The Third Wave Revivals

In 1982 Fuller professor of Church Growth, Dr. C. Peter Wagner was talking with John Wimber, pastor and founder of the Vineyard Association of churches. They decided to co-teach a class on Signs, Wonders and Church Growth. A Doctorate candidate described what happened in the class,

"He (Wimber) comes to class and after 2-3 hours of lectures, he says, 'Relax. Don't close your ears. Don't get religious. But see what God is doing.' And, in a few minutes the Holy Spirit starts working. Psychology students, theology students - they all come under the power of God and they start shaking. I have never seen such genuine shaking in all my life. And some of them come under the power of God - they fall down without anybody pushing them and they are slain in the Spirit, they speak in tongues, people are getting healed and I have never seen so many manifestations of the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom as I saw in Fuller Seminary last year."
Dr. Wagner began to see several Charismatic-type revivals around the world, especially in South America. He was intrigued at how many people would accept Christ after they had been healed of physical diseases and delivered of demons. Wagner was the one who coined the term "Third Wave." He saw the first Pentecostal "wave" at the beginning of the 20th century with the Azusa and Welsh revivals. The second "wave" was the Charismatic Renewal of the 60's and early 70's. Now, this Vineyard-type wave he termed the third one. This wave, however, had elements of the Latter Rain teaching with its Manifest Sons of God and Kingdom Now theology which was and still is disturbing to many even in the historic Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.
In the 1980's the Kansas City prophets began to reintroduce this Latter Rain doctrine. In htis teaching Pentecost was the "former rain" or outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the Church must yet receive a second Holy Spirit visitation. At this time, the Sons of God will be glorified and manifested to all as they establish the Kingdom on earth before Jesus Christ returns bodily. Latter Rain prophets are now preparing multitudes for this transformation.

Argentina
In the early 1980s, Carlos Annacondia, a businessman turned evangelist, began to hold crusades in which unusual signs and wonders, healings (including filling of teeth) and deliverances were occurring. Thousands of people accepted Christ. As a result there was a massive church growth in evangelical churches. A hallmark of this revival was an emphasis on worship and praise. God's presence descended as the people immersed themselves in adoring Him. Some people wept throughout an entire service; others rejoiced with laughter. Many were led to deep repentance, both pastors and congregation.

In 1992, a second wave of revival began with Claudio Freidzon, founder of a Buenos Aires church. During his services, as people entered into adoration and worship, some became drunk in the Spirit and could not stand up. Some had to be taken home by others because they could not drive or walk on their own. Others laughed in the Spirit or fell under the power of God. The services were very long (4-5 hours), many miraculous healings were reported.

The third annual Harvest Evangelism International Institute was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 4-13, 1993. In addition to John and Carol Arnott, about 100 others from North America attended, including C. Peter Wagner and Cindy Jacobs. All of these people were completely "drunken" in the Spirit at certain times during the conference. Most of the evenings involved attending Hector Giminez's church, where Claudio Friedzon was ministering.
C. Peter Wagner wrote,
"Like a burning, dry tinder, the Spirit of God has ignited an extraordinary spiritual bonfire in Argentina over the last ten years. From the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) to breathtaking Iguazu Falls in the northeast, the flames of revival have blazed through Argentina and beyond, making the country one of the flashpoints of church growth in the world today....Argentine evangelist Carlos Annacondia began his crusade ministry in 1982, the year of Argentina's defeat in the Malvinas, just as the Spirit of God began to spark spiritual renewal. Since then, over a million and a half people have made public commitments to Christ during the course of Annacondia's ministry. Hector Giminez was a drug addicted criminal when God called him into the Kingdom. He began ministering to troubled youth; and within a year, was leading a congregation of 1,000.Since 1986 his church in downtown Buenos Aires.

Toronto
Randy Clark pastor of the St. Louis, MO Vineyard, attended a meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma led by Rodney-Howard Browne. It was there that Clark received the impartation from Howard-Browne.
Afterwards, John Arnott, pastor of the Toronto Airport Vineyard church, invited Clark to minister in his church. These meetings began on January 20, 1994. What happened with the Argentine meetings happened in Toronto-- Holy Spirit conviction; people falling on the floor, laughing, drunk in the "Spirit," some sounding like animals, jerking, and so forth.
In the CHRISTIAN WEEK, a newspaper published bi-weekly in Winnipeg, Manitoba, it was reported that,
"Since the outbreak of joy began in mid-January, the Airport Vineyard has been holding services six nights a week, some in rented facilities to accommodate crowds of up to a thousand people. In mid-February they reported a nightly average attendance of 800....The phenomenon has spread throughout southern Ontario and more meetings were being held in cities including Cambridge (a reported average nightly attendance of 600), Stratford (300), Barrie (250) and Hamilton (250)."

Holy Trinity Brompton
One of the first and most highly publicized "hotspots" for the awakening in England was an Anglican Church, Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), in London. At about 11:30 a.m. on May 24, 1994, Eleanor Mumford, assistant pastor of the South-West London Vineyard and wife of John Mumford (pastor of South-West London Vineyard and overseer of the Vineyard Churches in Britain) met with a group of friends, many of whom were leaders of other churches, to describe her recent visit to the Toronto Airport Vineyard.
The church leaders invited Eleanor Mumford to preach at Holy Trinity Brompton that Sunday, May 29, at both the morning and evening services. After both talks, she asked the Holy Spirit to come.
Wallace Boulton writes,
"There was a time of silence. Then slowly, members of the congregation began to cry quietly, and some to laugh. As the Holy Spirit came, Eleanor asked people to come forward if they wanted prayer. Many did so. As Eleanor's team and members of the church ministry team started to pray, people began to fall in the power of the Spirit. Soon the whole church was affected. There were scenes that few had ever seen before. The children arrived from their own groups and may of them were deeply touched and began praying for each other. People lingered for a long time after each service."

Pensacola, Florida
In 1995, Evangelist Stephen Hill read an article in Time magazine about the move of God in Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican church in London . He arranged for a meeting at three o'clock on January 19 with Pastor Sandy Miller of this church to see what was going on. Over 500 people were shaking and laying on the floor under the power of God when Hill arrived. Instead of having the appointment, Hill asked Miller to lay hands on him. He received a new impartation from Miller's prayer.

