Faith, Hope, Love, And The Eschaton

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Faith, Hope, Love, 1 and the Eschaton In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. John 14:23 (NRSV) And he … said unto them, “Occupy till I come.” ments with eschatological to Pentecostal the movement come. They son’s famous many early Pentecostals restoration movement important part Luke 19:13(b) (AV) Movement, the promise of as a harbinger of things to Millenarianism Indeed, from the time fest Destiny” millennial expectations From the earliest days of the Pentecostal the return of Christ has played a very significant role. The movement came into being in the midst of a complex confluence of several move- overtones. Restorationism contributed greatly self-understanding. Participants viewed themselves and in which they participated were the “Latter Rain” Movement. Aimee Semple McPher- sermon “Lost and Restored” epitomized the conviction of who viewed the Movement as a Holy Spirit for the whole Church. Primitivism, too, played an in the lives of many restorationist Pentecostals. They searched the Book of Acts, and attempted to participate in the restoration of the Church by bringing their lives further into conformity to the life and teachings they understood to be revealed there. played a role in this rich confluence of ideas as well. the idea arose that the United States had a “Mani- within the country had reached a on the continent, military inter- feverish pitch. Westward expansionism vention abroad, and the rise of the country as an economic power gave a national optimism that tended to raise millennial expectations. Post-millennialism was in its heyday, even among many Wesleyan- way to Holiness people. In the midst of the optimism movement from darkness to dawning movement expectations, stopped singing and the Post-millennial many people in the Wesleyan-Holiness “We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations” with its chorus that spoke of the to noonday and began to sing “Work for the Night is Coming.” They were, brightness, it seemed, already in “Evening Light.” Optimism, after all, was not shared by everyone. Inherent in the millennial expectation was the pessimism or realism of those who, in spite of the rhetoric, did not see things improving. What was increased alienation, estrangement, turmoil, even despair. Theirs was a view of life from the underside and many of them came to of Christ. Premillennialists were not convinced that the world was getting better. On the contrary, the Church they saw believe in a Pre-millennial return 1 2 had always provided the last safe place in a world rapidly sliding to destruction. Now it, too, was in a state of rapid deterioration. Higher critical methodologies were making headway in the seminaries and the pulpit, the social gospel was being adopted, the seeds of liberalism were being sown, and it seemed that the very underpinnings of the conserva- tive safety of Biblical literalism were being undermined. There was no room for optimism without the hope of Divine intervention first. With the return of Christ, peace, the end of alienation and despair, and the beginning of the millennial kingdom would come. As William J. Seymour noted in brief expository homily (“Rebecca: Type of the Bride of Christ-Gen. 24,” The Apostolic Faith [Los Angeles, CA] 1.6 [Feb./Mar., 1907], 2.3-4), “Now we are living in the eventide of this dispensation, when the Holy Spirit is leading us, Christ’s bride, to meet Him in the clouds.” It was only after the bride of Christ had been taken by the bridegroom that, “We shall be priests and kings unto God, reigning with Him a thousand years.” (“Behold the Bridegroom Cometh!” The Apostolic Faith [Los Angeles, CA] 1.5 [Jan., 1907], 2.1-2). Pre-millennialism, and John Nelson Darby’s dis- pensationalism, popularized and brought into a wide range of churches at the turn of the century through Prophecy conferences and the notes in C. I. Scofield’s Reference Bible, had a strong effect upon early Pente- costals. Pentecostal periodicals lavishly advertised the “Scofield” Bible with its Dispensational features, simply because it provided the eschato- logical scheme which they wanted to see proliferated. In spite of its dismissal of modem day charisms such as speaking in tongues, it was often used as the sole or primary text in Pentecostal Bible schools. Charles Parham’s heavy involvement in Zionism, another of the con- fluents, contributed substantially to some restorationist expectations. The return of the Jews to Palestine through the efforts of the inter- national Zionist movement, he argued, stood for both the spiritual and temporal welfare of the Jews. “May God hasten the day when this awful prejudice between Jew and Gentile shall cease, when Messiah shall reign and earth keep her jubilee a thousand