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70
Didache |
- Didache says, "
For the Father desireth that the gifts be given to all" and also describes prophets who speak "in the Spirit." ("Charismata" ERE, III, 371. See The Teaching of the Thrive Apostles, 1.5 & 11.7; ANF VII, 377 & 380.)
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100
Clement of Rome |
- Clement of Rome (died 100?) reminded the Corinthians that "
a full outpouring of the Holy Spirit was upon you all." (Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians, 2, ANF, I, 5)
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107
Ignatius |
- He also admonished Polycarp to pray so that he might "
be wanting in nothing, and... abound in every gift." (Ignatius, Epistle to Polycarp, 2, ANF, I, 99.)
- Ignatius wrote to the church at Smyrna: "
Ignatius... to the Church of God the Father, and of the beloved Jesus Christ, which has through mercy obtained every kind of gift, which is filled with faith and love, and is deficient in no gift, most worthy of God, and adorned with holiness... Be ye strong, I pray, in the power of the Holy Ghost." (Ignatius, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, superscription & 12, ANF I, 86 & 92.)
- Irenaeus
(A.D. 115 to 202) a pupil of Polycarp (A.D. 70-155), who was himself a disciple of the Apostle John, wrote: "in like manner do we also hear many brethren in the Church who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages, and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men and declare the mysteries of God, whom also the apostle terms 'spiritual', they being spiritual because they partake of the Spirit".
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110
Justin Martyr |
- Justin Martyr wrote, "
For the prophetical gifts remain with us, even to the present time... Now it is possible to see amongst us women and men who possess gifts of the Spirit of God." (Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, 82 & 88, ANF, I, 240 & 243)
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120-205
Irenaeus |
- Irenaeus "[T]he perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father... For this reason does the apostle declare, 'We speak wisdom among them that are perfect,' terming those persons 'perfect' who have received the Spirit of God, and
who through the Spirit of God do speak in all languages, as he used [h]imself also to speak. In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages... whom also the apostle terms 'spiritual,' they being spiritual because they partake of the Spirit." (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5.6.1, ANF, I, 531.)
- Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, wrote, "[T]hose who are in truth His disciples, receiving grace from Him, do in His name perform (miracles). It is not possible to name the numbers of the gifts which the Church (scattered) throughout the whole world, has received from God, in the name of Jesus Christ." (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 2.32.4, ANF I, 409.)
- Irenaeus mentions tongue speaking in his writing. He cited Acts 2 with no comment and applied it to the ability to speak a foreign language with no prior knowledge. He alluded to Paul's statement, "we speak wisdom among them that are perfect" (I Corinthians 2:6) and said "perfect" meant those who "have received the Spirit of God" and affirmed that they "do speak in all languages, as he (Paul, DRS) used himself to speak, in like manner." (Neander, famous ecclesiastical historian, Church History, Volume II, page 6, 1)
- Irenaeus refused the abuses and fakery of those who sought to exercise the gift with no divine right. He related how a man named
Marcus, an early Gnostic, seduced gullible women of their means by promising them the gift of prophecy. Irenaeus says Marcus began his pitch like this: ""I am eager to make thee a partaker of my Charis (spiritual gift), since the Father of all doth continually behold thy angel before His face." ... "Now the place of thy angel is among us: it behooves us to become one. Receive from me and by me Charis. Adorn thyself as a bride who is expecting her bridegroom, that thou mayest be what I am, and I what thou art. Establish the germ of light in thy nuptial chamber. Receive from me a spouse, and become receptive of him, while thou art received by him. Behold Charis has descended upon thee; open thy mouth and prophesy." [If the woman protested even slightly] Marcus would continue by saying, "Open thy mouth, speak whatsoever occurs to thee, and thou shalt prophesy." Irenaeus added, "She then, vainly puffed up and elated by these words, and greatly excited in soul by the expectation that it is herself who is to prophesy, her heart beating violently (from emotion), reaches the requisite pitch of audacity, and idly as well as impudently utters some nonsense as it happens to occur to her, such as might be expected from one heated by an empty spirit ... Henceforth, she reckons herself a prophetess, and expresses her thanks to Marcus for having imparted to her of his own Charis." (Neander, famous ecclesiastical historian, Church History, Volume I, 13, 3)."
- Commentary on 1 Cor 13:8-13:
"And Paul declares: "Not that I have already attained, or that I am justified, or already have been made perfect. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect has come, the things which are in part shall be done away." As, therefore, when that which is perfect is come, we shall not see another Father, but Him whom we now desire to see (for "blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" )" (Irenaeus, Chapter IX, Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James. Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume I. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997.)
- Scriptures complete
: True knowledge is [that which consists in] the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient constitution of the Church throughout all the world, and the distinctive manifestation of the body of Christ according to the successions of the bishops, by which they have handed down that Church which exists in every place, and has come even unto us, being guarded and preserved without any forging of Scriptures, by a very complete system of doctrine, and neither receiving addition nor [suffering] curtailment [in the truths which she believes]; and [it consists in] reading [the word of God] without falsification, and a lawful and diligent exposition in harmony with the Scriptures, both without danger and without blasphemy; and [above all, it consists in] the pre-eminent gift of love, which is more precious than knowledge, more glorious than prophecy, and which excels all the other gifts [of God]. (Irenaeus, Chapter XXXIII, Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James. Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume I. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997)
- Irenaeus (d. c. 200) served his age as Bishop of Lyons. A student of Polycarp (who, in turn, had been a disciple of the Apostle John), he had spent his youth in Smyrna and later represented a significant link between the East and the West. His major work, Against Heresies, was an attack on Gnosticism with a defense of the Christian faith drawn from those theological and canonical traditions at his disposal. Irenaeus conspicuously associated tongues with the Last Days. Referring to the latter-day outpouring promised in Joel 2:28, 29, he wrote: "For God who did promise by the prophet that He would send His Spirit upon the whole human race, was He who did send." (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, III, xii, 1, ANF, I, 430.) Irenaeus went on to relate the events of Pentecost to his own experience: "In like manner, we do hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages " Those who exercised this gift of tongues were spiritual people who through their gift revealed "for the general benefit the hidden things of men" and declared "the mysteries of God" in the diverse, living languages of mankind. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, V, vi, 1, ANF, I, 531.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 66)
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150
Gnostics
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- During the middle of the second century, however, two movements arose alongside or within the main body of Christians, presenting a major crisis in polity, theology, and the interpretation of the Old Testament,
which did have glossolalia. The older movement was Gnosticism, of which there are clear adumbrations in the New Testament. The other, a somewhat later reaction to the structural hardening of main-line Christianity, was Montanism. ... Among Gnostic groups, glossolalia of the type requiring interpretation was common, and there exist several transcribed Gnostic prayers in the Coptic tongue in which are included several lines of ejaculated glossolalic syllables or single vowels and consonants. There are also instances of nearly unintelligible utterances in some Gnostic texts in which Aramaic words or other nom na barbara can be recognized in somewhat distorted form. In the second Book of Jeu, a glossolalic prayer of Jesus of some six lines is preserved in garbled Greek within a Coptic text. The Gnostic sect of Marcosians apparently preserved Greek glossolalic phrases which, however, may have merely a formulaic or routinized character. In the recently discovered Nag Hammadi Gnostic library in The Three Stelaes of Seph, unintelligible syllables seem to be merely nomina barbara; but in The Gospel of the Egyptians, though there are many nomina barbara, there are some passages that look more like glossolalia, i.e., distorted Greek formulations in Coptic context. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 64)
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140-230
Tertullian |
- Tertullian "Let Marcion then exhibit, as gifts of his god, some prophets, such as have not spoken by human sense, but with the Spirit of God... let him produce a psalm, a vision, a prayer - only let it be by the Spirit, in an ecstasy, that is, in a rapture, whenever an interpretation of tongues has occurred to him ...
Now all these signs (of spiritual gifts) are forthcoming from my side without any difficulty." (Tertullian, Against Marcion, 5.8, ANF, III, 446-47.)
- Tertullian wrote against the heretic Marcion shortly after A.D. 200: "the Creator
promised the gift of His Spirit in the latter days; and... Christ has in these last days appeared as the dispenser of spiritual gifts." (Tertullian, Against Marcion, 5.8, ANF, III, 446.)
- Tertullian, "Therefore, you blessed ones, for whom the grace of God is waiting, when you come up from the most sacred bath of the new birth, when you spread out your hands for the first time in your mother's house with your brethren, ask your Father, ask your Lord, for the special gift of His inheritance,
the distributed charisms, which form an additional, underlying feature [of baptism]. Ask, He says, and you shall receive. In fact, you have sought, and you have found: you have knocked, and it has been opened to you." (Tertullian, c. 160 - 225, On Baptism 20; Sources Chretiennes 35:96, in his pre-Montanist phase)
- Took the view that Gifts would cease prior to second coming: based upon 1 Cor 13:8-13
"Charity endures all things; tolerates all things; "of course because she is patient. Justly, then, "will she never fail; " for all other things will be cancelled, will have their consummation. "Tongues, sciences, prophecies, become exhausted; faith, hope, charity, are permanent: "Faith, which Christ's patience introduced; hope, which man's patience waits for; charity, which Patience accompanies, with God as Master. (Tertullian, The Five Books Against Marcion book 5, Chapter 12, Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James. Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume III. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997.)
- Tertullian, one of the leading church fathers,
converted to Montanism in the latter years of his life, and he wrote this description of a Montanist church service: "We have among us now a sister who has been granted gifts of revelations, which she experiences in church during the Sunday services through ecstatic vision in the Spirit.... And after the people have been dismissed at the end of the service it is her custom to relate to us what she has seen.... "Among other things," says she, "there was shown to me a soul in bodily form, and it appeared like a spirit; but it was no mere something, void of qualities, but rather a thing which could be grasped, soft and translucent and of etherial colour, in a form at all points human." (Cited in Henry BeKenson, ea., Documents of the Christian Church (London: Oxford, 1963), 77.) Sound familiar? Tertullian sounds like he might have been describing a twentieth-century charismatic church. (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 74)
- The
most illustrious follower of Montanus was Tertullian of Carthage (d. c. 220). ... When he wrote his defense of orthodoxy with respect to the Godhead and Christology against Marcion (after c. 207), Tertullian had himself become a Montanist. He challenged Marcion to produce from among his followers any "such as have not spoken by human sense, but with the Spirit of God, such as have both predicted things to come, and have made manifest the secrets of the heart." Utterances, inspired "by the Spirit, in an ecstasy, that is in a rapture, whenever an interpretation of tongues has occurred," were "forthcoming" from his side "without any difficulty" and, according to him, attested to the orthodoxy of his experience and his theological dicta. (Tertullian, Against Marcion, V, viii, ANF, III, 447) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 66)
- "Heaven knows how many distinguished men, to say nothing of common people, have been cured either of devils or of their sicknesses." [Specific examples follow, of persons named and known to his readers.] (Tertullian, "To Scapula," chap. 4, written between A.D. 196-212)
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175
Montanus
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- There is said to be a certain village called Ardabau in that part of Mysia, which borders upon Phrygia. There first, they say, when Gratus was proconsul of Asia, a recent convert,
Montanus by name, through his unquenchable desire for leadership, gave the adversary opportunity against him. And he became beside himself, and being suddenly in a sort of frenzy and ecstasy, he raved, and began to babble and utter strange things, prophesying in a manner contrary to the constant custom of the Church handed down by tradition from the beginning. 8 Some of those who heard his spurious utterances at that time were indignant, and they rebuked him as one that was possessed, and that was under the control of a demon, and was led by a deceitful spirit, and was distracting the multitude; and they forbade him to talk, remembering the distinction drawn by the Lord and his warning to guard watchfully against the coming of false prophets? But others imagining themselves possessed of the Holy Spirit and of a prophetic gift, were elated and not a little puffed up; and forgetting the distinction of the Lord, they challenged the mad and insidious and seducing spirit, and were cheated and deceived by him. In consequence of this, he could no longer be held in check, so as to keep silence. 9 Thus by artifice, or rather by such a system of wicked craft, the devil, devising destruction for the disobedient, and being unworthily honored by them, secretly excited and inflamed their understandings which had already become estranged from the true faith. And he stirred up besides two women, and filled them with the false spirit, so that they talked wildly and unreasonably and strangely, like the person already mentioned. And the spirit pronounced them blessed as they rejoiced and gloried in him, and puffed them up by the magnitude of his promises. But sometimes he rebuked them openly in a wise and faithful manner, that he might seem to be a reprover. But those of the Phrygians that were deceived were few in number. "And the arrogant spirit taught them to revile the entire universal Church under heaven, because the spirit of false prophecy received neither honor from it nor entrance into it. 10 For the faithful in Asia met often in many places throughout Asia to consider this matter, and examined the novel utterances and pronounced them profane, and rejected the heresy, and thus these persons were expelled from the Church and debarred from communion." (Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series: Volume I, Oak Harbor, WA: Logos, 1997, Book V. Chapter XVI. The Circumstances Related of Montanus and His False Prophets)
- Eusebius says of Montanus "According to the description of Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis ... Montanus 'became beside himself, and being suddenly in a sort of frenzy and ecstasy, he raved, and began to babble and utter strange things, prophesying in a manner contrary to the constant custom of the Church'." (Eusebius, Church History, Volume 16, second series, I, page 231). "He fell into certain states of ecstatic transport, in which, no longer master of his own consciousness, but made the blind organ, as he fancied, of a higher spirit, he predicted, in oracular, mystical expressions, fresh persecutions of the Christians..." (Neander, famous ecclesiastical historian, Church History, Volume II, page 206.)
