Pentecostalism

• Acts chapter 2 1st century CE

  The New Testament account of the first Pentecost, with wind, fire and disciples speaking in languages they had not learned. Pentecostals read this not as a one-time founding miracle but as the normal template for church life, which is the single interpretive move that creates the whole movement.

• 1 Corinthians 12-14 1st century CE

  Paul's list of spiritual gifts and his rules for using them in public: interpret the tongues, take turns, keep it orderly. It is both the charter for charismatic practice and the text critics inside the movement use to rein in excess.

• The Apostolic Faith newspaper 1906-1908

  Seymour's free newsletter from the Azusa Street mission, mailed to tens of thousands of readers worldwide. It is the reason a revival in a converted stable in Los Angeles became a global movement within about two years.

• c. 6–4 BCE – 30/33 CELife of Jesus of NazarethLife of Jesus, the central figure of Christianity, crucified in Roman Judea c. 30–33 CE.
• c. 30 CEJerusalem church formsAfter the crucifixion, apostles led by Peter and James form the nucleus of the earliest Christian community, initially a sect within Judaism practicing communal living.
• c. 46–60 CEPaul's missions and the Council of JerusalemPaul's journeys plant churches across Asia Minor and Greece; the first Christian council in Jerusalem opens the faith to Gentiles without full Jewish law observance.
• 64 CENero's persecutionAfter the Great Fire of Rome, Christians are scapegoated and brutally executed — the first imperial-level targeting of the new faith.
• c. 70 CEGospel of Mark writtenThe earliest gospel is composed; Matthew and Luke follow c. 80–90, John c. 90–100.
• 249–251 CEDecian persecutionFirst empire-wide persecution: edicts require all citizens to certify sacrifices to the gods and emperor, producing mass lapses, confiscations, and martyrdoms.
• 303–311 CEThe Great PersecutionDiocletian and Galerius demolish churches, burn scriptures, and demand universal sacrifice; its failure — capped by Galerius's 311 toleration edict — demonstrates Christianity's resilience.
• 313 CEEdict of MilanConstantine and Licinius decree religious toleration across the Roman Empire, legalizing Christianity.
• 325 CECouncil of NicaeaFirst ecumenical council establishes the Nicene Creed and fixes the date of Easter, defining orthodox Christology against Arianism.
• c. 350 CECodex SinaiticusOldest surviving complete Christian Bible, in Greek including the Septuagint.

Understand the fastest-growing religious movement of the last century from the inside out.

1. Module 1

   Azusa Street

   You know what actually happened in Los Angeles in 1906 and why an integrated prayer meeting was front-page scandal.

   Do: Read one page of the original Apostolic Faith newsletter and note what the writers were most excited about.

2. Module 2

   The Second Blessing

   You can explain baptism in the Holy Spirit as a distinct experience after conversion, and why that doctrine is the movement's engine.

   Do: Write down the difference between believing something and having experienced it, using an example from your own life.

3. Module 3

   Gifts and Their Critics

   You understand tongues, prophecy and healing as practitioners describe them, and you know the cessationist case against them.

   Do: Summarise the strongest argument on each side in fifty words, without cheating on either.

4. Module 4

   Authority for the Powerless

   You see why a theology of commanding rather than pleading spreads fastest among people with the least social power.

   Do: Identify one situation where you habitually ask permission, and script how you would state it instead.

5. Module 5

   Prosperity and Its Problems

   You can distinguish mainstream Pentecostalism from the prosperity gospel, and you know who criticises it hardest.

   Do: Find one critique of prosperity preaching written by a Pentecostal, not an outsider.

• Pentecost Sunday fifty days after Easter

  The movement's namesake feast, marking the descent of the Holy Spirit on the first disciples, often kept with all-day services and mass prayer for Spirit baptism.

• Watchnight service 31 December into 1 January

  An all-night service of praise, preaching and prayer that carries the congregation across midnight into the new year, near-universal in African and African-diaspora Pentecostal churches.

• Holy Ghost Congress December, annually

  The Redeemed Christian Church of God's week-long gathering at Redemption Camp near Lagos, one of the largest recurring religious assemblies on earth.

Pentecostalism hands spiritual authority to people with no education, no ordination and no social standing, and that is exactly why it has grown faster than any other Christian movement. Is unmediated access to divine power a genuine democratisation of religion, or a system with no brakes that produces a new celebrity pastor every year?