Perpetuating pentecost

Front matter

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Foreword

THE KING JAMES VERSION OF PENTECOST

PART ONE I . DESCRIBING PENTECOST . 9 II . WHY THE TRUTH EVADES US . 23 Ill . THE TRYST WITH THE GIFT . 41 IV . THE KOINONIA . 56 V . PERSONAL RESULTS . 68

VI . SHALL PENTECOST BE PERPETUATED? . 84

PART TWO VII . PENTECOST AND PREACHING . 105 VIII . PENTECOST AND WORLD EVANGELISM . 132 IX . PENTECOST AND PROPERTY . 145 X . PENTECOST AND ETHICS . 159 XI . PENTECOST AND PROTESTANTISM . 176

XII . PENTECOST IN PROTESTANTISM . 192 i i i ES i a a i i i i a a

Foreword

HE churches are urging the more constant and vital observance of Whitsuntide. Their hope is, of course, that celebrations of Pentecost will result in recurrences of the pentecostal. In Protestantism, the conviction is frequently expressed that Christianity will not advance as it should unless Pentecosts are prevalent. There is a feeling that the church does not give enough attention to the presence, power and purpose of the Spirit. With the shock of a revelation it has come home to many that God is not withholding Pentecosts, but that we are withstanding them. They are asking if we had not better do something about it, and that right soon!

It is my belief that the first thing in order is a frank facing of the whole truth about Pentecost. I shall be happy-if this book may prove of some service in that direction.

I wish to express my gratitude to Bishop Herbert Welch, chairman of the Commission on Evangelism for the Methodist Episcopal Church, for reading the manuscript and making valuable suggestions.

JoHN M. VERSTEEG SOUTH AVENUE CHURCH, WILKINSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

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The King Fames Version of Pentecost

THE PROLOGUE

Jesus . . . being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me: for John truly baptized you with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. . . . Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.

These all continued, with one accord, in prayer and supplication.

THE STORY OF PENTECOST

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them: And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

And there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed, and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontius and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphilia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another: What meaneth this? Others, mocking, said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out, in those days, of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in the heavens above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor

The King Fames Version of Pentecost 3 of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the - moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved. Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him, in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pangs of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face; for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved; Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover, also, my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? ‘Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

A BIT OF THE HISTORY OF PENTECOST

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. And daily, in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus. . .

The King Fames Version of Pentecost 5

Then there arose certain of the synagogue... disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. Then they suborned men, and stirred up the people . . . and came upon him ... and brought him to the council, and set up false witnesses. .. .

And Saul was consenting unto his death... .

He made havoc with the church... .

Therefore they that were scattered abroad, went everywhere preaching the gospel... . And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto . . . Damascus to the synagogues, that, if he found any of this way ...he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. . . . And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus; and suddenly . . . he heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?... I am Jesus! ... And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise . . . and it shall be told thee... .

And there was a certain disciple named Ananias .. . who putting his hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus . . . hath sent me that thou mightest .. . be filled with the Holy Ghost.... And straightway he preached Christ.

Chapter I Describing Pentecost I

() PINIONS differ about Pentecost. One great denomination has this to say: ‘‘ We believe that Pentecost is not merely an event in time but an ever recurring fact in the present. .. . Our lack of emphasis upon the essential work of the Spirit has often resulted in people turning to spurious pentecostalism which has ended in disruption and disappointment. Their cravings for a fuller and more victorious life were right. Often, we have not given it to them, so they have turned to those outside. ‘They should have been fed within. ... Let us give ourselves to thinking about and seeking for the unused resources of Pentecost.” * This is one way of saying that we need Pentecost today.

1 General Conference Report of Methodist Episcopal Church, May, 1928.

But others feel differently. Not long ago, a brilliant Congregational preacher was discussing Pentecost at a theological school. He stated his feelings frankly: “These phenomena were not normal. Not only have similar upheavals been exceptional in the subsequent history of the church — though we doubt not but that the Holy Spirit is ever operative among faithful Christians — but also, when disturbances and excitements in a general way parallel have occurred, it has been in the main among persons of unstable nervous organization, like the earnest but untutored men and women of the lower orders who were in the majority among the primitive adherents of the gospel at Jerusalem. And psychologists have shown, with sufficient cogency to convince most men of open mind, that such phenomena are psychopathic. However salutary their effects may be in some isolated instances, they are in origin visceral rather than divine.” *

Here are two utterances, from equally Christian sources. According to the one, we had best be eager for Pentecost; according to the other, we had best be wary of it. To say that the one stresses the desirable and the other the undesirable ele-

2 Russell Henry Stafford, “The Spiritual Aspect of

Preaching,” Effective Preaching (The Abingdon Press). Reprinted by permission.

