Pentecostalism

[4] Like other forms of evangelical Protestantism,[5] Pentecostalism adheres to the inerrancy of the Bible and the necessity of the New Birth: an individual repenting of their sin and "accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior".

[7] The three-year-long Azusa Street Revival, founded and led by Seymour in Los Angeles, California, resulted in the growth of Pentecostalism throughout the United States and the rest of the world.

[23][24] Within this radical evangelicalism, expressed most strongly in the Wesleyan–holiness and Higher Life movements, themes of restorationism, premillennialism, faith healing, and greater attention on the person and work of the Holy Spirit were central to emerging Pentecostalism.

[26] Figures such as Dwight L. Moody and R. A. Torrey began to speak of an experience available to all Christians which would empower believers to evangelize the world, often termed baptism with the Holy Spirit.

The essentially universal belief in the continuation of all the spiritual gifts in the Keswick and Higher Life movements constituted a crucial historical background for the rise of Pentecostalism.

[31][32][33] Charles Fox Parham, an independent holiness evangelist who believed strongly in divine healing, was an important figure to the emergence of Pentecostalism as a distinct Christian movement.

[37] At about the same time that Parham was spreading his doctrine of initial evidence in the Midwestern United States, news of the Welsh Revival of 1904–1905 ignited intense speculation among radical evangelicals around the world and particularly in the US of a coming move of the Spirit which would renew the entire Christian Church.

[50] The unconventionally intense and emotional environment generated in Pentecostal meetings dually promoted, and was itself created by, other forms of participation such as personal testimony and spontaneous prayer and singing.

The subsiding of the early Pentecostal movement allowed a socially more conservative approach to women to settle in, and, as a result, female participation was channeled into more supportive and traditionally accepted roles.

After 1907, Azusa participant William Howard Durham, pastor of the North Avenue Mission in Chicago, returned to the Midwest to lay the groundwork for the movement in that region.

[60] On being Spirit baptized, Garr spoke in Bengali, a language he did not know, and becoming convinced of his call to serve in India came to Calcutta with his wife Lilian and began ministering at the Bow Bazar Baptist Church.

[72] The first Pentecostal converts were mainly derived from the Holiness movement and adhered to a Wesleyan understanding of entire sanctification as a definite, instantaneous experience and second work of grace.

[73] In 1910, William Durham of Chicago first articulated the Finished Work, a doctrine which located sanctification at the moment of salvation and held that after conversion the Christian would progressively grow in grace in a lifelong process.

These predominately white ministers adopted a congregational polity, whereas the COGIC and other Southern groups remained largely episcopal and rejected a Finished Work understanding of Sanctification.

[116] Certain conditions, if present in a believer's life, could cause delay in receiving Spirit baptism, such as "weak faith, unholy living, imperfect consecration, and egocentric motives".

This practice is described by Duffield and Van Cleave in Foundations of Pentecostal Theology: Many Churches have followed a similar pattern and have given out small pieces of cloth over which prayer has been made, and sometimes they have been anointed with oil.

[135] Globally, Pentecostal attitudes to the End Times range from enthusiastic participation in the prophecy subculture to a complete lack of interest through to the more recent, optimistic belief in the coming restoration of God's kingdom.

In contrast, Trinitarian Pentecostals hold to the doctrine of the Trinity, that is, the Godhead is not seen as simply three modes or titles of God manifest at different points in history, but is constituted of three completely distinct persons who are co-eternal with each other and united as one substance.

[171] Traditional Pentecostal worship has been described as a "gestalt made up of prayer, singing, sermon, the operation of the gifts of the Spirit, altar intercession, offering, announcements, testimonies, musical specials, Scripture reading, and occasionally the Lord's supper".

[174] Even as Pentecostalism has become more organized and formal, with more control exerted over services,[175] the concept of spontaneity has retained an important place within the movement and continues to inform stereotypical imagery, such as the derogatory "holy roller".

[185] Instead the term sacerdotal ordinance is used to denote the distinctive belief that grace is received directly from God by the congregant with the officiant serving only to facilitate rather than acting as a conduit or vicar.

[227] Zora Neale Hurston performed anthropological and sociological studies examining the spread of Pentecostalism, published posthumously in a collection of essays called The Sanctified Church.

However, Alves[232] has found that the different Pentecostal congregations replaces the compadrazgo system and still provide channels to exercise the reciprocal obligations that the peasant moral economy demands.

Various Christian groups have criticized the Pentecostal and charismatic movement for too much attention to mystical manifestations, such as glossolalia (which, for a believer, would be the obligatory sign of a baptism with the Holy Spirit); along with falls to the ground, moans and cries during worship services, as well as anti-intellectualism.

[255][256][257] In 2012, the National Council of Evangelicals of France published a document denouncing this doctrine, mentioning that prosperity was indeed possible for a believer, but that this theology taken to the extreme leads to materialism and to idolatry, which is not the purpose of the gospel.

[258][259] Pentecostal pastors adhering to prosperity theology have been criticized by journalists for their lavish lifestyle (luxury clothes, big houses, high end cars, private aircraft, etc.).

[citation needed] "The Miraculous Healing", published in 2015 by the National Council of Evangelicals of France [fr], describes medicine as one of the gifts given by God to humanity.

[272] Divine healing also addresses socially born distresses; socio gender inequalities, racial hatreds which often emerge as physical ailments[273] by empowering patients.

Even while Pentecostals occasionally choose not to receive traditional medical care, this decision is influenced by a larger cultural framework that places a high importance on spiritual guidance and communal support.

Pentecostalism's doctrine belief in faith healing has been criticized for more than just its aversion to modern medicine, their tendency to attribute mental health conditions to demonic activity has also been questioned.