What
is Pentecost ?
Dictionary
- Pentecostal
relating
to or denoting any of a number of Christian movements and individuals
emphasizing baptism in the Holy Spirit, evidenced by speaking in tongues,
prophecy, healing, and exorcism.
Pentecostals are a subset of the evangelical
group of churches. Their core beliefs are the same as or similar to the others
with one major exception. Pentecostals hold that the experience of being
baptized in the Holy Spirit and the confirmation of speaking in tongues
is for believers today, not just for the early church.
It
is distinguished by belief in the baptism in the Holy Spirit that
enables a Christian to live a Spirit-filled and empowered life. This
empowerment includes the use of spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues and
divine healing—two other defining characteristics of Pentecostalism.
Pentecost;
the
Christian festival celebrating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples
of Jesus after his Ascension, held on the seventh Sunday after Easter.
Acts
2;1-4
[ The
Holy Spirit and the Day of Pentecost ] Now when the day of Pentecost
had come, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like a violent
wind blowing came from heaven and filled the entire house where they were
sitting. And tongues spreading out like a fire appeared to them and came to
rest on each one of them.
Acts
2;14
Peter’s
Address on the Day of Pentecost ] But Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and
addressed them: “You men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, know this
and listen carefully to what I say.
Acts
20;16
For
Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so as not to spend time in the province
of Asia, for he was hurrying to arrive in Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of
Pentecost.
1
Corinthians 16;8
But
I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost.
Pentecostalism or Classical
Pentecostalism is a renewal movement[1] within Protestant[2] Christianity
that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through
baptism with the Holy Spirit. The term Pentecostal is derived from
Pentecost, the Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks. For Christians, this
event commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus
Christ, as described in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
Like
other forms of evangelical Protestantism, Pentecostalism adheres to the
inerrancy of the Bible and the necessity of accepting Jesus Christ as personal
Lord and Savior. It is distinguished by belief in the baptism in the Holy
Spirit that enables a Christian to live a Spirit-filled and empowered life. This
empowerment includes the use of spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues and
divine healing—two other defining characteristics of Pentecostalism. Because of
their commitment to biblical authority, spiritual gifts, and the miraculous,
Pentecostals tend to see their movement as reflecting the same kind of
spiritual power and teachings that were found in the Apostolic Age of the early
church. For this reason, some Pentecostals also use the term Apostolic
or Full Gospel to describe their movement.
Pentecostalism
emerged in the early 20th century among radical adherents of the Holiness
movement who were energized by revivalism and expectation for the imminent
Second Coming of Christ.[3] Believing that they were living in the end times,
they expected God to spiritually renew the Christian Church thereby bringing to
pass the restoration of spiritual gifts and the evangelization of the world. In
1900, Charles Parham, an American evangelist and faith healer, began teaching
that speaking in tongues was the Bible evidence of Spirit baptism and along
with William J. Seymour, a Wesleyan-Holiness preacher, he taught that this was
the third work of grace.[4] The three-year-long Azusa Street Revival, founded
and led by Seymour in Los Angeles, California, resulted in the spread of
Pentecostalism throughout the United States and the rest of the world as
visitors carried the Pentecostal experience back to their home churches or felt
called to the mission field. While virtually all Pentecostal denominations
trace their origins to Azusa Street, the movement has experienced a variety of
divisions and controversies. An early dispute centered on challenges to the
doctrine of the Trinity. As a result, the Pentecostal movement is divided
between trinitarian and non-trinitarian branches, resulting in the emergence of
Oneness Pentecostals.
Comprising
over 700 denominations and a large number of independent churches, there is no
central authority governing Pentecostalism; however, many denominations are
affiliated with the Pentecostal World Fellowship. There are over 279 million
Pentecostals worldwide, and the movement is growing in many parts of the world,
especially the global South. Since the 1960s, Pentecostalism has increasingly
gained acceptance from other Christian traditions, and Pentecostal beliefs
concerning Spirit baptism and spiritual gifts have been embraced by
non-Pentecostal Christians in Protestant and Catholic churches through the
Charismatic Movement. Together, Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity
numbers over 500 million adherents.[5] While the movement originally attracted
mostly lower classes in the global South, there is an increasing appeal to
middle classes.[6][7][8] Middle class congregations tend to be more adapted to
society and withdraw strong spiritual practices such as divine healing.
