What Makes Charismatic Pentecostals Different From Classical Pentecostals?

Some people put relatively little difference between any of the Pentecostals, but rather tends to group them all together. However a noticeable distinction between the groups originally was noted that primarily the Charismatic Pentecostals never really left their mother Churches or Denomination. It used to be that in the 1906 revival of Azuza Street, the Denominational church fiercely rejected the glosolalia, but now there is a major shift in the openness and expectance of speaking in tongues.

In fact, many people would receive this Pentecostal experience and were urged rather than coming out of their Denominations to stay in them and be a witness there. Even stay under the leadership of that denominational church and practice closet praying in the Spirit. The Movement gained an extreme amount of momentum and is really hard to tell the wide reaching effects because much of it is next to impossible to document.

The acceptance of such behavior clearly shows difference of the religious climate of the Day. At one time Pentecostals were labeled ad branded Holy Rollers, now they are openly embraced by all. This most likely is due to the fact that in the 20th century, most Denominational churches were losing membership, while the only growing church registrars were that of the Pentecostals. It is interesting to have Catholic tongue talkers following the Pope?

What Defines the Latter Rain Movement
The Latter Rain movement started in the remote areas of the Saskatchewan, however, was to grow much larger for Pentecostals in the Next few years. In February, 1948, the movement known as the “latter rain’ began to spread to the U.S. and elsewhere around the world. The leaders of the Movement were Ern and George Hawtin both of them brothers. They used the Magazine Sharon Star to promulgate their teachings around the world.

Many in this movement claim the phenomena of the movement are little different from what had been experienced at Topeka in 1901 and at Azusa Street in 1906. They claim that they are operating in the gifts of the Spirit and are operating within the realm of the five fold ministry.

Basically this movement focus’s very much on the manifestations of God, participants will prophesy over people and claim that was the Word of the Lord, and in turn the person prophesied over would change there whole life to try to fulfill the prophecy. As a lash back against the Latter Rain movement, many churches became very skeptical of the working of the Spirit of God.

This truly is a sad thing because obviously the Gifts of the Spirit are in operation today. The correct thing to do is not to throw out the baby with the bath water, but rather to use decency and order. It’s a tragic thing to think that the Gifts of the Spirit are off limits to us and our church.

The is one of the most notable factors separating the church of today from the 1st century church. Not only in the Bible are many miracles, signs, and wonders noted in the lives of Jesus and His apostles, but also history has many stories of others in the church as well.