Holiness-Wesleyan Roots of Pentecostalism

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A REVIEW OF THE RISE OF PENTECOSTALISM IN THE USA: ITS ANTECEDENTS AND MATRIX

INTRODUCTION

The antecedents and matrix of Pentecostalism and its subsequent mission theology are as numerous as the facets on a diamond. One might think that it is fairly straight-forward to discover both the antecedents and matrix of the subject at hand. However, it is comparable to one of the largest and mightiest rivers (Harper 1965: 13) in the United States, the Mississippi, which in the Midwest divides the country flowing from north to south. It is considered as one or perhaps the most important rivers of the country. In places, it is eighteen hundred metres wide and flows to the Gulf of Mexico, creating a mighty liquid highway for ship and boats. However, its size is due to the fact that other rivers flow into it. It is fed by the mighty Missouri, the Red, the Arkansas, and the Ohio rivers. Each of these are formidable rivers in their own stead, and yet each contribute their might and volume to the Mississippi. On top of that, two hundred and fifty other tributaries also feed the Mississippi. Thus, making it the great force that it is. So it is with Pentecostalism and its mission theology. There are many tributaries–‘currents, »streams,’and ‘creeks,’all feeding into and making a contribution to the mighty ‘river’of Pentecostalism.
Historian Grant Wacker (1990:22) stated: ‘… the movement grew from the confluence of five distinct theological currents that had been churning within the Holiness and higher-life movements in Britain and North America for several decades.’ He (:22-23) outlined five major items or ‘currents’that contributed significantly to the formation of the movement (and ultimately to its mission theology). Those ‘currents’are:
• The Wesleyan idea of sanctification as it was hammered out in the Methodist Holiness tradition.
• The teaching of Presbyterian and Congregationalist higher life advocates.
• The ‘new’doctrine of dispensational premillennialism.
• The ‘new’theology of divine healing.
• The restorationist teaching of restoring again the power and Spirit of the New Testament church. This chapter is made up of three major divisions. They are: a) The Holiness-Wesleyan Roots of Pentecostalism, b) the Reformed, Non-Wesleyan Roots of Pentecostalism, and c) the Rise of Pentecostalism.
Having dealt with glossolalia up to the twentieth century in a separate essay (Newberry 1999), the concern of the first section is with the Holiness-Wesleyan roots of Pentecostalism. In this area of study, one is confronted with the major perfectionists of the last two centuries prior to 1900. Men and groups such as John Wesley, the Methodist Church, Charles Finney and the perfection theology of Oberlin college community, Phoebe Palmer, and the National Holiness Association; all are given attention. Attention is paid to how the idea of perfection or sanctification, later called the second blessing, came to be formulated, changed, and even dis-owned as Pentecostalism began to raise its head around the 1900s.
The next section deals with the Reformed, non-Wesleyan roots of Pentecostalism and its missiology. It is correctly argued that too often this area is over-looked in seeking Pentecostal antecedents and Edith Waldvogel [Blumhofer] (1977), an American church historian, came to its defence in her doctoral thesis. Items of major consideration in this division are premillennialism and Higher Life advocates, and divine healing. Notable figures of the nineteenth century such as D L Moody, A B Simpson, A J Gordon, R A Torrey, et al, are considered.
The final section for this part of the study brings the reader to the heart of Pentecostalism. Regardless of where one places the beginnings of Pentecostalism, one must take a close look at Charles Fox Parham and his Bible school students in Topeka, Kansas and then proceed to examine Bishop William Seymour and his contribution in California at what is now called ‘theAzusa Street revival.’ Emanating from this locale will be Pentecostal revivals reaching as far as India and other places. Mission theology in action! These too, are dealt with.

 Holiness-Wesleyan Roots of Pentecostalism

 John Wesley (1703-1791)

