The World's Christians. Douglas Jacobsen. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Douglas Jacobsen
Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited
Серия:
Жанр произведения: Религия: прочее
Год издания: 0
isbn: 9781119626121
Скачать книгу
fits into the overall progression of the Christian life. The first two experiences that he mentions (conversion and sanctification) would be typical for many Christians and not just Pentecostals. It is the third experience, the baptism with the Spirit, that differentiates Pentecostalism.

      Excerpt from The Apostolic Faith (1907):

      The first step in seeking the baptism with the Holy Ghost, is to have a clear knowledge of the new birth in our souls, which is the first work of grace and brings everlasting life to our souls … Every one of us that repents of our sins and turns to the Lord Jesus with faith in Him, receives forgiveness of sins. Justification and regeneration are simultaneous. The pardoned sinner becomes a child of God in justification.

      The second step for us is to have a clear knowledge by the Holy Spirit, of the second work of grace [sanctification] wrought in our hearts by the power of the Blood and the Holy Ghost…

      But, praise our God, [the Holy Spirit] is now given and being poured out upon all flesh. All races, nations, and tongues are receiving the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire, according to the prophecy of Joel. When we have a clear knowledge of justification and sanctification, through the precious Blood of Jesus Christ in our hearts, then we can be a recipient of the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Many people today are sanctified, cleansed from all sin, and perfectly consecrated to God, but they have never obeyed the Lord according to Acts 1:4,5,8 and Luke 24:39 for their real personal Pentecost, the enduement of power for service.

      William J. Seymour, “Receive Ye the Holy Ghost,” The Apostolic Faith 1:5 (January 1907), p. 1.

Photo depicts the Aimee Semple McPherson in a performance at her church, Angelus Temple, in Los Angeles.

      Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection.

      Pentecostal Christianity emphasizes the miraculous and the supernatural, but perhaps the key characteristic that distinguishes it from the other Christian mega‐traditions is something quite simple and ordinary: joy. Pentecostal believers say they feel joy in the presence of God, and they express that joy in the exuberance of their worship. Many Christian liturgies or services of worship can be dry, dull, and somber. Many Christians think of Sunday worship as an obligatory duty they must grudgingly perform. But this is not the case with most Spirit‐filled Christians. In Pentecostal worship, people dance and sing, they clap their hands, they shout, they march around the room, they hug each other, they “get happy in the Lord,” and they rejoice. Pentecostal believers know how to cry – in fact, tears are often considered a spiritual gift – but the predominant emotion is joy. Awash in joy, Pentecostal Christians don’t go to church reluctantly or out of a sense of duty; they go to church happily and willingly because it is fun. That sense of holy fun goes a long way toward explaining not only how the Pentecostal movement differs from other Christian traditions, but also why it is growing so rapidly.

      In the Pentecostal tradition, salvation focuses on the future. There is no question that salvation entails the forgiveness of past sins and the righting of past wrongs, but the attention of Pentecostal Christians is on what is yet to come, on the blessings that God has in store for those who believe. In this regard, the Pentecostal movement has more in common with the Orthodox tradition that stresses salvation as deification than it does with the Catholic and Protestant traditions that tend to describe salvation largely in terms of sin and forgiveness. This future‐oriented, growth‐in‐godliness perspective is reflected in the language of fullness that some Pentecostal Christians use to describe the experience of salvation. Salvation is not just about forgiveness, nor is it only about holiness understood as the absence of sin, and it is not something that is simply done once and then is over. Instead, salvation within the Pentecostal tradition is a matter of faith in motion, of moving ever deeper into the fullness of God and into the fullness of life that God intends for everyone.