Earlier this week I posted: John Wesley and Spiritual Gifts. There I attempted to show that while Wesley was open to both extraordinary spiritual gifts and miracles, he did not insist on them as proof of the Holy Spirit’s presence. So, now let me say something about the distinctive pentecostal and charismatic teaching about Baptism with the Holy Spirit.

There is a relationship between early Methodist teachings and the later development of Pentecostal teaching.  In fact, a direct line can be traced from the teaching of the early Methodists to the teaching of the early Pentecostals. Wesley’s preaching about the Christian life — and what he called Christian Perfection — gave rise to the holiness movement. The holiness movement, in turn, provided the seedbed from which the early Pentecostal movement would arise. Once people’s thinking about Christian experience  begins to go down a particular road, certain directions become inevitable. (more…)

Tags: Acts 2:38 | Baptism with the Holy Spirit | Christian Perfection | day of Pentecost | entire sanctification | Holy Spirit | John Fletcher | John Wesley | Pentecost | pentecostal | Pentecostalism | Pentecostals