Times of refreshment: a look at historic revivals in Britain.

We embark upon the final chapter: 'Here Today, Where Tomorrow?'

This article is part of a series – please see the base of the page for more information.

Here Today, Where Tomorrow?

The 20^th Century will surely go down in history as the century of the Holy Spirit, both due to the amazing worldwide expansion of the Pentecostal movement from the beginning of the century and the charismatic renewal which has swept across the world in the second half of the century. But will it be seen as the pure work of God, representing a turning point in world history? Or will it be seen as a missed opportunity, a work of God spoiled by human hands?

It was often a cry of the prophets of Israel that the nation had moved outside the blessing. The people had deviated from the path set before them by God. They had neglected his word, spurned his law and disobeyed his commands. Therefore, the nation was experiencing judgment rather than blessing. They had brought upon themselves the antithesis of blessing clearly foreseen by Moses in the warnings given, “If you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country…” (Deut 28:15-16).

The biblical record of God's relationship with Israel shows that it was always God's delight to bless his people. This is his intention today just as it was when he called Israel to be his people through whom he could reveal himself to the world and establish them as his servant: “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isa 49:6).

The 'Great Commission' given by Jesus to his disciples to preach the Gospel to all nations reaffirmed God's intention (Matt 28:19). His promise to send the Holy Spirit was to enable the Church to carry out his command: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The 20^th Century will surely go down in history as the century of the Holy Spirit…but will it be seen as a pure work of God?

Outpouring of the Holy Spirit

The fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church at the beginning of the 20^th Century, which resulted in the worldwide Pentecostal movement, is a significant milestone enabling us to understand how God is working out his purposes in our times. As the Church has progressed, two things have happened of immense significance.

• The first is that the worldwide Church has grown at a phenomenal rate. The majority of this growth has been in the poorer non-industrial nations. David Barrett in the Encyclopaedia of World Religions records that in 1900 only 17% of Christians were in the non-western nations. By 1988 this had risen to 53% and he estimated that by the year 2000 this would rise to 61% with only 32% in the rich western nations.¹
  
• The second significant fact is that the Holy Spirit has been renewing and revitalising the life of the traditional churches in the western world. This did not begin to happen until the second half of the twentieth century.²
  

It surely cannot be a mere coincidence that throughout this century a combination of disturbing and destructive social, economic and political forces moved with increasing velocity across the world. It was a century of revolution, of war, terrorism and violence, as well as a century of incredible social and technological change which responsible for almost unbelievable upheavals in every continent and in almost every nation: China, Russia, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, every part of Africa, eastern Europe. The political upheavals which have shaken these nations have been matched by the revolutionary social forces that have swept away the foundations of social stability in most of the western nations.³

There are strong links between these events and the kind of eschatological scenario described in Scripture. Jesus gave a number of specific signs which would mark the nearness of his own Second Coming. They are to be found in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. There are additionally many passages both in the New Testament and in the Old Testament prophets that set the scene for the prelude of the 'Day of the Lord' when he will come to judge the nations.

It is not our purpose to elaborate that theme here, but it is relevant to note that world events towards the end of the second millennium began to become increasingly like the biblical eschatological scenario. Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:10 that it is God's intention to use the Church to reveal himself to the whole universe. It is his purpose to prepare a holy people, a people who love him and trust him and who are empowered by the Holy Spirit to declare his word to the nations.

The Holy Spirit is given to the Church to enable the Church to be the Prophet to the world, prepare the way of the Lord and preach the Gospel of salvation with power and authority.

The Holy Spirit is given to the Church for just this purpose, to enable the Church to be the Prophet to the world, to prepare the way of the Lord and to preach the Gospel of salvation with power and authority, with signs and wonders following. But God can only use a purified people. When his people depart from his ways and run after the values of the world, he withdraws his blessing and eventually removes his presence, leaving them unprotected from the onslaught of the enemy.

There are many indications that this is what we have been seeing in the western nations and also in western churches. We urgently need to learn the lessons recorded in the Old Testament.

Blessing and Judgment

The history of Israel follows a constant cycle of blessing and judgment corresponding to the spiritual health of the nation, as measured by the plumb-line of the people's faithfulness to the word of God. Whenever God blessed the nation and a time of peace and prosperity was being enjoyed, it was not long before the people became unfaithful and turned away from God. Then things began to go wrong because the Lord gradually withdrew his blessing and the cover of his protection. Hosea has a telling passage which describes this process. He records what is essentially a lament of the Lord:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt; you shall acknowledge no God but me, no Saviour except me. I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat. When I fed them they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. (Hosea 13:4-5)

Hosea was writing shortly before the fall of Samaria and the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel and their exile in Assyria. He rightly interpreted the warning signs as things began to go wrong. He knew that the final tragedy would follow the withdrawal of the protecting hand of God when he finally turned his back upon his people leaving them exposed to their enemies. Ezekiel saw this in a vision of the Spirit of God leaving the temple in Jerusalem. He saw the word ichabod - 'Glory departed' - over the city.

Thus blessing and judgment were always part of Israel's experience and are written across every page of her history. They illustrate important spiritual principles which are valid for all time for those who would be the people of God and who desire to experience his blessing.

When we turn away from the word of God, embracing false teaching and false prophecy, the consequences for the whole nation are serious and may even be disastrous, as in the history of Israel. False teaching and prophecy pollute the spiritual life of the Church, distort our discernment and fail to give moral and spiritual correction to the nation. The political, economic and social life of the nation becomes corrupted and standards fall. The ways of God revealed in the Bible also teach us that God holds his servants, particularly the religious leaders, responsible for the state of the nation.

The British Situation

In Britain through the 1990s, we suffered from the consequences of false prophecy given very publicly by the Kansas City Prophets in 1990. Reference has already been made to this in previous instalments in this series, but it is of sufficient importance to warrant further consideration since this marked a major turning point in the history and direction of the charismatic movement in Britain.

Bob Jones, Paul Cain and John Paul Jackson all proclaimed that a mighty revival would be experienced in Britain in 1990, saying that it would spread across England into Scotland and then across the North Sea and throughout Europe. Paul Cain was even more explicit, stating that the revival would begin in London in October 1990 when John Wimber was due to lead a mission at the Docklands Conference Centre, East London.⁴

False teaching and prophecy pollute the spiritual life of the Church, distort our discernment and fail to give moral and spiritual correction to the nation.

Just as Hananiah's false prophecy (Jer 28) came as a welcome relief from the stern message which Jeremiah had been preaching for a number of years, so this promise of revival came as sweet, enchanting music to the ears of many faithful believers who were longing for revival and had been interceding earnestly for many years. But they were misled. It was a false prophecy. I said so publicly six months before the October conference.5 I had personal contact with all three men, including face-to-face discussions. But the bandwagon was already rolling with, what was by British standards, extraordinary hype.

Tens of thousands flocked to hear these men with a popular message as they travelled across the country touring the provinces before their big London event. By the time of the Docklands Conference expectations were running high and before the end of the week they reached fever pitch, with John Wimber commanding the Holy Spirit to come down. But God did not come upon his people in power like a mighty rushing wind as at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit does not obey the commands of men!

There were many signs that Britain was not yet ready for revival. For a number of years, it had been apparent that God was shaking the nations in order to shake the confidence of mankind in material things and cause the nations to turn to him, the living God, to heed his word and to walk in the paths of righteousness. Then in due time the blessing of God would be poured out upon nations that turned to him. The Scripture underlying this hope was:

In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I win shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory’, says the LORD Almighty. (Haggai 2:6-7)

1990 was too soon for a great revival. The boom years of the 1980s had to be followed by the bust years of the 1990s. The pride and complacency engendered by the success of the greedy acquisitive policies of the 1980s had to be broken. The corruption that accompanied the greed in the commercial and financial institutions had to be exposed. It can now be plainly seen that the seed sown in the 1980s reaped a bitter harvest in the 1990s. But this was all part of God's intention to allow evil to reap its own reward and to bring about a humbling of powerful leaders in the political and business life of the nation.

The exposure of greed and corruption in the 1990s – and since - brought about dramatic revelations much capitalised on by the media, always hungry for sensation. The revelations have included abhorrent sexual activities by politicians and celebrities, failures of banking institutions, financial scandals, huge wage inequalities and impunity enjoyed by many in the corporate and finance sectors.

This has all been part of the shaking of the nation to prepare the way for the Gospel, in just the same way as a farmer prepares the ground to receive the seed so that it may take root and bear fruit, giving an abundant harvest.

Prophecy plays an important part in the preparation for the word of God by giving the spiritual interpretation of physical events. There are numerous examples of this in Scripture, such as Jeremiah's explanation for the withholding of the spring rains (Jer 3:3), and the powerful explanation given by Amos of drought, blight, plagues and other disasters (Amos 4:6-12).

Prophecy plays an important part in the preparation for the word of God by giving the spiritual interpretation of physical events.

It has always been God's intention that his Church should be the Prophet to the nation, declaring his unchangeable word in a changing world and making it applicable to each generation so that the will and purposes of God can be readily understood.

It is the responsibility of those who exercise a prophetic ministry to be the eyes and ears of the Church, to interpret events in accordance with principles laid down in Scripture so that the whole Church can carry out its prophetic function in the nation, turning the people back to God when they have gone astray and leading the nation into the paths of righteousness where the blessing of God will be experienced.

It was for this reason that the Holy Spirit was poured out afresh in the 20^th Century and that New Testament ministries were restored.

Next week: Dr Hill's summation about the Kansas City Prophets.

References

1 Quoted in Rich Christians, Poor Christians by Monica Hill (London, Marshall Pickering 1989), p2. For 2018 figures, click here.

2 Ibid, p60f.

3 See Shaking the Nations by Clifford Hill (Eastbourne, Kingsway, 1995).

4 Reported by Rick Williams at a clergy conference in St Andrew's Chorleywood, 7 March 1990, transcription of tape.

5 Prophecy Today, Vol 6 No 4, July/August 1990.

Series Information

This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’, an analysis of the ‘Toronto Blessing’ and a wider critique of the charismatic movement in the late 20^th Century. Click here for previous instalments and to read the editorial background to the series.

David Noakes concludes his chapter.

Having provided his own personal testimony about the Toronto phenomenon, David finishes his chapter with some scriptural teaching on discernment.

This article is part of a series. Please see the base of the page for more information.

The Need for Repentance

Reflection upon the history of the charismatic renewal movement as I have experienced it leads me to the conclusion that we began well, but that increasingly we have departed from the purposes of God.

We have done this as a result of having moved progressively farther from an adherence to his word, a process which accelerated alarmingly during the 1980s and 1990s. I believe we are in imminent danger, if the trend is not checked, of reaching a point where we can no longer be said to care about biblical truth, but only about enticing experiences.¹

Repentance is urgently needed in order that God should not finally give us up to the delusion which we seem to desire more than the truth of the word.

The triumphalist teachings of Dominion theology lead inevitably to a post-millennialist view of eschatology; and with this comes also a rejection of the consistent testimony of Scripture concerning God's intention to fulfil all his stated purposes for the nation of Israel. To deny those purposes and to declare the Church to have replaced the descendants of Jacob as the inheritor of all the covenant promises of God makes out his word to be a lie and distorts its testimony.

This issue is of fundamental importance. Taking his farewell of the elders of the Ephesian church, Paul declared, “I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God” (Acts 20:26-27, NASB).

The charismatic renewal movement began well, but increasingly has departed from the purposes of God.

We can only have a right understanding of the will and purpose of God for the Church in the days in which we live if we accept as truth the whole of the revelation contained in Scripture, but a false hope of revival and rulership here and now has been substituted for the true biblical hope of the Second Coming of Jesus and the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom.

Unbiblical doctrine gives rise to unbiblical expectations and opens the door to increasing error and deception.

Spiritual Discernment

What could and should have saved us from getting to the position we have now reached? I have no doubt in my own mind that the phenomenon of the 'Toronto Blessing' constitutes the next experience of a floodtide of deception such as I was shown at the time of the Kansas City Prophets. What will come next? We are in increasing danger.

We would not have fallen prey to the confusion brought into the Church by successive waves of deception if we had known and applied the principles of spiritual discernment given to us in the pages of Scripture. We have already referred to the test as to whether spiritual activity conforms to God's ways as revealed in the Bible.

When in Toronto, I heard given consistently from the public platform the injunction that people should not feel the need to weigh and test anything that was happening: that it was all from God, who was present in such a powerful way that satan could not gain access. People should therefore 'open up their minds, put down their defences and go with the flow'.

Not only is this utter folly; it is also plain disobedience to the Lord - clearly contradicting the command contained in his word. satan is the “prince of the power of the air” (Eph 2:2, RSV) and we can never safely assume on this earth that he is denied access. Therefore, the Church is instructed in all gatherings, particularly where spiritual manifestations are taking place, to be alert and on guard: “Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil” (1 Thess 5:19-22, emphasis added).

