Biography
Myer Pearlman was born on May 15, 1898, in Scotland, to Jewish parents. His family emigrated to the United States when he was a child, and they settled in New York City. He grew up in a Jewish home in the Lower East Side. He was a gifted and bookish boy, who showed an early interest in religion. At the age of eighteen, he was converted to Christ, through the witness of Pentecostal believers who held meetings in the neighborhood. He said that he had been drawn by the sincerity of their faith. He was baptized in the Holy Spirit soon afterward. His conversion caused a break with his family.
He went to Bible school at the Rochester Bible Training School, in New York, and then to the Eastern Bible Institute, in Pennsylvania. He was an excellent student, with a sharp mind and a love of Scripture. He was ordained in the Assemblies of God and began a ministry as a pastor and evangelist. He also showed a gift for writing and teaching. He joined the faculty of Central Bible Institute in Springfield, Missouri, in the early 1920s. He taught there for the rest of his life.
He was a leading teacher of the Assemblies of God and had a great influence on the thinking of the young denomination. He was a man of wide learning, who read the works of scholars and theologians of many traditions. He taught a systematic theology, which was based on the Bible and which drew on the thought of the church. He wrote a number of books, including Knowing the Doctrines of the Bible, published in 1937. It became the standard theological textbook of the Assemblies of God. It set out the doctrines of the faith in a clear and simple way. It was a landmark in the development of Pentecostal theology.
His other works include The Heavenly Gift, a study of the Holy Spirit, and Through the Bible Book by Book, a survey of the Scriptures. He also wrote commentaries and Sunday school materials and a number of articles. He edited the Sunday school literature of the denomination. He was a clear and careful writer, who sought to give believers a firm understanding of the Bible. He was also a man who took an interest in the Jewish people. He wrote about the Jewish background of the faith and prayed for the salvation of his own people.
He was a quiet and humble man, who preferred study to public life. He was loved by his students, who found him gracious and patient. He had a gentle sense of humor. He also suffered from poor health. In the early 1940s, he was diagnosed with cancer. He continued to teach until he could no longer. He died on August 25, 1943, in Springfield, at the age of forty-five. His work was cut short, but it left a mark on the denomination.
His life shows the effect of a teacher who gives himself to the training of others. A Jewish boy from New York became a guide to a movement, and the textbook that he wrote shaped the minds of thousands.