Here is a book that lingers in the mind like an unresolved chord. In the cacophony of modern theology, where the church often whispers from the shadows of institutional safety, Wolfgang Vondey’s The Scandal of Pentecost: A Theology of the Public Church erupts like the biblical wind and fire it describes—demanding we confront the raw, disruptive birth of the Christian community not as a tidy origin story, but as a scandalous intrusion into public life.

Vondey, a prominent Pentecostal theologian and professor at the University of Birmingham, draws from his deep roots in Pentecostal scholarship to reframe Pentecost as the foundational event where the church emerges as a “public symbol of humanity,” embodying both brokenness and redemption. The book weaves biblical exegesis, historical theology, and philosophical anthropology into a narrative that challenges privatized views of Pentecost. It argues that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on “all flesh” (Acts 2:17) isn’t a mere spiritual footnote but a transformative scandal, revealing the church’s symbiotic tensions—internal conflicts and external confrontations—that propel it into the world.

Vondey’s engagement with the concept of the church as a public symbol is another highlight of the book. Drawing on the work of public theologians such as Martin Marty, he argues that the church’s public witness is not merely a matter of visibility or influence, but of embodying “the communal character of faith” in a world marked by fragmentation and conflict (p. 8). The church, he writes, is “a faith built of ‘broken symbols,’ manifested above all in the scandal of the crucified Christ” (p. 91). The public nature of the church is thus inseparable from its willingness to embrace brokenness, vulnerability, and the tensions of life in a pluralistic society (p. 91). Vondey is clear that the church’s public vocation is not about triumphalism or domination, but about offering “ordering against chaos and meaning where it had been absent” (p. 12). The church’s task, he suggests, is to engage in a “public hermeneutic” that interprets Christian symbols in ways that are persuasive and life-giving, both within and beyond the boundaries of the faith community (p. 20).

Before I rest my pen, one thing must not go unnoticed: not every academic theological book ends with a poem, but Wolfgang Vondey’s choice to conclude poetically is both striking and fitting. The poem distills the book’s central themes into a vivid, almost breathless sequence of images, capturing the disruptive and transformative energy of Pentecost. Vondey’s language is intentionally visceral—“heart-beating, lips-stammering / sons and daughters / in scandalous intoxication”—evoking the embodied, communal, and even chaotic nature of the Spirit’s outpouring. It’s a powerful poetic summary that resonates long after the final page.

In conclusion, The Scandal of Pentecost is a significant and inspiring contribution to Pentecostal theology and to the wider conversation about the church’s place in the world. It is a work of both scholarship and imagination, rooted in tradition yet open to the future. For those seeking to articulate a public theology of Pentecostalism—one that is both faithful to the Spirit and responsive to the complexities of contemporary life—Vondey’s book is an indispensable resource. It challenges us to embrace the scandal of the Spirit, to risk new forms of community, and to bear witness to the hope that is within us. But perhaps the most enduring gift of Vondey’s work is its reminder that the church’s true vocation is not to seek safety or respectability, but to live in the creative tension of the Spirit’s leading. The scandal of Pentecost is that God’s Spirit refuses to be domesticated—refuses to be confined to our institutions, our traditions, or our comfort zones. Instead, the Spirit calls us out—into the world, into relationship, into the risky, joyful, and sometimes messy work of building communion in the midst of difference. To embrace the scandal of Pentecost is to open ourselves to the Spirit’s surprising, unsettling, and renewing work—not only for our own sake, but for the life of the world.

Reviewed by Ciprian Gheorghe-Luca

Image: Kwon Junho

On Pentecost Sunday the Person of the Holy Spirit, the advocate, the one called alongside to help you, was the presence of God to come upon them. What does this mean for you? With the Holy Spirit, you wake up with a fire in your heart and the passion to serve Jesus. The Spirit reveals the way to move forward by faith every day.

Pray with me…“Come, Holy Spirit”…stir up your faith and relationship with the Spirit. Then with the message of the Bible in your hand and the Spirit in your heart, you will hear God’s voice lead you through your daily life!

PR

You’ve seen it before … an old house that goes through an extreme makeover—It’s like a brand new home!

The attraction is the compelling contrast between life before and life after.

Image: Milivoj Kuhar

Consider, then, the contrast between the Christian life before and the Christian life after the Holy Spirit comes upon you!

After for Christians:

• receive power, be witnesses (Acts 1:8)
• magnify God (Acts 10:46)
• live according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:5)
• put to death the deeds of the body (Rom. 8:13)
• receive gifts of the Spirit (I Cor. 12:4)
• walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16)
• be led by the Spirit (Gal. 5:18)

This is the Promise. The Gift is the Holy Spirit. Embrace the Spirit on this Pentecost weekend!