Writing of Pentecostalism, the academic world has noted that the movement is indebted to John Wesley and his teaching on Christian perfectionism for much of its praxis and theology. Scholars such as Paul Fleisch, an early German theologian, Fredrick Bruner, Walter Hollenweger, and Vinson Synan, et al, have commented on this (Dieter 1975:59). In fact, Dieter (:59) says: ‘Fleischwrote … that the holiness teaching of a clean heart as it was then being espoused by the tongues-speakers was a return « to the point of origin of the whole holiness movement–Wesley’steaching on holiness ».’ Synan (1971: 13) calls Wesley the ‘spiritualand intellectual father’of the modem Pentecostal movement. His emphasis on a second crisis experience subsequent to conversion was only one of many innovations which shaped the context out of which organized Pentecostalism would emerge (Williams & Waldvogel 1975:77). The experiences for John Wesley took the form of a series of journeys, short or long. There was, first of all, a voyage to Georgia, then a visit with Boehler, a walk to church, an evening stroll in Aldersgate, a tour of Herrnhut, a hike to Oxford, and an expedition to Bristol [italics mine] (Norwood 1974:26).
Wesley came to America as a minister of the Church of England in Georgia in 1735 and remained until 1737. His purpose was to serve as a missionary to the Native Americans (McConnell 1942:42). Writing to a friend before he embarked for the Colonies, he (in Synan 1971: 15) wrote: ‘Mychief motive, to which all the rest are subordinate, is the hope of saving my own soul.’ When asked whether his soul could have been saved in England as well as in Georgia, he replied, ‘Ianswer, no; neither can I hope to attain the same degree of holiness here which I may there'(:15).
The Native Americans of Georgia were not the gentle, innocent people, hungry for the gospel, as he had been told. Instead they were savage warriors who engaged in constant warfare during his stay (: 15). After making a real effort, working with the indigenous population appeared to be out of the question. He was imperatively needed for work among the Europeans and turned to them in his quest for a ministry. Most of the Europeans were (1) poor debtors, released from prison in England so that they might go to Georgia; (2) Salzburgers, devotedly pious but not at all English; (3) Moravians, stiffly set in their own ways; or (4) Highland Scots, not of much malleable quality (McConnell 1942:42). They all disliked him, accusing him of being too strict, cold, and formal. Later he was falsely accused and insulted, eventually hailed into court and disgraced before the very people he had tried to serve (Synan 1971 :16).
While it is often noted that his ministry in Georgia as a missionary was a failure (Synan 1971: 16), one must remember that Wesley was immature and that Georgia was his first parish. While he was over thirty years of age at the time of this experience, ‘..he was altogether youthful in his religious practice and conduct’ (McConnell 1942:47). But life in Georgia helped train and develop him in the directions which counted mightily in the leadership of the Methodist revival (:49).
Upon returning to England on 1 February 1738 Wesley was discouraged. The next four months were a time of trouble, of deep spiritual struggle, and searching. During these times, he often visited Peter Boehler, a Moravian missionary en route to Carolina, in London. It was on his trip to America that he first made contact with Moravian Pietists from Germany who later greatly influenced his thought. While on board ship, during a storm, Wesley was greatly impressed with the Moravian’s assurance of salvation and became a seeker after their perfectionist beliefs. Back in England, he also met with the Moravian bishop Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg and Boehler (Synan 1971:16). When Wesley had thoughts of leaving the ministry for his own lack of faith, it was Boehler who encouraged him. Boehler (in Norwood 1974:26) is quoted as saying to him: ‘Preachfaith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.’ In this event, Boehler was to be the pedagogue to bring Wesley to Christ (Wood 1978:1034). ‘PeterBoehler and his associates became midwife not only to Wesley’srevised concept of evangelical faith but also to his personal conversion as he « broke the faith-barrier .. .' »(Carter 1983:62).
The turning point came on 24 May 1738 when Wesley went to St. Paul’s Church on Aldersgate Street in London (Moore 1946:16), to attend a reading of Martin Luther’sPreface to Romans. There in the vast space of the Wren masterpiece, his heart was ‘strangelywarmed’as he listened to the reading (Wood 1978: 1034). This was his famous conversion experience, simultaneously conscious, emotional, and empirical. Yet he did not feel that he had attained his goal of Holiness or Christian perfection in the Aldersgate experience, preferring to believe that for him perfect Holiness lay in the future (Synan 1971:16-17).
Shortly after his conversion, Wesley visited the Moravian settlement in Herrnhut, Germany and met Count Zinzendorf. He was impressed by the members of the community for they seemed to be ‘savedfrom inward as well as outward sin'(in Synan 1971:17). However, the Count did not share Wesley’sview of a second, perfecting experience of divine grace known as sanctification. The views of these two men were to be sharply debated in evangelical circles in the century that followed. The followers of Zinzendorf teaching that one was perfected at conversion and the followers of Wesley teaching that there is a second crisis experience of sanctification (:17).
As Wesley prepared himself for the ministry in his formative years, he read and studied several books that profoundly influenced his religious views. Among these were two by William Law, Treatise on Christian Perfection and Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Ufe. The ideas on perfectionism that eventually jelled in Wesley’s theology were birthed in these works. Law advocated a Holiness life for the laity in which the church had reserved for the clerics. ‘Forthere is no reason,’Law (in Synan 1971: 15) stated: ‘whyyou should think the highest holiness, the most heavenly tempers, to be the duties and happiness of a bishop, but what is as good a reason why you should think the same tempers to be the duty and happiness of all Christians.’ From that time onward, his main goal was the pursuit of Holiness and Christian perfection (Cairns 1967:418).
In the years from 1739 until 1777 Wesley wrote and constantly revised a tract entitled, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection as Believed and Taught by the Reverend John Wesley (Synan 1971: 18). He became a theologian (Wynkoop 1972:19). Love, as the essence of his new perspective (Bosch 1991:258), served as the unifying factor in theology and a humanizing application to life. Wynkoop’sthesis is that love is the dynamic of Wesleyanism (1972:21). However, at the heart of his theology was the concept of sanctification or perfection.
In developing the idea of Wesley’ssanctification, it is important to keep in mind his distinction between justification and sanctification: justification is relative change in a life, and sanctification is a real change. He felt that if a person or an object is sanctified ceremonially (set apart), it does not necessarily undergo any inherent (real) change. By defining justification as a relative change, he intended a change of relation (Greathouse & Dunning 1989:91). This change was called entire sanctification or Christian perfection (:93). It was deemed as a second crisis experience.
Wesley felt that there were ‘twoseparate phases of experience for the believer: the first, conversion, or justification, and the second, Christian perfection, or sanctification.’ He, however, never taught ‘sinlessperfection’as often charged. ‘The perfection which he taught was a perfection of motives and desires. « Sinless perfection » would only come after death'(Synan 1971: 18). This became his most distinctive and misunderstood teaching (Outler 1991:51). Consequently, when he was asked what Christian perfection or entire sanctification meant, he (in Dunning 1988:488) always replied: ‘Itis loving God with the whole heart, soul, mind, and strength,’and ‘ourneighbour as ourselves.’

