Pentecostalism Quotes

“Those who know that glossolalia is not God’s path for them and those for whom it is a proven enrichment should neither try to impose their own way on others, nor judge others inferior for being different, nor stagger if someone in their camp transfers to the other, believing that God has led him or her to do so. Those who pray with tongues and those who pray without tongues do it to the Lord; they stand or fall to their own master, not their fellow-servants; and in the same sense that there is in Christ neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, so in Christ there is neither glossolalist nor non-glossolalist.”
― J.I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit: Finding Fullness in Our Walk with God

“The death of the innocent, sinless Christ and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us satisfy God’s justice and holiness. If, however, we reject Christ’s atonement, then we are left to face God’s judgment alone. In this case His holiness demands separation from sinful humans and His justice demands death for sinful humans. So justice and mercy are complementary, not contradictory, aspects of God’s nature, as are holiness and love. If we accept God’s love and mercy, He will help us satisfy His justice and holiness. If we reject God’s love and mercy, we must face His justice and holiness alone (Romans 11:22).”
― David K. Bernard, The Oneness of God: Volume 1

“If we who self-designate ourselves with terms like "Catholic," "Orthodox," "Protestant," "Evangelical," "Charismatic," "Pentecostal" and others would fully surrender ourselves to The Holy Spirit, we could stop focusing on the secondary words we use to describe the primary experience of The Holy Spirit.”
― John David Geib, Beyond Beliefs

“You are not rejecting a person if you reject his words. You get to receive the person with kindness and compassion and treat him as a human being. If someone gets offended and feels rejected just because you rejected his words, then stay away from him, because he has unhealthy heart boundaries that cause him to use prophecy to control or manipulate the people around him.”
― Shawn Bolz, Translating God: Hearing God's Voice For Yourself And The World Around You

“What about holiness people today? Will we follow the drift of other churches and of society until we are indistinguishable from the world? To most people today holiness is an archaic, quaint word. However, if we ever abandon the concept of holiness, referring to it as old fashioned, legalistic, and unnecessarily restrictive, there will be no logical stopping place. Without biblical holiness as a foundation, we will absorb the evils of a worldly, ungodly society as it becomes progressively worse.”
― David K. Bernard, Practical Holiness a Second Look

“Some people are only “believers” because they want God to give them things; a thrill, money, spiritual gifts etc. but they never think twice about what THEY can give to God. They are Christian parasites, always wanting more, rather than Christian servants, who are always willing to give.”
― Lisa Bedrick, On the Charismatic Movement

“If you won’t allow someone to evaluate what you are saying or give you feedback when you prophesy to him, then you are essentially saying you are more important and have more authority, wisdom, and connection to what you are prophesying about than he does. That is the exact opposite goal of prophecy. Prophecy is supposed to connect people to the world around them and the God who loves them, not place you in the center of the equation.”
― Shawn Bolz, Translating God: Hearing God's Voice For Yourself And The World Around You

“Pentecostals also used sarcasm to gouge their enemies. [Charles] Parham led the way, challenging a local Baptist antagonist who routinely tagged his name with Ph.D., D.D., and LL.D. to come by and spend a week at Parham's school. When God was finished with him, Parham promised, he would want to add 'A.S.S.' to the list.”
― Grant Wacker, Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture

“At Seabury House, headquarters of the Episcopal church, David was asked the touchiest question of all--the one that in the past had led to more ill-will toward the Pentecostals than any other. He'd been talking to a group of clergymen for thirty minutes or so about the Pentecostal experience when one of the priests stood up suddenly and said with some asperity, "Mr. du Plessis, are you telling us that you Pentecostals have the truth, and we other churches do not?"

David admits he prayed fast. "No," he said. "That is not what I mean." He cast about for a way to express the difference Pentecostals feel exists between their church and others--a feeling so often misunderstood--and suddenly he found himself thinking about an appliance he and his wife had bought when they moved to their Dallas home.

