Summary in English

THE INDEPENDENT LOCAL CHURCH AND THE GIFTS AND MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. THE ECCLESIASTICAL CONCEPT OF THE SWEDISH PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT 1907–1947.

Chapter I. From homeless congregations to Pentecostal movement, 1907–1919.

The Pentecostal revival came to Sweden from the USA via Norway. It was almost immediately repudiated as heretical by the Historical Christian denominations, mainly because of its doctrine of speaking in tongues. The small Baptist Church, known as Filadelfia, became its most important centre. The church was excluded from the Baptist Society because of its so called "Open Communion", which meant that it received other Christians to Holy Communion who were not members of a Baptist church.

Individuals, groups and even whole congregations began leaving their own denomination, especially the Baptist Society, in order to stay free together with the Filadelfia Church. Filadelfia, together with its pastor Lewi Pethrus, soon emerged as the leaders of these churches which existed outside the established denominations. They did not want to organize a new denomination. On the contrary they believed that Christian churches should stay together without any kind of denominational ties. Lewi Pethrus rejected all proposals to return to the Baptist Society. In his opinion every kind of organization was against the New Testament's teaching and thus unacceptable. Christian congregations were to be held together by means of the gifts and ministry of the Holy Spirit. This was what he called "the Unity of the Spirit".

Chapter II. The concept of the independent local church is formed, 1919–1933.

The church in the New Testament became the pattern of these congregations which consistently refused to be organized or to adopt a common constitution. The local church was the centre of their ecclesiastical concept. It was regarded as the highest religious authority. Every kind of organization was considered unbiblical. Only "the Unity of the Spirit" should prevail amongst the churches. The gifts and ministry of the Holy Spirit were quite enough for unity. The belief in

the priority of the independent local church over the denominational church soon became one of the most important doctrines of the Swedish Pentecostal movement. All activities were considered to be run without the aid of organization. The Holy Spirit should lead all practical occupations too. This was applicable both to domestic religious work and missionary work abroad.

After many demands for a co-ordinated missionary work the SFM (Swedish Free Mission) was created as an organ for the missionary work of all the Pentecostal churches in Sweden. This duality of having no organized activity on the home-field and yet a strong organization for the missionary fields resulted in an open conflict during 1929 between Lewi Pethrus and the leader of the SFM, Dr. A P. Franklin. Lewi Pethrus was victorious and Dr. Franklin excluded from the Filadelfia Church. Then the idea of the independent local church prevailed also on the missionary fields.

Chapter III. The Pentecostal movement breaks its isolation, 1933–1947.

The organized denominations opposed the Pentecostal movement during this conflict. The Pentecostal churches retorted by isolating themselves from the denominations over a long period of years. The ecumenical view of the Pentecostals had for many years been negative. They had generally disassociated themselves from the ecumenical movement and renounced all collaboration with the organized denominations.

After the above mentioned conflict they took up a clearly and distinctly negative attitude towards the denominational Christians. Lewi Pethrus pointed to what he considered to be the liberal Bibleviews of the denominations, their interest in politics, and their opposition to the Pentecostal movement during the conflict, but above all because of their organization. These were the alleged reasons why the Pentecostals withdrew from the denominations.

After a while the isolation itself tended to become some sort of a denominational idea but without a written or adopted constitution. In order to break away from this concept and their self-imposed isolation from the other Christians, Lewi Pethrus and the Filadelfia Church tried to renew their fellowship with the Baptist denominations of Sweden and to come to terms with them, possibly even establishing some degree of collaboration. This did not, however, lead to an organiza-

tional unity. The results were a better understanding between the Pentecostals and the various Baptist denominations. The Pentecostal renouncement of organization decreased a little but from an ecumenical point of view the Pentecostals still held their opinions from the thirties.

Chapter IV. The co-operation of the local churches, 1916–1947.

A strong spirit of co-operation existed between the Pentecostal churches. They met regularly at both national and regional conferences. The annual conference at Nyhem was very important for the whole of the Pentecostal movement. The preachers' conference which took place every autumn in Stockholm from 1943 was also very important for the holding together of these churches which had no visible, organizational unity.

At the annual conferences doctrinal and practical problems of mutual interest were taken up and discussed, and likewise local questions were discussed at the regional conferences. Because the Pentecostals kept mostly to themselves, a special Pentecostal theology developed at these conferences, especially at the regional ones where problems were met at a local level. Since the Pentecostals rejected the idea of a training school specially for preachers, the regional conferences kept alive the Pentecostal doctrines. Most debated was, apart from co-operational questions, everything that dealt with the Holy Spirit and His gifts and ministry. Ethical [issues] took a great deal of time and interest, becoming an important part of Pentecostal theology for a long time into the fifties. "The Unity of the Spirit" was always stressed. Only within this unity there was a real "freedom of the Spirit". This freedom, much spoken of during the conferences, was a freedom within the framework of doctrine that was shaped mainly at the regional conferences.

These conferences were not considered to be a means of power over the churches or even with the same degree of authority. They were regarded, however, as a complementary factor to both co-operation and the maintaining of the integrity of the local church.

There is neither a central government for the Pentecostal churches nor a commonly adopted constitution. The independence of these churches is, however with necessity, related to the sum of all the local churches, and is based on the concept of the gifts and ministry of the Holy Spirit.