PENTECOSTALISM - CHALLENGES OF THE TEETHING BABY 1. RACISM At inception the Pentecostal revival at Azusa encountered a serious racial challenge. The two names associated with the beginning of Pentecostalism were of two different social classes. At the time when racial segregation was at the peak in the United States of America, Charles Fox Perham ran a Bible College called Bethel in Topeka where Agnes Ozman had spoken in tongues on 1st January, 1901. This sparked a renewed belief in Perham that New Testament Christianity was to be the experience of the Church at all times and that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit was to be sought for accompanied with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues. Perham extended his Bethel Bible College to Houston, Texas in 1905 where he met William Joseph Seymour who was to become the father of Pentecostalism and the human figure behind the Azusa Street Revival. However, Mr. Perham was himself sympathetic towards the racial segregation; in short he had racist tendencies. When the revival broke out in 1906, it interrupted the social barriers with thousands of people both whites, colored and blacks gathered in one place and experiencing God’s power together. Perham visited Azusa and took great offence at the mixture of race that characterized the revival. He had no good words for the movement. He described it as a “darkey revival” (meaning it was a revival of darkness) and accused those under its influence as practicing animism (Towns and Porter 2000: 39). Earlier in 1905 Perham had denied Seymour entry into his lecture rooms simply because of his skin color. Seymour was forced to attend Bethel Bible School for the whole year from out-side -pepping through a window. Seymour is a testimony of how God uses the despised things of this world to confound the wise. 2. OPPOSITION FROM MAINLINE CHURCH GROUPS Preceding the Pentecostal Revival of the 20th Century were the revivals of the 17th to the 19th century. The Holiness Movement, the Methodist Movement, the Great Awakenings, the Moravian Movements and the Ana Baptist Movement had preceded the Pentecostal Revival. But the mother of these movements that largely began to emerge after 1500 AD was the Reformation pioneered by the likes of Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, Philip Melanchton, John Calvin and others at the beginning of the 16th Century (1500AD). These great reformers broke away from the Roman Catholic Church after they could not agree on a number of theological issues to establish what is commonly known as the Protestant Movement. Protestants have from inception emphasized the authority of the Bible over anything else and have held that the Holy Scriptures are the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament. Catholics include the Apocrypha books in their canon. The substantive theological persuasion of the Protestants is referred to as evangelicalism. Hence, Pentecostals are substantially evangelicals and historically Protestants. However, what distinguishes Pentecostals from other evangelicals is their theology of the Holy Spirit and their seeming emphasis on what looks like mysticism. The Pentecostal beliefs in falling under the power of the Holy Spirit, exorcism, faith healing, general glossolalia (speaking in tongues) and ambitious pursuit of charismatic gifts proved to be very offensive to main-line Protestant Churches. As such they stood opposed to the revival at Azusa. The Pentecostal Movement was viewed as a cult establishment that had emerged in the character of other cults like the Church of Jesus Christ for Latter Day Saints (Mormonism), the Seventh Day Adventist Church, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Christian Science. The 19th century had seen the rise of other Christian groups in the United States of America like the ones stated above. These groups emphasize certain theological elements that are not favorable to the evangelicals. As such evangelicals regard those groups as cults. Pentecostalism was in its early days viewed by a wide section of Protestants and Catholics as just one of those cults. But today Pentecostalism is widely acceptable by its Protestant counterparts as a vital part of the Christian Church. Pentecostal beliefs have even penetrated the Catholic Church, Anglican and other Protestant Churches through the Charismatic Awakening. 3. MODALISM VERSES TRINITARIANISM Another challenge to Pentecostalism at inception was how various participants in the revival understood the doctrine of the Godhead. A section of Pentecostals maintained a modalistic view of the Godhead, as such they denied the Trinity. They contended that God does not eternally exist as three persons but one; but that He manifests himself within three economies. According to modalistic Pentecostals God has revealed Himself as creator in the Old Testament, Redeemer in the New Testament (Jesus) and now He as the Holy Spirit. Hence, as far as they are concerned the three are manifestations and not persons. The Pentecostals who held to this view later (around 1915) established what is known as the Oneness Pentecostal Movement. The United Pentecostal Church in America and the William Brenham’s End Time Message Tabernacle Churches are among the good examples of the Oneness Pentecostal Churches. One great distinctive feature of Oneness Pentecostalism is their Baptismal Formula. Oneness Pentecostals insist on baptizing in the name of Jesus only as opposed to baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They quote Acts 2:38 to authenticate this. They insist that Apostles in the book of Acts baptized in the name of Jesus only. The Oneness Pentecostal Movement is still a very large Christian grouping in the United States of America. Popular Tele-evangelists Bishop T.D. Jakes and Bishop Noel Jones are some great examples of Oneness Pentecostalism. Both Jakes and Jones had contacts with Oneness Pentecostalism before they established their congregational churches. Although the two have attempted to reach a compromise on their understanding of the Trinity – they still maintain a great modalistic bias. According to Jones “God reveals Himself in three revelatory expressions” while Jakes maintains his reluctance to refer to the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit as persons; he would rather maintain the designation ‘manifestations.’ On the other hand Trinitarian Pentecostals were established under the organized system of the Assemblies of God in 1914 (The Pentecostal Assemblies of God – Zambia and the Assemblies of God – AG spring from there). The Pentecostal Assemblies of God – Zambia (PAOG) is the largest Pentecostal denominational in Zambia and was established by the missionary efforts of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) while the Assemblies of God was established by American Missionaries. The Church of God is another good example of Trinitarian Pentecostals. Trinitarian Pentecostals maintain the evangelical position on the Trinity. They maintain that God eternally exists in three persons as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Most Pentecostals in Zambia are Trinitarian. 4. SPIRITUAL SUBJECTIVITY One major challenge of Pentecostalism has been spiritual subjectivity. From inception the movement started with an experience and went back to the Bible for appeal. As such there has been a number of practices that fail to find strong biblical backing but they are attributed to the Holy Spirit. Experiences like ‘holy laughter,’ ‘falling under the power,’ and the compulsory use of anointing oil for purposes other praying for the sick fail to find a strong biblical backing when subjected to proper biblical hermeneutics. Moreover, practices that border on spiritual subjectivism are also never stable. They are here today and tomorrow they are abandoned. This creates another challenge – a theology on the move. 5. A THEOLOGY ON THE MOVE Pentecostals have a tendency to embrace new things without subjecting them to proper biblical critique. There is a general belief among Pentecostals that God is working in new ways at all times. But the danger is that it seems that when new things pop up, the old things are abandoned. Moreover, most of the so called new revelations have in so many ways failed to match up with the New Testament Christianity that Pentecostalism was initially established on. From the beginning there was a theological lift between those who embraced Unitarianism and the Trinitarians. But even more challenging is the practices advanced by those who claim to receive special revelations from God. People like William Brenham, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinny among others have at times propagated unbiblical teachings on the basis that the Holy Spirit revealed it to them. As such some Pentecostal concepts keep changing from one thing to the other. From ‘holy laughter’ under the Toronto Blessing to ‘seed sowing’ under Kenneth Hagin and now to ‘handkerchiefs and water’ in African Pentecostalism. There are also other groups/moves associated with Pentecostalism which might have variances on various theological issues. The Charismatic Movement, the Word-Faith Movement (Prosperity Theology), the Sprit/Miracle Movement in Africa, etc are all substantially Pentecostal. This compounds the difficulty of providing a uniform theological persuasion for the movement. There are too many groups that view themselves as Pentecostals but they are not accountable to any established Christian denomination. As such the theology of such groups is determined by the feelings and convictions of one person – the founder of the ministry. In Zambia, Pentecostal churches or groups associated with Pentecostalism with name tags like ‘ministry,’ ‘fellowship,’ ‘embassy,’ etc exceed 1,000. Pentecostalism continues to expand rapidly around the world but it lacks a proper theological consensus on many issues. However, Classical Pentecostals, mostly found within the Assemblies of God have taken a strong stance against some latest trends of new Pentecostals and maintained more evangelical positions on a number of doctrinal issues. The major challenge of Pentecostalism is its constant movement from one trend to the other. PENTECOSTALS ARE CHALLENGED TO RE-VISIT THEIR THEOLOGY AND SHOW THE WORLD WHAT THEY TRULY STAND FOR. THERE IS NEED FOR PENTECOSTALS TO CLARIFY WHETHER THE BIBLE IS THEIR ULTIMATE AUTHORITY OF THEIR FAITH OR NOT. I SAY SO BECAUSE, WHAT PENTECOSTALS REFER TO AS ‘THE LEADING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’ OR ‘THE RHEMA WORD’ SEEMS TO OVERRIDE BIBLICAL AUTHORITY. MAIN-LINE EVANGELICALS HAVE MADE IT CLEAR THAT THEY BELIEVE IN ‘SOLA SCRIPTURA’ THAT’S THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE ALONE. CATHOLICS ARE ALSO CLEAR ABOUT THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE AND THE TRADITION OF THE CHURCH. CAN PENTECOSTALS MAKE IT CLEAR – ARE THEY SOLA SCRIPTURA OR ARE THEY SCRIPTURE AND THE LEADING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT? THERE IS NEED FOR PENTECOSTALS TO CLARIFY THEIR BELIEF AND APPROACH TO THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE. THE NEXT ISSUE SHALL DEAL WITH THE COMING OF PENTECOSTALISM TO ZAMBIA. BLESS YOU ALL.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 11:30:03 +0000
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