Return to the Primacy of Scripture

A commitment to the primacy of Scripture characterized the Pentecostal Movement from its beginnings. Founders believed the Scriptures to be the authoritative standard for “beliefs, affections, and actions.” [1]

They regularly confirmed the validity of their spiritual experiences by consulting the Scriptures. According to Russell P. Spittler, Pentecostals attempted to square their spirituality with “biblical precedent and command.” [2]

William Menzies, speaking of the early days of the Assemblies of God, writes:

The modern Pentecostal revival, like other revivals in the past, could have fallen into the abuse of overemphasis on spectacular phenomena that accompany revivals. The baptism in the Spirit and the manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12-14) are experiential in nature. Such experiences were defining of the revival. The Assemblies of God avoided the pitfalls of extremism and unbalanced emphases because of an early commitment to the authority of the Bible as the all-sufficient rule for faith and practice. [3]

For Pentecostals, theology was an attempt to search the Scriptures to understand what the Holy Spirit is doing in and saying to His Church. Pentecostal theology was and continues to be a work in progress. For Pentecostals, theology was not “identified solely or even primarily with systematic treatises, monographs and scholarly apparatus in centers of academia.” [4] According to Steven Land,

In the context of American restoration-revivalism, it was the “black spirituality of the former slaves in the United States” encountering the specific Catholic spirituality of the movement’s “grandfather,” John Wesley, that produced Pentecostalism’s distinctive spirituality. Neither Wesley nor the African-Americans did theology in the traditional scholastic way. Sermons, pamphlets, hymns, testimonies, conferences, spirituals—these were the media of this movement. [5]

However non-traditional the apparatus, Pentecostal media were replete with Scripture.

Likewise, Pentecostal history was filled with systematic Bible teaching, expositional Bible preaching, and sober attempts at practicing Biblical precepts. While sometimes naïve and simplistic and at other times legalistic, early Pentecostals were serious about the Bible.

Is this commitment to the primacy of Scripture attenuating? Should contemporary Pentecostals be concerned by the decline of systematic Bible instruction?

Some local churches are dismissing Sunday school in favor of extended worship services. Others are replacing systematic Bible teaching with topical treatments that draw heavily from the social sciences. Curricula based solely on the social sciences will result in a fuzzy spirituality of human self-help or self-deification.

Pastors are moving from expository to topical preaching. After listening to hundreds (thousands?) of sermons in homiletics classes and elsewhere, I am seriously concerned that Michael Horton is right. In his book, Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church, he asserts that contemporary preachers exclude Christ to proclaim a message of moralism, personal comfort, self-help, self-improvement, and individualistic religion.

Neglect of Biblical content in sermons will result in less than authentic Pentecostal spirituality.

Continuation down this slippery slope will result in congregations singing “worship him, worship him” without knowing “Him.” The pronouns and metaphors of their music will be meaningless.

While not a Pentecostal, Henri J. M. Nouwen issues a warning appropriate for Pentecostals:

Few ministers and priests think theologically. Most of them have been educated in a climate in which the behavioral sciences, such as psychology and sociology, so dominated the educational milieu that little true theology was being learned. Most Christian leaders today raise psychological or sociological questions even though they frame them in scriptural terms. Real theological thinking, which is thinking with the mind of Christ, is hard to find in the practice of the ministry. Without solid theological reflection, future leaders will be little more than pseudo-psychologists, pseudo-sociologists, pseudo-social workers. They will think of themselves as enablers, facilitators, role models, father or mother figures, big brothers or big sisters, and so on, and thus join the countless men and women who make a living trying to help their fellow human beings to cope with the stresses and strains of everyday living. But that has little to do with Christian leadership because the Christian leader thinks, speaks, and acts in the name of Jesus, who came to free humanity from the power of death and open the way to eternal life. [6]

[1] Steven J. Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press Ltd., 1997), 41.

[2] Russell P. Spittler, “Spirituality, Pentecostal and Charismatic,” in Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, ed. Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988), 805.

[3] William W. Menzies, “Lessons From the Past: What Our History Teaches Us,” Enrichment 4, no. 4 (1999), 84.

[4] Land, 35.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Henri J. M. Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1989), 65.

