9 Summary
a 1907–20 When the “new movement” appeared in Sweden it was represented in the daily and confessional press as a sect. In the initial stages “the new movement” was interconfessional in nature, but gained ground among the baptists, where it attracted a number of the younger pastors. “The new movement” was received most favourably within the branch of the baptists which was led from Orebro by John Ongman, its magazines being Svenska Tribunen and Närkes Bladet. In 1913 one of the leading congregations in ”the new movement”, at Philadelphia in Stockholm, was expelled from the Baptist Church on the ground of deviations with regard to Holy Communion, but it was obvious that the new methods of operation and preaching played an important part in the decision. The congregation was led by the young Lewi Pethrus (born 1884). There was a breach between Pethrus and Ongman c. 1915. Pethrus asserted the freedom of the Spirit and of the congregation. The experience of the baptism of the Spirit was to be the foundation of the congregation. The baptism by the Spirit was invariably accompanied by speaking in tongues (glossolalia), a tenet not shared by Ongman. In Pethrus's view, the local congregation should be wholly autonomous. Ongman, on the other hand, advocated loyalty to the mother organization. By c. 1920 “the new movement”, led by Pethrus, had fixed its image in relation to all other denominations. It displayed the characteristic features of a sect, being both apolitical and apocalyptic. It retired into its shell with its message, and professed to renew the Primitive Church, a notion expressed in the designation which came into use c. 1920, namely Pentecostalism.
b 1920–33 By 1933 the Pentecostal sect had grown to comprise over 42.000 members. The period 1920–33 represents a time of consolidation of the young revivalist movement, which drew away from the society and 338
