Half of Southern Baptist Pastors are Pentecostals
Posted by Jim on June 3, 2007
At least that’s what the findings of a new survey suggest. The Christian Post reports
Half of Southern Baptist pastors say they believe the Holy Spirit gives some people a special language to pray to God – what is known to some as private prayer language – a surprising new study found.
That means that half of Southern Baptist pastors don’t know what Baptists have historically believed about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The good news is though
“More recent graduates tend to be more ‘cessationist’ than their pastoral counterparts in SBC churches,” explained Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research. “A majority of recent SBC seminary graduates are cessationists – the only group in our study that identified with this position at over 50 percent.”
Cessationism is the belief that the “gift of tongues” in particular was a special manifestation of the work of the Spirit in the earliest days of the Church which “authenticated” the message of the Gospel for people who simply did not have a Bible to consult.
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