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The Phenomena of Pentecost The Phenomena of Pentecost GOSPEL PUBLISHING HOUSE Springfield, Missouri, U. S. A. Copyright 1931 by the Gospel Publishing House Springfield, Mo. Printed in the United States of America THE PHENOMENA OF PENTECOST Donald Gee HE OUTWARD PHENOMENA of Pentecost are as nothing compared to the one supreme fact that "they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." Any attention directed towards the external signs of the coming of the Spirit must be maintained with a right sense of proportion. The one was cause, the other only effect; and to magnify or to seek the effect without the cause is obviously to approach the whole subject from a hope• lessly wrong angle, resulting in the distortion of truth, and vain delusion in experience. To seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit is eminently Scriptural and right: to seek a repetition of the phenomena that occurred on the Day of Pente• cost as the one supreme object of desire can only lead the seeker into fanaticism and dis• appointment. There is an extreme position on the other side however,—a position where the accompanying outward manifestations of the Spirit's coming are either despised or treated as totally negligible details of the Pentecostal Bap• tism. Such a position can amount to a query as to the divine wisdom in giving such pheno- 5 6 THE PHENOMENA OF PENTECOST mena as sound of wind, the fire, and the tongues at all, and misses precious truth even if it does not distort it. The result can also be most serious loss in actual experience. To the hundred and twenty who were first waiting for the Promise of the Father the super• natural manifestations that accompanied the fulfillment of that promise must have come as something of a surprise. They had been told that "signs should follow" (Mark 16), and they also immediately grasped the value of evi• dences which could be "seen and beard" (Acts 2:33); but undoubtedly they had been pray• ing and waiting for the Spirit and the Spirit only, believing that they would most certainly know when He had come, but not knowing what particular initial evidences would attend His coming, and crown the eagerly expected hour. Such a condition of innocence in expectation could, and did, only mark the original waiting band. After the Day of Pentecost we find that a standard had been set by which subsequent experiences were tested. Acts 11:15. It is very significant that there was no element of surprise at Cornelius and his friends speaking with tongues, the only surprise being at the fact that they were gentiles. Acts 10:45. The phe• nomenon itself of speaking with tongues upon receiving the Holy Spirit was by now recognized as normal. There are four great instances recorded in THE PHENOMENA OF PENTECOST 7 Acts of the gift of the Holy Ghost,—in chapters 2, 8, 10, and 19. In chapter 8, the instance of the Samaritan believers, there is no direct men• tion of any outward phenomena accompanying the outpouring of the Spirit, such as is definitely recorded in the other three. From this it is sometimes argued that since 25% of the early Christians received no outward manifestation when they were filled with the Spirit, then the same proportion at least might be expected to• day to do so. It has been pointed out repeatedly however that there must have been some phenomenon occurring at Samaria also, because "Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given." Acts 8:18. The coming of the Spirit upon these believers was so evident and conscious that Simon coveted power to impart a similar experience. While the particular manifestation chosen by divine grace for this occasion is not stated; yet less cannot be fairly admitted than that speaking with tongues would meet all the requirements for consistency in the record, and the evidence of the other instances all taken together make a preponderating reason for believing that this actually was the manifestation given. The question is sometimes asked as to why, if we still expect believers to speak with tongues upon receiving the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, we do not also expect a sound as of a rushing mighty wind and cloven tongues like as 8 THE PHENOMENA OF PENTECOST of fire. Acts 2:2, 3. They were equally the phenomena of the Day of Pentecost. As a matter of fact we have heard of instances where something of the sort is reported to have occurred, and there is no necessity to doubt the authenticity of such statements, though we may accept them with reserve. There are reasons however for expecting speaking with tongues to recur which do not exist with regard to the sound of wind and fire. As follows: (a) There is no indication in the New Testament that the distinctive sound of wind and literal fire ever occurred on occasions sub• sequent to the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit was bestowed. The nearest approach to it is the shaking of the place where they were as• sembled in Acts 4:31; but on that occasion the disciples were being refilled with the Spirit in view of a special crisis; they were not receiving the Spirit in the sense of chapters 2, 8, 10, or 19. On the other hand speaking with tongues does recur; and in Acts 10 it was taken as suf• ficient evidence, standing alone, to prove to the prejudiced Jewish believers who were with Peter that even Gentiles had actually received an ex• perience identical with that received by the Jews on the Day of Pentecost. (b) There are obvious reasons why there should be special signs accompanying the Day of Pentecost which do not occur on subsequent occasions. It was altogether a special event. The Holy Spirit then came in a dispensational THE PHENOMENA OF PENTECOST 9 sense, to commence His great work of forming the Church, the body of Christ. He also came in a new way, a fuller way, in which He had never come before, even in spite of many grac• ious Old Testament activities. His coming on the Day of Pentecost was a direct attestation that the Lord Jesus Christ had been in very deed exalted to the right hand of the Father, there to begin His High-Priestly work on our behalf. It was a notable occasion. Succeeding occurrences of the gift of the Spirit did not have the same special significance as the Day of Pentecost, hence there is no neces• sity for expecting a repetition of quite the same phenomena. The historical record confirms this view. Speaking with tongues was the ex• ception; and even that did not seem to have quite the same character on following occasions, for only on the day of Pentecost is it recorded that languages spoken were generally under• stood, and writing later of this manifestation of the Spirit (though here a gift in the Church) Paul says distinctly "no man under- standeth him." 1 Cor. 14:2. Exceptional occasions of an outpouring of God's Spirit however, such as the crisis of Acts 4, may still be visited with unusual phenomena. Why not? The mental attitude of the twentieth century restlessly asks "What was the use of the phe• nomena of Pentecost?" Still more petulantly it asks, "What would be the use of such things 10 THE PHENOMENA OF PENTECOST today?" Some thoughtful and devout minds, filled with an intensely practical conception of the results of being filled with the Spirit of God, can and do urge the sleeping Church to seek a new enduement of power from on high, and both write and speak in a useful way re• garding the Pentecostal Baptism. But when it comes to this related fact of the phenomena that accompanied Pentecost, they frankly regard this as one of the most puzzling and apparently superfluous parts of the narrative, with no liv• ing message for today. On this point both Modernists and Funda• mentalists seem to agree. Modernists regard the phenomena of the Day of Pentecost as just so much legend which has grown up around cer• tain of the experiences of the early church. Fundamentalists admit their historical truth, but appear to take the view that the Church today has grown immeasurably beyond the need of such direct appeals to consciousness. Those who say they believe in such things, and believe they still have a place and value, are sneeringly re• garded as "people who do not matter much any• way," and are all relegated among the hopeless emotionlists and cranks, with no practical mes• sage for the need of the hour. Is this just? What about the deadly drift into spiritism from the churches just because there has been no living testimony to the supernatural in Christian experience? What about the glorious scenes of revival that are accompanying even a THE PHENOMENA OF PENTECOST 11 limited enjoyment of the supernatural mani• festation of the Spirit of God;—scenes that would move Christian periodicals into en• thusiastic reports if it were not for entrenched prejudice? What about the number of sincere and thoughtful Christians who are daily pray• ing for just such another "Pentecost"?—multi• tudes of them inside strictly orthodox churches. What about the numbers of unbelievers out• side the churches who are frankly there largely because there is no display of the power of New Testament Christianity today? There is surely some use in that which can stem the drift into spiritism, promote revival, answer the longing of many true hearts, and give the skeptic a convincing answer.
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