Hello! I'm doing an assignment at my Pentecostal Bible College, and need some input from a people across a variety of denominations.
I'm looking for answers to three specific questions:
- What is your overall impression of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement?
- How well do you feel you understand the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement?
- Do you feel the overall impact of Pentecostal/Charismatic ministries such as those by Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Oral Roberts, and Pat Robertson has been a positive or negative thing for Christianity?
I want to get a good feel for what the impression of Pentecostalism is across other denominations. Answer as many or as few as you would like, as long or short as you would like - any input is welcome
Thank you and have a lovely day!
If you can borrow a copy of this book:
Foundations of Pentecostal Theology Hardcover – January 8, 2008
by Guy P. Duffield (Author), Nathaniel M. Van Cleave (Author)
you will find that it gives the best survey of what traditional Pentecostals believe.
There are many flavours of Pentecostalism, from the ultra conservative, to the utterly wacky snake handlers. Some are very similar to Baptists, and others are very much like the rockin and rolling southern black Pentecostal churches. Some outlaw short hair styles, jewellery, types of clothing, etc.
But most Pentecostals I know are godly people who love the Lord and freely enjoy being at church. I left the movement in 1978, because the particular church was elder run with a board of elders, but one wanted to be the head rooster, and caused problems and division, and also there was a lot of character assassination and gossiping. But those things were the fault of some in that particular church and not of Pentecostalism itself.
Pentecostalism allows people to express their worship emotionally, more than other traditional churches. The attitude is that although God is not deaf, but He doesn't suffer from nerves either. There is nothing wrong with singing with gusto and enjoyment, and preaching with conviction, that makes Pentecostal services fun.
I was converted in a Pentecostal church when I was young and felt I was given good discipleship training and sound doctrinal training from faithful, godly pastors who didn't go in for the wacky stuff. Most Pentecostals are firmly based on the gospel - that Jesus died for us on the cross and rose again to give us eternal life.
The difference is that Pentecostals believe in the present day use of the gifts of the Spirit, and when I first joined, prophecy and tongues were very common and none of it was spooky at all. Not for me anyway. So after many years of membership and subsequent association through Pentecostal interdenominational ministries, I think I understand it very well.
Now concerning Copeland, Dollar, and Roberts. I don't know about Pat Robertson. But Copeland, Dollar, and Hin are prosperity and positive confession preachers. I don't consider them mainline Pentecostals. I see them as totally false, and are in it more for the income than the ministry of the gospel. Paul was quite clear in that he opposed preaching the gospel as a money making exercise. My mentor in NZ who runs a prophetic ministry doesn't take a salary from his ministry even though the ministry receives a lot of money to fund it. He is retired and he and his wife live on just the old age government pension. His foundation is on sound Biblical doctrine.
But prosperity teaching is non-Biblical and the only person who makes the money is the preacher himself. Positive confession ("name it and claim it") comes from Norman Vincent Peale's "The power of Positive Thinking" which he says it was dictated to him by the spirits of the great men through the ages. So, it has its foundation in the occult. Also, the teaching that if we confess something and believe hard enough for it to happen, then we are exercising Hindu mind control techniques, which are pagan. We are to ask God for what we need and want and leave it up to His sovereignty. If we could get what we need and want through mind-control, why need God at all? Also, in their meetings, there is a lot of out-of-control public tongues (contrary to Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 14), shaking, jerking, falling over, hysterical laughing and other kundalini manifestations that come right out of the Hindu occult demon worship of its gods. I see these men as absolute non-Christian and non-Pentecostal heretics, and should be avoided at all costs.
Oral Roberts was a sound Pentecostal gospel healing evangelist in his younger days, and he wasn't in it for the money. Actually when he died, all he had was a modest condominium and a regular bank balance. But in his later years, he went a bit off the track and made some mistakes, like thinking he had a vision of a 90 foot Jesus telling him to get funds to build a hospital in Tulsa when it was not needed. But the university he founded and had built is one of the most sound Pentecostal teaching facilities in the world and many godly Pentecostal pastors have had their basic training there. But in his heyday, there were genuine miraculous healings, properly attested through medical records, and thousands of souls were saved and went on for the Lord. We are all subject to error at times, and the Lord has to bring us back into line. This is because we are fallible humans.
But Copeland, Dollar, Hin, Meyer are a people apart. They have made sure that they have skimmed as much as they can from their ministries for their personal use, and shows that their motive is not to preach the gospel of Christ but to preach their own perverted gospel as a money maker for themselves.
So, that is my view. Over in the Spirit Filled/Charismatic forum you will see many posts from sound, godly Charismatics and they will give you a good view of the good, bad, and ugly sides of the Charismatic movement.
I trust that this is helpful.
