Tag Archives: Pentecost

Pentecost––and Babel––is every day

Grace and Judgment Posted on by

We have just passed Pentecost Sunday. Just as with Christmas, Easter, and other times on the church calendar, we do not merely remember something that happened in the distant past. Each event continues to change the world to this day and beyond. Final fulfillment will come only when Jesus returns.

When I say Pentecost is every day, I don’t mean that tongues of fire still appear over people’s heads. I don’t mean that 120 people speak in tongues every day and that other people recognized 14 of the languages. But on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit invaded this world and began to take it back from the devil.… Read the rest

Holy drunkenness on Pentecost

Grace and Judgment Posted on by

Did your church acknowledge Pentecost? If so, how? The church has become divided over the significance of the events of the first Christian Pentecost.

Pentecostals emphasize the supernatural events and consider them normative. Others fear them and try to explain them away.

Some even teach that God no longer performs supernatural acts and that anyone who claims otherwise follows the devil! So what happened? And what does it matter now?

… Read the rest

Happy birthday, universal church!

Grace and Judgment Posted on by

This past Sunday was Pentecost. It coincides with an ancient Hebrew festival, but the events of Acts 2 happened on a particular Pentecost right after Jesus rose from the dead. That Pentcost marks the birthday of the church.

Alas, the church today is divided into various Orthodox, Coptic, Catholic, Protestant, and Pentecostal denominations, but we all have but one birthday. And on that day, they all gathered in the same place.

“They,” probably means the same 120 believers mentioned in Acts 1:15. They gathered together in one place, and most certainly not for the first time. This group probably amounts to the first messianic synagogue.… Read the rest