by Dennis Pollock
 

In the early days they came mostly from the other side of the tracks. Few had much education or money. They wore clothes that seemed oddly out of place as though they had been unearthed from a generation long passed. They shunned many of life’s innocent pleasures, and tended to judge harshly those who did not.

They were the Pentecostals. At the beginning of this century the body of Christ saw a version of Christianity that they didn’t quite know what to do with. The Pentecostal church services were lively, resembling some of the pioneer camp meetings from 150 years earlier. They sang loudly and often off key; they banged on tambourines and pounded tinny pianos. They danced in exuberant joy, their joyous movements providing a strange contradiction to their dark and somber clothing.

They dared to defy traditional convention, their women testifying freely in their testimony meetings, and their services sometimes lasting three and four hours long. But the most radical of all their many strange behaviors was their insistence that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit were as available now as they were in the first century, and their conviction that speaking in supernatural tongues was the trademark of the beginning of the Spirit-filled life.

The Pentecostals didn’t just come upon the scene of American Christianity; they exploded onto it. On the first day of the twentieth century a young lady named Agnes Ozman experienced the Holy Spirit at a small Bible school in Topeka, Kansas, spoke in tongues, and became the first American Pentecostal of record. In 1906 the Azuza Street revival, led by the black pastor, William Seymor, caused shock waves to reverberate throughout the world, and drew thousands to downtown Los Angeles. During this time they held three services a day, seven days a week, for 3 ½ years. By the end of that first decade of the twentieth century, churches were springing up across the country, emphasizing the “Pentecostal” experience and way of worship.

While in the first half of the century the Pentecostals grew at a rate mainstream denominations could not match, by the late 50’s and 60’s they seemed to have run aground. Their legalistic forms of dress and prohibitions of most forms of recreation were growing more and more problematic for the Rock and Roll and then the Flower Child generations. Many churches were insisting upon forms of worship that had been rich and powerful in the thirties and forties, but seem odd and antiquated for the present day. Clearly if the Pentecostal movement was to continue to thrive, something would have to change.

Enter the charismatic movement. In the last half of the 60’s a new breed of Pentecostals began to emerge. Their worship was upbeat and contemporary; their dress was far more casual and up to date, and they placed almost no emphasis upon legal observances (women’s hair length and dress length, avoiding “worldly” entertainment such as movies and sports, etc.) that had seemed so important to their predecessors. They were the Charismatics.

Like their Pentecostal cousins they placed great emphasis upon the Holy Spirit and His gifts, exuberant praise and worship, and the ancient Biblical custom of “the laying on of hands.” But unlike the Pentecostals they saw no reason to isolate themselves from the rest of the world. They carried their religion a little less grimly, and as a result attracted enormous numbers of followers who were looking for a more vital Christianity than they had been able to find in the mainstream church.

At times entire churches “went Charismatic.” Some individuals had dynamic experiences with the Holy Spirit, yet elected to stay in their more traditional churches. So many of the rules seemed to be changing. Whereas in the past you could easily spot a Pentecostal woman by her long dress and unattractive hairstyle, now women wearing bright red lipstick, short skirts, and died hair were talking about having experiences with the Holy Spirit. Even more to the chagrin of traditional Pentecostals, Catholics were claiming encounters with the Holy Spirit, dancing, speaking in tongues, and otherwise acting extremely non-liturgical. Nor could you automatically assume that anyone who spoke in tongues was poor and uneducated anymore.

Today the numbers continue to grow. In South America, Catholics have grown exceedingly nervous about the vast numbers that are forsaking the formality of the Catholic Church for the more emotionally expressive forms of Pentecostal or Charismatic worship. In Africa Reinhardt Bonnke has drawn mammoth crowds in the hundreds of thousands to his healing and evangelistic crusades. In Seoul, Korea, Paul Cho pastors the largest church in the world, with a membership of about 750,000. (This is not a misprint, I really mean three quarters of a million people!)

It has become difficult to separate the Pentecostals, Charismatics, neo-Charismatics, and non-Charismatics who like to worship in the Charismatic style. Nevertheless one fact cannot be ignored: the Pentecostal movement, and the further movements it has fostered, have had a tremendous impact upon the entire body of Christ.

What Have We Gained?