On Father's Day, June 18, 1995, evangelist Hill spoke at Brownsville Assembly of God, just outside of Pensacola, Florida. Although he was planning to be there for only one day, the power of God fell. The morning service that Fathers Day began with singing and a sermon by Hill entitled "How to get the Lord's attention." When he asked those who wanted to be saved to come up to altar, many moved from their seats. It was then that the physical manifestations of God began. The pastor, John Kilpatrick, fell out under the power of God for a period of about 48 hours.
From one participant,
"We all felt the power of God increase every night that we were there. We stayed each night 'til about 2:00 in the morning, and at that hour there was still about 1000 people standing, sitting, laying around the altar! Even on the week nights! And the evangelist and prayer ministry teams kept praying for people right on into the morning hours. They asked all first-time visitors to raise their hands each night - and there were probably several hundred first timers every night. They estimate that over 10,000 people have attended during the first 2 weeks, and that over 3,000 have been saved, either in the meetings, or as a result of people going out from the meetings and leading someone to the Lord."

Rodney Howard-Browne
I kept seeing one name crop up over and over as to impartations to many of the pastors whose churches experienced this outpouring-- Rodney Howard-Browne.
In July of 1979, at eighteen years of age, Rodney M. Howard-Browne of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, reached a crossroads in his life. Over a period of several months, an increasing spiritual hunger had been developing within him, and while at an interdenominational prayer meeting with about eighteen young people at this time, he cried out to the Lord, "God, either you come down here tonight and touch me, or I'm going to die and come up there and touch you." He began shouting, frightening nearly everyone who was present. He shouted for twenty minutes, "God, I want your fire." Describing this incident at his camp meeting fifteen years later (July 18, 1994), he said it was as though all of a sudden somebody had taken gasoline and put a lighted match to it. The fire of God fell upon Him instantaneously, and he was immersed in the liquid fire of the Holy Spirit. He became completely inebriated in the Holy Ghost. He was beside himself. Overflowing, he laughed uncontrollably. He went from laughter to weeping to tongues, back to laughter and weeping again. Four days later, the glory of God was still upon him, and by this time he was saying, "God, lift it. I can't bear it any more...Lord, I'm too young to die, don't kill me now." For a two-week period, he felt the presence of God.
His ministry is well-known for being "drunk in the Spirit." In fact, he calls himself the Holy Ghost bartender.
Howard-Browne.

Many pastors have attended these key churches and obtained the impartation. Then when they went back to their churches, much of what has been described above happened in their churches too.

The Critics
There has been much talk from these revival churches about great healings, conversions and changes in the areas around the churches.
However, conversely, many critics have pointed out lack of evidence in many cases of these healings and improvements. The critics are also concerned about the occultic, controlling nature of these revivals as well as the severe criticism and name-calling leveled at questioners.

As in any revival, time will help us sort it all out.

The Charismatic Renewal

The Mainline Denominational Renewal
On April 3, 1960, Dennis Bennett spoke from his pulpit at the thriving St. Mark's Church in Van Nuys, California and shared with his congregation that he had received a personal Pentecost or Baptism with the Spirit. And as with the original Pentecost in Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years before, scripture says, "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). Now Dennis shared that he, and then many of his congregation, had this empowering experience. Needless to say, this didn't go over very well with his church elders and he was asked to leave. However, this spearheaded the Charismatic movement in the Episcopalian churches, as well as in other mainline Protestant churches. His book, describing all of this, Nine O'Clock in the Morning, is still a classic and I recommend it.

In August 1961, Larry Christenson, a Lutheran pastor, was invited by an elderly Norwegian woman to hear evangelist Mary Westberg. Christenson was asked that evening by Westberg if he wanted to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and he received the gift of tongues soon thereafter. The renewal then began to spread to other Lutheran churches.

In May 1966, a group of Presbyterian pastors who had been touched by the Holy Spirit gathered together at Camp Furthest Out at Lake Murray, Oklahoma and founded the Presbyterian Pastors Charismatic Communion (today called PRMI--Presbyterian and Reformed Ministries International). This group was dedicated to promoting an experience of the Holy Spirit, that is the Baptism, healing, tongues, etc., but in terms that were consistent with their Presbyterian theology and style. The movement spread like wildfire through Presbyterian churches, many pastors as well as lay people getting involved.

The Jesus People and Calvary Chapel
In 1965, A [Foursquare] pastor named Chuck Smith was invited to pastor a small non-Foursquare church with only 25 members called Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California. The growth rate exploded following Smith's acceptance to pastor this church. The future of Calvary Chapel was dramatically changed by Chuck Smith's decision to spread his ministry to the "hippies" at the beaches surrounding Costa Mesa. Smith began to meet some of the hippies who were early converts of the Jesus Movement. These young people who were called "Jesus Freaks," were experiencing great inner transformations and expressed an excitement for sharing their new faith. They felt they fit in at Calvary Chapel and in just two years there were almost 2,000 members in the church. In the past three decades the church has grown from only 25 to 25,000 and there are hundreds of other Calvary Chapel churches around the world.

The Catholic Renewal
In February 1967, a group of college students attending a retreat at Duquesne University in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania had a powerful and transforming experience in response to fervent prayer asking God to allow them to experience the grace of both baptism and confirmation. They prayed that the Holy Spirit would be alive in them as he was alive in the first Christians following Pentecost. The Holy Spirit did come upon them in power, imparting to them an overwhelming sense of the presence of God, giving them the gifts of praying in tongues and prophecy and a thirst for and insight into Scripture. The account of this experience - which came to be known as "Baptism in the Holy Spirit" - quickly spread across the college campus and then to other campuses across the United States. This was the beginning of the Catholic renewal which emphasised the availability of the power and the many gifts of the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer, and the need for a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ in order to live life to the fullest.

The Pentecostals at first had a lot of trouble accepting Catholics having the same experiences as they. But a Pentecostal named David du Pleiss began to help bridge the gap between the two camps.

The Pentecostal Renewal
In 1969, the Foursquare church sent their National Youth Coordinator, Jack Hayford, to a small dying church in Van Nuys, CA., just down the street from where Dennis Bennet had been rector. Hayford started with ten people and soon built up the church to thousands within 10 years. He brought a more academic, orderly and Charismatic style to the church which spread throughout his denomination and on to other Pentecostal denominations. He also welcomed the mainline Charismatics and built bridges to them as well as to other Charismatic ministries.

Christian Growth Ministries (CGM)
In the 1970's six Charismatic men were at a conference as speakers. They were all chagrined at someone in the ministry whom they knew to be in deep sin. They decided to meet in their hotel to pray for this person. As they prayed, they felt they received a word of prophecy for themselves saying that this also could happen to them unless they began to submit to someone. They decided to submit to each other and thus was born the Christian Growth Ministries (CGM) group. The six were Derek Prince, Bob Mumford, Don Basham, Ern Baxter, Charles Simpson and John Poole. Their teaching was outstanding and many in the Charismatic and neo-Pentecostal worlds (including me) followed them through their tapes and magazine, New Wine.
Unfortunately, after a while they began to teach a strange and controlling theology called Shepherding. This resulted in an estrangement from the larger Charismatic movement and sadly, the CGM group went down in flames as more and more people began to complain about the cult-like activiites in their shepherding groups.

