The extent of Biola's involvement and interactions with the Pentecostal movement and other "Holy Spirit" movements of Christianity have varied distinctly throughout its history. Beginning with R.A. Torrey and T.C. Horton and continuing through the "Explanatory Notes" of the Biola Doctrinal Statement, Biola's official relationship to the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements has covered a broad spectrum.

Origins of the movement

The Pentecostal movement did not simply spring up ex nihilo at the Azusa Street Revival in 1906. It had its roots in various revivals and movements from Europe and the US which developed during the 19th century and eventually came to a more organized and specific culmination at Azusa Street.
Edward Irving (1792-1834) was one of the major catalysts to the founding of the Catholic Apostolic Church, a denomination characterized by a complex system of authority, where apostles were the exclusive declarers of the "mysteries of God" and "utterances of prophecy," and the widespread practice of spiritual gifts.

R.A. Torrey

While the pneumatology of R.A. Torrey had already developed before the official advent of the Pentecostal movement, it is safe to say that Torrey's theology agreed in many ways with Pentecostal ideas; the question of said theology's being influential in creating a similar atmosphere at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles is more difficult to resolve. As professor and dean at Biola, Torrey published numerous books and pamphlets relating to the Holy Spirit and Pentecostalism, including The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit (1910), The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power (1924), Divine Healing (1924), How Can I Know That I Am Led By the Holy Spirit? (192-?), The Holy Spirit: Who He Is and What He Does (1927) and The Baptism With the Holy Spirit (196-?).
In The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, Torrey defines the baptism with the Holy Spirit (as found in Matt. 3:2, Acts 1:5 and Heb. 2:4) as "a definite experience of which one may and ought to know whether he has received it or not," "an operation of the Holy Spirit distinct from and additional to His regenerating work," and "the specific manifestations of the baptism with the Holy Spirit are not precisely the same in all persons." Torrey, R.A. 1910. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit As Revealed in the Scriptures and in Personal Experience. Revell: New York.
Characteristically of the pre-Pentecostalism period, Torrey does not clearly delineate an initial filling with the Holy Spirit followed by a specific baptism of the Holy Spirit--he uses the terms interchangeably. Nor does he require a specific sign as evidence of a believer's baptism. However, he does indicate a difference between being "born again by the Holy Spirit through the Word" and "something distinct from this and additional to it, to be baptized with the Holy Spirit." Ibid., 175.
It is clear that Torrey was very interested in the role and working of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life, but he did not seem to consider the baptism of the Holy Spirit to be a fundamental doctrine of Christianity. In his book The Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Faith (1918), Torrey covers a wide range of topics, from Biblical inspiration to Christology to Hell. However, he only mentions the baptism of the Holy Spirit in order to say "sanctification is not the 'Baptism with the Holy Spirit'". Torrey, R.A. 1918. The Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Faith, 226. Doran: New York.

Although Torrey may have believed in a separate baptism of the Holy Spirit, by no means did he sanction the general atmosphere which surrounded Pentecostal meetings and was perhaps particularly common within the ministry of Aimee Semple McPherson. In his short work Divine Healing, Torrey explains James 5:14-15 to mean that the elders of the church ought to pray for someone who is literally "without strength" in the quiet of their own home, where the prayer of faith will bring real healing. He carefully notes that this does not mean "some self-appointed busy-body who goes about with a little bottle of oil to be sed in his loudly-advertised 'ministry of healing' to which he has been called ... or some woman who is peculilary gifted in prayer or who thinks she is, and who has a peculiarly psychological or magnetic or hypnotic personality." He also condemns "the mesmeric atmosphere of a meeting where there is skillfully-planned, highly emotional music and swaying of the body and passings of the hand and shouts of hallelujah that excited the imagination and thrill the body."Torrey, R.A. 1924. Divine Healing, 11-13. This section especially is a criticism of what many Pentecostals, by 1924, considered essential to the exercise of faith and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Later Torrey criticizes another common aspect of Pentecostal teaching--the idea that any Christian who remains sick must have sinned or is not in proper communion with God.

T.C. Horton

Aimee Semple McPherson

For biographical information, see Aimee Semple McPherson.

References