Pentecostals: People of the Presence

One of the most challenging contributions to my recent dialogues on Pentecostalism came from Rick Smith of Abingdon, Illinois. He wrote:

“I recently heard a definition for what it means to be Pentecostal: people of the presence. It's not about style, hype or following the way things used to be. Too often Pentecostals are dwelling on the glory of a past experience and they try to re-create that moment, often mimicking certain people or styles for it to happen again. Rather than seeking God, they are seeking an experience. They are seeking the presents of God rather than the presence of God. Thanks for bringing this subject to light. My prayer is that we will seek His presence and allow the Holy Spirit to saturate and empower us to do the ministry He has called us to do.”

When we seek God's presence and allow the Holy Spirit to saturate and empower us, lives will be transformed--even in the worst of environments.


Samuel Solivan points to the experiences of members of Hispanic Pentecostal churches in the United States, "Even though our communities remain destroyed, and we are forced to live our lives in inhuman living conditions, we still can attest to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives, empowering them to overcome their suffering, misery and despair." [1]

This hopefulness in the midst of suffering is what Solivan calls “orthopathos.” In using this term, he is referring to the power of the Holy Spirit that transforms “pathos” (the emotions of suffering and despair) into hope and wholeness. It is shalom that transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:7).


Solivan sees orthopathos as being the interlocutor between orthodoxy and orthopraxis—the bridge between the proclamation of liberty and the eschatological realization of liberty.


Solivan writes, “To speak to a former addict, prostitute, alcoholic or street person who has been transformed by the power of the Spirit is to speak to someone who knows what orthopathos is all about.” [2]

Gutted, graffiti-defaced project houses stand as monuments to the failure of governmental and social service agencies that did not comprehend that taking a person out of the ghetto does not guarantee transformation. However, it is possible to experience change while still in the hallways of ancient tenement buildings. Even though El Barrio in East Harlem remains a concrete jungle filled with drugs, prostitution, murder, suicide, and suffering, the corítos (small choirs) of the Pentecostal churches sing songs of joy—the songs of Zion in an alien land.


Does Pentecostal spirituality involve emotionalism? Yes, of course. If one understands that emotive responses are normal expressions of an inward joy that flows from a supernatural, wholistic liberation, then tears, laughter, raised hands, and other demonstrations are not bizarre.


At this entry point of the “redemptive lift” process, Hispanic Pentecostals experience liberation from the ghetto while still in the ghetto. The transforming power of the Holy Spirit helps them believe circumstances can change. The Spirit assembles the transformed and believing individuals into an incarnational, serving, and equipped community that can evangelize and work for social justice.


[1] Samuel Solivan, The Spirit, Pathos and Liberation: Toward an Hispanic Pentecostal Theology (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press Ltd., 1997), 111.


[2] Ibid, 111.

