Dr. Isak Burger's Blog

THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
By Isak Burger



INTRODUCTION

The Church has always had a tendency to cool down and fall away as years come and go. A second generation has usually lost something of their spirituality and first love.

You find this for example in the time of Joshua: “And the people served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of Jehovah that He did for Israel… And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know Jehovah, nor even the works which He had done for Israel. And the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served Baals.” (Judges 2:7, 10+11)

The church of Ephesus was only 43 years old; the first generation has just passed, when Jesus had to warn them: “But I have against you that you left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the first works.” (Rev. 2:4+5)

This “falling away” in the early church became gradually clear after the first century of church history as the gifts of the Spirit and commitment to the Lord faded away. This was perhaps the main reason why the Middle Ages were called “Dark”.

However God, in His faithfulness, never abandoned His people, His Church. By the end of the 15th century, when the church was most likely at an all time low, a chain of people and events emerged in a long restoration process, a process which eventually resulted in the Pentecostal Movement. In retrospect, and from a Pentecostal perspective, the hand of God can clearly be seen in this restoration of His church.

This restoration-process has been going on for centuries. If you visualize a half-circle, putting the Early Church at the top, the church in the late Middle Ages can be put at its bottom, representing a spiritual low. It is from there that God started to revitalize His Church again, taking it through successive stages of renewal, until the Church regained its apostolic character and being. To a large extent, this circle in the history of the church was completed with the birth of the modern day Pentecostal Movement. Whether this whole process will be repeated again before the Second Coming of the Lord remains to be seen.

It will become clear how the church has gone through progressive stages of restoration until the soil was eventually prepared for the start of the Pentecostal Movement. Just as the deterioration of the church happened gradually, over centuries, from the “blueprint” in the book of Acts until the height (or depth!) of the Middle Ages, the restoration also was a gradual process, taking the best part of four centuries.

Fact is that the Pentecostal Movement did not start in unprepared soil. As Jesus was born in the “fullness of time”, meaning that there was some divine preparation so that the church would start in the most advantageous time, the Pentecostal Movement also started at a well-prepared moment in history – in “the fullness of time.”

Let’s consider this preparation, starting with the Reformation of the 16th century.

1 - THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT AND THE REFORMATION

Every Pentecostal acknowledges that the Reformation was a work of God. (The Reformation was actually not a true “reformation”, but rather a schism, a break-away from the Roman Catholic Church. The RCC soon afterwards responded with its own Counter-Reformation).

The importance of Johann Gutenberg, who invented the first printing press in 1436, can hardly be overemphasized. The first book to be printed was the Bible. The fact that at least litterate people now had access to the Bible, opened their eyes for the prevailing apostasies.

Many of the legacies of the Reformation found its way into the Pentecostal Movement – especially as far as salvation as a work of free grace based on “sola fide” was concerned. Although most of the early Pentecostals came from the ranks of the Reformed tradition, it was not exclusively the case. It is perhaps more correct to see the Pentecostal movement as a distinctive segment of the Church rather than merely part of the Protestant tradition.

There were certain truths, like the baptism of believers, but even more important – the baptism in the Spirit and the charismata, that were not restored by the reformists.

2 – THE PIETISTS

After the Reformation was accomplished and the churches of the Reformation became settled in certain countries, the almost unavoidable happened: the initial commitment and enthusiasm dwindled and to a large extent it was the dead and dry doctrines that remained.

Pietism was a reaction against this: “Many of them chose to regard true reformation not merely as a renewal of doctrine and ecclesiastical practice, but as a thorough renewal of man’s entire life...”
Pietism was also a reaction against the so-called Enlightenment or Aufklärung which became prominent in Europe since the end of the 17th century.

The historical roots of the Pietism lie in the mysticism that was prevalent in Germany even before the Reformation, as well as in the English Puritanism. The most important root however lies with Luther and Lutheranism as such.

Characteristics of Pietism were a personal conversion experience and an encounter with God, Bible-centered morality, practical holiness, a committed life of prayer and Bible study, heartfelt songs, compassion with those in need and a passion for soul-winning.

For the Pietists religion was not mere doctrines and teachings, but something personal and individual, something you experience. The resemblance with the belief of Pentecostals, speaks for itself.

An important fruit of Pietism was their thorough mission work – especially the work of Van Zinzendorf and the Moravians. Their work even had an impact on South Africa.

Pietism had a significant influence in church history. It countered the rationalism and liberalism of the Aufklärung and the godless philosophies of that time and became a patron for the orthodoxy and the fundamental truths of the Bible.

Their influence in preparation for the birth of the Pentecostal movement years later is significant. Pietism had a determining effect upon the life and teachings of John Wesley, which on his part again had a direct influence on the start of the Second Evangelical Awakening and the Holiness Movement. The latter was an important foundation from which the Pentecostal Movement started.

