My beliefs: I am a Pentecostal whose belief is faith that is the only way to please God. I speak out in faith over my situations with the promises from Gods word. Beliefs.: Pentecostalism is an evangelical faith, emphasizing the reliability of the Bible and the need for the transformation of an individuals life through faith in Jesus. Like other evangelicals, Pentecostals generally adhere to the Bibles divine inspiration and inerrancy—the belief that the Bible, in the original languages in which it was written, is infallible. Pentecostals emphasize the teaching of the full gospel or foursquare gospel. The term 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. Salvation: The central belief of Pentecostalism is that through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, sins can be forgiven and humanity reconciled with God. This is the Gospel or good news. The fundamental requirement of Pentecostalism is that one be born again. The new birth is received by the grace of God through faith in Christ and acceptance of him as personal Lord and Savior. In being born again, the believer is regenerated, justified, adopted into the family of God, and the Holy Spirits work of sanctification is initiated. Baptism with the Holy Spirit: This is an empowering experience distinct from baptism into the body of Christ. The majority of Pentecostals believe that at the moment a person is born again, the new believer has the presence (indwelling) of the Holy Spirit. While the Spirit dwells in every Christian, Pentecostals believe that all Christians should seek to be filled with him. The Spirits filling, falling upon, coming upon, or being poured out upon believers is called the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals define it as a definite experience occurring after salvation whereby the Holy Spirit comes upon the believer to anoint and empower him or her for special service. It has also been described as a baptism into the love of God. The main purpose of the experience is to grant power for Christian service. Other purposes include power for spiritual warfare (the Christian struggles against spiritual enemies and thus requires spiritual power), power for overflow (the believers experience of the presence and power of God in his or her life flows out into the lives of others), and power for ability (to follow divine direction, to face persecution, to exercise spiritual gifts for the edification of the church, etc.). Some teach that any of the gifts of the Spirit can be evidence of having received Spirit baptism. Other immediate evidences include giving God praise, having joy, and desiring to testify about Jesus. Enduring or permanent results in the believers life include Christ glorified and revealed in a greater way, a deeper passion for souls, greater power to witness to nonbelievers, a more effective prayer life, greater love for and insight into the Bible, and the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit. While the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a definite experience in a believers life, Pentecostals view it as just the beginning of living a Spirit-filled life. Pentecostal teaching stresses the importance of continually being filled with the Spirit. There is only one baptism with the Spirit, but there should be many infillings with the Spirit throughout the believers life. Divine healing Pentecostalism is a holistic faith, and the belief that Jesus is Healer is one quarter of the full gospel. Pentecostals cite four major reasons for believing in divine healing: it is reported in the Bible, Jesus healing ministry is included in his atonement (thus divine healing is part of salvation), the whole gospel is for the whole person—spirit, soul, and body, sickness is a consequence of the Fall of Man and salvation is ultimately the restoration of the fallen world. In the words of Pentecostal scholar Vernon L. Purdy, Because sin leads to human suffering, it was only natural for the Early Church to understand the ministry of Christ as the alleviation of human suffering, since he was Gods answer to sin ... The restoration of fellowship with God is the most important thing, but this restoration not only results in spiritual healing but many times in physical healing as well. It appears from Scripture that when we are sick we should be prayed for, and as we shall see later in this chapter, it appears that Gods normal will is to heal. Instead of expecting that it is not Gods will to heal us, we should pray with faith, trusting that God cares for us and that the provision He has made in Christ for our healing is sufficient. If He does not heal us, we will continue to trust Him. The victory many times will be procured in faith (see Heb. 10:35-36; 1 John 5:4-5). Pentecostals believe that prayer is central in receiving healing. Pentecostals look to scriptures such as James 5:13–16 for direction regarding healing prayer. One can pray for ones own healing (verse 13) and for the healing of others (verse 16); no special gift or clerical status is necessary. Verses 14–16 supply the framework for congregational healing prayer. The sick person expresses his or her faith by calling for the elders of the church who pray over and anoint the sick with olive oil. The oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Besides