Towards A Pentecostal Eschatology

Growing out of the need to articulate an eschatology that is consistent with the theological beliefs, spiritual experience, and hermeneutical insights of the Pentecostal movement, this volume applies an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, integrating historical, biblical, and theological studies. After providing a comprehensive review of the current state of Pentecostal eschatology, the study explores the periodical literature of the earliest years of the movement, understanding this period to be the heart or originating source of the tradition. Drawing upon insights gained from this exploration, the boundaries for discerning a contemporary Pentecostal eschatology are established and a constructive, biblical-theological contribution to this subject is offered, focused upon a fresh reading of Revelation 21–22 and framed around the narrative testimony of the fivefold gospel that emerges from the heart of the tradition.

Growing out of the need to articulate an eschatology that is consistent with the theological beliefs, spiritual experience, and hermeneutical insights of the Pentecostal movement, Toward a Pentecostal Eschatology applies an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, integrating historical, biblical, and theological studies. After providing a comprehensive review of the current state of Pentecostal eschatology, the study explores the periodical literature of the earliest years of the movement, understanding this period to be the heart or originating source of the tradition. Drawing upon insights gained from this exploration, the boundaries for discerning a contemporary Pentecostal eschatology are established and a constructive, biblical-theological contribution to this subject is offered, focused upon a fresh reading of Revelation 21-22 and framed around the narrative testimony of the fivefold gospel that emerges from the heart of the tradition.

This collection of essays from established scholars and rising stars offers fresh perspectives in eschatology for the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. The fresh readings of eschatology in this volume are valuable because they demonstrate that Pentecostals no longer need to look to others to interpret their theology for them but can stand as scholars and thinkers in their own right.

In his Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom (1993), theologian Steven J. Land issued a clarion call for Pentecostal theologians to reconsider eschatology outside the categories of premillennial dispensationalism. Kingdom Come: Revisioning Pentecostal Eschatology is Matthew Thompson’s constructive answer to Land’s invitation. Thompson persuasively argues that Pentecostalism’s adoption of premillennial dispensationalism as a hermeneutic, as a philosophy of history and as an eschatology robs the movement of the potential for dynamic growth and of profound experiences of the power of the Holy Spirit. Thompson concludes his account with an engagement of the eschatologies of John Fletcher, Jürgen Moltmann and Sergius Bulgakov in order to construct what he terms a genuinely Pentecostal eschatology formulated thematically through the lens of the five-fold Pentecostal Full Gospel.

How did Pentecostalism become the fastest growing movement within Christendom in the twentieth century? Faupel contends that Pentecostalism was propelled onto the world stage when early adherents felt commissioned by God to announce that Christ would soon return to establish his kingdom on earth. The gift of tongues would equip them supernaturally to proclaim this message to the nations in the language of the people. Although this expectation was soon disproved, the eschatological hope nevertheless remained the motivating force for Pentecostalism’s rapid growth. This book has been prescribed reading on the Pentecostal hope for many years. This edition makes it available once again to a worldwide readership.

The Pentecostalisation of African Christianity has been called the “African Reformation” of the past thirty years. African Pentecostalism is a diverse movement characterised by its emphases on Spirit baptism, divine healing, charismatic worship and eschatological expectations. This work investigates its eschatological systems in terms of its unrealised expectation of the second coming of Christ, and suggestions are presented for the movement to keep its eschatology at the heart of its impetus. This is accomplished through a hermeneutical awareness of the distinctiveness of Pentecostalism as a restorationist movement. Written for pastors, church leaders and believers, this book discusses the literalistic way of reading the Bible in most of the classical Pentecostal components of African Pentecostalism, supporting their premillennialist and even dispensational eschatological views. It suggests a new Pentecostal hermeneutics developed by scholarship in the past forty years, in line with significant elements of the way in which early Pentecostals read the Bible. This new hermeneutical awareness implies new and exciting ways of thinking about eschatology that will enrich and enlighten African Pentecostalism in its hope for the second coming of Christ.

Early Pentecostals proclaimed the restoration of the charismatic gifts as a sign of the imminent coming of Christ. This eschatology was later marginalized by the rise of fundamentalist dispensationalism. Today Pentecostal eschatology is being revised to include a more transformative view of the kingdom. This boook proposes a further revision of Pentecostal eschatology created to recover prophetic elements of early Pentecostalism that invite a responsible social engagement in the world, and to overcome fundamentalist assumptions which have crept into Pentecostal theology in its middle years. To this end, the eschatological thought of selected Pentecostal theologians is placed in dialogue with Jurgen Moltmann. This dialogue critiques fundamentalist tendencies within contemporary Pentecostalism by advocating a theology more open to history and creation, and a Pentecostal ethic both personal and social in scope.

Many have grown tired of confusing interpretations of the book of Revelation which feature end-time scenarios that either miss the mark or appear largely irrelevant to their lives. A fresh approach is needed if we are to recapture the vitality of John’s message and receive its desperately needed truths. The End of History offers precisely this, with its call for Pentecostals in general and the Assemblies of God in particular to reassess doctrinal statements rooted in a dispensational premillennial perspective. In their place, Menzies offers eight eschatological essentials—all of which flow from a careful reading of the Apocalypse—that call us to face the future with purpose and hope.