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Summary
- Pentecostals are Protestants: the Pew Research Center calls them “members of distinct Protestant denominations or independent churches” that teach a baptism in the Holy Spirit after conversion.
- The movement grew out of the 19th-century Holiness movement; students at Charles Parham’s Bible school in Topeka, Kansas, spoke in tongues on 1 January 1901, and William J. Seymour led the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles from 1906.
- Churches such as the Assemblies of God keep the Protestant core: Scripture as “the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct” and salvation by grace through faith.
- The real difference is how the Spirit of Pentecost comes: the Assemblies of God teaches a Spirit baptism “distinct from and subsequent to the experience of the new birth,” first shown by tongues, while most other Protestants teach that the Spirit is given at conversion.
- The Assemblies of God and the Church of God in Christ do not make tongues a condition of salvation. The Oneness United Pentecostal Church International says “Salvation comes by grace through faith,” counts Spirit baptism with tongues as part of obeying the gospel, and rejects the doctrine of the Trinity.
- In France the Protestant Federation counts Pentecostals in the evangelical current of Protestantism, beside the Lutheran and Reformed current, and Assemblies of God churches belong both to the federation and to the National Council of Evangelicals of France.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- The Holy Bible, King James Version: Acts 2:1–4; 1 Corinthians 12:13; 1 Corinthians 13:8; 1 Corinthians 14:39–40; Ephesians 2:8–9; James 5:14–15. BibleGateway
- Assemblies of God (USA), Statement of Fundamental Truths. ag.org
- Assemblies of God (USA), Our Local Structure and Form of Government. ag.org
- Assemblies of God (USA), History. ag.org
- AG News, “General Presbytery Adopts Position Paper on Baptism in the Holy Spirit,” 10 August 1999. news.ag.org
- Influence magazine (Assemblies of God), “What We Believe About Spirit Baptism,” 21 August 2024. influencemagazine.com
- Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), Declaration of Faith. churchofgod.org
- Church of God in Christ, What We Believe. cogic.org
- United Pentecostal Church International, Our Beliefs. upci.org
- Pew Research Center, “Global Christianity: Movements and Denominations,” 19 December 2011. pewresearch.org
- The Augsburg Confession (1530). BookOfConcord.org
- The Westminster Confession of Faith. Orthodox Presbyterian Church
- Articles of Religion (Thirty-nine Articles). Church of England
- The Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church. United Methodist Church
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, About Worship. elca.org
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Synods. elca.org
- Southern Baptist Convention, The Baptist Faith and Message 2000. bfm.sbc.net
- National Association of Evangelicals, Statement of Faith. nae.org
- National Association of Evangelicals, Full List: Denominations and Networks. nae.org
- Fédération protestante de France, presentation (2025). protestants.org
- Fédération protestante de France, Les différents courants du protestantisme. protestants.org
- Fédération protestante de France, member churches and unions. protestants.org
- Conseil national des évangéliques de France (CNEF), Le CNEF. lecnef.org
- Assemblées de Dieu de France. addfrance.fr
- Musée protestant, “The Pentecostal Churches.” museeprotestant.org
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