prayer, there are other ways in which Pentecostals believe healing can be received. One way is based on Mark 16:17–18 and involves believers laying hands on the sick. This is done in imitation of Jesus who often healed in this manner. Another method that is found in some Pentecostal churches is based on the account in Acts 19:11–12 where people were healed when given handkerchiefs or aprons worn by the Apostle Paul. This practice is described by Duffield and Van Cleave in Foundations of Pentecostal Theology: Christian eschatology The last element of the fourfold gospel is that Jesus is the Soon Coming King. For Pentecostals, every moment is eschatological since at any time Christ may return. This personal and imminent Second Coming is for Pentecostals the motivation for practical Christian living including: personal holiness, meeting together for worship, faithful Christian service, and evangelism (both personal and worldwide). Many, if not the majority, of Pentecostals are premillennial dispensationalists believing in a pre-tribulation rapture. Spiritual gifts Pentecostals are continuationalists, meaning they believe that all of the spiritual gifts, including the miraculous or sign gifts, found in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 12:27-31, Romans 12:3-8, and Ephesians 4:7-16 continue to operate within the Church in the present time.[48] Pentecostals place the gifts of the Spirit in context with the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is the result of the new birth and continuing to abide in Christ. It is by the fruit exhibited that spiritual character is assessed. Spiritual gifts are received as a result of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. As gifts freely given by the Holy Spirit, they cannot be earned or merited, and they are not appropriate criteria with which to evaluate ones spiritual life or maturity. Pentecostals see in the biblical writings of Paul an emphasis on having both character and power, exercising the gifts in love. Just as fruit should be evident in the life of every Christian, Pentecostals believe that every Spirit-filled believer is given some capacity for the manifestation of the Spirit. It is important to note that the exercise of a gift is a manifestation of the Spirit, not of the gifted person, and though the gifts operate through people, they are primarily gifts given to the Church. They are valuable only when they minister spiritual profit and edification to the body of Christ. Pentecostal writers point out that the lists of spiritual gifts in the New Testament do not seem to be exhaustive. It is generally believed that there are as many gifts as there are useful ministries and functions in the Church. A spiritual gift is often exercised in partnership with another gift. For example, in a Pentecostal church service, the gift of tongues might be exercised followed by the operation of the gift of interpretation. According to Pentecostals, all manifestations of the Spirit are to be judged by the church. This is made possible, in part, by the gift of discerning of spirits, which is the capacity for discerning the source of a spiritual manifestation—whether from the Holy Spirit, an evil spirit, or from the human spirit.[52] While Pentecostals believe in the current operation of all the spiritual gifts within the church, their teaching on some of these gifts has generated more controversy and interest than others. There are different ways in which the gifts have been grouped. W.R. Jones[53] suggests three categories, illumination (Word of Wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits), action (Faith, working of miracles and gifts of healings) and communication (Prophecy, tongues and interpretation of tongues). Duffield and Van Cleave use two categories: the vocal and the power gifts. Vocal gifts The gifts of prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, and words of wisdom and knowledge are called the vocal gifts. Pentecostals look to 1 Corinthians 14 for instructions on the proper use of the spiritual gifts, especially the vocal ones. Pentecostals believe that prophecy is the vocal gift of preference, a view derived from 1 Corinthians 14. Some teach that the gift of tongues is equal to the gift of prophecy when tongues are interpreted. Prophetic and glossolalic utterances are not to replace the preaching of the Word of God nor to be considered as equal to or superseding the written Word of God Word of wisdom and Word of knowledge Pentecostals understand the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge to be supernatural revelations of wisdom and knowledge by the Holy Spirit. The word of wisdom is defined as a revelation of the Holy Spirit that applies scriptural wisdom to a specific situation that a Christian community faces. The word of knowledge is often defined as the ability of one person to know what God is currently doing or intends to do in the life of another person. Prophecy Pentecostals agree with the Protestant principle of sola Scriptura. The Bible is the all sufficient rule for faith and practice; it is fixed, finished, and objective revelation. Alongside this high regard for the authority of scripture is a belief that the gift of prophecy continues to operate within the