In short, let me point out some of the legacies of Pietism to be found in the modern Pentecostal Movement:

1 – The emphasis on personal conversion and a personal encounter with God. Emotion and experience are part and parcel of Pentecostalism.
2 – The emphasis on holiness.
3 – The important place of spiritual songs.
4 – The emphasis on mission work.
These qualities were somehow deposited in the walk of history, a legacy inherited by the Pentecostal Movement.

JOHN WESLEY AND THE FIRST EVANGELICAL AWAKENING

John Wesley (1703-1791), even though he lived more than a century before the start of the Pentecostal Movement, was one of the most important personalities used by God to prepare the soil for the revival of the church in the 20th century. Together with George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards he was the leader of the First Evangelical Awakening of the 18th century which mainly influenced America and England.
Wesley, though he was ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church in 1728, only had a personal conversion in 1738 after he made contact with the Moravians and attended an informal gathering.

As a result of his personal conversion, the Methodist doctrine of Assurance developed. Wesley made it clear: “Those who perceive it not, have it not.” Christianity is more than rational and intellectual assent: “But the evangelical leaders unashamedly restored feeling to its rightful place. For them the essence of religion was the felt personal experience of God, not merely intellectual assent to creeds.”
These teachings of Wesley about a conscious conversion, a personal encounter with God and certainty of faith, have become part and parcel of the praxis of the Pentecostal Movement.

A further important teaching of John Wesley that became a distinctive characteristic of the Methodist revival was sanctification. Wesley viewed sanctification as a crisis-experience, a second work of grace after one’s conversion experience. Davison explained what Wesley meant by this experience: “But by instantaneous holiness he did not mean perfection in the sense of the goal attained, but rather the perfection of a new born child who has yet to grow to maturity.”

This experience after conversion, this second work of grace which Wesley called “sanctification”, was a very important point for the Pentecostal Movement a century later. Wesley was the first person in many years who proclaimed a clearly distinguishable experience after conversion. The Holiness Movement in the second half of the 19th century inherited this teaching from Wesley. They referred to it as the “Second Blessing”. Although this experience and the Pentecostals’ experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit were not identical, there were certain resemblances which made it easier for people especially from the Holiness Movement to acquaint themselves with the Pentecostal Movement.

The importance of this evangelical revival is emphasized by Leslie Davison, a prominent leader of the American Methodist Church and himself a Charismatic: “Looking back over the last two hundred and fifty years of Christian history, one can trace a strategy of God, a divine and providential order by which the foundations of the twentieth century charismatic movement were firmly laid down in the rediscovery of the dimension of the Spirit through the evangelical revival...I doubt whether there would have been any Pentecostal Movement today, apart from the eighteenth century revival of interior religion.”

THE SECOND EVANGELICAL AWAKENING

The nineteenth century was a period of many facets. It was a century that gave birth to many godless philosophies and ideologies. It was a time of rationalism, liberalism and lukewarmness in major parts of the church. Yet (as can certainly be expected) it was also a time of some remarkable revivals in America and also in other parts of the world. These revivals all played an important role in preparing the soil for the Pentecostal revival that was to start at the beginning of the 20th century.

The Second Evangelical Awakening started in 1857 in America and soon reached England and other European countries, Scandinavia as well as South Africa. It continued for a number of years and produced significant fruit. Many people considered this revival as God’s answer to the prevailing liberalism and rationalism that infected the church at that time.

The man God used to trigger this revival was Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875). Finney referred to the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” as an experience distinguishable and following conversion by which holiness is granted to the believer. It was very much the same as Wesley’s “sanctification”.
In 1858, during a time of great financial crises as well as spiritual decay in America, a revival broke out. This was a revival of prayer and was also called “The layman’s” revival. All over the country people met in groups – even during lunch-hours, to pray.

A year later the same things started to happen in England and during the following year the revival spread to other countries as well, including South Africa. The major fruit of this revival was the many radical conversions – more than a million respectively in America and the United Kingdom.

Edwin Orr clearly states the causal connection between the different revivals: “Without the sixteenth century Reformation and seventeenth century Puritanism, there could have been no eighteenth century revival. In the same way the nineteenth century Awakening was depended upon its predecessors in kind and time.”

