The Pentecostalization of Christian Worship

“Each of these three represent a break from historic Christian worship, which emphasized  both beauty and simplicity, maintained a Gospel-shaped worship service, and sought a carefully planned, corporate, and Appollonian expression of worship.”

(David de Bruyn – Religious Affections) It’s hardly disputable that global Christianity has been overwhelmed and colonized by the Pentecostal and charismatic movements. After Roman Catholicism, the Christianity identified variously as charismatic, Pentecostal, Prosperity Gospel, or Latter Rain (with all its permutations and differences) makes up by far the largest percentage of what is classified as Christian. In just over 100 years since its beginnings in Azusa Street, California, it has come to dominate Christianity, and particularly the Christianity spreading in the Global South and South-east. The growing and new-born Christianity in South America, Africa, and south-east Asia is overwhelmingly of the Pentecostal kind.

Non-Pentecostals, or cessationists as they are sometimes called, have dwindled into the minority. Very few voices have been raised to counter the theological distinctives of Pentecostalism: an emphasis on the supernatural sign gifts of the Holy Spirit, a belief in the baptism of the Spirit subsequent to salvation, and assorted novel views on healing, prosperity, and spiritual warfare. A notable exception was John MacArthur’s 2013 Strange Fire conference and subsequent book. By and large, cessationists simply accept their minority status, and defend their theology when asked. View article →

 

CRN’s homepage contains a list of professing Christians to keep an eye on. Scroll down to WARNING. The list contains those to mark and avoid (Rom 16:17-18)

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