Church. Pentecostal theologians Duffield and van Cleave described the gift of prophecy in the following manner: Normally, in the operation of the gift of prophecy, the Spirit heavily anoints the believer to speak forth to the body not premeditated words, but words the Spirit supplies spontaneously in order to uplift and encourage, incite to faithful obedience and service, and to bring comfort and consolation. Tongues and interpretation A Pentecostal believer in a spiritual experience may vocalize fluent, unintelligible utterances (glossolalia) or articulate a natural language previously unknown to them (xenoglossy). Commonly termed speaking in tongues, this vocal phenomenon is believed by Pentecostals to include an endless variety of languages. According to Pentecostal theology, the language spoken may be an unlearned human language, such as the Bible claims happened on the Day of Pentecost, or it might be of heavenly (angelic) origin. In the first case, tongues could work as a sign by which witness is given to the unsaved. In the second case, tongues are used for praise and prayer when the mind is superseded and the speaker in tongues speaks to God, speaks mysteries, and ... no one understands him. Besides acting as a prayer language, tongues also function as the gift of tongues. Not all Spirit-filled believers possess the gift of tongues. Its purpose is for gifted persons to publicly speak with God in praise, to pray or sing in the Spirit, or to speak forth in the congregation. There is a division among Pentecostals on the relationship between the gifts of tongues and prophecy.[69] One school of thought believes that the gift of tongues is always directed from man to God, in which case it is always prayer or praise spoken to God but in the hearing of the entire congregation for encouragement and consolation. Another school of thought believes that the gift of tongues can be prophetic, in which case the believer delivers a message in tongues—a prophetic utterance given under the influence of the Holy Spirit—to a congregation Power gifts The gifts of power are distinct from the vocal gifts in that they do not involve utterance. Included in this category are the gift of faith, gifts of healing, and the gift of miracles.The gift of faith (sometimes called special faith) is different from saving faith and normal Christian faith in its degree and application. This type of faith is a manifestation of the Spirit granted only to certain individuals in times of special crisis or opportunity and endues them with a divine certainty ... that triumphs over everything. It is sometimes called the faith of miracles and is fundamental to the operation of the other two power gifts. Worship Spontaneity is a characteristic element of Pentecostal worship. This was especially true in the movements earlier history, when anyone could initiate a song, chorus, or spiritual gift. Even as Pentecostalism has become more organized and formal, with more control exerted over services,[78] the concept of spontaneity has retained an important place within the movement and continues to inform stereotypical imagery, such as the derogatory holy roller. The phrase Quench not the Spirit, derived from 1 Thessalonians 5:19, is used commonly and captures the thought behind Pentecostal spontaneity. Prayer plays an important role in Pentecostal worship. Collective oral prayer, whether glossolalic or in the vernacular or a mix of both, is common. While praying, individuals may lay hands on a person in need of prayer, or they may raise their hands in response to biblical commands (1 Timothy 2:8). The raising of hands (which itself is a revival of the ancient orans posture) is an example of some Pentecostal worship practices that have been widely adopted by the larger Christian world. Pentecostal musical and liturgical practice have also played an influential role in shaping contemporary worship trends, with Pentecostal churches such as Hillsong Church being the leading producers of congregational music. Several spontaneous practices have become characteristic of Pentecostal worship. Being slain in the Spirit or falling under the power is a form of prostration in which a person falls backwards, as if fainting, while being prayed over. It is at times accompanied by glossolalic prayer; at other times, the person is silent It is believed by Pentecostals to be caused by an overwhelming experience of the presence of God,and Pentecostals sometimes receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit in this posture. Another spontaneous practice is dancing in the Spirit. This is when a person leaves their seat spontaneously dancing with eyes closed without bumping into nearby persons or objects. It is explained as the worshipper becoming so enraptured with Gods presence that the Spirit takes control of physical motions as well as the spiritual and emotional being. Pentecostals derive biblical precedent for dancing in worship from 2 Samuel 6, where David danced before the Lord. In some Pentecostal churches, these spontaneous expressions are primarily found in revival meetings or special prayer meetings, being rare or non-existent in the main services.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 20:57:00 +0000
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