History and Development of Pentecostalism — Unit 1: What Is Pentecostalism? Definitions, Sources, and the Shape of the Story

Key Verse

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy." (Acts 2:17-18, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain why knowing our own history matters for Pentecostal pastors in Latin America, Africa and other parts of the world.

2. Name and describe the three main types: classical Pentecostal, charismatic, and neo-charismatic or independent.

3. Compare a broad "family resemblance" definition with a narrow definition based on Spirit baptism with tongues.

4. Name the main kinds of sources historians use and explain one limit of each.

5. Describe three ways of telling the origin story: a single origin at Azusa Street, many origins at the same time, and Holiness roots.

6. State the main objections to our teaching and explain how Pentecostals answer them.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the classical Pentecostal tradition, for students who belong to it. It is conservative and Trinitarian. When it says "we" or "our tradition," it means the Pentecostal churches that confess the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as one God and hold the Bible to be the inspired and authoritative Word of God.

We believe that the outpouring of the Spirit at Azusa Street in Los Angeles, and in other revivals in the same years, was a genuine work of God. It restored to the church an experience the New Testament describes: baptism in the Holy Spirit, with power for witness. Other evangelicals and many historians see these matters differently. We state their views fairly and then give our answer. Scripture says, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). A faith that has been tested is stronger than one that has never been questioned.

Why Our Story Matters

Pentecostalism is one of the largest and fastest-growing streams of Christianity in the world. Most of its members live in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Our story is therefore not mainly about rich countries. It is the story of ordinary believers, many of them poor, in towns and villages across the majority world. God said He would pour out His Spirit on "all flesh," and this is what we see.

This is a history course. We tell our story as the work of the Holy Spirit, but honest historians have asked hard questions about it, and a pastor who teaches this history should be able to give a reasoned answer.

The Problem of Definition

What do we mean by "Pentecostal"? The word comes from the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Today many groups use the word, or are given it by others, so scholars use several definitions.

The three types

The missions researchers David Barrett and Todd Johnson used three types, and the New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (NIDPCM) uses a similar pattern.

Classical Pentecostals. These are the churches and denominations that grew out of the revivals of the early 1900s. This is our family. We teach that a believer can be baptized in the Holy Spirit as an experience after conversion, and that speaking in tongues is the first sign of it. "Classical" does not mean "better." It means "earliest."

Charismatic. These are Christians who had Pentecostal-type experiences, such as tongues, healing and prophecy, while remaining inside older churches. Charismatic renewal began to appear widely in the 1960s among Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians and others. We rejoice in their hunger for the Spirit.

Neo-charismatic or independent. This group is the most varied. It includes networks and churches with no link to the early Pentecostal denominations, often led by local founders, many in Africa, Asia and Latin America. They stress the Spirit's power, healing and gifts, but may not teach tongues as the first sign. Here too we test what we see by Scripture.

Broad and narrow definitions

A narrow definition says that Pentecostalism is defined by one central teaching: baptism in the Holy Spirit, shown by speaking in tongues. Its strength is clarity. It matches how our classical denominations describe themselves and names what is most precious in our message. Its weakness is that it leaves out churches that look and act Pentecostal yet do not state the doctrine this way.

A broad definition is favored by the historian and missiologist Allan Anderson. He uses a "family resemblance" approach. Members of a family may look alike even though no single feature is shared by everyone. In the same way, Pentecostal churches share a cluster of features: an emphasis on experiencing the Spirit, belief in healing and in the Spirit's power in daily life, and lively, participatory worship. Not every church has every feature. This lets Anderson include many African, Asian and Latin American churches.

The broad view helps us see the whole global movement. The narrow view keeps hold of the teaching that gave the movement its identity.

Size and Spread

Researchers working with the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, including Gina Zurlo, estimate that Pentecostals and charismatics together number more than 660 million people in 2025. Estimates vary mainly because of the definition: a narrow one gives a smaller total, a broad one a larger total. Many countries do not count church members by tradition, and some leaders report numbers that are hopeful rather than checked. A statistic is a careful estimate, not an exact count. We do not measure the work of the Spirit by numbers.