years,” he went on, with “the sword a shear, the spear a pruning hook and nations shall have war no more.” (“Rev. Parham’s Zionist Talk,” The Apostolic Faith [Melrose, KS] 1:5 and 6 (October-November, 1905), 9. Parham’s commitment to Zionism was shared by Aimee Semple McPherson in the 1920s and may suggest why Pentecostals are among the leading proponents of Zionism among the conservative churches of the United States even now. [Cf. Ken Sidley, “For the Love of Zion,” Christianity Today 36:3 (March 9, 1992), 47]. All of these confluent “isms,” when taken together, add up to a sub- stantial commitment by Pentecostals to a clear and convincing articula- tion of a doctrine of the Second Coming. In most Pentecostal groups it is a highly nuanced doctrine. In one sense it is a simple declaration that Christ’s return is imminent. In another sense it is very complex. It is . . 2 3 imminent, but not dateable. It is imminent, so one cannot look for cer- tain events which must occur before it happens. It is imminent, therefore it must be pre-millennial. It must be articulated as such to avoid the many errors of amillennialism (a sort of spiritualized approach), or post- millennialism which is viewed as being too optimistic in its anthropol- ogy. Its imminence, too, means that it must be pre-tribulational, not mid-tribulational or post-tribulational. It is, after all, a blessed hope that not only will Christ gather all believers before things go bad for a period of tribulation, but it is a blessed hope that Christians will not have to suffer such a devastation. The Second Coming is a cardinal article of faith for all Pentecostals. And rightly should it be. It has provided enormous hope, especially to those who have been oppressed, marginalized, and excluded from places and positions of influence and power in society around the world. It has played a significant role from African-American slave religion to worldwide Pentecostalism. This hope has helped people to cope and survive in extremely stressful situations. It has long motivated Pentecostals to action, action not only on behalf of themselves but also on behalf of others. Pentecostal teaching on the Second Coming, however, has not been merely a blessed hope. It has also served the personal interests of some as a not so blessed hammer. The thought of an imminent return of the Lord has threatened some. Others have used it to manipulate crowds at the time of altar calls, to scare individuals into making a decision. Creative prophetic schemes, charts which identify probable Anti-Christ figures, science-fiction-like films depicting the rapture, and prolonged and agonizing altar calls designed to induce guilt, fear, and anxiety, especially among these with low self-esteem and personal insecurities, have been used very effectively by some to raise the “commitments” count in annual reports. But in spite of the misuse to which some have put this doctrine, it has kept ever before the movement the idea of per- sonal holiness, perspicuity of life, and it has even acted as an aid in de- cision making. It represents the possibility of immediate accountability. The prospect of an imminent Second Coming has motivated still others to beauty-filled acts of love for the Lord and for other people. Love anticipates obedience, Jesus told the disciples (John 14:23). Love also does not seek its own, as Paul put it (1 Cor. 13:5). It moves out to others. It is not inwardly directed. The return of the Lord is a hope to be, shared. The teaching that it is imminent can heighten the hope, but sometimes it can also truncate the acts of love accomplished in its light. The artificial distinction between the work of evangelism and acts of social justice may be one place where this is most clearly seen. On the whole, Pentecostals have seen the work of evangelism in light of the immanent return of Christ as an act of love. Works of social justice, however, have often been viewed as a waste of time, as an unwelcome competitor for the limited commodities of time, energy, and money . 3 4 which Pentecostal believers possess. And, after all, even Jesus noted that the poor would ever be present (Matt. 26:11). Thus, for some, the idea of an imminent blessed hope has enabled them to respond to the calls for greater love in the social arena, with a denial that such acts in the end would be viewed as loving. They would merely prolong the problem, provide false hope, and detract from the personal assets of those called upon to give. At times it has supported a selfish lifestyle by providing a reason why it is unimportant to be socially involved. This world, after all, is a lost cause, socially speaking. The Pentecostal Movement is now nearing its centennial mark. A new century and a new millennium are in the offing. Many of our groups have designated the current decade as one of harvest