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Editor’s Note: This article is part of an October 2017 series of posts on the Reformation and Protestantism written by O&H authors and guest writers marking the 500th anniversary of the nailing of Martin Luther’s 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. Articles are written by Orthodox Christians and discuss not just the Reformation as a historical event but also the spiritual heritage that descended from it.<\/i><\/p>\n
B<\/span>y all observations and measures the Pentecostal Movement is the fastest growing expression of Christianity in the world. Some estimates set the number of Pentecostals at over 279 million adherents worldwide, making Pentecostalism, arguably, a Fourth kind of Christianity behind Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism.<\/p>\n But there is no denying that the Pentecostal movement would have been impossible without the Protestant Reformation. The several \u201crestorationist\u201d movements that exploded in America and England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries all had one thing in common: to recapture or restore the \u201cpower\u201d or \u201choliness\u201d of the \u201coriginal\u201d Christian Church.<\/p>\n I contend that the growth of Pentecostalism, and the less strident Charismatic movement (starting in the late 1950\u2019s), is a result of a theological poverty in Western Christianity that can be seen as early as the “filioque” controversy and the unintended theological consequences that followed. The emphasis of the West on rationalism and the weak and sometimes bizarre forms of mysticism that developed in the West gave rise to both the over reaction and sad necessity of the Reformation which then gave rise to the even more rationalistic movements of Calvinism and legalistic piety of the 1st and 2nd so-called “Great Awakenings.” All of this led to the subsequent Holiness movements of the 19th century along with the multiplying of Christian “denominations” on the American continent, and eventually led to the outbreak of the Pentecostal Movement at the turn of the 20th century.<\/p>\n Currently there are over 700 denominations that would be considered Pentecostal or Charismatic. As a side note, most American MegaChurches are heavily influenced by the Charismatic Movement. And even the \u201cworship wars\u201d in Evangelical denominations have all but been decided in favor of the more emotional and \u201cexperiential\u201d influence on music and worship \u201cstyles\u201d of the Pentecostal Movement here in the United States and other English speaking countries.<\/p>\n As with many \u201crestorationist\u201d movements in Christianity, Pentecostalism is also a uniquely American phenomenon that has now spread worldwide, and is growing fastest in the Third World. Pentecostalism started among the \u201clower\u201d classes of American society. Interestingly enough, Pentecostalism was also quite racially integrated in its early days, with black and white Pentecostals worshiping together and spreading the movement together. This situation didn\u2019t last long and eventually the Movement segregated along racial lines to reflect the segregation of American society as a whole. Also fascinating was the strong pacifist attitude among early Pentecostals. While many Pentecostal young men did go into the military, registering as a \u201cconscientious objector\u201d was the norm. This emphasis on pacifism flowed naturally from the theology of the Pentecostals as they emphasized the indwelling Holy Spirit bringing a radical new society based on peace. <\/p>\n The \u201cspirit filled\u201d believer was changed from his old way of life to a new life that even changed the way he talked. \u201cSpeaking in tongues\u201d (glossolalia), miracles of healing, visions, prophecies, boisterous worship with emotional music and, yes, even rolling on the floor (where do you think \u201choly roller\u201d came from?) were the marks of the Pentecostal movement. <\/p>\n Such enthusiasm wasn\u2019t unique to Pentecostalism, since similar emotional outbursts were common in the 1st and 2nd Great Awakenings in American history. These experiences still exist to one degree or another in many parts of the Movement to this day. Unmoored from the wisdom of the timeless Church, these religious experiences were increasingly \u201cintoxicating\u201d and addictive.<\/p>\n But the Movement wouldn\u2019t stay an American phenomena long. Building on the network of contacts on their Holiness Movement roots, Pentecostals quickly spread through the English speaking world among the downtrodden and the poor. Pentecostalism is decidedly a movement born \u201con the wrong side of the tracks.\u201d <\/p>\n Add to this the Protestant emphasis on missions and the eschatological theology dominant among Pentecostalism (Dispensationalism and an immanent return of Jesus), and you have thousands of Pentecostal missionaries willing to go all over the world to \u201cspread the word!\u201d And they certainly did. Most American Pentecostal denominations today are larger outside the borders of the US than inside.<\/p>\n Dr. Vinson Synan, former Dean of the Divinity School at Regent University in Virginia and long time historian of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, commented on the explosive growth of the Pentecostal Movement across the increasingly Christian Southern hemisphere by saying that those who want to deal with Christians will not be able to ignore the Pentecostals, since they are on track to become the predominant expression of the Christian faith in this growing part of the world.<\/p>\n The human longing that gave birth to the Pentecostal Movement is not bad in and of itself. The fundamental and basic hunger that is addressed by Pentecostalism is a desire for intimacy with the Uncreated God. This is good and God-given. We were meant for intimacy with God.<\/p>\n But the theological poverty that was the atmosphere of the birth of Pentecostalism guaranteed that the very good desire would be quickly corrupted by weak theological support and a practical and total disconnection from the history of the Christian Faith. And the movement bears this out. All one has to do is turn on religious TV to discover both old and new heresies finding fertile ground in the hearts of ungrounded and disconnected Pentecostal believers.<\/p>\n One of the earliest heresies was the so-called “Oneness” heresy concerning the doctrine of the Trinity. Once again, the weak theological grounding of theologies concerning the Trinity produced the natural over reaction of some in the young Pentecostal movement. This led to some receiving a “revelation” of the oneness of the Godhead. They began to teach a form of “modalism” and insisted that God is not a trinity of Persons, but only one Person – Jesus. Beginning with the “new issue” of baptism only in the name of Jesus in the very early days of the Pentecostal movement, these often sincere and fervent believers, cut off as they were from the wise theology of centuries of Christian theology, made it up as they went along.