- Montanus and his followers claimed to receive revelation from God that supplemented the Word communicated by Christ and the apostles. They believed the Holy Spirit spoke through the mouths of Montanus and the two prophetesses. Montanus believed he was living in the last days immediately before the return of Christ. He taught that God's kingdom would be set up in his own village of Pepuza in his lifetime, and that he would have a prominent role in it. Those and other false prophecies were among the chief reasons the rest of the church considered his movement heretical.
Montanus opposed formalism in the church and boldly intimidated Christians by claiming his followers were more spiritual than those who had only the "dead letter" of the Scriptures. In most respects, Montanists were orthodox. But the movement was schismatic, believing only themselves to be the true church. The rest of the church branded Montanism as a serious heresy to be rejected. Augustine wrote against the movement, and the Council at Constantinople decreed that Montanism was tantamount to paganism. (Earle E. Cairns, Christianity Through the Centuries (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954), 110- 11.) (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 74)
- The contemporary charismatic movement is in many ways the spiritual heir of Montanism. In fact, it would not at all be unfair to call today's charismatic movement neo-Montanism. At least one leading charismatic writer, Larry Christenson, even claims the Montanist movement as part of the charismatic historical tradition. (Larry Christenson, "Pentecostalism's Forgotten Forerunner," in Vinson Synan, ed. Aspects of Pentecostal-Charismatic Origins (Plainfield, N.J.: Logos, 1975), 32-34.) (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 75)
- During the middle of the second century, however, two movements arose alongside or within the main body of Christians, presenting a major crisis in polity, theology, and the interpretation of the Old Testament,
which did have glossolalia. The older movement was Gnosticism, of which there are clear adumbrations in the New Testament. The other, a somewhat later reaction to the structural hardening of main-line Christianity, was Montanism. ... Among Gnostic groups, glossolalia of the type requiring interpretation was common, and there exist several transcribed Gnostic prayers in the Coptic tongue in which are included several lines of ejaculated glossolalic syllables or single vowels and consonants. There are also instances of nearly unintelligible utterances in some Gnostic texts in which Aramaic words or other nom na barbara can be recognized in somewhat distorted form. In the second Book of Jeu, a glossolalic prayer of Jesus of some six lines is preserved in garbled Greek within a Coptic text. The Gnostic sect of Marcosians apparently preserved Greek glossolalic phrases which, however, may have merely a formulaic or routinized character. In the recently discovered Nag Hammadi Gnostic library in The Three Stelaes of Seph, unintelligible syllables seem to be merely nomina barbara; but in The Gospel of the Egyptians, though there are many nomina barbara, there are some passages that look more like glossolalia, i.e., distorted Greek formulations in Coptic context. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 64)
- The founder of Methodism, despite his brother's protest, knew that the gift of tongues was frequently dispensed in his day; and he, for his part, believed that it had had authentic existence in other post-Apostolic centuries. In fact,
he regarded Montanists as "real, scriptural Christians" and Montanus himself as "one of the best men then upon the earth." The reason for the early withdrawal of the charismatic gifts was that "dry, formal, orthodox men" had begun to "ridicule" those gifts they did not themselves possess and to "decry them all as either madness or imposture." ( Wesley, Journai, III, 496; Wesley, Works, ed. John Emory (New York, 1856), VI, 556. Wesley frequently extolled the early Christians and urged others to follow their example. George Whitefield, too, as he journeyed to the American colonies in 1739, wrote to the societies in England and Wales: "Take then, my Brethren, the Primitive Christians for your Ensamples; and while you endeavor in all Things to follow them as they did Christ, no Power upon Earth can lawfully forbid or hinder you." Quoted from Whitefield, A Letter to the Religious Societies, lately set on Foot in seueral Parts of England and Wales (London, 1740), p. 5.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 80)
- Montanus was a second-century heretic from Phrygia who believed he was a prophet sent by God to reform Christianity through asceticism, the practice of glossolalia, and continued prophetic revelation. He believed he was inspired by the Holy Spirit in all his teaching. Two so-called prophetesses, Priscilla and Maximilla, were instrumental in the spread of Montanism. The church father Eusebius wrote, "[Montanus] stirred up two women and filled them with the bastard spirit so that they uttered demented, absurd and irresponsible sayings." (Cited in Henry BeKenson, ea., Documents of the Christian Church (London: Oxford, 1963), 77.) Some historians have taken that to mean that those women spoke in tongues. (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 73)
- Hippolytus wrote of the Montanists, "They have been deceived by two females, Priscilla and Maximilla by name, whom they hold to be prophetesses, asserting that into them the Paraclete spirit entered.... They magnify these females above the Apostles and every gift of Grace,
so that some of them go so far as to say that in them there is something more than Christ.... They introduce novelties in the form of fasts and feasts, abstinences and diets of radishes, giving these females as their authority." (Cited in Henry BeKenson, ea., Documents of the Christian Church (London: Oxford, 1963), 77.) (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 73)
- Eusebius described the birth and early growth of the movement: "Montanus, they say, first exposed himself to the assaults of the adversary through his unbounded lust for leadership. He was one of the recent converts, and he became possessed of a spirit, and suddenly began to rave in a kind of ecstatic trance, and to babble jargon, prophesying in a manner contrary to the custom of the church which had been handed down by tradition from the earliest times. ... Some of them that heard his bastard utterances rebuked him as one possessed of a devil ... remembering the Lord's warning to guard vigilantly against the coming of false prophets. But others were carried away and not a little elated, thinking themselves possessed of the Holy Spirit and of the gift of prophecy." (Cited in Henry BeKenson, ea., Documents of the Christian Church (London: Oxford, 1963), 77.) (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 74)
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176
Celsus |
- Celsus, a pagan, wrote near the end of the second century that Christians in his day spoke in tongues. The theologian Origen preserved his testimony. (Origen, Against Celsus, 7.9, ANF IV, 614, quoting Celsus, The Discourse. Origen, Commentary on John, 2.6, ANF; X, 329.)
- A pagan philosopher, Celsus, well acquainted with Christianity and its heretical aberrations, unwittingly provides us with significant observations among the Christians as seen from the outside. It was toward the end of the second century that he wrote his True Discourse, which survives in the pages of Origen's Contra Celsum. Origen (d. c. 254), an Alexandrian biblical scholar and a prolific writer, quotes Celsus as testifying that people spoke in tongues in his day: "To these promises are added strange, fanatical, and quite unintelligible words, of which no rational person can find the meaning: for so dark are they, as to have no meaning at all; but they give occasion to every fool or impostor to apply them to suit his own purpose. (Origen, Against Celsus, VII, ix, ANF, IV, 614.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 67)
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200-258
Cyprian |
- Cyprian (A.D. 200-258), his contemporaries, give the same testimony as Origen that gifts ceased
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214-218
Origen |
- "[W]e can clearly show a countless multitude of Greeks and Barbarians who acknowledge the existence of Jesus. And some give evidence of their having received through this faith a marvellous power by the cures which they perform, invoking no other name ... than that of the God of all things, and of Jesus ... . For by these means we too have seen many persons freed from grievous calamities, and from distractions of mind, and madness, and countless other ills, which could be cured neither by men nor devils" (chap. 24). (Origen (185-254), "Against Celsus," chapters 2, 6, 24)
- Origen, " ...
the vestiges and traces [of the charism of healing] continue to manifest themselves in the churches." (Origen: "Preface to Commentary on the Psalms" 2; Patrologia Graeca 12:1078-79 (written c. 214-218)
- Origen interprets 1 Cor 13:8-13 saying the Old Covenant was in Part and the present knowledge of Christ was the Perfect come:
"Christ the Pearl of Great Price. Now you will connect with the man seeking goodly pearls the saying, "Seek and ye shall find," and this—"Every one that seeketh findeth." For what seek ye? Or what does every one that seeketh find? I venture to answer, pearls and the pearl which he possesses, who has given up all things, and counted them as loss; "for which," says Paul, "I have counted all things but loss that I may win Christ; " by "all things" meaning the goodly pearls, "that I may win Christ," the one very precious pearl. Precious, then, is a lamp to men in darkness, and there is need of a lamp until the sun rise; and precious also is the glory in the face of Moses, and of the prophets also, I think, and a beautiful sight, by which we are introduced so as to be able to see the glory of Christ, to which the Father bears witness, saying, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased." But "that which hath been made glorious hath not been made glorious in this respect by reason of the glory that surpasseth; " and there is need to us first of the glory which admits of being done away, for the sake of the glory which surpasseth; as there is need of the knowledge which is in part, which will be done away when that which is perfect comes. Every soul, therefore, which comes to childhood, and is on the way to full growth, until the fulness of time is at hand, needs a tutor and stewards and guardians, in order that, after all these things, he who formerly differed nothing from a bond-servant, though he is lord of all, may receive, when freed from a tutor and stewards and guardians, the patrimony corresponding to the very costly pearl, and to that which is perfect, which on its coming does away with that which is in part, when one is able to receive "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ," having been previously exercised, so to speak, in those forms of knowledge which are surpassed by the knowledge of Christ. But the multitude, not perceiving the beauty of the many pearls of the law, and all the knowledge, "in part," though it be, of the prophets, suppose that they can, without a clear exposition and apprehension of these, find in whole the one precious pearl, and behold "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ," in comparison with which all things that came before such and so great knowledge, although they were not refuse in their own nature, appear to be refuse. This refuse is perhaps the "dung" thrown down beside the fig tree by the keeper of the vineyard, which is the cause of its bearing fruit." (Origen, Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James. Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume X. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997)
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232
Asterius Urbanus |
- Asterius Urbanus, Writing against the later Montanists, he asked why they no longer had prophets after their prophet Montanus and his co-workers died. Urbanus noted that the true church would always have the prophetical gifts (prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues): "
For the apostle [Paul] deems that the gifts of prophecy should abide in all the church up to the time of the final advent." (Asterius Urbanus, Extant Writings, 10, ANF; VII, 337.)
- This is a theological statement. Many non-charismatics today will make the same statement although they, themselves have not ever spoken in tongues. This provides not proof of actual tongues! Interesting that tongues was isolated to Montanus until he died! His disciples DID NOT continue to speak in tongues!
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257
Novatian |
- In Rome the Presbyter Novatian (d. c. 257) in his De Trinitate referred to the gift of tongues in the literal sense. Novatian had an eventful career as leader of a faction opposed to the concessions that Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, offered to those who had "lapsed" during the Decian persecution of the mid-third century. He was eventually chosen as rival Bishop of Rome. His followers remained orthodox in doctrine, but their continued emphasis on severe discipline gave them reason for separate existence after peace had been restored. Novatian wrote concerning the Holy Spirit: "This is He who places prophets in the Church, instructs teachers directs tongues, gives powers and healings, does wonderful works, offers discrimination of spirits, affords powers of government, suggests counsels, and orders and arranges whatever other gifts there are of charismata; and thus makes the Lord's Church everywhere, and in all, perfected and completed." (Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity, xxix, ANF, V, 641.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 67)
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315 - 367
Hilary of Poitiers
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- Hilary of Poitiers, "We who have been re-born through the sacrament of baptism experience intense joy when we feel within us the first stirrings of the Holy Spirit. We begin to have insight into the mysteries of faith,
we are able to prophesy and to speak with wisdom. We become steadfast in hope and receive gifts of healing. Demons are made subject to our authority." (Tract on the Psalms, 64.14-15 Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 22:246)
- Hilary of Poitiers, "The Holy Spirit is called a river.
When we receive the Holy Spirit we are made drunk. Because out of us, as a source, various streams of grace flow, the prophet prays that the Lord will inebriate us. The prophet wants the same persons to be made drunk and filled to all fullness with the divine gifts, so that their generations may be multiplied. This means that the good earth is compared in the gospel simile to the seed of the word, bearing fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." [Hilary of Poitiers, re Psalms 64.9]
- Hilary of Poitiers, "
The manifestation of the Spirit is through the effects which these powers produce." (Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, 8:33; CorpusChristianorum 8:30; CChr 62a:340)
- Hilary of Poitiers, "This [the sequence of events in Jesus' baptism] was done so that we in our time might learn what has been fully realised in Christ. After the water-bath, the Holy Spirit rushes upon us from the gate of heaven, that we
might bathe in the anointing of the heavenly glory, and that we might become sons of God through adoption spoken by the voice of the Father." (Hilary of Poitiers, c. 315 - 367, On Matthew, 2:6; SourcesChretiennes 254:110)
- Hilary of Poitiers, "
Through the miracles that have been granted for the profit of everyone the gift of the Holy Spirit does not remain hidden." "Because the charisms are effective they are the pledge of our future hope." (Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, 8:33; Corpus Christianorum 62a:345)
- In Gaul Bishop Hilary of Poitiers (d. 367) was an important Western challenger to Arianism. In his On the Trinity, although
he made no direct claim to firsthand knowledge of the gift of tongues and did not develop a doctrine of the gifts, he implied acceptance of their place in ordinary Christian life. After quoting the list of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, he commented: "Here we have a statement of the purpose and results of the gift; and I cannot conceive what doubt can remain, after so clear a definition of His Origin, His action, and His powers." (Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, II, xxxiv, NPF, 2nd series, IX, 61.) In a subsequent chapter, he mentioned among other things the "gifts of either speaking or interpreting divers kinds of tongues" and concluded: "Clearly these are the Church's agents of ministry and work of whom the body of Christ consists; and God has ordained them." (On the Trinity, VIII, xxxiii, NPF, 2nd s., IX, 147) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 67)
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330
Eusebius |
- Eusebius, "in the second book of ["Refutation and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So-called"], he [Irenaeus] proves in the following words that manifestations of the divine and marvellous power had remained IN SOME CHURCHES even as far as his time..." [Eusebius then quotes, at length, Irenaeus' recounting of spir. gift activity]. Afterwards, Eusebius concludes, "
So much on the point that variety of gifts remained among the worthy UP TILL the time spoken of." (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, V, vii, [Eusebius quoting Irenaeus' discussion of some gift activity that was still going on around A.D. 150.])