What exactly are we testing? Our principal concern is to test the source of origin from which the spiritual activity is proceeding, be it prophecy, tongues, healing, or whatever. Our principal question is: what manner of spirit is operating behind and inspiring this activity? Is it the Holy Spirit? If so, all is well; but if not, we must be on guard and refuse to accept the activity as valid.

We would not have fallen prey to the confusion of successive waves of deception if we had known and applied the principles of spiritual discernment given us in Scripture.

An obvious and immediate test is that of the word of God. Does the utterance, or teaching, or activity conform to the revelation of Scripture? If not, we may dismiss it at once.

We are also commanded to test the spirits and not to be so gullible as to believe that every spirit is from God (1 John 4:1). How may we do this?

Acknowledgment of Jesus

1 John 4:2-3: If a spirit does not acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh it is not from God, but is the spirit of the antichrist.

Learn to Recognise

1 John 2:20-21, 26-27: “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth...I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit just as it has taught you, remain in him.”

Every believer who has received the Holy Spirit has this anointing from the Lord. It has the effect upon us that our own spirits have the capacity to recognise what is true, genuinely from the Lord, and what is not. As Jesus said (John 10:3-5), his sheep know his voice and can distinguish it from a stranger's voice.

Unfortunately, very few believers have been taught to recognise and to respond to the witness of their own spirits within them. Most of us will probably have experienced the sense of the inward lifting or rising of our spirit when something is genuinely from the Lord; and conversely the sense of deadness or heaviness, or even alarm-bells, when the source is not from God.

However, many believers tend to ignore or quench that inner witness, often because they rely on leadership to do all the discerning; or because they think that a trusted minister cannot get it wrong, so their own discernment must be at fault. Anybody can be in error, and we should never take anything for granted.

It is for all Christians to take heed of the inner witness with which the Lord has supplied us; and if we do so, it leads to the safety of the whole Body. This inner witness is often the first indication we receive in any particular situation of whether the Holy Spirit is active, or perhaps simply a human spirit operating in the flesh, or sometimes a demonic spirit. It is of great importance.

It is for all Christians to take heed of the inner witness with which the Lord has supplied us.

Distinguish Between Spirits

1 Corinthians 12:10: The Holy Spirit manifests through believers “the ability to distinguish between spirits”. This is the witness given directly from the Holy Spirit through one or more believers to enable us to identify the spirits operating in a situation, to receive the awareness of what manner of spirit is active.

If it is not from God, then it may be, for example, a lying spirit, an unclean spirit, a seducing spirit, a spirit of pride, or greed, or whatever else may be at work. Through this gift the Holy Spirit reveals to God's people the exact type of demonic activity which is opposing them.

The operation of this gift is of vital importance in any situation of supernatural spiritual activity. Any believer may be used by the Holy Spirit in this way and it is a great mistake to rely solely on the leaders, or for leaders to seek to keep all matters of discernment within their own hands.

Put to the Test

1 Corinthians 14:29: Where prophecy in particular is concerned there must be a careful weighing of what is said. Of all spiritual manifestations, prophecy is potentially both the most valuable and also the most dangerous, because of its great capacity either to edify or to mislead those who hear and receive it as being a direct communication of the mind of God.

The same root word is used as in 1 Corinthians 12:10 - the Greek verb diakrino, meaning 'to distinguish, to make a separation' between true and false. When prophecy is weighed, both the content of what is spoken and the spirit responsible for inspiring the utterance should be put to the test of both the witness of the Holy Spirit and the inner witness of the spirits of those who are present.

Practise Discernment

Finally, we should take notice of Hebrews 5:14: “...solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil”.

Again the verb diakrino is used. God wants all believers to come to maturity, and continual alertness to distinguish what is of God from what is not is a hallmark of a mature believer. Practising discernment in the ways which the Bible reveals should be a way of life for a Christian.

Of all spiritual manifestations, prophecy is potentially both the most valuable and also the most dangerous, because of its great capacity either to edify or mislead.

If these ways of discernment had been taught and practised within the charismatic churches in the way which the Bible instructs and encourages, much deception and difficulty could have been avoided. The hour is late and deception has made deep inroads, but my plea is that we might embrace repentance in these areas while there is yet time.

If we return wholeheartedly to the word of God as final and unquestioned authority in all matters; if we embrace the biblical teaching concerning the nation of Israel; and if we become diligent to distinguish the genuine activity of the Holy Spirit from all other manifestations, then surely the Lord will deliver us from error, and instead of the Ishmael which we have produced, will bring forth for us the Isaac of his original purpose.

Next week: We move on to the final chapter of Blessing the Church?, written by Dr Clifford Hill: ‘Here Today, Where Tomorrow?’

Notes

1 Please note that the original time of writing was 1995.

Series Information

This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’, an analysis of the ‘Toronto Blessing’ and a wider critique of the charismatic movement in the late 20^th Century. Click here for previous instalments and to read the editorial background to the series.

David Noakes’s own visit to Toronto in 1994.

David Noakes continues his personal account of witnessing the Toronto ‘experience’.

This week’s re-printed excerpt includes a NEW additional note from the author on the practice of laying on hands.

My Toronto Experience

The phenomenon of Kansas City did recede, although it left behind a lot of confusion and unresolved issues, and I thought little about the beach picture (outlined last week) again for some years.

Then, in the early months of 1994, we began to hear of the amazing things which were being reported from Toronto. As the reports continued to flow in, I was being urged by many people to visit and experience what was happening there. Having no great desire to go and with a busy schedule, I resisted the idea for several months, but finally I was convinced that the Lord was requiring me to make the trip and I went to Toronto for a week's visit.

I arrived in Toronto on Friday 14 October, 1994 and attended meetings in the concluding days of the large 'Catch the Fire' conference which had been taking place during that week. These meetings took place in a large auditorium of a local hotel, which was capable of containing, I would guess, some two to three thousand people.

During the times of worship, I felt as if I were in a rock concert. The level of noise was deafening to the point of being physically painful and oppressive, and brought an increasing sense of unreality. This, together with the insistent rhythmic beat of the drums and of the bass guitar tends to induce a state bordering on hypnosis in susceptible people and creates a spiritual atmosphere in which I would say without hesitation that the demonic can thrive.

During these times of worship, many people began to exhibit jerking bodily movements which were unnatural. Some of these people appeared to be in a state of trance. From a number of years' experience of deliverance ministry, I would identify a good deal of what I saw as proceeding from demonic spirits associated with occult practices, particularly voodoo.

I was urged by many people to visit Toronto and resisted the idea for several months, but finally I was convinced that the Lord was requiring me to make the trip.

There were some women near to where I was standing whose bodily movements were unmistakably those of increasing sexual excitement, reaching a point at which they fell to the floor. All of this was perhaps hardly surprising in an atmosphere which was really not unlike that of a pop concert in which the fans get worked up to an increasing height of frenzy. What disturbed me most was not that satan was active - of course he always is - but the failure of leadership to distinguish between the spirits which were operating.

Particular Line of Teaching

The teaching which I encountered in Toronto was to the effect that because God is doing a work amongst his people, therefore everything which takes place is by definition an activity of the Holy Spirit and it is assumed that satan is inactive.

I have never encountered any form of teaching which is more dangerous or which could open the door so widely to deception and the undetected activity of a demonic spirit. To make such an assumption was a total abdication of one of the principal responsibilities of Christian leadership. The warnings in Scripture about deception were being completely ignored and such teaching flies in the face of scriptural commands that when any form of spiritual activity is seen to be taking place, it is to be weighed and tested and an assessment is to be made as to whether its origin is truly from God.

The teaching from Toronto, however, set aside the spiritual gift of distinguishing between spirits (1 Cor 12:10) and ignored the clear teaching of other scriptures. In 1 Corinthians 14:29 we are told that where prophecy is being spoken in the assembly of the church, we are to “weigh carefully what is said”. The words underlined are a translation of a Greek word which comes from exactly the same root as the word used in 1 Corinthians 12:10 for the discerning of, or distinguishing between, spirits.

The instruction of 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, again in the context of spiritual manifestations, is that we should “test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil”. Here the Greek word translated 'test' has the meaning of examining a thing, putting it to the test to determine whether or not it is genuine; and the identical word is found in 1 John 4:1: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (emphasis mine).

The word of God warns us consistently never to accept spiritual manifestations as being from the Holy Spirit unless their source has been put to the test by the body of believers and discerned to be genuine.

The word of God warns us consistently never to accept spiritual manifestations as being from the Holy Spirit unless their source has been put to the test by the body of believers and discerned to be genuine.

It is the height of folly and irresponsibility to ignore such scriptures in days when not only the activity of God but also the activity of satan is becoming greater and more widespread. If we are to accept that in some particular situation such as this, it is in order for discernment to be discarded, where will such a teaching end? How are we to know where, if at all, we should draw the line?

The warnings of Scripture in, for example, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 and Revelation 13:13-14, are now coming all too close for comfort, and a Church which had not learned to distinguish between good and evil (Heb 5:14) will be a target for any kind of deception which begins to take place. I am concerned about the demonic activity which I saw taking place in some people in Toronto, but I am far more alarmed at the potential results of this particular line of teaching.

Laying On of Hands (see also NEW Author’s Note, base of article)

On a number of occasions since my visit to Toronto, believers have requested prayer at the conclusion of a meeting at which I have spoken. They have done so because they had previously submitted to laying on of hands in order to receive the 'Toronto Blessing', and had since felt unaccountably troubled in spirit in a way which had previously been foreign to them.

Every such person to whom I have ministered has shown evidence of being under demonic oppression and has received specific deliverance in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is not of course to suggest that all those who have had contact with the Toronto Blessing have come into spiritual bondage; to jump to such a conclusion would be entirely unwarranted. What has seemed to me to be of considerable significance, however, is the repeated combination of two factors.

In every one of these cases, the person for whom I have been asked to pray had first received a spiritual impartation by means of the laying on of hands by another person who had themselves already received it; and secondly, had subsequently become disturbed in spirit in a way which they had not experienced before.

I believe these facts should draw our attention to an issue which is of greater importance than perhaps we have previously realised. A few days before I went to Toronto, I was waiting upon the Lord and was given a short word of encouragement and instruction. I wrote it down, and now quote a passage whose relevance has become increasingly apparent:

Do not accept the laying on of hands from anyone except those whom you know from experience to be trustworthy and to have my Spirit within them. To submit voluntarily to the laying on of hands is to submit to the spiritual power that is within a man. When this power is that of the Holy Spirit, then you will receive blessing through that which is good; but where it is not, evil can be transferred.

More recently my attention has been drawn to the lesson contained in Haggai 2:10-14. In it, two questions are posed. The first is whether if consecrated meat comes in contact with other food, the consecration is thereby transferred to the un-consecrated food; and the answer is that it is not. The second question is whether if a person who is ceremonially defiled through contact with a dead body touches food, that defilement is transferred to the food so that it also becomes defiled; the answer this time is affirmative.

It is the height of folly and irresponsibility to ignore such scriptures in days when not only the activity of God but also the activity of satan is becoming greater and more widespread.

The message is plain: spiritual consecration cannot be transferred by physical contact, as in the laying on of hands. If a man has received spiritual blessing, he cannot pass it on to another in this way (if he is spiritually undefiled and lays hands on another, the Holy Spirit may move directly upon that other person but where that is the case, there is no spiritual transference taking place between the persons themselves).

Spiritual defilement however, can be transferred from one to another through physical contact. It is well established, for example, that such a transference of spirits can take place through illicit sexual activity. If one man has come under the influence of an evil spirit, the influence can be transferred to another who submits voluntarily to the laying on of his hands.

We need to beware of careless practices and to exercise godly vigilance and caution. Paul warns: “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure” (1 Tim 5:22). It is imperative for our safety that we take heed to the instructions of Scripture; they are given for the protection and wellbeing of the whole Body.

Misuse of the Word of God

While I was at Toronto, and even more in the months which followed, I had an increasing concern - to the point of considerable alarm - at the ways in which the word of God was now being mishandled by many leaders in the charismatic churches.

The misuse and distortion of Scripture in order to try to justify bizarre spiritual manifestations with some sort of theological explanation has been appalling; it has been as if attempts were being made to underpin a collapsing building with any piece of rubble which comes to hand.

The difficulty has been that the 'building' in question does not have any foundation in Scripture, however desperate the attempts to find one. At the Airport Vineyard Fellowship in Toronto, I heard the Pastor give a message in which he declared that Isaiah 25:6 was a description of what God was currently doing - God was in 'feasting mode'. Yet that Scripture had no possible relevance to any present situation; it is lifted straight out of the context of an apocalyptic passage relating to the events of the Day of the Lord and what will happen at the Second Coming of Christ.

Again, in the course of the same message, he made reference to the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32, and declared that it teaches that God loves any opportunity to hold a party. Yet its emphasis is nothing of the sort, but rather the greatness of God's fatherly forgiveness and restoration of a repentant sinner.

The misuse and distortion of Scripture in order to try to justify bizarre spiritual manifestations with some sort of theological explanation has been appalling.