FOOTNOTE: I never understood why these men didn't submit to their pastors or denominational/ministry overseers. And I always wondered what would have been the outcome if they had.

TBN
In the middle 1970's a man who worked for the Assembly of God started a TV network with his wife. This was the first time a national TV network was established presenting both Penteostal and Charismatic beliefs. At first their station was welcoming to both Pentecostals of every stripe and also to the mainline and Catholic Charismatics. This built a fairly well-rounded Charismatic/Pentcostal theology. However, in the late 1980's (in my opinion), the network took a drastic WRONG left turn. Today you don't hear from the mainline Charismatics on TBN, which is a tragedy to me as the theology presented, especially on their flagship program, Praise the Lord, tends to be more narrow and restricting (read that lots of Word of faith with some Third Wave thrown in).

The Height of the Renewal
I was privelged to have gone to the First Conference on the Charismatic Renewal in 1977 held in Kansas City, Mo. This was the first time since the Reformation that both Protestants (mainline and Pentecostals) had met with and worshipped with Catholics (Catholic Charismatics that is). In the mornings each denomination held their own teaching meetings. In the afternoons each denomination held workshops on various subjects inviting anyone to come. And in the evenings at Arrowhead Stadium, (where the Royals and the Chiefs played their baseball and football games), we all met together for a worship, teaching and prophecy service. The one interesting point was the refusal of the Catholics to partake in communion with the rest of us. I remember this setting off and hurting alot of the non-Catholics. But then, this has been the problem from the get-go with the Catholic Renewal. They have had to make the big decision as to what to do about the aberrant theology in their church. Unfortuntely, many of the Catholic Charismatics became cultic and today it is a former shadow of itself although it is still going and accepted in many parishes.
As for the Mainline Charismatics, they are also going but not as strong as before.

It is my hope that these mainline Protestant groups get a platform on TBN so that the larger Pentecostal community can be more balanced with a more Reformed theology.

*********************
And then in the late 70's there was the Vineyard.........stay tuned for last installment in the Revival series--The Third Wave......

The Indonesian Revival

Well, we only have two more revivals to go after this one.

Here is a revival I can sink my teeth into. Take a dead Presbyterian church. Add people inside the church speaking in other languages they don't know, falling all over the floor and some being physically healed. Outside, add flames on top of the church. Also add townspeople rushing to put out the fire only to find they can't. Water won't put out these tongue-like flames of fire. Back inside add a really nervous pastor who doesn't have the slightest clue as to what to do as the usual decorum of the church service has been absolutely blown apart.

In 1965 this actually happened in Soe, on the Island of Timor in Indonesia. Mel Tari describes it in his book, Like a Mighty Wind. Some dispute the book as an exaggeration because of his telling of the events happening after this event. The congregants formed teams to go out to the villages and share the gospel through many miracles and healings. Tari relates that people were raised from the dead, water was turned into wine, village chiefs tried to poison teams but the poison "didn't take." If a team member got a snake bite, he was immediately healed with no ill effects; and children on the team could climb up trees with "sticky" feet that miraculously took hold to the tree (kind of like spider man I guess). Reminds you a little of Acts chapter 2 doesn't it--well maybe minus the sticky feet.

Whether some of the descriptions in Tari's book are correct or not, there is pretty strong evidence that something spectacular happened.
The Reformed Church Presbytery on Timor recorded 80,000 conversions in the first year of the revival, half of those being former communists. They also noted that some 15,000 had been permanently healed in that year. After three years the number of converts had grown to over 200,000. In those 3 years, over 200 evangelistic teams were formed. On another Island, where there had been very few Christians, 20,000 became believers in the first 3 years of the revival.

Unfortunately, today Indonesia is a primarily Muslim nation--the largest Muslim nation in fact-- with much persecution of Christians there.

The (New) Evangelicals

After 1925, evangelical Christians, plagued by liberalism within the church on one hand, and Darwinian evolution as well as other social changes in the country, on the other hand, retreated into their own enclaves and became what was known as Fundamentalists. This term came from The Fundamentals (1910-1915), a twelve-volume set of essays designed to combat Liberal theology.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Fundamentalists tried to bring about three main changes:
1) to regain control of the mainline denominations from the "higher Biblical criticism-histroicism" of the liberals
2) to change society by passing laws such as prohibition, Sunday "blue" laws, and so forth
3) to stop the teaching of evolution in the public schools

The nail that drove the Fundamentalists into their own world and away from engaging the culture was the Scopes trial. Although they won the case, in the eyes of the country they looked ridiculous, old-fashioned and anti-intellectual.

In the 1940s, a new crop of evangelicals arose to evangelize by engaging the liberal theologians on their own turf--through scholarship and also a bold new type of up-to-date evangelism. A young Billy Graham was hailed as the popular face of this new evangelicalism while Christian scholars such as Harold J. Okenga and Carl Henry worked the academic side. Henry was the first editor of the new magazine, Christianity Today, while Okenga was the first president of the new Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, CA. For a very interesting book on the rise of Fuller as well as the background of its founding which includes much of the above information, I would recommend George Marsden's book, Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism.

Adrian's Challenge

Adrian Warnock has issued a challenge to the blogworld to list who they perceive as the greatest living pastors. I will accept that challenge...but with a slight twist. Since I live in Southern California (USA), I have been very fortunate to have the pick of some of the best churches and pastors around. So here is my list of actual churches where I was either a member (most of those listed), or an attender for at least six months or more.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee
When I was a senior in college, the Church of the Open Door was within driving distance and so I became a member and sat under this well known Bible teacher and pastor. Although he has been dead for many years, his radio program, Through the Bible, is still aired on many Christian stations throughout the United States (and perhaps other countries?)

John MacArthur
This might surprise some of you who know that my basic orientation (besides a very orthodox theology with one foot on the Reformed side) is neo-Pentecostal. But I attended MacArthur's church before I became a Charismatic/Pentecostal and found him to be a great Bible teacher. And today, although I may disagree with him on some points, I still enjoy hearing him on the radio.

Jack Hayford
As I have said in many of my posts, the Church on the Way with pastor Jack Hayford really upped my sanctification process a zillion notches.
1)He presents Pentecostal theology in a very Biblical and balanced way.
2)He believes that beinga Pentecostal doesn't give license to go crazy or "do your own thing." His services were always orderly but free-flowing in the Spirit. In other words, he believed in church discipline.
3) He knew the people in his church
4) The power of the Holy Spirit was evident. I saw so many lives changed including my own it was unbelievable.

