HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PENTECOSTAL CHURCHES IN BENIN USING CHURCH OF GOD MISSION AS CASE STUDY

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to examine the Historical Development of Pentecostal Churches in Benin City using the Church of God Mission as Case Study. The work specifically addressed the history of Pentecostal Movement in Benin City, the life and Ministry of Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa, the origin of Church of God Mission, spread of Pentecostal Churches, and the role of Church of God Mission in the Pentecostal Movement. The charismatic renewal in various churches and general quest for an effective spirituality among Christians of all denominations are the effects of Pentecostalism. It is undisputable that the Pentecostal experience and spirituality have come to stay in most churches in Benin City today. The presence and realness of the divine power is essential to African world view. The question of the case of charisma and miracles, the divine that will not intervene in the living situation and everyday lives of the people was only a bitter pill that many people n Benin City were advised to swallow. The outburst of charismatic experience in the historic churches of the west and its diffusion to Africa, then to Nigeria and finally to Benin City was seen as the divine way of proofing the western theology of a mechanical world where God is a hidden and silent observer, to be an existential unbelief of some western missionaries. Therefore, Pentecostal experiences in the churches in Benin City as “manifestation of spiritual gifts and evident power of the Holy Spirit are being lived and seen as normal Christian life and not as the expressions of a particular movement. This 56 explains why Pentecostal Christianity soon flourished in almost all historic churches in Nigeria.