Are We Pentecostals (pt 2)

"Pentecostalism has not always been linked to glossolalia (speaking in tongues). In fact, it has only been in the past 110 years that the two became linked in American religious thought. Previous to 1901 many churches that believed speaking in tongues passed with the death of the first apostles called themselves Pentecostal.

The dominant factors that we see stemming from what took place on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 are inclusion and unity. When the Holy Spirit touched the community of believers in the upper room He did so in a way that empowered them to communicate with people from diverse locales. The people from different parts of the Roman Empire were then included in mass numbers into this new community. The greatest sign of the Holy Spirit's supernatural empowering was that this new community lived at peace in unity with one another.

Ethnic boundaries were dissolved as this new community of individuals found their identity in Jesus rather than in their ancestral heritage. Social boundaries were also destroyed as the wealthy and the poor lived together as equals. Those who could had more gave of what they had so that those who had less would not be without.

For Pentecostalism to stay true to it's origin it must represent ethnic unity and social equality empowered supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. Glossolalia was one of the instruments used by God to bring those things about but it was not the core of this new community of people. It would be similar to seeing a magnificent house where many previously homeless people lived that was built where once only a vacant lot sat and then focusing all attention on a hammer that was used throughout the building process. The hammer was useful, even necessary for the house to be built but certainly not more significant than the family that dwelled in it.

If being labeled a Pentecostal caused people to think that I was a part of a movement where all human divisions were obliterated by the blood of Jesus I would surely not resist wearing that label. Either the term needs to be redefined or a new one created altogether."

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