women to
preach, and serve in other ministries. For rationales for this interpretation ’
see Donald W. Dayton, ed., Holiness Tracts Defending the Ministry of
Women (New York: Garland Publishing, 1985); Joseph R. Flower, “Does
God Deny Spiritual Manifestations and Ministry Gifts to Women?” 7 November
1979 (typewritten).
BJohn L. Gresham, Jr., Charles G. Finney’s Doctrine of the Baptism of
the Holy Spirit (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1987).
9Edith L. Waldvogel (Blumhofer), “The ‘Overcoming Life’: A Study in the
Reformed Evangelical Origins of Pentecostalism” (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard
University, 1977).
Tharles W. Nienkirchen, A. B. Simpson and the Pentecostal Movement
(Peabody, Mass.: Ilendrickson Publishers, 1992).
“Dayton, Theological Roots, 104-6.
The Continuance of the Charismata 13
gained attention in America.
But when the radical Wesleyan Holiness preacher Benjamin
Hardin Irwin began teaching three works of grace in 1895,
trouble lay ahead. For Irwin, the second blessing initiated
sanctification, but the third brought the “baptism of burning
love” (i.e., baptism in the Holy Spirit).
Premillennialists’
gloomy assessment of the immediate future
generated serious concerns among those committed to
world evangelization,
The widespread
interest in the Spirit’s baptism and gifts convinced
some that God would bestow the gift of tongues to outfit
them with identifiable human languages (xenohlia) to preach the gospel in other countries, thereby expediting missionary
evangelism.
“two of their main principles
were Faith-healing, and Pentecostal gifts of tongues; no
medicines were. to be taken, no grammars or dictionaries
made use of; the party was attacked by malignant fever; two
died, refusing quinine.“*
Another advocate of this missionary use of tongues was
Frank W. Sandford, founder of the Holy Ghost and Us Bible
School at Shiloh, Maine, in 1895
Also hoping that they too would receive the power of the
Spirit to quickly evangelize the world were the Kansas Holiness
preacher Charles Fox Parham and his followers
Parham’s distinctive theological contribution to the movement
lies in his insistence that tongues represents the vital
“Bible evidence” of the third work of grace: the baptism in
the Holy Spirit, clearly illustrated in the pattern of chapters
2, 10, and 19 in Acts.
Its foremost leader was the African-American William J. Seymour,
26 and news of the “latter rain” (of Joel 2:23) quickly
stxead overseas through Seymour’s newspaper, the Apostolic
F’aith, and the efforts-&f m&y who traveled from the Azusa
Street meetings across North America and abroad.
Theological differences did not evaporate in the excitcment
of announcing the coming of the latter rain. Three major
controversies faced the new movement in the first sixteen
years of its existence.
That is, tongues in Acts
seemed to have the function of being evidence of the baptism;
whereas tongues in 1 Corinthians had other functions: for the
individual’s prayer life ( 14:4,14,28) and (with interpretation)
for the congregation’s edification (14:5,27).
During the years after 1906, more and more Pentecostals recognized that in most instances of tongues, believers were actually praying in unidentifiable rather than identifiable languages
(i.e., glossolalia rather than xenolalia).
Predictably,
the lines were drawn between those Pentecostals with Wesleyan sympathies (three works of grace) and those
with Reformed sympathies (two works).
The third contention among Pentecostals resulted from the
restorationist impulse and the heavy Christological emphasis
of the full gospel. Questions about the nature of the Godhead
manifested themselves at the international Pentecostal camp
meeting at Arroyo Seco (near Los Angeles).
These believers emphasized the “oneness,” or unity, of the Godhead in contrast to the orthodox Christian view of one
God in three Persons.3”
DEVELOPMENT OF ASSEMRLIES OF GOD THEOLOGY p20
When asked in 1919 what these Pentecostals believed, E. N. Bell, responded
These assemblies are opposed to all radical Higher Criticism of the Bible and against all modernism and infidelity in the Church, againstpeople unsaved and full of sin and worldliness belonging to the church. They believe in all the real Bible truths held by all real
Evangelical churches.“6
PRESERVATION OF DOCTRINE TO 1950 p21
When the Executive Presbytery recognized the danger of the anti-Pentecostal annotations in the Scofleld Reference Bible, they banned its advertisement in the Pentecostal Evangel for two years (19261926) before they were persuaded that the
edifying commentary outweighed the unedifying.43
Without amending the Statement, the Council passed bylaws
as another way of addressing troublesome issues. In the
category “Eschatological Errors,” found in Article VIII in the
Constitution and Bylaws, several condemned teachings are
listed. For example, the doctrine of the “restitution of all
things”
A third reason behind the preservation of doctrine is that
Pentecostals have struggled to balance biblical teaching with
their religious experience.
This began a gradual transition in
Bible and theology department personnel: to instructors with
graduate degrees in biblical studies, systematic theology, and
church history and equipped with sharper skills in hermeneutics,
Old Testament, New Testament, theology, and the
historical development of doctrine and practice.56
Many of them joined the Society for Pentecostal Studies, an
academic society founded in 1970, and have contributed articles
to its journal, Pneuma Paraclete (begun in 1967), the
denominational journal, has provided another opportunity for
scholarly discussion, although until 1992 it was confined to
pneumatology.
Furthermore, at least one
paper could be interpreted as a shift from an original understanding
in the Statement when it mentions that some “have
tried to set divine healing in opposition to or in competition
with the medical profession. This need not be so. Physicians
through their skills have brought help to many.”
After the election of Thomas F. Zimmerman as president
of the NAE (1960-1962) the General Council in 1961 made
a few modifications of the Statement of Fundamental Truths.
The most significant revision occurred in the section “The
Scriptures Inspired.” The 19 16 version reads as follows: “The
Bible is the inspired Word of God, a revelation from God to
man, the infallible rule of faith and conduct, and is superior
to conscience and reason, but not contrary to reason.”
Worldwide Mission at Wheaton College in April 1966, he
declared the Church to be “the present manifestation of the
kingdom of God in the earth, or at least, the agency that
prepares the way for the future manifestation of the Kingdom.
Peter Kuzmie, for example, noted in a recent publication,
Pentecostals and charismatics are convinced . . . that “the kingdom
of God is not a matter of talk but of power” (1 Cor. 4:20), and
expect that the preaching of the Word of God be accompanied by
mighty acts of the Holy Spirit. . . .
CONCLUSION
