In my younger days I attended a traditional, mainline church – but in the early 1960s the arrival of the New Curriculum into the denomination not only opened the door to new and modern biblical scholarship — it also opened the door for me to walk out.
A short time later, through a series of events, I found myself in a Pentecostal church – where when it came to the Holy Spirit, I was like those in Acts 19. "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."
My theological understanding has sharpened since my earlier novice years. A full member of the Trinity — co-equal, co-essential, co-eternal with God the Father and God the Son, the Holy Spirit is clearly distinguished from the Father and the Son. And though the members of the Trinity are one in being, they are different in position and function, each with a special work to do that does not overlap the work of the other.
I Corinthians 12:4-6 “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.”
2 Corinthians 13:14 “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
Just before Jesus was crucified, he re-assured his disciples in John 14:16-17 …
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
My Greek classes at seminary prove helpful here, since that word “another” has only one of two possible meanings. Either it means ‘another’ of a different kind (heteros) or ‘another’ of the same kind (allos). Here it emphatically teaches another of the same kind. So Jesus says that when He goes away, He is going to send one exactly like Himself who would possess all of the faculties of a Person. This is precisely what happened in Acts Chapter 2.
On January 1, 1901, with a new century before the world, Pope Leo 13, spoke from the Vatican, invoking the Holy Spirit by singing the hymn “Veni Creator Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit Creator) – and dedicating the 20th century to the Holy Spirit.
On the same day that Leo 13 was inviting the Holy Spirit to ‘Come’, on the other side of the world, in a Topeka, Kansas Bible school, students in Charles Parham’s class were experiencing a Pentecostal ‘arrival’ outpouring when 30 year old Agnes N. O. Ozman (La Berg) was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak ‘in tongues’. The Pentecostal / Charismatic century was off and it’s been running ever since.
Pentecostalism is certainly not one great big single movement. Extremely diverse, often difficult to define theologically, their shared charismatic experiences bind them together. Still, there are lots of streams that came together to form modern day Pentecostalism, many of them reaching back into the 18th – 19th centuries.
Influence of 18th Century Methodism
Revival was spreading throughout Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England — under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield. In England, John Wesley (1703 – 1791), an Anglican clergyman who later founded the Methodist Church was also influenced by this call to repentance and holiness.
Wesley believed that when you were ‘Born Again’ sin was not completely removed from your life, but there was a “2nd blessing” available from God where you could be instantly sanctified – and be free from sin (labelled Entire Sanctification, Christian Perfection). Later, Phoebe Palmer, (1807 – 1874) a devout Methodist Evangelist and one of the founders of the Holiness Movement in the U.S. and the Keswickian Higher Life Movement in England would teach that the second work of grace (Sanctification) took place through Spirit baptism.
Though Pentecostals do not believe in instantaneous sanctification, Wesley’s stress on a life of Christian holiness through the work of the Holy Spirit became a hallmark of Pentecostal theology and living. Nearly all of the first generation of Pentecostal leaders came out of this Wesleyan Holiness environment. This is our family tree!
Speaking of the Methodists [I couldn’t resist this], they had a great fondness for singing, a distinctive I immediately noticed when I came into the Pentecostal denomination. Reflecting on how Methodists love to sing, one observer wrote:
“But nobody sings like them . . . If you were to ask an audience in New York City, a relatively Methodist-less place, to sing along on the chorus of 'Michael Row Your Boat Ashore' they would look daggers at you as if you had asked them to strip to their underwear. But if you do this with Methodists, they'd smile and row that boat ashore and up on the beach! And down the road!"
Influence of 19th Century Revivals
Included in the family tree of Pentecostalism is the tremendous impact of the Second Great Awakening, a revival movement which started around 1790 and carried through to the late 1870s. To give your spiritual taste buds a treat, consider two particularly noteworthy examples.
(1) Cane Ridge Revival, Kentucky, 1801
In 1801, Barton Warren Stone was a Presbyterian pastor of the churches in Cane Ridge Concord, Kentucky. Deeply troubled by the decline and disinterest in Christianity around him, one night he visited a nearby revival meeting in Logan County, conducted by James McGready. McGready had come to the county in 1798 to pastor three congregations: Red River, Gaspar River and Muddy River and was known for his fiery preaching. While there, Stone says, "God 'struck' two acquaintances" during the meeting. “I sat with them until they revived.”
“I sat with them until they revived.”
Stone went home that night determined to hold his own revival meeting in August of that year and fight what one person had called the growing ‘Egyptian darkness’. When he did, revival fire fell. One attendee said to a friend in Baltimore that he was on his way to ‘the greatest meeting of its kind ever known’.
In the days ahead, through the smoke of burning torches and the sweat of exuberant preaching, Cane Ridge saw amazing demonstrations of God’s power released through the work of the Holy Spirit. Listen to Stone describe one such experience:
“In less than twenty minutes, scores had fallen to the ground-- paleness, trembling, and anxiety appeared in all-- some attempted to fly from the scene panic stricken, but they either fell, or returned immediately to the crowd, as unable to get away.
In the midst of this exercise, an intelligent deist in the neighborhood, stepped up to me, and said, Mr. Stone, I always thought before that you were an honest man; but now I am convinced you are deceiving the people. I viewed him with pity, and mildly spoke a few words to him-- immediately he fell as a dead man, and rose no more till he confessed the Saviour. [‘The Biography of Eld Barton Warren Stone’, written by himself. Published by J.A, and U.P. James, 1847 in ‘The Cane Ridge Reader’, by B.W. Stone. Pub. 1972.]