 The American Methodist Church

During Wesley’searly years, while studying at Oxford, he was the leader of a small club called the ‘HolyClub.’ There were just a few such as the Wesleys, George Whitefield, and several other serious young men (Lee & Sweet [1944] 1956:11). They met together, studied classics and devotional works, pooled funds to assist the poor, and ministered in the jails. It is thought that they became known as Methodist because of the regularity with which they attended church services and partook of the Eucharist. Thus when John Wesley came to America as a missionary to the Native Americans in 1734 Methodism was beginning to stand on wobbly legs.
At the conference at Leeds, in August 1769 following a visit by a Dr CM Wrangel, one of the king of Sweden’schaplains who had recently visited the colonies, Wesley stated that Wrangel had challenged him to send representatives to the new land. ‘Wehave a pressing call from our brethren in New York (who have built a preaching house) to come over and help them,’he (in Sweet 1954:47-48) noted. He then asked for volunteers and two men, Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor, stepped forward. A collection was taken and the next month they set sail for America. Thus, since the founding of the society (Methodist Church) until this date, almost thirty years had lapsed before there was any serious consideration in sending missionaries or representatives to America (:48). This is in stark contrast to the soon-to-be fledgling Pentecostal churches who would formally organize for the purpose of mission.

1 The Introduction
1.1 Purpose
1.2 Parameters
1.3 Definitions .
2. A Review of the Rise of Pentecostalism in the USA .
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Holiness-Wesleyan Roots of Pentecostalism
2.3 Reformed, Non-Wesleyan Roots of Pentecostalism
2.4. The Development of Pentecostalism
3. The Lostness of Humankind
3. 1 Those Who Have Never Heard the Gospel
3.2 Pentecostals and lnterreligious Dialogue
3.3 No Other Name? The Exclusiveness of Jesus Christ
3.4 ‘Life Boat Salvation’
3.5 Pentecostal Hymnology
4. Church Planting and Evangelism
4.1 Evangelism Defined
4.2 Evangelism and Proselytism
4.3 Church Planting
4.4 Some Final Thoughts on Evangelism
5. Indigenous Church Principles
5.1 Rufus Anderson (1796-1880)
5.2 Henry Venn (1796-1873)
5.3 Anderson’s and Venn’s Mutual Contribution
5.4 John Nevius (1829-1893)
5.5 Roland Allen (1868-1947)
5.6 AB Simpson and the CMA
5.7 The Three-selfs Formula Critiqued
5.8 Alice E Luce (1873-1955)
5.9 Henry C Ball (1896-1989)
5.10 Melvin Hodges (1909-1988)
5.11 The Dynamic of the Holy Spirit in the Indigenous Church
5.12 Indigenous Church Principles Expanded and Modified
5.13 The Pentecostal Contribution to the debate: ‘A step further’
5.14 The Pain of the Policy in Praxis
6. Social Responsibility
6.1 The Ecumenical Position
6.2 The Evangelical Position
6.3 The Pentecostal Position
7. Pneumatology: A Pentecostal Perspective
7.1 Historical Background
7.2 The Baptism In The Holy Spirit: The Classical Position
7.3 A Missiological Pneumatology
8. Final thoug
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