Pentecostalism

Common
Trinity
Soul
Heaven
Hell
Satan/Demons
"Saved"
Baptism
Resurrection
Antichrist

Science
Miracles
Evolution
Creation
Carbon Dating

Inspiration
Partial
Contradictions
& Inaccuracies

Preliminary Points ¹

Pentecostals tend to be very difficult to engage in a reasoned Biblical discussion. Inevitably, the discussion becomes a stalemate when the Pentecostal asserts that he has had a personal experience with the Lord and is now led into all truth by the Holy Spirit. It has been said that "the man who has had an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument". The point is, there is no longer any common ground from which to reason from the accepted to the disputed. The non-Pentecostal is relegated to the position of a "natural man" who "cannot understand the things of the spirit" (i.e., the spiritual "truths" of Pentecostal teaching).²

One problem area in such discussions is that there is no common authority to which appeal might be made. It may at first be thought that the obvious authority is the Bible, but in actual fact this is seldom the case. The real authority is nearly always extra-Biblical, i.e., the Holy Spirit, or the "reality" of a personal encounter with the Lord. The apostolic instruction to "prove all things" (1 Thess. 5:21) is an objective basis for discussion, but Pentecostalism operates on the highly subjective basis of personal experiences and Holy Spirit guidance. The tragedy of such authorities is the way in which the Holy Spirit is, in effect, charged with errors taught in the name of Pentecostalism. It is not uncommon to find "Spirit-guided" Pentecostals repeatedly differing in their respective interpretations of the same verses.³   Is the Holy Spirit power of Almighty God the author of confusion?

Footnotes:

1. There are many factions within the Pentecostal movement with differences of belief. Some are independent and known as "Jesus only" (denying the orthodox trinitarian belief), but all Pentecostals emphasize the "born-again" experience and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The term "Pentecostal" is used in this analysis to include all groups within the general movement. Return
   
2. Time called Pentecostalism the "fastest growing church in the hemisphere". ("Fastest Growing Church in the Hemisphere", Time, 80, (Nov. 2, 1962), p. 56. Life regarded it as "the third force", equal in significance to Roman Catholicism and historic Protestantism. ("The Third Force in Christendom", Life, 44, (June 9, 1958), p. 113. A. A. Allen is currently one of the most popular Pentecostals in America. The A. A. Allen Revivals Inc., in 1968 grossed $2,692,342.00 (not counting the salaries of Allen and his two associate preachers who take their cut directly from "their ministry", printed 55 million pieces of literature; maintained daily radio-broadcasts (58 stations), and weekly television programmes (43 stations). See "Religion: Faith Healers Getting Back Double from God", Time (Canadian edition), 93, No. 10, p. 52. Return
   
3. Historically, official differences have existed among Pentecostal groups. For example, the Elim movement and the Assemblies of God have these principal differences:
   
   1. Whether the initial sign of "Baptism of the Holy Ghost" is necessarily speaking in tongues - affirmed by the Assemblies of God, whereas Elim has regarded tongues as only one of several possible signs.
      
   2. Whether there are apostles in the church today-asserted by the Apostolic Church.
      
   3. Whether there would be a total or partial rapture of the saints.
      
   4. Interpretations of Bible prophecy. This latter was a source of division within Elim itself.

   See Elim Evangel, 21, (1940), p. 125. Referred to by Bryan Wilson, Sects and Society: A Sociological Study of Three Religious Groups in Britain, (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1961), p. 57. Return