Dr. J. Gordon Kirk
As I said, I've been so blessed to have gone to so many well-known and strong churches. Lake Avenue Congregational in Pasadena, CA is one of them. Since it is just a few blocks from Fuller Seminary, many students and professors attend Lake Avenue. In fact, in one of my Sunday school classes was Dan Fuller, son of Charles Fuller himself. The pastor was a good Bible teacher and someone who really knew who was in his church. By that I mean he had a heart for all types from youth to singles to marrieds to elderly and grad students. And he mentioned all fo these in his sermons. It was not geared just to married people between the ages of 25 and 55 earning over $50,000 a year.

Darrell Johnson
He was the former pastor of the Presbyterian church I now attend. His phrase, "Allow the Bible to speak for itself" really stuck with me. He was a great Bible teacher, and nice human being who you felt really cared about you even if he had just met you. He taught part time in the Fuller doctoral program and felt that was his calling so he resigned a couple of years ago as our pastor and now is professor at Regent College in Vancouver, BC., Canada.

The Healing Revivals and Latter Rain Teaching

The Latter Rain Movement
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.
---Joel 2:23

We're up to the years 1948-49 where the controversial Latter Rain teaching was making inroads into Pentecostalism.
The term was coined by David Myland who wrote the book, The Latter Rain Covenant. It was based primarily upon the verse in Joel quoted above. The Latter Rain Movement surfaced in 1948 in North Battleford Saskatchewan by a Mr. Hawtin and a Mr. Hunt. In 1947 they attended a meeting held by William Branham and were so impressed with the supernatural manifestations in the Branham meetings that they were encouraged to seek God for the same types of manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Here is a synopsis of what constitutes Latter Rain Doctrine:

*The practice of laying on of hands to be filled with the Holy Spirit (with the evidence of speaking in other tongues).
*The practice of laying on of hands to impart spiritual gifts other than tongues.
*The belief Christians can be demonized and need to be delivered through the laying on of hands.
*The belief that God has now restored all the ministry gifts back to the Church, especially the office of the prophet and apostle.
*Divine healing is imparted via the laying on of hands.
*The concept of the restoration of the Tabernacle of David. Praise & Worship emphasized as a means to usher
(1) in God's presence.
(2) to usher God's people into His presence.
*Singing in the spirit congregationally, i.e. in other tongues
*The "song of the Lord" a prophetic song or one in other tongues but interpreted
*Emphasis on spiritual warfare
*Emphasis on personal and directive prophecy
*Women have a full and equal ministry role in the Church, i.e. women pastors, prophetesses, elders, etc.
*Physical death will be conquered by the manifest sons of God {an extreme view held by a minority within LR circles}.

The Latter Rain Revival was characterized by healings, the laying on of hands, emphasis on spiritual gifts, fasting, prayer, prophecy, allegiance to the five-fold ministry (Ephesians 4:11), importance of the Jewish feast of Pentecost and Tabernacles, distrust of denominations, manifestations of the sons of God, and the returning of Jesus Christ in accordance with the outpouring of Gods spirit.

Also in Latter Rain doctrine, Pentecost was the "former rain" or outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the Church must yet receive a second Holy Spirit visitation. At this time, the Sons of God will be glorified and manifested to all as they establish the Kingdom on earth before Jesus Christ returns bodily. Sound familiar? We will run into this again when we look at the present day Third Wave revival.

The Assemblies of God, one of the largest Pentecostal denominations at that time, passed a resolution denouncing this teaching in 1949. And that brings me to a personal note.

On a Personal Note
I was on an email discussion list a few years ago with mostly Assembly of God pastors. The Brownsville Assembly of God "revival" was really upsetting to most of them. Add to that, some of the AG leadership was for it and it was driving these pastors nuts. So one of the pastors on the list headed up a delegation of AG pastors nationwide to introduce Resolution 16 in their annual meeting. This resolution's purpose was to affirm the one passed in 1949.
The leadership tabled it and refused to discuss it. Of course this really upset the delegation that presented it, but finally after about a year, Resolution 16 was passed in most of its original form. You can view the essence of it here:
End-Time Revival.

The Healing Revival
Closely connected with the Latter Rain was the Healing Revivals of the late 1940's and early 50's. Names like Kenneth Hagin, William Branham, Jack Coe, A.A. Allen, and Oral Roberts were involved with this move. Many also include T.L. Osborne with these people. Branham was very controversial and still is. He claimed to have visitations from an angel which gave him his healing ministry. Some of these men became alcoholics or just plain wore themselves out and died early. Hagin and Roberts (and Osborne) were the ones left to teach another generation the power of faith and healing.

Aimee Semple MacPherson

"What is my task? To get the gospel around the world in the shortest possible time to every man and woman and boy and girl."
-- Aimee Semple McPherson


Why am I including Mrs. MacPherson in this revival series?
Throughout the 1930s, she launched a series of relief efforts including soup kitchens, donations, and free clinics. She fed tens of thousands of people during the Great Depression. Thousands also came to Christ through her ministry. But one of the most important things she did was to actively fight the corruption in Los Angeles City Hall and the police department at that time. Her influence helped to throw out these corrupt city officials. It can be truly said that she helped change Los Angeles spiritually, politically and materially. On the other hand, I really cannot find how the Azusa Street revival changed Los Angeles, although it did begin the Pentecostal movement.

Aimee was born in Canada and after hearing Darwin's evolutionary theory became convinced of it. She studied philosophers as a teen to present an airtight case on behalf of Darwinism. It was reported that no pastor in the area could withstand her excellent debating.

After hearing the gospel in 1907, she accepted Christ and later married a gentleman, Robert Semple, she met at that meeting. She began her ministry as a missionary in China after marrying Semple. He died in China and left her with a month-old baby, so after returing to the United States, Aimee decided to travel throughout the country as an evangelist, accompanied by her mother. In 1921, her fame spread aftr healing a woman in a wheelchair. She eventually settled in Los Angeles and opened her church, Angeles Temple in an area known as Echo Park. The services were very dramatic with props and even live animals. Once, when she was preaching to some policemen, she rode a police motorcycle onto the stage. All of Los Angeles was fascinated by her including Hollywood stars.

He downfall came as she disappeared in 1923 while swimming in the Pacific Ocean. Authorities concluded she had drowned, but 32 days later MacPherson surfaced in Mexico. She said she had been kidnapped but her critics felt she had run off with her radio engineer. When she returned to Los Angeles, 50,000 people were present to greet her.
Because Mrs. MacPherson took on the corruption in city government, some of her supporters believed she was "set up" and kidnapped. On September 27, 1944, she was found unconscious in her hotel room after speaking the night before to a crowd in Oakland, California. The coroner's verdict was an "overdose of barbital compound," or sleeping pills, which was ruled to be "accidental."