A further example of such extraordinary misuse of Scripture came when a prominent Anglican leader visited a church where I have a friend in leadership. His message consisted of encouragement to welcome unusual spiritual manifestations, including the making of animal noises, and it was based on one sentence taken out of Isaiah 28:21: “to do his work, his strange work”. These few words, again lifted out of context, were declared to justify the idea that the bizarre activities were a 'strange work' which God is doing in these days, and that they should therefore be accepted without further question.

But in the context, what is actually being described is a work of judgment and destruction by God against his own covenant people of Israel, and it is to him a 'strange work' and an 'alien task', because it is foreign and abhorrent to God's normal desire to bless his people and to act in mercy rather than in judgment. Theologically, therefore, the previous sort of teaching has no validity.

Drunk in the Spirit

The strange and un-coordinated behaviour of many who have been touched by the Toronto experience has frequently been described as being due to people being 'drunk in the Spirit'. I have myself for many years been familiar with the phenomenon of people who are receiving ministry from the Holy Spirit experiencing loss of bodily strength so as to be temporarily too weak to rise from their chair or from the floor; indeed, I also have had the same experience. Never before, however, have I seen the spectacle of people staggering about, slurring their speech and showing other characteristic signs normally associated with alcoholic intoxication.

The concept that a person can be 'drunk in the Spirit' is one of which Scripture knows nothing. Two passages have been used frequently to try to justify the idea, but they entirely fail to do so when subjected to proper interpretation.

In Acts 2:1-13, what is being described is the phenomenon, historically unprecedented and utterly amazing, of about 120 people suddenly beginning to declare the wonders of God in a host of different foreign languages. It was only those who mocked what was happening who suggested drunkenness as the cause, but the majority of the onlookers were simply described, understandably enough, as “amazed and perplexed”. There is no suggestion whatever of any behaviour which justified the description of physical drunkenness, and to try to read it into the text is to abuse the word of God. Is Peter's sermon that of a drunken man?

The second Scripture used in this context is Ephesians 5:18, but it says nothing whatever about being drunk in the Spirit. Indeed, coming at the end of a lengthy passage urging the believer to avoid ungodly behaviour, it would be astonishing if it did! The verse forbids being drunk (literally 'soaked') with wine, the evidence of which is debauched (literally 'unsaved') behaviour (v18). Instead, believers are to be filled with the Spirit.

Everywhere in Scripture, drunkenness is condemned as ungodly. How can we therefore accept that the Spirit of God would deliberately bring about in a believer the evidence of drunken behaviour?

The Greek verb used is pleroo, which had nothing to do with drunkenness, and the evidence of being in that condition is that they will produce psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (v19), thanksgiving to God (v20) and submission to one another out of reverence for Christ (v21), not slurred speech and drunken behaviour!

Everywhere in Scripture, drunkenness is condemned as ungodly. How can we therefore accept that the Spirit of God would deliberately bring about in a believer the evidence of drunken behaviour as if he were intoxicated with alcohol? The thing is utterly unthinkable, unless one discards the consistent teaching of the Word of God as irrelevant. Sadly, and most frightening of all, this is what some charismatic leaders are now beginning to do.

Extra-Biblical Experience

Animal noises, convulsions, bodily jerkings, loss of speech control and the like, are being described as 'extra-biblical' phenomena - which they certainly are. This feature of the activities should, however, put an immediate question mark over their authenticity; normally, unbiblical experience is found to emanate, not from the Holy Spirit, but from the realm of the demonic.

But among many leaders, no such questioning has taken place; but rather the reverse. It has even been suggested that the spiritual experiences and the manifestations of the Holy Spirit recorded in the pages of the New Testament were the experience of the Church in its infancy in those early days; but that now in our day the Church is being brought into maturity and we must therefore expect experiences from God which were unknown to the early Church and therefore not to be found in the Bible. We are consequently in uncharted waters, being led solely by the Spirit. This opens the Church to precisely the danger which Paul defines in Ephesians 4:14.

This sort of teaching, if pursued to its logical conclusion, is the height of dangerous folly. It is like saying that our maps are no longer of use to us because we have gone beyond their boundaries. We can no longer check our course, but must trust that any wind which happens to blow will take us in the right direction. We have discarded, however, all means of knowing either where the wind is coming from or the direction in which we are heading. In fact, we are drifting helplessly at the mercy of any force which may influence us.

A teaching which discards the Bible as the final authority for the validity of Christian experience is a teaching which emanates straight from the master of deception himself. It tears down the boundary walls which God has erected for the safety of his people, and it opens the door wide for the charismatic Church to join in an unwitting embrace with the New Age movement and all its occult activities.

A teaching which discards the Bible as the final authority for the validity of Christian experience is a teaching which emanates straight from the master of deception himself.

In the mid-90s, I even had reported to me instances of levitation occurring at Toronto-type meetings at a church in the north of England. Where will the line be drawn? On the basis of this sort of thinking and teaching, why should not telepathy or astral travel or any other occult practices be embraced under the deception that they are God's latest blessings to his maturing Church?

Unless there is repentance and a return to an acknowledgment of the supreme and ultimate authority of the word of God, the Church is being led into a place of great spiritual peril.

Next week: David concludes his chapter, looking at the need for repentance and discernment.

**NEW**

[Editor: Following some feedback that Blessing the Church? seems to advocate against the practice of laying on hands, we felt clarification was necessary and approached David for further comment. His response is below.]

Author’s Note

The issue which I was seeking to tackle [in Blessing the Church?] was the very important one of transference of spirits from one human being to another. 20 years ago this was a subject which hardly ever received any attention by bible teachers; but to those of us who had been brought into experience of deliverance ministry, it was realised to be an important factor in some cases where folk were being demonically troubled. Our brothers Edmund Heddle and John Fieldsend in particular highlighted its importance to me.

This significant issue was underlined in my own experience following my visit to Toronto in 1994; following that visit, I found myself being asked to pray after almost every meeting for believers who had sought to receive the ‘Toronto Blessing’ - and had subsequently found themselves in unexpected spiritual difficulties. In each such case, when I ministered to such people, they received specific deliverance from certain powerful demonic spirits which had not been troubling them previously.

It was a matter of some perplexity for a time, however, that I was also being told by some who had been to similar ‘Toronto’-type meetings that they had received a genuine fresh experience of the Holy Spirit. This perplexity was finally resolved when I began to find that those people had been seeking the Lord for himself - and in his faithfulness, he had met with them by the Holy Spirit.

Those who were troubled, however, had attended with a different motive - not to seek the Lord for who he is, but wanting to receive the ‘Toronto Blessing’ because it was new, exciting and carried with it spectacular manifestations. The former group had met with the Lord, with good results; while the latter had received what they had gone for, which was actually demonic and brought harm to their spiritual lives, and also to many churches.

What I also found was that without exception, in my experience, those who had been affected by ungodly spirits had received an impartation of the ‘Blessing’ through the laying on of hands by another person who had already received it.

This drew my attention to the vital matter of what can occur through the laying on of hands - impartation of spirits from one to another. The Holy Spirit is not imparted from one human being to another, but is given to individuals by the sovereign act of God (e.g. Num 11:17, 25). In John 19:22, Jesus breathed on the disciples and said "Receive Holy Spirit". In Acts 8:17 and 19:6, we are told of the apostles laying hands on new believers, and the Holy Spirit came upon them - but there is no suggestion that the Holy Spirit was transferred from them to the believers; He came upon them in response to the action of the apostles, which is very different, being a sovereign work of God.

These verses attest to the transfer of the Holy Spirit to a person in response to a believer's obedience in laying on of hands. However, experience in ministry has shown over and over again that other spirits can transfer through physical contact to a person who is open to receive them. Illicit sexual intercourse is one outstanding example; but voluntary submitting to the laying on of hands is another easy means of physical transference of demonic spirits (it is important to emphasise that the person has to be willing and receptive. It cannot just happen simply by being in the company of someone who is demonised; we must be willing to receive from them).

When we allow a person to lay hands on us, we open ourselves to receive from them. There is danger in this if we don’t know the person. They may be harbouring one or more unclean spirits, and when we allow them to lay hands on us, these can and often do transfer to us if we are open and unguarded. For this reason, we should certainly not allow unknown people to minister directly to us. Scripture urges us to "guard our hearts with all diligence" (Prov 4:23).

I do hope this brief attempt to explain will prove to be of some help.

David Noakes, 12 April 2018

Series Information

This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’, an analysis of the ‘Toronto Blessing’ and a wider critique of the charismatic movement in the late 20^th Century. Click here for previous instalments and to read the editorial background to the series.

Prophetic warnings given within the charismatic movement during the 1970s and '80s.

After last week’s study examining biblical definitions of prophecy and false prophecy, this week Clifford Hill turns to the kinds of prophetic words that came to define the charismatic movement in the latter part of the 20^th Century.

This article is part of a series, republishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’ (Hill et al). Click here for previous instalments.

Two Strands of Prophecy

An examination of prophecies coming out of the charismatic movement reveals two strands. On the one hand there have been prophecies giving warnings of difficult days and testing times.

Secondly, by contrast, there have been prophecies with promises of revival and restoration, predicting good times and days of prosperity.

We look this week at those prophesying testing times and the shaking of the nations.

Warnings

Some of the earliest prophecies giving warning of difficult days ahead were given in the mainline churches. The following, for example, was given in 1975 at an international conference of Catholic Charismatic Renewal Groups:

Because I love you, I want to show you what I am doing in the world today. I want to prepare you for what is to come. Days of darkness are coming on the world, days of tribulation…Buildings that are now standing will not be standing. Supports that are there for my people will not be there. I want you to be prepared, my people, to know only me and to cleave to me and to have me in a deeper way than ever before. I will lead you into the desert…I will strip you of everything that you are depending on now, so you depend just on me.

A time of darkness is coming on the world, but a time of glory is coming for my church, a time of glory is coming for my people. I will pour out on you all the gifts of my Spirit. I will prepare you for spiritual combat. I will prepare you for a time of evangelism that the world has never seen…And when you have nothing but me, you will have everything: lands, fields, homes, and brothers and sisters, and love and joy and peace more than ever before. Be ready, my people, I want to prepare you…¹

Prophecies coming out of the charismatic movement follow two strands: either giving warnings of difficult days or promising revival and prosperity.

Another prophecy, even more specific in its warnings of economic and social upheaval, came from Catholic charismatic renewal groups at a national meeting in the USA in January 1976:

Son of man, do you see that city going bankrupt? Are you willing to see all of your cities going bankrupt? Are you willing to see the bankruptcy of the whole economic system you rely upon now, so that all money is worthless and cannot support you?

Son of man, do you see the crime and lawlessness in your city streets, and towns, and institutions? Are you willing to see no law, no order, no protection for you except the protection which I myself will give you?

Son of man, do you see the country which you love? Are you willing to see no country, no country to call your own except those I give you as my body?

Son of man, do you see those churches you can go to so easily now? Are you ready to see them with bars across their doors? Are you ready to depend only on me and not on all the institutions of schools and parishes that you are working so hard to foster?

Son of man, I call you to be ready for that.

The structures are falling and changing. It is not for you to know the details now, but do not rely on them as you have been. I want you to trust one another, to build an interdependence that is based on my Spirit. This is an absolute necessity for those who would base their lives on me and not on the structures of a pagan world.²

There were many prophecies of a similar vein in the mid-1970s. One came from the USA and was addressed specifically to church leaders. It was given at an inter-denominational charismatic renewal conference which was attended by leaders of most of the mainline churches, including Pentecostals, but with the exception of the Assemblies of God. The prophecy was a strong word calling for repentance:

The Lord has a word to speak to the leaders of all the Christian churches. If you are a bishop or a superintendent or a supervisor or an overseer or the head of a Christian movement or organization, this word is for you. The Lord says:

You are all guilty in my eyes for the condition of my people, who are weak and divided and unprepared. I have set you in office over them, and you have not fulfilled that office as I would have it fulfilled, because you have not been the servants I would have called you to be.

This is a hard word, but I want you to hear it.

You have not come to me and made important in your lives and in your efforts those things which were most important to me; but instead you chose to put other things first. You have tolerated division among yourselves and grown used to it. You have not repented for it or fasted for it or sought me to bring it to an end. You have tolerated it, and you have increased it.

And you have not been my servants first of all in every case, but you have served other people ahead of me, and you have served your organization ahead of me. But I am God, and you are my servants. Why are you not serving me first of all?

I know your hearts, and I know that many of you love me, and I have compassion on you, for I have placed you in a very hard place. But I have placed you there, and I call you to account for it. Now humble yourselves before me and come to me repentant, in fasting, mourning, and weeping for the condition of my people…³

Some of the earliest prophecies giving warning of difficult days ahead were given in the mainline churches.

Another prophecy coming from within the mainline churches in the early days of the renewal movement was delivered in Canterbury Cathedral at an international Anglican conference on spiritual renewal in 1978. The message not only referred to things that were wrong within the Church but also gave an uplifting message of God's desire to restore and renew his Church.

