End of Days by Sylvia Browne

Posted by admin_akashic on Aug 9th, 2022 in Stories

Some Pentecostals believe that speaking in tongues is the sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit but isn’t a requisite of salvation. Others emphasize the need to repent and be baptized in Jesus’s name and then receive the Holy Spirit. All Pentecostals believe, though, that salvation isn’t possible without receiving the Holy Spirit.

The work of the Holy Spirit is an essential foundation of the Pentecostal faith. It’s not an uncommon Christian belief that the Holy Spirit is within everyone who’s been saved. But Pentecostals, unlike most traditional Christian denominations, also believe that the Holy Spirit is more deeply entrenched within those who’ve experienced baptism, bringing them to a closer relationship with God and empowering them for His service. The Holy Spirit can also “sanctify,” which is an act of grace in which the effects of past sins are neutralized and the human tendency toward temptation is eliminated. According to the Pentecostal faith, salvation is only available to those who are genuinely repentant for their sins and worship Jesus as their savior, and Pentecostals believe in the Bible as the ultimate, divine, infallible authority.

Interpreting the Bible literally, the Pentecostal faith keeps a vigilant watch for signs of the impending end of the world as prophesied in the book of Revelation, and they feel that the twenty-first century is filled with those signs. They cite, for example, the international movement to give each citizen of each country a national identification card that will hold all of their personal data, and a technology called RFID (radio frequency identification) in which a microchip containing Social Security numbers, medical records, etc., would be implanted under every citizen’s skin. These developments, they believe, might easily be the pre-apocalyptic warnings contained in Revelation 13:16-17:

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark.

Other signs Pentecostals point to in today’s world that were biblically prophesied as the nearing of the end of days include Putin’s power in Russia, the growing tension between Syria and Israel, international terrorism, Iran’s nuclear program, the declining value of the U.S. dollar, the growth of China’s economic and military power, and the conspicuous changes in global weather.

In other words, as far as many Pentecostals are concerned, we don’t need to worry that the end-times are coming— they’re already here.

The Baptist Church

While some believe that the Baptist Church originated in seventeenth-century England as a result of the Puritan- Separatist movement in the Church of England, many others believe that it was, in essence, founded by Jesus and that it has existed in perpetuity ever since. Their source for the perpetuity belief is Jesus’s proclamation in Matthew 16:18:

And on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.

But whatever its origins, there are general beliefs that form the foundation of the Baptist Church and most of its denominations, among which are that:

the Bible was written by men with God’s inspiration and that it reveals the principles that should guide all human beliefs and conduct;
there is only one true God, the Creator and Ruler of heaven and earth; and that the trinity is created by God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Ghost;
humankind was created in perfection but fell from grace voluntarily by committing the Original Sin in the Garden of Eden;
Jesus was born of Mary, who was a virgin;