Pentecostalism, also known as classical Pentecostalism, is a movement within the evangelical wing of Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, an event that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1–31).
Like other forms of evangelical Protestantism, Pentecostalism adheres to the inerrancy of the Bible and the necessity of being born again: an individual repenting of their sin and "accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior". It is distinguished by belief in both the "baptism in the Holy Spirit" and baptism by water, that enables a Christian to "live a Spirit-filled and empowered life".
Holiness Pentecostalism emerged in the early 20th century among a number of adherents of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, who were energized by Christian revivalism and expectation of the Second Coming of Christ. In 1900, Charles Parham, an American evangelist and faith healer, began teaching that speaking in tongues was the Biblical evidence of Spirit baptism. Along with William J. Seymour, a Wesleyan-Holiness preacher, he taught that this was the third work of grace. The three-year-long Azusa Street Revival, founded and led by Seymour in Los Angeles, California, resulted in the growth of Pentecostalism throughout the world. Visitors carried the Pentecostal experience back to their home churches or felt called to the mission field. While virtually all Pentecostal denominations trace their origins to Azusa Street, the movement has three major categories. Early disputes centered on challenges to the doctrine of entire sanctification, and later on, the Holy Trinity. As a result, the Pentecostal movement is divided between Holiness Pentecostals who affirm three definite works of grace, and Finished Work Pentecostals who are partitioned into trinitarian and non-trinitarian branches, the latter giving rise to Oneness Pentecostalism.
Comprising over 700 Christian denominations and many independent churches, Pentecostalism is highly decentralized. No central authority exists, but many denominations are affiliated with the Pentecostal World Fellowship. With over 279 million classical Pentecostals worldwide, the movement is growing in many parts of the world, especially the Global South and Third World countries. Since the 1960s, Pentecostalism has increasingly gained acceptance from other Christian traditions, and Pentecostal beliefs concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts have been embraced by non-Pentecostal Christians in Protestant and Catholic churches through their adherence to the Charismatic movement. Together, worldwide Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity numbers over 644 million adherents.Martin, Bernice. 2006. "The Aesthetics of Latin American Pentecostalism: the Sociology of Religion and the Problem of Taste". pp. 138–160, in Materialising Religion: Expression, Performance, and Ritual, edited by E. Arweck and W. J. F. Keenan. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate.Hallum, Anne M. 2002. "Looking for Hope in Central America: the Pentecostal Movement". pp. 225–239, in Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective: The One, the Few, and the Many, edited by T. G. Jelen and C. Wilcox. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. Pentecostalism is believed to be the fastest-growing religious movement in the world.
History Background Early Pentecostals considered the movement a latter-day restoration of the church's apostolic power. Historians such as Cecil M. Robeck Jr. and Edith L. Blumhofer write that the movement emerged from late 19th-century radical evangelical revival movements in the United States and in Great Britain.: "Molded by a view of history that anticipated that an intense, brief recurrence of pristine New Testament faith and practice would immediately precede Christ's physical return to earth, early Pentecostalism is best understood as an expression of restorationist yearning that was shaped in significant ways by the hopes and dreams of disparate groups of late nineteenth-century restorationists [...]"
Within this radical evangelicalism, expressed most strongly in the Wesleyan–holiness and Higher Life movements, themes of restorationism, premillennialism, faith healing, and greater attention to the person and work of the Holy Spirit were central to emerging Pentecostalism. Believing that the second coming of Christ was imminent, these Christians expected an endtime revival of apostolic power, spiritual gifts, and miracle-working. Figures such as Dwight L. Moody and R. A. Torrey began to speak of an experience available to all Christians which would empower believers to evangelize the world, often termed baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Certain Christian leaders and movements had important influences on early Pentecostals. The essentially universal belief in the continuation of all the spiritual gifts in the Keswick and Higher Life movements constituted a crucial historical background for the rise of Pentecostalism. Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843–1919) and his Christian and Missionary Alliance (founded in 1887) was very influential in the early years of Pentecostalism, especially on the development of the Assemblies of God. Another early influence on Pentecostals was John Alexander Dowie (1847–1907) and his Christian Catholic Apostolic Church (founded in 1896). Pentecostals embraced the teachings of Simpson, Dowie, Adoniram Judson Gordon (1836–1895) and Maria Woodworth-Etter (1844–1924; she later joined the Pentecostal movement) on healing.Blumhofer 1993, pp. 20–24. Edward Irving's Catholic Apostolic Church (founded c. 1831) also displayed many characteristics later found in the Pentecostal revival.
