Pentecost Rekindled : Why Tongues Of Pentecost Divide And How They Can Unit

Millions of sincere Christians have been reluctant to seek the fullness of the Holy Spirit because of the Pentecostal teaching that links Spirit baptism with speaking in tongues. “For the multitude of Christians who have never spoken in tongues but have a passionate hunger for God’s powerful presence, let me say unequivocally and categorically: ‘You can be baptized in the Holy Spirit without tongues.'” So begins the second of R. Glenn Brown’s treatises on the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit and what he considers to be the “unscriptural” Pentecostal view of speaking in tongues as the primary evidence of Spirit baptism.

This book continues a theological dialogue which Brown publicly entered when he wrote PENTECOST REVISITED. In PENTECOST REKINDLED he continues to confront the division within the body of Christ between traditional Pentecostalism and the broader Evangelical community. In this volume, he broadens the discussion to include evidence that stringent Pentecostalism has encouraged such divisive attitudes as racial bigotry, classism and skewed theology in general.

But he also goes beyond that to point out the positive reasons why speaking in tongues accompanied the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. Those positive reasons apply to speaking in tongues today but they are totally ignored by traditional Pentecostals and traditional Evangelicals alike. When they are recognized and applied they can become a powerful unifying force within a fractured church. “These biblical purposes I see more clearly now than I did when I wrote PENTECOST REVISITED,” says Brown.