From Revival to Denominations
Revivals do not stay unorganized for long. After Azusa Street, Pentecostal missions sprang up across the United States, often independent and loosely connected. Many who embraced the new teaching were put out of their former churches. Before long, leaders saw the need for order: a way to agree on doctrine, credential preachers, hold property, and send missionaries together.
Some existing Holiness bodies simply became Pentecostal. The Church of God in Christ, led by Charles H. Mason, did so after Mason's visit to Azusa Street in 1907, and the Church of God based in Cleveland, Tennessee, followed in 1908. These churches kept the Holiness teaching of a second work of sanctification and added the baptism in the Spirit as a third experience. Others followed William Durham of Chicago, who from 1910 taught that sanctification is grounded in Christ's finished work at conversion rather than a later crisis experience. The largest new denomination, the Assemblies of God, came from this finished-work side of the movement.
This study describes denominations and their teaching. Many members of these churches trust Christ alone for salvation, and we do not pronounce on any individual's heart. We weigh what is taught by Scripture, using the three questions from Why Doctrine and Worship Matter: what touches the Gospel itself, what belongs to the whole counsel of God, and where God has granted liberty.
Pentecostal denominations differ widely. Which of their errors touch the Gospel itself, and which concern the whole counsel of God?
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For Deeper Study
- Strange FireAmazon John MacArthurAnswers Pentecostal and charismatic teaching from Scripture, including healing and the Spirit's work.
- Charismatic ConfusionAmazon Ernest PickeringA short evaluation of the movement by a Baptist pastor and educator.
- Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity GospelAmazon Kate BowlerA 2013 history of the prosperity gospel, useful background for the megachurch and Word of Faith streams.
- Oneness Pentecostals and the TrinityAmazon Gregory A. BoydA former Oneness Pentecostal's answer to Oneness theology from Scripture. Boyd later adopted open theism, which this platform rejects; use for this subject only.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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The Trinity
There is one God, and He eternally exists as three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each fully God.
Open Doctrine