A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

A History of Christian Doctrine
Pentecostal movement and the Fundamentalist movement
are quite distinct. Historically, the former began in 1901,
while the latter began in 1910, among two entirely different
groups of people. The Pentecostals arose primarily
from the edges of the Holiness movement, and they developed
their own organizations in the first two decades of
the century. The Fundamentalists arose primarily among
Presbyterians, Baptists, and other large Protestant bodies.
They fought for control of their denominations for
years and did not form their own organizations until the
1930s.
More importantly, as a matter of theology, the early
Fundamentalists flatly rejected the Pentecostal movement.
They typically said that speaking in tongues is of
the devil, or at best a psychologically induced phenomenon.
The reaction of the two editors of The Fundamentals
is a good example. A. C. Dixon discussed the baptism of
the Holy Ghost with William Durham but rejected the
doctrine as an indictment against Christianity. He said the
Pentecostal movement was “wicked and adulterous.” 233
In his 1895 book The Baptism with the Holy Ghost,
R. A. Torrey had promoted the Keswick concept of the
baptism of the Holy Ghost as an endowment of power. He
had even speculated that tongues could be the initial sign
but ultimately rejected this idea: 234
208
In my early study of the Baptism with the Holy
Spirit, I noticed that in many instances those who
were so baptized “spoke with tongues,” and the question
came often into my mind: if one is baptized with
the Holy Spirit will he not speak with tongues? But I