"We both have the truth," he said. "You know, when my wife and I moved to America, we bought a marvelous device called a Deepfreeze, and there we keep some rather fine Texas beef.

"Now, my wife can take one of those steaks out and lay it, frozen solid, on the table. It's steak all right, no question of that. You and I can sit around and analyze it: we can discuss its lineage, its age, what part of the steer it comes from. We can weigh it and list its nutritive values.

"But if my wife puts that steak on the fire, something different begins to happen. My little boy smells it from way out in the yard and comes shouting: 'Gee, Mom, that smells good! I want some!'

"Gentlemen," said David, "that is the difference between our ways of handling the same truth. You have yours on ice; we have ours on fire.”
― John Sherrill, They Speak with Other Tongues: A Skeptic Investigates This Life-Changing Gift

“While we were finishing our coffee, one of these men stood up and called out the name of a song. Everyone joined in, loud, lusty and wonderful, as I'd heard it before among Pentecostals. By the middle of the second song a woman at the next table was weeping. There was nothing especially emotional about the song itself; it was one of the standard old Gospel hymns, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." But crying seems to be as infectious as laughter. Soon some of the men on the platform were unabashedly bringing out their handkerchiefs. What was it that swept a room this way? I felt it too; so did Tib sitting next to me. Both of us were studiously avoiding looking the other one in the eye.

As the music continued, several people at the tables began to sing "in the Spirit." Soon the whole room was singing a complicated harmony-without-score, created spontaneously. It was eerie but extraordinarily beautiful. The song leader was no longer trying to direct the music but let the melodies create themselves: Without prompting, one quarter of the room would suddenly start to sing very loudly while other subsided. Harmonies and counter-harmonies wove in and out of each other.”
― John Sherrill, They Speak with Other Tongues: A Skeptic Investigates This Life-Changing Gift

“PTL was more Pentecostal than fundamentalist. Pentecostals have a better sense of how a culture feels than how a society works.”
― John H. Wigger, PTL: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Evangelical Empire

“Pentecostals cannot afford to ignore the practical situations that Kenyan masses find themselves in at the dawn of the 21st Century. They are obliged to come up with theologies that are local in character in response to local concerns”
― Susan Murimi

“In as much as Classical Pentecostal churches are not wholly given to the ‘prosperity gospel’, there is an observable heightened desire to invest and own property. What that portends is the extreme danger of being too ‘earthly’ to the extent of losing the spiritual fervour that characterised Pentecostal Christianity of the first decades.”
― Susan Murimi

“One of the major effects of independence on Pentecostalism was the growth of nationalism. The general feeling was one of transferring positions and authority from the missionaries to national leaders.”
― Susan Murimi

“Kenya has been rightly branded a “haven of missions.” However, this haven only emerged in the early 20th century, which is late compared to other missionary activities in West and South Africa. Though there had been Christian missionary activities as early as the 15th Century, their impact was short-lived, and Christianity had to be ‘reintroduced’ in the late 19th Century. Many missionary groups surged onto the Kenyan soil early in the 20th Century in a manner not witnessed among its neighbouring countries.”
― Susan Murimi

“In terms of cooperation with other denominations, Classical Pentecostals in Kenya have had a wary and suspicious approach to ecumenism from their earliest decades. It was noted that they were willing to unite and cooperate with other denominations regarding service to one another and society but not in faith and doctrine. This stance was informed by their desire to safeguard their distinctive experience of baptism in the Spirit with its resultant manifestation of speaking in tongues. The suspicion lingers on, which is confirmed by the fact that neither PAG nor CITAM are members of NCCK.”
― Susan Murimi

“The major challenge facing Classical Pentecostals is what to do with the Charismatics in other mainline denominations who traditionally do not fall under the category of Pentecostals, yet they are embracing the experience of baptism in the Spirit and its myriad manifestations. If indeed spirit baptism breeds unity, are the Pentecostals willing to dialogue with other Christian expressions in Kenya that have allowed the ‘Pentecostal’ experience within their fold?”
― Susan Murimi