Page Summary: The Charismatic- Pentecostal movement is a movement that began in 1901 when certain teachers studying the working of the Holy Spirit in Acts supposedly began to speak in tongues and tongues reawakened. This is considered the "latter rain" by them which is their doctrinal explanation of a revival of gifts, miracles, and tongues in modern Christianity.

David Cox's Library of Religious Works Main Page
78.01 Charismatic-Pentecostal Movement

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Difference between "Charismatic" and "Pentecostal" - Technically this movement formed a denomination parallel but independent to the Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc. called the Foursquare Gospel Churches. This became the Pentecostal (from Pentecost) movement. But very soon the teachings of this movement jumped ship and began to be taught and practiced in churches of other denominations, and even Catholic churches. Much of these things are deeply rooted in Hinduism, so their practices were always very integral to these oriental religions, but they have a sure footing in historic Christianity through this Charismatic factor which means they are believed and practiced independent of Pentecostal churches.

78.00 General Works

Decker - Pentecostalism - in the Light of the Word
Engelsma - Try the Spirits - A Reformed Look at Pentecostalism - Part I Part II Part III
Gillary, Gary - Doctrinal Distinctives of the Charismatic Movement (a) 562K (12 pages)
Khoo - Charismatism Q&A 96pgs
MacArthur, John - Charismatic Chaos (b) 694K (195 pages) 
Nathan - Response to MacArthur's Charismatic Chaos (a) 128K (26 pgs)
Schwertley - The Charismatic Movement: A Biblical Critique

Mark Sidwell - The Charismatic Movement (Chapter 10 from Dividing Line: Understanding and Applying Biblical Separation)

78.01 History, Roots of Movement

General Background on the Movement

To get a historical view of where and how this movement has come from we go back to the 1500s when the Anglican Church broken from Catholic Church. In a way this was one of the early attempts at fixing what was wrong with the Roman Catholic Church. Although the Anglicans broke over power struggles, the effect was to seek to distinguish themselves and validate themselves. We note that in general Anglicans in practice and doctrine are "warmed over" Catholics. In general their history and mindset is still very much in the same form and figure as the Roman Catholic Church. The except seems to be a great many Anglican theological writers in the 1500s that turned from the bulk of the false doctrine of the Catholic Church and found the truths of Scripture. Personally some of their writings seem very insightful, and they have an understanding of Scripture that is hard to classify as coming from unsaved writers.

From the Anglicans the Puritans and Congregationalists separated themselves in 1560 and 1592. From 1700 to 1900 the Holiness Movement broke out. The main point here is that people claiming salvation did not live in such a way as other Christians would accept them as being saved, and this "hypocrisy" caused great concern. The Holiness movement was to fix this problem by promoting a return to Christ and God in holiness.

In 1729 John and Charles Wesley started the Methodist Church, which has as its principle basis the method which one executes in his own life to find this personal closeness (holiness) with God. John Wesley suggested this entire sanctification in a tract early in 1766. Here another very key and principle concept is that of a second work of grace that came from the Holiness movement. By this, they mean that after salvation, there is another experience that the believer has that is equal in intensity and supernatural powers and experiences with salvation. The emphasis here is on experiences.

John Fletcher (1771) apparently was the first to equate this "second blessing" with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Fletcher was a disciple of Wesley. The Methodist movement had thereafter individuals which sought and thought they achieved entire sanctification. In their concept, this guaranteed them power and miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit. They reported numerous occasions of healing between 1771 and 1901. During this time frame the common element was healings and not speaking in tongues. A few times both were reported. Edward Irving (a Presbyterian pastor) in Scotland reported healing and tongues together. This showed the Holiness Movement moving outside of their "particular" group or denomination. In 1865 the movement grew strongly in the United States.

In these early years the movement took hold in Quakers, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Baptists, and even some Catholics. But this "good" relationship with the established denominations (all except the Catholics which never embraced it officially) turned sour around 1880. Before this time the movement had the outlook to "renew" the problematic denominations from within, but shifts within the movement gave up on the existing denominations and pressured for starting new groups (thus the Pentecostal church). This poisoned the relationship between the movement and the denominations. Eventually the denominations threw these holiness people out of their groups.