Messianic teacher Kevin Williams invites us to look deeper at the countdown to Pentecost.

Of all 613 of God’s instructions in the Hebrew Scriptures, Leviticus 23:15 has got to be one of the easiest and least inconvenient. No work to perform, no offerings for the layperson. Just words.

“You shall count from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed” (Leviticus 23:15).

Memorial Tablet and Omer Calendar by Baruch Zvi Ring (1904).
Image: Wikimedia Commons

It’s referred to as “Counting the Omer.” Immediately following Passover, observers count off the 49 days leading to Shavuot/Pentecost. Day 1, day 2 … day 49, Pentecost. Takes less than a minute per day. Again, this has to be among the easiest of the Most High’s instructions.

So what? What’s the big deal, who cares, and what’s the spiritual benefit for a Christian?

Benefit v. obedience is a good topic for a separate article, but let’s see how we can polish this biblical gem.

“My word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do” (Isaiah 55:11). For the Christian, that’s a healthy perspective, not just about Leviticus 23:15, but the entirety of the Bible.

Quick diversion to make a point. Jesus said, “Therefore, whoever shall break one of these least commandments and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven …” (Matthew 5:19). Counting the Omer is, as I mentioned, ridiculously easy to do—perhaps one of the “least commandments,” which ought to say something right there. But I digress, Jesus goes on to say, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).

Adultery, a weightier commandment, yes? Under the terms of the Law of Moses, pretty simple—don’t sleep around. But the Messiah brings it closer to home and lifts it out of the physical to reinforce the Torah and highlight its spiritual application. Just looking with lust renders you guilty, a transgressor of God’s instructions.

Ah, not so simple after all. In fact, everyone is guilty of breaking God’s instructions under this perspective. The commandment has gone from an act and something you do or do not do in the physical world and has been amplified into a much deeper, more profound application with spiritual consequences. Boy, this commandment really drives home how badly we need a Savior (see Galatians 3:24)!

So back to Counting the Omer. It’s easy to do. Incorporate it into daily devotions or some such and check off the box. Done.

Yea … but no. That would fulfill the physical act, but still misses the spiritual application.

God’s Word does not return to Him void. And in Matthew 5, Jesus shows example after example that the Torah—God’s instructions—are not merely a list of exercises. They have a point and yield spiritual consequences.

So what spiritual applications are there, might there be around the exercise of counting off 49 days?

Wheat sheaves
Image: Trish Steel/Wikimedia Commons

God instructs us to count the days—which should end all debate. God said it, that settles it. But humans have a natural disposition to resist being told to do anything, even when the Sovereign Most High, King of the Universe says, “This is a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations” (Leviticus 23:21).

But sometimes our thinking is askew. Inside we want to know “What’s in it for me?” Spiritually, this is lustful thinking. Following God is never about what you get, but what glory God receives from you. It’s about surrender and abandon, not rewards and gratification.

Counting the Omer is a very simple means by which to demonstrate that God is in charge, not you, and that you are committed to living a faithful life. This glorifies Yahweh.

As long as it is approached as just a box to check off, there is little to no personal investment. To what does the Omer count? Pentecost (aka Shavuot), the birthday of the Church. They are 49 days of anticipation, looking forward to one of God’s moadim—appointed times that commemorates the giving of the Torah and the giving of the Holy Spirit—two monumental spiritual events! The days of Omer can be anticipatory, a daily escalation of joyful anticipation.

If God instructs us to count these days, and we do, we can rest assured that—as far as this activity is concerned—we are in harmony with God’s word and will, and that is no small matter. In a world driven to distract, staying the course can be an accomplishment in its own right.

Certainly, this is the least we can do for one of the least of the commandments. Can we give God our least? Is He worth at least that?

The Holy Spirit has been making Jesus known in China. Veteran missionary Dennis Balcombe shares what he has seen unfolding during his more than fifty years of ministry in China.

Bible teachers believe that many prophecies will have a double fulfillment. The first fulfillment was in the Biblical days and subsequently the last days before the return of Christ.

A good example are the many prophecies relating to the dispersion and restoration of Israel. This was first fulfilled in the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, and later the return to Jerusalem and rebuilding of the temple under leaders such as Ezra and Nehemiah.

Then in the end times we see this is the destruction of Jerusalem and dispersion of the Jews in AD 70, and the restoration of Israel as a nation in 1948.

Directly relating to this was that of Pentecost which was fulfilled in New Testaments days in the Book of Acts and is being fulfilled in our days, which may be the last of the last days.

