Pentecostals and Premillennialist Dispensationalism

Abstract

Early Pentecostals believed their experience of Spirit baptism represented the latter rain of prophecy that introduced Christ’s return. Therefore, their goal was to preach the Pentecostal gospel to all, expecting their success to hasten Christ’s return. They read the Bible through the lens of their charismatic experiences and left room for the Spirit, who inspired the Scriptures to explain its meaning. The next generations adopted a fundamentalist hermeneutical angle and included premillennialist dispensationalism to understand biblical prophecies. The doctrines of rapture, premillennialism, and a distinction between Israel and the church imply that the church belongs to the ‘parenthetical age’, indicating a delay in the prophetic timeline when Jews rejected Jesus. It took the emphasis away from the urgent need to evangelise the world, focusing on explaining the biblical ‘last events’ and setting timetables. It is argued that Pentecostals’ dispensationalism betrayed their unique ethos, values, and hermeneutical angle.