One fact is clear. The majority of Pentecostals and charismatics live in Africa, Latin America and Asia. The center of the movement has moved away from where it started. This is one reason this seminary, which serves pastors in Latin America and Africa, studies the movement closely. Your own churches are part of the story.

The Sources Historians Use

The main kinds are these.

Periodicals. The best known is The Apostolic Faith, published by the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles from 1906 to 1908. It reported meetings, printed testimonies, and told readers what the mission believed. It is a priceless source because it comes from the time of the events. Its limit is that the mission published it to encourage readers and spread the message. It shows what the editors chose to print, not everything that happened.

Testimonies. Believers told how they were saved, healed or filled with the Spirit. Their limit is that a testimony is a personal memory told with faith and gratitude. It may be shaped by what the speaker hoped to say.

Denominational records. Minutes, histories and lists of ministers show how groups organized themselves. Their limit is that denominations often write their histories later, to explain who they are.

Oral history. In Africa, Latin America and Asia the story was often told aloud long before it was written. Interviews with older believers keep voices that no newspaper recorded. The limit is that memory changes over time and witnesses may disagree.

Statistics. Numbers show growth. Their limit is the problem of definition, and records are often incomplete.

No single kind of source is enough. Good historians put them side by side.

Competing Ways to Tell the Origin Story

Historians do not all agree on where Pentecostalism began. Here are three main accounts. Each stresses something real.

A single origin: Azusa Street. The movement began at the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles in 1906, under William J. Seymour, an African American preacher. Many people traveled there and carried the message across the world. Seymour had been taught by Charles Parham, who in 1901 in Topeka, Kansas, had taught that tongues were the sign of Spirit baptism. This story honors a real center of influence. Its limit is that it can hide what was happening elsewhere.

Many origins at the same time. The Spirit was moving in many places in the same years. At the Mukti mission in India, led by Pandita Ramabai, a revival with prayer and spiritual gifts took place in 1905, and the missionary Minnie Abrams wrote about it. In Chile in 1909, a revival began among Methodists in Valparaiso under Willis Hoover. Pentecostalism is then not one stream from one spring but many streams that joined. Its limit is that it can make the real influence of Azusa Street seem smaller than it was.

Holiness and Wesleyan roots. John Wesley taught that believers could seek a deeper holiness, sometimes called entire sanctification. In the 1800s the Holiness movement carried this hope forward, and others added the Keswick teaching on a life filled with the Spirit and belief in divine healing. Many early Pentecostal leaders came from Holiness churches. Historians such as Vinson Synan and Donald Dayton stress these roots. Its limit is that it may not explain what was truly new in the early 1900s.

Many historians combine the three: deep roots, many beginnings, and one famous center.

Some critics go further. They say the early revivals were only the product of earlier Holiness teaching, human expectation and emotion, and that nothing came from God. Our tradition answers plainly. Historians can describe the human channels God used, and we welcome their work. The Holiness movement shows that the Lord was preparing His people, but it does not explain away the outpouring itself. Pentecostals have always said that the true origin is Pentecost in Acts 2, and that every later outpouring renews what God began there. We receive Azusa Street, Mukti, Valparaiso and the other revivals of those years as the Holy Spirit's own work, restoring New Testament experience to His church.

The Main Objections and Our Answers

A pastor must be ready for the questions other Christians raise. We state each objection as its holders would, and then answer.

Objection 1: The miraculous gifts ended with the apostles.

Cessationists, many of them faithful evangelicals, teach that signs such as tongues, prophecy and healing confirmed the apostles and ceased when the New Testament was complete. B. B. Warfield argued this in Counterfeit Miracles (1918). Some point to 1 Corinthians 13:8-10: "whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. . . . But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away."

Our answer. Scripture alone is our final authority. But no verse says the gifts would stop when the last apostle died. First Corinthians 13 says they pass away "when that which is perfect has come." We understand this to mean the Lord's return, when we shall know fully, not the closing of the New Testament. Peter said at Pentecost, "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call" (Acts 2:39). Paul wrote to a church long after Pentecost, "Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues" (1 Corinthians 14:39). Every claim must be tested by Scripture, but the Bible gives no reason to close a door the Lord left open.

