Theological Distinctive Of The Pentecostal Movement Religion Essay

Pentecostalism within Christianity places a personal experience of the Holy Spirit high among the marks of a Christian. The Catholics, in contrast has normally tended to ‘channel’ the Spirit through bishop and sacrament, and the Protestant through the Bible. John Wesley was the most important figure within that stream in previous centuries. Indeed Wesley -whose own heart was ‘strangely warmed’, who emphasized the inner ‘witness of the Spirit’, and taught that sanctification was a second work of grace distinct from and following justification- might well be called the great-grandfather of Pentecostalism. From the early Methodists, it runs directly through the Holiness movement of the nineteenth century. In camp meetings and ‘higher life’ conventions, holiness teachers proclaimed the ‘second blessing’ of sanctification as a cleansing of the heart from all sin, and sometimes called it ‘the baptism of the Holy Ghost according to Reid et al. (1990:DCA) But first let start by looking at the where the Pentecostal Movement found its theology.

The Theological Roots of the Pentecostal Movement.

John Wesley (1703-1791).

John Wesley 1725 after having a religious conversion initiated a methodical study of the Bible called “The Holy Club” that will later termed Methodist because of the method in studying the Bible. Wesley ultimately became the founder of the Methodist denomination. John Wesley preached a new message of salvation by faith alone, an unusual message in the Church of England that placed emphasis on the sacraments. Wesley with the help of another former member of the Holy Club, George Whitefield, began an extensive evangelistic preaching ministry, traveling more than 250,000 miles and preaching 40,000 sermons (Enns & Paul, 1989:492).

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Wesley placed emphasis on the doctrines of prevenient grace, present personal salvation by faith, the witness of the Spirit and sanctification in his sermons and writings. Prevenient grace was the theological underpinning of his belief that all persons were capable of being saved by faith in Christ. Unlike the Calvinists of believed that some people had been elected by God for salvation and others for damnation. He had an understanding of the Christian orthodoxy insisted that salvation was only possible by the sovereign grace of God. He expressed his understanding of humanity’s relationship to God as utter dependence upon God’s grace. God enabled all people to be capable of coming to faith by empowering humans to have actual existential freedom of response to God. Wesley believed that witness of the Spirit is: “an inward impression on the soul of believers, whereby the Spirit of God directly testifies to their spirit that they are the children of God.” He based this doctrine upon certain Biblical passages like Romans 8:15-16. This doctrine was closely related to his belief that salvation had to be “personal.”

Wesley contended that a part of the theological method would involve experiential faith. He believed every doctrine must be able to be defended rationally. He did not divorce faith from reason (UMC, 1984:77).

The most controversial theological teaching of Wesley is entire sanctification, or Christian perfection.

Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875).

Finney, leading the revivalist of the nineteenth century, would one day be known as the “Father of Modern Revivalism.” His remarkable religious conversion on October 10, 1821, however, dramatically changed the direction of his life. Leaving a promising legal career, and entering into the Presbyterian ministry, he claimed that he had been given “a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead his cause.” He studied theology with George Gale when he was taken under care by the St. Lawrence Presbytery in June 25, 1823.

A series of revivals broke out in a number of little villages throughout Jefferson and St Lawrence countries, places such as Evans Mills, Antwerp, Brownville and Gouverneur, all under his preaching. By 1825 his work had spread to the towns of Western, Troy, Utica, Rome and Auburn. These so-called Western revivals (centered in Oneida County) in which Finney exercised “new measures” such as the anxious seat, protracted meetings, allowing women to pray in public and the like, brought Finney national fame. Finney emerged as the new leader of evangelical revivalism in 1827. This leadership was consolidated during the years 1827-1832. Finney’s revivals swept urban centers such as New York City, Philadelphia, Boston and Rochester according to Reid et al. (1990:DCA).

Finney’s theology is difficult to classify, as can be observed in his masterwork, Religious Revivals. In this work, he emphasizes the involvement of a person’s will in salvation (Danbury, 1995:238).

According to Reid et al. (1990:DCA) It can be best described as a New School Calvinist. His preaching and teaching which was always pointed and dramatic – stressed the moral government of God the ability of people to repent and make themselves new hearts, the perfectibility of human nature and society, and the need for Christians to apply their faith to daily living. This included the investment of one’s time and energy in establishing the millennial kingdom of God on earth by winning converts and involving oneself in social reform (including antislavery, temperance and the like).