Aimee was very dramatic in her gospel presentations and wrote many songs, even Christian operas. This was part of her appeal to her followers which included city officials and Hollywood actors and actressess. She built her message on a vision she had of the heavenly city with its four corners. In one corner she saw Jesus as Saviour. In another, Jesus as Baptizer in water and in the Holy Spirit. In another corner, Jesus as Healer, and in the fourth corner, Jesus as Soon Coming King. Her message was more reconciliation with God through Christ than the terrors of hell. Today her denomination, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, named after her vision, is a thriving Pentecostal denomination whose current president is the well-known Dr. Jack Hayford.

On a personal note
I've been a member of two Foursquare churches and attended a third one for a short time. In total, I attended foursquare chruches for 11 years. One of these was Dr. Hayford's Church on the Way (the First Foursquare Chruch of Van Nuys, CA). I can truly say that these churches changed me radically. I found a very balanced gospel, perhaps because the three churches I attended were what I would term neo-Pentecostal as contrasted to old-time Pentecostal. I especially like their Christ- and cross-centeredness as well as their approach to the spiritual gifts. Unlike so many of the Charismatic churches today, in most Foursquare churches, the gifts are an outcropping of the centrality of Christ and His atoning work. In other words, the gifts surround Christ who is the center. The church revolves around Christ, not the gifts. In almost every Foursquare church, at the front is a plaque with Aimee's favorite verse, Hebrews 13:8,
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.

And that really sums up what they believe and what they teach.

The Great Welsh Revival

They just couldn't figure it out. The horses were fine before, so what had changed? They just wouldn't move. The year was 1904 and the Welsh miners finally understood what was happening. Before the great revival, when men cursed at the work horses, that type of language is what the animals had understood. Now that the men were converted and their language had been cleaned up, the horses didn't understand the simple command, "Giddyup horse."

Many of the revivals we are talking about at this blog came about through an actual emphasis by prayer groups on bringing revival to their area. The Welsh revival was of this genre as it was prayed in by many who saw Christianity in Wales as dead as a door nail at the beginning of the 20th century. God raised up Evan Roberts...literally.... in the wee hours of the morning to pray. His famous prayer was, "Bend me, O Lord." Finally on November 7, 1904, the Moriah Chapel was filled to capacity for a prayer meeting that lasted until 3:00 a.m. A young girl named Florrie Evans, who had only been a believer a few days, rose and with a trembling voice said simply, "I love Jesus with all my heart." The other young people's hearts were melted at this and thus began the revival.

At the height of the revival, The London Times wrote that "the religious revival in Wales continues...with unabated zeal. At Swansea the Poor Law guardians...dealt with revival cases in which people...have taken their parents from the workhouse. The Welsh revival movement has shown no sign of flagging..."

Huge crowds were attending the meetings. Bible verses covered the doors down in the coalmines. Entire congregations were on their knees in fervent prayer and according to the Times,
for the first time there was not a single case of drunkenness at the Swansea Petty Sessions. The whole population had been suddenly stirred by a common impulse. Religion had become the absorbing interest of their lives. They had gathered at crowded services for six and eight hours at a time. Political meetings and even football matches were postponed...quarrels between trade-union workmen and non-unionists had been made up... At Glyn-Neath a feud had existed for the past 10 or 12 years between the two Independent chapels, but during the past week united services have been held in both chapels, and the ministers have shaken hands before the congregations.

The meetings went on for many hours - often for more than 10 without a break. People lost all sense of time and churches were so full that crowds gathered outside until they could somehow squeeze their way in. The remarkable thing was that once the Revival had started it was not limited to where Roberts was speaking. Others "caught the fire" and the Spirit moved throughout Wales in great power. Public houses became almost empty. Men and women who used to waste their money in getting drunk were now saving it, giving it to help their churches, buying clothes and food for their families. And not only drunkenness, but stealing and other offences grew less and less so that often a magistrate came to court and found there were no cases for him.

Beginning in late 1904, within six months, 100,000 souls were converted in Wales. 20,000 coal miners were saved by the revival's end after about two years with at least 150,000 people converted.

Roberts' message can be summarized in the following four points:
*You must put away any unconfessed sin.
*You must put away any doubtful habit.
*You must obey the Holy Spirit promptly.
*You must confess Christ publicly.

Why did the revival die out so soon? I have a personal story to tell here. In the early 1980's I was attending a church which sent out a missionary to Wales. The missionary won so many converts that our church had to send our assistant pastor, Tim, to pastor the people until we could find a good Welsh one. One day Tim was riding a bus there and sat next to an old gentleman who asked our Tim what he did and why he was in Wales? Tim told him and this man related that he had been in the revival as a boy. Tim asked him why the revival died so soon. Here is the answer the elderly gentleman gave--"There was little Bible teaching."

Roberts was not an expository preacher and his method was prayer and exhortation, leading to a moving of the Holy Spirit which brought deep conviction. He was more concerned with the deeper work of the Holy Spirit. Many Welsh churches didn't know what to do with these converts and the Holy Spirit encounters they had, so many of the converts formed new churches without good teaching.

You can hear an eyewitness report from a participant in the revival here.
The following is from the website description:
This is a very unique recording made in 1974. John Powell Parry was seventeen years old when the revival reached his little hamlet in Northern Wales. Mr Parry was a coal miner for fifty years. At the time of this recording Mr Powell was eighty-six years old. He gives his personal observation of the revival that literally changed the world, at least for a while. John Powell Parry gave this recorded interview to Rev Paul Cook on the 2nd of October 1974.

Update on the CT 6

Well, I wondered when it would finally happen. And now it has...sort of. For those of you who haven't been following this...here is a short synopsis. The Episcopalian bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, is a homosexual and he does not try to hide it. Six pastors in Connecticut objected and taught against homosexuality for Christians in their respective churches. Their Bishop, an Andrew D. Smith, has backed Robinson to the chagrin of the six pastors who say that Smith has abandoned "scriptural authority and biblical norms." An ongoing "dialogue" between the two parties has developed as Bishop Smith didn't like what the six preached. Now Smith has relieved one of the Connecticut six, the Rev. Mark Hansen, pastor of St. John's Church in Bristol, for six months. Smith even had the locks on the church door changed. Hansen still remains a priest, but cannot serve in Bishop Smith's bailiwick. Smith claims Hansen has been absent without permission, while Hansen says he is on sabbatical and the parish is overseen by a retired priest from Massachusetts.