This causal lineage of divine interventions in the history of the church, continued into the 20th century. Many of the converts of this late 19th century revival were still alive when the Pentecostal revival started 40 years later. Remembering what happened years ago, they were often the first to embrace this new revival.
One of the “fruits” of the Second Evangelical Awakening was Dwight Lyman Moodie. His large revival campaigns in America as well as in England played an important role in the latter part of the 19th century to prepare the context and atmosphere for the coming Pentecostal revival. Möller remarks: “Dwight L. Moodie en Sankey (en ook manne soos Sunday, Gipsey Smith. e.a.) het met hulle opwekkingsveldtogte in die V.S.A., Engeland en elders, ʼn patroon van herlewing voorgestel waarby die ondervindelike, gepaard met emosionele uitinge aan die orde van die dag was. Dit het ook help vorm aan die geestesagtergrond waaruit die Pinksterbeweging ontstaan het.”

It is important to understand that Moody, like Finney before him, emphasized a definite spiritual experience following one’s conversion which he also called the “baptism in the Holy Spirit”: “Both Moody and, later, Torrey in counseling work stressed the promise that a further experience of grace which they called ‘the Baptism of the Spirit’ awaited the believer and they urged their converts to seek it diligently.”

The interesting development in the late nineteenth century is that for the first time in many centuries an experience subsequent to conversion, called the “baptism in the Holy Spirit” was once again acknowledged and encouraged. The only problem was that a criterion or distinctive sign of such an experience was lacking. This uncertainty was removed with the rise of the Pentecostal Movement and their conviction that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is signified by the initial evidence of speaking in other tongues.

THE HOLINESS MOVEMENT

The Holiness Movement can be considered one of the most important movements preparing the climate for the Pentecostal Movement. This movement that started in America after the civil war (1861-1865), had its roots in the teachings of John Wesley. Many believers from Evangelistic churches, seeking for a deeper experience with God joined – especially Methodists and people from the Salvation Army and the Keswick Conferences.

The Holiness Movement was partly a reaction against the prevailing rationalism, materialism, humanism and liberalism of the 19th century. The evolution theory of Charles Darwin, the “Social Gospel” and the so-called “Higher Critique” which strongly emerged among theologians, left many Christians uncertain and doubting.

In answer to the above, the Holiness Movement emphasized the infallibility and divine inspiration of the Bible as the Word of God. They also emphasized the importance of a personal conversion and experience with God. A change of heart and enthusiasm in one’s religion became typical of this movement.

It started off as an ecumenical movement, but after a few years developed into a kind of denominational entity: “They found religious experience here, and expression of man’s religious emotions, which was simply not provided for in most of the conventional churches. At first the movement remained interdenominational, but as the opposition to Holiness practice and doctrine increased among orthodox protestants, groups of people who had found the Holiness movement more meaningful than their traditional churches banded together to form Holiness churches.”

It is important to mention that the Holiness movement, in line with men like Wesley, Finney, Moody and Torrey, emphasized a second work of grace after conversion. They called this second blessing “sanctification”, an experience considered to give a person the ability to live a morally perfect life.

It’s interesting to know that this teaching (and experience) was accepted by a large part of the Pentecostal Movement – even until today. They just added a “third blessing”, the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues. It was also part of John G. Lake’s teaching when he came to South Africa. It was only after P.L. le Roux became president of the AFM that this “second blessing” slowly disappeared and only the baptism of the Holy Spirit remained as a “second blessing” after conversion.
It needs to be stated clearly that the Pentecostal Movement was not merely an extension of these revivals and the Holiness movement in particular, although all of these to a lesser or greater extent prepared the cradle for modern Pentecost. More and more people studied the Scriptures concerning a further experience after conversion and wondered whether it is identical with the baptism in the Spirit as practised in the New Testament Church – something more than a only a sanctification experience.

An increasing number of people had an openness and expectation for something more from God. It was therefore no surprise that some of the most important early leaders as well as members of the Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement came from the Holiness movement: “...the charismatic movement developed out of sharp and bitter disappointment with ‘dry formal religion’ in soil prepared by the holiness and revivalist preachers.”

THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT OF JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE

An equally important movement that paved the way for the birth of the Pentecostal Movement (in South Africa more than in any other country), was the Zionist movement of John Alexander Dowie. He was born in Scotland in 1847 where he also had his theological training.

He moved to Australia where he became an independent evangelist. He preached against the use the use of tobacco and alcohol. During an epidemic in the eighties, he became convinced that the gift of healing wasn’t only for the early church. He started to pray for the healing of his members and purportedly there were no further deaths.

During this time he also became convinced that infant baptism was unscriptural and that only believers should be baptized by immersion.

In 1888 he returned to America where some remarkable healings took place. He initiated the building of a “Holy Zion city” and started a church called the “Christian Apostolic Catholic Church in Zion.” From 1896 he published a regular newsletter, “Leaves of Healing”, which contained teachings on divine healing as well as testimonies of healings. This newsletter was spread internationally and created an expectation for something more – also in South Africa.

What was the particular importance of the Zionist movement in as far as the birth of the Pentecostal Movement was concerned?

