Pentecostalism and the Early Church: on living distinctively from the world

Abstract

The Pentecostal movement is a primitivistic1 movement that perceives the early church as "its role model, in imitation of other movements like the Montanists, Radical Reformers, "Quakers, Pietists, Moravians, Wesleyans and Methodists, Zionists, and holiness" movement. It teaches that the early church differentiated itself from its social, cultural" and political Umwelt in order to live a holy life. The question is posed: To what extent "did the early, pre–Constantine church differentiate itself from the pagan world? The early" Christians attitude towards three aspects in Roman society is investigated in order to answer the question. These are: Roman political life with its Caesar–worship and the imperial cult; Roman economics and commerce with its guilds and systems of patrons "and clients, festivals and sacrifices, and slaves; and leisure and entertainment, with its" "games, gambling and meals, and sexuality. The conclusion is that early Christians ethics" led them to differentiate themselves from their surrounding world as a means for their "distinct faith to survive, and that Pentecostal groups may claim to use the early church" as a role–model of being in the world but not of the world (John 15:19; 17:14–18; 18:36). The last question is to what extent the Pentecostal movement is in effect and reality replicating the life style of the early church.