The other priests who are in hot water with Bishop Smith are the Rev. Gilbert V. Wilkes of Christ and the Epiphany Church in East Haven; the Rev. Christopher P. Leighton of St. Paul's Church in Darien, the Rev. Ronald S. Gauss of Bishop Seabury Church in Groton and the Rev. Allyn B. Benedict of Christ Church in Watertown.

And so the story goes on......and on....and on......

Oh...one final note: Rev. Hansen is appealing this decision to the highest court--the Archbishop of Canterbury himself.

312 Azusa Street

"Disgraceful intermingling of the races, they cry and make howling noises all day and into the night. They run, jump, shake all over, shout to the top of their voice, spin around in circles, fall out on the sawdust blanketed floor jerking, kicking and rolling all over it. Some of them pass out and do not move for hours as though they were dead. These people appear to be mad, mentally deranged or under a spell. They claim to be filled with the spirit. They have a one eyed, illiterate, Negro as their preacher who stays on his knees much of the time with his head hidden between the wooden milk crates. He doesn't talk very much but at times he can be heard shouting Repent," and he's supposed to be running the thing... They repeatedly sing the same song , 'The Comforter Has Come.'"

This was a description of the Azusa Street revival by a Los Angeles newspaper in September, 1906. Actually, the whole thing started in Pasadena, home of the Rose Parade and Bowl games. It was there that a group of men began to hold prayers meetings for a revival in the Los Angeles area. Eventually they changed location to the First Baptist church of Los Angeles, pastored by Joseph Smale.

One of the participants of the revival, Frank Bartleman writes,
"On June 17, 1905 I went to Los Angeles to attend a meeting at the First Baptist Church. They were waiting on God for an outpouring of the Spirit there. Their pastor, Joseph Smale, had just returned from Wales. He had been in touch with the revival [there] and Evan Roberts, and was on fire to have the same visitation and blessing come to his own church in Los Angeles..."

Upon Joseph Smale's return to Los Angeles, he quickly organized his church into small home prayer groups. He also encouraged his people to look for the return of the apostolic gifts to the church. The prayer meetings lasted fifteen weeks and almost immediately produced a deep sense of need and expectation for revival. Bartleman describes the meetings as follows,

(Pastor Smale) started prayer meetings in his church to wait on God for an outpouring of the Spirit similar to that which they were having in Wales. God wonderfully anointed him to exhort the people. He was full of faith for mighty things. These prayer meetings ran for a number of weeks, and there was much spontaneous worship and some very wonderful healings. Faith increased rapidly for extraordinary things. God made Pastor Smale a regular Moses to lead us toward the promised land. But soon the church dignitaries could tolerate the new, spontaneous order no longer. They ordered it to cease, or the Pastor to resign. The consequence was the Pastor wisely decided to go on with God, and the Lord and the people went with him. The cloud moved. A New Testament Church was formed. Here God wonderfully led and blessed, up to the Spring of 1906.

Pastor Smale began to be criticized for his openess of prayer and worship, so he finally resigned and began another church in early 1906. For months the newly organized church experienced great freedom and blessing. However, before long it too was struggling to keep in step with the Spirit of revival as they became too organized and quenched the Spirit. It was then that some of the Smale's people began to attend another group meeting at 214 N. Bonnie Brae Street.

Bartleman relates how both white and colored saints were meeting there for prayer. He met Brother Seymour, who had just come from Texas.
Bartleman writes,
He was a colored man, very plain, spiritual, and humble. He attended the meetings at Bonnie Brae Street. He was blind in one eye. There was a general spirit of humility manifested in the meeting. They were taken up with God. Evidently the Lord had found the little company at last, outside as always, through whom he could have right of way. There was not a mission in the country where this could be done. All were in the hands of men. The Spirit could not work. Others far more pretentious had failed. That which man esteems had been passed by once more and the Spirit born again in a humble stable, outside ecclesiastical establishments as usual. A body must be prepared, in repentance and humility, for every outpouring of the Spirit. They decided to wait on God in a ten-days special petitioning of God and in yielding themselves to Him. The time had come. God had found the right company at last.

Soon the meeting at Bonnie Brae became dangerously crowded and another place had to be found for the prayer services. The meeting was moved to 312 Azusa Street under the leadership of William Seymour. Bartleman describes the spiritual atmosphere in the new meeting place,

"They opened public meetings in old Azusa St. in an old Methodist Church that had been for a long time in disuse, except as a receptacle for old lumber, plaster, etc. It was very dirty. A space was cleared large enough to seat a score or two of persons. We sat on planks resting on old nail kegs, if I remember correctly. But God was there. The work began in earnest. The fire had fallen. It was on the 9th of April 1906, that the Spirit was first poured out on Bonnie Brae. On April 18th we had the terrible San Francisco earthquake. It had a very close connection with the Pentecostal outpouring... This shook the whole state, as well as the nation. Men began to fear God... Their conscience needed to be knocked at. This paved the way for the revival. Otherwise they would have mocked us.... God suddenly shut up many little Holiness Missions, Tent meetings, etc., that had been striving with one another a long time for the preeminence. It would not work any more. They had to come together. God only could tame them. There was little going on anywhere else, but at Azusa St."

As the revival continued for three and one-half years at Azusa, services were held three times a day--morning, afternoon, and night. Tongues-speaking was the central attraction, but healing of the sick was not far behind. The walls were soon covered with the crutches and canes or those who were miraculously healed. The gift of tongues was soon followed by the gift of interpretation. As time passed Seymour and his followers claimed that all the gifts of the Spirit had been restored to the church.

Within a short time the Azusa Street Pentecost became a worldwide movement. The five major teachings of Azusa Street served as a standard for this first wave of Pentecostals. They were: (1) justification by faith
(2) sanctification as a definite work of grace
(3) the baptism in the Holy Spirit evidenced by speaking in other tongues;
(4) divine healing "as in the atonement"
(5) the personal premillennial rapture of the saints at the second coming of Christ.

The Third Awakening

Moody
The results of the Second Awakening were fairly dramatic as it produced both the abolition movement and a call for prohibition of alcohol in many cities and counties. Later that movement would end alcohol sales in whole states, and of course eventually the entire country through the Volsted Amendment. However, the BIG question, the same one we must also ask today, is:
were those movements a result of conversion? Or were they simply political movements?
There is nothing new under the sun

The Second Awakening, lasting as long as it did, eventually petered out with just a few flickers here and there. By the 1870's and 80's there was a new factor to be considered--non-Protestant immigrants and crowded, dirty cities and tenements.
Into this milieu came Dwight L. Moody, a shoe salesman turned evangelist. Moody started in Chicago by starting a Sunday School class, going out to the workers' children and inviting them to his YMCA class. Eventually the class was so popular and well-attended that he started to evangelize the whole city. After becoming well-known, he was invited to other large cities and eventually to Britain. As an evangelist he was one of the first to raise funds from the wealthy for his meetings.

