Fast facts
- Began
- Evangelicalism from the 18th-century revivals; Pentecostalism from the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles, 1906
- Founder / origin
- No single founder; John Wesley and George Whitefield shaped the revival tradition, William J. Seymour led Azusa Street
- Followers
- Roughly 600 million counting Pentecostal and charismatic Christians across denominations
- Figure from
- Pew Research Center, Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals, and later global estimates
- Where
- Sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil and Latin America, the United States, Nigeria, South Korea, the Philippines
- Scriptures
- 66-book Bible, usually held to be inerrant
- View of God
- , with strong emphasis on the active work of the Holy Spirit
Core emphases
- A personal born-again conversion experience, and a date you can name
- Biblical inerrancy — the Bible is without error in all it affirms
- Assurance of salvation: 'I know I am saved'
- Active evangelism as a duty for every believer, not only clergy
- Pentecostals add the baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, prophecy and healing
- Some, though not all, teach a prosperity gospel — that faith brings wealth and health; this is widely criticised within Christianity itself
Why it grows
Worship is emotional, musical and participatory; churches are locally led and multiply quickly; and the message is simple and portable. In Nigeria, Brazil, Kenya and Guatemala these churches have reshaped the religious map within two generations.
The Islamic view
Where it meets Islam, and where it differs
Common ground
- Conviction that religion is a whole way of life and must be shared, not kept private.
- Belief in miracles, in unseen spiritual reality, in angels and in the devil as real.
- Moral seriousness about alcohol, sex outside marriage and gambling in many of these churches.
- They will respect a Muslim who knows their book and speaks with conviction, far more than one who is vague.
Where Islam differs
- Assurance of salvation by a single moment of belief. Islam teaches hope balanced with fear, and a life of deeds between them.
- Inerrancy of a text with well-documented — a claim their own scholars qualify heavily.
- The prosperity gospel has no Islamic parallel; the Prophet's (SAW) own household lived simply.
- , and , as with all Christians.
Talking points
- Expect to be evangelised. Let them speak first and finish; you earn your turn.
- Ask what it would mean if the God who is one has always been one — before any . Keep it on the oneness of God, which is where you are strongest.
- On inerrancy, do not attack the Bible broadly; ask about one specific thing, such as the ending of Mark (16:9–20), which most study Bibles footnote as absent from the earliest manuscripts.
- Their belief in miracles is an opening for the miracle of the Qur'an — a challenge left standing for 1,400 years.
Avoid
- Do not get pulled into shouting matches or crowd debates. wins onlookers; volume does not.
- Do not mock speaking in tongues or emotional worship.
Sources
- Pew Research Center, Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals (2006)
- Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament, on Mark 16:9–20
- Bible: Mark 16:9–20 and standard critical apparatus
- Qur'an 2:23; 17:88
This overview describes the tradition as its own followers describe it. The Islamic view is kept in its own section above so the description stays honest.
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