Within this mighty edifice the stones cry out.
The stones beneath your feet cry out;
The stones beside you cry to heaven,
And these that soar to heaven cry out too.
The stones cry out - of glory and of shame.
They cry out - of time when cloud and fire
From God on high came down
And filled this place.
And some saw that and some saw not.
Some had their lives transformed;
Some went on and plodded on the way
And saw no vision of night or day,
To take them in the new and living way
Which called them on.
These stones cry out - have always cried
In thousand years of love, grace, power
And of the great consuming fire of God.
But I say to thee –
That I have greater things to make
Than this great building.
I have a living work to do
With stones that live
In infinite and gracious detail
In the quarry of my heart.
I look upon the stones that I have made,
And they are wayward stones.
From their surface chisel oft has glanced aside
And that which I did purpose has been marred;
And yet I stoop again with broken tool
To take the stone that I have made
And work again upon that stone,
That it may be as I have
Long desired that is should be...
And let these stones cry out
Of what the living stones must be...
That you may truly High exalt the Saviour's name.⁴

Ten years later also in Canterbury Cathedral, Patricia Higton gave a more specific warning that the desire for unity and good relationships with people of other faiths was leading the Church dangerously towards multi-faith worship.

I have been speaking to you of unity. And yes, you are beginning to understand that you must reflect my divine nature in its harmony. But I would say to you I am a God of creativity. The unity which I long to see amongst my children will be a diamond with many facets. Each facet will reflect something of my revelation but is of little worth unless part of the whole. So there must be a glad recognition that you belong together and need each other. But again I would warn you, my children, that my enemy is seeking to bring about a unity which is not based on my word. It will appear to have as its goal the peace of this world, but it is not centred on the cross of My Son.

I am warning you of these things for I would not have any of you deceived by wandering down the path of acceptance, leading to toleration of any form of worship which does not uphold my name and my word. The end of that path is that many will one day worship a Christ who is not my Son. The very stones of this building will witness this terrible thing, unless my church repents.⁵

This warning went unheeded and the prophecy was fulfilled the following year when a 'Festival of Faith and the Environment' was held at Canterbury Cathedral. People of all faiths and philosophies were invited to participate and were encouraged to join a 'pilgrimage' walk from temples and shrines of other faiths culminating in a multi-faith celebration in the Cathedral.

Other messages not only warned about what was wrong within the Church but also gave an uplifting message of God's desire to restore and renew it.

The multi-faith festival brought protests from evangelicals of all denominations. The protest within the CofE was led by Tony Higton, a leading Anglican charismatic, Director of ABWON (Action for Biblical Witness to Our Nation) founded in 1984. An open letter to the leadership of the Church of England opposing multi-faith worship was signed by over 2,000 clergy, which sent shock waves through the hierarchy, and the activities of Cathedral Deans who were arranging a number of multi-faith activities came to an abrupt stop. This is an indication of the power of prophetic witness to influence Church policy even in days when scant respect is paid to biblical correctness.

Five years prior to the Canterbury festival, a new magazine, Prophecy Today was launched in London by the ministry which I lead. From the beginning it carried an uncompromising biblically-based message. Its editorial policy statement reads:

It is published with the intention of conveying the word of God for our times to the people of God, and through them to the nations of the world.

We define prophecy as the forthtelling of the word of God. This was the task of the prophets in ancient Israel. It is the task of the church today…Christ wants his church to be a prophetic people proclaiming his word to his world. It was for this reason that the Holy Spirit was given to the New Testament community of believers.

We also believe that the present world situation is so serious that the very existence of mankind is under threat. In all the nations a spirit of violence and disorder appears to have been loosed that is disturbing family life, disrupting the community, overthrowing moral and social stability and threatening to lead to worldwide destruction. We believe that the root problems facing mankind are not simply economic, social or political, but spiritual, and that the Gospel is the only answer.

We note that in times of crisis in ancient Israel God used the prophets to alert people to danger and to correct their ways…so today we believe God is longing to use his church in this prophetic role in the world. The most urgent need for the nations is not to hear the opinions of men, but to hear the word of God. It is as a contribution towards the prophetic task that Prophecy Today is published.⁶

By the early 1990s Prophecy Today had reached a circulation in excess of 16,000 - the largest circulation of a Christian bi-monthly magazine in the UK. With each copy being read by an average of three persons this means that Prophecy Today was read by approximately 50,000 in the evangelical/charismatic churches. Typical of the warning note it sounded was the following prophecy:

The nation is sick and heading for massive disaster, but I hold my church primarily responsible for the moral and spiritual life of this nation. You are the watchmen of the nation and you have not been faithful upon the walls of the cities to discern the onslaught of the enemy or to blow the trumpet to warn the people of danger, so the enemy has been allowed to come in like a flood and pervade the land.

The land has been polluted by the shedding of innocent blood, by violence and pornography, by adultery and sodomy, by corruption and injustice, by greed and avarice, by oppression and unrighteousness, by lies and deceit, by witchcraft and idolatry and by a lack of compassion for the poor and powerless.

In the face of all this evil and corruption your voice is still not heard in the nation. The prophetic declaration of the word of God is not heard upon the lips of the leaders of the church. It is for this reason that the church languishes, its numbers are in decline, its finances are unhealthy and there is disunity, discord and a lack of vision.

Now is the time to repent. Now is the time to recognise your faithlessness and the way you have strayed from the paths of righteousness and failed to uphold my word in the nation. If you will now repent publicly of your own sinfulness and declare my word within the church and in the sight of the whole nation, the people will respond. If you refuse to hear this word and harden your hearts against me, you will bring upon yourselves terrible consequences as the days darken across the nations.⁷

Several prophecies that were influential in the charismatic movement were given at an international conference in Israel in April 1986. These were the first to give forewarning of the shaking of the nations, which would be accompanied by a worldwide harvest as the Church continued to expand rapidly in many nations.

The 1986 Carmel conference forewarned of the shaking of the nations, which would lead to worldwide harvest for the Church.

The shaking of the nations would be through both political and economic upheaval. One of the prophecies said that the great shaking was about to begin with the Soviet Union. Three weeks later the Chernobyl nuclear power station erupted which began the shaking of the USSR and led to its eventual demise. The following is a small part of one of the prophecies. It referred specifically to the downfall of Gorbachev and the collapse of the Communist empire:

I, only I, can overcome this evil regime. But through the prayers of my people I will break the power of this man. For this reason you should pray for your enemies. I will send a famine. It will bring the Kremlin to their knees and make them open to my word.⁸

Four years later this prophecy was fulfilled in the breakup of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries of Eastern Europe. It was the famine caused by the Chernobyl meltdown which began the whole process.

Next week: Prophecies of revival and good times.

References

1 Published in New Covenant, February 1978. Charismatic Renewal Services, Ann Arbor, Michigan, p4.

2 Ibid, p5.

3 Ibid, p6.

4 I am indebted to Patricia Higton of Time Ministries International (Essex) for the record of this prophecy.

5 Ibid.

6 Prophecy Today, published by PWM Trust (Bedford). Published in each edition of Prophecy Today since March 1984.

7 Prophecy Today, Vol 10 No 4, July/Aug 94.

8 Prophecy Today, Vol 2 No 4, July/Aug 86.

David Forbes finishes his chapter on the roots of the Toronto Outpouring.

This article is part of a series, republishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’ (Hill et al). Find previous instalments here.

The British Connection

The charismatic Church in Britain was fully exposed to the Kansas City prophets with all their aberrant 'revelation' teaching and their directive personal prophecy.

They were first introduced to this country by way of a book entitled Some Said It Thundered, written by Bishop David Pytches and published by Hodder and Stoughton in the spring of 1990. David Pytches had made a visit to Kansas City the previous year and his book was an encouraging and sympathetic account of the history of the Fellowship and its prophets. John Wimber then brought a number of them to meet British charismatic leaders at a series of meetings arranged by Holy Trinity, Brompton, where he sought to convince them of the authenticity of their prophetic ministry.

Despite the fact that warnings had been given, specifically by Clifford Hill, that much more time and research needed to be put into verifying the Kansas City Fellowship ministry, the majority of British charismatic leaders happily embraced Cain, Jones and the other prophets as truly spiritually credible. In fact, a number of them went so far as to sign a statement endorsing the ministry of the Kansas City prophets as being God-given.

It is difficult to understand why so many British charismatic leaders were prepared to underwrite this ministry given the bizarre teachings which lay behind it. It can only be assumed that they saw a need to inject into their churches and fellowships the kind of excitement and promise which this prophetic movement generated.

The Kansas City prophets were first introduced to Britain by way of David Pytches’ book ‘Some Said It Thundered’.

It was obviously exciting to many charismatic Christians to be given a glimpse of super-power and great signs-and-wonders ministry, where a powerful church would rule the world for Jesus. This was a glimpse of the fulfilment of all that had been promised to them by their leaders for the previous 20 years. They even had a glimpse of possible earthly immortality. There may also of course have been a sense that the love and respect in which John Wimber was held by most charismatic leaders in the country simply covered a multitude of sins.

Expectation of Revival

David Pytches' 1990 book on the Kansas City prophets.

One of the important aspects of the visits which John Wimber and the Kansas City prophets made between July and October 1990 was that they raised the expectation for revival in the United Kingdom.

In fact, Paul Cain went so far as to prophesy that revival would surely come to Britain in October 1990. It was in the expectation of the fulfilment of this prophecy that the London Dockland Conference was arranged that October, and so high was the expectation that revival would come that John Wimber brought his whole family from America so that they could be there on the last night.

Sadly, no revival appeared, which brought disillusionment and discouragement to many in the charismatic Church. John Wimber himself undoubtedly returned to the United States a very disappointed man. He subsequently distanced himself from the ministry of Paul Cain and there even appeared to be a waning of his promotion of the whole prophetic ministry. Although Paul Cain was taken under the wing of Dr RT Kendall, of Westminster Chapel, he did not again appear to have prophetic influence over leadership in the British charismatic Church - which also appeared to put the whole question of prophecy on hold.

It needs to be stressed that the foundation for the teaching and prophetic ministry of the Kansas City Fellowship, including Paul Cain, was the tenets of the Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God movements of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. Despite the protestations and denials that there was any association with these movements, there has never been formal renunciation of their belief in the classic Latter Rain doctrines:

• The end times restoration of the Church through specially-chosen apostles and prophets, bringing her to perfection and the 'overcomers' to immortality,
  
• A great signs-and-wonders ministry surpassing that of the Acts of the Apostles,
  
• A great worldwide revival.
  

Similarly, there has never been any statement made by British charismatic leadership as to where they now stand on their signed affidavit of July 1990 on the authenticity of the ministry coming from Kansas City. Consequently, many are left in confusion as to what is the truth about the prophetic ministry. The lack of solid biblical teaching and honest examination of these experiential events in many charismatic churches simply adds to the confusion.

There has never been any statement made by British charismatic leadership as to where they now stand on the authenticity of the ministry coming from Kansas City.

A New Disguise?

At the same time, undoubtedly there were many adherents (especially in the United States) of these movements who, although now part of the charismatic movement, hung on to their original agendas and rejoiced at whatever progress was made in fulfilling their visions.

Although both Latter Rain and the Manifest Sons of God movements lost their overt credibility by the early 1960s it appears that an underground movement for these beliefs was sufficiently strong for serious attempts to be made from time to time to hijack the charismatic renewal movement. I would contend that one such attempt was made by the prophetic movement as epitomised in the Kansas City Fellowship. I would also contend that what has been dubbed the Toronto Blessing may have been an attempt by some to resurrect the old Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God visions.

The foreword to Richard Riss's publication on the Latter Rain movement was written in 1987 by James Watt - the same James Watt who had been part of the Sharon group at North Battleford and had inspired George Warnock to write The Feast of Tabernacles. Watt says,

In a sense, the fulfilment of the Feast of Tabernacles came forth with the blowing of trumpets from North Battleford...the Church has been in part exposed to the day of atonement. The Harvest, or Booths, is now upon us, and the time of the restitution of all things is about to take place...The early and latter rain are about to be poured out in the same month! According to Paul Yonggi Cho of Korea and twenty other prophets, the last great move of the Spirit will originate in Canada, and by seventy Canadian cities will be brought to the 210 nations of the earth before Jesus returns.

Marc DuPont, of the Toronto Airport Vineyard, who is considered to have a prophetic ministry, had reported that the Lord gave him a two-part prophetic vision in May 1992 and June 1993 of a mighty wall of water rising in Toronto and flowing out like a river into the rest of Canada.¹

DuPont believed this to be the start of a revival beginning in Toronto and reaching its climax worldwide between the years 2000 and 2005. DuPont also stated that, “This move of the Spirit in 1994 is not just a charismatic and Pentecostal experience, concerning power or gifting. It is one thing to be clothed with power; it is another to be indwelt with the Person of God”.²

DuPont did not enlarge on what he meant by being 'indwelt with the Person of God' and therefore the question needs to be asked whether he envisaged 'this move of God' as being the final fulfilment of Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God visions.

I would contend that what has been dubbed the Toronto Blessing may have been an attempt by some to resurrect the old Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God visions.