- Eusebius says of Montanus "According to the description of Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis ... Montanus 'became beside himself, and being suddenly in a sort of frenzy and ecstasy, he raved, and began to babble and utter strange things, prophesying in a manner contrary to the constant custom of the Church'." (Eusebius, Church History, Volume 16, second series, I, page 231). "He fell into certain states of ecstatic transport, in which, no longer master of his own consciousness, but made the blind organ, as he fancied, of a higher spirit, he predicted, in oracular, mystical expressions, fresh persecutions of the Christians..." (Neander, famous ecclesiastical historian, Church History, Volume II, page 206.)
- Eusebius described the birth and early growth of the movement: "Montanus, they say, first exposed himself to the assaults of the adversary through his unbounded lust for leadership. He was one of the recent converts, and he became possessed of a spirit, and suddenly began to rave in a kind of ecstatic trance, and to babble jargon, prophesying in a manner contrary to the custom of the church which had been handed down by tradition from the earliest times. ... Some of them that heard his bastard utterances rebuked him as one possessed of a devil ... remembering the Lord's warning to guard vigilantly against the coming of false prophets. But others were carried away and not a little elated, thinking themselves possessed of the Holy Spirit and of the gift of prophecy." (Cited in Henry BeKenson, ea., Documents of the Christian Church (London: Oxford, 1963), 77.) (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 74)
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340-398
Ambrose |
- Ambrose, bishop of Milan, taught that all the gifts of I Corinthians 12
were part of the normal Christian experience. (Ambrose, Of the Holy Spirit, 2.8, NPNF 2nd ser., X, 134.)
- Bishop Ambrose of Milan (d. 397), famous preacher and champion of orthodoxy, and prophetic exponent of the superior authority of the church with respect to the state, commented briefly about the gift of tongues in of the Holy Spirit. Although he made no explicit claim to experiential familiarity with the gift, he dealt with it as presumptive evidence of the unified operation of the Trinity in normal Christian experience. Each believer, in accordance with his capacity, received from the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12 those which he desired or deserved. (Ambrose, Of the Holy Spirit, II, xiii, NPF, 2nd s., X, 134) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 68)
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354-430
Augustine |
- Pentecostal historians have shown the same aversion to the primary records, with the result that the same stories are repeated again and again—usually without question— and mistakes once made are perpetuated and often compounded. For example, we read that both
St. Augustine and Martin Luther spoke in tongues. (Carl Brumback, What Meaneth This? A Pentecostal Answer to a Pentecostal Question (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1947), pp. 91f. R. Leonard Carroll in The Clossolalia Phenomenon, ed. Wade H. Horton (Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 1966), p. 93, indicates that Luther was a charismatic. Other writers have made the same statement.) A careful study of their writings and of contemporary biographies, however, indicates that neither Augustine nor Luther had experiential knowledge of the subject and that Luther was thoroughly confused about Pentecostal phenomena. (Augustine, ' Homilies on the First Epistle of John," 6:10, The Nicene and PostNicene Fathers, ed. P. Schaff, First Series (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956), VII, 497f. Martin Luther, Works, ed. Jaroslav J. Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann (St. Louis: Concordia,1955- ),XL, 142.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 10)
- [Augustine held the unusual view that tongues continued, not in the supernatural, but the natural in that the different local churches all had a variety of members who spoke many languages by birth. Thus a person born to speak Japanese attending an English speaking church would be said to speak in tongues.] "How then, brethren, because he that is baptized in Christ, and believes on Him, does not now speak in the tongues of all nations, are we not to believe that he has received the Holy Ghost? God forbid that our heart should be tempted by this faithlessness....
Why is it that no man speaks in the tongues of all nations? Because the Church itself now speaks in the tongues of all nations. Before, the Church was in one nation, where it spoke in the tongues of all. By speaking then in the tongues of all, it signified what was to come to pass; that by growing among the nations, it would speak in the tongues of all." (Augustine, "Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John," Philip Schaff, ea., The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Vol. 7 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956) "Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John, 195.)
- St. Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) offered a new interpretation of the significance of speaking in tongues. First, he contended that the speaking in tongues of the day of Pentecost had been a sign "adapted to the time" which had vanished. This reason for its initial appearance at Pentecost became the basis of his second proposal. The tongues had been given "to show that the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues over the whole earth." The accounts in Acts had symbolical significance for church history: Now the church, not individuals, spoke in tongues, for Christian communities existed throughout the known world, and the church spoke in the tongues of its diverse members. (Augustine, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, VI, x, NPF, 1st s., VII, 497-98. See also Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, NPF, 2nd s., VIII, 1-50; Gregory Nazianzen, On Pentecost, xv, NPF, 2nd s., VII, 384; Jerome, Letters, XLI, NPF, 2nd s., VI, 55-56, and Against the Pelugians, I, xvi, [` NPF, 2nd s., VI, 457. These may all be cited as accepting only the literal sense of Acts 2:4. Jerome suggested that specific experiences like those at Pentecost should not be expected to recur. John Chrysostom, while also accepting the literal sense of Acts 2, simply stated that he had no personal knowledge of the gift of tongues.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 68)
- Augustine, Evidently some "heretics" in Augustine's day believed in receiving the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues. He sought to refute them by the following argument: (1) Tongues are valueless without love (I Corinthians 13); (2) love comes only by the Spirit (Romans 5:5); (3) they did not have the Spirit because they did not belong to the Catholic Church; and (4)
no one expected tongues any longer anyway. (Augustine, On Baptism, Against the Donatists, 3.16.21, NPNF 1st ser., IV, 442.)
- Augustine, testified that the church in his day did not expect to speak in tongues: "
For the Holy Spirit is not only given by the laying on of hands amid the testimony of temporal sensible miracles, as He was given in former days... For who expects in these days that those on whom hands are laid that they may receive the Holy Spirit should forthwith begin to speak with tongues?" (IV, 443.)
- In the same way, the Cataphrygians
said that they had received the promised Paraclete; and so they fell away from the Catholic faith, forbidding what Paul allowed, and condemning second marriages, which he made lawful. They turned to their own use the words spoken of the Spirit, "He shall lead you into all truth," as if, forsooth, Paul and the other apostles had not taught all the truth, but had left room for the Paraclete of the Cataphrygians. The same meaning they forced from the words of Paul: "We know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away;" making out that the apostle knew and prophesied in part, when he said, "Let him do what he will; if he marries, he sinneth not," and that this is done away by the perfection of the Phrygian Paraclete. And if they are told that they are condemned by the authority of the Church, which is the subject of such ancient promises, and is spread all over the world, they reply that this is in exact fulfillment of what is said of the Paraclete, that the world cannot receive Him. And are not those passages, "He shall lead you into all truth," and, "When that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away," and, "The world cannot receive Him," precisely those in which you find a prediction of Manichaeus? And so every heresy arising under the name of the Paraclete will have the boldness to make an equally plausible application to itself of such texts. For there is no heresy but will call itself the truth; and the prouder it is, the more likely it will be to call itself perfect truth: and so it will profess to lead into all truth; and since that which is perfect has come by it, it will try to do away with the doctrine of the apostles, to which its own errors are opposed. And as the Church holds by the earnest admonition of the apostle, that "whoever preaches another gospel to you than that which ye have received, let him be accursed;" when the heretical preacher begins to be pronounced accursed by all the world, will he not forthwith exclaim, This is what is written, "The world cannot receive Him"? 18. Where, then, will you find the proof required to show that it is from the Paraclete that you have learned that the Gospels were not written by the apostles? On the other hand, we have proof that the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, came immediately after the glorification of Jesus. For "He was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." We have proof also that He leads into all truth, for the only way to truth is by love, and "the love of God," says the apostle, "is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us." We show, too, that in the words, "when that which is perfect is come," Paul spoke of the perfection in the enjoyment of eternal life. For in the same place he says: "Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face." You cannot reasonably maintain that we see God face to face here. Therefore that which is perfect has not come to you. It is thus clear what the apostle thought on this subject. This perfection will not come to the saints till the accomplishment of what John speaks of: "Now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when it shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." Then we shall be led into all truth by the Holy Spirit, of which we have now received the pledge. Again, the words, "The world cannot receive Him," plainly point to those who are usually called the world in Scripture—the lovers of the world, the wicked, or carnal; of whom the apostle says: "The natural man perceiveth not the things which are of the Spirit of God." Those are said to be of this world who can understand nothing beyond material things, which are the objects of sense in this world; as is the case with you, when, in your admiration of the sun and moon, you suppose all divine things to resemble them. Deceivers. and being deceived, you call the author of this silly theory the Paraclete. But as you have no proof of his being the Paraclete, you have no reliable ground for the statement that the Gospel writings, which you receive only in part, are not of apostolic authorship. Thus your only remaining argument is, that these writings contain things disparaging to the glory of Christ; such as, that He was born of a virgin, that He was circumcised, that the customary sacrifice was offered for Him, that He was baptized, that He was tempted of the devil. (Augustine: Anti-Manichaean Writings; Reply to Faustus the Manichaean, Book XXXII; Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series: Volume IV. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997)
- The Law Written in the Heart, and the Reward of the Eternal Contemplation of God, Belong to the New Covenant; Who Among the Saints are the Least and the Greatest.: As then the law of works, which was written on the tables of stone, and its reward, the land of promise, which the house of the carnal Israel after their liberation from Egypt received, belonged to the old testament, so the law of faith, written on the heart, and its reward, the beatific vision which the house of the spiritual Israel, when delivered from the present world, shall perceive, belong to the new testament. Then shall come to pass what the apostle describes: "
Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away," —even that imperfect knowledge of "the child" in which this present life is passed, and which is but "in part," "by means of a mirror darkly." Because of this, indeed, "prophecy" is necessary, for still to the past succeeds the future; and because of this, too, "tongues" are required,—that is, a multiplicity of expressions, since it is by different ones that different things are suggested to him who does not as yet contemplate with a perfectly purified mind the everlasting light of transparent truth. "When that, however, which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away," then, what appeared to the flesh in assumed flesh shall display Itself as It is in Itself to all who love It; then, there shall be eternal life for us to know the one very God; then shall we be like Him, because "we shall then know, even as we are known;" then "they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least unto the greatest of them." (St. Augustine Addressed to Marcellinus, a.d. 412.; Chapter 41.; Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series: Volume V. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997.)
- It is a worthy subject of inquiry how these words of the Lord are to be understood, "But I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." For who is there that dare affirm or believe that any man knoweth all things that the only-begotten Son hath heard of the Father; when there is no one that can comprehend even how He heareth any word of the Father, being as He is Himself the only Word of the Father? Nay more, is it not the case that a little afterwards, in this same discourse, which He delivered to the disciples between the Supper and His passion, He said, "
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now"? How, then, are we to understand that He made known unto the disciples all that He had heard of the Father, when there are many things that He saith not, just because He knows that they cannot bear them now? Doubtless what He is yet to do He says that He has done as the same Being who hath made those things which are yet to be. For as He says by the prophet, "They pierced my hands and my feet," and not, They will yet pierce; but speaking as it were of the past, and yet predicting what Was still in the future: so also in the passage before us He declares that He has made known to the disciples all, that He knows He will yet make known in that fullness of knowledge, whereof the apostle says, "But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." For in the same place he adds: "Now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known; and now through a glass in a riddle, but then face to face." For the same apostle also says that we have been saved by the washing of regeneration, and yet declares in another place, "We are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is no hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." To a similar purpose it is also said by his fellow-apostle Peter, "In whom, though now seeing Him not, ye believe; and in whom, when ye see Him, ye shall rejoice with a joy unspeakable and glorious: receiving the reward of faith, even the salvation of your souls." If, then, it is now the season of faith, and faith's reward is the salvation of our souls; who, in that faith which worketh by love, can doubt that the day must come to an end, and at its close the reward be received; not only the redemption of our body, whereof the Apostle Paul speaketh, but also the salvation of our souls, as we are told by the Apostle Peter? For the felicity springing from both is at this present time, and in the existing state of mortality, a matter rather of hope than of actual possession. But this it concerns us to remember, that our outward man, to wit the body, is still decaying; but the inward, that is, the soul, is being renewed day by day. Accordingly, while we are waiting for the immortality of the flesh and salvation of our souls in the future, yet with the pledge we have received, it may be said that we are saved already; so that knowledge of all things which the Only-begotten hath heard of the Father we are to regard as a matter of hope still lying in the future, although declared by Christ as something He had already imparted. (St. Augustine, Tractates on John 15:15-16, LXXXVI, Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series: Volume VII. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997.)
- Augustine wrote of tongues as a sign that was adapted to the apostolic age: "In the earliest times, "the Holy Ghost fell upon them that believed: and they spake with tongues," which they had not learned, "as the Spirit gave them utterance."