Isolated Christian groups were experiencing charismatic phenomena such as divine healing and speaking in tongues. The Holiness Pentecostal movement provided a theological explanation for what was happening to these Christians, and they adapted a modified form of Wesleyan soteriology to accommodate their new understanding.McGee 1999Blumhofer 1989, Pentecost in My Soul, p. 92.
Early revivals: 1900–1929
Charles Fox Parham, an independent holiness evangelist who believed strongly in divine healing, was an important figure to the emergence of Pentecostalism as a distinct Christian movement. Parham, who was raised as a Methodist, started a spiritual school near Topeka, Kansas, in 1900, which he named Bethel Bible School. There he taught that speaking in tongues was the scriptural evidence for the reception of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. On January 1, 1901, after a watch night service, the students prayed for and received the baptism with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Parham received this same experience sometime later and began preaching it in all his services. Parham believed this was xenoglossia and that missionaries would no longer need to study foreign languages. Parham closed his Topeka school after 1901 and began a four-year revival tour throughout Kansas and Missouri.Synan 1997, pp. 89–92. He taught that the baptism with the Holy Spirit was a third experience, subsequent to conversion and sanctification. Sanctification cleansed the believer, but Spirit baptism empowered for service.Synan 1997, pp. 93–94.
At about the same time that Parham was spreading his doctrine of initial evidence in the Midwestern United States, news of the Welsh Revival of 1904–1905 ignited intense speculation among radical evangelicals around the world and particularly in the US of a coming move of the Spirit which would renew the entire Christian Church. This revival saw thousands of conversions and also exhibited speaking in tongues.Synan 1997, pp. 86–88.
Parham moved to Houston, Texas in 1905, where he started a Bible training school. One of his students was William J. Seymour, a one-eyed black preacher. Seymour traveled to Los Angeles where his preaching sparked the three-year-long Azusa Street Revival in 1906.Synan 1997, pp. 92–98. The revival first broke out on Monday April 9, 1906 at 214 Bonnie Brae Street and then moved to 312 Azusa Street on Friday, April 14, 1906.Hyatt 2006, pp. 20–22. Worship at the racially integrated Azusa Mission featured an absence of any order of service. People preached and testified as moved by the Spirit, spoke and sung in tongues, and fell (were slain) in the Spirit. The revival attracted both religious and secular media attention, and thousands of visitors flocked to the mission, carrying the "fire" back to their home churches.Synan 1997, pp. 98–100. Despite the work of various Wesleyan groups such as Parham's and D. L. Moody's revivals, the beginning of the widespread Pentecostal movement in the US is generally considered to have begun with Seymour's Azusa Street Revival.Blumhofer 1989, The Assemblies of God vol. 1, pp. 97–112
The crowds of African-Americans and whites worshiping together at William Seymour's Azusa Street Mission set the tone for much of the early Pentecostal movement. During the period of 1906–1924, Pentecostals defied social, cultural and political norms of the time that called for racial segregation and the enactment of Jim Crow laws. The Church of God in Christ, the Church of God (Cleveland), the Pentecostal Holiness Church, and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World were all interracial denominations before the 1920s. These groups, especially in the Jim Crow South were under great pressure to conform to segregation. Ultimately, North American Pentecostalism would divide into white and African-American branches. Though it never entirely disappeared, interracial worship within Pentecostalism would not reemerge as a widespread practice until after the civil rights movement.Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition, 167–186.