Current Classical Pentecostal Bible Reading Methods: A Critical Perspective

Abstract

The prevailing trend among members of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa (AFM of SA) is to interpret the Bible in a biblicist and literalist way, which conflicts with how early Pentecostals read the Bible. Empirical research completed in 2020 supports the observation. In contrast, early Pentecostals read the Bible with the expectation of meeting God. Their precritical, canonical, and text-centered interpretation focused on the text inductively before they deductively compared it with related texts in a straightforward manner to formulate their teaching. The new generation of Pentecostals applied conservative Evangelical hermeneutics to focus on the world behind the text, using the historical-grammatical method to arrive objectively at the author's intended meaning. It was rooted in the Scottish Common-Sense school of philosophy in a synthesis with the Baconian method. Their new hermeneutic was based on a theory of inspiration that accepted that divine revelation terminated at the end of the first century, resulting in a discrepancy that conflicts with Pentecostals’ expectation for extrabiblical revelations, miracles, and wonders to continue. The article aims to suggest an alternative hermeneutical approach that can constructively address the discrepancy, based on the recently developed scholarly hermeneutic that employs post-critical and postmodern approaches such as literary, reader-response, and advocacy hermeneutics. It utilizes quantitative research and a comparative literature study to realize the aim.