These were signs adapted to the time. For there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit in all tongues, to shew that the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues over the whole earth. That thing was done for a betokening, and it passed away. In the laying on of hands now, that persons may receive the Holy Ghost, do we look that they should speak with a tongue? [To this rhetorical question Augustine obviously anticipated a negative reply.] ... If then the witness of the presence of the Holy Ghost be not now given through these miracles, by what is it given, by what does one get to know that he has received the Holy Ghost? Let him question his own heart. If he love his brother, the Spirit of God dwelleth in him. (Augustine, "Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John," Philip Schaff, ea., The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Vol. 7 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956), 497)
- "It is sometimes objected that the miracles, which Christians claim to have occurred, no longer happen. One answer might be that they are no longer needed as they once were to help an unbelieving world to believe... . The truth is that even today miracles are being wrought in the name of Christ ... . The
fact that the canon of our Scriptures is definitely closed brings it about that the original miracles are everywhere repeated and are fixed in people's memory, whereas contemporary miracles ... seldom become known. [Augustine then cites specific examples, naming individuals involved.] ... It is a simple fact that, that there is no lack of miracles even in our day. And the God who works the miracles we read of in the Scripture uses any means and manner He chooses. The only trouble is that these modern miracles are not so well known as the earlier ones" (Augustine, "The City of God," Book 22, chap. 8)
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296-373
Athanasius |
- "[W]e ought not to doubt whether such marvels were wrought by the hand of a man. For it is ... Jesus him- self who saith to His disciples and to all who believe on Him, 'Heal the sick, cast out demons; freely ye have received, freely give.' Antony, at any rate, healed not by commanding, but by prayer and speaking the name of Christ. So that it was clear to all that it was not he him- self who worked, but the Lord who showed mercy by his means and healed the sufferers" (Athanasius (296-373), "Vita S. Antoni, chapters 83-84)
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320
Lactantius |
- "And as He Himself before His passion put to confusion demons by His word and command, so now, by the name and sign of the same passion, unclean spirits, having insinuated themselves into the bodies of men, are driven out, when racked and tormented, and confessing themselves to be demons, they yield themselves to God, who harasses them."(Lactantius (died A.D. 320), "The Epitome of the Divine Institutions," chap. 51)
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346
Pachomius |
- Pachomius (d. 346), the founder of coenobitic monasticism in Egypt, never learned Latin. But once, after three hours of earnest prayer, he was enabled to converse in Latin with a visitor from the West. (Acta Sanctorum quotguot to to orbe coluntur, vel a catholicis scriptoribus ... nostra illustrauit Joannes Bollandus (Antwerp, 1643-1931), May III, 319, 342.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 69)
- Pachomius, an Eastern Christian ascetic, spoke Latin with a brother from Western Europe after praying earnestly for three hours (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, May III, 342.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- St. Pachomius is reported to have miraculously spoken both Latin and Greek, although he never learned either language. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, May III, 319-342) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
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380
Gregory of Nyssa |
- Commenting on 1 Cor 13:8-13, that faith and hope will cease at the second coming: "For this teaching we have the authority of God's own Apostle, who announces a subduing and a ceasing of all other activities, even for the good, which are within us, and finds no limit for love alone.
Prophecies, he says, shall fail; forms of knowledge shall cease; but "charity never faileth;" which is equivalent to its being always as it is: and though he says that faith and hope have endured so far by the side of love, yet again he prolongs its date beyond theirs [theirs refers to faith and hope], and with good reason too; for hope is in operation only so long as the enjoyment of the things hoped for is not to be had; and faith in the same way is a support in the uncertainty about the things hoped for; for so he defines it—"the substance of things hoped for"; but when the thing hoped for actually comes, then all other faculties are reduced to quiescence , and love alone remains active, finding nothing to succeed itself. Love, therefore, is the foremost of all excellent achievements and the first of the commandments of the law." (Gregory of Nyssa, On the Soul and the Resurrection; 380 A.D., Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series: Volume V. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997.)
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387
John Chrysostom |
- John Chrysostom (A.D. 347-407), who was Archbishop of Constantinople until banished in the year 403, because of his attacks on immorality, wrote: "Whoever was baptised in apostolic days, he straightway spake with tongues ... and one straightway spake in the Persian language, another in the Roman, another in the Indian, another in some other tongue, and this made manifest to them that were without that it was the Spirit in the very person speaking."
- John Chrysostom (345-407), bishop of Constantinople, wrote a comment on I Corinthians 12: "This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur hut now no longer take place... Well: what did happen then? Whoever was baptized he straightway spoke with tongues... They at once on their baptism received the Spirit... [They] began to speak, one in the tongue of the Persians, another in that of the Romans, another in that of the Indians, or in some other language. And this disclosed to outsiders that it was the Spirit in the speaker." (John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians, 29, NPNF, 1st ser., XII, 168.) [By the late fourth century and early fifth century, Christendom had for the most part evolved into what came to be known as the Roman Catholic Church. Apparently, speaking in tongues had practically disappeared from most places in the backsliding church, but the memory of it remained to some extent.]
- Chrysostom regarding 1 Cor 13:8-13, refers to a. maturity of church; b. hereafter
- Chrysostom says ''
Argue not because miracles do not happen now, that they did not happen then in those days they were profitable, and now they are not. " ... "Of miraculous powers, not even a vestige is left."
- St John Chrysostom (A.D. 347-407), who was Archbishop of Constantinople until banished in the year 403, because of his attacks on immorality, wrote: "Whoever was baptised in apostolic days, he straightway spake with tongues... and one straight way spake in the Persian language, another in the Roman, another in the Indian, another in some other tongue, and this made manifest to them that were without that it was the Spirit in the very person speaking."
- Chrysostom says: "
tongues....used to occur, but now no longer take place."
- Chrysostom stated categorically that tongues had ceased by his time. Writing in the fourth century, he described tongues as an obscure practice, admitting that he was not even certain about the characteristics of the gift. "The obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place," (Chrysostom, "Homilies in First Corinthians," Philip Schaff, ea., The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Vol. 12 (Grand Rapids Eerdmans, 1956), 168.)
- John Chrysostom (d. 407) of Antioch and then bishop of Constantinople, knew of glossolalia only as a scriptural happening that had in the meantime ceased, although in his Homily XXIX, dealing with I Corinthians 12:1-11, Chrysostom had no doubt that at their adult believers' baptism Christians of an earlier age "began to speak, one in the tongue of the Persians, another in that of the Romans, another in that of the Indians, or in some other language. And this disclosed to outsiders that it was the Spirit in the speaker." Chrysostom goes on to conjecture on the basis of texts from Paul in Romans 12 that while the gifts of prophecy, glossolalia, and interpretation were indeed impressive testimony to the living Spirit, they could easily be confused with intrusion of a spirit from below and had to be discouraged by the official church. (Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians, XXIX, NPF, 1st s., XII, 168.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 68)
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600-1600
Middle ages |
- There is little evidence of any form of glossolalia during the Middle Ages in either East or West. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 69)
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600
Gregory the Great |
- Gregory the Great, 600 AD,
viewed spiritual gifts as a temporary scaffolding while commented on Mark 16:17; "Is it so, my brethren, that because ye do not these signs, ye do not believe? On the contrary, they were necessary , in the beginning of the church; for, that faith might grow, it required miracles to cherish it withal; just as when we plant shrubs, we water them until we ace them thrive in the ground, and as aeon as they are well rooted we cease our irrigation.''
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735
The Venerable Bede |
- The Venerable Bede (d. 735) considered the event of Acts 2 as preeminently the phenomenon of heteroglossolalia, the miraculous understanding of a foreign tongue. This could indeed have been an observed phenomenon on the borders between Celtic and Saxon cultures overlaid with ecclesiastical Latin. He associated the gift of tongues with the facilitation of Christian missionary expansion. (The Venerable Bede, In Acta Apostolorum Expositio, Works, ed. J.A. Gile (London, 1844), XII, 15-16.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 69)
- Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (completed in 731) contains many references to experiences of healing. Bede also recounts the experiences of the monk Caedmon, who received gifts of poetry and song. When passages of Scripture were interpreted for him, Caedmon could express them in English poetry. This gift, however, was limited in scope. It functioned only as he devoted himself to spiritual pursuits and themes to the absolute exclusion of all secular usage. Bede, A History of the English Church and People, trans. Leo Sherley-Price, p 250-253) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 69)
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700
Isodore of Seville |
- Isodore of Seville states "The reason why the church does not now do the miracles it did under the apostle,' is, because miracles were
necessary to convince the world of the truth of Christianity; but now it becomes it, being convicted, to shine forth in good works...... whoever seeks to perform miracles now was a believer, seeks after vain glory and human applause. "
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975-1038
St. Stephen |
- St. Stephen is reported to have spoken in Greek, Turkish, and Armenian. (Giuseppe Silos, Historiarum Clericorum Regularium Congregatione condita (Rome: Panormi, 1650-66), II, 13) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26) [Note: We are not sure which St. Stephen is being referred to.]
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1098-1179
St. Hildegarde |
- St. Hildegarde : In what might be considered as a variation of this gift, we are told by two early biographers that St. Hildegarde wrote numerous books on music, the lives of saints, medicine, and devotional subjects—all in Latin, a language completely unknown to her!" This must stand as the most unusual claim made on behalf of a medieval charismatic. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, September V, 699; Analecta Bollandiana, 2 (1883), 126f.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- St. Hildegarde is said to have sung in unknown tongues to the extent that her biographer refers to these occasions as "concerts." (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, September V, 683.) Apparently she had frequent ecstasies and visions, during which she also prophesied and wrote in languages unfamiliar to her. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, September V, 683f., 686, 699; Analecta Bollandiana, 2 (1883), 119. Before her death Hildegarde was denounced as a sorceress and a demoniac, and because of this her canonization was never achieved, although she is named as a saint in the Roman martyrology.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
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1100
The Albigenses |
- Pentecostal historians have shown the same aversion to the primary records, with the result that the same stories are repeated again and again—usually without question— and mistakes once made are perpetuated and often compounded. ... We read that certain medieval mendicants ... and
Albigensians spoke in tongues, but we are left with no identification of individual recipients and with few details about the exciting activity of the Holy Spirit among them.(Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 10)
- Albigenses, Europe. (Carl Brumback, What Meaneth This? (Springfield, Mo.: Gospel Publ. House, 1947), p. 92.) Another group that rejected papal authority and emphasized purity of life.
- The Albigenses - A religious sect of southern France, were widespread in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. Their name was derived from the city of Albi in Languedoc, one of the most important centres of the movement. The
Albigenses preached apostolic Christianity and simple life according to the Gospel. They were called the "good men." The pope and the councils of the church claimed that they denied the Trinity doctrine, the Holy Communion and marriage, as well as the doctrine of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (The Peasant War In Germany, Frederick Engels; This Comment, Note #6 By D. Riazanov, 1925)
- "Doctrinal : The Albigenses asserted the co-existence of two mutually opposed principles, one good, the other evil. The former is the creator of the spiritual, the latter of the material world. The bad principle is the source of all evil; natural phenomena, either ordinary like the growth of plants, or extraordinary as earthquakes, likewise moral disorders (war), must be attributed to him. He created the human body and is the author of sin, which springs from matter and not from the spirit. The Old Testament must be either partly or entirely ascribed to him; whereas the New Testament is the revelation of the beneficent God. The latter is the creator of human souls, which the bad principle imprisoned in material bodies after he had deceived them into leaving the kingdom of light. This earth is a place of punishment, the only hell that exists for the human soul. Punishment, however, is not everlasting; for all souls, being Divine in nature, must eventually be liberated. To accomplish this deliverance God sent upon earth Jesus Christ, who, although very perfect, like the Holy Ghost, is still a mere creature. The Redeemer could not take on a genuine human body, because he would thereby have come under the control of the evil principle. His body was, therefore, of celestial essence, and with it He penetrated the ear of Mary. It was only apparently that He was born from her and only apparently that He suffered. His redemption was not operative, but solely instructive. To enjoy its benefits, one must become a member of the Church of Christ (the Albigenses). Here below, it is not the Catholic sacraments but the peculiar ceremony of the Albigenses known as the consolamentum, or "consolation," that purifies the soul from all sin and ensures its immediate return to heaven. The resurrection of the body will not take place, since by its nature all flesh is evil." (From Albi, Lat. Albiga, the present capital of the Department of Tarn, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913).
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1098-1179
Hildegard of Bingen |
- In the twelfth century, the Benedictine abbess, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) sang in unknown words with such facility and winsomeness that her utterances were called "concerts in the Spirit." Although the strange language of her songs seemed to be a peculiar combination of local German dialect and Latin, both of which languages she of course knew well, she herself felt so strongly that the words that insisted on forming themselves in her mind in song and perhaps other powers of communication to the nuns under her were of such inspired and revealing significance that she prepared a glossary codex providing the translation. Elsewhere she speaks of her anointment with the Holy Spirit (Salbung des Heiligen Geistes). (Hildegard von Bingen, Wisse die Wege: Scivias (Salzburg, 1954), pp. 169ff.; Johannes May, Die heilige Hildegard uan Bingen (Munich, 1929), pp. 129ff. Much later, Jacob Boehme (d. 1624), although he did not speak in tongues, likewise claimed for his esoteric language divine illumination. See Ernst Benz, "Zur metaphysischen Begrundung der Sprache bei Jakob Bohme," Dichtung und Volkstum, neue Folge des Euphorion, XXXVII (1936), 340-57.) Because her experiences were not understood, some of her contem- poraries denounced her as demon-possessed, and she has not yet been officially beatified. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 70)
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1170-1221
St. Dominic |
- Spanish-born St. Dominic (d. 1221), after prayer, was enabled to speak German to an amazed audience. Angelus Clarenus (d. 1337), a Franciscan, spoke Greek, and an Augustinian Italian, St. Clare of Montefalco, spoke ecstatically in French. (St. Dominic: Biographical Documents, ed. Francis C. Lehner (Washington, D.C., 1964), pp. 52-53;Acta Sanctorum, June 11, 1094; ActaSanctorum, August II, 687.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 70)
- St. Dominic is said to have "set himself to prayer and commenced immediately to speak German to the great astonishment of these [German] strangers... .'' ... The famous mendicant leader, St. Dominic, conversed in German. (St. Dominic, pp. 52f.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- Pentecostal historians have shown the same aversion to the primary records, with the result that the same stories are repeated again and again—usually without question— and mistakes once made are perpetuated and often compounded. ... Difficulties also have arisen from ambiguities which Cutten copied from the Gorres text.
