D.B....
Good points, all. But, I do not share your OVERALL sentiments. Every "Big Historic Event" that is truly significant as was Azusa Street AND as was the Day of Pentecost, are only a foundation to successive progress toward the GRAND QUEST of the church of Jesus Christ.
Phl 3:12 ¶ Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Phl 3:13
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Phl 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Phl 3:15
Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Phl 3:16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
Foundational events that have launched us forward in "the quest" should never be discounted, but rather, they should be just that...foundational events that launch us forward unto those things for which we have been apprehended.
Heb 6:1 teaches us to build on up from the foundation that was already laid, to not be satisfied with the wonderful foundation. We can admire the foundation until we are blue in the face, but unless we BUILD on up, leaving the foundation, building UPWARD, those past historic events will do us little good.
In short; we have not yet arrived. We are still on a journey, walking with Jesus, striving and reaching forth to the prize and the high calling in Christ Jesus. Any idea, theory, or doctrine that would quell or artifically satisfy the thirst for that "which is before," should be discouraged and a new appetite or thirst reborn within our souls for "The Next Big Historic Event" that will bring us closer to the same quest that our father Abraham set upon so long ago which we have not yet realized.
My prayer is "lead on Lord Jesus, I will be swift to follow, swift to hear and swift to obey." I've quoted David so many times, "The path of the just is a shining light that shineth more and more UNTO THE PERFECT DAY."
I appreciate you. I appreciate your thoughts. They were well written.