Jon K Newton

Pentecostalism has always struggled to define itself theologically from the beginning. Starting out as a marginal stream within Christianity, early Pentecostals were reluctant to compose statements of faith and were susceptible to a range of new doctrines, a problem that continues to this day. In this article, the author surveys the theological development of Pentecostalism in Australia, giving special attention to a specific Australian-born movement, Christian Revival Crusade, because of its distinctive doctrines of British-Israelism and deliverance of believers from evil spirits. The author concludes with some observations of recent doctrinal developments in Australian Pentecostalism before positing some causes for such changes and drawing some lessons for Pentecostalism as a whole.

This article offers a survey and critical analysis of writings about the book of Revelation from Pentecostal sources in Australia and New Zealand. The title reflects the sense of prophetic destiny for Australia, sometimes encapsulated in the phrase “great southland of the Holy Spirit.” It is usually assumed that Pentecostal eschatology and interpretations of Revelation are governed primarily by a form of premillennial dispensationalism. However, much of the written material on Revelation from Australasian Pentecostals does not adhere to this line. The viewpoints of the authors I am analyzing are classified as follows: conventional futurist approaches similar to a dispensationalist reading; unconventional futurist approaches; historicist approaches; preterist approaches and eclectic approaches. I will look at both external and Pentecostal influences in the positions taken by these authors and conclude with some critical comments on their approach and suggestions for future Pentecosta...

... is sometimes not fulfilled, as in the case of Jonah at Nineveh (Jonah 3), and the original pronouncement by Isaiah of Hezekiah's impending ... 88 As Jean-Pierre Ruiz argues,―the evidence of Rev 1: 3 and 1: 10 makes it clear almost beyond dispute that John's Apocalypse was ...

This project set up a three-way conversation involving postmodernism, contemporary Christianity and the Book of Revelation. It identified specific aspects of a Christian worldview: the reality of the spirit world, the relevance of revelation as a source of truth, the priority of personhood and the centrality of the biblical story.

As we seek to chart a way forward into our second century, many Pentecostals are re-looking at the fundamentals that have defined them as a stream within Christianity. Thus, some Pentecostal theologians are re-examining and redefining the ‘full gospel’, the fourfold or fivefold revelation of Jesus Christ as Savior, Healer, Sanctifier, Spirit Baptizer, and Coming King. In this article, the author surveys these discussions on the ‘full gospel’ and looks into the book of Revelation for a fresh perspective on this topic. It is argued that each aspect of the fivefold revelation of Jesus is reflected in Revelation to some degree, but not always in the way Pentecostals have taught it. Therefore, a dialogue between classic Pentecostalism and Revelation opens up new ways of looking at both.

Narrative criticism of the Bible has shed new light on the Book of Revelation. The text is full of story-lines, small and great, which are explicitly narrated or alluded to. Most of these are drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures, some are stories from Greco-Roman or ANE cultures and others are new stories associated with John and his churches. This paper summarizes existing research that uncovers these story-lines but also poses the question, what is the purpose of all these narratives? It seems that they serve to connect the text with readers' existing worldview, to make the Christian narrative plausible, to motivate readers in the desired direction and to incorporate all the other existing stories into a larger " grand narrative. " Ultimately the text of Revelation sees itself as the final chapter in a much larger mega-narrative which led in time to a Christian salvation history.

Research on the reception history of biblical texts shows that how a text is framed shapes the interpretation of that text. Framing a text refers to the assumptions, presuppositions and questions, even ideologies, the reader brings to that text, which bring different meanings out of it. The reception history of Revelation illustrates this point. In this paper, I will look at selected examples of how this framing has affected the interpretation of Revelation. For instance, reading frames drawn from events in the middle ages and Reformation helped create the Historicist interpretations; Dispensationalism influenced Pentecostal interpretations in the twentieth century; other early Pentecostal interpretations were framed by the experience of Pentecostals as a distinctive sect-like group. I then discuss how a different Pentecostal frame might influence the interpretation; that is, what would a reading influenced by the event of Pentecost, and its outflow in Acts, and the expansion of modern Pentecostalism, look like? I sketch parallels between Revelation and Acts and draw on C. Kavin Rowe's World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age. Thus I will suggest that such a reframing of Revelation would produce a more missional reading in line with the mission of the church given by Jesus in Acts 1:8. I will finish by comparing readings of Revelation 17-18 (the downfall of the harlot Babylon) and especially the call to "come out of her, my people" (Rv.18:4), from these perspectives. Newton, Framing Revelation Pentecostally 1