Where Pentecostalism came from (PART 1)

The theology of John Wesley

What are the theological roots of Pentecostalism? In other words, where did it come from?

“Any study of Pentecostalism must pay close attention to the happenings of this period [late seventeenth- and eighteenth- century revivalism in Europe and North America] and particularly to the doctrine of Christian perfection taught by John Wesley...”[1]

Understanding where Pentecostalism came from begins by understanding the distinct doctrine of Wesley regarding sanctification. So to begin with we need to talk about the theology of Wesley.

PART 1 - Eighteenth-century Methodism (Weslyan theology)

The preaching of Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and others around the 1730s saw a revival movement spread through Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, and other places, emphasising repentance and purity in the churches and hightening peoples sense of the holiness of God. The movement in England eventually came under the control of John Wesley (1703-1791).

John Wesley was influenced by the Great Awakenings that emphasised sanctification in the Christian life (pietism), by John Calvin's doctrine of justification by “faith alone,” and also by the strong emphasis on holiness in the Catholic Counter-Reformation. He was also inspired by the perfectionist themes of the early saints. He combined some aspects of the Catholic emphasis on perfection with the Protestant emphasis on grace [2], and taught that sanctification involves a second work of grace, distinct from conversion. (The origin of the doctrine of “subsequence.”)

John Wesley saw conversion as an experience with two phases. The first phase is justification, involving the Spirit attributing or imputing to the believer the righteousness of Jesus. The second phase is the new birth, involving the beginning of sanctification, the process of the Spirit imparting righteousness to the believer. Wesley saw justification as being the gateway to sanctification. He understood justification by “faith alone” to mean that justification occurred by faith, in contrast to sanctification which occurred “by the Spirit.” Thus, sanctification became a second work of grace. (“Grace” was almost synonymous with the work of the Spirit). [3]

According to Wesley, justification (imputed righteousness) entitled one to heaven, but sanctification (imparted righteousness) qualified one for heaven. Wesley wanted to remind the church that true salvation is completed by our return to original righteousness; God restoring people in his perfect image in which he originally created man. Sanctification was the Spirit's work in the believer between conversion and death. He believed this involved God returning people to full and perfect obedience in this life through the process of sanctification. God gives his Spirit to those who are justified so that they might overcome sin. This involves them continually yielding to the Spirit's impulses, and it involves the Spirit continually rooting out sinful impulses in their nature.

Wesley insisted that “imputed” righteousness must become “imparted” righteousness. This emphasis on the process of sanctification, known as “fulfilling all righteousness,” (being restored to our original righteousness) became the distinctive of the Wesleyan tradition. [4]

It is here that Wesley had a distinctive teaching about “Christian perfection”. In A Short Account of Christian Perfection (1760) Wesley urged Christians to seek a second work of grace based on his doctrine of “entire sanctification”. This was the beginning of the teaching that sanctification involved a distinct spiritual experience given by God.

Seeing self-love, or pride, as the root of evil, Wesley taught that “perfect love” or “Christian perfection” could replace pride through a moral crisis of faith. By grace, the Christian could experience love filling the heart and excluding sin. He did not see perfection as sinlessness, nor did he understand it to be attained by merit... the believer by faith was brought into an unbroken fellowship with Christ. This was not only an imputed perfection but an actual or imparted relationship of an evangelical perfection of love and intention.[5]

Wesley was not teaching that Christians could attain absolute Christlike sinlessness. He acknowledged that Christians would always suffer from human faults and unintentional transgressions, because he saw sin as involving relationships and intentions, and defined it in terms of the attitude.

Wesley speaks clearly of a process that culminates in a second definite work of grace identified as entire sanctification. Entire sanctification is defined in terms of “pure or disinterested love.” Wesley believed that one could progress in love until love became devoid of self-interest at the moment of entire sanctification. Thus the principles of Scriptural holiness or sanctification are as follows: sanctification is received by faith as a work of the Holy Spirit. It begins at the moment of new birth. It progresses gradually until the instant of entire sanctification. [6]

Wesley's concept was that this second work delivered Christians from the fault in their moral nature that causes sinful behaviour.

The revival movement of England in the 1730s spread Wesley's sanctification theology. It opened the way for thinking of a “second blessing” given to Christians where they experience “instant sanctification.” It was the seed that later germinated the Pentecostal notion of a second blessing in Spirit baptism. But more on that later.

