Assemblies of God Singapore—Our Roots in Pentecostalism

As a denomination, Assemblies of God (AG) Singapore has its roots in the early days of Pentecostalism. Bro Edmund Chua studies into this history and shows us that we are empowered to preach the full gospel.

In spite of its relatively short history of 100 over years, the Pentecostal movement has, since its inception, grown at an exponential rate to make up close to 10% of the world’s population today (Goheen 2014, 180). Notwithstanding the “bewildering varieties” of movements in global Pentecostalism, all Pentecostal movements, including the Assemblies of God Singapore’s (AGS), share in one common origin (Anderson 2017, 649). It is the definitive event of the Bethel Bible School revival in Topeka, Kansas. Much like how Christianity today finds its roots in the historical event of Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection, and builds its identity around the meaning of this event and its consequent events; Pentecostalism likewise finds its roots in the Bethel Bible School revival and builds its identity around the meaning of this event and its consequent events, including the Azusa Street revival.

Our Extraordinary Origins
The Bethel Bible School revival began on January 1, 1901, when Agnes Ozma, a student at the college, broke out in tongues after prolonged sessions of corporate intercession with members of the college community who were seeking for the Pentecost experience and empowerment. Led by the Bible school principal Charles Parham, students at the college fervently sought the outpouring of the Spirit’s power after they exhaustively searched the Scriptures and became convinced that the Bible promised a continuing and all-inclusive empowerment of God’s people for His mission (Goff 2002, 956). It is in this revival that principal Charles Parham developed Pentecostalism’s distinctive theology of the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a unique and subsequent experience to conversion, evidenced by the speaking of tongues. This baptism would serve as believers’ gateway to supernatural gifts of the Spirit and power for Christian witness and service. It would lead believers into deeper love of God and greater fervency for
Christian witness (Ward 2016, 660). The Pentecostal theology would later be taught by Parham to William Seymour, who would later preach about it and personally experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit, before being used by God to initiate the famed Azusa Street revival in 1906 (Robeck 2002, 1055).

Our Phenomenal Growth
The Bethel Bible School revival was not an isolated charismatic move of the Holy Spirit. Supernatural manifestations including outbreaks of tongues were reported in the United States and Asia prior to and after this (Ward 2016, 660). These include earlier revivals like the Moravian Brethren revival and the Wesleyan revival in 1700s, and later revivals like the Welsh revival in 1904–1905 and John Sung’s revivals in 1920–1930s. While each of these revivals featured Spirit-empowered ministers who would call thousands into repentance, none were able to produce a global movement sustained by successive generations of Spirit-empowered ministers bringing the message of the gospel to the ends of the earth.

That is why, as Pentecostals, we are proud to say that we preach a full gospel of not just the events recorded in the Gospels, but also the events recorded in the Book of Acts with the crowning moment being the event of Pentecost.

The Bethel Bible School revival is unique because it was not just about believers turning their hearts to God after encountering the Holy Spirit. At its core, it is about the sharing of the message of Christ’s tangible empowerment of His people through the personal experience of the baptism of Holy Spirit. This sharing happens in words, initially through the content of Charles Parham’s teaching; in deeds, through active prayer to seek the Holy Spirit’s empowerment; and in the move of God, through Christ baptizing His people in the Holy Spirit. Pentecostalism was able to multiply exponentially over the last two centuries because of this succession formula. Successive generations of ministers would preach about and demonstrate God’s charismatic empowerment to stir up anticipation of God’s empowerment
in the next generation and then leading the next generation to receive God’s empowerment through baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is why, as Pentecostals, we are proud to say that we preach a full gospel of not just the events recorded in the Gospels, but also the events recorded in the Book of Acts with the crowning moment being the event of Pentecost.

That is why we do not just preach the full gospel in words, but we also communicate it in deeds by fully embracing the charismatic empowerment of the Holy Spirit in our personal lives, worship, and ministry practice.

Our Unique Identity
To the wider Christian community, Christ is our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King. As Pentecostals, we know dearly that Christ is more than that. Christ is also our Spirit Baptizer. This is not just something that we cognitively acknowledge but also something we believe in dearly because of our personal experience with Him through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is why we do not just preach the full gospel in words, but we also communicate it in deeds by fully embracing the charismatic empowerment of the Holy Spirit in our personal lives, worship, and ministry practice.

Our roots in Pentecostalism are not purely historical. Pentecost and the Bethel Bible School revival are not unique historical events. Successive generations of Pentecostals experience the event of Pentecost when we are baptized in the Holy Spirit. Our experiences of direct encounters with God as well as our continued reflection of these encounters form our Pentecostal identity which we live out in all that we do (Vondey 2017, 18–19).

Our Shared Calling
This year, we embark on a new and exciting chapter of mission sending, church planting, and discipleship by pursuing MM33’s audacious vision. Our Pentecostal identity would inform us that our mission in MM33 is to send Spirit-filled missionaries like Parham who would preach the full gospel and lead others like Ozma and Seymour into encountering God through Pentecost. It is also to commission those who encountered God to likewise go forth and bring others into the same encounter with God. To plant more
than half a million churches across the world in ten years is a tall order. It will take more than just a handful of ministers in respective Assemblies of God churches to fulfill this mandate. How God mightily empowered the common and marginalized, like Ozma, a woman, and Seymour, a black, in the 1900s, tells us that He is willing to pour out His Spirit on all people to accomplish this mission. To be willing to be empowered and sent is therefore the call that our generation will have to answer. More than that, we are also to preach the same full gospel to the next generation so that they would likewise be willing to answer the same call from our God who is ever willing to empower and send.

Anderson, Allan H. 2017. “Pentecostalism.” In Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, edited by Daniel J. Treier and Walter A. Elwell, 3rd ed., 649–51. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group.

Goff, James R., Jr. 2002. “Parham, Charles Fox.” In The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, edited by Stanley M. Burgess and Eduard M. Van Der Maas, rev. and expanded ed., 955–57. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Goheen, Michael W. 2014. Introducing Christian Mission Today: Scripture, History, and Issues. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. Kindle.
Robeck, Cecil M., Jr. 2002. “Seymour, William Joseph.” In The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, edited by Stanley M. Burgess and Eduard M. Van Der Maas, rev. and expanded ed., 1053–58. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Vondey, Wolfgang. 2017. Pentecostal Theology: Living the Full Gospel. T&T Clark Enquiries in Theological Ethics. New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark.
Ward, J. W. 2016. “Pentecostal Theology.” In New Dictionary of Theology: Historical and Systematic, 2nd ed., 660–64. Downers Grove, IL: Inter-varsity Press.