1 – Many of the first members of the Pentecostal Movement were ex-Zionists – especially in South Africa. Although Dowie opposed the speaking in tongues and the Pentecostal movement as such, there were so much in common, that it wasn’t too wide a gap to cross. It should however be stated that Pentecost was not merely an extension of Zionism. Although there were many doctrinal and other similarities, the distinguishing characteristic of the Pentecostal movement was and is the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues – an experience the Zionists didn’t have and in fact opposed.

2 – A second important way in which Zionism prepared the soil for the Pentecostal movement was their strong emphasis on holiness, morality and separation from the “world.” Certain moral convictions like abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, medicine and the eating of pork meat were taken over by the early Pentecostals.

3 – The great emphasis on divine healing continued in the Pentecostal movement.
4 – The importance of water baptism of believers was also a characteristic in the Pentecostal movement right from the start.

5 – As far as South Africa and the AFM in particular is concerned, it is of importance to note that both John G. Lake and P.L. le Roux who was the first South African leader of the church, moved from Zionism to the Pentecostal movement. This contributes to the fact that Zionism in South Africa, like nowhere else in the world, prepared the soil from which the Pentecostal movement sprang forth.

In short, when the Pentecostal movement started, and especially with the decline of (White) Zionism, the move of many members to Pentecost was quite easy given the many similarities between the two.
Without elaborating on the historical development, it is interesting to note that Zionism in South Africa, after the start of the AFM, developed as a totally Black indigenous movement, today comprising some of the largest denominations in South Africa.

CONCLUSIVE REMARKS

Every church certainly claims Divine sanction for its birth and existence. The Pentecostal movement in its own right feels particularly convinced of this. It is obvious that the cradle for this 20th century movement was prepared through different revivals, people and movements over a few centuries. Comparing it with the birth of Christ and the start of the early Christian Church, it can be said that the Pentecostal movement was birthed in the “fullness of time.” (Gal. 4:4)

The spontaneous way in which the Pentecostal movement made its appearance in a short space of time across the globe, and the unprecedented way in which it has grown over the last century, makes it a very distinctive and particular movement in the history of the Church. We, as Pentecostals, consider it humbly to be a unique work of God and not merely a product of historical coincidence.

The way in which this movement started is unlike most other historical churches or movements:

1 - It was nowhere the result of a major church-split. It was not a group of discontented people who broke away from some church or denomination.

2 – It was also not the result of a doctrinal reformation as was the case with the 16th century Reformation. All the doctrines of the Pentecostal movement can be found in some non-Pentecostal church. It is true that most of the basic orthodox doctrines are to be found in most Pentecostal denominations, but that will only be a secondary reason why people would consider joining a Pentecostal church. It was because of a common spiritual experience, the baptism in the Holy Spirit – an experience which no church of that time was willing to accommodate.

3 – A third unique characteristic of the birth of the Pentecostal movement was that it was not the result or the work of some or other dynamic church leader, reformer or charismatic personality: “The Pentecostal Movement does not owe its origin to any outstanding personality or religious leader, but was a spontaneous revival appearing almost simultaneously in various parts of the world. We instinctively connect the Reformation with Luther, the Quakers with George Fox, Methodism with Wesley, the Plymouth Brethren with Darby and Groves, the Salvation Army with William Booth, and so on. But the outstanding leaders of the Pentecostal Movement are themselves the products of the Movement. They did not make it; it made them.”

The Pentecostal Movement can indeed not boast about the noble background, education or any particular excellence of its first generation leaders. As a matter of fact, the man whom God had chosen in particular to take the lead in Azusastreet, Los Angeles, was an uneducated, unimpressive Afro-American with one blind eye.

The one distinctive characteristic that brought people from all ranks and files, from different traditions and denominations, was the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in other tongues. People had a personal encounter with God and experienced the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

As there was no place for Jesus to be born in the homes and inns of Bethlehem, there was no room for this Pentecostal revival in the traditional churches of that time. As Stanley Frodsham remarked: “You would hardly expect heavenly visitations there unless you remember the stable at Bethlehem.”


BIBLIOGRAPHY


Davison, Leslie: Pathway to Power. Watchung N. J. 1972.

Frodsham, Stanley H: With Signs Following. Missouri. 1946.

Gee, Donald: The Pentecostal Movement. London. 1941 and 1949.

Kelsey, Morton T: Tongue speaking. An experiment in Spiritual Experience. New York. 1968.

Möller, F.P: Die diskussie oor die Charismata soos wat dit in die Pinksterbeweging geleer en beoefen word. Braamfontein. 1975.

Orr, J. Edwin: The Second Evangelical Awakening in America. London. 1952.

Stoeffler, F. Ernest: German Pietism during the Eighteenth Century. Leiden. 1973