A good example of this is the tendency to confuse the charismatic experiences of St. Dominic and Angelus Clarenus as one, despite the fact that the primary records tell of two separate and unrelated outpourings of the Pentecostal experience on those men. (For Dominic see St. Dominic Biographical Documents, ed. Francis C. Lehner (Washington, DC: Thomist Press, 1964), pp. 52f. This translates an account by Gerardi de Fracheto found in Monumenta ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum historica, ed. B. M. Reichert (Louvain: E. Charpentier and J. Schoonjans, 1896), pp. 74f. The story of Angelus Clarenus is found in the Acta sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur, vel a Catholicis scriptoribus celebrantur... notis illustravit Joannes Bollandus (Antwerp: apud loannem Meursium, 1643-1931), June II, 1094. (Hereafter the Acta sanctorum will be referred to as Acta sanctorum.) Medieval Examples of Charismatie Piety) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 10)
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[date unknown]
Jean of the Cross |
- Jean of the Cross spoke with Mohammedans in Arabic (Antonio Daca (Daza), The Historie, Life, Miracles, Ecstasies, and Revelations of the Blessed Virgin Sister Ioane of the Cross, of the Third Order of St. Francis ... (St. Omer: Charles Bascard for John Heigham, 1625), p. 15) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- Pentecostal historians have shown the same aversion to the primary records, with the result that the same stories are repeated again and again—usually without question— and mistakes once made are perpetuated and often compounded. ...We read ... Jean of the Cross spoke in tongues, but of these there is no additional identification. In fact, we are even left in doubt as to whether Jean of the Cross was male or female! (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 10)
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[date unknown]
Jean of St. Francis |
- Jean of St. Francis, who, according to J. Gorres, conversed with the Mexicans. (Die Christliche Mystik, II, 193, Original source uncertain.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- Pentecostal historians have shown the same aversion to the primary records, with the result that the same stories are repeated again and again—usually without question— and mistakes once made are perpetuated and often compounded. ...We read that ... Jean of St. Francis, ... but of these there is no additional identification. (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 10)
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[date unknown]
Martin Valentine |
- Pentecostal historians have shown the same aversion to the primary records, with the result that the same stories are repeated again and again—usually without question— and mistakes once made are perpetuated and often compounded. ...We read that ... Martin Valentine ... spoke in tongues, but of these there is no additional identification. In fact, we are even left in doubt as to whether Jean of the Cross was male or female! (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 10)
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[date unknown]
Angelus Clarenus |
- Angelus Clarenus communicated in Greek. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, June II, 1094) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- Pentecostal historians have shown the same aversion to the primary records, with the result that the same stories are repeated again and again—usually without question— and mistakes once made are perpetuated and often compounded. ... Difficulties also have arisen from ambiguities which Cutten copied from the Gorres text. A good example of this is the tendency to confuse the charismatic experiences of St. Dominic and Angelus Clarenus as one, despite the fact that the primary records tell of two separate and unrelated outpourings of the Pentecostal experience on those men. (For Dominic see St. Dominic Biographical Documents, ed. Francis C. Lehner (Washington, DC: Thomist Press, 1964), pp. 52f. This translates an account by Gerardi de Fracheto found in Monumenta ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum historica, ed. B. M. Reichert (Louvain: E. Charpentier and J. Schoonjans, 1896), pp. 74f. The story of Angelus Clarenus is found in the Acta sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur, vel a Catholicis scriptoribus celebrantur... notis illustravit Joannes Bollandus (Antwerp: apud loannem Meursium, 1643-1931), June II, 1094. (Hereafter the Acta sanctorum will be referred to as Acta sanctorum.) Medieval Examples of Charismatie Piety) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 10)
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1209
Franciscans
St. Anthony of Padua |
- Franciscans, Europe. ("Tongues, Gift of," B, IV, 796; "Tongues, Gift of," Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, H. B. Hackett, ad. (1870; Rpt. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1971), IV, 3310-11.) Catholic monks who embraced a very simple lifestyle and traveled throughout the countryside preaching.
- St. Anthony of Padua (d. 1231) was a leading
Franciscan figure. Among his miracles and spiritual gifts recounted in the earliest sources was the gift of tongues. At times, "his tongue became the pen of the Holy Ghost," and on occasion his hearers were reminded of the day of Pentecost when they heard him preaching in their native tongues. (From the Legenda Prima quoted by Raphael Huber, St. Anthony of Padua (Milwaukee, 1948), p. 54.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 71)
- The biographer of Antony of Padua identified his charismatic gift as the same one exercised on the Day of Pentecost when each man heard his own language. (Annales minorum, II, l 91.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- Antony of Padua was reported to have possessed the gift of miracles, although some scholars have questioned this facet of his ministry. (Hilarin Felder, Die Antoniuswunder nach den alteren Quellen (Paderborn: Schoningh,1933), p. 156.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
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1247
Thomas Aquinas |
- [Thomas takes the same view as Augustine who took the unusual view that tongues continued, not in the supernatural, but the natural in that the different local churches all had a variety of members who spoke many languages by birth. Thus a person born to speak Japanese attending an English speaking church would be said to speak in tongues.] Thomas Aquinas (d. 1247) expressed his thoughts on the gift of tongues in his Summa Theological According to him the original purpose of this gift had been to enable the apostles "to teach all nations." It did not follow, however, that they had received a "gift of the knowledge of all languages." The gift of tongues was appropriate to the New Testament in the same way that prophecy had been proper to the Old. It directed men to God, remained "like a habit" in the person who possessed it, and could be used at will.
Thomas suggested that men of his day could gain the same gift of tongues as appeared at Pentecost by assiduous linguistic study. (Aquinas, Summa Theologica (New York, 1947), a.7, I, 225; a.4, I, 1138; a.1, II, 1919- a.2-14, II, 1920; a.1, II, 1929.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 71)
- Typical of this doctrinal confusion was the suggestion by St. Thomas Aquinas that his contemporaries could have the same gift of tongues as that of the apostles, not through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but rather by a thorough study of each of the languages involved. (From Summa Theologica, Part I of Second Part, Q. 51, Art. IV, in Basic Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, ed. Anton C. Pegis (New York: Random House, 1944), II, 392.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
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1260
Joachim of Flora |
- Joachim of Flora (1260), a Cistercian abbot, devised a view of history which anticipated the imminent commencement of the Ecclesia Spiritualis and which exerted widespread influence in Western thought. All of human experience, he contended, could be divided into three overlapping dispensations which corresponded to the persons of the Trinity. The first was the age of the Father (the ordo conjugatorum), the second the age of the Son (the ordo clericorum), and the third that of the Spirit (the ordo monachorum), to begin c. 1260. (Strong inspiration from Joachim continued well into the sixteenth century, appearing in the Radical Reformation, and traces thereof continue in recognizable form even in modern times. See Marjorie Reeves, The Figure of Joachim of Fiore (Oxford, 1972); Ernst Benz, Ecclesia Spiritualis (Stutt gart, 1934).) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 70)
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1268-1308
St. Clare of Montefalco |
- According to the biographer Mosconio, an unbelieving physician, Philip, confessed that he had listened with envy as St. Clare of Monte Falcone uttered praise to God and engaged in holy conversation, speaking heavenly words about heavenly things. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, August II, 687. The ecstasies of another saint, Pachomius, are mentioned in Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, May III, 314.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- St. Clare of Monte Falcone conversed in French. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, August II, 687) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
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1381-1447
St. Colette |
- St. Colette enjoyed the gift of knowledge and the gift of discernment, together with a reputation for ministering healing to lepers and raising the dead. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, March I, 543,568.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- St. Colette spoke Latin and German. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, March I, 543, 568, and chapter 17, section 176) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
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1419
Vincent Ferrer |
- The Dominican mission preacher Vincent Ferrer (d. 1419), known for many miracles, while preaching in Latin was often said to have been understood by "Greeks, Germans, Sardinians, Hungarians, and people of other nations," as if speaking their languages. (Annales Minorum seu trium ordinum a S. Francisco institutorum (Florence, 1931), II, 191.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 71)
- Vincent Ferrer was especially famous for his prophetic gift and for the many miracles of healing which accompanied his evangelistic ministry. So great was his reputation that in the Netherlands an hour was set apart each day for the healing of the sick. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, April I, 498f., 525.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- Similar references were made on behalf of Louis Bertrand and Vincent Ferrer in their respective bulls of canonization. The latter specifically explained the miracles and gifts of Ferrer in the light of Mark 16:17f. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, October V, 48 1 for Bertrand; Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, April I, 525 for Ferrer.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- The phenomenon of heteroglossolalia is reported in the ministry of St. Vincent Ferrer, who is said to have been understood by Greeks, Germans, Sardinians, and Hungarians as he preached in the Spanish of late medieval Valencia. His biographer, Peter Ranzano, also asserted that the isolated Britons of France, who understood only their own dialect, fully comprehended his teachings. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, April I, 495.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
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1483-1546
Martin Luther
Founder of Lutheran church |
- Pentecostal historians have shown the same aversion to the primary records, with the result that the same stories are repeated again and again—usually without question— and mistakes once made are perpetuated and often compounded. For example, we read that both St. Augustine and
Martin Luther spoke in tongues. (Carl Brumback, What Meaneth This? A Pentecostal Answer to a Pentecostal Question (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1947), pp. 91f. R. Leonard Carroll in The Clossolalia Phenomenon, ed. Wade H. Horton (Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 1966), p. 93, indicates that Luther was a charismatic. Other writers have made the same statement.) A careful study of their writings and of contemporary biographies, however, indicates that neither Augustine nor Luther had experiential knowledge of the subject and that Luther was thoroughly confused about Pentecostal phenomena. (Augustine, ' Homilies on the First Epistle of John," 6:10, The Nicene and PostNicene Fathers, ed. P. Schaff, First Series (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956), VII, 497f. Martin Luther, Works, ed. Jaroslav J. Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann (St. Louis: Concordia,1955- ),XL, 142.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 10)
- Martin Luther (1483-1546) did not have direct contact with the more unusual gifts of the Spirit catalogued by Paul in I Corinthians 12, notably glossolalia, interpretation thereof, and healing. However, as an exegete and preacher using the lectionary, he occasionally had to advert to our charismatic passages. He was also familiar with the Zwickau Prophets, who derived something of their charism from the Hussite tradition. Luther believed that in apostolic times, people had spoken "new tongues" as a sign and "witness to the Jews. " In his own day, however, Christianity no longer required the confirmation of such signs. (Luther, Lectures on Isaiah, eds. Helmut Lehmann and Jaroslav Pelikan, Works (joint American edition), XVI, 302) Although they had ceased, each justified believer might expect to receive one or several other gifts of the Holy Spirit. (Luther, Selected Psalms, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan, Works, XII, 294) There would always be a diversity of gifts in the true church, and these would operate in harmony, whereas among "fanatical spirits and sectarians," everyone "want[ed] to be everything." (Luther, Selected Psalms, p. 295) Luther's clearest exposition of the meaning of the Corinthian texts for his day was in a treatise he published in 1525 against Andreas Bodenstein von Carlstadt. Drawing on Paul's first letter of advice to the troubled Corinthian church, Luther accused Carlstadt of misunderstanding the expression "speaking with tongues." Paul, he declared, had been concerned primarily with the office of preaching and the listening and learning of the congregation. With this as his premise, he used the passage on tongues to develop his case for preaching in the vernacular: "Whoever comes forward, and wants to read, teach, or preach, and yet speaks with tongues, that is, speaks Latin instead of German, or some unknown language, he is to be silent and preach to himself alone. For no one can hear it or understand it, and no one can get any benefit from it. Or if he should speak with tongues, he ought, in addition, to put what he says into Gennan, or intergret it in one way or another, so that the congregation may understand it." (Luther, Against the Heauenly Prophets, ed. Conrad Bergendorff, Works, XL, 142) Carlstadt had used Paul's directives to the Corinthians to prove that all speaking in tongues (i.e., preaching in Latin) was wrong. Luther, on the other hand, demanded only that the "tongues" be interpreted into the appropriate vernacular, and used Paul's writings to defend his position: "St. Paul is not as stubborn in forbidding speaking with tongues as this 'sin-spirit' [Carlstadt] is, but says it is not to be forbidden when along with it interpretation takes place." (Luther, Against the Heauenly Prophets, ed. Conrad Bergendorff, Works, XL, 142) Carlstadt also rejected Luther's contention that physicians were "our Lord God's menders of the body," with a mission analogous to that of theologians—the restoration of "what the devil has damaged." To Carlstadt's opposition to the use of medicine, Luther responded: "Do you eat when you're hungry?" (Luther, Table Talk, ed. Helmut T. Lehmann, Works, LIV, 53-54) Luther believed that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost had wrought a fundamental change in the meaning of prayer. A "Spirit of supplication" had been "outpoured," and it was possible, in a new and more significant way, "to call upon God from the heart in My [Christ's] name." Luther, Sermons on the Gospel of St John, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan, Works, XXIV, 405.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 71)
- In History of the Christian Church (1959) Dr T Souer (Ph.D.) writes: "Dr
Martin Luther was a prophet, evangelist, speaker in tongues and interpreter, in one person, endowed with all the gifts of grace.'
- We should note that one German historian attributed speaking in tongues to Martin Luther, and a friend of Dwight Moody described some of Moody's followers speaking in tongues. (Brumback, pp. 92-94, quoting Souer [or Sauer], History of the Christian Church, III, 406 and R. Boyd, Trials and Triumphs of Faith (1875), p. 402.) However, it is unclear whether either source definitely meant speaking in tongues as we know it. The Wesof Presbyterian Calvinism adopted by English Puritans in 1648, specifically required that prayer be made in a known tongue. (Justo Gonzalez, A History of Christian Thought (Nashville: Abingdon, 1975), III, 271.)
