The third division among the Church-at-large that I want to address is the “Pentecostals,” sometimes referred to as ‘Charismatics.’ True Pentecostals are saved and do enjoy the blessing of Christ’s righteousness as their “new garment.” They are clothed in the “fulled (whitened) cloth” garment made possible only by His shed blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet, over the past 50 years, many Pentecostal/Charismatics have bought into the idea of Christian entertainment and the ‘Christianity light’ feel-good man-centered message of ‘what you can get from God,’ as if God is their personal ATM. This occurs because they have become less and less Biblically based, and the money grubbing TV preachers are “greedy for filthy lucre.” (money acquired by dishonorable means, 1Timothy 3:8). They say you must tithe and/or give to God (meaning them) in order to be blessed. They lean on OT verses that apply to Israel under the Law. Of course, Paul says we “have (already) been blessed with ALL spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). Paul also does not mention tithing at all, but rather giving out of a heart of love as the Lord leads.

Yet, true Pentecostal are regenerated Christians who are “saved by grace through faith” in Christ and enjoy the imputed righteousness of Christ in a similar way as the genuine Fundamentalist. Unlike the Fundamentalist, true Pentecostals do see the Holy Spirit as the “new wine” of Christ’s “the Spirit of life” within them.

But, they are confounded because they consistently misconstrue the Scriptures doctrinally, not seeing the word of God dispensationally. They misunderstand the place, purpose and work of the coming of Holy Spirit at Pentecost and during the early Acts period for Israel. There, the Spirit was poured out for an “enduement with power” that came “upon” those of Israel’s Messianic “little-flock” of Jesus’ believers who were Jews called to preach to Jews, not the Gentiles! Note that on the day of Pentecost that the Pentecostal frequently refer to, Peter preached to “Ye men of Judea” (Act 2:14) and “Ye men of Israel” in Acts 2:22), just as Jesus had instructed the Twelve Apostles (below). The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was to empower Jesus’ “little flock (Luke 11:32) to preach Jesus’ “Gospel of the Kingdom” to Apostate Israel as Jesus had done in His earthly ministry (cf. Rom. 15:8). Jesus explicitly commanded His Twelve Apostles to NOT preach to the Gentiles.

“he (Jesus) answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel (only).” (Matt. 15:24)

“These twelve (Apostles) Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go NOT into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: ⁶ But Go Rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt. 10:5-6)

The faithful “Pentecostal” Christian is saved and has the indwelling “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2a), as do all genuine believers from the moment they are saved.

1. Pentecostals are regenerated and thus “saved by grace through faith” in Christ’s cross-work, thus clothed in the “new garment” of Christ’s righteousness. Yet some, such as Jimmy Swaggart, at the same time believe you can lose your salvation and you MUST confess your sins daily (all the time), thus mixing law and with grace, which then is not grace.
2. They, to some extent, know that Christ lives in them, and thus have some understanding of Christ’s life as the “new wine” of their Christian life.
3. Though they have found Christ as the “new (whitened) garment” and the “new wine” of “the Spirit” in them, they mostly have a very confused understanding of their place in God’s eternal purpose and plan for them as members of “the body of Christ.” They often mingle that which applies to Israel only with that which Paul wrote concerning “the body of Christ” – thus, mixing Law and grace.
4. They are confused because they fail to “righty divide the word of truth” (2Tim. 2:15), mixing the prophecies and the things of Israel under the outer Law with the Pauline ‘inner’ grace truth of “the Spirit” working within them as members of “the body of Christ.”

• “work of the flesh,” but Paul wrote that “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. (Galatians 5:17)

Under the Pentecostal misunderstanding of “the word of God,” they cling to the miraculous ‘knowledge and speech giftings that Paul wrote of in 1 Cor. 12, 13, and 14; but they neglect to note that Paul said these knowledge gifts’ would “cease” (1Cor. 13:8) “when that which is complete has come” (Col. 1:25). The word “that” refers to Paul’s full “revelation of the mystery” as recorded in Paul’s thirteen epistles for the Gentiles. You see, 1Corinthians was an early epistle written to a church of babies, before the end of the Acts period, before Paul “completed the word of God” (Col. 1:25) with additional information for the Gentile “body of Christ.” This added information that came after Acts ends with 28:28, completing “the word of God” makes these miraculous giftings unnecessary. It was then that Paul wrote his last seven epistles, Ephesians through Philemon, as epistles of pure grace.

Today every believer has already “been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 1:13) and has all knowledge available to them in “the (completed) word of God.” Now believers need only faith (trust) in the Lord, His cross, His life in them, and His sustaining “word of truth,” in order to endure all the trials and issues of life on earth... unto their death and/or the coming of Christ at their Rapture to heaven.

