Thursday, February 26, 2009
Impact of the doctrine of eschatology on the Pentecostal movement
Before we look into the impact, what, first, is eschatology? Eschatology, according to the WordWeb, is defined as the branch of theology that is concerned with such final things as death and Last Judgment; Heaven and Hell; the ultimate destiny of humankind. Concisely, it concerns the 2nd coming of Christ. Most forefathers and foremothers of Pentecostalism, deriving their doctrine from a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible, declared themselves to be premillenialists, who expected a second advent of Christ to occur prior to the establishment of a one-thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ described in Revelations 20:1-7. For many Pentecostals, this belief is further elaborated as pretribulation, which assures believers that the rapture will spare them of the terror and destruction to fill the earth before the promised thousand-year reign of Christ. With this in mind, we understand its impact on the movement.

It is because of this doctrine that stimulated evangelistic and missionary endeavors. In fact, looking at the early Pentecostals, this doctrine was significant to them who focused on the second coming of Christ rather than comforts and worldly gain, using their limited resources to spread the Gospel in this “last hour” of human history as it is now known as. Pentecostal missionaries were so enthusiastic in going out as missionaries to spread the gospel largely due to this doctrine of eschatology. In fact, today, many Pentecostals are starting once again to rise up in the area of evangelism and missions primarily due to this doctrine of eschatology.

How did the doctrine of eschatology impacted or impassioned the Pentecostal movement in the past and the present? Through missions and evangelism. In the words of D.J. Wilson, in his book 'Pentecostal Perspective of Eschatology', "...for most Pentecostals the future determines the present, their view of eschatology governs their view of current events. Their interpretation of prophecy has had a very significant effect on their perception of world historical events and on their political and social response to those events. On a smaller scale their eschatological views have affected their own history by stimulating evangelistic and missionary endeavors" (emphasis was made by me!)
 
posted by bryanboo at 2:43 PM | Permalink | 8 comments
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Pentecostal Spirituality
According to Pentecostal theologian Mrs. Rebecca Jaichandran, ‘spirituality’ is relatively a new term to many Pentecostal believers who have all the while been more preoccupied with the whole concept of ‘being spiritual’. She defines spirituality as giving ourselves to God through both our beliefs and emotional attitudes, which ultimately influences our actions and values. But what then is "Pentecostal Spirituality"? According to Richard Lovelace , Pentecostal Spirituality emphasizes the spirituality that grows by means of the work of the Holy Spirit.

How is the condition of the Pentecostal spirituality today, one might ask. In order to answer this, one must do a comparison in certain key areas of Pentecostalism then and now. These areas, according to the Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, are the implicit values that govern the Pentecostal spirituality. These must be compared, dissected, and analyzed to determine the condition of the current spirituality. Let us now analyze two very important values or areas:

The utmost importance of individual experience.
Please, do not jump to conclusions before reading to the end yet. By experience, in the positive sense, one would say that a Pentecostal is not satisfied until he or she has an experience with God. It is not even enough to hear others having an experience with God but they individually want to experience the reality of God. This actually is a good thing. But sadly, these days, the danger has finally surfaced. In some cases, beliefs or faith have become secondary to experience. It is like, now, in order for their beliefs to be true, they must first experience it first. Faith is slowly disappearing. To make things worse, sometimes, these experienced are ‘manufactured’.

Worship
Pentecostals believe that worship is a mean for an encounter with God. According to their beliefs, God will come and meet His people. All they can do is only to prepare and wait for God’s actions among them and then respond to the flow of the Spirit. Usually in a worship service, one main component is the music. The music of a Pentecostal song service, usually called the worship service, is often intended usher the congregation into the presence of God. The danger today (which I believe already many Pentecostals have fallen into) is that they get so used to the music being associated with the music for the ‘experience of worship’ that many of them have lost the true meaning of worship. It has become more of self-satisfaction than God-centered worship. In some cases, the ‘experience of worship’ is now place more superior to the exposition of the Word. We cannot live without the Word of God (as Jesus said in Matt 4:4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”) We cannot just shove away with the Word of God, deeming it as not as important when compared to the ‘experience of worship’.

Conclusion
I think many Pentecostals today have swayed away from the initial and core values of our Christian and Pentecostal faith. We must go back to the origin, where it was all about God and not us. If the Pentecostal spirituality is to be vibrant and healthy, then, God must be made the center. That is what I think. Again, these are just my observations, thoughts and opinions.
 
posted by bryanboo at 7:55 PM | Permalink | 16 comments
Monday, January 19, 2009
The Dividing Lines
Ask members of the Pentecostals, Charismatics or even the Third Wavers which denomination do they belong to, most of the time, their answer would be an "I don't know" or a wrong answer. The lines that distinguished these denominations have now been smeared that people are uncertain of their own denominations. What exactly distinguishes one from another?

Pentecostal (or known as the 1st wave) is derived from the word Pentecost, which means "fiftieth". In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost,was recorded the day when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples who were gathered in the upper room. The most noticeable feature of that occasion is in verse 4, which reads "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. " (Acts 2:4, ESV) . We see here that when they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in other tongues! This is one of the beliefs of the Pentecostals. They affirm the involvement of the Holy Spirit in everyday life, including divine healing and prophecy and other manifestations of the Spirit's presence. They hold on to the doctrine of the speaking of tongues as the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Charismatics (also known as the 2nd wave) comes from the Greek word, charisma, which is usually translated in the King James Version as "gift". Paul uses this word in I Corinthians 12 to designate the supernatural gifts made available to individual Christians by the Holy Spirit. Just like as its name implies, Charismatics are a used to indicate an informal international and trans denominational fellowship of Christians who believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as written by Paul, are manifested in modern times.They are often mixed up with the Pentecostals as the Charismatics are related to them. But what differs the Charismatics from the Pentecostals is that the Charismatics do not insist on the speaking of tongues as the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In other words, to the Charismatics, it is possible to be baptized in the Holy Spirit yet not being able to speak in tongues.

The Third Wave is also known as the Signs and Wonders or Neo-Charismatic Movement. The term "Third Wave" was 1st used by C. Peter Wagner in his book entitled "The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit". They are similar to the 1st and 2nd wave yet they have important differences. In fact, they do not wish to be labeled as Pentecostals or Charismatics. They believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs at conversion. They have a low-key acceptance of the gift of tongues as one of the many New Testament spiritual gifts that God gives to some and not to others. Therefore, speaking in tongues is not considered and initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

These are some of the dividing lines that distinguishes each the Pentecostals, Charismatics and Third Wavers. We have got to know our identity to know what we believe in; our heritage. Do you know your denomination?
 
posted by bryanboo at 7:14 PM | Permalink | 21 comments