Did Tongues Happen in the Great Awakenings?
So far, we have seen evidence that the gifts of the Spirit, including tongues, happened long after the last apostle passed off the scene in 100 A.D.
But we have also seen how the apostate Catholic church tried to squelch such manifestations, which made the gifts very rare from 350 A.D. until the Reformation.
Again, history proves that the gifts of the Spirit, including tongues, flourished in the Reformation among non-State movements, especially among the poor.
(And isn't this exactly how God does things? "The poor have the gospel preached to them" was one proof that Jesus was the Messiah!)
But what about after the Reformation?
What about the 2 Great Awakenings that swept England, Scotland, Germany and America?
There were signs and wonders associated with those movements, too. This is well documented in many places. Tongues happened in many places, as these revivalists preached open-air meetings. It is also well-documented that those ministers didn't know how to view or handle these unusual manifestations, so they were usually discouraged. The "emotionalism" (of both preacher and repentant sinner) in these meetings scandalized the traditional churches of the 1800s, and triggered a great backlash from comfortable, dignified, socially acceptable Christianity. (Just as today.)
There were also many doctrinally incorrect groups, such as the Mormons and Shakers, who spoke in tongues. But that's no different than the threat the early church faced, as tongues were commonly spoken in Greek pagan temples. Just because the counterfeit exists, is no reason to be afraid of the genuine! Would you avoid real money, just because some counterfeit money is in circulation? Would you eradicate all vines, to make sure you get rid of Poison Oak? No. You just make sure you know the genuine, so you don't get deceived by the wrong thing. Avoiding all tongues is not the Biblical solution. Knowing and operating in the genuine gift of the Holy Spirit takes away your fear of the demonic tongues, and makes you familiar with the true manifestation.
Now for some proofs of tongues in operation after the Reformation:
Regarding Dwight L. Moody, the Rev. R. Boyd, D.D. (Baptist), who was a very intimate friend of the famous evangelist, says: "When I (a Y.M.C.A. member) got to the rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association (Victoria Hall, London), I found the meeting "on fire". The young men were speaking with tongues, and prophesying. What on earth did it mean? Only that Moody had been addressing them that afternoon! "What manner of man is this?" thought I, but still I did not give him my hand... Many of the clergy were so opposed to the movement that they turned their backs... but Sunderland (England) was taken by storm.
from https://www.cai.org/bible-studies/testimony-great-revivalists
John Wesley... says: "It does not appear that these extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were common in the church for more than two or three centuries. We seldom hear of them after that fatal period when the Emperor Constantine called himself a Christian, and from a vain imagination of promoting the Christian cause, thereby heaped riches and power and honour upon the Christians in general, but in particular upon Christian clergy. From this time, they almost totally ceased; very few instances of the kind being found. The cause of this was not, as has been vulgarly supposed, because there is no more occasion for them because all the world were become Christian. This is a miserable mistake, not a twentieth part of it was then nominally Christian. The real cause was: the love of many, almost all Christians, so called, was waxed cold... This was the real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in the Christian Church; because the Christians were turned heathen again, and had only a dead form left".
https://www.cai.org/bible-studies/testimony-great-revivalists
Of course, the modern followers of both D.L. Moody and John Wesley are in great denial of this... much like modern "Anabaptists" are of their own Pentecostal heritage.
Most Pentecostals have been taught that the modern-day outpouring of the Spirit, with tongues and other signs and wonders, began with the Azusa Street revial in Los Angeles, California. This simply is not true. That was a notable revival, but it was not the beginning of modern Pentecost, nor was it an isolated occurrence. These manifestations had been happening for over a quarter-of-a-century in many places around the world, at the same time, with no contact between the groups experiencing them.
From the tent revivals of the Second Great Awakening, to churches in Armenia, to missions in India, to William Boothe of the Salvation Army, to a Baptist prayer meeting of Appalachian farmers in North Carolina, the last half of the 1800's saw the Baptism of the Holy Spirit falling on small pockets of Christians scattered many places over the globe, at the same time.
Why would this happen? Prophecy.
God promised to pour out his Spirit as rain. Joel not only prophesies the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, but also the Early and the Latter Rains.
Israel has two rainy seasons. The first is right after the grain is sown. A moderate rain happens just at the right time to get the seed sprouted, and well-established before the dry season hits. But then, after a long dry season, the real rainy season comes, to get the harvest full-grown, and ready to reap.
In the spiritual, the early rain happened at Pentecost. It got the church growing. But a long dry season hit, and it almost seemed the church wouldn't make it.
But when the Reformation hit, the latter rains began. And they've been increasing ever since!
Why? To get the great Harvest ready for the Lord's return!
God says, " Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds (lightning) and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field." Zechariah 10:1
When I was young, this verse gripped me. I knew not why. Over and over, my Bible would fall open to this verse, and I would find myself praying, "God, send rain." And I didn't know what I was asking for.
