The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movement Paper

The history of American Christianity is rooted in various movements and revivals within people and events. The Restoration Movement and Evangelical Christianity are two crucial movements in our history. Many churches, Christian organizations, and individuals can trace their Christian heritage back to the formation and impact of the Restoration Movement and or Evangelical Christianity. Although both movements have grown and changed over the past couple of hundred years, they are still major figures within the American church today.

Baptism serves a vital role in the development of Christianity as a living religious traditions in most denominations. It is the ritual used in the

Modern Pentecostalism can find its roots in the early 20th century revivals of the practices of Spirit-infilling, ecstatic worship, and a strict adherence to the literal interpretation of the Bible. Some consider one of the appeals of the Pentecostal movement in its early years, as well as today, to be an inclusive, "whosoever may" attitude of multiculturalism and evangelism (Longman, 2012). Though Pentecostal organizations exist that are predominantly Caucasian, Black, or Hispanic, a growing trend of incorporating all ethnicities within one congregation has led to a dramatic increase in multicultural congregations within several of the established

The Pentecostal movement is made up of different churches that are grouped together because of the similar belief in the physical manifestation of the Holy Spirit. In the middle of the 19th Century, a certain part of personal holiness teaching began within Protestant groups which stated that, after conversion, a second experience was likely in which the convert would be brought into a state of cleansing from sin as they set themselves for a life in Christ. This manifestation of the spiritual power in the Azusa St Mission in Los Angeles is considered to be the beginning of modern Pentecostal movement in 1906.

Charismatic Faith and Ministry is a comprehensive book of Charismatic Systematic Theology. The first three quarters of the book were a brief dissection of systematic theology, much of what we have studied in other classes, but in a more condensed form. The belief system expressed by Dr. Daniel Thimell was no great departure from most conservative, reformed, evangelical orthodoxy except for the addition of the Charismatic.

We now come to the section devoted to the major pioneers in the beginning of Pentecostalism in America. The first person we want to discuss is Charles Fox Parham. “He is the man generally recognized as the formulation of Pentecostal doctrine and the theological founder of the movement.” Parham held to the theological argument that tongues are always the initial evidence of a person receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He also taught the necessity of being baptized with the Holy Spirit as the only way to escape the great tribulation.

The last issue is evangelism, specifically the 1957 Billy Graham New York Crusade. After World War II (1940s), mass evangelism began to rise again. During this era, religious awakening became important movement, especially Youth ministry. Billy Graham, who was the director of original Youth for Christ evangelical movement, filled the empty churches with evangelical wave of evangelism and revivalism. Originally he was sponsored by fundamentalists, but he changed the policy with the New York Crusade to receive broader support, including non-evangelicals. Moreover, according to the book, “Graham brought an end to evangelical unity” (55).

There are now approximately 170 various denominations that identify as Pentecostal. The Charismatic movement, or neo-Pentecostalism, was born in 1960 when Episcopal priest Dennis Bennett, during the Passion Sunday service, both spoke in tongues and announced that he had received baptism in the Holy Spirit. Although this event is associated with the official beginning of the Charismatic movement, it must be noted that many other Pentecostals and even mainline Christians are considered essential to the birth and spread of the movement. They include such names as David du Plessis, Smith Wigglesworth, Agnes Sanford, Kenneth McAll, Presbyterian pastor James Brown, and Lutheran minister Harald Bredesen. Those who embrace the beliefs and practices of the Charismatic movement do not generally align themselves with any particular mainline Christian denomination. However, Charismatics are found today in all the major Christian denominations, especially in the Pentecostal, Lutheran, Episcopalian, and Catholic Churches. The term Charisma means gift, so therefore Charismatics denote those that demonstrate one or many of the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit.

For my research paper I choose the charismatic gifts debate because coming from a Pentecostal/Charismatic background growing up in church, I know a little about the gift. With growing up in a Charismatic church, I saw the gifts in action. There is a lot of debate on whether the gift is relevant for today or have they ceased from the church. One side says that the gifts are in the past and is not relevant for the day that we live in and another side says that the gifts are still relevant for today. There is one group that says that if you do speak in tongues, then you are under demonic control and are not really saved. Both

Pentecostals are sticking together side by side to defend the endangered. Pentecostals are encouraging a new emphasis on prophecy and Second Coming. Churches were speaking of racism. The media started to change by new technology being able to listening on CD’s, watching it on DVD’s, and reading on social media. The Assemblies of God is the strongest leading denominations.

The Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement are similar to some extent although the Pentecostal movement developed earlier and moved away from the mainstream church. In contrast, those in the Charismatic movement, at least in the formative years of the movement, remained in their respective denominations.

Another practice or thing that comes along side Pentecostalism is often revivals. Revivals are what started the Pentecostal movement. There are three different waves that took place from the 20th Century until currently. Each movement or wave was accompanied with a revival. All different denominations of Christians experienced these revivals. Anywhere from the Catholics to John Calvin, to the Quakers experienced some sort of dramatic move from the Holy Spirit. Pentecostalism was birthed out of these rivals not rivals birthed out of Pentecostalism. There is even evidence of rival in scripture in Acts 2. Pentecost would be one of the earliest forms of the Holy Spirit working in a way that revived large groups of people.

The emerging church movement consists of a diverse group of people who identify with Christianity, but who feel that reaching the postmodern world would requires it to radically reshape the chruch’s beliefs and practices to conform to postmodernism.[14]

In the 1940s, Pentecostals began to find acceptance. Before the 1960s, there were some non-Pentecostal people who had been baptized with the Holy Spirit of God. Most of these people decided that they would then keep it a secret but later join the Pentecostal Church. Around this time the theme of Classic Pentecostalism had somewhat shifted. This became known as New Pentecostalism. At this time there was the start of the Charismatic Movement. The supporters of the Charismatic Movement started to stray people away from the traditional beliefs of Classic Pentecostalism. More recently, there is a third wave of Pentecostalism that consists of non-Pentecostal Christians whose beliefs are mainly swayed towards the beliefs of Traditional Christianity. This third wave of Pentecostalism was founded by C. Peter Wagner. These non-Pentecostal Christians follow the practices of Traditional Christianity, but they believe in the Spiritual gifts of God and the works of God. Members of the third wave of Pentecostalism do not see being baptized by the Holy Spirit of God as an indicator. This third wave of Pentecostalism is better known as the Vineyard Movement. Kenn Gulliksen and John Wimber are two very important people who are associated with the Vineyard Movement. In the 1980s Gulliksen and Wimber joined ministries. Vineyard churches were churches that focused on modern-day prophecies. Some prophecies failed. Therefore, John Wimber decided that the Vineyard ministries should focus their

This site is a still a historical site today for those in the Pentecostal faith. This is the location William J. Seymour leads an interracial congregation. Consequently, the media gave negative feedback which caused the crowd of people to increase steadily from one hundred to two hundred and eventually getting to eight-hundred people. This church represented the hope that blacks, whites, and people from all religions were looking for. Everyone was welcome there even those who came as negative critics. Hope for a united people in America had finally arrive in Los Angeles. These people gathered together in the Holy Spirit in joy and some left their prior religions to join the Pentecostal beliefs. Many traveled from overseas to see the William