<\/p>\n One might have hoped that, as the movement matured, it would outgrow the excesses of its past, but the Oneness Pentecostals actually make up a third of all the Pentecostals in the world today.<\/p>\n But weak theology on the doctrine of the Trinity is not the only “strange fire” that burns in the fields of Pentecostalism. The so-called “Prosperity Gospel,” the hyper-individualism that seems to reign within the movement and all its offshoots, the emotionalism that leads to nothing more than religious sentimentalism, and even the weakness of dependence on ecstatic experiences all feed a notion of faith as an addiction rather than a sober lifestyle of peace.<\/p>\n Reading this you may wonder if I see any good in my former Pentecostal roots. I am, after all, a son of the Pentecostal Movement, and a former pastor in that tradition. You may be surprised to read that I consider Pentecostalism the greatest hope for Western Christianity to correct the theological mistakes of its past. I am convinced that Pentecostalism is God’s gift to the West to draw Western Christianity back to a more ancient and healthier theological experience with God and a truly catholic embrace of mystery. Pentecostalism is, after all, the poor man’s mysticism, and, as I said above, a clear cry for intimacy with God. <\/p>\n I am indebted to my Pentecostal roots for fanning the flames of this desire for intimacy with God in my own heart and for an experience in Christian community I cherish to this day. It eventually led me home to the Orthodox Church where, instead of burning my spiritual house down with “wild fire”, I found a wise \u201cfireplace\u201d for the fire kindled in my heart by my Pentecostal upbringing. Thank you, Brother Holder and Open Bible Tabernacle. I shall be in your debt forever.<\/p>\n Western Christianity had to birth the Pentecostal movement if it was ever going to escape the sterile and clinical approach to the mystery of the Christian faith that was such an easy slander to be hurled at the various mainline Protestant denominations. <\/p>\n We struggle in our modern day with the exponential multiplication of Christian denominations and movements flowing from the Reformation, which all seem to desire to take seriously and fulfill this God-given hunger for intimacy with God and joy in this life and the next. So, we Orthodox Christians must find a way to see how God has given us a tremendous opportunity to help these sincere and spiritually hungry seekers to find the \u201cfireplace\u201d for their zeal and their unbridled passion, even if that passion is for God! <\/p>\n The stories of shipwrecked lives as a consequence of the undisciplined \u201cfire\u201d of the Pentecostal Movement would fill a library. Most Pentecostals hit that place in their lives when all the experiences start to feel hollow. As with any intoxication, the \u201chigh\u201d has to always increase to keep the feeling of euphoria alive. Many either come to think of themselves as \u201cjust not good enough\u201d to \u201cfeel\u201d God with them anymore, or they abandon the faith altogether, looking for a \u201cnew drug\u201d that will satisfy them. These spiritual refugees deserve our attention and love. After all, we claim to have the fullness of the faith and all the spiritual food anyone would ever need.<\/p>\n But the only remedy for the spiritual sicknesses that pervades Pentecostalism is a return to, or perhaps a discovery for the first time, of the wisdom of the undivided Church. This must include rigorous theological work that takes seriously the truth that we cannot truly understand what the Holy Spirit is saying to His Church today unless we are willing to hear what He has said to His Church in the past. The foolish behavior of making final choices about deep theological truths before we have gathered all the relevant theological evidence has produced too many spiritual casualties to be allowed to continue. And the \u201cembarrassment of riches\u201d that Orthodoxy possesses only means we Orthodox will be without excuse when we are asked by Jesus, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you feed these hungry people?\u201d<\/p>\n Pentecostalism is not going away. Christians from the more ancient traditions of the Church had better become well acquainted with this religious movement, because societies are increasingly affected by these religious phenomena. Even our own modern society has, at the very least, embraced this perpetual adolescent mentality that makes Pentecostalism so very attractive even to many of our own Orthodox youth!<\/p>\n Pentecostals must abandon the prideful notion that their movement dropped out of heaven completely disconnected from the historical realities around them. The shallow “me and Jesus got our own thing going” mentality will never lead to anything more than a perpetual spiritual kindergarten. In the end, Pentecostalism may find itself increasingly dissimilar from Christianity if it can\u2019t find a way to reconnect with a timeless Christianity preserved in the Church.<\/p>\n The non-Pentecostals of the Reformation would also do well to examine why this movement is so prevalent in their theological context. Why does the Pentecostal Movement flourish where Western theology dominates? My contention is that this reality is God\u2019s way of drawing prideful humans back to mystery and transrational intimacy. We need this check on our arrogance and delusional self sufficiency to ever be courageous enough to return to the healthy mystery of the undivided Church. <\/p>\n If the children of the Reformation can see Pentecostalism as the \u201cgift\u201d that it is for them, they may just discover what was the foundational deficiency that drove the Reformation in the first place!<\/p>\n For me, Orthodoxy is the natural home for Pentecostals and Charismatics. It is here in the wise \u201cfireplace\u201d of the timeless Church, the Body of Christ, that I find the healthy and mature \u201cWay\u201d of living that fosters both an intimacy with God and an honest and healing humility that keeps me forever focused on Jesus Christ. It turns out that what my Pentecostal past told me I should have with God is truly possible within the timeless rhythm of the Orthodox Way.<\/p>\n Finally, as history shows, the Church eventually comes to grip with theological truths in the face of heretical threats. May the blessed and live-giving Holy Spirit give courage to the hearts of His people to pass on a robust and healthy Christian faith to future generations. The souls of precious and God-loved persons are at stake here. <\/p>\n To my Pentecostal and Charismatic friends: Come Home!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"