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- The Interpreters Bible, 1:185-200;
- FEASTS, BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT, NEW COVENANT. For Further Reading: Carter, The Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit;
- PERDITION, SON OF PERDITION—PERFECT, PERFECTION
- For Further Reading: Synan, The Pentecostal-Holiness Movement in the United States; Carter, The Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit
- PERDITION, SON OF PERDITION.
- CHRISTIAN PERFECTION, PERFECT LOVE, PERFECTIONISM, HOLINESS, FAILURE. For Further Reading: Wesley, A Plain Account of Chris- tian Perfection; Cox
- ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION, HOLINESS, PERFECT (PERFECTION), CHRISTIAN PERFECTION, LOVE.
- Perfect Love;
PENTATEUCH. Pentateuch is the Greek name for the first five books of the OT, forming the first division of the Hebrew canon of Scripture, also known as the Torah. The name means "the five scrolls" and was used by Alexandrian Jews as early as the first Christian century to correspond to the Hebrew description of Torah as the five-fifths of the law. The material of the Pentateuch has always been of supreme importance for the theology of Judaism, much more so than the Prophets and the Writings of the Hebrew Scriptures. This fact is reflected in the attitude of the Samaritans and Sadducees who accepted only the Pentateuch as being divinely inspired. The NT clarifies the proper place of the Pentateuch in Christian theology and records the conflict which distinguished Christianity from Judaism on this basis. The problematic question of authorship of the Pentateuch is one of the most persistent in biblical studies. The traditional view is that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, based on the internal evidence of the text where specific passages state that Moses wrote the law (Exod. 24:4; 34:27; Deut. 31:9). Later historical books such as Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah reflect this well-established tradition. The conservative date for the composition of these books indicate that this tradition of Mosaic authorship was well settled by the fifth century b.c. This was not the begin389
The dominant element in the Pentateuch is the direction or guidance contained therein. God's purpose in revealing the law was to provide direction and guidance for the worship and life of His covenant people. At such, it was never intended to be a penal burden to be borne, but an expression of divine grace and caring. During His ministry Jesus recognized the authority of both the law (Matt. 5:17) and its official interpreters (23:2-3). Paul also recognized the basic worth of the law in the purpose of God (Gal. 3:24). But the NT is equally clear that Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4); it was never an end in itself. The NT writers saw clearly that the law was only temporary until the time had fully come when God sent forth His Son to redeem those who were under the law (Gal. 4:4). Distinction must be made between the moral law contained in the Pentateuch and the ceremonial law concerned with sacrifices and the rituals of worship as a means of justification. The former, such as the Ten Commandments, is binding upon NT believers, while the latter is superseded by Christ. A careful reading of the Epistle to the Hebrews is enlightening as Christ is presented as a better revelation, sacrifice, high priest, etc., so that the old is done away with because of the actualization of the new. See talmud, mosaic law, law, law and grace, law of liberty, freedom, antinomianism. For Further Reading: The Interpreter's Bible, 1:185-200; Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament, 495-541; ISBE, 3:711-27. ALVIN S. LaWHEAD PENTECOST. "Pentecost" is a term which comes from the Greek word pentecoste, meaning "50." Being Greek, it does not appear in the OT. It was 390 PENTECOSTALISM a Jewish feast which fell 50 days after the Passover. The Jews called it "The Feast of Weeks" (Exod. 34:22; Deut. 16:9-11); "The Feast of Harvest" (Exod. 23:16); and "The Day of the First-fruits" (Num. 28:26). The day was established for the celebration of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest. After the Romans destroyed the Temple and its sacrificial system (a.d. 70), the day was remembered as the anniversary of the giving of the law to Moses. All adult males were required to go to the sanctuary to celebrate this feast (Exod. 23:14,16). The worshipper brought a sheaf of wheat to the priest who waved it before the Lord in recognition that