George Warnock was of the opinion that the manifestation of the sons of God, which would take place at the fulfilment of the 'Feast of Tabernacles', involved the Lord coming to physically indwell his people on earth. His thesis was that when this happened we would no longer have a Head in heaven and a Body on earth but we would have the one new Perfect Man who would fill both heaven and earth. This would be the fulfilment of the Second Pentecost, the early and latter rain of Joel 2. Warnock also believed that there would be a 40-year wilderness experience for the Church from the time of the late 1940s Latter Rain revivals until the Second Pentecost.

Prophesying Toronto?

Randy Clark, who introduced the 'new move of God' to the Toronto Airport Vineyard, said that the Vineyard churches had a 'prophetic foundation' for embracing the Toronto Blessing.³ He said:

We are looking for revelation from God as to what he now wants us to do with our lives and in our cities. The prophetic revelation has already been given as a foundation. This is the beginning of a great revival...But it's a fun time, a time of empowerment. There will be ebb and flow, there will be a number of waves. There is a time for an initial inflow, an initial outpouring. Then a time when God is maturing us, then a time of persecution, then a major outpouring. This is a low power time right now. Someone in Toronto prophesied: ‘I'm giving you my power now in weakness, but there's more coming’.

Clark also told us that what happened in Toronto had been prophesied by the Kansas City prophets over ten years previously. He said that in 1984, to Mike Bickle “in visitations from the Lord, the audible voice of the Lord said ‘In 10 years I am going to visit my people’".

Later, he said a prophecy was given to the Kansas City Fellowship (subsequently renamed the Metro Vineyard), “The rain is coming”. He further quoted prophecies from Paul Cain and from John Paul Jackson, another of the original Kansas City prophets, that had been given to them in the 1980s, that 1993 and 1994 would witness “this great outpouring from God”.

Clark also quoted Paul Cain as saying that at this time God was giving “sovereign vessels” who were bringing in “an outpouring of the Lord which is such that it goes beyond anything anybody alive today has ever seen or ever heard or read in church history”. Bearing in mind the prophetic record of the Kansas City prophets regarding previous revival dates, how should these predictions have been evaluated?

Rodney Howard-Browne, a South African from the Faith/Prosperity stream (he was a lecturer at Ray McCauley's Rhema Bible School) and often cited as one of the initiators of the Toronto Blessing, was fond of using the old Latter Rain and Franklin Hall 'Holy Ghost fire' imagery. Here is an example of one of his prophecies concerning the Toronto Blessing, given at Kenneth Copeland's church in September 1993:

This is the day, this is the hour, saith the Lord, that I am moving in this earth...This is the day when I will cause you to step over into the realm of the supernatural. For many a preacher has prophesied of old that there is a move coming. But it is even now and even at the door. For the drops of rain are beginning to fall of the glory of God. Yes, yes, many of you who have sat on the threshold and have said, 'O God when shall it be?' O you shall know that this is the day and this is the hour when you shall step over into that place of my glory. This is the day of the glory of the Lord coming in great power. I am going to break the mould, says the Lord, on many of your lives, and on many of your ministries and the way you have operated in days gone by. Many shall rub their eyes and shall say, 'Is this the person we used to know?' For there is a fire inside him. For this is the day of the fire and the glory of God coming into his church. Rise up this day and be filled afresh with the new wine of the Holy Ghost.

It is vital for the health and growth of the charismatic movement that we diligently go back to searching the scriptures like the Bereans.

Search the Scriptures

It can be clearly seen that there are blatant associations in this prophecy with the teachings of Franklin Hall, with the teaching of the Latter Rain movement and with the teachings of the Manifest Sons of God groups. So, we seem to have come again full circle to a further attempt to involve the Church with these non-biblical doctrines.

All of us who are sincere and committed believers, not only in God the Father and God the Son but also in a living Holy Spirit who lives within the Church as Jesus promised so that he might 'teach us all things', must rejoice when God moves overtly in the lives of his people. According to the scriptures, God is in the business of blessing us and reviving us and if we seek him we will surely find him. However, questions need to be asked regarding both the spontaneity and genuineness of much that has happened, and is happening, in the charismatic renewal movement today. How much is there of an agenda that is sweeping many of us along without us really being aware of either its beginning or end?

I would seek strongly to counsel that the time may be upon us when it is vital for the ongoing health and growth of the charismatic movement that, like the new believers in Berea, we diligently go back to searching the scriptures to see if the things we are being told are true (Acts 17:11).

References

1 Dupont, M, 1994. The Year of the Lion. Mantle of Praise Ministries Inc, Mississuaga, pp1-2.

2 Ibid, p3.

3 Randy Clark, 1995. 'A Prophetic Foundation' (audio tape message).

An overview of the Kansas City Prophets.

We draw near the end of David Forbes’ assessment of the forerunners of the Toronto outpouring, turning this week to the Kansas City Prophets. This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’. Read previous instalments here.

The Kansas City Prophets

By the end of the 1980s, the charismatic renewal movement had become used to so much extra-biblical experience and had become focused on the fulfilment of so many eschatological promises, that it was possible for thousands of British charismatic Christians and their leaders to be affected and influenced by the 'prophetic movement' as epitomised by Paul Cain and the 'prophets' from the Kansas City Fellowship in the United States.

This movement came to prominence in America as the result of first a sermon and then a published report by Ernest Gruen, a Kansas City pastor, criticising the way in which the leadership of the Fellowship were seeking to take control of the spiritual life of the city.

The situation was further promoted by the fact that John Wimber and the Vineyard churches decided to take the Kansas City prophetic movement under their wing and assume responsibility for its future behaviour.

The basic complaints being made against the Kansas City Fellowship were the use of directive prophecy to control the lives of believers and take over other fellowships, the use of 'new prophetic revelation' to determine doctrine and practice, and the promotion of an elite group of apostles and prophets centred on themselves. Part of the accusation regarding their 'new' doctrines was that it was simply a return to the old Latter Rain/Manifest Sons of God tenets.¹

By the end of the 1980s, the charismatic renewal movement was used to extra-biblical experience and had become focused on the fulfilment of many eschatological promises.

A feature of John Wimber's strategy, with regard to taking on responsibility for the Kansas City prophets and their senior pastor Mike Bickle, was to send in a team of his senior leaders including Dr Jack Deere, a former Professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and now the Vineyard's chief theologian. They examined all the complaints of biblical malpractice being made by Ernest Gruen and published a report acknowledging certain errors which in retrospect to a large degree simply papered over the cracks and allowed the Kansas City Fellowship to continue virtually undisturbed under the Vineyard aegis.

The errors which were acknowledged and by implication would not recur included “the attempt by some prophetic ministers to establish doctrine or practice by revelation alone, apart from biblical support”, “the use of prophetic gifting for controlling purposes”, “using types and allegories to establish doctrine”, and “using jargon that reflects the teaching of groups that we do not wish to be identified with”.

This last confession referred specifically to the accusation of promoting the Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God doctrines. However, it must be said that irrespective of how sincerely these errors were acknowledged initially, subsequent events showed that little attempt was made to learn the necessary lessons, especially with regard to the use of establishing doctrine by revelation and the continued teaching of Latter Rain and Manifest Sons teachings.

Paul Cain

The decision by John Wimber and the Vineyard churches to support the ministry of the Kansas City prophets was undoubtedly the result of the link-up which they had made with Paul Cain.

Cain had an early history not unlike that of William Branham. Born in 1929, he had been aware of supernatural power guiding his life from its earliest days and had experienced what he believed to be direct communications with the Lord through audible messages whilst still a small boy. He became part of the Pentecostal healing movement which arose in North America in the 1940s and 1950s, led by William Branham, Oral Roberts and others, and began an itinerant ministry as a healing evangelist in his early teens.

The Vineyard movement took responsibility for the Kansas City prophets and initially acknowledged certain errors in their conduct, but in retrospect this simply papered over the cracks.

According to Paul Cain's own testimony he was much encouraged in his ministry by Branham who allegedly saw in him a similar kind of 'anointing' to his own. It is said that there was a particular bond between William Branham and the young Paul Cain, that they frequently ministered together and that Cain would often stand in for Branham at meetings which he was unable to take, although for some unknown reason Cain's association in ministry with Branham has been vehemently denied by the Branham family.

However, Cain's healing and evangelism ministry was undoubtedly marked by the same kind of ‘revelation knowledge' of people and their personal circumstances that had characterised Branham's, but by the early 1960s, disillusioned by the 'stardom' status accorded to him and his contemporaries and the general lack of integrity in the ministry, he withdrew from public life and lived as a virtual recluse until he went and met the Kansas City prophets in early 1987.

He believed that the Lord was re-commissioning him for ministry with the special purpose of restoring the prophetic ministry to the Church worldwide and that to that end he needed a public platform. His strategy was to be that of taking a prophetic message to every significant evangelical leader in the United States. The leader who responded by accepting him and his message would be the one whom God had chosen to give a platform for his ministry.

In 1988, Paul Cain felt he should contact John Wimber and following a visit from Cain, Wimber decided that the Lord was calling him to be the leader who should give Cain his platform.

Joel’s Army Teaching

Paul Cain consistently denied that he ever subscribed to the Manifest Sons of God movement. However, although there is no reason to believe that he was ever a card-carrying member of the movement, his 'prophetic' preaching clearly promoted the ideas of immortality for overcoming believers here on earth in these end times and he used the same spiritual jargon as the Manifest Sons of God exponents.

This came over in a very specific way in, for example, his teaching on 'Joel's Army'.² This teaching, based on the destructive army mentioned in Joel chapter 2, was claimed to be the result of revelation which he had received at the age of 19 when he had a visitation from the “Angel of the Lord, and he was standing in his majesty like a warrior and he had a bright shining sword and he pointed up to a billboard like that, and on the sign it said, ‘Joel's Army in training’".

Cain had not understood and had asked, “Lord, what does this mean?”. He had from then on received divine revelation as to the meaning of the book of Joel for today and on this he based his prophetic message.

According to Paul Cain's own testimony he was much encouraged in his ministry by William Branham, who allegedly saw in him a similar kind of 'anointing' to his own.

The basic theme of the teaching was that God was about to raise up out of the Church a Joel's Army. The purpose of this army was to bring in the restoration of the Church and a great end-times revival accompanied by signs and wonders the like of which had never been seen before, not even in the life of the early Church. These signs and wonders would be accomplished by the 'new breed', the 'dread champions' whom the Lord would raise up to form this mighty army.

The purpose of this army was in fact twofold, for not only would it be the vanguard of the great signs and wonders revival, but it would be responsible for the purging of the Church and the destruction of all those who are unworthy to be part of the Bride. Cain taught, in true Manifest Sons style, that:

If you have intimacy with God, they can't kill you, they just can't. There is something about you; you're connected to that vine; you're just so close to Him. Oh, my friends, they can't kill you...If you're really in the vine and you're the branch, then the life sap from the Son of the living God keeps you from cancer, keeps you from dying, keeps you from death...Not only will they not have diseases, they will also not die. They will have the kind of imperishable bodies that are talked about in the 15th chapter of Corinthians...This army is invincible. If you have intimacy with God they can't kill you.³

Paul Cain was, of course, giving this teaching to the Vineyard churches before the Kansas City Fellowship report acknowledging errors, so it could be assumed that following the publishing of that report no further mention would be made of this kind of teaching.

It may be of interest to note that at a meeting between John Wimber, Paul Cain and Mike Bickle with Clifford Hill, I asked John Wimber and Mike Bickle if they could specify which teachings were being referred to in the errors acknowledged by the Kansas City Fellowship. Neither was prepared to answer my questions clearly on this subject. It was therefore perhaps not surprising to find that after the Kansas City report both Jack Deere, the Vineyard theologian who had been given the job of checking and verifying the biblical soundness of their teaching, and John Wimber, took up the Joel's Army teaching. Wimber propounded it at the London Docklands Conference in October 1990.

In Deere's version of the Joel's Army teaching he underwrote the divine revelation foundation of the teaching and extended Cain's tenets by an extravagant use of hyperbole. He made the point over and over again that this Joel's Army would be composed of believers who would outshine in their service anything that God ever accomplished through any of his servants in the past.

Deere taught that, “This army is unique...When this army comes, it's large and it's mighty. It's so mighty that there has never been anything like it before. Not even Moses, not even David, not even Paul. What's going to happen now will transcend what Paul did, what David did, what Moses did, even though Moses parted the Red Sea.”

Paul Cain clearly promoted the idea of immortality for overcoming believers here on earth and used the Manifest Sons of God jargon.

Deere went on to equate this army with the 144,000 in Revelation 7 who, he said, “follow the Lamb wherever he goes, and no one can harm that 144,000”. Most extraordinarily, he taught that 144,000 is a multiple of 12 and that since 12 stands for 'apostolic government' then 144,000 is the 'ultimate in apostolic government'.