Describing Pentecost II

_ ments in Pentecost is but to intensify the question. Should Pentecost be viewed with suspicion? Is Pentecost something upon which we dare not entirely rely? Shall we search for improvements on it, or superior substitutes for it? Are we to seek the Spirit apart from Pentecost or in it?

It

Let us be sure that we are agreed as to what we are talking about. The Pentecost here discussed is the one recorded in Acts. Pentecost itself was of ancient standing. It came fifty days after Passover, and was the second of three Mosaic feasts. At first, it was the Farmers’ festival of the First Fruits. Later Pentecost also came to signify Sinai. On this day, the Decalogue was read in the congregations, and following that, the sons pledged anew the vows the fathers had made before them. What had been a sort of commencement day for the natural crop now became a memorial day to the Law of the Lord. Reform Judaism has gone a step further. It utilizes this day for the yet more glorious and noble purpose of confirming children. With this trinity of meanings comes this day to the modern Jew.

But it is only by dint of mental effort, or with the aid of a commentary or an encyclopedia, that Christians recall the three meanings the day has for their Jewish friends. So overwhelming a content has this Christian event put into Pentecost, that for us the fourth meaning is the first. Browning pointed out that man, on occasion, and God, without limit, ‘‘ out of three sounds ” can frame, “not a fourth sound, but a star.’”’? Something like this has happened to Pentecost. For all the other meanings, there is just one for Christians. This meaning inheres in the events of which so stately a record is preserved to us in the King James version of the Book of Acts.

Yet we scarcely do Pentecost justice when we speak so much in terms of the day of Pentecost. The Pentecost that had Peter at its center had Paul at its circumference. And then, so far from being spent, the circle of its influence widened. It has touched the centuries. It touches us today. It will touch others tomorrow. There is something perennial about Pentecost. And there is something cumulative about it:

“The outward hath gone, but in glory and power The Spirit surviveth the things of an hour. Unchanged, undecaying, its Pentecost flame On the heart’s secret altar is burning the same.”’

There is a sense in which those who ask for a new Pentecost look for something that is already here. The Spirit of Pentecost always was, and always will be the Spirit of God, “unchanged, unchangeable, universal.

But the day of Pentecost was unique. There is much more to be said about it, but this much may be said at the start: Pentecost was the day when the universal operation of the Spirit of Christ was revealed to his followers. Whether this revelation came in an orderly or disorderly fashion, or with a mixture of both, needs to be considered too. But this much, at least, we may posit. And the era of Pentecost, assumed if not expressed by many of us when we speak of the day of Pentecost, was the period in which the direct results of this revelation were pre-eminently manifest. It is this historic contact with Eternal Energy, experienced on that day and expressed in that era, to which we purpose to allude when we speak of Pentecost in these pages. In point of time, this covers roughly the period from the day of Pentecost to the death of Paul.

In examining the story of Pentecost, we must not permit discussions as to authorship to influence unduly our decisions as to authenticity. The “ wesections’ of Acts, not to mention minor items, have caused considerable doubt as to whether the book came from the quill of Luke. Nevertheless, the preponderant verdict of the scholars to date sustains the belief that the man who wrote the Third Gospel also wrote this account. Just about everybody is agreed, however, that as we have Acts, it is of later issue than Paul’s epistles. Luke’s thought-forms were unquestionably more Hellenistic than those of the cosmopolitan Paul. He had far more relish for the unusual and ecstatic. But this fact no more nullifies his ability to report the truth about Pentecost than Paul’s quaint psychology, now long discarded, destroyed his ability to express the truth as it is in Christ — and, except in minor details, present-day studies of Paul almost unanimously give him a clean slate on this score. A man’s views may color his story, but they need not necessarily discredit it. There must be more convincing evidence than that Luke regarded certain facts in a different light than we do nowadays, before we have the right to throw him out of court.

