ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE...

ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE... XX

One Hundred Seventy-five Pentecostal Churches in Sweden Create a New Fellowship - PFFS

Finally everything came to an end. On March 23, in Stockholm Sweden, the Free Pentecostal Church Fellowship"" (PFFS) was established, constituted, and is ready to go. Out of a total of 485 Pentecostal churches, 175 joined the PFFS (representing almost 60,000 people), that is, at the present only one third of the churches esteemed interesting in joining this new adventure. It is very possible that this number will rise later. The PFFS should be considered a non-profit Christian organization.

The meeting in Stockholm hammered the last nail into an organization, something which would have been impossible to even think of ten years ago. Prior to the creation of the PFFS, a long and very heated debate had taken place. A great number of articles were written in favor of and against the new structure. As a result of the decision made in Stockholm, it is not an exaggeration to say that the former Swedish Pentecostal Movement (hereafter SPM) has been divided. For how long, nobody knows.

The debate was characterized by two clear-cut groups. The proponents defended the PFFS out of pragmatic reasons, arguing for administrative and financial gains and a more effective movement. They also believed that an organization would better serve the movement, since it would improve the participation of the small churches and pastors who lived in the remote areas.

The opponents contended that the PFFS would be a radical deviation from the declaration of the non-denominational ecclesiology in 1919 at Kölingared Conference. This declaration signed by the delegates expressed a total and complete opposition against denominational structures of any kind. The opponents also asked for a theological in-depth analysis before any change would take place.

The unity among the SPM churches has always been described as a spiritual fellowship, not an organizational one or a relationship of ""dead forms."" The opposition against denominationalism has been so strong among the SPM pioneers that they referred to denominations as ""the whore system,"" a term taken from the book of Revelation chapter 17.

The SPM was one of the last of the Classic Pentecostal Movements, ending up in a denominational structure.

But the SPM should not only be considered ""classic."" It has been known as radical, and has based its theology upon the independent local church, free from any denominational bonds whatsoever. Its theology made the local church sovereign in all its decisions. The most important issue in this theology has been its ecclesiology. Of course, the SPM also shared the four doctrinal cornerstones of the classic Pentecostalism, such as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the new birth, supernatural healing and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

This web/site will follow very close what happens in the new federation of Pentecostal churches in Sweden.

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