Significance of Pentecost in Acts 2

Significance of Pentecost in Acts 2

Introduction

Pentecostalism is a global religious movement that focuses on the immediate experience and empowerment of the Holy Spirit (Cox, 2005). It is arguably the most important development in Christianity of the 20th century. Some see it as the third stage in the history of Christianity, from Catholicism to Protestantism to Pentecostalism. It may also be the fastest growing religion in the world today (Burgess, 2002). The anthropological significance of Pentecostalism is that it is global and strongest in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, the traditional locales of most anthropological research. Anthropologists are involved in the flourishing, interdisciplinary field of Pentecostal studies, and have produced several ethnographic case studies (Anderson, 2004). The paper explores the significance of Pentecost in Acts 2 and claims that the coming of the Spirit in Acts 2 is one of the most signicant events in the history. This paper addresses the events of Pentecost, specifically it argues that the miraculous gifts are operational and normal, and intended to empower today's believers (Martin, 2002).

Origins

According to “Acts 2,” in The Bible, the apostles of Jesus gathered in Jerusalem to mark the Jewish holiday of Pentecost, “ … and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” For centuries, Christians prayed for a New Pentecost, which many believed would herald the return of Christ and the beginning of a millennial kingdom of God on Earth, and there were occasional short-lived movements involving “speaking in tongues” and miraculous “gifts of the Spirit” such as prophecy and healing (Robbins, 2004).

The Pentecostal movement of today is believed to be the product of a synthesis of the principally Methodist Holiness movement of the late 1800s, which was concerned with personal purity and piety, and more ecstatic African American spirituality. It is generally said to have its immediate genesis in two events (Cox, 2005). First, Charles Fox Parham, a white Holiness preacher, taught that the Holy Spirit could enable a true believer to speak in another language, and several of his students did speak in “tongues,” in the Topeka Revival of 1901. Second, William Seymour, an itinerant African American preacher who had studied with Parham, initiated the Azusa Street Revival of 1906-1909 in Los Angeles. The revival was a sensational event, drawing crowds of people and inspiring ecstatic behavior, particularly speaking in tongues, which became the defining characteristic of Pentecostalism and was understood to be the sign that a convert had experienced a “baptism in the Spirit” as well as a water baptism (Schmemann, 1988).

Originally, those who received the “gift of tongues” believed it was a natural language that would enable them to serve as missionaries to other peoples. In addition, they saw it as a sign of the imminent return of Christ, lending urgency to their missions (Anderson, 2004). Almost immediately, converts fanned out across the world, establishing Pentecostal missions in approximately fifty countries in the first 2 ...