Evangelist Charles Finney was the first to equate the second work of grace with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Though coming from a Calvinistic background, Finney rejected tenets of “Old Divinity” Calvinism which he felt were unbiblical and counter to evangelism and Christian mission.

Early Pentecostalism

1 January1901 was the earliest date given for the beginning of the Pentecostal movement. The same day that Charles Parham began teaching that speaking in tongues were the biblical sign of the Holy Spirit’s baptism at his Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas. He later moved to Houston, Texas. William J. Seymour, a one-eyed African-American preacher, was allowed to attend Parham’s Bible classes in spite of racial segregation in Houston. In 1906, Seymour travelled to Los Angeles where his preaching sparked the Azusa Street Revival. Despite the work of various Wesleyan groups such as Parham’s and D. L. Moody’s revivals, the beginning of the widespread Pentecostal movement in the United States is generally considered to have begun with Seymour’s Azusa Street Revival (Blumhofer, 1941:97)

The first Pentecostal revival to receive significant attention was the Azusa revival. Many people from around the world became drawn to it. The Los Angeles Press gave close attention to Seymour’s revival, which helped fuel its growth by the story “Weird Babble of Tongues”, Los Angeles Daily Times: April 18, 1906. Inspired by the events of the revival, a number of new, smaller groups started up. International visitors and Pentecostal missionaries would eventually bring these teachings to other nations, so that practically all classic Pentecostal denominations today trace their historical roots to the Azusa Street Revival. The Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa had formed by 1908, and there were Pentecostal groups in Australia by 1909.

The “full gospel” or “foursquare gospels” were teachings emphasized by the Pentecostals. The foursquare refers to the four fundamental beliefs of Pentecostalism: Jesus saves according to John 3:16, baptizes with the Holy Spirit according to Acts 2:4, heals bodily according to James 5:15, and is coming again to receive those who are saved according to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (Dayton & Donald W, 1980:10). Early Pentecostalism was a synthesis of the teachings of many of these holiness churches and movements, but its key distinctive was the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues. It is evangelical to emphasize the reliability of the Bible and the need for the transformation of an individual’s life through faith in Jesus (Menzies & William, 2007:83).

The Begins of the Pentecostal Movement.

Charles Fox Parham (1873-1929)

Charles was the founder of the Apostolic Faith movement and one of the founders of the modern Pentecostal Movement. He came to believe in divine healing during his studies at Southwest Kansas College (1890-1893) when wrestling with a ministerial call and rheumatic fever. He started his ministerial career in the Methodist Episcopal Church, but soon left the denomination after 1895 to evangelize as an independent holiness preacher, teaching sanctification as a second work of grace, divine healing and the “third experience” of a baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire.

The Apostolic Faith was a bimonthly paper which Parham began publishing in 1898. He established the “Beth-el Healing Home” in Topeka to gather the sick for prayer. During the summer of 1900 a visit to Frank W. Sandford’s Holiness commune at Shiloh, Maine, introduced him to the idea of a “latter rain” premillennial outpouring of the Spirit and reports of xenolalic experiences among missionaries. Xenolalic experiences were miraculous speech in a foreign language. Later that year, the Bethel Bible School was founded near Topeka, with about forty students. Parham wanted to restore first century apostolic faith to the church. He challenged his students to study Acts 2 to determine the true evidence for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. In December, Parham and his students concluded after an extended Bible study that the initial evidence of the baptism with the Holy Spirit was speaking in tongues, a conviction which became central in all of his subsequent teaching. (Parham himself believed that tongues should be authentic human languages.) Not long afterward (January 1, 1901), a student named Agnes N. Ozman prayed for the experience and then began speaking in tongues according to Reid et al. (1990:DCA).

With that, the Pentecostal Movement was off and running. “Miss Ozman allegedly began speaking in the ‘Chinese language’ while a ‘halo seemed to surround her head and face.’ Following this experience, Ozman was unable to speak in English for three days, and when she tried to communicate by writing, she reportedly wrote in Chinese characters. During the next few days, about half the student body likewise received the experience. Sometime later Parham himself was baptized in the Spirit and from then on preached the doctrine in all of his meetings” (Moriarty, 1992:22).