Stone said he saw people run, roll, sing, dance, jerk, fall down, and groan as they were touched by the Holy Spirit. One participant describing the high-spirited sermons, the sung hymns and mournful groans and wailing, said, “It was like the roar of Niagara.” And the din continued for it seemed the divine momentum could not be stopped. Some criticized what they saw, but Stone was fully persuaded that it was the work of the Holy Spirit that moved scoffers to Christ and Christians to a holy life. “People should not speak lightly of what they know nothing about” he said.
It was this revival that gave birth to the phrase ‘Camp Meeting’ and by the time the camp meeting revival was over, upwards of 80,000 – 100,000 people had felt the effects of the Cane Ridge Revival. It literally transformed a Presbyterian service into a Methodist camp meeting that burned off and on for almost 200 years. Today Pentecostals look back to Cane Ridge as part of their spiritual heritage. This is our family tree!
(2) Charles Finney (1792-1875) Revivals
One of the most identifiable persons associated with 19th century revivalism and who is considered part of the Pentecostal tree, was a 29-year-old lawyer, named Charles Finney.
On a Wednesday morning in October, on his way to the office, he experienced a divine moment. Rushing to some nearby woods to hide his concern that someone would see him praying, there in the brush Finney received Christ. Later that same evening he received the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
“As I turned and was about to take a seat by the fire, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost. Without any expectation of it . . . the Holy Ghost descended on me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going through and through me... It seemed like the very breath of God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me, like immense wings.
. . . I literally bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my heart. The waves came over me, and over me, one after the other, until I recollect, I cried out, "I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me." I said, "Lord, I cannot bear any more . . .”
“How long I continued in this state, with this baptism continuing to roll over me and go through me, I do not know. But I know it was late in the evening when a member of my choir--came into the office to see me in this state of loud weeping, and said to me, "Mr. Finney, what ails you?" I could make him no answer for some time. He then said, "Are you in pain?" I gathered myself up as best I could, and replied, "No, but so happy that I cannot live." [Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney, New York: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1876 pp. 20-21]
The influence of Charles Finney was to become so powerful that to this day he is called The Father of Modern Revivalism – with over 500,000 people converted through his preaching. Emotional in his preaching, no other revivalist of his day was as effective and controversial as Finney. While preaching, he would call out sinners by name. He even threw out the church clock. Bet you had to sit down when you read that!.
Everywhere Finney went it was either revival or riot.
It was like the Book of Acts all over again.
Finney is probably best known for his Revival Lectures, and he did not mince words when talking about the importance of receiving the infilling of the Holy Spirit: “It is their duty to be filled with the Spirit.” In his writings Finney gives 9 reasons why many do not have the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Here is reason # 8.
“The fact is that you do not, on the whole, desire the Spirit . . . You find that if you wish to have the Spirit of God dwell with you, you must lead a different life; you must give up the world; you must make sacrifices; you must break off from your worldly associates, and make confession of your sins. And so, on the whole, you do not wish to have the Spirit come, unless He will consent to dwell with you and let you live as you please. But that He will never do.” (Charles Finney, Revival Lectures. Lecture VII, p. 112)
Wherever Finney went physical manifestation of the Holy Spirit were in his wake.
In Utica, New York, when he visited a large factory, at the sight of Finney, one after another, the machine operators broke down and wept under a sense of their sins. So many were sobbing and weeping that the machinery had to be stopped while he pointed them to Christ.
In a town called Sodom, in New York State, Finney preached in a school house about the Old Testament City of Sodom before God destroyed it. He writes . . .
"I had not spoken in this strain more than a quarter of an hour, when an awful solemnity seemed to settle upon them; the congregation began to fall from their seats in every direction, and cried for mercy.
If I had had a sword in each hand, I could not have cut them down as fast as they fell. Nearly the whole congregation were either on their knees or prostrate, I should think, in less than two minutes from the first shock that fell upon them. Every one prayed who was able to speak at all." (The Memoirs of Charles G. Finney, p. 103)
Maybe this is why, under the preaching of Finney, it is said 85 out of every 100 saved under him stayed true to Christ? This is our family tree!
Methodism, and the revivals of the 19th century, like those at Cane Ridge (1801) and under Charles Finney are part of the Pentecostal tree. Mostly miraculous, sometimes messy – but always memorable, never-the-less the DNA of these earlier years was without a doubt the presence and manifestations of the Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit Baptism. They appeared inseparably.
Within the Pentecostal community in general and The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) in particular, we have today what might idiomatically be described as ‘a mixed kettle of fish’. On Spirit baptism alone, Classical Pentecostals insist that speaking in tongues is evidence of Spirit Baptism, Charismatics, unwilling to nail it down nearly as firmly, are more liberal in the belief as to when baptism happens and are open to a range of supernatural experiences (i.e. miracles, holy boldness, healing) as equal evidence of having been filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Neo-Charismatics, who despite generally subscribing to Pentecostal theology, would quickly jettison doctrine in the interests of unity and experience.
Given such diversity and obvious differences, it remains to be seen to what degree First, Second and Third Wave Pentecostals are open in the foreseeable future to embracing the Spirit message of Acts 2:4, with its power and displays that can be so uncomfortable, embarrassing and disorderly in a sophisticated erudite, world. While understanding that Pentecostals don’t handle ‘messy’ very well anymore, a ‘recovery mission’ might be a reasonable strategy against lingering decline. “Only Saying ...”
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