From their earliest days, Pentecostals have been committed to the study of Scripture. It was in the study of God’s Word they found validation for the Holy Spirit’s outpouring they were experiencing. For many early Pentecostals, it was this single-minded devotion to Scripture that assured a latter-day restoration of the New Testament church. Therefore, the Spirit-renewed church would be “the church of the Bible.” As the church of the Bible, the Spirit renewed church should reflect the life, doctrine, and polity of the apostolic church. Pentecostals justified their faith and practice by the Bible. Speaking in tongues was the initial evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit because it was “the Bible evidence.” Converts were to receive water baptism; believers were to partake of the Lord’s Supper and wash the saints’ feet; church members were to practice tithing; the sick were to be prayed for and receive divine healing—all because“it’s in the Bible.”
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