Full Gospel

The term Full Gospel is often used as a synonym for Pentecostalism and Charismatic Christianity, Protestant movements originating in the 19th century. Early Pentecostals and Charismatics saw their teachings on baptism with the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, and divine healing as a return to the doctrines and power of the Apostolic Age. Because of this many early Pentecostals and Charismatics call their movement the Apostolic Faith or the Full Gospel.

This term has origins in the holiness movement. A. B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, framed his core beliefs around the "Fourfold Gospel", that Christ is Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Soon Coming King. Many Pentecostals were influenced by Simpson and adopted his Fourfold or "Foursquare" Gospel as an articulation of their beliefs. This term is still used today in the name of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

The term "Full Gospel" also refers to Romans 15,18-19, where Paul says: "... to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ."

Baptists

Baptists are individuals who comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers (believer's baptism, as opposed to infant baptism), and that it must be done by complete immersion (as opposed to affusion or sprinkling). Other tenets of Baptist churches include soul competency (liberty), salvation through faith alone, Scripture alone as the rule of faith and practice, and the autonomy of the local congregation. Baptists recognize two ministerial offices, pastors and deacons. Baptist churches are widely considered to be Protestant churches, though some Baptists disavow this identity.

Diverse from their beginning, those identifying as Baptists today differ widely from one another in what they believe, how they worship, their attitudes toward other Christians, and their understanding of what is important in Christian discipleship.

Historians trace the earliest church labeled "Baptist" back to 1609 in Amsterdam, with English Separatist John Smyth as its pastor. In accordance with his reading of the New Testament, he rejected baptism of infants and instituted baptism only of believing adults. Baptist practice spread to England, where the General Baptists considered Christ's atonement to extend to all people, while the Particular Baptists believed that it extended only to the elect. In 1638, Roger Williams established the first Baptist congregation in the North American colonies. In the mid-18th century, the First Great Awakening increased Baptist growth in both New England and the South. The Second Great Awakening in the South in the early 19th century increased church membership, as did the preachers' lessening of support for abolition and manumission of slavery, which had been part of the 18th-century teachings. Baptist missionaries have spread their church to every continent.

Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship

The Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, International is a fellowship of churches and individuals representing various denominations or organizations (originally from an African-American Baptist background) that accepts the operation of spiritual gifts (the charismata) in the church today, in reaction to the teachings of many Baptist bodies. The polity they operate with is episcopal. It was founded by Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr. in 1994. Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III is the current Presiding Bishop. The FGBCF has an Executive Council, a Bishops Council, and several Auxiliary Bishops. The FGBCF has an annual 6 in 1 Conference that convenes in various locations (Atlanta, Georgia; New Orleans, Louisiana) typically in July.

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Gospel

A gospel is an account describing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The most widely known examples are the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John which are included in the New Testament, but the term is also used to refer to apocryphal gospels, non-canonical gospels, Jewish-Christian gospels, and gnostic gospels.

Christianity places a high value on the four canonical gospels, which it considers to be a revelation from God and central to its belief system. Christianity traditionally teaches that the four canonical gospels are an accurate and authoritative representation of the life of Jesus, but many scholars and historians, as well as liberal churches, note that much of that which is contained in the gospels is not historically reliable. This position however, requires a liberal view of Biblical inerrancy. For example, professor of religion Linda Woodhead notes some scholarship reinforces the claim that "the gospels' birth and resurrection narratives can be explained as attempts to fit Jesus’s life into the logic of Jewish expectation". However, New Testament scholar N. T. Wright holds firmly to the historical authenticity of the death and resurrection of Jesus, stating that of the whole Bible, this is the story with the most overwhelming historical evidence.

Church

Church may refer to:

Religion