Apostolic Pentecostals from the Book of Acts until today.

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my church,” referring to the rock of revelation of who He is: Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. He said, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church,” and so we can affirm as a matter of faith that God has always had a people throughout history. (See Romans 11:2-5.) He has always had a church. The apostolic church, as defined by the experience and message of Scripture, has never completely disappeared.

At some times a large number of people held to the apostolic faith, at other times perhaps only a handful. For certain decades, there may be no historical record of anyone who was identical in experience and teaching to the apostles. But even if there are historical gaps, we can assert in faith that God had a people born of water and the Spirit, believers who experienced biblical salvation.

To generalize, historically in Christendom there was a great apostasy, an entrance into apostasy, and then, at least among some professing Christians, a gradual return to more biblical teachings. In the nineteenth century there was a great revival of apostolic teaching and experience, with many people embracing the full gospel message of baptism in Jesus’ name and baptism in the Holy Spirit.

The Bible records the faith and ministry of the apostles, who were taught and experienced firsthand by Jesus. Post-apostolic writers such as Polycarp and Clement of Rome also echoed the teachings of the apostles, especially regarding salvation through the new birth in the form of repentance, baptism and reception of the Holy Spirit, as well as various aspects of the Christian life. However, even at this time, various groups, including the Gnostics, the Ebionites, and followers of Marcion, Montanus, and others, began to infiltrate Christian doctrine with various philosophical departures from Scripture within the churches. Thereafter, the Greek apologists began to build the case for Christianity on a philosophical rather than a spiritual basis. During the Catholic and ecumenical ages from 170 to 780 AD, “schools” developed in Asia Minor, North Africa, and Egypt, where Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, and many others began to develop Christianity philosophically. It was also during this time that the first concept of the Trinity was developed and slowly gained acceptance. By the time of Augustine, these doctrines were becoming more refined and accepted. There were always men who recognized the errors in the teachings and implementation of the apostles, such as the schoolmen of Augustine’s time.

From 325 to 787 AD, the 7 great councils shaped the Christian faith not only in thought but also in law. These councils introduced changes of direction in the understanding of Christian doctrine that were markedly different from those of the apostles, many of which are still prevalent in churches around the world today. Constantine and many rulers after him gave more and more political power to the Church, resulting in the inseparable union still found in most parts of Europe today.

With Leo and Gregory, the papacy was established for the first time and authority in the church began to grow. Different teachings about the Godhead as well as the veneration of images. Later came the Inquisition and the increasing desire of religious and political leaders to suppress opposition.

Throughout this time, there were small groups of Christians who resisted these many deviations from apostolic teaching and held fast to the Word of God. Although Holy Scripture was extremely rare and often found only in Latin or Greek, there was still a reliance on oral instruction of the common people.

With insurgent Muslim attacks from the east, increasing corruption within the Church, including the sale of indulgences and other economic abuses, larger groups began to rise up against the established Catholic Church in the 12th century – such as the Waldenses, the Albigenses, the Lollardens and the Hussites. Then in the 16th century, Luther led the Reformation, citing many problems with Catholic beliefs and practices. Until that time, there were small groups, often persecuted and wiped out by the Catholic Church, but they held on to apostolic teaching and resisted the changes and falsifications from all sides. Most of the writings or records of these groups were destroyed. Now, with the help of Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1456, some of these groups were able to better study the Word of God.

Despite the harsh and even violent disagreements in the Reformation between Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin, groups like the Anabaptists grew, rebaptizing those baptized as infants and calling for a holy lifestyle. The Zwickau prophets and Thomas Müntzer of Luther’s time experienced renewal through the Holy Spirit. They were followed by Schwenckfeld, Franck, and Servetus, who returned to the apostolic unity view of God, emphasized the work of the Holy Spirit, and rejected the tradition-bound teachings of the Catholic Church and the Reformers.

In the eighteenth century, the Pietists and Methodists sought to return to a life of obedience to Christ and holiness, giving rise to the Brethren Church and the Moravians, who experienced outpourings of the Holy Spirit, albeit on a small scale.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the emphasis on Scripture continued, leading to the holiness movement and later to the outpourings of the Holy Spirit in the early twentieth century. Nineteenth century. Here there were further, larger outpourings of the Holy Spirit in assemblies of all kinds in America and in England. This then went around the world as people went to these places and returned home with their newfound experience in Christ.

The Apostolic Faith movement grew from the first publication of the magazine of the same name by William Seymour in 1906 through the 1920s, and more and more people were baptized with the Holy Spirit. Various doctrinal issues continued to cause divisions among believers as, step by step, various doctrinal errors of past centuries were rehashed, discussed, and even bitterly debated. Due to disagreements over baptism in Jesus’ name and the Trinity, the Assemblies of God separated from the apostolic faith after a number of their leaders were baptized in Jesus’ name instead of titles.

In Germany, Pentecostalism and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit were repudiated in the Berlin Declaration of 1909, which was quickly refuted in the Mühlheim Declaration of the same year. Although this was echoed in the 1996 Kassel Declaration, there is still widespread opposition to the renewal of the church by the Holy Spirit from that time, and opposition to the Unity Pentecostal doctrine remains strong among church organizations today. However, the study of the Scriptures, the experience of many elders before us, and our own experience bear witness to the apostolic teaching that was renewed and still holds true today.

The United Pentecostal Church Worldwide

The United Pentecostal Church in Munich

The Pentecostal Church of Munich was founded in 2013 by Pastor Mitch Sayers and his wife Jutta after they served as a pastor’s family in Geneva with the Pentecôtistes de Genève congregation.  The Pentecostal Church of Munich is a United Pentecostal Church and belongs to the United Pentecostal Churches of German-speaking Countries (VPG-DACH). The Pentecostal Church of Munich was renamed FelsenHaus – Apostolic Pentecostal Church in 2021 when it moved to Schopenhauerstrasse 97, Munich.