Pentecostals take their name from the biblical feast of Pentecost (in Judaism, the harvest festival of Shavuot), which took place 50 days after Passover. Early followers of Jesus who had gathered for the festival, as described in the New Testament Book of Acts, were said to be "filled with the Holy Spirit" and able to "speak in other tongues."

Although closely resembling evangelical Protestants in many of their doctrinal beliefs, pentecostals part ways with their evangelical cousins by strongly affirming that such practices as speaking in tongues, prophesying, divine healing and other miraculous signs of the Spirit are as valid today as ...