The nineteenth-century saw the emergency of theological distinctives that also played their role in giving birth to Pentecostalism. Next we'll talk about the legacy of Edward Irving and the importance of nineteenth-century premillennialism in understanding the theological roots of Pentecostalism.

More on this topic

(PART 2) Where Pentecostalism came from - The legacy of Edward Irving

(PART 3) Where Pentecostalism came from - The Holiness movement

Why Pentecostalism began

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[1] Gary B. McGee (Ph.D., Professor of Church History, Chair, Bible and Theology Department at Assemblies of God Theological Seminary), Systematic Theology, Chapter 1 “Historical Background,” Logion Press, 1995, p. 11.

[2] R. Larry Shelton (Th.D., Fuller Theological Seminary), “Perfection, Perfectionism,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 906.

[3] Robert G. Tuttle Jr. (Ph.D., University of Bristol), “Wesley, John,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 1266-7.

[4] Ibid., p. 1269.

[5] R. Larry Shelton (Th.D., Fuller Theological Seminary), “Perfection, Perfectionism,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 906.

[6] Robert G. Tuttle Jr. (Ph.D., University of Bristol), “Weslyan Tradition,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 1269.

talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The history of tongues

Tongues-speaking [1] has occurred since ancient times in both the non-Jewish and non-Christian world.

“In the ancient world, ecstatic utterances, trances, and frenzied behavior were commonly associated with pagan prophets. Eleventh-century B.C. documents record occurrences of ecstatic speech and the like in Egypt. In the Hellenistic world the prophetess of Delphi and the Sibylline priestess spoke in unknown or unintelligible speech. Moreover, the Dionysian rites contained a trancelike state as well as glossolalia. Many of the magicians and sorcerers of the first-century world exhibited similar phenomenon, as is the case of the “spirit of divination” (or possibly ventriloquism) at Philippi in Acts 16:16-18.” [2]

Tongues-speaking has also been reported throughout Church history. In 150 AD, Irenaeus, a Greek father of the early church, wrote “...we hear many of the brethren in the church who have prophetic gifts, and who speak in tongues through the Spirit, and who also bring to light the secret things of men for their benefit...” [3] [4] Tertullian (ca. 155-220) (a Latin father for the early church) also spoke favourably of this gift. [5]

Montanism was a prophetic movement that broke out in Phrigia in Roman Asia Minor (Turkey) around 172AD. It made tongues-speaking a central part of their worship experience. Montanists followed Montanus of Phrygis, who said he was the chosen instrument of the Spirit to prepare the church for the second coming. He taught a strict asceticism, which soon developed into legalism. It was condemned by bishops in Asia and elsewhere. A residual sect persisted in Phrygia for some centuries before it disappeared. [6]

By the middle of the fourth century, the practice seems to have diminished in the West, [7] although Vincent Ferrer and Francis Xavier were missionaries who described their miraculous ability to communicate with various groups as glossolalia, [8] and other examples exist. [9] In addition many believe that in the Eastern church tongues-speaking continued to be practised in Greek Orthodox monasteries throughout the Middle Ages. [10]

At the end of the seventeenth century, widespread tongues-speaking occurred for a little over a decade in southern France among a group of persecuted Huguenots. Similarly, in the 1730s an occurrence of tongues-speaking happened among a group of Catholic pietists, called the Jansenists. [11]

Then in the 1830s until the end of the century, a revival of tongues-speaking occurred in England during the ministry of Edward Irving. After reports that tongues-speaking had occurred in the west of Scotland in the spring of 1830, Irving himself shortly after reported such expressions in his Regent Square Church. Until the end of the century, his followers (Irvingites) made tongues-speaking central to their church life. [12]

The example of the Huguenots and Irvingites then led to similar occurrences in Mother Anne Lee's Shaker movement in England and America, and among the Mormons in America were Joseph Smith's followers in New York, Missouri, and Utah began practising tongues-speaking. [13] Not long after, in the 1850s, a tongues-speaking movement began in Russia that continued throughout the century. [14]

Similarly, beginning around 1860 on the Southern tip of India, through the influence of Plymouth Brethren theology [15] and the leadership of the Indian J.C. Aroolappen a revival of tongues-speaking and prophecy was reported. [16]

In addition to the occurrences of tongues-speaking in 1901 in Topeka and in Los Angeles in 1906-9, it also arose in the Welsh revival in 1904-5. [17]

It seems, then, that tongues-speaking, whether unknown utterances or miraculous gifts of languages have been reported throughout history. However, what makes Pentecostalism unique is that never before has tongues-speaking been given the doctrinal importance that modern Pentecostals gave to it.