___________
From;
gotquestions.org
Question:
"What is the Pentecostal Church (Pentecostalism) and what do Pentecostals
believe?"
Answer:
Pentecostalism
is a fairly modern movement within Christianity that can be traced back to the
Holiness movement in the Methodist Church. A major focus of Pentecostal
churches is Holy Spirit baptism as evidenced by speaking in tongues. There are
approximately 170 different denominations that identify themselves as
Pentecostal.
Toward
the end of the 19th century, there was a dramatic rise in religious fervor as
various groups anticipated the end of history and the return of Christ in 1900.
Much of this fervor was driven by the revival meetings held by those in the
Holiness movement, and there were occasional reports of people speaking in
tongues. The first widespread use of tongues was at a revival in Topeka,
Kansas, in January 1900, led by Charles Parham. Agnes Ozman, a Methodist, began
to speak in tongues, and others in the meeting eventually followed suit. In
1906, a series of revival meetings on Azusa Street in Los Angeles led to a
widespread experience of tongues-speaking, which spread to many parts of the
country. The meetings were led by William Seymour, one of Charles Parham's
students. Parham and Seymour eventually parted ways, because Parham believed
many of the manifestations of Azusa Street were of the flesh, or perhaps even
demonic. By 1909, Seymour had excluded all but African-Americans from holding
office in the mission, and the ministry eventually faded into history.
Though
the Azusa Street mission had a brief life, its impact on the Pentecostal
movement has been a lasting one. Many new churches and missions were founded
across America which carried the new emphasis on seeking the baptism of the
Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues. Today, there are over
200,000,000 denominational Pentecostals and another 200,000,000 who identify
themselves as Pentecostal or charismatic in mainline churches.
There
are three main divisions within the Pentecostal movement. The original group
which came out of the Holiness churches (Methodist and Nazarene), sees three
progressive steps in the life of a believer which indicate growth and blessing.
The first step is justification, which is the forgiveness of sins that comes
from putting faith in Jesus Christ. The second step is sanctification, or the
second blessing, which was first taught by John Wesley in his “A Plain Account
of Christian Perfection” (1766). The essence of this doctrine is an inner
purity of heart and an infusion of power, whereby the believer no longer practices
sin. This is sometimes followed by the third step, the “baptism of the Spirit,”
as evidenced by speaking in tongues or other signs. The Church of God in Christ
and the Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee, are two major denominations in
this group.
The
second division is comprised of those who came out of a Baptist background, but
were heavily influenced by the Holiness revivals of the late 1800s. The
Assemblies of God was founded in 1914 under the leadership of Eudorus N. Bell,
who had been a Southern Baptist pastor. The key difference in doctrine for this
group is that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is available for anyone,
regardless of attaining sanctification.
The
third division is the Oneness Pentecostals. At the meeting which formed
the Church of God in Christ (1914), there was intense debate over Trinitarian
doctrine. While the majority of Holiness believers held to the traditional
belief in the Trinity, there was a growing group which held to a modalist
belief and affirmed that baptism should be done in Jesus' name only. Another
tenet of this group is the necessity of speaking in tongues as evidence of
salvation. This group was to form the United Pentecostal Church and the
Apostolic Pentecostal Church, among others.
What
are we to make of this movement? The early Holiness believers recognized that
Christianity ought to result in visible changes in a person's life. The focus
of many early prayer meetings was to “throw off everything that hinders and the
sin that so easily entangles” (Hebrews 12:1). These earnest believers wanted to
run their race faithfully and were seeking God's help to do so. As that
earnestness gave way to emotional religious fervor, doctrines were developed to
explain and support the emotions and experiences. For many today, the emphasis
is on the excitement, the experience, or the new word of prophecy. Some of the
questionable foundations laid by John Wesley (e.g., a second blessing of
perfection) paved the way for later Pentecostal doctrines of new works of the
Spirit. Some Pentecostals allow experience to trump scriptural teaching and
attempt to conform Scripture to what they “know by experience.” But fervent
experience, even when it involves miracles, is not the test of true faith (see
Matthew 7:22–23). Peter affirmed the value of Scripture over experience when he
said, “We also have a more sure Word of prophecy, to which you do well to take
heed, as to a light that shines in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19