In his version of the Joel's Army teaching, as given at the London Docklands Conference, John Wimber was much more cautious in his use of language, although he undoubtedly underwrote in principle most of both Cain’s and Deere's teaching. With regard to the great signs and wonders which this army would perform, Wimber simply said: “This army is large, powerful, unique, unlike any army that's ever existed before or will again. Even as the Lord started this thing with a bang, (Acts 2) he is going to end it with something so incredible that we'll talk about it throughout eternity. It will be the buzz for ever”.

However, on the subject of immortality Wimber did not fully support Cain and Deere, saying of the army: “anyone who wants to harm them must die”.

Bob Jones

The leading prophet in the Kansas City Fellowship in 1990 was Bob Jones and it was his prophetic utterances and revelation-based doctrine and practice that were behind most of the controversy that surrounded them and had occasioned Gruen's outbursts.

Jones came from Arkansas and in his young days had been a member of the Baptist Church. His spiritual life had, however, been fairly non-existent and he had engaged in petty crime. Nevertheless, his testimony, like Branham and Cain, was of boyhood and early teen 'angelic visitations' including an out-of-body experience at the age of 15 when he says he was taken before the throne of God.

With the advent of the Korean War, Jones joined the US Marine Corps where he became heavily involved in drunken brawls and gambling. With his life in an obviously downward moral and physical spiral he left the Marine Corps and moved to Oklahoma State where he opened an illegal liquor store - Oklahoma being 'dry' - with considerable financial success.

However, his life of debauchery brought him to the point of a complete breakdown which not even drugs appeared to alleviate, and he ended up in hospital in Topeka near Kansas City, where it appears that following a combination of good psychiatric treatment by a Christian doctor and a number of visitations, both divine and demonic, he was discharged.

Bob Jones then started to attend church and read the Bible again and after a number of further 'visitations' he was converted and baptised in the autumn of 1975. Because of the visions and prophecies which he brought to church leadership he found himself often becoming unpopular and ended up being rejected and unable to fit into normal church life. Eventually in the early 1980s Jones found himself accepted by the Kansas City Fellowship, even though Mike Bickle had originally believed him to be a false prophet, where he began to be valued for his prophetic utterances.

It was the utterances and practice of Kansas City prophet Bob Jones that lay behind most of the controversy which surrounded the group.

These were often bizarre and spiritually extravagant. Jones was very much 'into' seeing both demons and angels on a regular basis and having strange nightly visions and out-of-body experiences. According to both Jones himself and Mike Bickle, “Bob normally gets five to ten visions a night, maybe sees angels ten to fifteen times a week”.⁴ Apparently he had been doing this since 1974 and it does not take much mathematical skill to conclude that these supernatural experiences far outweigh all of those recorded as being given to people in the scriptures!

Jones was also very much the initiator of spiritual elitism for the Kansas City Fellowship based on 'prophetic revelation' and it seems that the more bizarre his 'prophetic utterances' the more they were promoted by the leadership. For example, he introduced the concept of an 'elected seed generation'. In this he taught that the children born since 1973 to members of the Kansas City Fellowship were the “elected seed” who had been especially chosen by Jesus and the angels from “billions of little round yellow things” floating around in heaven to be the “end time Omega generation”.⁵ These 'little yellow things' were the seed from actual blood lines and they were from the “best of every blood line there has ever been Paul, David, Peter, James and John the best of their seed unto this generation”.

This elite group were described as “the chosen generation of all history” who would “possess the Spirit without measure”. They were also described as 'the Bride of Christ'; the man child of Revelation 12; the ministry of perfection; the Melchizedek priesthood; the manifested sons of God; Joel's Army; and many other biblical epithets.

Jones taught and Bickle underwrote (as senior pastor of the Kansas City Fellowship) that this "end time, Omega generation super church” would do “10,000 times the miracles in the book of Acts”. They would also conduct meetings of “a million or more” where they would “move their hands and the power of God will go like flashes of lightning, and as they go like this over a million people, if a person is missing an arm…it will instantly be created”. Jones claimed that 300,000 of Mike Bickle's generation and their super-children would be last days' apostles, and that 35 apostles from the Kansas City Fellowship would be “like unto Paul”.

Again, we have never been able to find out whether all of these bizarre prophetic teachings of Bob Jones were included amongst the list of errors. When John Wimber brought the Kansas City prophets to Holy Trinity Church, Brompton in July 1990, there was an embargo put on Bob Jones regarding public teaching and prophecy but he was allowed to minister to leaders behind the scenes.

References

1 Gruen, EA, 1990. Documentation of the Aberrant Practices and Teachings of Kansas City Fellowship. Full Faith Church of Love, Kansas City.

2 Deere, J. Joel's Army. Audio tape message, 1990.

3 Gruen, EA, Documentation (see note 1), p218.

4 Ibid, p10.

5 Ibid, p12.

The rain descends.

As we continue to republish the 1995 classic volume ‘Blessing the Church?’, David Forbes turns from the Latter Rain Movement’s early precursors to the movement’s outbreak and spread.

As stated last week, the Sharon group were much affected by the teaching of Franklin Hall on fasting. Ern Hawtin wrote in his account of the beginnings of the 'Latter Rain Revival':

The truth of fasting was one great contributing factor to the revival. One year before this we had read Franklin Hall's book, entitled 'Atomic Power with God Through Fasting and Prayer'. We immediately began to practise fasting. Previously we had not understood the possibility of long fasts. The revival would never have been possible without the restoration of this great truth through our good brother Hall.¹

However, he failed to give any biblical reasoning or explanation of 'this great truth' and how it brought revival.

So having returned from the Branham meeting they decided to put Franklin Hall's teaching into practice and according to George Hawtin, “Some fasted for 3 days; some for 7 days; some fasted for 10 days; some 2 weeks; some for 3 weeks; some fasted for 30 days; and one man fasted for 40 days”.

It was not however until February 1948 that the long-awaited revival arrived. On 11 February, one of the Bible School young ladies prophesied “saying that we were on the very verge of a great revival, and that all we had to do was open the door, and we could enter in”. When she had finished prophesying, George Hawtin rose and prayed “beseeching God and telling him that he had informed us that we were on the very verge of a great revival, and all we had to do was enter the door but George Hawtin said, ‘Father, we do not know where the door is, neither do we know how to enter it’”.

The following day, 12 February, was described by Ern Hawtin as follows in his report How this Revival Began:

…I shall never forget the morning that God moved into our midst in this strange new manner. Some students were under the power of God on the floor, others were kneeling in adoration and worship before the Lord. The anointing deepened until the awe of God was upon everyone. The Lord spoke to one of the brethren, 'Go and lay hands upon a certain student and pray for him'. While he was in doubt and contemplation one of the sisters who had been under the power of God went to the brother saying the same words, and naming the identical student he was to pray for. He went in obedience and the revelation was given concerning the student's life and future ministry.

After this a long prophecy was given [by Ern Hawtin] with minute details concerning the great thing God was about to do. The pattern for the revival and many details concerning it were given. To this day [his report was written 1 August 1949] I can remember the gist of the prophecy, “These are the last days, my people. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh, and I shall move in the midst of mine own. The gifts of the Spirit will be restored to my church. If thou shalt obey me I shall immediately restore them. But Oh my people I would have you to be reverent before me as never before. Take the shoes off thy feet for the ground on which thou standest is holy. If thou dost not reverence the Lord and his House, the Lord shall require it at thy hands. Do not speak lightly of the things I am about to do for the Lord shall not hold thee guiltless. Do not gossip about these things. Do not write letters to thy nearest friends, of the new way in which the Lord moveth, for they will not understand. If thou dost disobey the Lord in these things take heed lest thy days be numbered in sorrow and thou goest early to the grave. Thou hast obeyed me and I shall restore my gifts to you. I shall indicate from time to time those who are to receive the gifts of my Spirit. They shall be received by prophecy and the laying on of hands of the presbytery.”

Immediately following this prophecy, a sister who was under the power of God gave by revelation the names of five students who were ready to receive. Hands were laid upon them by the presbytery. This procedure was very faltering and imperfect that morning but after two days searching the word of God to see if we were on scriptural grounds, great unity prevailed and the Lord came forth in greater power and glory day by day. Soon a visible manifestation of gifts was received when candidates were prayed over, and many as a result began to be healed as gifts of healing were received. Day after day the glory and power of God came amongst us. Great repentance, humbling, fasting and prayer prevailed in everyone.²

Ern Hawtin's prophecy stated that “the gifts of the Spirit will be restored to my church”. Although one of the main marks of the advent of Pentecostalism at the turn of the century was the manifestation and operation of the gifts of the Spirit, there had been a general falling away of the use of these gifts amongst the Pentecostal churches, and this lack had been recognised. It was this lack that brought the events at North Battleford into the limelight.

There had been a falling away of the use of spiritual gifts in Pentecostal churches, and it was this lack that brought events at North Battleford into the limelight.

Because the North Battleford brothers were successful in imparting spiritual gifts by the laying on of their hands, people came from all across Canada and the United States to their meetings so that they, too, might partake of these spiritual gifts for which many of them had long been praying.

As mentioned last week, the leadership of the Pentecostal denominations were not prepared to accept that the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit could be imparted by the laying on of hands. For nearly 50 years they had clung to the methodology of the Azusa Street revival in which 'tarrying' or waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit on one's life was practised (Acts 1:4). Ernest S Williams, who was General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God at that time, said, “Concerning the nine gifts spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12, if you will carefully read the account I think you will discern that they each come directly from God's sovereign bestowment; I do not find any record where they are to be bestowed by means of an intermediate channel”.

Of course if one reads the record of the Acts of the Apostles we find that no one methodology was used as far as receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit is concerned (Acts 2:4, 8:17, 10:44). However, we need to remember that the question of formulae and methods in ministry, including the use of the laying on of hands, has never been adequately resolved in the charismatic movement.

The Movement Spreads

In keeping with the injunction in the prophecy over publishing news of the 'revival', the March issue of The Sharon Star contained no news of what had happened, but an editorial on the subject appeared in the April issue. This published report undoubtedly played a large part in attracting a larger-than-usual number to the 1948 Annual Feast of Pentecost camp meeting. Its front page had also carried headlines reporting 'Two Modern Miracles' involving healing at Sharon Bible College.

There were many testimonies from pastors across the country as to how God had empowered them during their time at the camp meetings so that it had revolutionised their home churches and by May 1948, parallels were already being drawn with the earlier Pentecostal revival of 1906. George Hawtin suspected that “revival is breaking out among small groups all over America and no doubt in other countries as well”. There were certainly reports from Norway that some kind of revival was taking place among Pentecostals at that time.

The question of formulae and methods in ministry, including the use of the laying on of hands, has never been adequately resolved in the charismatic movement.

Hawtin also noted that the restoration of the gifts of the Spirit was the result of God giving “new revelation” of truth from the Scriptures. He wrote that “great revivals always are accompanied by some present truth when old light is rediscovered...”.³ It soon became a prominent idea in the movement and created an expectation that the Lord would continue to reveal new truth from the scriptures.

This belief in a new wave of the progressive revelation of scriptural truth through prophecy became widespread and has continued to be a pervasive influence in charismatic churches, thousands of which have adopted various ideas that became prominent in the ministry of the North Battleford brethren.

Points of Controversy

As in the case of Branham and the healing evangelists, the Sharon group were keen to stress their concerns for unity. Reg Layzell, who was one of seven men 'ordained' by the Sharon leadership to exercise an 'apostolic ministry' on behalf of the 'Presbytery' but who subsequently became disillusioned to the extent that he disassociated himself from them, said following the camp meeting of July 1948, “The great message that stirred all souls was first the message of the Body of Christ coming together”,⁴ and George Warnock noted in the preface to the first edition of The Feast of Tabernacles, that “God came forth in answer to the prayer and fasting of his children, poured out the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and revealed the fact that now at this time He would bring His body together, and make His Church one glorious Church without spot or wrinkle”.⁵

However, the problem was that 'unity' always appeared to depend upon an acceptance of the teachings and practices which they as God's specially anointed apostles and prophets were now revealing. This of course was not biblical. The scriptures plainly teach that the foundation of our unity lies in our relationship by faith with the Lord Jesus. It is maintained by our daily obedience to the precepts and teachings recorded for us in the scriptures. Paul refers to this in his first letter to the Corinthian believers (1 Cor 11:2) and Jude exhorts us to “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3).

Another point of controversy that arose at that time between the North Battleford group and the leaders of the Pentecostal denominations was the former's insistence that the Church had present-day apostles and prophets. The first indication of this controversy appeared in the 1 June 1948 issue of The Sharon Star when George Hawtin wrote: “When one starts talking about prophets and apostles being in the Church in our day, the poor saints are shocked half to death. They raise their hands in holy terror and cry, ‘heresy, heresy!’".

However, the point of controversy with the Pentecostal denominations was not simply the question per se of 'prophets and apostles being in the church in our day'. There is undoubtedly a vital place in the Church for the ministry of apostles and prophets as mentioned in Ephesians 4:11, but the issue was, and remains, whether this or any other Scripture allows us to conclude that God has now raised up within the Church 'special' apostles and prophets through whom he gives extra-biblical revelation and the power of extraordinary signs and wonders to guide and direct his people in these 'last days'.

