摘要：No Christian theology can avoid paying attention to the significance of Pentecostalism. Apart from the growing numbers of Pentecostals,2 Pentecostalism retrieves the forgotten person of the Trinity, namely, the Holy Spirit, in Christian doctrine and living.3 Nevertheless, the Pentecostal movement not only brings the churches to renewal, but also to schism.4 This ambiguity is a basic fact that we have to take seriously. We have to be fair that schism is not what the churches (Pentecostal or Evangelical) want or intend, but schism gives Pentecostalism a badname, because schism is exactly a sign that the Spirit is not at work.5 Even though in recent years there is a better understanding and communication between Pentecostals and Evangelicals,6 this does not enhance our understanding of the work of the Spirit. What I mean is that they may be more open to one another and less critical toward one another than before, but their basic framework of understanding the work of the Holy Spirit remains unchanged. The thesis of this paper is to argue that the task of Pentecostalism does not lie in improving the relations between the Pentecostals and Evangelicals, but depends upon recalling its identity, namely, the eschatological sign of the outpouring of the Spirit. This sign is the nature of the church. Such a concern is involved in a shift from the apostles’ paradigm of understanding of the Spirit to Isaiah’s paradigm. This proposal is not to neglect the significance of any particular charismatic experience, but to recover the central message of the outpouring of the Spirit whom the Pentecostals are dependent upon.
