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Villafane on Pentecostals in the
World "The Holy Spirit as To Katechon maintains 'order' in our world. It restrains the 'powers' from bring about total oppression and chaos to our world, The Holy spirit as Parakletos is helping to bring God's Reign to completion. It is present in the world to convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment. It is present in the charismatic renewal of the church in and for the world. The Spirit is present as a 'Helper' wherever good, love, peace, justice - Signs of the Reign - are manifested in our world. ... "The 'world-rejection' that the church must exercise is that defined by dehumanizing and demonic systemic values and structures, and not the world as God's creation. We are called to discernment; to discern admits a fallen world, the goodness of God's creative act express by humanity in the through culture in its history. We are called to discern the Spirit's work not only in the church, the community of the Spirit, but in the world. ... The Reign of God, the Spirit's historical project, takes seriously the world - as humanity, creation and its culture. Present history is affirmed, for history is the arena of the obedience of faith of the reign of God. ... The baptism of the Spirit in Hispanic Pentecostalism is rightfully seen as empowerment for service, impacting the believer deeply - giving him/her tremendous boldness, a heighten sense of personal holiness, a new sense of self worth and personal power. Yet, the narrow individualistic focus and purpose implies the dissipation in the 'culto,' if not elsewhere, of so much energy - spiritual power - that can and should be 'tapped' for the broader missional objective of the church. The Hispanic Pentecostal church has the spiritual resources to face the spiritual power encounters of our social struggles. If the 'new object [of the baptism of the Spirit] is the ongoing mission of the Messiah,' and that cannot be narrowed to Matthew 28:18-21, nor Mark 16:15-18, nor Acts 1:8, then it must, above all, include the Messiah's own missional self-understanding - Luke 4:18-19. ... The Pentecostal's intolerance for sickness - a physical not 'spiritual' condition - should extend to other non-spiritual areas of life, (i.e., intolerance for bad housing, unemployment, injustice). The potential for radical social change is within the bosom of Hispanic Pentecostals in the 'barrio' given the radical experience of the baptism in the Spirit. ... If the Hispanic American Pentecostal church is to faithfully serve its own Hispanic community and beyond, if it is going to survive as an authentic and relevant presence in the 'barrios,' if it is going to overcome the negative elements of upward social mobility, then it must see itself not just as the community of the Spirit in the world, but rather as the community of the spirit for the world, but not of the world - a sign of promise and presence of the Spirit's historical project, the Reign of God. 'If we live in the Spirit, Let us also walk in the Spirit.' (Galations 5:25)" The Liberating Spirit: Toward an Hispanic American Pentecostal Social Ethic by Eldin Villafane, University Pr, 1992, 183, 191, 185, 204, 149, 222. For Villafane on the reign of God, click here. Return to Homepage |
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