Pentecostalism: The Proof is in the Product

(c) 2008 Dr. J. David Arnett

I have a bookshelf filled with computer software. Most of it is rarely used. If the various programs did not live up to the advertising or failed to meet the need for which they were purchased, they were shelved. Only the relevant programs get a good workout. Emerging Pentecostals are asking to see the relevance of Pentecostal distinctives for a needy world. Is it simply emotional hype or does it make a difference for hurting humanity?
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If young Pentecostals are cynical, it is understandable. They grew up in an era characterized by financial and sexual scandals from the church house to the White House. Idiosyncratic evangelists filled the world’s television screens. Divorce rates, even among Christians, skyrocketed during their lifetime. Some were educated in a postmodern, deconstructionist matrix.
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Despite the cynicism, young people are still responding to the love and call of God. They love God and feel love and compassion for their dysfunctional families, friends, communities, and world. They are asking for the tools and the opportunities to make a real difference in the world.
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Not everything in the past was wonderful. There was glory. There was shame. Even the Azusa Street Revival was not perfect. Bigotry, avarice, megalomania, and neuroses plagued the early days of the Pentecostal Movement—just as now.
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Despite the human foibles, God was able to accomplish His purposes of preaching the gospel to the poor, healing the brokenhearted, delivering the captives, recovering sight to the blind, and liberating those treated unfairly (Luke 4:18-19).
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Through a variety of innovative social service ministries, God used early Pentecostals to minister to sinning and suffering humanity. These ministries included rescue missions, homes for unwed mothers, orphanages, Christian schools, feeding programs, literacy training, sponsorship of refugees, aid for disaster victims, and medical programs. They sought to minister to the whole person—body, mind and soul. Food, clothing, and shelter came with intensive Bible study and prayer.
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Admittedly, there has been tension in the ranks over ministries of compassion. The same eschatological urgency that propelled so many into missionary endeavor and evangelism caused some to withdraw from social action. Based on the belief that the end was near, many rejected the reformist methods of the optimistic postmillennialists and concentrated on “snatching brands from the fire.” They let social reforms result from humankind being born again. This attitude is reflected in the words of missionary statesman Melvin Hodges, “There is nothing as important as getting people’s hearts right with God. The center must be put right before the periphery can be corrected. To try to remedy peripheral conditions leaving the heart unchanged is useless and deceiving.” [1]
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This retraction from social action was as much a reaction to the so-called “social gospel” as it was a formally adopted theological position. Conservative Christians considered the social gospel a product of liberal preachers who had strayed from calling people to salvation and had reached for good works as a lame substitute. In reality, the social gospel was a disintegration of the concern that the revivalists and holiness preachers of the mid-nineteenth century had awakened for the afflicted human race. According to Sherwood Wirt “lacking the correction of Scripture and the direction of the Holy Spirit, [the social gospel] ceased to be a healthy expression of the church’s social conscience...”[2]
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The two things that Wirt identifies as important for genuine Christian social action—the direction of the Holy Spirit and the correction of Scripture—are precisely what Pentecostalism is well equipped to supply to a blended ministry of evangelism and compassion. Gordon Fee and Murray Dempster believe that the work that Jesus started when He walked the lanes of ancient Israel has been left to the Church to continue until He returns (Luke 4:18-19; Acts 1:1).
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The anointing and empowering to accomplish this daunting task come from the Spirit with whom Pentecostals have an interactive relationship (Acts 1:4-8). With their high view of Scripture, Pentecostals should be able to develop a solid, Bible-based theology that addresses social action. Dempster believes such a theology must “inspire and direct the church’s moral engagement with society without diminishing the church’s historic commitment to evangelism.”[3]
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[1] Melvin L. Hodges, A Theology of the Church and Its Mission: A Pentecostal Perspective (Springfield, Mo.: Gospel Publishing House, 1977), 102.
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[2] Sherwood E. Wirt, “Social Gospel” in Baker’s Dictionary of Christian Ethics. ed. Carl F.H. Henry (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House Company, 1973), 638.
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[3] Murray W. Dempster, “Evangelism, Social Concern, and the Kingdom of God” in Called and Empowered: Global Mission in Pentecostal Perspective, ed. Murray A. Dempster, Byron D. Klaus and Douglas Petersen (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1991), 22-23.