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1506-1552
Francis Xavier |
- Francis Xavier: After the great apostasy that gave birth to Catholicism was in full sway, the Catholics developed their brand of tongue speaking. In a book called, "Speaking With Tongues," by Cutten, there is a section dealing with a Catholic Priest named Francis Xavier, a Jesuit and missionary, who translated some of the Catholic doctrines into various tribal dialects and later into Japanese. Legend grew about him and another Jesuit called Father Colleridge wrote, "He spoke freely, flowingly, elegantly, as if he had lived in Japan all his life." (Speaking With Tongues, Cutten, p 45)
- A study of Cutten's account leaves one with the impression that all, or nearly all, tongue-speaking in the medieval church
was limited to the ability to speak in a foreign language in the course of missionary activity. Morton T. Kelsey suggests that this was simply the result of a church ban on speaking in and interpreting an unknown language, a ban found in the Rituale Romanorum in a section describing characteristics of the demon-possessed. (Kelsey, Tongue Speaking, p.47; Philip T. Weller, The Roman Ritual, vol. II, Christian Burial, Exorcism, Reserved Blessings, etc. (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1952), pp. 1 68f.) John T. Nichol finds his answer to this curious problem in the teachings of Origen, who considered the miraculous knowledge of foreign languages to be a permanent endowment of gospel messengers since the Day of Pentecost. (John Thomas Nichol, Pentecostalism (New York: Harper and Row, 1966) p. 21. 9. Kelsey, Tongue Speaking, p. 47.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- This concern has been amplified by my frustration over the indifference of [my fellow] Pentecostal scholars to their historical antecedents and over the total reliance of the few who have broached the subject of charismatic outpourings in the medieval and the early modern church on an account written by George B. Cutten in 1927, an account which is based on a lengthy study of Christian mysticism written about 1836 by J. J. Gorres, a professor of history at the university in Munich. (George B. Cutten, Speaking with Tongues (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1927), and J. 1. Gorres, Die Christliche Mystik, 5 vols. (Regensburg: G. J. Manz, 1836-42).) To make matters worse, Cutten, who was hostile to tongues peaking, did not bother to search out the primary sources used by the erudite German scholar. Pentecostal historians have shown the same aversion to the primary records, with the result that the same stories are repeated again and again—usually without question— and mistakes once made are perpetuated and often compounded. (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 10)
- While Francis Xavier himself claimed no charismatic gift other than tongues, his disciples reported miracles at his hands ranging from the healing of barrenness to the alleviation of pain in childbirth. (Monumenta Xaveriana, II, 143f., 455, 512, 625f.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- Pope Gregory XV in 1623 wrote that when Francis Xavier preached about the great works of God to an assembly of many nationalities, each one with astonishment and ecstasy heard the language of the country in which he was born. As a result of this miracle, the pope concluded, his audiences were greatly moved and received the Word of God. (Monumenta Xavertana, II, 710.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- Francis Xavier spoke Tamil and the language of the Molucca Islands. (Monumenta X, veriana et autographis vel ex antiquioribus exemplis collecta ... (Madrid: Typis Gabrielis Lopez del Homo, 1912), II, 224, 546f., 555, 689, 694, 698) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- And we are told that Francis Xavier's Portuguese was understood by both the Japanese and Chinese whom he encountered on his missionary journeys, although this account has been challenged by modem Jesuit scholars. (Benedictus XIV (1675-1758), Opera omnia in unum corpus collecta et nunc primum in quindecim tomos distributa (Venice: sumptibus J. Remondini, 1787-88), III, 250. In addition, this claim was made by the first biographer of Francis Xavier, Horatius Tursellini, in his De vita Francisci Xaverii (Rome, 1594), and later by Dominique Boahours in The Life of St. Francis Xavier, of the Society of Jesus, Apostle of the Indies and of Japan, trans. James Dryden (Dublin: T. Haydock, 1812). While H. J. Coleridge in his Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier (London: Burns and Oates, 1890), accepted Tursellini's report, the Jesuit editors of the Monumenta Xaveriana chose not to include the material on the Japanese expedition because of the unreliability of the witnesses involved.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- Cardinal Ludovisius, testifying on behalf of the canonization of Francis Xavier, related that the great missionary had been heard to speak the languages of angels. (Monumenta Xaveriana, II, 698. The same claim has been made for St. Bridget although I have been unable to locate the primary evidence.) In the bull canonizing him we read that his audiences were filled with amazement and ecstasy when they heard him speak in languages unknown to him. (Monumenta Xaveriana, II, 710.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
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1509-1564
John Calvin |
- John Calvin (1509-1564): "Calvin noted that glossolalia had not merely facilitated preaching in foreign languages but had also served as an "adornment and honour of the Gospel itself.'' This second ability had been "corrupted" by human "ambition" (e.g., Corinth), and, Calvin reflected, it was
not at all strange that God had chosen to remove glossolalic utterances from the church rather than permitting them "to be vitiated with further abuse." (Calvin, Acts, I, 318) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 73)
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1521
Anabaptists |
- 1500's Anabaptists, Europe. (Bloesch, 11,115-16; Michael Hamilton, The Charismatic Movement (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), pp. 73-74; "Pentecostal Churches," EB, XIV, 31.) One of the four main branches of the early Protestant movement (along with Lutherans, Reformed, and Anglicans). Unlike other Protestants, the Anabaptists emphasized the restoration of apostolic patterns of worship and lifestyle, the importance of a conversion experience, baptism of believers only, baptism by immersion, total separation of church and state, the power to overcome sin after conversion, and the need to live a holy life. A prominent Anabaptist leader named
Menno Simons, whose followers became known as Mennonites, wrote about speaking in tongues as if it were expected evidence of receiving the Holy Ghost. (Hamilton, p. 74.) Many early Anabaptists worshiped quite demonstratively; in the words of a secular history text some participated in "very excited, 'enthusiastic,' evangelical practices... what Americans know as 'holy rolling'... The congregation sometimes shouted and danced, and always sang hymns with great fervor." (Crane Brinton et al, A History of Civilization 3rd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1967), I, 472, 480.) In view of their doctrine and worship, it is not at all surprising that speaking in tongues occurred among early Anabaptists. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton)
- Glossolalia accompanied by unusual behavior broke out among the Anabaptists in Appenzell. (George H. Williams, The Radical Reformation (Philadelphia, 1962), p. 133.) Among many Anabaptists there was an eschatological yearning for a final council, combining the features of the apostolic council in Jerusalem (c. 50, Acts 15) and the Pentecostal gathering of the Upper Room (Acts 2). (Peter Kawerau, Melchior Hoffman (Haarlem, 1954).) A major Anabaptist leader, Menno Simons (1496-1556), was evidently familiar with speaking in tongues on a scale sufficiently general to be able to write in his Treatise on Christian Baptism: "Although Peter was previously informed by a heavenly vision that he might go to the Gentiles and teach them the Gospel, still he refused to baptize the pious, noble and godly centurion and his associates, so long as he did not see that the Holy Spirit was descended upon them so that they spoke with tongues and glorified God.... You see ... you are plainly taught that Peter commanded that those only should be baptized who had received the Holy Ghost, who spoke with tongues and glorified God, which only pertains to the believing, and not to minor children. Thus the practice of Peter was in accordance with the commandment of Christ. Mark 16:16. Peter did not command infant baptism...." (Menno Simons, Treatise on Christian Baptism, Collected Works, trans. and ed. Leonard Verduin (Scottdale, Pa., 1956), pp. 27 if.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 73)
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1526-1581
Louis Bertrand |
- Louis Bertrand (1526-81): "In the worldwide mission of the Catholic Church under the global sway of Charles V and his successors, and under the impulsion of the Counter-Reformation, men and some women of many old and new orders went forth to conquer the world for Christ and to make up overseas what had been lost to the Catholic Church in the heartlands of the old Christendom. A number of these missionaries are reported to have possessed a gift of tongues. Pope Clement X noted that the Dominican, Louis Bertrand (1526-81), who had been unable to converse in any language but Spanish, received the gift of tongues and exercised it impressively in his missionary work among Indians in the New World. He also was enabled to preach in the language of the Moors when among them. Francis Xavier (1506-52) had similar experiences in which he was able to speak in Tamil and in an Indonesian dialect. Later at the beatification, Pope Gregory XIII remarked that his gift of tongues had been the means of attracting widespread interest in Christianity." (Acta Sanctorum, October V, 322-23, 382, 481, ~ 83; Monumenta Xayeriana et au tograph is vel ex antiq u ioribus exemplis collecta (Madrid, 19 1 2 ), II, 224, 546-47, 555, 689, 694, 698; Benedictus XIV, Opera omnia in corpus collecta et nunc primum in quindecim tomos distributa (Venice, 1787), III, 250.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 74)
- Louis Bertrand is reported to have asked God to grant him the same gift as that of Vincent Ferrer, so that the natives of the Indies could understand his preaching. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, October V, 382.) ... Finally, in a bull of canonization of 1671 Clement X declared that Louis Bertrand spoke only Spanish and normally had to use an interpreter in foreign lands. During his ministry, however, heaven conferred on him the gift of tongues, as well as of prophecy and of miracles. At another point in the bull, Clement asserted that Bertrand ''had been granted all of the charismatic signs and the accompanying authority.' (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, October V, 481.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- The bull of canonization for Louis Bertrand testified that he laid hands on the sick in a hospital, with the results that men regained their sanity and the dead were raised to life. Finally, the bull assures us that Bertrand exercised the charismatic gifts of the apostles. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, October V, 48 1, 483.) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- And St. Louis Bertrand spoke in the language of the Moors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, October V, 322f., 382, 481, 483) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
- The Spanish of St. Louis Bertrand was understood by Indian natives in the Western Hemisphere. (Acta sanctorum, Catholic Source, October V, 322f., 382, 483) (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Stanley M. Burgess, 1976, pp. 14-26)
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1569-1572
Polish Brethren |
- In the commune of the Polish Brethren, predecessors of the Socinians, in Rakow, there was a period (1569-72) when lords, artisans, and peasants lived in a fellowship modeled on that of Acts 2, when all but a few ministers laid down their ministries and everyone listened attentively, as if to revelations, to the simplest outpourings of former serfs and other illiterates. (Williams, The Radical Reformation, pp. 698ff.; St: nislaw Cynarski,Rakow Ognisko Arianizmu (Cracow, 1968), pp. 51-80.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 73)
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1649-1654
Ranters |
- The Ranters appealed to an inward Christ, denying the external authority of creeds and clerics in much the same way as did the Quakers. Both Ranter and early Quaker worship contained an emotional element, as both consciously endeavored to follow the promptings of the Spirit as he directed from within. Early accounts of meetings of both groups contain many references to "the Power of the Lord" which "uttered through them" or "wrought mightily" upon them, compelling them to weep, sing, or speak. (For the visions and inspired utterances of a sixteenth-century Familist see Tobias, Mirabilia opera Dei (London, 1575). Geoffrey F. Nuttall comments on Quaker and Ranter experiences in Studies in Christian Enthusiasm, Illustrated from Early Quakerism (WaUingford, Pa., 1948).) "The Lord's power" was frequently "so mighty upon" George Fox that he "could not hold, but was made to cry out." (George Fox, Journal, passim; Hannah Whitall Smith, The Early Friends (Philadelphia, n.d. ).) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 71)
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1650
Quakers
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- Striking parallels exist between Quaker silent worship and the practice of glossolalia. At its best Quaker silent worship involves a
kind of letting go, a lack of strain or effortful attention, a willingness to "flow" with the leading of the Spirit and with the larger movement of the entire meeting. ... As in the case of glossolalia, the process of speaking out of the silence and of listening in the silence involves a resting of the analytical mind, a refusal to let deliberative, objective thinking dominate the meeting. Rather, one tries to "center down" and become open to the ''inner light" within himself, to "that of God in every man,'' to the "leading of the Spirit.'' (Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, Spitter, Richard A. Baer, 1976, p 154)
- Quakers, England. (Bloesch, II, 115-16; "Charismata," ERE, III, 370; Schaff, I, 114.) A group that emphasized spiritual experience and waited on the moving of the Spirit in their services. The early Quakers received their name because they literally "quaked" under the power of the Spirit.
- John Wimber began as a Quaker, originally being a member of the Quaker church. George Fox is deemed to be the "prophet" whose teachings tend to be the prime source of guidance for the philosophy followed in the Quaker faith. Gunner Payne was the person who initially had the primary influence in John Wimber's life.
Doctrine:
- Quakers (Friends) beliefs are a little hard to quantify, since Friends do not believe in having a fixed Creed or Dogma, but rather in seeking for the leadings of God within ourselves. Some generalizations are possible however:
- Doctrines of Jesus' deity and the virgin birth are nonessential and not accepted as fact.
- Primacy of "feelings" over scripture as source of testing doctrine.
- Acceptance of any document as valid for doctrine, i.e. Tao Te Ching, Koran, etc. (Society of Friends)
- Unitarian Universalists (by their own description) (i.e. all religions and beliefs are correct and of equal value.)
- Great manifestations including trembling and shaking.
- George Fox saw himself as an apostle restoring the true church.
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1700
The Camisards or Cevennes or Cevennol Prophets
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- Camisards: "Probably from camise, a black blouse worn as a uniform"
- Camisards, southern France (often called the Prophets of the Cevennes). ("Tongues, Gift of," Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, IV, 3310-11.; "Camisards," ERE, 111,175-176; "Pentecostal Churches," EB XIV, 31; Schaff, I, 114; "Tongues, Gift of," B, IV, 796.) A group of Huguenots (French Protestants), mostly peasants, who resisted the attempts of Louis XIV's government to convert them to Roman Catholicism. Many were imprisoned, tortured, and martyred. Observers reported tongues, uneducated peasants and young children prophesying in pure, elegant French, enthusiastic, demonstrative worship, and people "seized by the Spirit."
