Ashcroft’s denomination growing around the world
By UWE SIEMON-NETTO, © 2000 United Press International, January 17, 2001
WASHINGTON – It’s never smart to belittle another man’s faith. To do so in John Ashcroft’s case, however, would mean ridiculing the second most powerful denomination in all of Christianity.
The attorney general-designate is a member of the Assemblies of God. In the United States, this is a relatively small denomination with an almost stagnating membership of 1.5 million. But, worldwide, the Assemblies have 40 million members and the denomination is growing so fast in Africa, Asia and Latin America that it has difficulty providing its new congregations with ministers.
In Brazil alone, the Assemblies have a sanctuary “in every neighborhood,” Southern Baptist missionary Danny Rollins told Christianity Today. Moreover, the Assemblies are the largest and most respected group within the world’s Pentecostal/charismatic movement.
According to David Barrett, president of the World Evangelization Research Center in Richmond, Va., the Pentecostal/charismatic movement has 523 million followers, nearly half as many as Roman Catholicism.
“It grows approximately three times faster than the world’s population,” Barrett told United Press International.
The Assemblies of God trace their origins to an episode at Charles Panham’s Bethel Bible College at Topeka, Kan., in 1901. There, a handful of students experienced an “outpouring of the Holy Spirit,” resembling an incident reported in the Bible’s Book of Acts: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4).
The Bible tells us that this event occurred on the 50th day (Greek: pentecoste) after Easter. The Christian Church has celebrated the feast of Pentecost as its birthday ever since.
“What distinguishes Pentecostals from other Christians is that they do not just believe in God, but actually experience him,” said Cheryl Bridges Johns, a seminary professor in Cleveland, Tenn.
“Outpourings of the Holy Spirit” and speaking in tongues incomprehensible to bystanders also have marked the phenomenal growth of Christianity in cultures totally unrelated to Western Christianity.
“One example is China, where we estimate some 90 million Christians of chiefly Pentecostal/charismatic persuasion in underground churches. In India, there are now well over 15 million. Many of the new Pentecostal Christians are former Hindus or Muslims, and no Western missionaries were involved,” Barrett said. “All of this happened within the last 20 years.”
Pentecostal conversions also are sweeping Japan, probably the most secularized nation in Asia. “Christianity is popular in Japan,” Barrett said. “There’s a Bible in virtually every home. But the Japanese do not like Christian churches, except for marriage ceremonies.”
“In America, Pentecostal Christianity has two theological roots,” Bridges Johns pointed out, “one is Methodist, the other Baptist. The Assemblies of God fall into the latter category.” Baptist theology by and large follows the Reformed tradition, stressing the kingship of Christ.
This became obvious in Ashcroft’s remarks at Bob Jones University on May 8, 1999, where he affirmed the slogan of the American Revolution, “We have no king but Jesus.” Linked to this emphasis on the kingship of Christ is what theologians call eschatological hope. It anticipates Jesus’ return to begin His reign, as promised in Revelation, the last book of the Bible. In varying degrees, Pentecostals preach that Christ’s second coming is imminent.
The emphasis on the second coming is particularly strong in the Third World, where the Pentecostal movement often is accused of “stealing souls” from other denominations, especially the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America. In South America, an estimated 8,000 Catholics leave their church each day to join Pentecostal groups. In Rio de Janeiro alone, an average of 40 Pentecostal churches open every week, according to Christianity Today.
And a “charismatic” form of worship is spreading in both Roman Catholicism and mainline Protestant denominations as well, which has facilitated an intensive dialogue with the Pentecostals.
The Vatican appears sanguine about this development. Cardinal Edward I. Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said, “Every church or ecclesial communion should have the right to accept into its membership those who in conscience decided they belong there … It is, after all, much more important that a person find salvation in Christ than that he or she belongs without conviction to any particular community.”
The contemporary Pentecostal movement originated in the United States, and that’s where it will celebrate its 100th birthday this year. From May 29-31, the 19th World Pentecostal Conference will assemble in Los Angeles. The hosts will be the Assemblies of God – John Ashcroft’s denomination.