Acts 2:1, “When the day of Pentecost had fully come” seems to indicate what happened that day in Jerusalem fulfilled all the types and prophecies relating to Pentecost. Then Peter in his sermon by revelation said, “But this is what was spoken by the Prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days …” (Acts 2:16).

The whole prophecy of Joel indicates a world-wide outpouring of the Holy Spirit resulting in all that was lost being restored and a great spiritual harvest. It would seem that this prophecy relating to a Pentecostal outpouring was fulfilled in many parts of the world in the beginning of the 20th century.

Pentecostal Christians in many nations will tell you how Pentecost came to their nation in the first few years of the 20th century. Americans talk about the Azusa Street Revival in 1906, people living in the U.K. will tell you about the early Welsh revival and the ministry of Spirit-filled men of God like Alexander Boddy, Smith Wigglesworth around 1907 and the powerful revivals that shook the British Isles around that time.

This was the same time of great revivals in Pyongyang, Korea, Ireland and South Africa, and the Khasi Hills in India. But many have not heard that Pentecost also came to China in the beginning of the 20th century.

A former street evangelist who was a part of my home church in Oakland, California, Richard Simpson, told me the testimony of his grandfather, a missionary to China.

Missionary William Wallace Simpson was sent out by the Christian Missionary Church (but no relation to A.B. Simpson) and began his ministry in Lhasa, Tibet in the late 19th century (1892). After many months of travel by land from Shanghai travelling through vast plains, forging rivers and ascending high mountain ranges he reached the outskirts of Lhasa.

To his knowledge, no Christian missionary had entered the city to bring the message of Christ, though other European explorers and travelers had previously reached the city. One of the head lamas had gotten the word that Simpson and his entourage had entered Lhasa to bring the Christian religion.

Thus, this lama stood outside the city and proclaimed that if this missionary so much as dared to enter the city to preach his foreign religion, Simpson would be struck dead by the Tibetan gods.

After prayer and knowing he was being led by the Spirit, missionary Simpson entered the city and began to prepare for ministry in the city. However, before he could do anything, this lama who was opposed to him, for some strange reason suddenly died.

This was one of the first examples of ‘power evangelism’ in China, a term that later became popular under John Wimber of the Vineyard Movement in the second part of the 20th century.

The superstitious people in Lhasa revered him as some god with great power. Of course, he denied that he was a god, but through this preached Christ to them and reportedly made some converts. Later they gave him gifts of many of their precious temple artifacts (not realizing their archeological value), which he took back to the USA and sold to the Museum of Chicago. Through this he was able to finance his missionary work in China for several decades.

A few years later the CMA denomination in America took a stand against speaking in tongues and such Pentecostal gifts. Knowing Simpson’s Church in Beiping was now Pentecostal he was ordered to cease teaching Pentecostal doctrines, tongues, and spiritual gifts, or else they would totally cut off his missionary support.

He wrote back, “I am now the pastor of this church, and they are totally supporting me. I don’t care if you cut off my support, but I will not compromise on my beliefs.”

He remained in China until 1949 when he returned to the USA. His son, William EkvalI Simpson, also was an Assemblies of God missionary. He died at the hands of bandits on the Tibetan-Chinese border in 1932. This testimony was related to me by missionary Simpson’s grandson Richard in the 1970’s.

After the Pentecostal revivals at Azusa Street and in the U.K., many Pentecostal missionaries came to China and preached the Full Gospel message. Significant Pentecostal revivals came to the Scandinavian nations, and many Pentecostal missionaries from Norway, Sweden and Finland travelled to the interior of China bringing the Pentecostal message.

Marie Monson
Image: Wikimedia Commons

One of these Scandinavian missionaries was Marie Monsen (1878-1962). Some considered her the ‘mother of the house church’. But due to her Pentecostal beliefs, she was denounced as a heretic by other evangelical missionaries.

Brother Yun introduced Monsen in his book, The Heavenly Man, as her ministry impacted the churches in Henan where he is from. You can visit her monument today in Bergen, Norway.

Many of these early Pentecostal missionaries were single young women, at great cost and much opposition, spread the Pentecostal message throughout China. Another was Serene Løland, also from Norway, who spent 50 years in China. The last several years of her missionary life was spent in Hong Kong. I was privileged to work with her in Hong Kong in the early 1970s.

Serene was the first Norwegian Methodist missionary to China landing in Fuzhou (then spelled Foo-chow) in 1921. She later worked with the famous Spirit-filled Chinese evangelist, John Sung who is reported to have led over 100,000 to the Lord through his powerful evangelical ministry followed by signs, wonders, and miracles. These converts were not only in China, but many nations throughout SE Asia.