the harvest comes from God. A lamb and a cereal offering likewise were brought (Lev. 23:1 Iff; cf. v. 18). A portion of the sheaf was placed on the altar as a burnt offering. The rest was given to the priests for food. Two loaves of bread made from new wheat were waved by the priest for all the people. Then the priests, eating the loaves and sacrificial animals, concluded the feast with a communal meal to which the poor, the Levites, and strangers were invited. It was fitting that God should choose the Day of Pentecost on which to give the fullness of the Spirit to the Church (cf. Acts 1 and 2). As Pentecost was 50 days after the Passover, so the gift of the Spirit came 50 days after Calvary when "Christ our passover" was "sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5:7). As on Pentecost the firstfruits of the harvest were given, so the Holy Spirit is the First-fruit of the abundant blessings which God has in store for His people (Eph. 2:7; 1 Cor. 2:9). And as God gave the law 50 days after delivering Israel from bondage to Pharaoh, so, having delivered believers from bondage to Satan, God, through the gift of the Spirit, writes the law on their hearts (cf. Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 11:19; 36:25-28; 37:1-4; Acts 15:8-9; Heb. 8:10). Because the Holy Spirit in His fullness was given to the Church on the Day of Pentecost, the word "Pentecost" is used symbolically by some to signify the fullness of the Spirit of God which was promised to believers (Luke 3:16; 24:49; John 14:15-18; Acts 1:4, 8; etc.). Others who use the term confuse the gifts of the Spirit with His fullness, identifying phenomena which attended the original outpouring of the Spirit with the fullness of the Spirit. Yet the same Spirit gives a variety of gifts to His people as He himself chooses (1 Cor. 12:4-11). Therefore, no particular gift is proof of His fullness, nor even of His presence (Matt. 7:22-23). See FEASTS, BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT, NEW COVENANT. For Further Reading: Carter, The Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit; Schauss, The Jewish Festivals from Their Beginning trans. Jaffe Samuel. W. Ralph Thompson PENTECOSTALISM. The cluster of religious ideas and practices now called "Pentecostal" and, in their modern extension, "charismatic" are chiefly a 20th-century phenomenon. Their roots, however, lie deep in the evangelical past. The three great spiritual movements of the 18th century— the Wesleyan, the revivalistic Calvinist, and the German Pietist—all sought explicitly to revive as much as possible the primitive Christianity of the Early Church. Central to their evangelism was the declaration that the saving power of the Holy Spirit, given at Pentecost to all who would repent, believe, and be baptized, was available in all times and places. The leaders of each of these three movements, and especially John Wesley, made a sharp distinction between the "extraordinary" and the "ordinary" gifts of the Spirit at Pentecost; the latter, which they specified as the gift of His "sanctifying graces," was the one they thought was permanently available. They declared that the "extraordinary" gifts of languages, healing, or other miraculous powers were largely, if not wholly, confined to the apostolic generation. During the remainder of the 18th and throughout the 19th century, the doctrine of the new birth, in which the Holy Spirit freed repentant sinners from both the guilt and the power of evil (as Jesus had promised and Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, had described), steadily triumphed in Protestant consciousness in America, Great Britain, Scandinavia, and Germany. Meanwhile, however, a tiny minority insisted upon the more radical notion that the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit would be widespread in the "last days," as the apostle Peter's quotation from the prophet Joel at Pentecost seemed to declare. Joseph Smith's Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, popularly known as Mormons, affirmed this view; and a few who claimed power to heal or to speak in "unknown" tongues, known technically as glossolalia, appeared among them. The same thing happened in London, in the congregation of radical believers in the Second Coming gathered around Edward Irving, who was briefly influential among a segment of England's high society. Although the phenomenon of tongues disappeared almost entirely, interest in divine healing grew in several evangelical communities, and with it the hope of multiplying miracles in the "last days."