- Cevennes: After Montanus, the next time any significant tongues-speaking movement arose was with the Cevennol Prophets of the seventeenth century. The Cevennol prophets likewise were outside of the church - their primary emphasis was on politics and the military.
- Converts of Camisards, England. ("Tongues, Gift of," Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, IV, 3310-11.) Some Camisards fled to England to avoid persecution, making converts there.
- Camisards, or Prophets of the Cevennes
: The rapid growth of an enthusiastic group among those who endorsed resistance, largely confined to the Cevennes mountains, further complicated the divisions. These Camisards, or Prophets of the Cevennes mountains, claimed that they were directly inspired by the Holy Spirit. Their religious "enthusiasm" as well as their political resistance made them special targets of the king's wrath. In the course of prolonged armed conflict, thousands on both sides were killed. Under divine inspiration, their prophets encouraged the Camisards to wage war against Louis' dragoons from 1701 until 1710. They fought for religious reasons, but the intensity of their political opposition was reflected in the increasing enthusiasm of their spiritual experiences. (Andre Ducasse, La Guerre des camisards (Paris, 1946).) The Camisards maintained that "God has no where in the Scriptures concluded himself from dispensing again the extraordinary Gifts of His Spirit unto Men." Indeed, a "more full Accomplishment" of Joel's prophecy than that of Acts could be awaited. They found historical roots by developing an interesting view of church history: "the Christian Truth survived the Deluge of the Grand Apostacy, and rested upon the Mountains of Piemont, Dauphine, and Languedocq, as the Ark once upon Mount Ararat; the Waldenses and Albigenses could never be quite rooted out by the Legions of Hell in Croisade; and when the great Tribulations of the modern Pharaoh had extinguished in appearance the other Churches of France, out of the Ashes of those of Languedocq there arose within a few Years last past, a powerful Testimony of Jesus, animated by immediate Inspiration...." (John Lacy, A Cry from the Desert (London, 1708), pp. v-vi. This includes reminiscences of Camisard refugees in England.) This "inspiration" had startling results. Those so moved "struck themselves with the Hand, they fell on their Backs, they shut their Eyes, they heaved with the Breast, they remained a while in Trances, and coming out of them with Twitchings, they uttered all that came into their Mouths." (De Brueys, Histoire du fanatisme de notre temps (Paris, 1692), p. 137.) Children as well as adults were so affected, and illiterates of the "Dregs of Mankind" amazed their hearers by quoting Scripture texts at length. (De Brueys, Histoire du fanatisme de notre temps (Paris, 1692), p. 89.) John Vernett, who escaped from Bois-Chastel to England, recalled that when under this power of the Holy Spirit his mother spoke only French. This "surprized [him] exceedingly, because she never before attempted to speak a Word in that Language, nor has since to my Knowledge, and I am certain she could not do it."(John Lacy, A Cry from the Desert (London, 1708), p. 14) This testimony was given in London on January 14, 1706. His mother had first experienced this linguistic ability in 1693 and had been imprisoned because of her spiritual gifts since 1695. Similar phenomena occurred repeatedly, and often when the operation had ceased the inspired had no memory of what he had uttered. Another strange phenomenon which occurred quite frequently among the Camisards was the sudden ability of infants who could not yet speak to deliver discourses in perfect, fluent French. In 1701, for example, a child about fourteen months old "which had never of itself spoken a Word, nor could it go alone," in a loud, childish voice began exhorting "to the Works of Repentance." (John Lacy, A Cry from the Desert (London, 1708), p. 15) The Camisards also spoke sometimes in languages that were unknown: "Several persons of both Sexes," James Du Bois of Montpellier recalled, "I have heard in their Extasies pronounce certain words, which seem'd to the Standers-by, to be some Foreign Language." These utterances were sometimes accompanied by the gift of interpretation exercised, in Du Bois' experience, by the same person who had spoken in tongues. (John Lacy, A Cry from the Desert (London, 1708), p. 32) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 75)
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1703-1758
Jonathan Edwards
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- Similar phenomena [Extreme emotional disturbances, ecstasies and bodily seizures of various sorts] occurred in the Great Awakening, a period of American revival in the 1700's led by Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and others. (Clark, pp. 112-13.)
Debra Bouey, who has done much research on the subject, has this to say about Jonathan Edwards:
- If DeArteaga is one of the historians for the Toronto Airport Vineyard, it is very difficult to believe
he does not know Jonathan Edwards was a cessationist. Edwards believed prophecy ceased along with the other charismatic gifts after the completion of the canon of Scripture. Surely DeArteaga, a historian, could not have missed Edwards account of his cessationist views and the reasons he notes in detail for holding them in the following works?: 1. Jonathan Edwards, "Charity and Its Fruits", pp.38, 44-47. 2. Jonathan Edwards, "On Revival", pp.137-.
- Consider carefully his words which follow and contrast them with where the focus and emphasis are placed, evidenced in the teachings coming out of Toronto Vineyard, and determine for yourself what Jonathan Edwards would have to say about all of this alleged "Toronto blessing", "season of refreshing" and "revival" if he were here with us today:
- "The spirit that causes people to have a greater regard for the Holy Scriptures and establishes them more in the truth and divinity of God's Word is certainly the Spirit of God.
- "The devil never would attempt to beget in persons a regard to the divine Word. A spirit of delusion will not incline persons to seek direction at the mouth of God. 'To the law and to the testimony: If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them!' is never the cry of evil spirits who have no light in them. On the contrary, it is God's own direction to discover their delusions.
- Would the spirit of error, in order to deceive men, beget in them a high opinion of the infallible Word? Would the prince of darkness, in order to promote his kingdom of darkness, lead men to the sun?
- "The devil has always shown a mortal spite and hatred towards that holy book, the Bible. He has done all in his power to extinguish that light, or else draw men off from it. He knows it to be that light by which his kingdom of darkness is to be overthrown. He has long experienced its power to defeat his purposes and battle his designs. It is his constant plague. It is the sword of the Spirit that pierces him and conquers him. It is that sharp sword that we read of in Revelation 19:15, which proceeds out of the mouth of Him that sat on the horse, with which He smites His enemies. Every text is a dart to torment the old serpent. He has felt the stinging smart thousands of times.
- "Therefore the devil is engaged against the Bible and hates every word in it. We may be sure that he never will attempt to raise anyone's esteem of it." (Jonathan Edwards, The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God)
Jonathan Edwards by Bob Hunter:
- William DeArteaga: I want to share one insight that I had not planned, but the Lord has put on my heart about - yesterday I was looking at the books that were coming in on revival. Some hot off the press. And every revival has a predominant theologian, you know. Historians say, well in this revival, Charles Finney was the predominant figure here and theologian of that revival, etc., etc. And the Lord has already chosen the predominant theologian of this revival. It's not me! It's Jonathan Edwards. And every book on revival out there, including my book does central chapters on what did Jonathan Edwards say about revival. Which is great, because it takes the pressure off us, you know, the swelled head and all the stuff. We're commentators on Jonathan Edwards. That's really true. (William DeArteaga, Toronto Airport Vineyard, October 13, 1994)
- Virtually every leader of this movement points to Jonathan Edwards for support of the various manifestations. They are very selective about what is quoted, however.
Here are some quotes you don't see them using:
- "Why cannot we be contented with the divine oracles, that holy, pure word of God, which we have in such abundance and clearness, now since the canon of Scripture is completed? Why should we desire to have any thing
added to them by impulses from above? Why should we not rest in that standing rule that God has given to his church, which the apostles teaches us, is surer than a voice from heaven? And why should we desire to make the Scripture speak more to us than it does?" [Jonathan Edwards, Some Thoughts, p.404]
- "They who leave the sure word of prophecy-which God has given us as a light shining in a dark place-
to follow such impressions and impulses, leave the guidance of the polar star to follow a Jack with a lantern. No wonder therefore that sometimes they are led into woeful extravagances." [Jonathan Edwards, On Revival, p.14]
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An erroneous principle, than which scarce any has proved more mischievous to the present glorious work of God, is a notion that it is God's manner in these days to guide His saints by inspiration, or immediate revelation.... As long as a person has a notion that he is guided by immediate direction from heaven, it makes him incorrigible and impregnable in all his misconduct." (Jonathan Edwards, Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England, p.1:404)
- "Many godly persons have undoubtedly in this and other ages, exposed themselves to woeful delusions, by an aptness to lay too much weight on
impulses and impressions, as if they were immediate revelations from God, to signify something future, or to direct them where to go, and what to do."
- "I would therefore entreat the people of God to be very cautious how they give heed to such things.
I have seen them fail in very many instances, and know by experience that impressions being made with great power, and upon the mind...are no sure sign of their being revelations from heaven." (Jonathan Edwards, On Revival, pp. 104, 141)
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1722
Moravian Brethren & Pietists |
- Moravian Brethren (1722): During the same period another group, less dramatic but nonetheless inspired, was growing in Saxony. The Moravian Brethren of the eighteenth century had roots in the Bohemian Hussite tradition. Reorganized in 1722 at Herrnhut under the leadership of Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf (1700-60), they had close affinities with German Pietism and Lutheranism. Their emotionally expressive worship, particularly after the remarkable revival of 1727, (John Greenfield, When the Spirit Came (Minneapolis, 1967).) was marked by fervent prayer and much singing, and their religious zeal was channeled into ambitious missionary enterprises. Outsiders were apt to be puzzled by their simple confidence in God. Their enemies faithfully exposed the peculiarities and "delusions" of the sect, drawing analogies between the Moravians and the schismatics and heretics of Christian history to prove their arguments. In Britain, they were taken to task for, among other things, reviving a "ridiculous Piece of Nonsense" first advanced by "a mad enthusiastic Sect of the second Century called Montanists"—speaking in tongues. Said one John Roche: "[Montanus] and his Followers were great Dealers in the Spirit; and affected strange convulsive Heavings, and unnatural Postures. And in one of these Fits they commonly broke into some disconnected Jargon, which they often passed upon the vulgar, 'As the exuberant and resistless Evacuations of the Spirit,' and many other such like enthusiastic Stuff. That this is the frequent Behaviour, Speeches and Assertions of those deluded and deluding People, I refer to the public Voice, to all that are but even slightly acquainted with their Customs and Preachings; and to such cursory Proofs of it as shall appear through this Work: For a stated Proof of it would be an idle Attempt." (John Roche, The Morauian Heresy (Dublin, 1751), p. 44.) Although speaking in tongues was not endorsed by the Moravian leadership, it occurred sporadically in their gatherings. Zinzendorf, like many others, believed that the gift of tongues had originally been given in order to facilitate missionary expansion. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 76)
- Pietists (including Moravians), Germany. (Bloesch, II, 11546) The Pietists emphasized spiritual experience and Christian living.
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1730
Jansenists,
Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of Ypres |
- Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of Ypres (Cornelius Jansenius Yprensis), from whom Jansenism derives its origin and name.
- the Jansenists, a group of Roman Catholic loyalists who opposed the Reformers' teaching on justification by faith, also claimed to be able to speak in tongues in the 1700s. (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 234)
- Twenty years after the dispersion of the Camisards in 1710, glossolalia appeared in the Jansenist community. Between 1730 and 1733, prophetic utterances became increasingly frequent among them. When seized by convulsions, some reportedly spoke in an unknown tongue and understood any language in which they were addressed. Much of the glossolalia was, however, not understood. (P.F. Mathieu, Histoire des miracules et des convulsionnaires de Saint Medard (Paris, 1864).) Although the Jansenists and the Camisards had similar physical reactions to inspiration, the Jansenists in self-defense against the charge of crypto-Calvinism were outspoken in their criticism of all Protestant enthusiasts. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 76)
- Jansenists, France. ("Charismata," ERE, III, 370; "Pentecostal Churches," EB, XIV, 31; "Tongues, Gift of," B, IV, 796; "Tongues, Gift of," Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, IV, 3310-11.) A Catholic reform movement.
- In the 1700's another group arose inside the Reformed Christian Church called the Jansenists. They rejected the doctrine of justification by faith.
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1739
John Wesley
Methodists |
- There is no record that John Wesley spoke in tongues. It is incredible that the "father of the modern Pentecostal movement" never himself spoke in tongues!
- Wesley once explained that God imparted his gifts as he chose, and that in his wisdom he had not deemed it best to bestow on Wesley himself this gift which he had granted to some of his contemporaries
. In a certain sense, he had received a tongue of fire similar to that of Acts 2:3; for, as he once wrote, the cloven tongues of fire that had descended at Pentecost had given "eloquence and utterance in preaching the gospel," engendered "a burning zeal towards God's Word," and endowed each Spirit-baptized disciple with "a fiery tongue." (Wesley, Letters, IV, 379-80.) For the spiritual edification of his contemporaries, Wesley published accounts of the religious experiences of some members of Methodist societies as well as instructive passages from prominent writers of other generations. In the surviving extracts from diaries, there is a persistent longing for fuller Christian experience and a conviction of the inadequacy of efforts to worship Christ in human language: "Friday in the morning I rose with these words strongly and sweetly impressed on my mind, 'Insatiate to the spring I fly, I drink and still am ever dry.' O my dear Lord what angel tongue can speak thy praise," wrote one Elizabeth Johnson. Her soul, she declared, "burn[ed] with desire to praise thee; words I find fail, there is no language known among mortals to express it; a glimmering expectation I have to be ere long, where I shall have new language." (Wesley, An Account of Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson (Bristol, 1799), pp. 48,69.)