She also spent much time in Shanghai where she helped many leading clergymen to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This was during the great charismatic revival in Shanghai around 1948.

At the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Shanghai, more than 50 of the theological students including their president, the famous Chia Yu Ming, came to her meetings and he received the baptism of the Spirit. His writings were the most popular theological books in China, read by far more than Watchman Nee, whose books were only read by members of his church, The Little Flock church.

Sister Løland worked closely with the most renowned men of God during that period: John Sung, Watchman Nee, Wang Ming-tao, Andrew Gih and Markus Cheng. She was at one time a member of Watchman Nee’s congregation and she told me she prayed with him, and he received the Baptism of the Spirit. But Watchman Nee never claimed to be charismatic.

After most missionaries were forced out of China, Sister Løland remained two more years and in March 1951 came to Hong Kong. She was greatly used of the Lord to promote the Pentecostal movement throughout Hong Kong, especially among the Pentecostal Holiness Church. She left HK to return home to Norway in 1972. Her powerful testimony is related in her autobiography, God in China (now out of print).

Many in the Charismatic/Pentecostal movement have become aware of missionary Heidi Baker. She and her team have been greatly used of the Lord to plant thousands of churches in Mozambique, other parts of Africa and other nations.

Heidi and her husband Rolland were a part of my church in Hong Kong for many years and even today we can converse in fluent Cantonese. I converse with Rolland in Putonghua (Mandarin), for he comes from a family of missionaries to the Chinese.

Rolland’s grandfather was the famous H.A. Baker who wrote the book Visions Beyond the Veil (published 1920), and several other books. He ministered in Tibet from 1911-1919, in Yunnan China from 1919-1950 when all missionaries were forced to leave China. Later in 1955 he went to Miaoli County, Taiwan until his death in 1971.

With his wife Josephine, H.A. Baker started a mission for street children living in the village areas in Yunnan Province, called Adullam Rescue Mission. The children, 6-18 years old were uneducated and few had any knowledge of the Bible and Christianity.

But H.A. Baker led them to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and they saw a series of visions of angels, Jesus, heaven, and hell, totally confirming the Bible. This was part of a significant Pentecostal revival in that part of China.

Many of these children grew up serving the Lord, and many were later pastors of both house church and official Three-Self Patriotic churches in Yunnan. This amazing book documenting the working of the Holy Spirit in the lives of these children is available free as a PDF file on the internet.

My close friend and co-worker, Rev. Moses Yu (1920-2010), born and raised in Shandong, was only 12 when this great revival swept NE China. He could personally recount many events in this revival and he was associated with the great men of God during that period – Rev. John Song, Wang Ming-Tao, Andrew Gih, Chia Yu-ming, Watchman Nee, Allan Yuan and others.

He told me that the indigenous Chinese Pentecostal revivals from the late 1920s through to 1949 were powerful and widespread resulting in hundreds of thousands of conversions. However few if any books giving testimonies to these revivals are available in bookstores.

The reason is most of the publishers of books of Chinese church history are evangelicals, and all their associated denominations theologically hold to the cessation theory. This belief which is adhered to by many even today teaches that all supernatural gifts of the Spirit, speaking in tongues and miraculous healings ended in the 2nd century with the death of the apostles.

Thus Rev. Yu was invited to Hong Kong to conduct a week-long seminar at the Assembly of God Bible Seminary in which he in detail documented the great Pentecostal revivals in indigenous Chinese churches. They can be found today in the Ecclesia Bible Seminary archives.

Space will only allow me to briefly mention a few. Probably the most significant was the Great Shandong Revival which began around 1932 in Shandong Province. The great Korean Pyongyang Revival of 1907 came after years of Western missionaries and Korean pastors associated with the Presbyterian Church seeking the Lord in prayer and fasting.

At a certain time in history, the Holy Spirit moved mightily, and many stood up and openly confessed their sins. Subsequently thousands were baptized in the Holy Spirit with tongues, prophecy, anointed preaching, divine healings, and casting out of demons.

Anyone visiting the house churches and even official churches in Shandong Province today will realize much of the present church leadership are the descendants of this great revival that began in 1932. In fact, this great Pentecostal Revival spread throughout all of NE China.

A Baptist missionary, Mary Crawford published a book, The Shantung Revival in 1933. Again, in as much the manifestations of the Spirit in that revival go against the theological position of the Baptist church, it is not available from the Baptist Press. But the copyright period expired, and the charismatic leader Randy Clark has republished this book which is available today on Amazon.