The leaders of the Wesleyan holiness movement in America and, at least until 1903, the Keswick movement in England resisted all of this and excluded from their platforms emphasis upon either divine healing or doctrines of the Second Coming. Moreover, the ancient and apostolic custom that the elders of the church should, on request, anoint and pray for the sick in faith for their healing continued in many denominations. On the other hand, both movements encouraged the use of Pentecostal language to describe the experience of a second work of sanctifying grace. Following John Wesley's beloved theologian, John Fletcher, they called it the "baptism of the Holy Spirit." On the fringes of the popular revival movements which spread through America, Wales, and, to a much smaller degree, Scandinavia, however, were independent evangelists, Bible schools, city missions, and healing ministries insisting on a more radical restoration of primitive Christianity. This included the miraculous gifts and gift of tongues. The spark that set fire to this conviction and created the Pentecostal movement, however, was the experience of speaking in what the faithful believed was a language they had not learned. A small group of women attending an obscure Bible school in Topeka, Kans., first experienced this on December 31,1900, under the promptings of Charles E Parham, an eccentric holiness evangelist who had no formal tie to any organized religious body. Local newspaper reporters appeared in a few days, and a University of Kansas professor established that the young women were not speaking Chinese, as they had originally thought. Soon, they and Par-ham decided that the "unknown tongues" were usually languages of heaven, unknown on earth. But the movement never formally abandoned the belief that human languages might be miraculously granted also, as at Pentecost, to sustain foreign missions. Pentecostalism spread but little until 1906, when Charles Seymour, a black man who had attended a tiny Bible school that Parham conducted in Houston, appeared at an interracial holiness mission on Azusa Street, in Los Angeles, and began to proclaim the promise of the gift of tongues. A revival broke out, amidst torrents of emotion and numerous cases of tongues-speaking. These gained almost instant nationwide attention. Within months a Scandinavian mission worker, T. K. Barrett, spread the movement to Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Others carried the news to England and Germany, and set Christians to seeking similar experiences there. The identifying mark of the Pentecostal movement has been from the outset, therefore, speaking in tongues. Its theological corollary emerged very soon, namely, that this experience was the indispensable "sign" that one had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, whether or not the "sign" was extended in a continuing "gift" of praying or speaking in glossolalia. Pentecostal groups whose backgrounds were Wesleyan sharply distinguished the experience of being baptized or filled with the Spirit from the second work of grace. They continued to call the latter "entire sanctification," and to define it as Wesley did—a work of the Spirit that cleanses believers' hearts from inbred sin. Those whose backgrounds were Calvinist, Disciples of Christ, or Southern Baptist made the Pentecostal experience simply a variant of the Keswick understanding of the second work of grace, namely, a baptism of the Spirit that brought power to triumph over all temptation (including that stemming from the remains of inbred sin) and to witness effectively. The largest denomination to emerge among non-Wesleyan Pentecostals was the Assemblies of God. Its founders minimized the doctrine of sanctification and eventually embraced that of the "finished work" of Christ on the Cross, teaching that His righteousness was imputed rather than imparted. From this wing of the movement emerged also the United Pentecostal church. The preoccupation of Pentecostals with the name of Jesus and the NT's strong identification of the Holy Spirit with the risen Lord prompted its leaders to develop a unitarian doctrine of God, popularly called "Jesus only." More typical was Aimee Semple McPherson, who in the mid-19208 taught a large following at her Angelus Temple in Los Angeles to honor Christ as Savior, Healer, Baptizer (with the Holy Spirit), and Soon-Coming King. The result was the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. Virtually all Pentecostals believed in the pre-millennial return of Jesus, preceded by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the "latter rain" Joel had prophesied. Their doctrine of the Church varied greatly, though the tradition of independency, stemming from the Anabaptist and radical Puritan movements, was the most pervasive one. Notable has been the appeal of Pentecostal foreign missionaries in Central and South America, among Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking populations. The reasons are complex but seem
While modern Wesleyans acknowledge that new spiritual vitality, together with a fresh discovery of the ministry of the Spirit, has broken into hitherto formalistic settings, they nevertheless have misgivings concerning the Pentecostal movement as a whole. The central issue is whether or not the claims and emphases of modern Pentecostalism are supportable by a sound exegesis of Scripture. Many careful scholars are convinced that there are disparities between Pentecostal practices and biblical teachings, particularly on the question whether the "tongues" spoken at Pentecost were "unknown" or well-known languages. Others believe they see a stress on miraculous and emotional experiences that sometimes outweighs ethical commitment. See neo-pentecostalism, pentecost. baptism with the holy spirit, tongues (gift of), wesleyanism, holiness movement, gifts of the spirit.
