Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) 179,651

Church of God, World Headquarters 71,606

Church of God of Prophecy 35,349

(Original) Church of God 6,000

Pentecostal Holiness Church 55,502

The Pentecostal Free Will Baptist Church, Inc. 7,000

Pentecostal Fire-baptized Holiness Church 573

Apostolic Overcoming Holy Church of God 75,000

Calvary Pentecostal Church 8,000

Elim Missionary Assemblies 4,000

Emmanuel Holiness Church 1,200

International Pentecostal Assemblies 15,000

Pentecostal Church of Christ 1,198

1,826,503

EFFORTS AT UNIFICATION

In recent years efforts have been made to unite the Pentecostals’ divided house. While mergers have been successful in uniting some groups, consolidation of the major denominations appears very unlikely. In recent years, however, Pentecostal bodies have joined ranks within organizations having similar views. For example, many Pentecostal bodies belong to the National Association of Evangelicals, of which Thomas F. Zimmerman, the head of the Assemblies of God, is president.

Perhaps the greatest effort toward unification was the organizing of the World Pentecostal Conference. At its first convention, held in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1947, recommendations were made to form area fellowships. In harmony with these recommendations arrangements were made in 1948 for establishing the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America.

BELIEFS

Pentecostals believe that the present Pentecostal movement, which features the speaking in tongues, is in fulfillment of Bible promise. They maintain that the outpouring of the holy spirit at Pentecost and during the first century did not exhaust the miraculous visible manifestations of the spirit. They interpret “the early and latter rain,” mentioned at James 5:7 (AV), as applying to the outpouring of God’s spirit. Believing that the outpouring of God’s spirit in the first century was the “early rain,” they conclude that there must also be a “latter rain.” The Pentecostal movement, they claim, is a result of the outpouring of this “latter rain.”

It is a distinctive teaching of the Pentecostal movement that speaking in tongues always accompanies the baptism with the holy spirit. All persons have this tongues experience as evidence of baptism, Pentecostals say, but not everyone afterward receives the “gift of tongues.” This Pentecostal teaching, however, does not have Scriptural backing.a

The miraculous gifts of God’s spirit, including the gift of tongues, were given as credentials to the infant Christian congregation in the first century. They were, therefore, to cease when the congregation grew to maturity, as the apostle Paul explains: “Love never fails. But whether there are gifts of prophesying, they will be done away with; whether there are tongues, they will cease.”—1 Cor. 13:8.

Because of seeking for something that God is not granting at this time, Pentecostals lend themselves to the deception of Satan and his demons. (1 Tim. 4:1) The shouting, the incoherent mumbling and groaning, and the falling to the floor and jerking around is not an evidence of God’s spirit. Even some prominent Pentecostals agree that some extreme manifestations are not from God. Recall that Seymour wrote Parham to come to Azusa Street to “discern between that which was real and that which was false.”

Are not their physical manipulations similar to what is experienced by African mediums who practice Voodooism? One of those mediums will jiggle and shake in every limb and will remain on her feet in continual motion for hours. Are they not similar to the physical manipulations that came upon a child in Jesus’ day when seized by a spirit power? “So they brought him to him. But at the sight of him the spirit at once threw the child into convulsions, and after falling on the ground he kept rolling about, foaming.”—Mark 9:20.

When God’s holy spirit comes upon a person, as revealed by the Scriptures, it produces intellectual and ennobling results for the person affected instead of fleshly manipulations or contortions that are of no value. There is no record that the disciples at Pentecost did such things when the holy spirit came upon them. Instead, it moved them to give an upbuilding testimony to the truth for the benefit of the many people in Jerusalem who had come from foreign lands. It caused them to speak in the native tongues of these people.—Acts 2:1-4, 14-40.

It is true that in Pentecostal meetings there are many sincere expressions of “Lord, Lord.” But Jesus himself showed that it is not such declarations that are the acid test of true religion, but, rather, the doing of the will of God. “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew you!”—Matt. 7:21-23.

At the beginning of this article a description was given of the type of religious meetings that are held by the Pentecostal movement. In general these are of the nature of an emotional performance rather than an intellectual study to transform the mind and heart. The entire meeting has a rhythmic swing in which the whole audience is made to feel they have a part. To those loaded down with worries and anxieties of life there is a forgetting of their troubles. There is a sharing in a stimulating experience. The insignificant individual is now made to feel important, that God is dealing directly with him personally, thus producing a religious confidence. At these meetings one is not required to think but just to feel. Many assertions are made by speakers without supporting proof. The audience just feels they are right.

Although a person may find emotional satisfaction with the Pentecostal movement and may be impressed with what are regarded as manifestations of God’s spirit, they should remember that Scriptural truth is more important than a religious emotional experience. It is Scriptural truth, not physical signs, that a person should look for in true religion. A person should have faith because of the Scriptural truths he learns, not because of physical signs that he sees. Remember the Scriptural warning: “The lawless one’s presence is according to the operation of Satan with every powerful work and lying signs and portents and with every unrighteous deception for those who are perishing, as a retribution because they did not accept the love of the truth that they might be saved.”—2 Thess. 2:9, 10.

Since manifestations experienced by Pentecostals admittedly contain some that even they believe to be false, as noted in the experience of W. J. Seymour, is there not reason to question all of them? Since demon possession can cause physical manipulations, are we to conclude that some manipulations are caused by holy spirit and others are caused by demon power so that it is necessary to distinguish the true from the false? “A fountain does not cause the sweet and the bitter to bubble out of the same opening, does it?” (Jas. 3:11) A person should soberly and thoughtfully consider the evidence that points to demon influence in the Pentecostal experience. Remember what the inspired apostle Paul wrote to Christians warning them against the “operation of Satan with every powerful work and lying signs and portents” to deceive those who do “not accept the love of the truth.”—2 Thess. 2:9, 10.

Missing the Mark

MANY people in modern society regard belief in sin as out of date and the consciousness of it as being bad for one’s mental health. This view tends to remove moral restraint, with the result that public morality deteriorates. Commenting on how Freudian psychology has contributed to this demoralizing view, Psychologist O. Hobart Mowrer, a past president of the American Psychological Association, stated:

“For half a century now we psychologists have very largely followed the Freudian doctrine that . . . the patient has been in effect too good; that he has within him impulses, especially those of lust and hostility, which he has been unnecessarily inhibiting. And health, we tell him, lies in expressing these impulses.” By trying to destroy consciousness of sin, psychologists have, according to Dr. Mowrer, also abolished moral restraint, with the result that personality disorders have become more widespread and baffling.

Notwithstanding the denials of worldlywise people, sin is a reality that cannot be lightly dismissed. Much more is involved than the breaking of moral laws. It damages a person’s relationship with his Creator, because sin has to do with the violating of divine laws. The Greek word for it is hamartía, which carries the thought of missing, as missing one’s road, to fail of doing something, to miss one’s point or to go wrong. The Hebrew word for sin has a similar thought. Jehovah God has set up a standard of righteousness for his creatures as a mark of perfection. Missing or failing to meet this mark is called sin. It can be of two types—inherited sin and sin that we personally commit.

Inherited sin is responsible for the imperfect way that our bodies function and for the death that automatically comes to everyone. Speaking about it, God’s Word says: “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12) That one man, Adam, was the common ancestor of all humans. By his willfully missing the mark of perfect obedience to God he sinned and brought himself into an imperfect condition. His children, being brought forth in