Initially these Holiness people set up a new group in most cases holding at least some of their former denomination's particular practices and beliefs. Another factor of division in these groups was defining exactly what was the "second blessing" 1) sinless perfection, 2) inability to sin intentionally, 3) inability to sin with or in the human spirit. Another issue was whether the baptism in the Holy Spirit is the exact same thing as the "second blessing" of complete sanctification or not. Another issue was the question of whether the charismata gifts were a part of this blessing or not. Another factor further fracturing these groups was the racial issue, where some wanted racial integration while others refused it.

From the Methodists several other groups broke off, the Church of God in 1805, the Wesleyians in 1843, the Pentecostales in 1901, the Nazarene in 1908, and the Foursquare Gospel Group (Aimee S McPherson) broke off from the Pentecostals in 1927. Many of these problems were eventually worked out (around 1920-1930). Charles Parham and William Seymour (a black man) both acted at the very beginning of all this milieu and were leaders in it.

Parham was a Methodist minister but broke with the traditional Methodist church over his views of the "second blessing". He taught that the second blessing was both sanctification and charismatic power (healing, miracles, and prophecy). Parham had a healing mission for a few years before he started his Bible College in Topeka, Kansas. In the fall of 1900 until the spring of 1901 he opened Bethel College. Parham left the school for a trip in December of 1900, and left the students with the question, "What is the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost?" The point of this question was that Parham believed that certain individuals in their churches had received the second blessing, and therefore no longer able to sin, and have received God's power for service. The point of his question is how are we to recognize these individuals so that they can be placed in leadership of the church. Always in these processes the obvious answer is that the sanctified individual leads a holy life, but that is too difficult for them to observe, and it can be faked. Parham during this year concluded that the second blessing of John Wesley and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit was the same event. The students came up with the same answer Edward Irving came to 69 years earlier, the evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues.

In January 1, 1901, Agnes Ozman asked that hands be laid on her and that prayer be made for her to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. When that happened she started to speak in tongues. Parham and the students soon followed her and began speaking in tongues. Their concept was that this would be a key in the rapid evangelization of the world as a missionary movement. Parham taught that speaking in tongues was the "acid test" of a person's Spirit baptism. His view of tongues was strictly foreign languages, and the proof was to step off the boat in a foreign land and begin communicating with the foreigners there without a translator. This movement saw speaking in tongues as the evidence of sinless perfection.

The Mystery Religions

Ecstasy

The Mystery Religions sought to establish a communication with "god." They thought that the way to do this was to go into a semiconscious, trance-like, hallucinatory, hypnotic, or orgiastic spell in which they were sensually in contact with deity. Some used alcohol to help induce this state. When the preliminary activities are done, the individual falls into a state of euphoria as if drugged. They assume this is communion with God.

According to S. Angus, once professor of New Testament and historical theology at St. Andrews College, Sydney, the ecstasy experienced by the mystery religion worshiper brought him into "a mystic ineffable condition in which the normal functions of personality were in abeyance and the moral strivings which form character virtually ceased or were relaxed, while the emotional and the intuitive were accentuated." (Angus, The Mystery-Religions and Christianity (New York: Dover, 1975), 100- 101)

In other words, the individual would enter a state where his mind would go into neutral and his emotions would take over.

Angus further reported: "[Ecstasy] might be induced by vigil and fasting, tense religious expectancy, whirling dances, physical stimuli, the contemplation of the sacred objects, the effect of stirring music, inhalation of fumes, revivalistic contagion (such as happened in the Church at Corinth), hallucination, suggestion, and all the other means belonging to the apparatus of the Mysteries.... [One ancient writer] speaks of men "going out of themselves to be wholly established in the Divine and to be enraptured." (Angus, The Mystery-Religions and Christianity (New York: Dover, 1975), 100- 101)

They saw this ecstasy as something that would emancipate their soul from the confinement of their body, and enable the person to communicate with the spirit world. This experience usually is interpreted by the individual having it as giving them a special spiritual insight and understanding that nobody else has (except those who have that same experience).

Montanus  (160-220 A.D.)