There are two references in the NT to the "son of perdition": John 17:12, where it is used of Judas; and 2 Thess. 2:3, where it describes the Antichrist. A problem arises with its use in John 17:12 as applied to Judas. Here we read that the son of perdition is lost "that the scripture might be fulfilled." The implication of the passage seems to be that Judas was predestined to betray Jesus and therefore could do no other. On this two points should be made: First, there is a play on the words "lost" and "perdition" (in Greek the word for "lost" is apdleio, and for "perdition," apdleia). Now, it was customary for the Jews at the time to coin a name which expressed the character of an individual: Barnabas, e.g., means "son of consolation"; Barsabas (Acts 15:22), "son of the Sabbath." Jesus, with this play on words, here coins a name for Judas which characterizes his condition ("lost") and his end which results from it ("destruction"). The second point to be made is that predictive prophecy (Ps. 41:9 is very likely the passage in mind) is in no way deterministic. There is built into the prophetic message a moral condition, which, if it produces repentance, annuls the predicted doom (e.g., Jonah and Nineveh). Judas chose to betray Jesus and in so doing sealed his own fate. Still, as of old Man by himself is priced. For thirty pieces Judas sold Himself, not Christ. The comment of John Calvin on this verse is apposite: "It would be wrong for anyone to infer from this that Judas' fall should be imputed to God rather than to himself, in that necessity was laid on him by the prophecy." see contingent, prophet (prophecy), predestination, determinism, freedom. Thomas Findlay PERFECT, PERFECTION. The word "perfect" as normally used in English means "having all the properties belonging to it; complete; sound, flawless." It "further implies the soundness, the pro-portionateness, and excellence of every part, every element, or every quality" (Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary). To get at the biblical meaning, one must observe the original words used in the Bible. Tamim, the Hebrew word most used, is applied to God (Ps. 18:30), to the law (19:7), and to persons (Job 1:8; 2:3). The other Hebrew word, shalem, is used with only one exception to describe persons, such as "perfect heart," or wholly devoted to God (1 Kings 8:61; etc.). The NT word teleios means "brought to its end" or "finished." It also indicates "wanting nothing necessary to completeness" or "full-grown, adult, of full age, mature" (Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 618). The use of the word "perfect," both in modern English usage, and in understanding the biblical words, cannot be precise. Some want it to mean only the absolute perfection of God, and deny its use for man or things. To do this rejects the common usage of the terms as they should be understood. Most careful students of the Bible recognize the latitude in the application of these words. When applied to God or His law, there is pre- PERFECT LOVE 393
ciseness and absoluteness about them; but when applied to man, the terms become relative. There is then both absolute perfection and relative perfection. God's perfection becomes the standard of all other perfections. There is a kind of "perfection ... ascribed to God's works," and "it is also either ascribed to men or required of them. By this is meant complete conformity to those requirements as to character and conduct which God has appointed. ... But fidelity to the Scriptures requires us to believe that, in some important sense, Christians may be perfect even in this life, though they still must wait for perfection in a larger sense in the life which is to come" (Unger's Bible Dictionary, 843). Such relative perfection is recognized by other writers (see ZPBD, 636; and HBD, 538). We believe it is biblical to hold that there is a perfection attainable in this life (Matt. 5:48; 1 John 1:7-9; Eph. 4:12; Phil. 3:15). Since to be perfect means to attain the goal God intends, then, when one reaches that goal, he is perfect in this one sense. One can hardly believe God requires a person to be perfect in an area he cannot because of human weakness. God knows man is weak and will be so while in this life. Yet He requires a perfection of love and character that is compatible with human failure. Thus a Christian may be perfect in his heart while imperfect in his performance. He always aims for a greater maturity in his actions. Only in the resurrection will he attain all the perfection he lost when sin came into the world. Never in this life or the next can man be as perfect as God is in the absolute sense. See CHRISTIAN PERFECTION, PERFECT LOVE, PERFECTIONISM, HOLINESS, FAILURE.