Directly related to the Shandong Revival, the Jesus Family movement was established in 1921 by Jing Dianying in the rural village of Mazhuang, Taian County of Shandong Province. This was a unique Pentecostal communitarian church.

They lived in Christian communes in which resources were pooled and needs of the poorer in the community were met. In the rural and semi-rural areas, the Jesus Family was formed into small communes of up to a few hundred with the believers working and living together and holding property in common under the direction of the ‘family head.’

There were well over one hundred of these Jesus Family communities by 1949, with a total of several thousand members. All were run entirely by Chinese under the leader Jing Dianying (1890-1957).

The Jesus Family was strongly millenarian, anticipating the imminent return of Christ, and it was very Pentecostal, basing its worship and behavior on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. All the Jesus Family communities were disbanded in 1953, but even today many former adherents or their children are active members and leaders in the Chinese Christian community. In the 1980s, some Jesus Family groups reappeared, but they are technically illegal and subject to persecution by the authorities.

I was privilege to meet many of the leaders of the Jesus Family when China opened in the 1980s and several years ago visited some of the local Shandong house churches whose roots can be traced to the Jesus Family. They would all rehearse testimonies of miracles, healings and gifts of the Spirit that even today are in operation in their local churches.

Another indigenous Pentecostal movement is the True Jesus Church. It was started in 1917 by Paul Wei, Barnabas Zhang and others. It is a powerful Pentecostal Church with many gifts of the Spirit, healings, and miracles. However, they are considered a oneness church because they do not believe in the trinity. They also meet on Saturday as they believe they must keep the Sabbath.

The True Jesus Church is currently one of the largest Christian groups in China and Taiwan, as well as one of the largest independent churches in the world. A few years ago, on a visit to Wuchang, the head leader of the Three-Self church took me to visit one of the True Jesus churches. They had a huge building that could sit several thousand. He told me one-third of all the Christians in the Wuhan area went to churches associated with the True Jesus movement.

He said since they are considered an indigenous Chinese grass-roots movement with no connection with the West, they are not persecuted in the same manner that denominational churches related to the West are persecuted. There are many very large True Jesus congregations in Hong Kong and parts of England.

When I first arrived in Hong Kong in as a missionary called to China in 1969, there was virtually no accurate information about the church in China. The prevalent belief was that Christianity had been basically eliminated from China.

It was common knowledge, though, that all religion had been prohibited during the Cultural Revolution (1967-1976). Even the Three-Self Patriotic Church, which was totally under the control of the Communist Party and preached only liberal theology, was closed. House churches were prohibited, all clergy were sent to labor reform camp or prison, seminaries and Bible Schools were closed, and all Bibles and religious books were destroyed by the Red Guards.

It was assumed by many that the whole nation had become atheistic. As China began to open in 1978, one major ministry printed a tract which simply described the beautiful mountain scenery in Guilin (such as you see depicted in Chinese landscape paintings), and ended with this question, “Is it possible all this somehow occurs through natural processes, or might there perhaps be a Creator?”

One would ask why the Gospel tracts would not be more specific in presenting Christ and the Gospel message. The reason is there was a fear that any religious literature would be confiscated and those distributing it would be arrested. It was thought except for a few older people in the villages, the whole nation was now atheistic.

Liberal churchmen stated, “While the people were relatively poor compared to most in capitalist nations, what they had they shared one with another, the government provided basic educational and medical services, everyone loved greatly Mao and the Communist Party, and most were very happy.”

It was then often stated, “There is no need for Christianity, a Western religion that puts guilt on people and allowed imperialism to take root in China.”

However, within weeks of my first trip to Guangzhou in the spring of 1978, I found all that was totally false. During the past several decades we have been learning about the terrible atrocities, massacres, famines, political infighting, and horrendous persecution of religious believers.

Prostitution then and today was rampant, but prostitutes then sold their bodies to get ration coupons, which were needed to purchase food. We saw this everywhere after China opened in 1978, as even then food could only be purchased with both money and ration coupons. As we begin to travel throughout China, we saw not only prostitutes, but beggars everywhere. Poverty was widespread and in visits to hospitals we saw dirty and rundown buildings with almost none of the equipment or medication that a hospital would need.

I was quickly made aware of one group of believers in a certain district in Guangxi Province of 40,000 believers meeting in multiple house churches but was told they only had one full complete Bible for that many believers.

Due to that report in the first of 1979, we began our Bible ministry to China (called Donkey’s for Jesus) and during the 36 years to 2015 (when Xi Jinping began to take tight control of the nation), countless millions of Bibles were delivered to China from Hong Kong. Most were provided free to house church leaders, and thus during those years I was privileged to travel this vast nation.

