Pentacostalism

RICCS is a Protestant confessional reformed church.  To be confessional means we not only believe that the Holy Scriptures are the only authority for Christian faith and practice, it also means we believe the Holy Scriptures teach a specific doctrine, which is manifest.  It is one  thing to say that you believe the Bible, but it is a whole other thing to say what the Bible teaches and means.  The creeds and confessions that RICCS receives and believes summarize what we believe the holy Scriptures teach and mean.  As such, any doctrine or teaching that contradicts our creeds and confessions, by the very nature of the case, we believe are unbiblical.  And so, when we examine the teachings of Pentecostalism over and against our creeds and confessions, we find that every unique and distinct teaching specific to the Pentecostal movement, is contrary to, and antithetical to reformed doctrine, and therefore, contrary to, and antithetical to the teachings of Holy Scripture. Consequently, we believe that Pentecostalism has nothing to contribute to the Christian faith - it undermines everything that reformed believers hold dear, and inculcates a superficial, false view of the Christian life and experience.

Some will chide us for our “pejorative” tone here. And we must acknowledge that the warning we give here is a sharp one. But sharpness in defense of sound doctrine, and in warning against error and heresy, although exceedingly rare in our day, is not only permitted in the church, but also commanded by God: “Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints …therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith” (Jude 3, Titus 1:13).  Nor does this position paper betray a bitter, hateful spirit. We testify as we do in this paper because we love the God whose glory, we are convinced, is revealed in the historic, creedal Reformed faith and life; because we love reformed believers and their children, whose faith and life are disparaged and endangered by the Pentecostal movement, and who are seduced to forsake the reformed and biblical faith and life, for the false promises of the Pentecostal religion.  And finally, because we love Pentecostals as our neighbors, and desire that they repent, and come to recognize their beliefs and practices as false and dangerous.

We are not of a mind to soften this message in the slightest. It is the blunt thesis of this position paper that the basic tenets of the Pentecostal movement are false doctrine, and that the Pentecostal religion is an enemy of the Reformed faith, and, therefore, of historic Protestantism, and, therefore, of biblical Christianity. We marvel that Protestants have so soon forgotten the struggle of the Protestant reformers (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc.) against the radical Anabaptists of their time, of whom today’s Pentecostals are simply a reconstitution.

The Protestant Reformed Churches in America (PRCA), for at least the past 50 years, have faithfully and courageously fought to expose and refute the Pentecostal movement in America.  We stand with our fellow reformed brothers and sisters in Christ, and praise God for raising up such brave men to contend for the faith given once for all. 

Below is an examination of the Pentecostal movement by the Word of God, undertaken by Reverends David Engelsma, Wilbur Bruinsma and Charles Terpstra of the PRCA.  We, the Consistory of RICCS believe it is a faithful and accurate assessment of the Pentecostal movement, and include it here for the edification of its readers.

Click here to view the full document that they assembled.