These words may come as somewhat of a surprise to many of you who have walked the dusty roads of America’s recent past, preaching a Gospel of transforming, enabling power – Pentecostal power! They keynote an article appearing in the April 1, 1966, issue of Christianity Today. Written by James S. Tinney, the article is entitled, “NEWS: Special Report – Pentecostals refurbish the Upper Room.”
The article quotes the alleged statements of certain executives of leading Pentecostal organizations, either completely out of context, thus becoming of the most tragic examples of subjective reporting to appear in Christian publication, or the article points up a dangerous trend in Pentecost which must be carefully and prayerfully evaluated in the light of the Word of God.
Perhaps, before we consider the article, it would be profitable to remind ourselves that the Bible, because it IS the Word of God, does not change! Any attempt to modernize it to suit any proud and decadent segment of progressing Christendom would be as futile as the vain attempt to erase a sunset simply by drawing the shade, or to empty the ocean with a teacup!
The first are of “change” in Pentecost’s “Upper Room” is the desire to eliminate the emotionalism, which has been a part of the Pentecostal pattern since the beginning.
Four Yale University students are reported to “represent an emerging new Pentecostalism that has little in common with the Holy Roller image. Today, gymnastics in the pews and lusty Gospel music are confined largely to rural congregations and ten revivals. And a new generation of Pentecostals wants to keep them there, if they have to be kept at all.” The report continues: “A recent article in the official journal of the largest Pentecostal denomination urges that leaders today ‘remain ever alert to the dangers of such worked-up excitement’.”
It would be infinitely more impossible to “fall in love with Jesus” through a genuine experience of salvation, or to “adventure with Him” in the power of the Holy Spirit, and remain emotionally unmoved, than it would be to fall in love with one’s life partner and continue in stoic silence.
Who could read the account of that first outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2, when accusations were flying from religious adherents, “These men are drunk!” without realizing there were some serious emotional affectation? Not one of the Pentecostal believers condemned these emotional expressions as “fevered exhibitionism,” but humbly acknowledged them as both reasonable and proper. It is note strange that many preachers become more emotionally stirred in a Civil Rights rally than in a religious service? The real truth is that they are not really in vital contact with things spiritual. They have a religion of the head, but not the heart. In an acquiescent sort of way, they have subscribed to the tenets of faith of some religious body, but have never known the transforming power of the living Lord!
Often it depends upon who is emotional. Some groups are quick to label emotional manifestation among themselves as “evidence of spiritual depth and devotion, but find it convenient to brand as “wild fire and fevered exhibitionism” any similar experience in another.
The article further states: “The changes are partly the result of a more educated clergy.”
I am not acquainted with the four Yale students mentioned, but I do not hesitate to state that one could have doctorates – earned, if you please – from Yale or any other secular college, or from many of our church-related institutions, and be as ignorant of the true interpretation of God’s Word as a Hottentot of Africa!
Some time ago, I listened to the representative of a Full Gospel Bible college as he advertised for students. “This is a ‘middle-of-the-road’ college. It is neither rigid denominationalism nor radical Pentecostalism. It is middle-of-the-road.” I weighed those words carefully.
The only explanation, from a Biblical standpoint, is that the school is neither hot nor cold – and the Lord had a word for this condition in the Revelation, Chapter 3, Verses 15 and 16. On the other hand, it could mean the school would be equally at home in the church or the world – that the fountain could bring forth both bitter water and sweet, and, if convenient, both God and mammon could be served without offense to either. Of course, we know this to be Biblically impossible.
This school did not so begin. I have personally attended services in the parent church sponsoring that power of God, when they were stretched out in the aisles until movement was virtually impossible. It was a thrilling sight, and I observed nothing but a wholesome, “decent and in order” atmosphere in this emotional outburst.
But the church has evidently decided to “refurbish the upper room.” And what are the results? I recently attended a mid-week service, a regular evening service, and sat among worshippers numbering only sixty, by actual count, where hundreds had previously jammed the auditorium in a similar service.
How different the account of our Pentecostal Church of God colleges!
Call it “radical Pentecostalism” if you will, but if it fills our churches with devoted communicants, not dead corpses; if it produces holy lives, and hearts whose only desire is to glorify God and worship in His house; if it produces workers and missionaries and builders for God – and it does! – Then I want to go on record as supporting it!
If this is fanaticism that sent our preachers into new areas of labor, without sufficient food, without adequate transportation, without change of clothes, with shoes worn out, and established churches amid flying rotten tomatoes and eggs, amid jeers and scoffs – that caused the Pentecostal message to be winged around the world – then I want it!
By “refurbishing” we apparently mean we should be more interested in status symbols than in spiritual stability; two Cadillac’s in every carport, two boats in every family, and the latest, two Christmas trees in every home. If status symbols become necessary in our sophisticated society, for the Christian they should be “prayer bags” in the knees of our trousers, rather than money bags in our pockets; worn leaves in our study Bibles, rather than volumes of best sellers in our libraries; heaven’s sunshine on our countenances, rather than degrees of distinctions hanging on our walls which money may secure or men may confer.
If “refurbishing” means, by education alone, we have now come to know more than God, in pride we are now discarding clearly-stated Biblical principles in an attempt to write our own bible, then count me out.