Due to the strict control of people’s movements, including that of foreign visitors, it is impossible for anyone to conduct an accurate religious survey. But these estimates are based on the percentage of known Christians in different districts and an analysis of general religious beliefs in the different provinces.

My story: From 1979-1997 I made multiple trips all over China, weekly taught English in Guangzhou leading a few hundred students to Christ and baptizing them in the Guangzhou reservoir, helped to coordinate the Bible ministry in which weekly thousands of Bibles entered China, and travelled all over the nation where I met the Christian leaders in hotel rooms or public parks in the major cities.

Today’s Chinese Version Bible, first published in 1979.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

I had a great desire to visit the rural home churches, especially in Henan (where Hudson Taylor previously worked), but was told it was far too dangerous for a foreigner to visit these house churches. But knowing that our church was a Spirit-filled Pentecostal church, and almost 100% of the Bible couriers and those supporting the ministry were Pentecostals, they desired for me to visit their home church co-workers’ meetings and teach on this subject.

Thus, in early 1988, they arranged for me to go into the rural areas of Henan, Anhui, and Zhejiang provinces to teach in co-workers’ meetings. The co-workers would number from 80-800 or more. Meetings would last 3-5 days in one village and then we would go to another village to share.

Usually, I would teach and preach for up to 9 hours a day, but during that time in every session we would pray for them to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. This continued until 1997 when I lost my visa, but when my visa was restored in 2003, I continued this ministry until 2015 when I again lost my visa.

Before we visited China and taught the Pentecostal message, they would experience miracles of healing and supernatural deliverances. But this was due to the prayers of the Christians. Even decades before I entered the rural areas to teach the Pentecostal message, the churches had a habit of gathering early in the morning for prayer, often lasting up to 2 hours.

Space would not allow me to share even a small percentage of what I saw. Just to state that we saw thousands of co-workers filled with the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues, and a massive outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Miracles, signs, wonders, and divine healings were seen everywhere we went.

Many told me the main reason people became Christians was due to the testimony of divine healing, deliverance from demonic powers and other such miracles. While the Chinese church is not perfect, mistakes have been made, some false doctrine and teaching emerged during those years, nobody can deny the fact that the Chinese church is like the Church in the Book of Acts. The Gospel is being widely preached with signs following, but as in the 1st century persecution is prevalent.

The last several years there have been a lot of restrictions on Christian ministry in general and many overseas missionaries have been forced to leave China. The government is restricting the evangelism of children and the youth, and Bibles can only be purchased in official church bookstores. Atheistic Marxist education is the norm for all Chinese young people. It would seem the present leadership of China is reversing the ‘open door policy’ of Deng Xiaoping which began in the 1980s.

But we thank the Lord during the few short years that China was opened, thousands of Spirit-filled Christians from overseas entered China to provide Bibles, teaching materials and prayed with countless tens of thousands of Chinese Christians to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Thus, the Chinese church has a very good solid foundation based on the Word of God in which the Holy Spirit is honored. I believe despite temporary setbacks, the doors to China are still open in that the Chinese people are very open to Christ and the Holy Spirit. I believe before the return of Christ, perhaps in our generation, this nation of 1.4 billion of Han Chinese and other ethnic groups will be reached with the Full Gospel.

Pastor Dennis Balcombe
Hong Kong

This article is adapted from an earlier version of “Pentecost in China” as it first appeared at ChinaSource.org. Used with permission.

They Recognized Their Experience As Foretold In Scripture – Peter said in Acts 2:16, “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh’ (Acts 2:16; King James Version [KJV])” Everyone present at the Pentecost Festival had no doubt this was real because it had been predicted by Joel the prophet (Joel 2:28-32).

When the Day of Pentecost Came…

They Knew It Was An Answer to Prayer – All of the 120 people assembled on this special day had waited patiently for the descent of the Spirit while they prayed. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was present, along with Jesus’ brothers (Acts 1:14), and they were all together in one accord, in one mind, and in one place (Acts 2:1). When people are in one accord, having the same mind and spirit, and are assembled in one place in Jesus’ Name, marvelous things will always happen.

