Originally posted by KellyJay
What is a Pentacostal cult? Cults typically have a leader, at least all of those I'm aware of.
You had some guy/gal that was leading the church so that they believed in just him/her?
Pentecostalism emerged in the early 20th century among radical adherents of the Holiness movement who were energized by revivalism and expectation for the imminent Second Coming of Christ. In 1900, Charles Parham, an American evangelist and faith healer, began teaching that speaking in tongues was the Bible evidence of Spirit baptism. The three-year-long Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, California, resulted in the spread of Pentecostalism throughout the United States and the rest of the world as visitors carried the Pentecostal experience back to their home churches or felt called to the mission field. While virtually all Pentecostal denominations trace their origins to Azusa Street, the movement has experienced a variety of divisions and controversies. An early dispute centered on challenges to the doctrine of the Trinity. As a result, the Pentecostal Movement is divided between trinitarian and non-trinitarian branches.
Comprising over 700 denominations and a large number of independent churches, there is no central authority governing Pentecostalism; however, many denominations are affiliated with the Pentecostal World Fellowship.
Albert Benjamin Simpson and his Christian and Missionary Alliance was very influential in the early years of Pentecostalism, especially on the development of the Assemblies of God. Another early influence on Pentecostals was John Alexander Dowie and his Christian Catholic Apostolic Church. The teachings of Simpson, Dowie, Adoniram Judson Gordon and Maria Woodworth-Etter (she later joined the Pentecostal movement) on healing were embraced by Pentecostals. Edward Irving's Catholic Apostolic Church also shared many characteristics later found in the Pentecostal revival.
There was no one founder of Pentecostalism. Instead, isolated Christian groups were experiencing charismatic phenomena such as divine healing and speaking in tongues. The Wesleyan holiness movement provided a theological explanation for what was happening to these Christians. They adapted Wesleyan soteriology to accommodate their new understanding. Pentecostalism's Wesleyan-holiness heritage distinguishes it from the rest of Evangelicalism, which has roots in Christian Fundamentalism.
Charles Fox Parham, an independent holiness evangelist who believed strongly in divine healing, was an important figure to the emergence of Pentecostalism as a distinct Christian movement. In 1905, Parham moved to Houston, Texas, where he started a Bible training school. One of his students was William J. Seymour, a one-eyed black preacher. Seymour traveled to Los Angeles where his preaching sparked the three-year-long Azusa Street Revival in 1906.
Because speaking in tongues was initially believed to always be actual foreign languages, it was believed that missionaries would no longer have to learn the languages of the peoples they evangelized because the Holy Spirit would provide whatever foreign language was required. (When the majority of missionaries, to their disappointment, learned that tongues speech was unintelligible on the mission field, Pentecostal leaders were forced to modify their understanding of tongues.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentecostalism
United Pentecostal Church
Cult Beliefs:
- the ability to speak in tongues is a necessary indication of a valid religious conversion
- the practice of baptizing in the name of Jesus Christ only
- water baptism is essential to salvation
- God is not a trinity but is a unity, a Spirit, who has manifested himself in three roles to humanity
- there is no salvation outside of the United Pentecostal church
http://www.eaec.org/cults/unitedpentecostal.htm
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