The Pentecostalization of Christian Worship – Part 3: Answers to Listener Feedback

GUEST: DAVID De BRUYN, pastor, New Covenant Baptist Church (Johannesburg, South Africa)

Bible-preaching churches are always under relentless attack by Satan and heretical teachers, who strive to destroy, or at least compromise, the accurate proclamation of Scripture and the saving gospel to a lost world.

Many of the epistles (i.e. letters) of the New Testament are filled with exhortations and reproofs for churches and pastors to “contend earnestly for the faith” (Jude 3). For example, the apostle Paul wrote to the younger pastor Timothy:

“Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you” (2 Timothy 1:13-14).

Over the past two weeks, we have examined how the Evangelical church has been heavily influenced by Pentecostal or Charismatic practices and beliefs. Attend a prominent Evangelical church today and you will likely encounter the trademark methodology of a Charismatic worship service—driving music and environment that is crafted to bring worshippers to an ecstatic experience. This stands in contrast to the historic Evangelical worship service being a rational, volitional, and then emotional response to what God has revealed.

Additionally, Pentecostal expectations that the miraculous sign gifts of the first century are in operation by men and women today have also seeped into Evangelicalism as well.

There has been much listener feedback to these two programs and so we decided to devote a third program exclusively to answering listener questions and comments. David de Bruyn, pastor of New Covenant Baptist Church in Johannesburg, South Africa will again join us. We encourage you to read his column series on “The Pentecostalization of Christian Worship”, which was the genesis for these programs.