I believe it's time to give my own testimony of how I came to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Stay tuned.
But we have also seen how the apostate Catholic church tried to squelch such manifestations, which made the gifts very rare from 350 A.D. until the Reformation.
Again, history proves that the gifts of the Spirit, including tongues, flourished in the Reformation among non-State movements, especially among the poor.
(And isn't this exactly how God does things? "The poor have the gospel preached to them" was one proof that Jesus was the Messiah!)
But what about after the Reformation?
What about the 2 Great Awakenings that swept England, Scotland, Germany and America?
There were signs and wonders associated with those movements, too. This is well documented in many places. Tongues happened in many places, as these revivalists preached open-air meetings. It is also well-documented that those ministers didn't know how to view or handle these unusual manifestations, so they were usually discouraged. The "emotionalism" (of both preacher and repentant sinner) in these meetings scandalized the traditional churches of the 1800s, and triggered a great backlash from comfortable, dignified, socially acceptable Christianity. (Just as today.)
There were also many doctrinally incorrect groups, such as the Mormons and Shakers, who spoke in tongues. But that's no different than the threat the early church faced, as tongues were commonly spoken in Greek pagan temples. Just because the counterfeit exists, is no reason to be afraid of the genuine! Would you avoid real money, just because some counterfeit money is in circulation? Would you eradicate all vines, to make sure you get rid of Poison Oak? No. You just make sure you know the genuine, so you don't get deceived by the wrong thing. Avoiding all tongues is not the Biblical solution. Knowing and operating in the genuine gift of the Holy Spirit takes away your fear of the demonic tongues, and makes you familiar with the true manifestation.
Now for some proofs of tongues in operation after the Reformation:
Regarding Dwight L. Moody, the Rev. R. Boyd, D.D. (Baptist), who was a very intimate friend of the famous evangelist, says: "When I (a Y.M.C.A. member) got to the rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association (Victoria Hall, London), I found the meeting "on fire". The young men were speaking with tongues, and prophesying. What on earth did it mean? Only that Moody had been addressing them that afternoon! "What manner of man is this?" thought I, but still I did not give him my hand... Many of the clergy were so opposed to the movement that they turned their backs... but Sunderland (England) was taken by storm.
from https://www.cai.org/bible-studies/testimony-great-revivalists
John Wesley... says: "It does not appear that these extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were common in the church for more than two or three centuries. We seldom hear of them after that fatal period when the Emperor Constantine called himself a Christian, and from a vain imagination of promoting the Christian cause, thereby heaped riches and power and honour upon the Christians in general, but in particular upon Christian clergy. From this time, they almost totally ceased; very few instances of the kind being found. The cause of this was not, as has been vulgarly supposed, because there is no more occasion for them because all the world were become Christian. This is a miserable mistake, not a twentieth part of it was then nominally Christian. The real cause was: the love of many, almost all Christians, so called, was waxed cold... This was the real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in the Christian Church; because the Christians were turned heathen again, and had only a dead form left".
https://www.cai.org/bible-studies/testimony-great-revivalists
Of course, the modern followers of both D.L. Moody and John Wesley are in great denial of this... much like modern "Anabaptists" are of their own Pentecostal heritage.
Most Pentecostals have been taught that the modern-day outpouring of the Spirit, with tongues and other signs and wonders, began with the Azusa Street revial in Los Angeles, California. This simply is not true. That was a notable revival, but it was not the beginning of modern Pentecost, nor was it an isolated occurrence. These manifestations had been happening for over a quarter-of-a-century in many places around the world, at the same time, with no contact between the groups experiencing them.
From the tent revivals of the Second Great Awakening, to churches in Armenia, to missions in India, to William Boothe of the Salvation Army, to a Baptist prayer meeting of Appalachian farmers in North Carolina, the last half of the 1800's saw the Baptism of the Holy Spirit falling on small pockets of Christians scattered many places over the globe, at the same time.
Why would this happen? Prophecy.
God promised to pour out his Spirit as rain. Joel not only prophesies the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, but also the Early and the Latter Rains.
Israel has two rainy seasons. The first is right after the grain is sown. A moderate rain happens just at the right time to get the seed sprouted, and well-established before the dry season hits. But then, after a long dry season, the real rainy season comes, to get the harvest full-grown, and ready to reap.
In the spiritual, the early rain happened at Pentecost. It got the church growing. But a long dry season hit, and it almost seemed the church wouldn't make it.
But when the Reformation hit, the latter rains began. And they've been increasing ever since!
Why? To get the great Harvest ready for the Lord's return!
God says, " Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds (lightning) and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field." Zechariah 10:1
When I was young, this verse gripped me. I knew not why. Over and over, my Bible would fall open to this verse, and I would find myself praying, "God, send rain." And I didn't know what I was asking for.
I believe it's time to give my own testimony of how I came to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Stay tuned.
Comments
Post a Comment