History is, paradoxically, both unalterable and in constant need of revision. The past does not change, but we can change our understanding of it based on new facts or better interpretive frameworks.

In Aspects of Assemblies of God Origins, Daniel D. Isgrigg carefully examines narratives, theologies, and issues that shaped the Fellowship in its early years, providing the kind of revision AG history needs today.

Isgrigg is an associate professor of Pecostal history at Oral Roberts University and an ordained AG minister.

The book addresses aspects of AG origins related to historiography; race; sanctification; evangelical identity; eschatology; education and theology; and social engagement. It concludes with suggestions for further research.

Although Isgrigg writes primarily to academics, he offers a wealth of insights that may appeal to anyone with an interest in AG history.

For example, the opening chapter examines the changing ways successive generations of historians have told the AG’s history.

Early historians interpreted the Movement’s origins providentially as the end-times fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

The next generation of scholarly Pentecostals shifted focus from divine intervention to historical events and theological developments.

More recently, historians have incorporated elements earlier generations overlooked. The multicultural approach examines how the Fellowship related to people on its racial and ethnic margins.

A functional approach focuses on how sociological developments — such as institutionalization and social acceptance — changed AG thought and practices.

In isolation, each framework can become reductionistic, excluding important parts of the narrative. Together, however, these frameworks contribute to a well-rounded history.

Although Isgrigg writes primarily to academics, he offers a wealth
of insights that may appeal to anyone with an interest in AG history.

This is important when examining a revival movement that claims divine origins. If historians exclude providence entirely, they fail to capture the story’s essence. On the other hand, if they focus only on the supernatural, they miss the human elements.

Chapter 2 touches on the subject of race. Some historians claim white ministers split from Charles H. Mason’s Black-majority Church of God in Christ to form the Assemblies of God. They see this as evidence that racism played a role in the AG’s origins — which is concerning, if true.

Isgrigg denies this origin story, however. At issue is a 1949 statement by J. Roswell Flower that Howard Goss (like Flower, an AG founder) gained permission from Mason to use the COGIC name. Over the decades, this gave rise to the notion that Goss formed a white branch of COGIC.

The problem is that Flower’s statement is almost certainly incorrect. Goss’ papers do not report such an agreement. His contemporaries, in both the AG and COGIC, were unfamiliar with it. Isgrigg suggests Flower may have conflated a supposed Goss-Mason arrangement with a collaboration between M.M. Pinson (Apostolic Faith) and A.J. Tomlinson (Church of God) regarding the use of the Church of God name.

Furthermore, it is unlikely that Mason’s COGIC and Goss’ COGIC were ever organizationally related, considering their doctrinal division over sanctification. Mason advocated a Wesleyan-Holiness understanding, while Goss was an advocate of the “finished work” view.

The debate over this doctrine deeply divided Pentecostals at the same time Goss was allegedly part of Mason’s organization.

So why did Goss adopt the COGIC name? He was a leader in Charles F. Parham’s Apostolic Faith movement until Parham’s downfall in 1907. Thereafter, remnants of the Parham group used several names before landing first on “Church of God,” then “Church of God in Christ,” and finally “Assemblies of God” after 1914.

Isgrigg argues that the first two were chosen because of biblical precedent (e.g., 1 Thessalonians 2:14; 2 Thessalonians 1:4, KJV), and the last because AG founders considered “assembly” a more literal translation of the Greek word ekklēsia.

Space does not permit even a cursory engagement with the remaining chapters in Isgrigg’s book, which are similarly informative. I enthusiastically recommend it to interested readers.

Isgrigg is also writing a popular history of the denomination. I look forward to seeing how he incorporates themes of his current work into that volume, which is forthcoming in 2025.

Book Reviewed

Daniel D. Isgrigg, Aspects of Assemblies of God Origins: Exploring Narratives, Theologies, and Issues from the Early Years (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2024).

This article appears in the Fall 2024 issue of Influence magazine.