Soon the school began attracting attention throughout the state when Parham himself and the other students were practicing tongues-speech. Soon the other students and Parham himself were also practicing tongues-speech, and the school began attracting attention throughout the state. But by April in the same year, the movement had lost its impetus, which was not to be regained until a revival that broke out in Galena, Kansas, in 1903.

His loosely organized “Apostolic Faith Missions” had spread within seven years throughout the lower Midwest, attracting some 25,000 followers to the new Pentecostal doctrine. In 1905 he opened a Bible school in Houston, Texas, which served as the center of the movement in that region. There, trained by Parham, was William Joseph Seymour, an African-American Holiness preacher. Seymour carried the movement to Los Angeles in 1906 with the “Azusa Street Revival,” where the worldwide Pentecostal Movement was launched according to Reid et al. (1990:DCA).

William Joseph Seymour (1870-1922)

Pentecostal leader, William Seymour was a black Baptist preacher turned holiness advocate. A self-educated man, he worked as a waiter in Indianapolis and then moved to Cincinnati in 1900, where he came under the influence of Martin Knapp, the Methodist founder of the International Apostolic Holiness Union. Seymour then settled in temporarily when he traveled to Houston. He worked as an itinerant evangelist in association with other black Holiness advocates until he encountered Charles Parham’s short-term Houston Bible school and embraced Pentecostal teaching and adopted the view that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit was even greater than a second work of grace: it was a third work. (First comes salvation, then sanctification, then the baptism) (According to Reid et al. (1990:DCA).

Seymour left Houston late in January 1906 to accept an invitation to a black Holiness mission in Los Angeles. His advocacy of the view that tongues speech was always evidence in Spirit baptism resulted in his rejection at the mission. He conducted cottage meetings in a small house at 214 Bonnie Brae St, and on April 9, 1906, after five weeks of Seymour’s preaching and prayer, and three days into an intended 10-day fast, Edward S. Lee spoke in tongues for the first time. Lee’s testimony was shared at the next meeting by Seymour and he preached a sermon on Acts 2:4 and soon six others began to speak in tongues as well. Jennie Moore, who later became Seymour’s wife, also began speaking in tongues. On April 12, only a few days later, after praying all night long, Seymour spoke in tongues for the first time in recent research by (Marshall, 2006:April)

The moving of services to larger facilities in a rundown building as 312 Azusa Street was forced by large, interracial crowds. There the meetings continued daily, attracting numerous seekers from afar. Seymour’s activities between 1906 and 1909 were generally regarded as having effectively launched American Pentecostalism. After 1909 his influence rapidly waned and in 1911 the interracial character of the mission changed drastically according to Reid et al. (1990:DCA).

The Azusa Street Mission became a training ground for Pentecostal Missionaries, who were sent throughout the world to spread their doctrinal views. Seymour and Parham parted company after Seymour failed to heed Parham’s warnings about the dangerous excesses of his meetings.

The Azusa Street Revival.

The Pentecostalism as such emerged towards the end of the nineteenth century by three significant developments in the USA. Methodism increased the opposition to holiness teaching within the older denominations. This resulted in the formation of several distinct holiness churches. Belief in baptism in the Holy Ghost and fire as a third blessing became increasingly widespread. There was also a renewed interest in spiritual gifts, especially healing. The decisive step was taken at the turn of the century in Topeka, Kansas. That is where the doctrine was first formulated that “speaking with other tongues” was the initial evidence that a person had received the baptism with the Holy Spirit. (Other tongues were generally understood as the Holy Spirit speaking through a person’s speech organs in a language he does not know.) During the early 1900s this teaching began to gain scattered support in the southern states of the USA according to Dowley et al. (2002:646).

In 1906, invited by a Holiness church, Seymour went to Los Angeles. There he preached the new message in a former African Methodist Episcopal church building turned livery stable. That was where the world-wide Pentecostal revival began. People flocked to his church, which was mostly black, in Azusa Street. Their they received the Spirit and carried the message of Pentecost to fifty nations within two years. Although the Azusa Street revival did not originate the distinguishing traits of Pentecostal theology, it did capture the attention of many Christian leaders and popularized the Pentecostal experience in an unprecedented way. At Azusa Street, people of different races and social backgrounds “achieved a new sense of dignity and community in fully integrated Pentecostal services.” Synan stated that “directly or indirectly, practically all of the Pentecostal groups in existence can trace their lineage to the Azusa Mission” according to Elphick, et al. (1997:227).