Objection 2: Spirit baptism happens at conversion, not afterward.

Many evangelicals, following writers such as James D. G. Dunn in Baptism in the Holy Spirit (1970), teach that every believer is baptized in the Spirit at conversion, and that the experiences in Acts were special moments in the early church.

Our answer. We agree that every believer receives the Holy Spirit at new birth. But Luke describes a further experience of empowerment for witness. Jesus told disciples who already belonged to Him, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). We call this experience "subsequent" because it is distinct in purpose and often in time. Its purpose is power for service, not entrance into salvation. The Pentecostal scholar Roger Stronstad has argued that Luke wrote with this purpose.

Objection 3: Tongues are not the necessary first sign.

Critics note that Paul asks, "Do all speak with tongues?" (1 Corinthians 12:30), and that not every account of the Spirit's coming names tongues.

Our answer. We distinguish two things. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul speaks of the gift of tongues in the assembly, given to some and needing interpretation. In Acts, tongues appear as the first sign of Spirit baptism: "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). At Cornelius's house the Jewish believers knew the Gentiles had received the Spirit, because "they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God" (Acts 10:46). At Ephesus, "the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied" (Acts 19:6). This is the conviction of our tradition. We do not say that a believer without tongues is lost, or despise brothers who read these passages differently. But we teach what we find in Acts, and invite every believer to seek what the Lord has promised.

Objection 4: Pentecostal history shows excess, error and division.

This is fair. The early movement had extremes and divided over holiness and the "Finished Work," and some groups moved into Oneness teaching, which denies that God exists eternally as three persons.

Our answer. We do not hide this. Scripture records errors in the church at Corinth, and Paul's answer was not to forbid the gifts but to order them in love (1 Corinthians 14). Abuse of a gift is no reason to discard it. Classical Pentecostal bodies have held to the Trinity and answered Oneness teaching from Scripture, as later units will show.

Where the Course Goes Next

Later units cover Latin America (Unit 6), Africa (Unit 7) and Asia (Unit 8).

Pastoral Application

A young man from a Pentecostal church comes home from a Bible study with a friend from another church. The friend said, "The gifts of the Spirit ended with the apostles, and your church is built on emotion." The young man is shaken and asks his pastor, "Is it true?"

First, the pastor listens and finds out exactly what the friend said. The objection may concern the gifts, tongues, or something he saw in a church.

Second, he answers from Scripture, opening Acts 1:8, 2:4, 2:39 and 1 Corinthians 14:39 with the young man.

Third, he is honest about history and admits that the early movement had faults.

Fourth, he speaks with honor and truth. The friend is a brother in Christ who may love the Bible as much as we do. The pastor stands firm on what we believe, blesses the friend, and keeps the conversation open.

Summary

Pentecostalism is a large, varied and mostly majority-world movement of three types: classical Pentecostal, charismatic, and neo-charismatic or independent. A narrow definition centers on Spirit baptism with tongues; Allan Anderson's broad "family resemblance" approach includes many more churches. Estimates place the total at more than 660 million in 2025, though numbers vary with definition. Historians use periodicals, testimonies, denominational records, oral history and statistics, and each has limits. The origin story may be told as a single origin at Azusa Street, as many origins such as Mukti in 1905 and Chile in 1909, or as the fruit of Holiness and Wesleyan roots. Pentecostals hold that the true origin is Pentecost in Acts 2, and that Azusa Street and the related revivals were a genuine work of God. We answer cessationist and other evangelical objections from Scripture, and we hold our convictions with humility.

Further Reading

• Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism (2nd ed., 2014).

• Vinson Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition (1997).

• Cecil M. Robeck Jr., The Azusa Street Mission and Revival (2006).

• Roger Stronstad, The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke (1984).

• James D. G. Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit (1970), an evangelical critique.

• B. B. Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles (1918), a cessationist argument.

• The Apostolic Faith (Los Angeles, 1906-1908), a primary source.

Submit Exam & Check Pass Reset