The belief in a new wave of the progressive revelation of scriptural truth through prophecy became widespread and has continued to be a pervasive influence in charismatic churches.

Also appearing in the June issue of The Sharon Star was the statement that “no church exercises or has any right to exercise authority or jurisdiction over another, its pastors or members”. This statement did nothing to help the Sharon group's growing estrangement from the main Pentecostal denominations and would have been more helpful had Hawtin applied it to the excesses of authoritarianism and elitism that later developed in connection with the 'travelling presbytery' from North Battleford, of which he was a part and which was accused of exercising considerable authority over people in other church situations by means of directive prophecy.

The Teaching of George Warnock

During 7-18 July 1948, thousands of people throughout the North American continent, having heard of the North Battleford awakening, flocked to the Sharon Camp Meeting held there at that time.

It had been preceded by a week of fasting and prayer from 27 June to 4 July which had also been widely attended. Among those attending was George Warnock, who had earlier, for two or three years, been personal secretary to Ern Baxter. It was at this time that he heard James Watt, one of the teachers at the Camp Meeting, casually mention that the third of Israel's great feasts, the Feast of Tabernacles, had not yet been fulfilled.

According to Warnock: “I somehow never forgot that, and over the period of a year or more following this, the message seemed to grow on me as I read the Scriptures…James certainly dropped a seed in my heart when he spoke of the Feast of Tabernacles…”.⁶

In July 1951, Sharon Publishers printed George Warnock's book, The Feast of Tabernacles, which became a major doctrinal work of the Latter Rain movement.

Warnock's thesis was that the three great annual feasts of the Lord in Israel's worship, which are set out in considerable detail in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, pre-figure and typify the whole Church age, beginning with the Cross and consummating in the manifestation of the sons of God (explained further next week) and the glorious display of God's power and glory.

There is of course truth in much of Warnock's work, because there is a real sense in which we can see Israel's feasts as a pre-figure of events in the New Testament. For example, Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit and obviously Passover and the death of Jesus. But what about the Feast of Tabernacles?

Warnock's proposal was that the Feast of Tabernacles is analogous to what he called “the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom 8). He taught that the Church needed to be restored. The Church was weak, the Church was diseased, the Church was totally defeated, the Church was ineffective and needed restoration.

According to Warnock, that restoration would be done in one particular way. He stated clearly that all the orthodox understanding about restoration should be discarded. Restoration would not come through reading the Bible, would not come from praying, and would not come through fasting. It would only come through the aegis of God's apostles and prophets.

Warnock taught that the Church needed to be restored through the aegis of God’s apostles and prophets.

This of course was one of the assertions of the Hawtin brothers. God would restore his Church through his newly-appointed apostles and prophets, who of course included themselves. In similar vein they were also the presbytery through whose hands God's new blessings of power and gifting were to be received. Warnock therefore taught that God was raising up new apostles and prophets and that they would restore the Church; they would bring the Church into perfection, and they would bring the Church into - he never actually used the word 'immortality' - but said they would bring forth a Church which would never know disease, which would never die, and so on. This of course brings us back full circle to Franklin Hall.

These teachings were from the 'new revelation of truth' stream which became so prominent in the Latter Rain movement and which has continued to dog the charismatic movement throughout its history. No honest examination of the biblical text can substantiate these eschatological extravagances. Acts 1 records that the Lord Jesus will physically return to earth as he physically left it and the Apostle Paul made it quite clear that he would be released from “this body of death” only at the Lord's return. It would be then that he would change “our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil 3:21). Likewise, the Apostle John tells us that “when he appears, we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2).

Next week: The movement declines and reforms.

This article is part of a series. Click here for previous instalments.

References

1 Riss, R, 1987. Latter Rain. Honeycomb Visual Productions Ltd, Ontario, p60.

2 Warnock, G, 1951. The Feast of Tabernacles. Sharon Publishers, N. Battleford, pp3-4.

3 Riss, R, Latter Rain (see 1), p70.

4 Ibid, p74.

5 Warnock, G, The Feast of Tabernacles (see 2), p3.

6 Riss, R, Latter Rain (see 1), p74.

From North Battleford to Toronto.

David Forbes begins an examination of the influence of the 1948 North American 'Latter Rain Revival' Movement, a precursor to the Toronto ‘outpouring’.

Due to unusual events and a new teaching propounded in the preceding 18 months, in the autumn of 1949, at the 23^rd General Council meeting of the Assemblies of God in the USA, held in Seattle, Washington, the following resolution was passed by an overwhelming majority:

OFFICIAL DISAPPROVAL OF THE 'NEW ORDER OF THE LATTER RAIN'

WHEREAS, We are grateful for the visitation of God in the past and the evidences of His blessings upon us today, and

WHEREAS, We recognise a hunger on the part of God's people for a spiritual refreshing and manifestation of His Holy Spirit, be it therefore RESOLVED, That we disapprove of these extreme teachings and practices, which, being unfounded Scripturally, serve only to break fellowship of like precious faith and tend to confusion and division among the members of the Body of Christ, and be it hereby known that this 23rd General Council disapproves of the so-called 'New Order of the Latter Rain' to wit:

1. The overemphasis relative to imparting, identifying, bestowing or confirming of gifts by the laying on of hands and prophecy.

2. The erroneous teaching that the Church is built on the foundation of present-day apostles and prophets.

3. The extreme teaching as advocated by the 'New Order' regarding the confession of sin to man and deliverance as practiced, which claims prerogatives to human agency which belong only to Christ.

4. The erroneous teaching concerning the impartation of the gifts of languages as special equipment for missionary service.

5. The extreme and unscriptural practice of imparting or imposing personal leadings by the means of gifts of utterance.

6. Such other wrestings and distortions of Scripture interpretations which are in opposition to teachings and practices generally accepted among us.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we recommend following those things which make for peace among us, and those doctrines and practices whereby we may edify one another, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit until we all come into the unity of faith.

This resolution of the Pentecostal Assemblies was occasioned by the fact that some 18 months earlier, on 12 February 1948, the so-called 'Latter Rain Revival' had begun at the Sharon Bible School in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada. This 'revival' began among about 70 students who, when their names had been prophetically revealed as being 'ready to receive', manifested 'gifts' after being ‘prayed over' and having hands laid upon them by the school leadership.

George Hawtin and his brother Ern, together with PG Hunt (who along with George had recently resigned as a pastor in the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada) and the Hawtin's brother-in-law, Milford Kirkpatrick, had some six months earlier joined the Rev Herrick Holt of the Saskatchewan Church of the Foursquare Gospel in an independent work called 'Sharon Orphanage and Schools'.¹ Together they opened Sharon Bible School on 21 October 1947.

The Pentecostal movement, which had begun with the Azusa Street revival in San Francisco in 1906, had by this time been going for over 40 years and much of its denominational life had become quite ritualised. It had lost its spontaneity and much of the use of the gifts or manifestations of the Holy Spirit in regular church life had become merely theoretical.

Since the mid-1930s there had existed a deep spiritual hunger in many Pentecostals for some kind of revival of the spiritual energy and enthusiasm, accompanied by the manifestations of the Holy Spirit's presence, that had characterised their beginnings.

In the 1930s and 1940s there was deep spiritual hunger in many Pentecostals for revival of the spiritual energy and manifestations of the Holy Spirit’s presence that had characterised their beginnings.

EARLY PRECURSORS TO THE 'LATTER RAIN'

There were two men in particular whose teaching and ministry greatly influenced those through whom the Latter Rain movement started: Franklin Hall and William Branham.

Franklin Hall

The men who started the Sharon Bible School were all looking for some kind of revival. Herrick Holt had been preaching for some time that God was going to do a 'new thing' in accordance with Isaiah 43:18-19, although he was still awaiting revelation from the Holy Spirit as to what the 'new thing' would be.²

Their expectations of revival were heightened and much influenced by a book entitled Atomic Power with God through Fasting and Prayer, written by one Franklin Hall in 1946. Hall was an ex-Methodist who had begun an independent travelling evangelistic and healing ministry. In the autumn of 1946 he had set up in San Diego, California what he called “a major fasting and prayer daily revival center”.³

However, Hall was very much into his own brand of theology. He was convinced that the Church was on the brink of a great worldwide revival, and that from this revival would emerge a victorious, perfected Church which would include the 'overcomers' who would attain immortality.

One of his particular teachings was that fasting was the primary means by which revival would come and bring in the restoration of the Church. He maintained that God always responded to fasting and that without fasting, prayer was ineffectual. However, he also maintained that all prayer, if accompanied by fasting, was effective irrespective of to whom it was made. By way of proof of this assertion, Hall would quote that the American Indian tribes had their prayers to the Great Spirit answered because they fasted.⁴

According to Hall, during the first year of ministry in the revival centre, there were over 1,000 people who claimed to have been converted, with many testifying to having been healed of various sicknesses and diseases through fasting and prayer. He also claimed actual appearances of the Holy Spirit in fire and smoke.⁵

Hall also taught that the restoration of the Church would involve the immortality of believers in the Lord Jesus by means of stages of spiritual growth. This would be achieved through a life of holiness plus various psycho-spiritual encounters (i.e. experiences with UFOs, UHOs - unidentified heavenly objects - and IHOs - immortal heavenly objects).⁶ He called this 'overcoming' which would bring a 'rain of righteousness' or 'a rain of immortality' upon the earth and revitalise the sleeping church.⁷

The teachings of Franklin Hall, an itinerant minister with his own brand of theology, greatly heightened and shaped expectations of revival.

Hall also taught a number of other strange and non-biblical doctrines including assigning spiritual significance to the signs of the zodiac. He believed that what he was encouraging was all part of the fulfilment of the ‘Joel's Army’ prophecy of Joel 2:3-11 when “gravity freed, great people will run up walls” and “permanent, lasting freedoms from all sickness, harmful, accident things and defeat will come about” in this present life.

He even went as far as to teach that “Freedom from the imprisonment of all gravitational forces will also be brought upon the whole man. This study teaches one the power and secrets of space flight...It gives the Bible formula for weightlessness, the 'raising up' power of those who come to immortality (Jn 6 and Rom 2:7)”.⁸

Despite his obviously aberrant beliefs and his works-orientated methodology with its possibly occult overtones, Franklin Hall's book was a great success and brought him some fame. Not only was it a great influence upon the Sharon Bible School brothers but others in the 'healing evangelism' stream such as Gordon Lindsay, Oral Roberts and William Branham claimed to be much influenced by its teaching.

No-one seems to have been in the least concerned about Hall's non-biblical beliefs and practices and simply accepted his fasting methods, presumably on some kind of pragmatic basis.

William Branham

The Sharon brothers were also considerably impressed with the ministry of William Branham and they attended a 'healing campaign' meeting that Branham was holding in Vancouver only three months before the Sharon 'revival' began.⁹ It is said that some of them had Branham lay hands on them for the impartation of spiritual power.

William Branham was born near Burkesville, Kentucky on 6 April 1909 and his various biographers say that miraculous visitations and supernatural events followed him from birth.

For example, one of his biographers, Pearry Green, relates that a visible light hovered over his crib the day he was born, accompanied by what he called “a strange aura, a Presence”.¹⁰ It is also claimed that he received his first vision at the age of three and that at the age of seven had his first experience of what he called 'the voice' which told him, “Never smoke, drink nor defile your body, for when you are older there is a work for you to do”.¹¹

William Branham’s various biographers say that supernatural events followed him from birth.

During 1933 Branham had a series of seven visions regarding forthcoming major events that would take place in the world. This led him to predict (he was at pains to stress that it was not a prophecy)¹² that the end of this present age which he equated with the Laodicean Church would occur around 1977 and the millennium would then begin.

Although it could be said that there has been quite substantial fulfilment of Branham's first six visions, the last and final vision, which he saw as occurring in 1977, and involved the physical destruction of America, has not yet come to pass.¹³

His national healing ministry began in the spring of 1946. According to his own testimony God led him to a secret cave (some versions of his biography say a cabin) in Indiana on 7 May of that year where he met an 'angel' who told him “Fear not! I am a messenger, sent unto you from the presence of Almighty God. I want you to know that your strange life has been for a purpose in preparing you to do a job that God has ordained for you to do from your birth. If you will be sincere, and you can get the people to believe you, nothing will stand before your prayer, not even cancer”.¹⁴

The angel then went on to tell him that it would be necessary for people to confess their sins before they appeared before him for ministry and that he would be used to preach to multitudes all over the world in packed auditoriums. According to Pearry Green the angel told Branham of “a fabulous ministry to take place”.¹⁵

Branham also alleges that the 'angel' (whom he appears to have identified with 'the voice') told him that he would be able to detect diseases by vibrations in his left hand and have the ability to tell people's secret thoughts. Branham said that the 'angel' always accompanied him on stage at his healing sessions and stood at his side, and he is also on record as saying that the healings were not done by him but by his 'angel'.¹⁶ Branham put great store on the direction given to him by this 'angel', even cancelling meetings because of what the 'angel' told him.