The link between Spirit-baptism and tongues was the revival which began in Azusa Street. This three-year-long meeting was the launching-pad of twentieth-century Pentecostalism. Hundreds of Christians from all over North America, Europe and the Third World visited Azusa Street and took its message back with them. The fire spread quite rapidly, which resulted in the formation of many new churches. The Holiness groupings were also influenced and most of them either split over the new teaching on tongues or else became Pentecostal in doctrine according to Dowley et al. (2002:646).

The earliest Pentecostal pioneers to South Africa, for example, John G. Lake, were influenced by the Azusa Street revival. Much of the early theology of South African Pentecostalism was imported from the U.S. Lake revisited Azusa Street at least once to report to Seymour on events in South Africa. However, after about 1910, North American Pentecostalism had no further direct influence on the progress of Pentecostalism in South Africa according to Elphick, et al. (1997:227).

The Pentecostal Theological Aftermath.

Parham and Seymour were monumental figures in Pentecostalism.

Parham gave the movement its doctrine of tongues as evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and its view of the restoration of the apostolic faith in the latter times (more about that later).

Seymour intensified and popularized Parham’s views.

Every Pentecostal movement owes its origins directly or indirectly to the Azusa

The Characteristics of Pentecostalism.

As Pentecostalism progressed, five characteristics developed, and are still true of mainline denominational Pentecostalism:

Restorationist in Orientation

4.1.1Tenets of restorationism:

God is reviving the church, which lost her power historically.

He is restoring her first-century apostolic authority and power.

The sign of restoration revival is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual Manifestations

It is experience-oriented, which blurs the centrality of Scripture. Experience has become the measure of truth.

Spirituality is measured by the number or intensity of one’s encounters.

Prone toward Personalities

In addition to high profile, highly emotional preachers, the movement continues to generate a slate of Christian celebrities and personalities (e.g., musicians and actors).

It is theologically, doctrinally and Biblically thin.

It places a heavy emphasis on Pentecostal distinctive (healing, Baptism of Holy Spirit, tongues, Second coming of Christ).

Often other doctrines are virtually ignored.

Systematic biblical exposition is almost non-existent.

It says it desires unity in the church, but yet it tends to bring division.

What does Pentecostalism Believe?

For the most part, Pentecostalism is wholly orthodox in its beliefs as far as the major Christian doctrines are concerned. The only exception is the ‘Jesus Only’ churches in the USA. They hold a modalist view of God and only baptize in the name of Jesus. The United Pentecostal Church is the largest of these churches. Only about twenty-five percent of these Pentecostals in the USA are Unitarian. The one other major theological split within Pentecostalism concerns the question of whether baptism in the Spirit is a second or third work of grace. Almost all of the Pentecostal pioneers simply tacked a belief in Spirit – baptism as a third work. They believe in sanctification in a second work of grace. There was increasing support in the years after 1910 for the doctrine that sanctification is part of Christ’s “finished work” on the cross, and so part of conversion. North America’s Pentecostalism is split in about fifty-fifty on this issue. Foot washing is also regarded in some Pentecostal churches as being an obligatory as baptism and the Lord’s Supper according to Dowley et al. (2002:647).

Pentecostalists tend to see Christ in four roles: as Savior, Baptizer in the Spirit, Healer and soon-coming King. A very distinctive dogma is that tongues are the initial physical sign of Spirit-baptism (though some of the early pioneers were not so insistent on this). Healing evangelists have played a significant role in Pentecostalism’s expansion, and teaching on healing often still includes the unfortunate doctrine that all illness is the result of sin or lack of faith. Believing in demon possession is also general and exorcism is regularly practiced. The conviction that the second coming of Christ is at hand has caused strains between the generations-but the continued growth of Pentecostalism has constantly revitalized this hope according to Dowley et al. (2002:647).

Pentecostal worship is patterned on the model given in 1 Corinthians, chapters twelve to fourteen. The spiritual gifts mentioned there are regarded as the norm, and spoken contributions in a service will usually be understood as a ‘prophecy’, or a ‘word of wisdom’. Services are not necessarily without a structure and there will usually be a leader or pastor at the front. The attempt is usually made to observe Paul’s guidelines in 1 Corinthians, chapter fourteen. Worship in older (white) Pentecostal churches has often become stereotyped and in practice little different from that of many Protestant churches. One result of the increasing importance of a minister has been the formation of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International, an organization of ordinary Christians which has done much to spread Pentecostal ideas all over the world according to Dowley et al. (2002:647).