When the Day of Pentecost Came…

They Knew Beyond Doubt The Holy Spirit Had Come – All those who had assembled on this day to experience the descent and infilling of the Holy Spirit, recognized the reason for His descent. But some of the unregenerate people who witnessed the event said, “They must be drunk.” This is the way it is with those who are not spiritually minded—they will always criticize what they don’t understand. But Peter understood what was happening, and responded by saying, These men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only 9 a.m. [in the morning]; this is the outpouring of the Spirit of God as promised in the prophecies of Joel; ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, ‘That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh—that is, mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams (Acts 2:15-17; New Millennia In-Depth Bible [NMIB]). When people are full of intoxicating wine, they act crazy and babble, but the incoherent language was God’s way of infusing [and binding] people together through languages, since the Tower of Babel experience (Gen. 11:9) had confused and diffused people through languages. At this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the assembled believers were not sure of what would happen, but without doubt they had the assurance in their hearts that the Holy Spirit was in their midst. The “Baptism of the Holy Spirit” is the consuming fire and a real Biblical empowerment available for all Christians to experience today, just as it was for the 120 in the upper room. Further, this “baptism” is for every period of time, every generation, and for every person until Jesus returns. This means it’s for you and me. It comes to us [and to all believers] according to fervent faith and prayer.

Pray today that God will give you a fresh “baptism of fire” from above, because Jesus said, “If you then [who hear My words], being evil— [that is, incomplete and immature], know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:13; New Millennia In-Depth Bible – [NMIB]).

PR

Adapted from the May 2022 issue of Grapevine from the Association of Evangelical Gospel Assemblies. Used with permission.

A guest article by Tracy Close, introducing you to the gifts of the Holy Spirit spoken of in the Bible.

Charismata is the plural form of the Greek word charis, meaning grace. Charismata are the visible effects of grace in word or deed, known more commonly to us as spiritual gifts.

Image: Stan Myers. Used with permission.

Much has been written about the subject of charismata, enough that one could devote quite possibly a lifetime to the reading of all of it in the pursuit of total understanding and grasp of exactly what gifts of the Spirit are, how they are used, whether they exist or not(if that understanding is actually possible).

There are many belief systems or theories existing today regarding Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

One theory, called cessation, states that spiritual gifts died with the apostles of Paul’s time (sometime around the end of the first century AD). It is believed that charismata existed to empower the budding Christian church, to ensure that through miraculous happenings people would be brought to a belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior and therefore the church would increase in numbers. Once the church was on it’s feet, so the theory goes, the gifts were no longer needed and therefore ceased. There are other cessation theories, but this seems to be the most popular.

However, this author takes the stance that the gifts of the Spirit are now and have always been present. No where does the Bible state that the gifts of the Spirit were to cease for the Church, not until Jesus comes again. There are historical accounts of the manifestation of charismata in the church through the ages. Most importantly, because I believe I have personally witnessed spiritual gifts in practice, I believe that they are alive and well in many churches today.

Having said that, the purpose of this article is to provide what I hope is a minimal education as to what spiritual gifts are and what they are not. The statements contained herein are derived from studying The Bible, literary resources, online articles and teachings in local churches.

The prophet Joel predicted, before Jesus walked the earth, that spiritual gifts would be made available to many. “It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions; And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28). No longer would the prophets and miracle workers be a small group of people.

So it happened at the first Pentecost after Jesus ascended to heaven that the prophecy was fulfilled. “They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:4)

Unapologetically Pentecostal, Atkinson, an ordained minister, presents Jesus through the eyes of a Pentecostal believer as well as through the eyes of a scholar (Edinburgh)—that is, as a theological historian he views Jesus in the “then and there,” while as a Pentecostal, he views Jesus in the “here and now” (1).

I have watched over a seven-year span (four books) as Atkinson has fine-tuned his writing skills. As I read Jesus Before Pentecost, though certainly scholarly, at times it was as if I was reading a devotional (as space permits, I will include such passages).

This latest book looks at the well-known Pentecostal pillars of Jesus as savior, healer, baptizer in the Spirit, and soon-coming King. He acknowledges the five-fold pattern which includes Jesus as sanctifier, but chooses to examine the four-square “rubric,” as that is the pattern of his own tradition (UK-based Elim Pentecostal Church). He accurately notes that this four-square gospel foundation of Pentecostalism exposes the “inaccurate criticism” that Pentecostals are Spirit-centered and give short shrift to Jesus.

It is Atkinson’s contention that “someone who looks at Jesus through Pentecostal eyes thereby gains helpful insight by means of that perspective” (7). If, as he believes, “what you see depends on where you are looking from” (40), this brings certain things to the foreground, such as the miraculous healing ministry of Jesus and his anointing of God’s Spirit.

Before delving into the attributes of Jesus under the four-square pattern, Atkinson defends the use of the Gospel of John as the primary source of truth about the historical Jesus. Atkinson wishes to draw his picture of Jesus from ancient eyes, so eyewitness testimony is paramount, especially what the witnesses say that Jesus said about himself.