As for the message, it had now progressed from the strict Calvinism of the 17th and early 18th centuries, full swing to this exclamation by Moody:
"The way to be saved is not to delay, but to come and take, t-a-k-e, TAKE."
Although Moody preached to millions and many converted (although some were naturally just taken with the moment) he basically reached rural Protestants who had come to the city. He didn't reach the many Catholics and Jewish immigrants. This was to be the pattern in revivals to come.

Sunday
After Moody came some other evangelists following his methods but with more and more showmanship. In the first decade of the 20th century, a well-known baseball player named William "Billy" Sunday emerged. Once again, Sunday did not reach the immigrants but mostly Protestants of Western European descent. Sunday was folksy and appealed to the common folk. He was also, like Moody, a good fund raiser from the rich.
He pointed out that any sinner was worthy of salvation. Here is how he put it in his usual folksy manner,

A man was offered a meal. He says, "Ugh! Ugh!"
I say, "Why?"
He says, "My hands aint fitten."
"Well," I reply, "there is soap and water and a towel. Wash your hands." So he just stands there and stares to death. There you are friend. Give yourself to God and His Church."
You might say, "Ugh! Ugh! I aint fitten."
"Well come up here and seek to be saved and to be made fit."
"Ugh, ugh! I aint fit to be fitten."

There seemed to be two problems with these revival approaches. As already pointed out, they reached only the Protestant American; and, the meetings began to be more and more costly, turning into shows and extravaganzas. A by-product was the evangelist living a high life style.
There is nothing new under the sun

The Second Great Awakening: Finney

Born in 1792 in Ct., Charles Grandison Finney's family moved to New York when he was 2 years old. There he trained as a lawyer and became a Christian at 29. After becoming very familiar with the Bible, the prevailing Calvinistic theology just didn't make sense to his lawyer's mind.
Of course this caused a stir with even the New England revivalists. But, as a very practical person, he pointed out to his critics that his measures were working, so why abandon them?
The New England pastors were complaining about his--
*all-night prayer meetings
*praying for sinners by name
*allowing women to pray and exhort when men were present
*speaking familiarly with God which was seen as irreverant
*employing the anxious seat or bench (the forerunner of today's altar [call])

Finney believed that
"revival is not a miracle; it consists entirely of the right exercise of power of nature. It is like the right use of means to raise grain and a crop of wheat."
And, mankind will not act until they are excited.

He adopted the Wesleyan perfectionism in sanctification as well as disbelieving in original sin and once-saved-always-saved. To his credit, he didn't believe society would change through laws, but rather through conversion. Unfortunately, some of his students didn't, and so started a century and a half of legalism and political activism which had mixed results.

He began his revivals in rural towns where small manufacturing plants were located, at first along the Erie Canal in upstate New York. Later he would be invited to the larger cities and then finally as professor and then president of Oberlin College.

So what did the Second Great Awakening accomplish? As noted in a prior post, by 1838 the country as a whole was back on track with God. By that time church membership had grown, religious newspapers and books were flourishing, every college had ministers and devout laymen on their boards and in teaching positions and societies had been formed to print Bibles, establish oversea missions and to establish schools.

But another very important outcome of this revival, throughout the entire country at that time, was the coming together of Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists. This was another factor in blurring the lines between strict High Calvinism and the new more modified one used to blend in with the Arminianism of the Methodists.

The Second Great Awakening: New England and the South

New England
The tension of the youth in the New England states was between Old School [High] Calvinism and the new encroaching deism. Was there a middle ground?
The revivalists began to discover there might be. On the whole, the Second Great Awakening revivalist appealed to the heart, instead of the head. This was also happening in Germany and the British Isles. Here is how one evangelist, a Mr. Taylor, described this theology: "God arouses the heart and men respond by a clear decision to accept God's offer."
This New School believed:
-no imputation of sin
-no atonement of Christ for man's sin. Instead Christ came to suffer as a man because he wished to sacrifice Himself for he love of mankind. It was a voluntary act of sacrifice as an example to believers to sacrifice their own selfishness for their fellow men. Jesus went to the cross to bring harmony between God and man.
In this they were following the Romanitic Era's ideals of the early and middle 19th century.

As his grandfather, Jonathan Edwards, was the leading light of the First Great Awakening in New England, so Timothy Dwight was in the Second Awakening there. In 1795, when he assumed the presidency of Yale, what he found there was shocking--few professing Christians and immoral, profligate behavior. During his presidency, there were 5 revivals at Yale-in 1802, 1807, 1812, 1815 and 1820. The importance of these was to be seen in the next generation of church leaders.
With Dwight was Asahel Nettleton who presented a more intellectual approach to the educated at Yale as well as in New England in general. This was a far different approach to the one used at the frontiers.
Nettleton would use a more Socratic approach and was one of the first to do home evangelism. After meetings, he would follow those home who seemed to be "affected" by the message. As a result of his Yale evangelization in 1820, 25 Yale students and 80 citizens of New Haven became Christians.

The eager beaver though was Lyman Beecher. While a student at Yale, he was dramatically changed by the presidency of Dwight. Beecher was one of the people in this awakening who thought that man perhaps could hasten his conversion by being morally upright and law-abiding. His thinking was that revivals could lead to enthusiasm for establishing Christian societies for moral improvement throughout the whole land and this might usher in the return of Jesus a little sooner. Actually, as we saw in a previous post, two generations earlier Jonathan Edwards was saying the very same thing. Beecher modified Calvinism even more than Whitfied, although he still believed men were still entirely accountable for the deeds done in the body.

In the South
-James McGready, A Presbyterian from PA, was one of the first revivalists to preach in the South. He moved to the Kentucky frontier and ministered in churches at Red River, Gaspar River and Muddy River in Logan County, Kentucky. McGready's ministry was characterized by his descriptions of heaven and hell in great detail. By 1799 his congregations were exhibiting the manifestations that would come to accompany many of the Southern revivals. These included screaming, falling down, crying and so forth.

At Red River, William Hodges, John Rankin, and John and William McGee, all Presbyterian clergy except for John McGee who was Methodist, had meetings at which people fell on the floor and screamed out, "What shall we do to be saved?"
It was later at Gaspar River that the first official camp meeting was held. The most famous camp meeting was at Cain (Cane) Ridge, Kentucky in 1801. Estimates are around 20,000 people attended.

