A Morphology for the Pentecostal Experience of Receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit

Western Folklore, Fall 2003 by DeShane, Kenneth

For most people, the practice that characterizes Pentecostals is speaking in tongues, what scholars have labeled glossolalia. The Pentecostals that I have studied believe in the Trinity, made up of Father, Son and Holy Spirit (or Ghost) and also believe that God, in the "person" of the Holy Spirit, can embody individuals and speak through them in a language or languages that are viewed as "heavenly," meaning that they are understandable by God alone, or as literal languages spoken somewhere in the world (either a living or dead language). They also believe that speaking in tongues is the initial, physical evidence of and primary sign of someone who has received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. These beliefs are based in part on passages from the Bible, such as Acts 2:4-11:

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Gyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.1

These Pentecostals interpret this passage from Acts to mean that the Christians in this New Testament setting were miraculously speaking languages that the believers themselves did not know but which were understood by people from various other parts of the world who were present when this event occurred. Furthermore, other verses such as I Corinthians 14:27 support the idea that God can speak a message for a congregation through individuals at various times: "If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret." Consequently, when a "message in tongues" is spoken, then these believers expect someone in the congregation to interpret the message and tell the entire congregation what God has said. Their theology is also based partly on personal experience as is demonstrated below in the collaborators' narratives. Only believers who have been "baptized in the Holy Spirit" can perform such acts in these churches. This baptism is not like water baptism in which the individual is sprinkled or immersed in water. The believers are spiritually immersed in the Holy Spirit, or invite Him through prayer to reside within their being or soul. Believers desire this experience because it gives them spiritual power to live holier lives, helps them "hear" God better when praying, and they can also pray in tongues. There are differences that need to be explained briefly here for clarification. When a message in tongues is intended for the entire congregation, the believer usually speaks very loudly so that the entire congregation can hear him or her. On the other hand, whenever someone is merely praying in tongues, the volume is not so loud that it draws the attention of the entire congregation. Furthermore, messages in tongues are differentiated from prophecy in that prophecies are given in the native language and do not need interpretation. However, an in-depth analysis of the different genres of speaking in tongues and the functions of speaking in tongues must be the subject of another essay. Identifying how believers receive the "gift" is the subject of this essay's analysis. In the following pages, I provide an analysis of and postulate morphology of the experience Pentecostals undergo when receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit. These analyses and conclusions are based on more than 10 years of research within Assembly of God churches in the mid-South. While my conclusions may not be inclusive of every Pentecostal's experience, it does serve to help outsiders understand the experience better and is indicative of the groups I've studied.

As I have done in my other research, I present this analysis from a believer's and insider's perspective-from one who actually believes the material presented and one who is a member of the group under study. I am aware that believers' analyses have often come under severe scrutiny in recent years and that sometimes their work has even been dismissed as "mere testimony" (DeShane 1996:91). However, in the past, anthropological scholars have joined groups during their studies and have written about their own "spiritual" experiences: Paul Stoller among the Songhay as a sorcerer's apprentice (1987), Edith Turner in an Ndembu ritual (1992), and Karen McCarthy Brown (1992) working with a Voodoo priestess. They have opened the door for written analyses by members within folk groups, and while I would not doubt these scholars' experiences, I would not consider them true insiders because they were not a part of the groups under study before their research began, and they did not remain in the groups after their research was finished. As I have pointed out in my previous work (1996 & 2000), believers can provide added perspectives on religious folklore that outsiders cannot. Moreover, as has been documented, risks of misinterpretation can and do arise in folklore research when outsiders are involved,2 and there are some things only believers can or will know about their own beliefs.3 If scholars are to get at the heart of religious folk beliefs and behaviors, which provide the foundation upon which all other religious folk traditions rest, I believe that it is necessary to show from a believer's perspective how believers view themselves and their religious experiences. The ritual itself should be examined because it is this experience of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, this reception or enduement of spiritual power, which forms the basis for most if not all of Pentecostal folk theology (DeShane 1996). This fundamental experience serves as the basis for or beginning of the testimonies that Lawless (1988) studied, for the "trances" that Goodman (1972 & 1990) studied, and for the glossolalia that Goodman and other scholars have studied.4 However well-intentioned these scholars may have been, for the most part they fail to provide readers an understanding of the process, from believers' perspectives, that believers undergo when receiving the Holy Spirit.