“Pentecostals... were the first to give doctrinal primacy to the practice. Though Pentecostals recognize such sporadic instances of tongues-speaking and other charismatic phenomena throughout the Christian era, they stress the special importance of the Azusa Street revival, which occurred in... 1906 to 1909 and launched Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.” [18]

But to understand why Pentecostals were the first charismatic movement in history to give tongues-speaking theological importance we need to understand the theological roots of Pentecostalism.

That's why in the next article, “Where did Pentecostalism come from?” we'll talk about the theological roots of Pentecostalism.

More on this topic

(PART 1) Where Pentecostalism came from - The theology of John Wesley

How Pentecostalism developed over time

Tongues and Spirit-baptism: What Pentecostals believe

The gift of tongues: What the Scriptures describe

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[1] The Greek word for “tongues” is, glossolalia, meaning “languages.” While the tongues-speaking enabled by the Spirit in Acts 2:4 were identifiable known dialects of countries foreign to the speaker, some think 1 Corinthians 14:2 indicates another type of tongues. This is based upon the view that if “no one understands him” except God, and his words “utter mysteries with his spirit,” then this tongues-speaking is not an actual language, but rather “unknown utterances.” Whether this is a valid reading of this text, this history to tongues-speaking records the reporting of both types of phenomenon (the miraculous gift of languages and speaking unknown utterances).

[2] Grant. R. Osborne (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen), “Tongues, Speaking in,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 1206.

[3] Refutation and Overthrow of False Doctrine, p. 174.

[4] Elsewhere Irenaeus said, “When God saw it necessary, and the church prayed and fasted much, they did miraculous things, even of bringing back the spirit to a dead man.”

[5] Grant. R. Osborne (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen), “Tongues, Speaking in,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 1207.

[6] David F. Wright (D.D, University of Edinburgh), “Montanism,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 790.

[7] Chrysostom (ca. 347-407) was quite negative about it. Augustine (354-430) taught that it had been given only for the New Testament times. However, Luther and Calvin both accepted the continuing validity of tongues, speaking positively of the gift, primarily in terms of missionary preaching. Similarly, John Wesley believed that tongues-speaking was still a valid gift.

[8] Grant. R. Osborne (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen), “Tongues, Speaking in,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 1208.

[9] Abbess Hildegard recorded unknown tongues in Lingua Ignota.

[10] Grant. R. Osborne (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen), “Tongues, Speaking in,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 1208.

[11] Grant. R. Osborne (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen), “Tongues, Speaking in,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 1208.

[12] Ian S. Rennie (Ph.D., University of Toronto), “Irving, Edward,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 617-618.

[13] Vinson Synan (Ph.D., University of Georgia), “Pentecostalism”, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 899.

[14] Grant. R. Osborne (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen), “Tongues, Speaking in,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 1208.

[15] They taught a charismatic eschatology which they inherited from Edward Irving. Irving influenced J. N. Darby, a leader in the Brethren movement of the nineteenth-century. Irving taught a charismatic eschatology: that in a period prior to the Second Coming a special “latter-rain” outpouring of the Holy Spirit would occur. Darby became the leader of the exclusive group known as the Plymouth Brethren movement and develop classical dispensationalism, which even more specifically taught that there would be a special time in history for the church in the period just prior to Christ's Second Coming.

[16] Gary B. McGee (Ph.D., Professor of Church History, Chair, Bible and Theology Department at Assemblies of God Theological Seminary), Systematic Theology, Chapter 1 “Historical Background,” Logion Press, 1995, p. 10.

[17] Grant. R. Osborne (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen), “Tongues, Speaking in,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 1208.

[18] Vinson Synan (Ph.D., University of Georgia), “Pentecostalism,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 899.

talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.