As a result of these camp meetings, which were criticised by the main Presbyterian bodies, a separate synod, The Cumberland, spun off into its own denomination. These remained separate until 1906.

In most camp meetings, between 5,000-10,000 people would come in their wagons and camp out in tents for anywhere from 3-5 days. 1 to 30 ministers would preach. Preaching and prayer literally went on night and day.

Revivalists didn't touch the issue of slavery because the emphasis was on personal pietism. Plantation owners didn't come but some slaves did. The only social issues addressed were helping the poor and temperance. There was no societal reform issues addressed, and certainly not the issue of slavery--that was a taboo subject in the South.

The Methodists had a modified form of Arminianism which took hold in these revivals. They stressed organizational structure as a way of effective discipleship after people converted. Historians usually agree that the effective spread of Methodism, especially in sparsely inhabited areas, was the result of this organizational structure.

Methodist Organization
General Assembly
|
Bishops-Regional conferences
|
District Superintendents
|
Circuit riders and congregational exhorters

The exhorters over each congregation held classes. The circuit riders were the actual ministers and had a circuit which consisted of many churches in one area. They would serve that area, or circuit, for two years. Then another rider would pastor and evangelize that area.

The Second Great Awakening: Milieux

Although there were still flickers here and there, the First Great Awakening had pretty much ended by 1750. But after the American Revolution, the country once again was becoming more unchristian in behavior and belief. In fact in 1798, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church met to discuss how the society was falling away from God. In that decade of the 1790's, church attendance and conversion plunged, college students at William and Mary College held a debate as to whether Christianity had been injurious or beneficial to mankind. In the Carolinas Sunday was a day of "riot and drunkenness. At Yale students were gambling, often drunk, and worse.
In 1782 at Princeton, a Presbyterian ministry training college, there were only two (2) professing Christian students. On the frontier there was little religion to be found at all and gambling, drinking, cursing and fighting were the norms of everyday life.
In New England, deism, in the form of Unitarianism, was taking over many of the Congregational churches as well as Harvard and Yale, the main colleges to prepare young men for the ministry trhoughout the country.
But by 1838 the country as a whole was back on track with God. By that time church membership had grown, religious newspapers and books were flourishing, every college had ministers and devout laymen on their boards and in teaching positions and societies had been formed to print Bibles, establish oversea missions and to establish schools.

How did that happen? The Second Great Awakening Revival.

So in the next post we start with where the country had gone in the early 19th century. It was being split between the elite and the common man; between commercial manufacturing/capitalism vs. farming; and, between rural areas vs. cities. This set the stage for the Second Awakening.

London

The Revival Series will continue tomorrow.

Today we stand in solidarity with our British brothers and sisters in their hour of horror.

Strom Gets It

Well, finally! Andrew Strom is "getting it" about the "Toronto revival."

You can read his latest email at TotemtoTemple.

Socrates or Hegel?

I've been reading at various sites where the seeker-sensitives (notably R. Warren) seem to be using something called the Hegelian Dialectic in order bring everyone's thoughts into line with the church's ideas.

Hegel basically created his philosophy to explain the process of history. First there is one view or event called the thesis. Then there is the opposing view or event called antithesis. Out of these two (many times a compromise of the two; other times simply the end process of the two clashing) is the synthesis.
Here is an example from Hegel's writings:

THESIS: In Ancient Greece the stoics believed in a moral absolute that applied to everyone.

ANTITHESIS: During the Enlightenment period, Rousseau believed that the individual decided what was right and wrong for him.

SYNTHESIS: Society decides what is right and wrong for its citizens.

In the continuing process, the new synthesis then becomes the new truth or thesis. Then an antithesis is introduced which culminates into synthesis which becomes the new truth or thesis and so on-- the process continues ad infitum.

At Small Groups and the Dialectic Process, Berit Kjos relates how this is used in seeker-sensitive churches.

A diverse group of people (in the church, this is a mixture of believers (thesis) and unbelievers (antithesis),
gather in a facilitated meeting (with a trained facilitator/teacher/group leader/change agent), using group dynamics (peer pressure), to discuss a social issue (or dialogue the Word of God), and reach a pre-determined outcome (consensus, compromise, or synthesis).

In other words, Kjos says the Word of God is dialogued and a consensus reached. People are taught to "respect other interpretations and ideas." Truth is often arrived at through this dialectic dialogue.

In contrast to Hegel's dialectic is Socrates' dialectic. I firmly believe this method can be used successfully in churches without compromising Biblical truth.

The Socratic Method is a conversation, a discussion, wherein two or more people assist one another in finding the answers to difficult questions instead of dry teaching and/or memorizing. It seeks the "why" of things.

My Sunday School class is an excellent example of this method. The teacher will ask a loaded question after perhaps reading a Bible passage. For example, "What does this say about capitalism. Should we be practicing it?" Or, "What should be the Christian response to the influx of immigrants to our community?" Then the fur flies in my class as opposing views are eagerly shared. But the teacher always brings it back to WHAT the Bible says--or at least it's essence. We don't come to "synthesis" based on the [opposite] views presented. This class is hugely popular as you can imagine, because it causes us to think about Biblical applications to everyday life, including business and political life.

So, Hegel in church? Probably not.
Socrates? Let's try it at times.

By the way, guess who used the Hegelian dialectic as a central part of their philosophy?

Yep--Marx and Engels. The Communist Manifesto guys.

Revivals: Pietism

Before we continue on to the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century, let's take a look at the pietistic foundations of the revivals, in the First Awakening, the Second and beyond.

One of the fathers of German Pietism was Philip Jakob Spener, a latter 17th century Lutheran pastor in Frankfort. He proposed six remedies to fix what he saw as too much ungodliness and deadness among the German clergy and theology.

1) There must be a return to the Scriptures, for only in the Bible do we find the good news of the gospel and the rules for good works that please God.
2) Laypeople must again take an active role in religious life. Spener even proposed an organizational structure of meetings outside the regular church service for Bible study and spiritual encouragement. We see this carried out later by the Wesleys.
3) Christians must move beyond mere acknowledgement of correct beliefs to live active lives of godliness.
4) Harsh religious controversies must be stopped and then replaced with a "practice of heart-felt love toward all believers and heretics."
5) The ministry must be reserved for men who are themselves true Christians and not just place-servers eager for power and prestige.
6) Students training for the ministry should be well versed in the practices of godliness and not merely trained to parrot theories of spiritual life.

As we began to notice in the First Great Awakening, and will see much more in the Second, the revivalists will base their organizational and theological foundations on these six principles.