Secular education without spiritual edification would attempt to teach us as Pentecostals…
- How to remain a Pentecostal without retaining the “Holy Roller image”…
- How to court ecclesiastical favor without compromising evangelistic fervor…
- How to believe in the miraculous without believing for miracles…
- How to join hands with the worldly crowd without judging their worldly ways…
- How to deaden our spiritual sensitivities without completely denying our Lord…
- How to dissipate the opposition without destroying it…
- How to win over the enemy without wounding him…
- How to borrow the heathen ideologies without burning the heathen idols…
- How to pamper and protect the “Pentecostal” weaklings and world-lings while attempting to project the Pentecostal witness…
THIS CANNOT BE DONE!
Wisdom and knowledge must be set on fire by the Holy Ghost if it is to serve us, and settle us in Christ, rather than sever us from Him!
Another program of “refurbishing” is attributed to the leader of a large Pentecostal organization: “The Pentecostal experience, contrary to much of the publicity, does not center around ‘speaking in tongues,’ more formally identified as glossolalia, but in the belief that the infilling of the Holy Ghost should follow conversion.”
If this statement is not misquoted, or taken completely out of context (and knowing, as I do, the person who is reported to have made the alleged statement, I have every reason to believe it was!), then Pentecost, as the founders of his denomination knew it, has most certainly undergone the “refurbishing” process already. Such a statement could only mean that a person might receive the Baptism of the Holy Ghost without speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance. If this could be true – AND IT POSITIVELY IS NOT! – and any spiritual mountain top, so long as it “follows conversion,” could be considered the infilling of the Holy Ghost, then the Pentecostal upper room has experienced some radical changes.
If “refurbishing” means we are now to take “Zedekiah’s pin knife” and shred Biblical passages from the sacred Canon of Scripture in order to be accepted in a changing society, thereby denying certain clear passages setting forth the historic Bible pattern for receiving the Baptism of the Holy Ghost; if “refurbishing” means we are to become tomb stones instead of lively stones, then I, for one, wish to state emphatically that I will resist this process with every power available to me!
If “refurbishing” means, by the construction of our new church edifices, we suddenly find ourselves surrounded by multitudes that feel their temple too modern and their members too sophisticated for the God of true Pentecost, then please mark me as a dissenter.
The article mentions still another detour from the plain path of Pentecost: “Extremely narrow legalism is on the way out. For years tongues-groups believed the observances of certain prohibitions to be a sign of holiness.”
Apparently, this “refurbishing” means we are now to take to our lives certain worldly practices in the present mad rush toward world-conformity – rather than daring to be different – and abdicate our Scripture-taught faith in a life of holiness and separation. Have we forgotten that God said: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord God Almighty,” II Corinthians 6:17,18?
The Pentecostal Church of God of America will not become apart of this “refurbishing” process. We are Christ-honoring, Spirit-led, Bible-believing Christians. We do not sell “sacred sawdust,” or blessed “anointing oil,” or scraps of soiled undershirts of some evangelist. We do not believe in the purely human impartation of spiritual gifts by some self-styled prophet. We do not believe that everyone who takes an aspirin is eternally doomed – though we strongly hold that God’s ultimate best is that we trust Him completely. But WE DO attempt to “contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3), to cling to the “old paths, where is the good way” (Jeremiah 6:16), to “obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29), and to “stand fast in the liberty where with Christ made us free” (Romans 1:4), it seems we do well to yield to that same spirit.
Need I remind you that God will NEVER encourage you to be less dedicated, less Christ-like in your separation from the world, less heavenly-minded than you presently are. So, when anyone tells you it is not necessary to be so narrow or legalistic, please remember that word does not originate with God!
Finally, the article indicates this “refurbishing” is, in a large measure, due to the cooperation with other non-Pentecostal bodies of believers.
The watchword of the National Association of Evangelicals, with which this Movement is affiliates, has ever been: “Cooperation without compromise.” Always is constituent members have believed in fellowship with all Christian believers without forfeiture of the doctrinal distinctive of any!
Now, if “refurbishing” our Pentecostal upper rooms means, by association with others, we must compromise our convictions, desert our dedication, deny our distinctive, drop our devotion, and, possibly, sacrifice our salvation, then better we go it alone in a world where fellowship is so obviously important and earnestly desired. BUT THIS IS NOT NECESSARY!
By remaining the Pentecostals we are, we can enjoy our experiences, believe our Bibles, exploit our educational advantages, and appreciate our association with all true believers. But we must remain men and women of high purpose and solid resolution, refusing to bend or bow to pressures, both within and without, and refusing to settle for a religion of expedience rather than experience!
I DO NOT FEEL THE PENTECOSTAL CHURCH OF GOD OF AMERICA IS READY TO “REFURBISH” ITS “UPPER ROOM!” We will continue to resist the deadly, destroying influences at work to muffle the true Pentecostal witness in this hour of crisis!
I’ve been to Pentecost’s Upper Room. AND I LIKE IT – JUST AS IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN!
by former PCG General Superintendent R. D. Heard
as reprinted in The Pentecostal Messenger, May 1983
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