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Pentecostal Perspectives and the Kingdom

the Holy Spirit. Because of this, they are emboldened to face seemingly
impossible challenges in ministry.

Pentecostals are also encouraged by the future aspect of the Kingdom.
They believe that the present-day outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the
world is a sign that the last days are drawing to an end, and that the
second coming of Christ is imminent. They further believe that the
purpose of the current global outpouring of the Spirit is to empower the
church to evangelize all nations before Christ’s soon coming (Acts 1:8–11).

From their beginnings, Pentecostals have tied the outpouring of the
Spirit to the second coming of Christ and world missions. Early Pentecostal
leaders such as Charles Parham and William J. Seymour emphasized
enablement for missions as the
primary purpose of the twentieth-
century Pentecostal outpouring.
Church historian Gary B. McGee Pentecostals can face
has noted that, “By 1910, some 185 seemingly impossible
Pentecostal missionaries had been
marshaled over a four-year period challenges in ministry.
from the outset of the 1906–1909
Azusa street revival” (McGee, 612).
McGee stated further, from William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street
Mission “a new missiological paradigm would emerge for the twentieth
century” (612).

Early Pentecostals often talked about the “latter rain.” They preached
that the twentieth-century outpouring of the Spirit was a fulfillment of
Joel’s prophecy that God would pour out His Spirit on the world in two
stages: first as a former rain and then as a latter rain (Joel 2:23, KJV). They
contended that the former rain occurred on the Day of Pentecost and that
the latter rain is today’s worldwide outpouring of the Spirit. They often
noted that the latter rain comes just before the final harvest, that is, just
before the second coming of Christ. They also noted how Joel indicated
that the latter rain outpouring would be in greater abundance than the
former outpouring of the Spirit. These beliefs inspired early Pentecostals.
They believed that Jesus was coming soon and that God had given them
power to preach the gospel to all nations before Christ returned.

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