Paul Alexander offers a theological argument that pentecostals should restore the pacifism that marked the movement's inception. Alexander undergirds his argument with a historical narrative that, first, positions pacifism as central to the ethos of early pentecostalism, and not merely, as other scholars have argued, a peripheral though commonly held position on war. (His institutional focus is the Assemblies of God). Second, he argues that pacifism, though an increasingly minority position, nevertheless held sway among pentecostals even through the Second World War; again, a position contrary to the widely-held idea that pacifism disappeared from pentecostalism after the First World War. Third, Alexander posits that pentecostals were co-opted by Cold War conservatism to accept the rule of conscience on matters of war, a decision marked by the Assemblies' acceptance of that position as official in 1967, overturning the pacifist position adopted in 1917. As a contribution to the history of pentecostalism, Alexander offers evidence that pacifism was probably the majority position on war among early pentecostals and that this position persisted among a small but vocal minority even through the Second World War; nevertheless, Alexander needs a more sophisticated historical argument to establish that pacifism was central to the ethos and worldview of pentecostalism, especially through the Second World War, rather than merely a position on the ethics of war. Perhaps his most interesting contribution, and one that could be expanded further by historians, is the Assemblies' acceptance of conscience as an arbiter of ethical questions.