The Sunday News
PENTECOSTALISM is the fourth and youngest major form of Christianity in the world today after Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Some would question whether it can rightly be called “Protestant” at all, as it is so different from historic Protestantism in many ways. Its traditions, however, do fall squarely within the Protestant camp, as it arose within the radical arm of evangelical Protestantism in the late nineteenth century. It has spread all over the world within a remarkably short period of time, and in some parts of the world it is now the dominant expression of Christianity.
The foremost statisticians of world Christianity, Barrett and Johnson, estimated that there were over 543 million “Pentecostal/charismatics/neocharismatics” in the world in 2002 (Barrett and Johnson, 2002:23). These impressive figures are sometimes quoted to point to Pentecostalism, constituting some 26 percent of world Christianity, as the largest force in world Christianity after Roman Catholicism (McGee, 1994: 276). In spite of the common notion that Pentecostalism is a North American form of Christianity, the “Pentecostal/charismatics” today are predominantly Africans, Latin Americans and Asians. Their Christianity is not North American, despite any links they might have with that continent through the process of globalisation. The Third World continents and Africa in particular are where the greatest expansion is. My question, as has been in the past few weeks, is how we are going to take this brand to the next generations. We need to take this wine into the future!
Each time I read of the story of Joseph in the Bible I see and hear a strong warning bell about my own role and that of the church in our time. As I spoke to one of the readers of this column we touched on what the present, us – you and I that is, are doing to take the wine to the next generation. The words of the writer of Genesis when he says and I quote, “These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.” Genesis 37:2.
One would have expected the generations of Jacob, who himself was a product of a trans-generational patriarch, to begin with the eldest of his sons – Judah. No it did not and it usually does not. We in this century will also not expect the elders to be the first. Joseph’s birth position as “The First-born,” of the treasured relationship between Jacob and Rachel, was chosen by God Himself, and carried with it a certain weight of responsibility. A new generation, the Josephs of our time needs to arise and take this new wine of the Pentecostal revival in Africa and package it for the next generations. No one will do it for us. We will have ourselves to blame when our children and their children wallow in the same apostasy that is already happening in the places where Christianity came from.
Joseph’s (Yoseph) name means “Taking Away,” for in his birth God took away the reproach of his mother’s childlessness. He was the 11th son of Jacob, and the first son of his mother Rachel. His birth appears to have been a sign of divine favour to Jacob, as following his birth, Jacob entreats his father in law, Laban to allow him to take his family and leave, after having worked for him for many years, as part of a contract involving his marriages. (Gen 30:25) He had fulfilled the obligations of his 14 year work contract with Laban by the time that Joseph was born.
Joseph exhibits a “prophetic spirit,” as a teenager. His father, and other family members are aware of this, because he shared openly with them. It is within the framework of his candid testimony of the dreams he received that we learn that his brothers “could not speak peaceably to him.” The Hebrew text states that they refused any longer to give him the customary greeting one says when meeting another in that land: Shalom! They did not wish him peace, by saying: “Peace be with thee.” This situation quickly degenerates into “they hated him all the more…”
God has a desire that his sons and daughters be sanctified and set apart for His purposes. Yeshua haMashiach/Jesus Christ said: “For their sakes, I sanctify myself.” (John 17:19) The Lord wants His sons and daughters to know Him as He knows them, “knowing Him, and being known of Him, that He might impart “revelation knowledge to them,” much like that given to Joseph in visions and dreams. In Acts 2:16-18, the Apostle Paul preaches from the writings of the Prophet Joel, that in the last days, God will pour out of His Spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.
The rise of Joseph thereafter is a common story but its application to you and I in African Pentecostalism is very important. He not only served this world but he saved a generation. The wisdom or the wine that was given to him was not for his present time only but he harnessed it for the future and other generations. We need that in our time for the Pentecostals that will come after us.
Joseph was the one whom God used to save an entire tribe, nation and people. However, he had to go through a tremendous set of what might be considered “negative circumstances” (he was the one who was separated from his brothers) but he described it this way:
“And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Please come near to me.’ So they came near. Then he said: ‘I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. ‘But now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. ‘For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither be ploughing nor harvesting. ‘And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. ‘So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.” Genesis 45:4-8 let us apply the same words to each one of us in the service of Pentecostalism in Africa. Happy Holidays Shalom!