Montanus was a priest in the mystery religions before his supposed conversion to Christianity. He appeared at Prygia at Ardaban on the frontier of Mysia. He had two prophetesses, Priscilla and Maximilla. It is important to note that Montanus thought that he was reestablishing the New Testament church.

Activities and Views

Prophecy was especially prominent in his group. Ecstatic visions announcing the second coming of Christ and the establishment of a "heavenly Jerusalem" at Pepuza in Phrygia was a central theme. Montanus taught severe asceticism and was heavy handed in the disciplining of his group. They practiced common ownership of property. He also taught that he was the final prophet of the Apostolic age. Montanus reacted strongly against formalism in churches claiming that his followers were truly spiritual and the other established churches were ot.

Reactions from among different Christian churches was to treat it as a form of demon possession, and cast out the demons. The bishops in Asia Minor excommunicated the Montanists in 177. From this encounter with the Montanists, the Christian church as a whole looked very poorly on any group claiming new revelations until the modern Charismatic movement.

Official History of the Movement

Officially according to those within the Pentecostal Movement, the movement started in 1900 with Charles Parham. Parham ran Bethel Bible School in Topeka Kansas, and while studying on the marks of a spirit filled man, Agnes Ozman began to speak in tongues in 1901 when hands were laid on her. Supposed she spoke for 3 days in Chinese and Bohemian. The entire school was speaking and singing in tongues. Despite their claims that they were speaking in known foreign languages without having studied them, language experts in these languages could not confirm any of it, and said it was gibberish. In 1914 Charles Shumway tried to defend that this was real languages, but could not find one single person knowledgeable in languages to confirm his affirmations. The Houston Chronicle ran an article claiming that US government interpreters had examined the events and all unanimously claimed that nothing of these events were legitimate foreign languages. Some students were writings under the control of the Spirit, and these writings were claimed to be Chinese, which also proved false. Parham's idea was that his students would go around the world as missionaries speaking in tongues witnessing to untold numbers of different language groups. This was  not the case as for example A.G. Garr visited India where he began speaking in their languages supposedly while speaking in tongues and nobody understood him.

Parham believed in annihilation of the unsaved, and denied the biblical doctrine of eternal torment. He also believed in anglo-Israelism (the United States is the lost tribes of Israel). He taught that there were two separate creations of men, Adam and Eve being the second one. He also believed that the bride of Christ was only those Christians would received the "latter rain" (their movement) and that spoke in tongues. He believed in a partial rapture of only tongues speakers. He believed that physical healing was a Christian's birthright, and this needs to come through a faith healer and they unilaterally rejected regular doctors. Despite this teaching two of Parham's sons got sick and died. Many in the Bible school were not miraculously healed.

78.02 Parallels in other religions

78.03 Baptism in the Holy Spirit

Here we deal with this in its own page, here.

78.04 Speaking in Tongues

Anderson, Robert (Author profile) - Spirit Manifestations and the Gift of Tongues (a).pdf 145K (11 pages)
Dollar - Church History and the Tongues Movement
Hodge, C. - Charles Hodge on Nature of Tongues

See 31.14.02 Speaking in Tongues

78.04.01 Key Passages/Arguments

78.04.02 Cessationist Argument

Berends - Cessationism
Edgar - The Cessation of the Sign Gifts
Warfield - The Cessation of Miracles
 

78.04.03 Praying in Tongues

78.05 Word of Faith

See 78.02 Word of Faith Movement

78.06 Miracles and Healings

Warfield - The Cessation of Miracles

78.07 Signs and Wonders

78.08 New Prophecies (Revelation), Prophets

78.09 Authority of emotionalism

78.10 Toronto, Brownsville, Pensacola

78.11 Denominations, divisions

78.12 Key Leaders

John Dowie, Maria Beulah Woodworth-Etter, Charles Parham, Frank Sandford, Seymour, William Branham, Frank Hall, Kathryn Kuhlman, Aimee Semple McPherson, A.J. Tomlinson, A.A. Allen, Jack Coe, Charles Price, David Duplessis, Smith Wigglesworth, Kenneth Hagin Sr, Oral Roberts, Morris Cerullo, John Wimber, Charles and Frances Hunter, Jamie Buckingham,

since 2006