Date
8-29-2025
Department
School of Music
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Christian Worship (PhD)
Chair
R. Scott Connell
Keywords
Pentecostal, worship, singing, heaven, eschatology, Second Coming
Disciplines
Liturgy and Worship
Recommended Citation
Ward, James Paul, "Singing in the Holy Ghost, How the Heavens Will Ring: The Evolution of Eschatological Songs in Classical Pentecostal Corporate Worship" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7387.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7387
Abstract
What Pentecostals believe about God and the Bible is embodied in their worship. This is certainly true for their eschatology. Although much has been written about Pentecostalism, there is a disciplinary convergence worthy of scholarly attention produced over time by the phenomenon of Pentecostals singing their eschatology. Singing songs about heaven was a characteristic of early Pentecostalism at the Azusa Street Revival and has continued through much of the twentieth century, but this phenomenon has evolved since the movement began. Pentecostals have influenced and been influenced by the growth and development of the Contemporary Worship Movement as well as the national and geopolitical events and experiences of life in the twentieth century. It is worth considering whether Pentecostals still believe what they sing and sing what they believe about the future. This study explores how singing eschatological songs has evolved in Classical Pentecostalism through the dynamic interplay of Pentecostal sociological realities throughout their history and the relationship of their music and worship to their eschatological beliefs.
