Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jkk@.uucp (John Kingston) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Assembly of God Message-ID: Date: 17 Dec 90 00:05:21 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: AI Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh Lines: 25 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu As I understand it, the Assemblies of God are a Pentecostal denomination. They have always believed in the availability and use of "charismatic gifts". The Pentecostal movement is generally said to have started with the "Azusa Street Revival" of 1906 in California, where the "charismatic gifts" began to be exercised by many people. This outpouring of [the] Holy Spirit spread from there to other parts of the U.S., into Europe and around the world. The main result today is the Pentecostal denominations. I'm not quite sure how the various denominations came about, although I suspect that disagreements on church government had something to do with it, since the two main Pentecostal denominations in the U.K. (Assemblies of God and Elim) have quite different methods of appointing pastors to churches. John Kingston, AI Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, 80 South Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1HN, Scotland E-mail jkk@uk.ac.ed.aiai, phone 031-225 4464 ext. 229 FAX: 031 226 2730 Arpanet: J.Kingston%uk.ac.ed@nfsnet-relay.ac.uk TELEX: 727442 UNIVED G [Of course the pentacostal movement also spread into some of the more traditional churches, particularly the Catholic and Episcopalean Churches. --clh]