REVERENT AND REBELLIOUS Peter Jeffrey

Now we get down to it! Today we're talking about the pew jumpers - the room runners - the tongue talkers - the holy rollers! It's the Pentecostals! Where did they come from, and why do they do what they do? And what's the difference between a Pentecostal and a Charismatic? Today we track through one of the greatest moves of God and expressions of faith in all of Church history! From the bubbling of ecstatic supernatural phenomena in the First Great Awakening to the Azusa Street Revival to the advent of the mega-churches to the faith healers - we cover it all - to the tune of 500 million Pentecostals worldwide! What happened - how did it happen - why - and how can we ride the wave? Join us as we move in the power and the presence of the Spirit!

Big news! REV-REB is now available on all the major podcast channels - including Apple and Amazon! Go check us out and leave us a rating and review! also - today we have a Guest Host! Pat is out for a few weeks, so our good friend Drew Mathis is holding down the right side of the table! He offers some incredible insight on today's topic - the HOLINESS movement. Originally birthed out of Methodism, these people take a hard right turn and get laser-focused on the idea of Entire Sanctification - or Christian Perfection - which means if you're saved and have the Holy Ghost - you will never sin again! Crazy? Maybe. Just ask the Free Methodists - Christian & Missionary Alliance - Church of God (Anderson) - and the Church of the Nazarene! They are the original denominations in the HOLINESS movement - still going strong today!

Today we're talking about the next wave in the Christian ecosystem - the Restoration Movement. While Baptists are Baptist-ing and Lutherans are Lutheran-ing, two groups of people in two different regions notice something alarming. The Church is drifting, they say! They care more about their creeds and confessions than they do about Scripture! These two highly evangelistic - back-to-the-Bible movements explode - then join - then participate in a giant revival that sweeps the nation - birthing new churches, denominations, and other movements! It gets crazy along the way though! How so? Join us as we look at the wild ride of the Church of Christ - Christian Church Disciples of Christ - the Christian Church Churches of Christ - you get the idea!

Today we look at the next wave of development in the Christian landscape as people read their Bibles for themselves - become more and more curious - and diverse strains of theology emerge. It begins with the Anabaptists, who are certain about their ideas of baptism. So certain - they're willing to die for it - and sometimes kill for it! They are truly revolutionary, and are seen by the rest of the world as unhinged, militaristic terrorists! While no Baptist would ever claim a straight line from the Anabaptist movement, it did spawn a way of thinking that altered the trajectory of the Church narrative. An independent - autonomous - congregationalist approach to Salvation, doing church, and living out the Christian life. Even though it brought with it some upheaval and division, it spread quickly and bore much fruit. These are some of the points of identification for Baptists today - and they're not stopping any time soon!

We continue our series on Christian denominations. In the last 2 episodes, we saw the rise of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation - then the three movements that arose out of it - Lutherans, Anglicans, and our friends the Reformed Tradition. Now we see new strains of theology arise as Christians begin to wrestle with controversial doctrines - new revelation - and diverse understandings of their newfound expressions of faith. Enter John Wesley - an Anglican priest - who wanted to see further reform in his own denomination. But mostly - after his dramatic conversion experience - deeply desired to preach the Gospel anywhere anyone would listen - even if it meant preaching on top of his father's tombstone! With the encouragement of his friend George Whitefield, John Wesley ushered in a worldwide phenomenon - an awakening - a revival! And - the 3rd largest denomination in the world - the Methodists!

In today's episode, we explore the Christian landscape as more and more people, churches, and countries move away from Catholicism and into the great unknown! Many follow Martin Luther, but as theological thinking begins to broaden, many pastors, thinkers, and scholars in regions beyond Germany - Switzerland - France - Belgium and others - start to expand and build upon the radical principles Luther introduced. The central figure of this movement we know as the Reformed Faith - or Reformed Tradition - is a mild-mannered man named John Calvin. He is a brilliant writer and his Institutes ignites a movement that spreads like wildfire, and thrives today! He wouldn't call it this - but we know it as Calvinism. Out of this movement sprang hundreds of denominations - all reformed - and so inspired a Scottish man - your new favorite theologian John Knox - he birthed what we know as one of the top three denominations in the world - the frozen chosen - Presbyterians!