or of destiny or of evangelization. But other factors are also at work among our people. No longer are we all poor, uneducated, rural, southern, or marginalized. Some of our people are no longer motivated by the promise of Christ’s s return within their lifetime. Some of them have even begun to question whether our teaching on the subject is adequate. We are much like the people addressed in the book of Hebrews or in Luke-Acts, a generation of people in a movement whose initial hopes and expectations are being questioned as a result of the continuing passage of time. The reality that many of our people have been upwardly mobile educationally, economi- cally, and socially only compounds the crisis. In this issue of Pneuma, James Goff reviews the role which primi- tivism and millenarianism have played for Pentecostals. It is profound. The change of the social location of the movement as a whole, he sug- gests, undercuts our original vision. Robert Cornwall focuses upon Aimee Semple McPherson’s articulation of that vision as well, a vision which found its clearest expression in her dispensational, primitivist, restorationist eschatology. As we move toward the culmination of this century, it is not too early to ask whether our understanding and articu- lation of this hope is adequate to meet the challenges of a new millen- nium, one in which our society will become increasingly secularized, our place in it will come increasingly marginalized or relativized as pluralism moves to center stage, and our government attempts to meet its debts with ever declining resources, at our expense. What, now, moti- vates our people to holiness in life, to evangelistic and missionary commitment, to acts of love in word and in deed? How do we keep the Blessed hope alive apart from imposing it as a hammer, or making it something macabre, or titillating the worst in peoples’ fascinations? How can we best articulate this doctrine in such a way that it serves as a motivation based not solely on hope, or faith, but also on love? Jeffrey Snell re-examines for us the Spirit’s eschatological work, the work of carrying out or implementing the marvelous work of the atone- ment accomplished in Jesus. Clearly, Pentecostals are comfortable with the missionary activity of the Spirit in the world and we have invested ourselves heavily in this work. But Snell argues that new, non-tradi- 4 5 tional ministries might emerge were we to take another serious look at the Spirit’s role, not only in convincing the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, but also in the bestowal of power and charisms to carry out a broader eschatological ministry than we have seen to date. To focus our attention on some of the Spirit’s other gifts may enable us to participate in the Spirit’s work of renewal throughout the world in new, valuable, and energizing ways that also point toward Christ. Charles Self looks carefully at the strengths and weaknesses of certain Roman Catholic ecclesial base communities in Latin America. He argues that they have much in common, both spiritually and politically. “Can we raise hope through cooperative efforts?” he asks. The subject of hope is a high priority item among many Pentecostal groups in Latin America. “Hope,” Self suggests, “is faith looking ahead.” What might the Society for Pentecostal Studies bring to such a discussion? What might the Society do to aid greater cooperation in our Movement? One thing that is needed, argues Luis Fontalvo, is unity. We need unity until Christ returns, he says. His experiment in a Hispanic-Anglo-Franco context is worth review. There may be some important lessons to be learned about hope, the essentials of life and faith, about community, and about ministry from this fascinating experiment. Finally, Jim Purves looks at one small aspect of Edward Irving’s work. Irving, founder of the Catholic Apostolic Church in the early nineteenth century, is viewed by many as a genuine predecessor to the Pentecostal movement. Irving’s christology was problematic for many in his day but, Purves argues, the interaction of his christology and pneumatology in the area of soteriology lead to some interesting and worthwhile results. Furthermore, Irving’s emphasis upon ecclesiology instead of anthropology suggests that the emphasis has implications which point toward the value of the community over against that of the individual. Each of our authors, then, has worked with an eschatological theme. It is a matter of faith, to be sure. It is also an object of hope. In what way can we demonstrate more forcefully its relationship to love? Faith and hope may provide us with security, but love casts out fear and it alone will move us to action. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. ‘ 1 Cor. 13:13 (NRSV) Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. Editor 5