Still, it should be confessed that the details furnished by Luke are not overly clear. From start to finish, one runs into snags. Consider that second chapter. One reads of a group of people, as to the size of which we are left in the dark. There may have been a hundred and twenty, or there may have been twelve. Students generally incline toward the former figure. But no one can tell for sure. The actual attendance is unknown. Pursuant to instructions, these people had for some time been meeting in an upper room. Some think it was a room in the temple; others hold it was a private house. A case can be made out for either. Then at Pentecost they were all together with one accord in one place; which place, no one knows. Neither do we know what was the theme for their thought while they were together. Perhaps they had been discussing the impending holiday. Multitudes were coming to town, or by this time were in it. What a chance to tell the good news! Maybe they spoke of that. We do not know!

Then something happened! But just what that was, no one is able to detail. The Hazzan in his synagogue school had doubtless taught them as children to think of the Spirit of God in terms of wind and fire. He had come by that from the Hebrew seers and bards. What is more natural, therefore, than that these terms should have rushed to mind when the great event took place? Yet all we know from Luke is that there appeared to them to be physical accompaniments to the spiritual revelation.

Nor does subsequent spiritual history shed further light. George Fox, for example, records in his “ Journal ” a visit to a town “‘ where was a company of professors (believers) and people; here I was moved to pray; and the Lord’s power was so great that the house seemed to be shaken. When I had done, some of the professors said it was now as in the days of the apostles, when the house was shaken where they were.” If one could come upon an instance where a similar impression was made, and a reliable report of precisely what happened was available, we should have something sure to go by. Yet nowhere do you really light upon the facts. You merely find that mystics have always seen the physical expressive of and subservient to the spiritual.

About all we can be sure of from Luke is that the disciples did not, like the Greeks and others, resort to stimulants to induce a sense of the divine. These early Christians did not attribute the Presence to the phenomenal. They attributed the phenomenal to the Presence: “‘ He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.”

Nor does anyone know what Luke had in mind when he wrote that they “began to speak with other tongues.” Most of us have simply allegorized that statement. We have made it say what we wished it to. It has done service to “ prove”’ that religion translates its witness into other tongues; that the Bible society is pentecostal (as indeed it is! ); that religion must forever adapt its vocabulary to changing needs; that it must avail itself of the press, the phonograph, the radio, the talkie. |

The one thing we dislike to concede is that glossolalia may have been a part of Pentecost! This is not to be wondered at, for glossolalia, so far as we are able to make out, has served evil more than God. Still, in all fairness, there are some things to be said for glossolalia, much as those of us who have seen the mentality and ethics of those latterly given to it, dislike to say them. It registers, or may register, impatience with the ordinary processes of speech; it may indicate the conviction, on the part of those who use it, of the futility of relying on the mechanism of speech to express what to them is most real.

Furthermore, a group may entertain feelings no one of its members alone can hope to express. All of us most of the time are elemental. Talk all we will of our brains, emotion predominates. Now, under great emotion, speech runs to extremes; it may become less intelligent, or more. It is not outside the bounds of possibility that glossolalia has operated at times as a sort of telepathy — perhaps as precisely that — for those who were in the appropriately contagious mood. Hence, had glossolalia occurred, that would not necessarily discount Pentecost. But no one can tell whether it occurred or not. Luke, for all his Greek bias, saw no need to write that down. The facts are simply not to be had. Hence one guess is as good as another — or as bad.

IV

That is just it. The narrative does not furnish wanted details. You may go through the whole of it, and all along the line you will encounter this persistent indefiniteness. Nothing could be more disturbing to the modern temper. Thinkers whose eyes are open note how this lack of detail plays havoc with men’s minds. All sorts of fancies are woven about Pentecost. Those who live their religious life in an intellectual underworld find in the pentecostal narrative morsels sweet to their taste. And few sections of Scripture furnish more of a field for those who suffer from chronic spiritual inaccuracy and know not that they do.

This is why a perusal of the literature dealing with Pentecost is so disheartening. One finds interpretations aplenty of this momentous event. Each brand of pentecostalism— and there are many — makes its peculiar offering; while books that treat Pentecost with reverent regard for scholarship and in harmony with the scientific spirit are so few that a considerable search gives trace of scarcely a handful.

To examine Pentecost in the integrity of one’s intellect is to take on a large order. It is one thing earnestly to wish to get at the truth. It is another thing to succeed in getting at it. So much of our-

_ selves is in the way; and we are, in considerable part, what our tradition and training have made us. If a certain conception of spiritual processes has been handed down to us; if we have been indoctrinated in specific theories of the Holy Spirit or of Pentecost, we will not find it easy to break away from them, and to face the pentecostal evidence as if it had never before been submitted to us. Try as we will, the things we have been taught will assert themselves. Yet we ought to seek the truth. Of course, we can only try, but we should not do less than that.