An Overview on some of the Pentecostal Movements and there theology.

According to Reid et al. (1990:DCA). “Pentecostalism is sometimes divided into two branches: “classical Pentecostalism,” indicating the movement’s historic bodies; and “neo-Pentecostalism” or the charismatic renewal, indicating more recent forms of Pentecostalism especially among the mainline churches. The lines of demarcation are not always clear, and the rather cumbersome title Pentecostal Movement is often used for the branches collectively.”

What is the Neo- Pentecostal movement?

According to Sproul in The Mystery of the Holy Spirit (1990) “Neo-Pentecostalism refers to a modification in teaching with respect to classical Pentecostal theology. The “Neo-” or “New” Pentecostalism has a far broader base than merely being located in the Pentecostal church as such. In the original Pentecostal denominations the baptism of the Holy Spirit was linked to a concept of sanctification that was integral to the so-called Holiness movement.”

Neo-Pentecostal doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The textual records of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts form the foundation for the Neo-Pentecostal doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. According to Sproul in The Mystery of the Holy Spirit (1990) a pattern emerges from the historical narrative that indicates the following:

People were believers and thus born of the Spirit prior to their baptism of the Holy Spirit. This indicates that there must be a distinction between the Spirit’s work in baptizing and Spirit’s work of regeneration.

There is a time gap between faith (regeneration) and Holy Spirit baptism. This clearly indicates that while some Christians have the Holy Spirit to the degree that they are regenerate, they may still lack the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is subsequent.

The initial outward evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues.

The Characterics of Neo-Pentecostal.

Popularized a doctrine of salvation that included physical health and healing as an essential part of the believer’s deliverance. By 1940 the central focus of revival meetings was the moment of miracle. (When the “miracle event” occurred in the meeting) Responsible church leaders (especially Assemblies of God) were appalled and disgusted by the outlandish claims and personality cults emerging from this new emphasis. They have questionable motives and methods of fundraising. They taught not only physical but financial healing and were powerful money raisers. They taught a distorted view of faith like: Faith = a power or force with which Christians could supposedly “move things” – even the God of the universe and made God an impersonal responder to man’s wishes. They robbed him of His divine sovereignty, and His loving prerogative to say no to His children when it’s in their best interest. Preoccupation with Satan, demons, and spiritual warfare. Incessant boasting of new revelations. Anti-intellectual spirits. The Holy Spirit will teach you all things, so why burden yourself with academics? Despite all that, the movement was generally viewed as indicative a deeper work of the Holy Spirit.

Founder of modern Pentecostalism

There was no founder of modern Pentecostalism. Instead, isolated Christian groups were experiencing charismatic phenomenon such as speaking in tongues. The Wesleyan holiness movement provided a theological explanation for what was happening to these Christians. They adapted the Wesleyan two stage theology to accommodate their three stage understanding: 1) saved by grace, 2) emptied or sanctified, 3) filled with the Spirit (Menzies & William, 2007:90).

The Latter Day Rain Movement.

The movement began in Saskatchewan, Canada. At the Sharon Orphanage and Schools in February 1948, some students came under the power of God, with a prophecy given about a great work of God about to take place. Within two days several miraculous healings occurred. Brothers George and Ern Hawtin, both employees at Sharon, led revival meetings in Vancouver, British Columbia, and people from across the U.S. and Canada attended. Those attending took the news of the revival back home, spreading the flame just as had occurred with the Azusa Street revival forty years earlier. This movement emphasized the “blaze of prophetic light” that had come upon the church, with God working through “prophets and apostles of His own choosing.” Many pastors who identified with the movement were outcaste from their churches, as occurs in all renewals. The early Pentecostal revival had been called the Latter Rain by some people (Lang & Stephen, 1999:110).

The Latter Day Rain Development and Influence.

In 1948, the Neo-Pentecostal deliverance movement gave birth to the Latter Rain Movement.

Formally called The New Order of The Latter Rain.