Not all the church has been thrilled, of course. Negative reactions have ranged from cautious warnings to hysterical cries of heresy, and even suggestions that those who spoke in tongues were demon-possessed. Recently, a prophecy conference was nearly canceled because one of the speakers dared say something positive about the Pentecostals. The only way the offended church leaders could be persuaded to allow the meetings to continue was to insist that they have a representative in every meeting and workshop. If anyone dared to say something positive about the Pentecostals or even mention the Holy Spirit, the entire conference would stop then and there.

I am convinced that the body of Christ owes a great debt to those early Pentecostals, and to the movement which has endured for the last hundred years. While I do not agree with all their theology, and am at times grieved at some of their excesses, there is no doubt in my mind that we are far better off for their having been with us. I believe there are three great areas of truth that they have forced the rest of us to deal with.

1. We cannot afford to ignore the Holy Spirit.

“Powerless Christians” should be an oxymoron, but unfortunately it far too often describes the state of the church. It is enlightening to look for the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. And, yes, you can find Him there. We read, for example, of a Samson, upon whom “The Spirit of the Lord came mightily” (Judges 14:6). Then there was Micah who announced, “I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord” (Micah 3:8). We learn of David, of whom it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward” (1 Samuel 16:13).

While we run into these characters in the Old Testament from time to time, the majority of the Israelites would have been like those Paul met in Acts who declared: “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit” (Acts 19:2)

That wonderful English preacher, Charles Spurgeon, once said:

If I worship the Father and the Son, but forget or neglect to adore the Holy Spirit, I worship less than God. What a grievous thing it will be if we do not pay that loving homage and reverence to the Holy Spirit which is so justly His due. May it not be the fact that we enjoy less of His power and see less of His working in the world because the church of God has not been sufficiently mindful of Him?

At the turn of this last century, there was great optimism in the church. Many considered that the millennium was nearly here. All types of programs were planned and scheduled to “win the world.” By and large those plans and programs were dismal failures. Most of those churches suffered decline rather than increase.

The lowly Pentecostals were not big on plans or programs. They had no great theories of church growth or evangelistic plans to win the world. But they did have a contagious enthusiasm for God, and an experience with the Holy Spirit that made sharing their faith something they did naturally, program or no. As a result their churches grew.

As those churches that embraced a living and present Comforter grew, Christians from more traditional churches grappled with the issue of the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t enough just to condemn the excesses of the Pentecostals; what could they say positively about the Spirit? Preachers began preaching more about the Holy Spirit and writing books about Him. Terms like “Spirit-filled” and “baptism in the Spirit” began to be discussed and debated. Pastors began to realize that no faithful minister could afford to leave his congregation in the dark on this important subject. Partly out of self-defense and partly from a new and growing enthusiasm pastors began teaching and preaching about the Third Person of the Trinity.

2. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are as Available now as They Ever Were.

Before the Pentecostal movement the church universally believed that the supernatural gifts of the Spirit were a thing of the past – and I mean the way past! The official doctrine declared that the gifts of the Spirit were given to the apostles to get the church off to a good start, and when the last apostle died, the gifts went with him. This doctrine was based upon almost no Scripture. The only verse anyone could come up with to justify this belief was: “When that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away with” (1 Corinthians 13:10)

The idea was that the Bible was “that which is perfect” and the gifts of the Spirit were “that which is in part.” When the Bible was completed, there was no need for miraculous gifts of the Spirit anymore. It was quite a stretch, but since no one was really seeing anything much supernatural, it seemed easy to believe and few dared question it.

The Pentecostals came along and simply believed that the Christianity of the New Testament was just as possible today as it was in the first days of the church. They laid hands on the sick and actually expected them to get well. While not all did by any means, enough did to encourage them to keep on doing it! Speaking in tongues, prophesying the word of the Lord, receiving supernatural dreams and visions – all these things were considered possible to this new breed of believers

Actually, the theory that the last supernatural works of the Spirit disappeared with the apostles is quite easy to disprove. A simple glance at the writings of the early church fathers reveals that supernatural gifts, miracles, and healings went well beyond the death of John in 95 AD.