Branham held his first 'healing revival' meeting in St Louis in June 1946 and his reputation soon spread. According to David Harrell Jr, who wrote a history of the healing and charismatic revivals in America entitled All Things Are Possible, “Branham's healing power became a worldwide legend: there were continued reports that he raised the dead”.¹⁷

Branham put great store in the direction given to him by his ‘angel’.

It was said that Branham's ability to discern people's illnesses, and sometimes their sins, although he had never seen them before, was amazing. Ern Baxter, who was a member of Branham's team and worked with him for between four and eight months every year for six years, said that he never once saw Branham's discernment miss. The Pentecostal historian Walter J Hollenweger, who knew Branham personally and interpreted for him on his visits to Switzerland, wrote of “Branham's ability to name with astonishing accuracy the sickness, and often also the hidden sins, of people whom he had never seen”.

Hollenweger also said that he was “not aware of any case in which he was mistaken in the often detailed statements he made”. Significantly, however, he also said, “By contrast to what he claimed, only a small percentage of those who sought healing were in fact healed.”¹⁸

Teaching on Kingdom Restoration

Branham was convinced that the Church was on the edge of restoration and the manifestation of God's kingdom on earth, basing much of his teaching on the scriptures of Joel 2:23 and Revelation 1:20-3:22. He interpreted the 'latter rain' of Joel 2 as the new Pentecostalism of his day and taught that God was restoring his Church from what he called 'the locusts of denominationalism' or 'the mark of the beast'.

From the passage in Revelation he taught that 'God's Seventh Church Age' (i.e. the Laodicean age) had come and identified it as God's final move. He claimed that the angels (or messengers) to the seven churches were simply men who appeared at particular times in Church history to bring new revelation to lead the Church progressively to sanctification.

Many saw Branham as the messenger to the end-time Laodicean Church and hailed him as the greatest apostle and prophet for the final age of the Church. For example, Paul Cain, who at that time exercised a 'healing evangelism' ministry and had considerable association with Branham, described him as “the greatest prophet of the twentieth century”.¹⁹ Voice, the magazine of the FGBMI, went further and said “In Bible Days, there were men of God who were Prophets and Seers. But in all the Sacred records, none of these had a greater ministry than that of William Branham”.²⁰

However, like Franklin Hall, Branham had some decidedly non-orthodox theological views, especially about the doctrine of the Trinity. He did not accept the orthodox teaching of a Godhead comprising of the Three Persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which he said was the 'Babylonian Foundation' of denominationalism. Rather, like the heresy of Arianism, he believed in one Godhead which showed itself in the three 'attributes' of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

As with Franklin Hall, many were prepared to totally overlook Branham's aberrant theology for the sake of the signs and wonders of his ministry.

He also espoused the view that God had given his word not only in the Bible but also in the Zodiac and the pyramids of Egypt. These aberrant beliefs, together with his unorthodox ministry methods, eventually brought Branham into conflict, first with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, and eventually with other mainline denominations.

However, as in the case of Franklin Hall, there were those who were prepared to totally overlook Branham's aberrant theology for the sake of the signs and wonders of his ministry. For example, many in the 'healing evangelism' stream did so on the basis of 'unity' which was for them an important issue. Gordon Lindsay, who was seen as the co-ordinator of the healing movement, is said to have “repeatedly stressed” the need for a “vision of the unity of God's people”. He is reported also to have said of Branham that “the uniting of believers had been the burden of his heart from the time that the angel had visited him”.

Influence in Sharon

The brothers from Sharon were very affected by what they experienced at the Branham meeting in Vancouver. This is clear from a glowing article which appeared in the January 1948 issue of their periodical The Sharon Star:

The Branham Campaign in Vancouver B.C. was a great success...Never in my life have I seen anything to equal what I saw in Vancouver...His [Branham's] sermons have the effect of inspiring faith in his hearers...To my best knowledge I did not see one person who was not healed when brother Branham took time to pray specially for him...I came home from those meetings realising as never before that the real gifts of the Holy Spirit are far mightier than we have imagined in our wildest dreams…

All great outpourings of the past have had their outstanding truths. Luther's truth was Justification by Faith. Wesley's was Sanctification. The Baptists taught the premillenial coming of Christ. The Missionary Alliance taught Divine Healing. The Pentecostal outpouring has restored the Baptism of the Holy Ghost to its rightful place. But the next great outpouring is going to be marked by all these other truths plus a demonstration of the nine gifts of the Spirit as the world, not even the Apostolic world, has ever witnessed before. This revival will be short and will be the last before the Rapture of the Church.²¹

Branham differed from the other healing evangelists of his day in that he linked healing with the casting out of demons and one of his ministry methods was to cast out a demon by the laying on of hands, so that a miraculous healing might follow.

In his MA thesis to the University of Manitoba, 'The Pentecostal Movement', CJ Jaenen suggests that Branham's use of the laying on of hands in his healing campaigns influenced the Sharon brothers to do the same in their subsequent ministry.²² This question of the use of the laying on of hands was the first issue to bring the emerging Latter Rain Movement into conflict with the Pentecostal Assemblies.

Next week: The rise and spread of the Latter Rain Movement.

This article is part of a series - click here for previous instalments.

References

1. Riss, R, 1987. Latter Rain. Honeycomb Visual Productions Ltd, Ontario, p55.

2. Ibid, pp55-56.

3. Dager, AJ, 1990. Vengeance is Ours. Sword Publishers, Washington, p49.

4. Hall, F, 1975. Atomic Power with God Through Fasting and Prayer. Hall Deliverance Foundation, Phoenix, p19.

5. Hall, F. Newsletter 'Miracle Word'. Hall Deliverance Foundation, 1985, p10.

6. Hall, F, 1976. The Return of Immortality. Hall Deliverance Foundation, p60.

7. Ibid, p3.

8. Ibid, p3.

9. Riss, R, Latter Rain (see 1), p56.

10. Green, P, 1970. The Acts of the Prophet. Tuscon Tabernacle Books, Tuscon, p39.

11. Ibid, p40.

12. Branham, W, 1984. An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages. Spoken Word Publications Jeffersonville, p321.

13. Ibid, p322.

14. Green, P, The Acts of the Prophet (see 10), p69.

15. Ibid, p70.

16. Dager, AJ, Vengeance is Ours (see 3), p57.

17. Harrell Jr, DE, 1975. All Things Are Possible. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, pp35-36.

18. Hollenweger, WJ, 1972. The Pentecostals. Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, pp354-355.

19. Hill, C. 'Kansas City Prophets'. Prophecy Today, London, July/August 1990, p6.

20. Harrell Jr, DE, All Things are Possible (see 17), p161.

21. Riss, R, Latter Rain (see 1), p51.

22. Ibid, p58.

Peter Fenwick asks: was the Toronto Blessing biblical – and does it matter?

(This article is part of a series. Click here for previous instalments.)

The Toronto Blessing consisted of three distinctive parts: the manifestations, the receiving methodology and the claimed testimonies.

The Manifestations

I do not propose to spend a great deal of time on these. In Toronto receiving meetings strange things happened; people who were prayed for displayed unusual behaviour. Falling to the floor and lying supine was almost universal, and laughing uncontrollably almost as widespread.

There was a good deal of trembling and jerking, often known as the 'Toronto twitch', weeping and staggering in a seemingly-drunken fashion. Less common, but nonetheless widespread, were many other different physical movements, including certain sorts of dancing and animal movements, and, of course, the notorious animal noises. For the most part, all of these things were declared to be the result of the Holy Spirit being upon people in order to bless them.

When engaged in dialogue about the issue of the Toronto Blessing I found that all who were supporters of it nevertheless sought to play down the matter of the manifestations. It was said to me by people that they did not like them, but it was necessary to put up with them in order to lay hold of God's best.

Even though the whole of the Toronto Blessing was claimed to be a sovereign move of God, the mood amongst the practitioners generally ended up being to get these particular things under control - a strange way to respond to an alleged sovereign act of God!

Toronto practitioners generally ended up playing the manifestations down and trying to get them under control – a strange way to respond to an alleged act of God!

Generally speaking, people who went forward more than once at successive meetings tended to repeat whatever was the manifestation which they first received. If they became pogo jumpers, for instance, that is probably what they repeated at future meetings. It was also common for people who were prayed with to receive the specific manifestation characteristic of the person praying for them.

Backtracking from a Biblical Defence

During most of 1994, claims were made that all of these manifestations could be successfully held up to biblical examination, though I have to say, I have only ever seen attempts to give biblical authentication to the following seven: drunken staggering, losing bodily strength and thus falling down, laughing uncontrollably, weeping, trembling, lion roaring and convulsions.

This last one, convulsions, is a strange odd one out. Gerald Coates wrote in 'Toronto and Scripture' (Renewal magazine, November 1994) concerning “manifestations of the Holy Spirit's presence” that “Scripture gives more than sufficient evidence and endorsement for the following responses”. It was the strange odd one out because when he talked about convulsions he said “most if not all references to do with convulsions have a demonic source”. He proceeded to quote only Mark 1:25-26 and Mark 9:18, both of which are examples of the demonic at work.

This matter is in fact doubly strange as Gerald began by declaring he would give scriptural ‘endorsement’ for such responses. Convulsions, either in the form of strange uncontrollable jerks, or on the floor contraction-like writhings, were very common features of Toronto meetings, but I have never seen or heard of any being declared demonic.

Around the world at conferences and in papers, the claims that these things were biblical were strongly challenged. I do not propose here to repeat the basis of that challenge because the attempt to biblically vindicate, such as it was, has now been largely withdrawn.

The attempt to biblically vindicate the manifestations has now been largely withdrawn.

Late in 1994, the Vineyard International Council, a body which had some oversight of the churches which related to John Wimber, made the following statement which was reported in Alpha magazine:

We are willing to allow experiences to happen without endorsing, encouraging or stimulating them; nor should we seek to explain them by inappropriate proof-texting. Biblical metaphors (similar to those concerning a lion or dove, etc.) do not justify or provide a proof text for animal behaviour...The point is, don't try to defend unusual manifestations from biblical texts that obviously lack a one to one correspondence with a current experience. (emphasis mine)

I can only presume that this is a complete retraction of what was said in the earlier days. For example, in May 1994, Bill Jackson of the Vineyard Champagne Church, Illinois, produced a paper which was subsequently widely circulated and entitled, 'What in the world is happening to us?'. In his introduction he says, “Our purpose in putting this paper together is to develop a biblical apologetic for what we see happening among us. Much of what we are seeing is strange to the natural mind.”

That paper was issued to leaders who went to the Airport Vineyard Church, Toronto, and was then well used by them in their own churches in this country. The proponents have since clearly conceded that there was no biblical foundation for these manifestations.

I am in little doubt that no concession would have been made were it not for the fact that lots of us who are profoundly troubled by these things had made a very strong challenge about the feeble biblical ground the claims stood on. Without that challenge, for the reasons that I have already given, thousands of ordinary Christians would have continued in the delusion that it was all thoroughly biblical.

What Needs Biblical Justification?

However, that was not the end of the debate, because that same Vineyard International Council effectively then asserted that a biblical basis was not needed for such things. I quote again:

The absence of proof texts does not disallow an experience. If so none of us would, a) go to Disneyland, b) use computers, c) have worship bands.

All Christians ought to find a statement like this at very least surprising if not outrageous. How anyone can dare to say that we need no more biblical justification for something that is supposed to be a great move of God than we need for going to Disneyland, is completely outside the range of my whole Christian experience.

I am in little doubt that no concession would have been made were it not for the strong challenge made by many who are profoundly troubled by these things.

As this issue of what needs biblical justification and what does not will be dealt with in future instalments of Blessing the Church?, I will take this matter no further. Sufficient for me to say that it is now acknowledged there is no biblical basis for these strange things, even though they were a fundamental part of the whole Toronto experience.

Changing Declarations

We are not at the end of our problems with these manifestations. Many of their advocates have since begun to acknowledge that there is “a lot of flesh” and some demonic activity. In other words, they are saying 'there is something wrong'. But I have to draw attention to a number of things concerning these new statements.

• They do not go on to eradicate that which is of the flesh, or the demonic.
  
• They do not even go on to identify it.
  
• For most of 1994 it was emphatically declared to be the Holy Spirit at work - all of it.
  

Manifestations accelerated and got stronger when the one ministering cried such things as, “More Lord”, or wafted his hand towards the receiver. I ask myself what kind of Lord did they suppose they were appealing to, who will give them control of that sort over another believer? I further ask, what kind of Christian would want to have that kind of control?

Instead of being disturbed by this, many in this movement rejoiced that, as they supposed, God was using them.

But if they did find manifestations which were wrong after all, what were they going to do with the 'prophetic' interpretations which accompanied them? When someone roared like a lion, it was said that manhood was being restored to the Church; a man cock-a-doodle-dooing was God saying 'Church wake up!'; when young girls danced as round a totem pole, God was giving them a warrior spirit, and if your feet became hot there was God giving you the gift of evangelism. There have been many other such prophetic interpretations.

Next week: The receiving methodology and the claimed testimonies.