Transcription
Recent studies of Pentecostal origins have demonstrated that esquetology and dummatology were inexerably connected in the historical development of Pentecostal theology. Christ professor Daniel is why early Pentecostals believed that the Holy Spirit was being poured out because they were in the last days. Spirit baptism then was a sign of the end times.
In this episode of the influence podcast, I talk with Professor Daniel Isrig about what the Assemblies of God teaches about the end times. I'm George B. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. The Assemblies of God is publisher of both magazine and podcast. Daniel Isrig is an ordained Assemblies of God minister, assistant professor, and director of the Holy Spirit Research Center and Archives at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and author of Imagining the Future: The Origin, Development, and Future of Assemblies of God Eschatology. My conversation with Professor Isrig is coming up after a brief word from our sponsor.
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And now, Professor Daniel Isrig. Welcome to the influence podcast, Daniel.
Thank you, George. It's my pleasure to be with you and talk about this topic. It's a passion of mine and I'm glad to be able to share what I've researched over the past few years.
So, thanks for that. Let's dive right into the topic. You know, when you talk about Assemblies of God eschatology, eschatology is the fancy term for the doctrine of the end times, of the last days. Um, I I have two initial questions. One's one's uh kind of really about sources and the other is about conclusions. So, the sources question is, you know, where do we go to find Assemblies of God eschatology? What are the authoritative sources of our doctrine? And then what are our official doctrinal commitments on the topic of eschatology?
Yeah, so that's a great question. It really was the question I began with, uh, that even gave birth to the study itself is, you know, how do we know what the AG believes? Is it the people who are part of the fellowship? Is it the denominational officials or the general superintendent or, you know, is it Stanley Horton who wrote a lot of our doctrinal books on this topic? And so that was one of my initial research questions and and you know, um, you know, that obviously brings us to the official statements, which are the the Statement of Fundamental Truths, which has been our guiding doctrinal statement since 1916. Um, and the constitution and bylaws also has provisions in there for how AG ministers look at particular issues and what what doctrines may be um, have have been viewed as disavowed or dis- uh disapproved for Assemblies of God. So there's there was information in there on our eschatological views and then and then there's also been a series of position papers and other papers that have come out of the executive presbytery and other places that have tried to clarify some of our views. And so you know, these these sort of three three official uh statements, um, those those come out from the denomination themselves. Um, but one of the things I wanted to do is not just look at what has the AG said itself but what what have members of the Assemblies of God, what are ministers at the ground level? How do they articulate what we believe? And so um, in the book I tried to balance that, sort of the official voice of the Assemblies and the sort of popular voice with the voice of the ministers themselves and then what are the scholars saying about all of that. And I think all of those together sort of make up who we are as a fellowship and what we believe.
Yeah. And it's it's interesting because I think, you know, I'm the editor of Influence magazine and Called to Serve. These are official publications of the general council of the Assemblies of God. And so when somebody doesn't like something that gets published in, let's say Influence magazine, that they will on occasion write me and say, I can't believe that the Assemblies of God's official position on whatever the topic, yeah, may be, that this is their official position, and I always have to explain to them that nothing that gets published in Influence is the the official position of the Assemblies of God. It is vetted by the national office but it's basically advisory. And so you know, the Statement of Fundamental Truth and the bylaws are controlling; the position papers which are approved by the general presbytery reflect the will of the general presbytery. You know, those those first two documents are collective of the general council. The the the position papers are also advisory, although they have a measure of weight to them because they come from the general presbytery, and everything else is basically acceptable opinion. I mean, would you is that the way you would read it?
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's there's two parts of this. Obviously, the denomination has a right to define itself. And so, that's what a Statement of Fundamental Truths or constitutional bylaws does. And and that's a collective collaborative process, right? I mean, even from the very beginning in 1916 when the Statement of Fundamental Truths was was written, it was it was ministers getting together and sort of deciding together what, you know, what defines us. Uh, what's our. So, that's what doctrine does. Doctrine defines a group. It puts the parameters around a particular group.