Assemblies of God

• Formation: 1914

Overview

Officially known as the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, the Assemblies of God is a branch of the Pentecostal Christian denomination. Made up of more than 170 officially sanctioned national congregations, the Assemblies of God operates around the world and welcomes more than 85 million members into its faith community. It is Christianity’s largest Pentecostal branch, combining Pentecostal dogma with evangelical activity. The Assemblies of God is also noted for its worldwide missionary work, which is primarily carried out through an affiliated organization known as Assemblies of God World Missions.

Founded in Arkansas in 1914, the Assemblies of God reorganized into the World Assemblies of God Fellowship in 1988. The church espouses a belief in several definitive religious doctrines, including a belief in miraculous healing and a belief that Satan will judge sinners at the end of time the same way God will judge the Christian faithful. Like other Christian churches influenced by Pentecostalism, the Assemblies of God also believes the phenomenon of “speaking in tongues” has special spiritual significance.

History

In the nineteenth century, a revivalist movement redefined Protestant Christianity, giving rise to the development of the Pentecostal denomination. This revivalism encouraged a return to a simpler, more fundamental form of Christian spirituality, prioritizing purity of worship ahead of the surface displays of wealth and power expressed by many mainstream Protestant and Catholic churches.

Pentecostalism’s defining feature focuses on accounts of the Holy Spirit’s influence during the first century of Christian history. It places particular importance on the Day of Pentecost, described in Acts of the Apostles 2:1–4 in the New Testament. This passage describes the spectacle of the Holy Spirit descending on Christ’s apostles, manifesting as fire over their heads and bestowing the miraculous ability to “speak in tongues.” In Christianity, the phenomenon of “speaking in tongues” refers to a person suddenly and spontaneously delivering a communication directly from God in a language they cannot normally speak. Reflecting the events of the Day of Pentecost, the Pentecostal denomination preaches unity of place, encouraging worshipers to gather together to channel the power of the Holy Spirit. It also endorses two forms of baptism. One is a traditional water baptism, which initiates a believer into the faith community; the other is a Holy Spirit or spiritual baptism, which confirms an individual’s ascension to a higher level of spiritual achievement. This latter form of baptism is only offered to adherents who display the ability to speak in tongues.

The Assemblies of God owes its origins to Charles Fox Parham, a major figure in the history of American Pentecostalism. Parham was a prominent evangelical preacher who spearheaded the development of the Holy Spirit baptism doctrine, which resulted from an intensive Bible study he led in 1900. Parham championed the spread of this doctrine throughout the western United States, inspiring the pastor Eudorus N. Bell to join his nascent movement. In 1914, seeking to unify the loosely aligned American Pentecostal movement into a unified church, Bell organized a convention of approximately three hundred leading denominational figures. They adopted a core set of official beliefs, now canonized as the sixteen Fundamental Truths, marking the formal founding of the Assemblies of God.

Beliefs & Practices

Embracing an evangelical orientation that actively seeks to spread the church’s teachings through missions and other public works, the Assemblies of God emphasizes a set of four key beliefs that include a defined path to spiritual salvation, Holy Spirit baptism, miraculous or divine healing, and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

The Assemblies of God believes humankind’s path to spiritual salvation comes from the active pursuit of forgiveness from a fundamentally flawed, sinful original state. Members of the faith community view this repentance as a gift given by God to faithful and loyal servants of Jesus Christ. They also believe the journey to redemption begins with baptism. The Assemblies of God, like numerous other Christian churches aligned with or influenced by Pentecostalism, also recognizes two distinct forms of baptism. The first is traditional water baptism, which symbolically cleanses an individual of their sinful original state in exchange for professing a belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Holy Spirit baptism, or spiritual baptism, represents the second, more exclusive form of the sacrament, which is available only to those with the confirmed ability to speak in tongues. This achievement confirms an individual’s favor with God and advanced spiritual standing within the church.

The Assemblies of God faithful also believe in miraculous or divine healing, in which God or the Holy Spirit directly intervenes to heal a person’s injuries or illness. Community members petition God for such healing through prayer, deferring to the will of God in health-related matters. Some ordained Assemblies of God leaders claim to have the power to channel God’s healing capabilities, which they can use to restore the health of faithful community members.

The branch’s fourth central belief covers the second coming of Jesus Christ, which is viewed as an impending near-future occurrence. It will be preceded by the rapture, an apocalyptic event in which the living who have achieved salvation will be physically taken into heaven before the trials of the end times occur. Christ will return following the rapture to judge the remaining souls of the living and lead the righteous into the kingdom of heaven. Satan will then judge the others and cast them into the realm of eternal damnation. These events will redeem humankind, leading to the fabled New Earth referenced in the Second Epistle of Peter, the Book of Revelation, and the Book of Isaiah. This is referred to as the “world to come” in the Nicene Creed liturgical prayer common to Catholicism and many Protestant branches.

These four fundamental beliefs anchor a larger set of sixteen Assemblies of God principles known as the Fundamental Truths. Other noteworthy Fundamental Truths include an acknowledgment of the Bible as the divinely inspired, infallible word of God; the structure of God as a Holy Trinity including the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and the central importance of sanctification, or self-denial, as a constant means of rebuffing the influence of Satan and keeping an individual closely aligned with the Holy Spirit.

Bibliography

Fairchild, Mary. “How the Assemblies of God Started a Pentecostal Church Movement.” Learn Religions, 23 Feb. 2019, www.learnreligions.com/assemblies-of-god-church-history-700145. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

Fairchild, Mary. “Pentecostal Christians: What Do They Believe?” Learn Religions, 24 Aug. 2024, www.learnreligions.com/meaning-of-pentecostal-700726. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

“Home.” World Assemblies of God Fellowship, worldagfellowship.org. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

"News and Stories." Assemblies of God World Missions, www.agwm.org/news. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

"Parham, Charles Fox (1873-1929)." University of Nebraska–Lincoln Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.rel.038. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

Poloma, Margaret M. The Assemblies of God at the Crossroads: Charisma and Institutional Dilemmas. University of Tennessee Press, 1989.

Poloma, Margaret M., and John C. Green. The Assemblies of God: Godly Love and the Revitalization of American Pentecostalism. New York University Press, 2010.

“What Is the Assemblies of God? 10 Things You Should Know.” Christianity.com, 26 Oct. 2019, www.christianity.com/church/denominations/what-is-the-assemblies-of-god-history-and-beliefs.html. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

Wood, George O. “Our Core Doctrines.” General Council of the Assemblies of God, ag.org/Beliefs/Our-Core-Doctrines. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.