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).