The Pentecostals, Charismatics, and the Reformed

The Pentecostals trace their history back from the Methodist Church and the major focus of their churches is Holy Spirit baptism as evidenced by speaking in tongues. There are more or less 200 denominations in the world that identify themselves as Pentecostal, from those that came out from Baptist backgrounds (as Assemblies of God) to the ones that renounced the Trinitarian doctrine (as Oneness Pentecostals). Most Pentecostals highlight experience over doctrine and tend to be phenomenological. I have Pentecostal friends[1] but most of them are educated in theological seminaries so I see the balance in some areas, and at least for some of them I see that they do not believe in the existence of the super Apostles and super Prophets these days. They would argue that only the function remains and not the titles.

I myself went to a Pentecostal seminary for almost three years. What I am troubled about are the things going on with extreme Pentecostalism that typically led to mysticism, emotionalism, and for worst pantheism and folk Christianity. This is the reason why Pentecostalism is constantly being called out as the fountainhead of NAR though of course we have to carefully evaluate this claim and not label all Pentecostals to be heretics in general.

The Reformed, on the other hand, is not solely the one we are tracing from the history of Protestant reformation because even the Pentecostals will be traced from that. What we reckon with here is the "Reformed Theology" that is a body of doctrine that reflects the teachings of Protestant reformers Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin and is also referred to as "Calvinism" although this can be critical on the other hand as not all reformed theologians, scholars, and churches are Calvinists[2].

Denominations holding to the reformed theology stretches from some Baptists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists. Reformed theology is simply a belief system that seeks to continue the Apostolic doctrine[3]. The Westminster Confession plainly embodies the theology of the Reformed tradition, which stresses the authority of the Scripture, sovereignty of God, and salvation by grace. 

One controversial theological view that the Pentecostals and the Reformed argue so much about is the cessationist view, explaining that the gifts are no longer extended to the present church and are only for the early church in the New Testament period. 

Another controversial issue that leads to the conflicting views of Pentecostals and Reformed is the doctrine on the five-fold ministry. Pentecostals believe that Apostles and Prophets still exist today but the Reformed tradition firmly teaches that the cornerstone work of the Apostles and Prophets has already been completed. Because of the conflicting views, there are many churches today that are divided and many are found wounded as a result of heartless debates and amongst them are the people in my own province.

All these issues in one way or another are rooting from bad theologies about the “Kingdom of God” be it in the eschatological sense, i.e. Premillenial view of the NAR movements, or in the ecclesiological sense, i.e. the defective interpretation of visible and the invisible Kingdom.

Some working questions for this these would be:

1. Do we still have Apostles and Prophets in the Church today?

2. Does the Five-Fold ministry in Ephesians 4:11-12 apply to the Church today?

3. Where does the New Age Reformation come from and how do we address the errors?

4. How do we treat the brothers and sisters who are currently in danger of being part of the NAR movement?

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[1] From Classical Pentecostalism, First wave, second wave up to the third wave Toronto Blessings perspectives.

[2] Reformed theology is so broad that Calvinism is just a small part of it.

[3] Not agreeing that the Church needs new apostles and prophets, but depending on the Scripture alone (Sola Scriptura), which is the “prophecy” to be told forth. The Apostles and prophets have already done their part in setting the foundation and the Church now continues what they have started without duplicating their office.