Pentecostal (Assemblies of God, Church of God, COGIC)

The gifts reading sits as far over as the map goes, which is the whole point. The Assemblies of God teaches that baptism in the Holy Spirit is a distinct experience after conversion, “witnessed by the initial physical sign of speaking with other tongues”. It is the normal Christian inheritance, not a prize for the unusually holy.

On grace Pentecostals stand firmly on the free-response side. Grace comes first and reaches everyone, each person has to say yes, and most Pentecostal bodies hold that someone can later walk away, so assurance is real but is not a sealed verdict.

Worship is free to the edge of the scale: no prayer book, no set readings, a service that can change shape in the room. The Table matches it. The Supper is a memorial of the Lord’s suffering and death, and baptism is for people old enough to ask for it.

On Israel and the church this is openly dispensational, and the statements say so rather than leaving it to custom: the Fundamental Truths name “the Blessed Hope”, the church caught up before the tribulation, and a millennial reign that includes the salvation of national Israel. Authority is Scripture alone, argued from Acts rather than from a council.

Assemblies of God congregations sum the whole thing up in four cardinal doctrines: salvation, baptism in the Holy Spirit, divine healing, and the second coming. Healing is the one most visible from a pew. Prayer for the sick is not tucked into a quiet slot midweek. It happens at the front, out loud, with hands laid on, because these churches hold that healing is provided for in Christ’s atonement and is meant for now.