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Book Reviews / Pneuma 34 (2012) 95-159
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Matthew K. Thompson, Kingdom Come: Revisioning Pentecostal Eschatology. Journal of Pen- tecostal Theology Supplement Series 37 (Dorset, UK: Deo Publishing, 2010). ix + 175 pp., $29.95 paper.
Thompson revisions Pentecostal eschatology by offering an alternative to the marriage between Pentecostalism and Scofieldian dispensationalism. He traces the historical and theological roots of the two to argue for their incompatibility. Thompson’s goals are both to propose an eschatology which is more harmonious with Pentecostal distinctives and to pro- vide a more biblical portrait of God and his salvific purposes in the world. To accomplish this he leans heavily upon what he sees as a stream of continuity connecting Pentecostalism to both Wesleyan and Eastern Orthodox traditions. The book’s thesis is that Pentecostalism is a movement that is first and foremost fired by the eschatological imagination — an imag- ination which has lost its distinctive due to the ill-advised adoption and adaptation of Sco- fieldian dispensationalism. The themes of pneumatology, spiritual experience, process, and cosmic salvation drive his work.
Part one is a polemic historical analysis of the roots of Pentecostalism. Chapter one, “The Decent of the Latter Rain: The Rise of Pentecostalism,” details Pentecostal history through the lens of Wesleyan theology. Thompson’s premise is that Pentecostalism is the product of both experiential spirituality from oppressed peoples and of ancient streams of theological tradition mediated through Wesleyan thought and practice. Furthermore, Pentecostalism’s theological roots are actually in opposition to fundamentalism with its emphasis on biblical inerrancy and Scofieldian dispensationalism. Chapter two, “History Written in Advance: Classical Dispensationalism and the Eclipse of Biblical Eschatology in Popular Christianity,” deals with dispensationalism by pointing out its fallacies in regard to hermeneutics, theol- ogy, and ethics. The argument is both that modern dispensationalism only vaguely has pre- cedence in Church history and that it’s hermeneutic is completely novel to Christianity. The final chapter in part one, “Strange Bedfellows: An Analysis and Critique of the Pentecostal Adoption and Adaptation of Scofieldian Dispensationalism,” traces the relationship of Pen- tecostalism with dispensationalism through fundamentalism, concluding that fundamen- talist dispensationalism has caused Pentecostals to surrender their vibrant eschatological impetus for mission, generated theological confusion, and hamstrung social activism and Spirit baptism with evidential glossolalia. What is needed is a revisioning of Pentecostal eschatology that remains true to original Pentecostalism and the Bible.
Part two examines key figures in Christian history as partners in recovering a pneumato- logical eschatology. Chapter four, “Faith of Our Fathers: The Trinitarian Pneumatology of Gregory of Nazianzus,” proffers a pneumatological view of the eschaton. Thompson uses Gregory’s doctrine of the full divinity and soteriological work of the Spirit in preserving, redeeming, and deifying the cosmos. A Pentecostal eschatology built upon the Wesleyan via salutis appears in chapter five, “The Way of Salvation: John Wesley and John Fletcher on Full Salvation.” This is justified based on the primacy of the Wesleyan role in the historical devel- opment of Pentecostalism. Chapter six, “The End is the New Beginning: Contemporary Voices, East and West,” explicates Thompson’s eschatological/pneumatological soteriology through the proposals of Jürgen Moltmann and Sergius Bulgakov. The filioque is rejected
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2012 DOI: 10.1163/157007412X621761
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Book Reviews / Pneuma 34 (2012) 95-159
and the Spirit is affirmed as proceeding only from the Father. Eschatologically, the Spirit is given a place of primacy for the redemption of all things.
Part three contains Thompson’s constructive thinking in which he proposes a pneuma- centric cosmic soteriological eschatology using the Pentecostal ‘Full Gospel’ as a method- ological template. Chapter seven, “The Second Coming of Word and Spirit: The Parousia in Pneumatological Perspective,” offers a basic outline of a pneumatological eschatology and soteriology, including discussions of the nature of time, dispensations, process salvation, parousia, and the millennium. Chapter eight, “The Power and the Glory: The Cosmic Pente- cost and the Entire Sanctification of the Universe,” deals with the consequences of eschato- logical/pneumatological soteriology. Thompson’s belief is that Spirit baptism and the symbol of glossolalia are eschatological pointers toward a cosmic indwelling of the Spirit in which the cosmos will experience entire sanctification. The final chapter, “Heaven is a Place on Earth: The Final Healing and Justification of the Cosmos,” discusses the ultimate healing, justification, and deification of the cosmos by the Spirit. Judgment is a form of non-existence which is reserved for those who reject God. The logic is that God must be all in all, and thus hell must be outside of all reality.
The strength of Thompson’s work is that he is able to recognize both the importance of eschatology in Pentecostal identity and the disastrous marriage between Pentecostalism and dispensationalism. In addition, the structure of the work clearly explicates Thompson’s thesis. This volume is helpful for understanding the current ferment over the “revisioning” of Pentecostal eschatology, and I cautiously recommend it to those interested in these issues. The weaknesses of Thompson’s work are that he often fails to recognize the difference between baptistic Pentecostals and Wesleyan Pentecostals, writing as if all Pentecostals were Wesleyans when they are not. Further, his dependence on Moltmann and Eastern Orthodoxy, while claiming their historical and biblical superiority, overlooks that their more positive views of the eschaton are at best marginal within the Christian tradition. Thompson also often claims scriptural superiority without dialoging with the biblical text. For instance, he could have taken more time to clarify where in the Bible’s apocalyptic texts are found such a positive view of the eschaton, a pneumacentric culmination of all things, or hell as the cessation of existence in reality. In addition, while it is accurate to speak of the process required in salvation when speaking of holiness, Thompson seems to completely ignore the reality of the forensic nature of salvation. Finally, he seems to dichotomize the Spirit from Christ especially in adopting Moltmann’s version of denying the filioque. Ironically, he accuses others of being Christomonistic while at the same time he appears to promote a Spirit- or pneumato-monism. Surely Thompson would agree that there is no Spirit without Christ and that biblical eschatology is vehemently Christocentric.
Reviewed by Jeremy S. Crenshaw PhD Student
Regent University, Virginia Beach, Virginia [email protected]
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