Again, Pentecostals emphasize and yet misunderstand the power of the Holy Spirit in doing miracles through ‘specially anointed men’ during the gospels and ‘the early Acts period,’ not realizing that today that time has passed. Today, God in His mercy deals with His children directly according to His plan for their individual lives. He may choose to heal and do the miraculous… directly but no longer through power given to any ‘specially endued individual men.’ Today all believers have the loving Lord Jesus Christ living in them all the time, sustaining, empowering, and guiding their lives… from within.

As said earlier, most sincere Pentecostal Christians have come to some measure of knowing the Lord within them. Yet, many also still erroneously claim Israel’s O.T. laws of ‘blessing and cursing’ along with Jesus words promising the power to heal all manner of sicknesses… as if this was given for us today. So, they still try to claim Israel’s blessings, trying to make the Israel’s O.T. program, and Jesus’ promise of the New Covenant for Israel, work for them today, but of course it does not work for us today.

They try to regulate or contain the “new wine” in the structure of the “old wineskin” of performance-based Law religion. So, some, such a Jimmy Swaggart, mix some of Israel’s laws and their manmade denominational laws with a little of Paul’s grace gospel, which thereby negates the blessings of grace (Rom. 11:6). This is not the way of simple faith… in Christ alone as all one’s total sufficiency.

Obviously, you can nearly sum up why Pentecostals aren’t as clear as they could be, that is if they saw the Bible dispensationally... by ‘rightly dividing’ that which applies to the Nation Israel from that which applies to “the body of Christ” today. They know something of Christ in them yet are governed by the confused administrations of confused leader – trying to apply the Old Testament instructions of Jesus of Nazareth gave to the Messianic believers of Israel… which are not for us today.

Sadly, just like the Fundamentalist, they don’t clearly or fully recognize the unique ministry of Paul as “The (ONE) Apostle to the Gentiles (Rom. 11:13).”

In the light of all the confusion, there’s little or no ‘rest’ for the Pentecostal believer under these erroneous concepts and religious ideas, such as are listed here below.

1. By not “rightly dividing the word of truth” as to what applied to Israel in “time past” and what today applies to the members of “the body of Christ,” they misunderstand the purpose and the temporary work of “the Spirit UPON those “in the upper room” on the day of Pentecost.

By contrast, Paul wrote of “His spirit that dwelleth IN YOU” (Rom 8:11), not the Holy Spirit coming “upon” you, as when the Spirit came upon those believing Jews at Pentecost.

2. Pentecostals think they’ve been “baptized in the Spirit” as those believing Israelites were on the day of Pentecost. Thus, they erroneously believe the church “the body of Christ” began on the day of Pentecost.

But we know what Paul says of the “the church… the body of Christ” …  and that the Gentile “the body of Christ” could not have begun before Paul’s salvation as “the Apostle to the Gentiles” and having revelation of “the mystery” of the Christ indwelled “body of Christ.” Whereby all believers as set into Christ “One body” by the “One Spirit” and then also “sealed with the Spirit” (Eph. 1:13).

“BY one Spirit we were Baptized (Placed or set) Into One Body” of Christ (1Cor 12:13) and “into His death” (Rom. 6:3).

3. Pentecostals may say the Lord is in them, but their practice often seems to deny it. If you attend a meeting of Pentecostals, they often will pray first to invite the Lord to show up in the meeting, looking ‘up,’ they pray that the Holy Spirit will come down upon people to bless them. Then they may say, “I feel the presence of the Lord in this place.” This contradicts the truth, revealing that they really do not have a grasp on the truth of “Christ in you” as God’s total truth for the believers in this age of “the grace of God. They need to read and believe such Pauline verses as this;

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 (KJV)

Actually, the Lord who is present in any assembly of believers is there only by virtue of His indwelling the individual believers as members of “the body of Christ” who brought Him to the meeting. Since we are “filled with the fullness of the Godhead” by virtue of Christ in us then there is no more of Christ to be received... He filled our spirit with His Spirit the very moment we first believed.  So actually, now it is only for us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord” as we study the word of God “rightly divided” dispensationally and learn of the resurrected Christ who indwells us.

4. Pentecostals often seek the miraculous external “signs” and most also place their personal experiences above the truth of “the word of God.” Some actually say if you do not “speak in other tongues” then you are not even saved. But Paul says its “the Jews (who) require a sign,” and that the sign gifts, (i.e., miracles, tongues and prophesy, etc.) would cease (cf., 1Cor 13:8).

The fact is that when Paul was converted to be “the Apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13) he received progressive “revelation of the mystery” directly from the risen Lord in Heaven (Gal. 1:12). Therefore, we now have all of Paul’s epistles that contain the fully revealed grace gospel message of truth by which we may be “established” in the faith (Rom. 16:25). When Paul completed His thirteen epistles for “the body of Christ, he was “completing the word of God” with what God had “hid for ages and generations” (Col. 1:26).

