ABSTRACT
For the first forty years of its existence, Pentecostalism was mostly a pacifist movement proclaiming that disciples of Christ should support nonviolence and nonretaliation. It changed its stance due to the changes that occurred when its members became socially and economically mobile and the movement strove to be accepted in society. These changes were, however, essentially due to a change in its hermeneutical viewpoint in accordance with Evangelicals’ literalist-fundamentalist interpretive strategies. After the 1970s, several theologians within the Pentecostal movement formulated a hermeneutic that concurred to a large degree with the way early Pentecostals viewed and interpreted the Bible, leading inter alia to Pentecostals’ rethinking their nonpacifist stance. It is argued that the movement should change its ethical stance on and discourse about war and violence due to its renewed hermeneutical viewpoint, making the church more relevant in a society where most Christians seemingly accept the Augustinian just war doctrine. If Pentecostals see themselves as being the contemporary restoration of the New Testament church, it should distance itself from political establishmentarianism.