To get all there is out of the story of Pentecost without getting out of it less — or more — than is there, is not easy. It never was. Describing Pentecost has always been difficult. To testify truthfully to the presence and power of the Spirit is a task that commands all one’s strength.

Take the case of those who were there. If the. report in Acts may be trusted — and more of that anon — they had never seen the like of it. Here were phenomena to which none of them had been accustomed in religion. Small wonder that they were variously impressed. There were those whom the whole affair frankly nonplussed: “ Are not all these which speak Galilean? How hear we every man in our own tongue? ” They would have welcomed an explanation, but had none to suggest. Then there were those who mockingly traced the event to new wine. To them it was an orgy traceable to alcohol.

It took Peter to set them right. No Jew ate or drank before the time of morning prayer. A’ man who was up and doing at this hour was bound to be sober. He could:not have bought a drink so early in the day; the saloons were not open yet! ‘You wish to know what this is? ” asked Peter, in effect. “This is that which was spoken by the prophet. Joel saw this coming. So would you, had you his soul. This is the power of the risen Christ! ” He was eager to point out the difference between intoxication and inspiration. The one narrows, the other enlarges life. Here, you will observe, were three interpretations of the one event. According to the first, Pentecost was mysterious; according to the second, it was devilish; according to the third, it was divine.

Vv But even those who were confident that it was divine found it no small task to interpret it. The brother to whom we are indebted for that indelible i

New Testament account of Pentecost illustrates - this. He had been at pains to gather the facts; yet he was hard put to set them down in writing. He could not in honesty say that there came a sound of wind; he had to content himself with saying that there came a sound as of wind. He could not truthfully report that the tongues were tongues of flame; he could only say that the tongues they heard were tongues like flame.

Search as he would, the best he could do was to find illustrations for the illuminations he bore witness to. Even that did not get him far. So he gave up prose. He saw it would not do. He resorted to poetry. There come times when that alone suffices. Poetry is not simply ornamental; it is utilitarian. It enables one to express what one cannot say. When the Arabs describe the tropics in such words as ‘‘ The soil is like fire and the wind like a flame,” we get an idea, swift and sure, of that which detailed accounts leave unsaid. When Luke got to the point where he knew he could at best but give some hints of an event which beggared description, he perceived that only poetry would do for that. Hence he attributed purposive intelligence to the physical. Who shall say in these days, with all we learn about nature, that he was far out of the way? He said the “ tongues ” knew what they were about; “ They distributed themselves’; “ They settled on the heads of each of them.”

It has never been easy to report the spiritual, let alone interpret it. It never will be. Vital religion goes too deep for words. It is precisely those things that cannot be said that make religion worth while. Coventry Patmore had the truth of it:

“In divinity and love What’s best worth saying can’t be said.”

Luke did his best to report Pentecost. But Pentecosts, in the nature of things, are not reportable! It is this that must be borne in mind in reading the writings of Luke. In unforgetable phrases, he testified to Pentecost, and yet was compelled to leave us in the dark as to many of the things that actually took place. Would a statistician or a logician have performed more creditably than that poet did back there?

Chapter II Why The Truth Evades Us I

DEAL of our difficulty in getting at the truth _ about Pentecost comes from our effort to improve on Luke. How much ingenuity has gone into the attempts to enhance his report! Yet for all the trouble we have taken, we have surprisingly little to show. We have littered the episode with details. We fail to see the woods for the trees. Nothing is easier than to lose one’s way in the labyrinth of mechanics. Yet how many do just this! The moment they get within reach of the scriptural account of Pentecost, they must be at it. Literal or liberal, there is no staying them. And what are the questions on which they take sides? Here are a few samples: Is the narrative symbolical? Is Peter’s speech, in a book notable for speeches, a verbatim report, or is it just a sample of the arguments early Christians presented in their conflicts with Judaism? Were the utterances other than in Greek? If so, why? Did not all present understand it? Yet had Greek only been spoken, 23 how could the hearers have been so surprised at the language? Is not Peter’s speech beside the point in spots; is not the whole account of uneven historical value?

Those who feel the urge to settle these and sundry items are welcome and to spare. In the debates one reads, the dogmatisms one encounters, one recalls Oliver Cromwell’s plea: ‘‘ My brethren, by the bowels of Christ I beseech you, bethink you that you may be mistaken.” Most treatises on Pentecost put one in mind of that.