Paul’s is the gospel: “of which I (Paul) became minister, according to the dispensation of God which [is] given me towards you to complete the word of God,” (Colossians 1:25 (Darby)

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my (Paul’s) gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, (Romans 16:25)

5. Since the miraculous giftings and works of the Acts period are now not working as they once did during the Acts period, Pentecostals explain that failure by saying “God’s promises won’t work unless you have ‘enough faith.” But Paul wrote that we live and endure the sufferings of Christ by Christ’s faith working in us;

“the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of (from) the Son of God” (Gal 2:20 (KJV).

(NOTE: Here above the modern corrupted Bible translations (NIV, NASB, ESV, etc.) have strayed from the Greek text to say you live by your “faith ‘in’ the son of God,” thus placing the burden for faith upon the believer. But the “Received Text” of the KJV says we live by “the faith of (from) the Son of God” working in us.)

Lacking in “the faith of the Son of God,” Pentecostals then feel burdened to try and pump up their own meager faith, or they try to apply the soul’s mind-over-matter.

Even worse, when their prayers for healing don’t work, they then likely feel that there is something wrong with them, as if they are “defective.” They don’t realize the fact that those promises apply to Israel’s kingdom program for Israel, they don’t apply to “the body of Christ” during today’s age of “the grace of God.” and the all-sufficiency of “Christ in you” from within.

6. As stated earlier, many Pentecostals mistakenly seek out those who they think are ‘specially anointed’ to minister healing, or a special ‘word,’ or a miracle for them. Actually, there are no specially anointed men during this age of grace. Today every believing member of “the body of Christ” is anointed inwardly with all of Christ’s life and power… for living in ‘peace and rest’ in the face of life’s trials.

John wrote in his first epistle about the inner anointing that is yet to be possessed by believing Jews in the Millennial Kingdom”; an anointing we that as believing members of “His body” already have and enjoy today, under grace. We have…

“… an unction (anointing) from the Holy One, and ye (plural, ‘all believers’) know all things. ²⁷But the anointing which ye have received of him (Christ) abideth IN You, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. (1John 2:20, 27)

7. Pentecostals sacrifice the individuality of the members of “the body of Christ” for their organized church’s programs (conferences, promise keeps, how to… training, etc.), to work for God in recovering the earth for God… through church programs. So, many work in their political efforts to make the USA a better place. Many wrongly expect a great spiritual revival, but Paul emphatically describes how things will wax “worse and worse (spiritually)” in “the last days” (cf. 2Tim. 3:13, 3:1-7).

Paul says every believer’s commission during today age of “the grace of God” is as Christ’s “ambassadors.” Paul wrote that we of “the body of Christ” have “the ministry of reconciliation” (2Cor. 5:20); “to make all men see what the fellowship of is ‘the mystery,’ which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:” (Eph. 3:9). The now revealed “mystery (secret of God)” is the all-sufficiency of Christ’s life… this is the “mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).

8. So, by mistakenly taking Israel’s verses, many Pentecostals believe they’re called to work toward bringing the Messianic Kingdom to earth. But Jesus promised “the kingdom” to come on earth to Israel at His 2^nd Coming, not to the Gentiles of this age of “the grace of God.” Only believing Israel is promised of God to co-reign with Christ in the Millennial Kingdom and then forever on “the new earth” (cf. Matt. 19:28, Rev. 5:10, 20:6).

By contrast, Paul says we will be Raptured before Christ’s second coming to set up His Millennial Kingdom on earth. As the members of “the church which is the body of Christ” (Eph. 21:22b-23a), “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phili. 3:20-21), whereby after the Rapture (cf. 1Thes. 4:13-18, 1Cor 15:51-55) we will dwell and co-reign with Christ “eternal in the heavens” (2Cor. 5:1b, 2Tim. 2:12).

9. Many Pentecostals say you must work at renewing your mind (cf. Rom. 12:1-2) in order to “reckon yourself dead” to sin.

Yes, but Paul wrote; “…  we (already) have the mind of Christ (in our spirit). (1 Cor. 2:16) and it is our “… the inward (soul) man (that) is (being) renewed day by day.” (2 Cor. 4:16). But “it is God which worketh IN you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phili. 2:13). We eventually realize that we need to maintain the same grace and faith that initially saved us… now as faith for our daily living; “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord (which was by grace through faith), so walk ye in him:” (Col. 2:6)

10. Some “Pentecostal/Charismatic” Christian ‘chase demons.’ They don’t realize that today it is “Sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3) is still operating in the flesh of both the saved and the unsaved, manifesting all sorts of evils that they erroneously call the work of ‘demons.’ John wrote this of genuine Christ indwelled believers.

“We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God (Jesus, “the only begotten”) keepeth himself (Gk. autos, him), and that wicked one toucheth (Gk., haptomai, attaches to) him not.” (1Jn. 5:18)

Actually, if only the Pentecostal/Charismatic would approach, read and believe the words Paul and of the Bible dispensationally, they would have a clear understanding of what applies what does not apply to us today as members of “the body of Christ” during this age of “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2).

Among Bible believers, the staunch Pentecostal/Charismatic is perhaps the most confused due to not “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2Tim. 2:15).