Pentecostal Theological Seminary
Driven by the proclamation of the gospel to all peoples, early Christianity quickly became a multiethnic and multicultural reality. From Jesus’ ministry to the Syro-Phoenician woman (Mark 7:24-29) to the likelihood that Luke was a Syrian physician from Antioch (Col. 4:14) to Timothy’s mixed Greek and Jewish heritage (Acts 16:1), the early believers spoke many languages and inhabited different ethnic and cultural landscapes. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, perhaps more than any other, accentuates the ethnic diversity of the church, and presents a picture of a church that is a reconciled community, and “one people of God” (Ephesians 2:11-22).
Paul articulated his theology of justification and adoption in the face of claims that believers had to become Jews in practice in order to be members of the covenant God had established in Christ (Gal. 2:14-21; 4:1-7). Instead, Paul proclaimed that in Christ there was neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free (Gal. 3:28). God was building a new nation and body whose members would come from every tribe and tongue through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit would bring about.
The Holy Spirit made one a member of the new family and nation, not nationality, social location, ethnicity, or gender.
Early Pentecostals saw themselves as recovering the faith of early Christians. Frank Bartleman’s exclamation that “the color line was washed away by the blood” was not simply a description of the multiethnic revival at the Azusa Street Mission. William Seymour, Frank Bartleman, and others saw this new Pentecostal outpouring as revealing the full gospel of Jesus who reconciled all peoples by sanctifying them through his blood and empowering them with his Spirit. They returned to the vision of a new nation and people.
The first governing body of elders for the Azusa Street Mission consisted of men and women of diverse ethnicities. This vision led to men and women ministers functioning at all levels of the movement including leading denominations as bishops and overseers. The global growth of the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement carries in its bosom this vision of the kingdom as God creating a new people from every tribe and every tongue. The baptism of the Spirit is a sanctifying and charismatic work that forges a united missionary force under the banner of Jesus.
Within the Church of God, the commitment to the Pentecostal vision of a global community of men and women evangelizing the world in the power of the Spirit has been steadfast. The evangelist Nora Chambers was the first Bible teacher and head of Bible Training School. She had attended and later taught at Holmes Bible and Missionary Institute. Edmund and Rebecca Barr, Bahamians of African descent, were the first missionaries in the Church of God. All three held credentials that allowed them to preach, teach, and administer the sacraments. As a result of this commitment, the Church of God is a global body of believers who inhabit every continent.
The commitment of Pentecostal Theological Seminary to an ethnically diverse and gender-inclusive community in which men and women from all parts of the world come together stems from the good news that God poured out his Spirit on all flesh through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. It is a commitment to the new people God is building. The full gospel is the story of God from creation to consummation. Central to that story is the proclamation that Jesus saves and reconciles us to God and one another through his cross, sanctifies and heals us from our divisions and disease with his body and blood, empowers and gifts us through his Spirit to take our place in his new body and temple, and calls us to be a new nation through his resurrection and ascension proclaiming his good news until all have heard and he returns in glory to fully bring about the kingdom.
Created in the image of God, all humanity reflects the unity and diversity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and are called to be God’s emissaries and representatives in shaping life in a way that reflects God’s shalom. Every human person retains the dignity and sacredness of the image of God and must be affirmed as having inestimable worth. As a reflection of triune relationality, men and women together express this sacredness. Human sexuality finds its immediate purpose in the procreation of children and the union of the husband and wife and its ultimate purpose in the creative and relational nature of the triune God. Established at creation and given at conception, maleness or femaleness remain inviolable and establish the limits of gender diversity. They form part of God’s purpose to build a community that is one and yet many.
When humans sinned before God, they broke fellowship with God and one another. This broken fellowship drove a wedge between family and tribe. God’s election of Israel was to begin to recreate a new family on earth in fulfillment of his original purpose. Israel was to be a light for the nations in whom all tribes and tongues came together to worship God. The coming of Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit fulfilled God’s purpose that his kingdom would be the redeemed, healed, and delivered people who lived together in holiness and harmony. This is the vision of the end that Revelation gives when all the redeemed will finally become the New Jerusalem, a city of peace and prosperity where all gather together as one.
Pentecostal Theological Seminary seeks to be a place that embodies God’s will for every tribe and tongue to come together in harmony and peace. We commit ourselves to diversity and equality because they are central to the story of God. We seek to be:
