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3.1 Schisms in the Pentecostal Movement
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With these “new” revelations it kind of scares you, where was the accountability and trustworthiness of the individual. No matter how well intentioned people were we make make mistakes
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2.
concerning the first schism, my opinion is that I not believe Tongues is the only evidence of HS baptism because all sign are equal in showing the glory of God. Although tongues is a very prominent sign in the book Acts and throughout history, I personally know many believers who live their lives in step with the Spirit that do not experience tongues as a sign of the Holy Spirit immediately or even at all.
as for the second schism, I agree that the work done on the cross both saves and sanctifies the believer. the work is done for us to be saved and once we are saved God has changed our lives. he may continue that work of sanctification as we live on earth, but in his sight we are made completely new at salvation.
the third schism however I honestly am unsure about my %100 opinion on the issue. I do believe Jesus’ work on the cross is the only reason for our salvation, but at Jesus’ baptism all three characters of God were present: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Theologically however, I guess that puts me in the camp of tri-une doctrine. I think the trinity is the best representation of the Godhead because they are all present in different key moments of the metanarrative.
I think the only schism that really has a greater importance is the second schism, the other two are understandably hard differences in doctrine to get over, but are of lesser importance. Salvation and sanctification are what makes us set apart as Christians, where as the specific name we use in baptism and how Holy Spirit chooses to manifest himself aren’t critical. What is important is we are baptized and we know that the Holy spirit lives in us.
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Of the three (3) issues, the Finished Work stands out and I agree with the statement given by W. Durham saying "…the work for me is done—the work in me is being done." It is an issue to most of the Christians I encountered who are in the state of what I call "Pendulum Syndrome" (ie. either extremely left, or extremely right). Some of them believe that they are saved by grace and therefore they should try their best to reciprocate that grace by performing so hard in order to maintain having the grace/blessing of God in their lives. They beat themselves and others to perform as hard as they are performing and that anything lesser is unacceptable. On the other hand, others believe that they are saved by grace and only by the grace of God they can survive daily because there's nothing good in them that would make them "good enough" in the sight of God ("totally depraved"). Having said that, they believe that they can never ever be as good (sanctified) as they could be and that to try hard to be good daily is a futile attempt. As a result, they just go on with life, as a "so-so" (mediocre) Christian living, saved by the grace of God. Indeed, there is an issue here! No matter how many Bible passages we studied (about legalism and sanctification), they're having the hard time internalizing them. They always find a reason to stay with their status quo.
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It sounds like the heart of the Progressive Illumination idea was to be receiving scriptural revelation from Holy Spirit in a deeply convicting way. Not a bad desire. It seems that this desire became unbalanced however and what was meant to be relational learning from the scriptures fell under pressure to “produce and perform”. In the expectation to defend revelation there could be an open door to pride as well.
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