An Unambiguous Pentecostal Theology

(c) 2008 Dr. J. David Arnett

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In addition to a carefully articulated hermeneutic, emerging Pentecostals long for a holistic and systematic Pentecostal orthodoxy—an unambiguous theology—that leads to a Pentecostal orthopathy that will invigorate a twenty first century Pentecostal orthopraxis.
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Holistic qualifies the orthodoxy as a belief system based on more than pneumatology and glossolalia.
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Systematic refers to the orderly assimilation of the truth discovered by the inductive biblical theologian. It is organized to display the progressions and relationships between doctrinal truths.
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Orthopathy is the passion and fire of emotions that flow out of an extreme, transforming encounter with God. It is the affect that reflects the glory of the Lord “as the Spirit of the Lord works within us” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NLT).
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Orthopraxis is the worshipping, holy, compassionate, and evangelistic behavior of one indwelt by and cooperating with the Holy Spirit.
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Pentecostal orthodoxy begins with Jesus Christ. A Pentecostal is a person who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and has surrendered to Him as Savior. When an individual invites Christ into his life, logic indicates that he receives all of God he is going to receive since the Godhead is not divided. In this sense, the Holy Spirit indwells all Christians.
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Regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the believer—by an act of his will—gives the Holy Spirit administrative control over every area of his life. Neo-Pentecostal Dennis Bennett called this “releasing the Holy Spirit.” Without getting into a debate over anthropology (trichotomy versus dichotomy versus monism), it might be said that when “released” the Holy Spirit begins to flow from within a person’s inner being (“heart” in John 7:38, NCV).
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As the Spirit moves outward, He affects the various aspects of a person. The human spirit is invigorated and the spiritual realm becomes perceptible. The emotions are touched. Frequently, the love of God overwhelms the believer. Joy wells up. The mind is affected. Visions, thoughts, or words may fill the Christian’s mind as the Holy Spirit shares the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16; Romans 12:2). Even the body is influenced. Tears may come in response to the powerful emotions. One person may laugh. Another may tremble. Still another may dance. Some individuals may lose muscle tone under the weight of God’s glory and fall prostrate. All of these observable responses to the working of the Holy Spirit are highly individualized. The experiences do not seem to be normative. Rather, they appear to be based on each unique, but culturally conditioned personality.
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However, from biblical and historical precedent, one observable experience does appear to be normative—speaking in other tongues (Acts 2:1-4; 10:44-48; 19:1-7). That the individual has yielded himself to and is cooperating with the Holy Spirit is evidenced initially by speaking in other tongues as the Spirit supernaturally imparts to him the ability.
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Carl Brumback has suggested that the reason speaking in other tongues is the initial physical evidence of the total saturation of a person in the Holy Spirit is because the speech mechanism is that last and most difficult member of the body to surrender and tame (James 3:1-12).
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There should be additional indicators that the individual is participating (note the present tense) with the Spirit. These indicators include increasing levels of intimacy with God, developing righteousness as evidenced in a mortification of the sinful life and production of the fruit of the Spirit, an emboldened passion for the mission Christ gave to the Church and an openness to various manifestations (charismata or pneumatika) of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 27-31; Romans 12:6-8; Ephesians 4:11). David Lim calls spirituals gifts “God’s tools to lead us to maturity and ministry.” [1]
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Clearly, Pentecostal spirituality does not begin nor stop with the baptism in the Holy Spirit or with speaking in other tongues. Such spirituality begins at conception when the Spirit places in the human heart a hunger for relationship with the Creator. It continues through conviction, conversion, and ever increasing levels of interaction and intimacy. A person cannot interact with God without being changed. People become like those with whom they associate. This is especially true of spending time with God. Out of intimacy with the Creator, grow new priorities, new perspectives, new passions, new power, and new fruit (Galatians 5:22-23).
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Ultimately, the evidence for spirituality and an intimacy with the Holy Spirit is a life characterized by love (1 Corinthians 13). Such evidentiary love has two dimensions—love of God and love of neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40). According to Richard Foster, “White-hot love of God compels us into compassionate love of neighbor… Love of God makes love of neighbor possible.”[2]
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[1] Lim, David. 1991. Spiritual Gifts: A Fresh Look. Springfield, Mo.: Gospel Publishing House, 19.
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[2] Richard J. Foster, Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1998), 166-7.

Pentecostal Hermeneutics

Pentecostals begin Bible study by recognizing that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16, KJV). Certainly, narrative portions are included.
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Using the biblical theological approach, the Pentecostal exegete allows the truth and teaching to emerge from the biblical text. He does not read his experience or his bias into the text.
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In doing this work, he recognizes that each biblical writer is understood best on his own terms and in his own times. While each biblical author has his own distinctive perspective, because of the superintending work of the Holy Spirit, that viewpoint is compatible with and complementary to the standpoints of the other biblical writers.
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The exegete gives attention to the genre and the sequence of the passage within its context. He studies the syntactical relationships in the passage. He defines words according to usage by the author within the syntactical, historical, and cultural context of the passage.
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Theological concepts are viewed in relationship to the theology that historically preceded the writing. In other words, the interpreter must examine the influence of any antecedent doctrine on the biblical author’s intent. According to Kaiser, using inductive reasoning, it is possible to draw “timeless principles” from the biblical author’s “truth-intention.” These transcultural, transhistorical, universal truths become the basis for theology.
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Using these hermeneutical principles of induction, Pentecostals can assert that even without propositional statements it is possible to formulate doctrine based on historical precedent especially when the activity is divinely initiated and commanded by God.

