The spiritual battle for Scotland is raging

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.