Taught that God was progressively restoring first century truths to the church, beginning with the Reformation. The Latter Rain movement would usher in a complete restoration of first-century truths.

The significance of their doctrinal positions in that their influence on the contemporary Charismatic Movement is clear.

The theological Distinctive of the Latter Day Rain Movement.

According to (Moriarty, 1992:60-62).

Restorations. Since the Reformation, God has been progressively restoring truths to the church. These restored truths include justification by faith (Martin Luther), water baptism by immersion (the Anabaptists), holiness (John Wesley), divine healing (A.B. Simpson and John Alexander Dowie), and the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Azusa Street Revival), followed by a flurry of restored truths emerging from God’s final move: The Latter Rain.

Fivefold Ministry The belief that apostles and prophets are being restored to the church, making the fivefold ascension gifts recorded in Eph. 4:11 fully operational. Without all five offices (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher) functioning in the Body of Christ the church cannot be fully effective.

Spiritual Disciplines Various disciplines like deliverance (the casting out of evil spirits to free the believer from sickness, sin, and demonic influences), fasting (going without food for long periods of time to liberate the body from sickness, fatigue, and human weakness), and the laying on of hands (a ritual performed by anointed leaders to impart the Holy Spirit and other spiritual blessings and gifts) were all viewed as necessary elements to restore the church to its New Testament brilliance.

Prophecy The view that the practice of personal prophecy is being restored to the church. No longer would Prophecy be restricted to general words of exhortation only, but would include personal detailed revelations for guidance and instruction.

Recovery of True Worship The belief that God’s manifested presence is dependent upon a certain order of worship involving singing in tongues, clapping, shouting, singing prophecies, and a new order of praise dancing.

Immortalization of the Saints The belief that only those believers moving in the truth of Latter Rain restoration, not necessarily all in the churches will attain an immortal state before Christ returns.

Unity of the Faith The doctrine that the church will attain unity of the faith before Christ returns. (Moriarty, 1992:60-62).

A Brief look at more Pentecostal Movements

The Charismatic Movement (Renewal)-

April 3, 1960, Father Dennis Bennett of St. Mark’s Episcopal parish in Van Nuys, California, announced to his congregation that he had received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with accompanying the gift of tongues.

The Positive Confession Movement-

“That promulgating positive confession theology teaches that believers can bring into existence what they state with their tongue, since faith is a confession and the tongue is a force. Many contemporary evangelists push this doctrine as a key to health, wealth and happiness.” (Moriarty, 1992:78). Originated with E.W. Kenyon: A controversial pastor, evangelist, and author. Influenced by the teachings of Charles Wesley Emerson at Emerson College, which embraced New Thought Metaphysics (which teaches that true reality is spiritual, that the spiritual is the cause of all physical effects, and that the human mind through positive mental attitude and positive confession has the power to create its own reality: either health and wealth, or sickness and poverty). Kenyon was not a Pentecostal, but was widely read by them.

The Positive Confession Movement Theological Distinctive.

Promoter of divine healing linked bodily healing to the strength of one’s confessions. They believed that Christ’s death provided healing and prosperity to all believers. All they simply had to do was to confess that it is true. They also taught that Jesus Christ was imputed with Satan’s nature on the cross, died spiritually, and went to hell to suffer in our place. His theological legacy includes four cardinal doctrines of the Word of Faith (Positive Confession) movement: Guaranteed health; Guaranteed wealth and prosperity; the spiritual death of Christ and Christians are little gods.

The New Charismatic.

“The doctrinal system driving the new Charismatic’s is essentially a synthesis of the various strands of teaching gleaned from Pentecostalism, the neo-Pentecostal deliverance revival, the Latter Rain movement, the charismatic movement, the Manifested Sons of God, the positive confession movement, and similar fringe movement, and fashioned into a systematic doctrine centred around the concept of restorations.”

Conclusion

Neo-Pentecostals were content to take over Pentecostal theology in the 1960s in large measure and gave speaking in tongues a Pentecostal prominence. But the widening of the charismatic movement since the 1960s has brought with it a questioning of the classic Pentecostal categories, a desire to formulate the theology of the ‘Pentecostal experience’ more carefully and a renewed concern to let the life of the Spirit be expressed in new forms of community. Those belonging to classic Pentecostalism are still wary of the new developments. But in recent years many leaders of national churches have moved from a cautious ‘No commen