Justin Martyr (c. 100-165), noted in about 135 that Christian believers of his day possessed “gifts of the Spirit of God … for one receives the spirit of understanding … another of healing, another of foreknowledge, another of teaching…”

Bishop Irenaeus (c. 130 –200) spoke of people raised from the dead and gifts of tongues, and those who “bring men’s secret thoughts to light for their own good…”

As late as the fifth century Augustine carefully documented records of various miracles in his diocese, including a boy raised from the dead as well as healings of paralysis, hernias, blindness, and demon possession. Augustine even describes two people being healed after they experienced what modern Charismatics would call “being slain in the Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit has not gone into retirement! While we cannot snap our fingers and compel Him to work, neither should we insult Him by denying the very possibility of His supernatural working in the earth today.

3. God Inhabits the Praises of His People.

The Pentecostal movement has always been associated with lively and enthusiastic praise and worship. It was the Pentecostals that introduced the lifting up on hands in worship to the rest of the church. They startled visitors with such things as hand clapping, shouts of ecstasy, and various other aspects to their worship that gave more dignified believers the impression that, if not as refined as the Catholics or Episcopalians, they were at least thoroughly enjoying themselves.

In the late sixties and throughout the seventies the Charismatics took enthusiastic worship to a higher level. While perhaps not as loud as the Pentecostals, the Charismatics began setting Scriptures to music, and innovating with all types of instrumentation and melody. The hand clapping and raising of hands was continued, but the melodies improved, and miniature orchestras were sometimes added. No longer was a worship leader chosen from some willing volunteer from the congregation. Skilled musicians were eagerly sought, and given full-time positions. Worship went from being an afterthought to one of the primary ministries of the church.

This new style of worship, combined with a growing emphasis upon prayer and intercession, created dynamic services where people didn’t just hear about God; they encountered Him. As a result, many of these churches experienced explosive growth. Congregations grew from a handful to the thousands in a few years. Cynical visitors, expecting to experience a predictable mix of dull hymns and comfortable, brief, social essays, were shocked, challenged, and often converted instead.

Evolution of Worship

It has been fascinating to watch the evolution of worship in the last 25 years. As God has signally blessed those churches who wholeheartedly worship Him, Christians from many non-charismatic backgrounds have begun to adopt ways from what used to be the exclusive domain of the Charismatics. No longer can you assume that, just because Christians raise their hands in worship, or clap, or lay hands on the sick in prayer, that their theology is Pentecostal or Charismatic.

Sometimes grudgingly, sometimes eagerly, sometimes with enthusiasm, and at others out of sheer pragmatism (we like what works!) churches across the world have begun to “borrow” from the Charismatics. We even have “non-charismatic” churches that act more charismatic than the Charismatic ones. (See if you can figure that one out!).

No longer is the gift of tongues lifted up as a badge of spirituality among most of these third wave churches. While most of them acknowledge the gift of tongues, they are not about to hover over you and shout in your ears until you satisfy them by speaking in tongues. Healings occur in these meetings at times, but they see no conflict in going to a doctor for your ailment, either.

Flawed, but Needful

Please do not come to the impression that I am endorsing all that has gone on among Pentecostals and Charismatics. Certainly there have been excesses. At times the Lord’s name has suffered great reproach by their refusal to temper raw emotionalism with the Word of God (and common sense). Early Pentecostal preachers seemed to be often far better at pulpit pounding than careful exposition of Scripture. Some of the leaders of the movement had great scandals associated with them, involving sex, alcoholism, and money management. Many Charismatics have had their lives ruined by bogus prophecies and “words from the Lord” directing them to make major decisions based upon whim and imagination.

Nevertheless it must be acknowledged that the body of Christ desperately needed these fervent pioneers of the Spirit to shake us out of our lethargy and make us aware, once again, that it is “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.” (Zechariah 4:6)

The Holy Spirit has not retired. Worship is more than a nice little exercise to be yawned through. Miracles can happen in our generation. Best of all, the churches are starting to see this. This is not an accident. Peter quoted Amos, who spoke for God, saying:

After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down. I will rebuild its ruins and I will set it up, so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord … (Acts 15:16,17)

The tabernacle of David was a place of worship. No curtain hid you from the presence of the Lord. Unlike the tabernacle of Moses, this was not a place of ceremony and ritual. A ragged tent, a wooden box, and the Presence of the Holy One were all that was necessary to make worship not only possible but nearly inevitable. As we watch for Jesus’ return in these last days, may we be found worshipers, filled with the Spirit, and supernaturally equipped for every good work.