Pentecostalism: Time for Uniform Protocol

For computers to “interface” they must use a uniform protocol—a set of conventions that govern the formatting of data. Without a uniform protocol, they cannot communicate properly. The messages are garbled. Perhaps it is time for Pentecostals to begin using a uniform protocol—a carefully crafted set of sound hermeneutical principles that will govern and validate the formulation of a consistent Pentecostal perspective on the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
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While on my spiritual odyssey, I encountered seemingly contradictory perceptions of Pentecostal Truth. Church leaders and authors used diverse and paradoxical language in describing the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The altar workers who exhausted themselves trying to “pray me through to the baptism” contradicted each other. “Hold on,” said one. “Let go,” urged another.
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Such untidiness in language is troubling to those who toil to explain what it means to be a Pentecostal—especially to the fourth generation. In the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, does one “get the Holy Ghost” or does the Spirit get more of the individual? That is, does the person receive more of God or does she surrender more of herself to God? Is the baptism of the Holy Spirit the final stop on the celestial skyway or is it the pad from which spiritual adventures launch? Does the baptism in the Holy Spirit fill one with a passion for evangelism and missions or does the passion drive one to seek the empowering experience? Does the awareness of personal sinfulness before a holy God impel one to seek the cleansing and enablement found in the baptism in the Holy Spirit or does the deepening relationship motivate one to pursue holiness?
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The perceived ambiguity of Pentecostal theology may be caused by the “tools” of Pentecostal theology—oral tradition, tracts, magazines, and sermon booklets. For Pentecostals, theology is not “identified solely or even primarily with systematic treatises, monographs and scholarly apparatus in centers of academia.” [1]
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Theologizing is not merely a “speculative enterprise; it is urgent, last-days work.”[2] Preachers in passenger seats wrote Pentecostal theology as they carried an urgent message to a lost and dying world at the end of the ages. Surely, it is time to clarify Pentecostal theology.
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A clear theology begins with a carefully articulated hermeneutic. Pentecostals have usually depended on their Evangelical friends to provide the guidelines for hermeneutics. From them, Pentecostals learned to exegete biblical texts using the laws of grammar and the facts of history (grammatico-historical method). Within this framework, it was understood that the clearer passages of Scripture were to be used to illuminate the more esoteric ones.
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This principle served Bible scholars well until some began to insist that didactic portions of Scripture must interpret narrative portions. William and Robert Menzies suggest that this later stance may have come as an over reaction to more extreme expressions of redaction criticism. Carried too far, the principle easily becomes an excuse to interpret particular passages of Scripture by superimposing one’s preconceived theological “grid.” It can sideline the Gospels and Acts and yield the playing field to the Pauline epistles. Pentecostals and some Evangelicals have not been happy with the extremely restrictive and biased eisegetical approach to hermeneutics into which some have drifted. However, with a renewed emphasis on the discipline of biblical theology, the value of historical and narrative portions of Scripture is again being recognized. Walter C. Kaiser has suggested a new description for the refreshed approach to hermeneutics—the grammatical-contextual-historical-syntatical-theological-cultural method.
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In today’s climate, Pentecostals like Anthony Palma are recognizing the need to articulate hermeneutical principles and presuppositions before attempting to discuss Pentecostal distinctives.
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Young Pentecostals have been asking for a statement of the assumptions and rules for Bible study.
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They want to know that Pentecostal distinctives are based on careful exegesis and not simply someone’s experiences.


[1] Steven J. Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press Ltd., 1997), 41.


[2] Ibid., 36.

Speaking in Tongues: Interfacing With God

When a computer is coordinating harmoniously with another computer or with peripherals (or the computer user for that matter) they are “interfacing.”

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My Pentecostal experiences have helped me “interface” with God.

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When I received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, the actual experience of speaking in other tongues was almost anticlimactic compared to the thrill of “pursuing” God until He granted His “blessing.” This is not a disavowal of the doctrine of speaking in tongues as the initial physical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. It is an affirmation that Pentecostal Spirituality is more than a one-time experience.

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I am a Pentecostal not because I speak in tongues. Rather, I speak in tongues because I am a Pentecostal. Being Pentecostal is holistic and tongues are part of a larger spirituality.

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Pentecostal spirituality involves a cooperative or shared intimacy with God.

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Just as the circuits in an appliance wired to receive 110 volts will sizzle and meltdown when plugged into a 220 volts outlet unless it is retrofitted, no human can interface with the omnipotent God without facilitation. Answering the challenge to know God—not just cognitively, but experientially—requires divine help.

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As I thrashed around in the shallows of His presence, I felt frustrated and frail.

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It was as I relaxed and was suffused in the depths of His love that the divine assistance to interface with Him came.

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With the help of the Holy Spirit, I was able to express the ineffable. The ability to pray in an unknown language helped and continues to help me interface with and experience God.