If the Divinity of Christ is so important to Christian Faith, why is Jesus not stating His divinity overtly?

I think that no one can know exactly for sure, but I would guess that it has something to do with the timing and the socio-political atmosphere that Jesus was in.

In the early part of Jesus’ ministry, He often prevented the demons (who knew who he was and had access to the spiritual realm) to disclose his identity prematurely; perhaps not wanting anyone to worship him before His glorification and His completion of His earthly mission. He however allowed people to slowly draw implications out of his miraculous works and his extraordinary teachings with authority. As times goes on, we see that His claims become more and more explicit; claims that only someone equally divine as the Father can make. Even His opponents after arresting Him, charged Him of claiming himself to be the Son of God, which He could have simply rejected and clarify, and in doing so even save His life; but He went on to say that "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." (Matthew 26:57-65) Thus, confirming further the charge made against Him.

Once Jesus asked His disciples who they think He was, and eventually Peter answered that He is “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16) Jesus once again seems to confirm it and even blessed Peter. Maybe Peter got it right even though Jesus had not yet been glorified, while the rest were maybe still not aware. But after that, it puzzles me that He still warned his disciples not to tell anyone that He is the Christ. Perhaps, just perhaps, that just letting his disciples or just Peter to know and get it was enough for Him. Openly proclaiming it to the public would complicate His mission as the public probably still had a wrong conception of what ‘the Christ’, the ‘Saviour’, ‘Messiah’ means. Maybe only after his resurrection would it all be clear and then would everyone know and understand. And by then neither would he need to state anything anymore. They all get it!

The importance and relevance of the Historical Jesus to the Divinity of Christ.

The quest to know the Historical Jesus has lots to do with the Divinity of Christ because both touches the same question of “who is He?”. However, since they both deal with the same question but on different aspects and dimensions, therefore either one will affect the other. It can’t be denied that both are important and relevant and neither should be discarded, therefore the question is can the two be independent of each other, and if not, which one should precede and lead the other?

The reality of the person of Christ must be based upon historical events and the actual person of Christ himself, not myths or fairy tales. Therefore, the Historical Jesus has partly to do with the actual reality of the person of Jesus in that point of history as well as the events of his life, which includes, of course his life itself (what he did and what he said), his death, and his resurrection. These three events are the basic things on which the Christian faith stands on.

No one wants to believe a Jesus who was only a myth, therefore the historicity of Jesus is of great importance. However, neither does anyone wants to believe in the historical Jesus that is purely from a naturalistic point of view. A naturalistic point of view would discredit the attributes of his divinity and anything supernatural of Him, which would include discrediting his virgin birth, his miracles, his resurrection, etc, making Him just a mere human. It doesn’t make sense to trust in a mere human as our Lord and Saviour. Therefore, the Historical Jesus is of great importance, but it is even more important that the quest of finding it must be first based upon the Divinity of Christ. The two must simply go hand in hand, with the latter leading the former and the former subordinated to the latter; faith must precede reasoning in this matter.

Having the end in mind!

What and how did the doctrine of eschatology impacted or impassioned the Pentecostal movement in the past and the present?

The Pentecostal movement has always considered itself an end time movement. In his book "pentecostal spirituality", Steve Land says that: "Pentecostals have typically understood their entire life in Christ under the rubric of 'Last days ministry'."
I think one of the reasons why the Pentecostal movement thrives even till today and has spread worldwide despite its great but short years at Azusa Street is because of it's world-evangelism urgency. As Blumhoffer expressed: "Above all, Azusa Street was a missionary movement." However what fueled this urgency and movement is their view of Pentecostalism as an endtime event. Well expressed by Margaret M. Poloma when she said: "For most Pentecostals the future determines the present, their view of eschatology governs their view of current events." Pentecostals seems to have and hold on to the conscious understanding that Jesus had empowered his church in fulfillment of Joel's prophecy for one last great revival before the end was the power that energized them into mission. The Pentecostal view of eschatology birth forth an energy created with a clear consciousness of the end in mind. One way to understanding its impact is that if one considers the eschaton as something that is soon to be fulfilled, then the passion of the church for lost soul should also be affected. Hence even presently, Pentecostalism has been so moved in this area that it is one of the fastest growing movements in the world. After only one century, the Pentecostal/charismatic movement had grown at such an amazing pace that by the year 2000, they were second in size only to the Roman Catholic Church as a worldwide family of churches.

Pentecostal - spiritually healthy, vibrant, cutting edge?

Is Pentecostal spirituality healthy, vibrant and on the cutting edge today or is it dissipating? Evaluate, analyze and explain your conclusion.

Well, I think that since the Pentecostal movement is a worldwide movement, than it would be good to see it’s spirituality from a worldwide perspective. Pentecostalism seems to be thriving tremendously all around the world especially in countries that are experiencing revival, such as China, India, Korea, Latin America, Africa, Indonesia, etc. Is Pentecostal spiritually healthy? Healthy things grow in a positive way right, and Pentecostalism is doubtless growing worldwide, some instances more dramatic than others. Pentecostal and charismatic movements are gaining ground. According to one expert on global Pentecostalism, "at least a third" of Asia's Christian population is now charismatic or Pentecostal, and the proportion is 'steadily rising" (Anderson 2004: 123). Is it vibrant? The Korean Pentecostal phenomena, was and still is a phenomenal church growth in effects. Is it cutting edge? An article by Sung-Gun Kim cited that, “Christianity has become exceedingly influential in modern Korean particularly in its Pentecostal guise...... the Korean mega-churches, – numbering amongst the world’s twenty largest Congregations – are mostly Pentecostal. And I think that i can say Korea is just an example, the house churches and under-ground churches in China are another great example. I don’t think that Pentecostalism’s spirituality is dissipating, largely because of its missiological nature. Missions and evangelism is to Pentecostals what flour is to bread. So my personal interesting observation is that as long as there are places where the Gospel of Christ has not been reached, Pentecostalism is likely to fade away. It was effective in the past, even in the days of the apostles; it will be effective in the future where the gospel needs to be preached until the coming day of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Being a Pentecostal?

What is it to be a pentecostal?

I think to be a pentecostal is to believe in certain distinctive features of the pentecostal pattern found in the bible as well as to hold on to some of the original pentecostal revival's practices, responsibilities and mission mindset. To be a pentecostal, is to belief in the existence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is always followed by speaking in tongues as the initial evidence. This is important as i believe it follows a biblical pattern that we can observe from the new testament: on three occasions of the Holy Spirit coming on believers recorded in the bible, all three occasions were followed with the speaking of tongues. A pentecostal also believes in the manifestational gifts of the Holy Spirit. But i think they practice this only after the individual experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Also, after experiencing the baptism of the Holy Spirit, one is expected to be filled with an evangelistic zeal, or passion for missions, as well as being empowered to do so.