In the OT, love for God is at the heart of the Decalogue (Exod. 20:6) and is consistently enjoined upon God's people throughout their history. It finds its quintessential expression in the extended form of the Shema (Deut. 6:4-5) which, by NT times, had become the foundational creed of all Jewish worship. Jesus employed this extended form of the Shema as the first of all commandments (Mark 12:29-30). Love for neighbor, while implied in the Decalogue (Exod. 20:12-17) and specifically enjoined in Lev. 19:18, did not have that integral correlation with love for God which Jesus gave it when He quoted Lev. 19:18 as the commandment second only to love for God (Mark 12:31). Instead, in the OT, love for God (inner holiness) is linked with keeping His commandments (Exod. 20:6; Deut. 7:9; 11:1; et al.) and walking in His ways (10:12; 19:9; et al.) (outer holiness). At the early stages of the OT perception of loving God and keeping His commandments, the condition of the human heart became a focal element. Moses exhorted the people to circumcise their hearts in order to love God and serve Him (Deut. 10:12-16), and then recognized that God would have to perform this act so that they could love Him with all their heart (30:6). In Ezekiel, after exhorting His people to get "a new heart and a new spirit" (18:31), God promised He would give His people a new heart and a new spirit—that He would put His Spirit within them, thus enabling them to walk in His statutes and observe His ordinances (36:25-27). Thus the OT recognized (1) that keeping God's commandments and walking in His ways is a consequence of loving God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength; and (2) that God must do a transforming work in the human heart to enable persons to love in this manner. Jesus clearly epitomizes the Decalogue (the base of all other commandments, ordinances, and statutes of the OT) in the commandments to love God (quoting Deut. 6:4-5) and to love the neighbor (quoting Lev. 19:18). His radically new emphasis is that love for neighbor (outer holiness) is the inherent and inseparable corollary of love for God (inner holiness); so much so that even when the neighbor becomes an enemy, love is still the rule if we are to be perfect (teleios) as our Heavenly Father (Matt. 5:43-48): perfect in love. While Jesus retains the OT affirmation that love for God results in obedience (John 14:15, 21, 23; 15:10), it should be noted that these statements are bracketed by the commandment to love one another (13:34-35; 15:12, 17). Thus the essential obedience of love for God (inner holiness) is love for others (outer holiness). The NT writers repeatedly highlight this reality (Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:14; Jas. 2:8; 1 John 4:20-21; 5:2-3), further affirming: the love of God is perfected (teleioo) in whoever keeps God's Word (2:5—John immediately follows this state
ment with an exposition of the commandment to love in vv. 7-11); if we love one another, love of God is perfected (teleioo) in us (4:12); the bond of perfection (teleiotes) is love (Col. 3:14); and the goal (or "perfection," felos) of the Christian exhortation is love from a clean heart (1 Tim. 1:5). The experience of perfect love is the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer's heart which has been cleansed by faith (Acts 15:9; cf. Matt. 5:8; 1 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 2:22; 1 Pet. 1:22 [var.]). The love of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5) is the decisive reality of Christian existence (Kittel, 1:49). This love (Gal. 5:22) is the perfect way (teleios—1 Cor. 13:10) which supercedes the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12) and is greater even than faith and hope (1 Corinthians 13). First John brings all these together when, with his repeated injunctions to love one another (2:7-10; 3:11, 14, 23; 4:7, 11, 21), he notes that love is from God (3:1; 4:7, 9-10, 19); that those who love remain in God and God in them (3:24; 4:7, 12, 16); that this dwelling in God and God's indwelling has the witness of the Spirit (3:24; 4:13); and that those who so yield themselves to loving obedience are perfected in love (2:3-5; 4:12, 17). See ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION, HOLINESS, PERFECT (PERFECTION), CHRISTIAN PERFECTION, LOVE. For Further Reading: Wesley, Plain Account of Chris- tian Perfection; "The Scripture Way of Salvation," Works, 6:43; Quell and Stauffer, "agapao," Kittel, 1:21-55, esp. 27-35 and 44-55; Wood, Perfect Love; Taylor, Life in the Spirit. M. Robert Mulholland, Jr. Directory: sites -> default -> files -> publications publications -> Table of Content forward introduction publications -> Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Wireless Technologies Georgia Institute of Technology publications -> Housing Counseling Research in Chicago publications -> Communicating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Audiences publications -> New Brunswick Info Sheet on First Nations Child Welfare publications -> Paap’s Electronic Newsletter 14 November 2008 Volume 11 Number 22 towards ‘smart’ subsidies in agriculture: lessons from recent experience in malawi publications -> Information support of pedagogical process for the children experiencing difficulties with acquisition of preschool educational programs publications -> Asus’ ZenFone ar has Google’s augmentted and virtual reality baked in — but not combined publications -> School Readiness and Early Grade Success Consultation Memo Atlanta, ga Download 6.66 Mb. Share with your friends:
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