William P. Atkinson

Atkinson carefully builds a case that supports the use of John. Given the evidence from John (19:25–26; 20:2–5), he concludes “It is a deep irony … that the fourth gospel appears as little more than a footnote in major studies of Jesus’ history” (16). In addition to the gospels and Paul, Atkinson also considers non-biblical sources such as Josephus, Quadratus, the Gospel of Thomas, and Q (as a body of oral tradition) (12ff., 34).

Savior. According to Atkinson, Pentecostalism directly assaults “pie in the sky” (my words) theology. “Salvation will not be presented in Pentecostal communities as only a hope for the life to come.” He follows with a discussion of enjoying “the benefits of God’s kingdom in their present lives” (47). Jesus is savior in many ways, for example, he saved people from the immediate threat of being drowned, he saved people from social estrangement, he saved people from physical hunger, and he saved people from God’s silence and from God’s absence (48–50). On a lighter note, “Jesus’ teaching effectively ‘saved’ listeners from the frustrations of listening to other teachers whose input seems to have smacked of hypercritical superficiality (Mark 1:22)” (50). More important, Jesus saved from Satanic bondage and divine judgment.

Jeff Oliver has taken on the ambitious task of chronicling the charismatic work of the Holy Spirit throughout church history. He has done this by writing a three volume book, Pentecost to the Present. He begins in volume one by writing about the activities of the Holy Spirit in the days of the apostolic church of the first century AD. By volume three his focus is the work of the Holy Spirit in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Because I am interested in the more recent history of the work of the Holy Spirit I began by reading volume three.

Volume three is divided into six sections: “Pentecost … Again (c. 1901-1910),” “The Pentecostal Movement (c. 1906-1945),” “The Healing Revival (c. 1946-1960),” “The Charismatic Renewal (c. 1951-1980),” “The Charismatic Explosion (c. 1971-2000),” and “Into the Twenty-First Century (2001 and Beyond).”

The majority of the first section “Pentecost … Again (c. 1901-1910)” focuses primarily on two people, Charles Parham and William Seymour, and one mission, the Azusa Street Mission. The text contains information about the events leading up to beginning of the Azusa Street Mission and some of the things that took place there. Two of the things mentioned about the mission were the flames of fire that appeared over the building and the healings that took place inside.

The second section “The Pentecostal Movement (c. 1906-1945)” deals with the spread of Pentecostalism after the Spirit fell at the Azusa Street Mission. Some of the countries that it spread to were Argentina, South Africa, and Russia. Prominent Pentecostal figures from this time period are also discussed: Smith Wigglesworth, F. F. Bosworth, and Aimee Semple McPherson.

The third section “The Healing Revival (c. 1945-1960)” focuses on the ministries of some of the key individuals who were used by God to bringing healing to many. William Branham, Oral Roberts Jack Coe, and A. A. Allen are mentioned in this section.

Section four “The Charismatic Renewal (c. 1951-1980)” deals with outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant churches. Some of the people God touched and used in a mighty way to spread the work of the Spirit in these churches are mentioned in this section: David Du Plessis, Harald Bredesen, Dennis Bennett, Oral Roberts, and Katherine Kuhlman. The parachurch ministry Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International, which was founded by Demos Shakarian, is also mentioned for its impact in spreading the Pentecostal message.

Section five “The Charismatic Explosion (c. 1971-2000)” includes information about a number of significant individuals and ministries that were active during this time period. In this section the author writes about the controversial Shepherding Movement, The Trinity Broadcasting Network, CBN, The 700 Club, the PTL Club, Pat Roberston, Jimmy Swaggart, the Word of Faith Movement, and the Prosperity Teaching among others.

“After the Holy Spirit is come upon you…” Acts 1:8

May 20, 2018 is Pentecost Sunday.

You’ve seen it before, an old house that goes through an extreme makeover—it is like a brand new home! The attraction is the compelling contrast between life before and life after.

Consider, then, the contrast between the Christian life before and the Christian life after the Holy Spirit comes upon you!

After for Christians:

• receive power, be witnesses (Acts 1:8)
• magnify God (Acts 10:46)
• live according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:5)
• put to death the deeds of the body (Rom. 8:13)
• receive gifts of the Spirit (I Cor. 12:4)
• walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16)
• be led by the Spirit (Gal. 5:18)

This is the Promise. The Gift is the Holy Spirit.

Embrace the Spirit this Pentecost weekend!

Pentecost is both a Christian and Jewish festival. For Jews it commemorates the giving of the Torah to Moses and the spring harvest. But on that day, celebrated on the 7th Sunday after Easter, as the disciples were gathered in prayer, the Holy Spirit came upon them, in what appeared to be flames of fire, and power came upon them to be Christ’s witnesses. This day is considered the birthday of the Church.