- "On the other hand, in spite of Wesley's concern to restore primitive Christianity and the special normativity he granted to the first three centuries, he actually showed very little interest in the question of spiritual gifts. The Methodists were, it must be admitted, often accused of "laying claim to almost every apostolic gift, in a full and ample manner, as they were possessed of old." (This from William Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester, The Doctrine of grace, or, The Office and Operations of the Holy Spirit Vindicated from the Insults of Infidelity and the Abuses of Fanaticism (1762), as reported by Richard Green, The Works of John and Charles Wesley: A Bibliography (London: C. H. Kelly, 1869), p. 123.) Wesley denied this while leaving space for a continuing miraculousness in the sense that "God now hears and answers prayer even beyond the ordinary course of nature."(See Wesley's response "to Dr. Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester," dated 26 November 1762, in the Telford edition of Wesley's Letters, 4:325-84. The quotation is from p. 344 in this edition.) Wesley's interest was fundamentally elsewhere: "Whether these gifts of the Holy Ghost were designed to remain in the Church throughout all ages, and whether or no they will be restored at the nearer approach of the "restitution of all things," are questions which it is not needful to decide." (Sermon 4, "Scriptural Christianity," introduction, pare. 3, in the Sugden edition, 1:93.)" (Theological Roots Of Pentecostalism, Donald W. Dayton, p 45)
- Methodists, England, particularly in the revivals of Wesley and Whitefield and in later American revivals. ("Tongues, Gift of," B, IV, 796.)
- Pentecostalism is the child of reaction to secularism and formalism in religion. Its immediate ancestor was the so-called "Holiness" movement that began in Methodism. Between 1880 and 1900 the Methodist Church split into holiness and anti-holiness groups. Basically the issue over which they split was the error of their founder, John Wesley. He taught error relative to sanctification and from his folly grew the notion that those who receive the Holy Spirit directly and abstractly receive "entire sanctification." Others rejected this and thus they divided.
- We should also note the strong emphasis on repentance and physical demonstrations in the Methodist revivals. One hostile historian wrote, "Extreme emotional disturbances, ecstasies and bodily seizures of various sorts were common in the Wesleyan Revival of the eighteenth century in England," with people in Wesley's meetings exhibiting "violent motor reactions... convulsions and shakings" and screaming. (Clark, pp. 111-12.)
- Wesley himself believed that the gifts of the Spirit had practically disappeared but that a fully restored church would have them again
. (Howard Snyder, The Radical Wesley (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1980), p. 96) When a certain Dr. Middleton wrote that the gift of tongues was absent from later church history, Wesley replied that (1) many ancient writings are no longer extant, (2) many Christians wrote no books, (3) the ante-Nicene fathers do not say tongues ceased with the apostles, and (4) just because tongues was not specifically recorded does not mean it was not practiced. (John Wesley, "A Letter to the Reverend Dr. Conyers Middleton," The Works of John Wesley, 3rd. ed. (Rpt. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978), X, 54-55.) He said, "Many may have spoken with new tongues, of whom this is not recorded; at least, the records are lost in a course of so many years." (John Wesley, "A Letter to the Reverend Dr. Conyers Middleton," The Works of John Wesley, 3rd. ed. (Rpt. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978), X, p. 55.) In reply to the objection that tongues did not exist in his time, Wesley replied, "It has been heard of more than once, no farther off than the valleys of Dauphiny" [southern France]. (John Wesley, "A Letter to the Reverend Dr. Conyers Middleton," The Works of John Wesley, 3rd. ed. (Rpt. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978), X, p. 56.)
- "I was a little surprised at some. who
were buffeted of Satan in an unusual manner, by such a spirit of laughter as they could in no wise resist, though it was pain and grief unto them. I could scarce have believed the account they gave me, had I not known the same thing ten or eleven years ago. Part of Sunday my brother and I then used to spend in walking in the meadows and singing psalms. But one day, just as we were beginning to sing, he burst out into a loud laughter. I asked him, if he was distracted; and began to be very angry, and presently after to laugh as loud as he. Nor could he possibly refrain, though we were ready to tear ourselves in pieces, but we were forced to go home without singing another line." (John Wesley's Journal, Fri. May 9, 1740; transcribed by Nick Needham)
- "In the evening such a
spirit of laughter was among us, that many were much offended. But the attention of all was fixed on poor L-a S-, whom we all knew to be no dissembler. One so violently and variously torn of the evil one did I never see before. Sometimes she laughed till almost strangled; then broke out into cursing and blaspheming; then stamped and struggled with incredible strength, so that four or five could scarce hold her: Then cried out, "O eternity, eternity! O that I had no soul! O that I had never been born!" At last she faintly called on Christ to help her. And the violence of her pangs ceased. "Most of our brethren and sisters were now fully convinced, that those who were under this strange temptation could not help it. Only E-th B- and Anne H- were of another mind; being still sure, anyone might help laughing if she would. This they declared to many on Thursday: but on Friday, 23 God suffered Satan to teach them better. Both of them were suddenly seized in the same manner as the rest, and laughed whether they would or no, almost without ceasing. Thus they continued for two days, a spectacle to all; and were then, upon prayer made for them, delivered in a moment." (John Wesley's Journal, Wed. May 21, 1740; transcribed by Nick Needham)
- Bishop Butler's sternly rebuked John Wesley: "Sir the pretending to extraordinary revelations and gifts of the Holy Ghost is a horrid thing, a very horrid thing." (Cited by Ronald A. Knox, Enthusiasm [Oxford: The University Press, 1950], 450).
- The contribution of John Wesley (1703-91) to his century has been widely recognized. Recent
Pentecostal scholarship has acknowledged his special significance among the antecedents of Pentecostalism and claimed him as the "father" of the Pentecostal movement. (Vinson Synan, The Holiness Pentecostal Movement (Grand Rapids, 1971), p. 13.) His emphasis on a second crisis experience subsequent to conversion was only one of many innovations which shaped the context out of which organized Pentecostalism later emerged. Little attention has been directed to his attitude toward glossolalia, however. His opinion on the gift of tongues was undoubtedly influenced by what he knew of the operation of that gift in his world, as well as by his reading of Scripture. The transformation of Wesley's religious experience which resulted from his contact with the Moravians is common knowledge. The individualistic experiential piety which informed their daily lives enriched his own after 1738. His attention was specifically drawn to speaking in tongues by the publication in 1748 of Conyers Middleton's A Free Inquiry and by the increasing activity of the French Prophets in England. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 77)
- Middleton was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, whose work was based on Traite de ltemploi des saints peres, published by Jean Daille (1594-1670), a learned French Reformed theologian, in 1632. Daille had written to discourage "undue reverence" for the Church Fathers. The thrust of Middleton's book was probably best expressed by its full title: "A Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers, Which are supposed to have subsisted in the Christian Church, From the Earliest Ages through several successive Centuries. By which it is strewn, that we have no sufficient Reason to believe upon the authority of the Primitive Fathers, That any such Powers were continued to the Church, after the Days of the Apostles." Middleton maintained that of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit the gift of tongues was "the most evidently and confessedly withdrawn." (Conyers Middleton, A Free Inquiry (London, 1749), p. xxi.) He further contended that neither a "single instance" of tongues nor "the least pretension" to the gift had ever been made "by any writer whatsoever." Conyers Middleton, A Free Inquiry (London, 1749), p. xxii.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 71) In the Free Inquiry, he claimed that the extant writings of those second-generation Christians who had known the Apostles made no mention of tongues. During the Patristic period, a revival of the gift had been "pretended" until it could no longer be supported. Middleton was so certain of himself that he made John Wesley's self-imposed task of refutation simple: "And I [Middleton] might risk the merit of my argument on this single point; that, after the Apostolic times, there is not in all history one instance, either well attested, or even so much as mentioned, of any particular person, who had ever exercised this gift, or pretended to exercise it, in any age or country whatsoever. Conyers Middleton, (A Free Inquiry (London, 1749), p. 120) In answer to this claim, Wesley reminded him: "It has undoubtedly been pretended to, and that at no great distance either from our time or country. It has been heard of more than once no farther off than the valleys of Dauphiny. Nor is it yet fifty years ago since the Protestant inhabitants of those valleys so loudly pretended to this and other miraculous powers as to give much disturbance to Paris itself. And how did the King of I France confute that presence and prevent its being heard any more? Not by the pen of his scholars, but by (a truly heathen way) the swords and bayonets of his dragoons." It is understandable that the dispersion of people whose convictions had not yielded to the severe persecutions of Louis XIV and whose norms of religious experience included such dramatic expressions as those of the Camisards would arouse at least a curious interest and considerable hostility. (John Wesley to Conyers Middleton, 4 January 1749, The Letters of John Wesley ed. John Telford (London, 1931), II, 365.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 78)
- When Louis XIV had launched his attack on the French prophets, some had already fled to England. Fanning out from London, they called public attention to themselves by their convulsions and strange utterances; and they attempted to gain a foothold in the revivalistic gatherings of "the people called Methodists." Wesley's early preaching had often evoked a variety of pronounced physical manifestations. During his first visit to Bristol, emotional reactions similar to the convulsions of the Camisards had been particularly evident: "To our no small surprise," he recorded, some were "constrained to roar for the disquietness of their heart." (John Wesley. Journal, ed. Nehemiah Curnock (London, 1938), II, 180.) One hearer was "seized with a violent trembling all over." In response to a sermon at Newgate on the text "He that believeth hath everlasting life" (John 3:15), "one, and another, and another sunk to the earth; they dropped on every side as thunderstruck.... All Newgate rang with the cries of those whom the word of God cut to the heart." ( John Wesley. Journal, ed. Nehemiah Curnock (London, 1938), II, pp. 184-85.) Wesley, whose sermons had been rather dryly systematic, typical of the Oxford don he in part still was, could not understand "the unusual manner" of his Bristol ministry, but for the moment contented himself with laying it "before the Lord." (John Wesley. Journal, ed. Nehemiah Curnock (London, 1938), II, p. 216; see Gerald Cragg, The Works of John Wesley (Oxford, 1974), V. When Wesley returned to the London area, he reported that "convulsions" were frequent in the society meetings there.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 79)
- In England, what was to turn out to be the notorious reputation of these French Prophets and their English adherents was the prophecy circulating among them that one of their deceased members, Dr. Thomas Emes, would be resurrected. A date was set for this event, and the appropriate "prophecies" were well publicized, in accordance with inspired instructions. All England was to observe God's vindication of his prophets. The scheduled day came and went, and the prophetic claim of a "spiritual resurrection" of the deceased naturally failed to satisfy skeptics of the divine credentials of the French Prophets. (N. Spinckes, The Pretenders to Prophecy Re-examined (London, 1710), pp. 41-50.) They became targets for mockery and anathema among respectable Christians. Examples of both these attitudes are readily available. One cynic who apparently derived a certain pleasure from destructive criticisms wrote of a "pretended prophet of the Camisar" whose English lacked perfection: "If he had the Gift of Tongues, English must necessarily have been one of them. And not having this in any perfection, it is natural to conclude that he has none other; and by consequence, that the Promise of this Gift to him could never have been from God." (N. Spinckes, The Pretenders to Prophecy Re-examined (London, 1710), pp. 17)
The same repulsion and disgust was expressed by Charles Wesley, who inadvertently shared a room with a French Prophet during one of his journeys. The man "gobbled like a turkeycock," and Charles "began exorcising him with 'Thou deaf and dumb devil!' " He rested poorly that night—or as he put it, "nor did I sleep very sound with Satan so near me." (Robert Southey The Life of John Wesley (New York, 1847), I, 240.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 79)
- In 1771, Wesley translated extracts from a French author and published them as The Manners of the Ancient Christians. The French author, in discussing intercession, noted a "sublime kind of prayer" in which the soul "darteth itself towards God in sighs and groans, and thoughts too big for expression." This was the mode of prayer to which Paul had referred in Romans 8:26 and was "one of the most powerful instruments of the divine life." (The Manners of the Antient Christians, trans. John Wesley (Bristol, 1771), p. 48.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 80)
- Wesley later discouraged the more violent physical manifestations which had accompanied his early ministry and tried to maintain the delicate balance between formality and freedom
. Despite their detrimental influence in Methodist societies (particularly among women, he noticed), he did not condemn the French Prophets unheard, and tried to preserve a judicious attitude when meeting their challenge. (Wesley, Journal, II, 220. Wesley heard the prophecies of a French prophetess. She spoke, he recalled, "all as in the person of God, and mostly in Scripture words of the fulfilling of the prophecies, the coming of Christ now at hand, and the spreading of the gospel over all the earth." Although some of his companions were "much affected," "it was in now wise clear" to Wesley himself that she spoke by divine inspiration. Wesley, Journal, II, 137) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 81)
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1772
Emmanuel Swedenborg |
- the Swedish seer Emmanuel Swedenborg (d. 1772), who, though he was
essentially a visionary and clairvoyant, cited the glossolalic texts of Scripture and in "The Speech of Angels" and "The Speech of Angels with Man" in Heaven and its Wonders and Hell (Latin: London, 1758) speaks of "things seen and heard." (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 77)
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1774
Shakers
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- Considered a cult by most other churches because of apostate and heretical doctrines.
- Another group that practiced a form of tongues was the Shakers, an American sect with Quaker roots that flourished in the mid-1700s. Mother Ann Lee, founder of the sect, regarded herself as the female equivalent of Jesus Christ. She claimed to be able to speak in seventy-two languages. The Shakers believed sexual intercourse was sinful, even within marriage. They spoke in tongues while dancing and singing in a trance-like state. (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 234)
- Speaking in tongues was an important part of Shaker worship. With roots in the Quaker and Camisard traditions, the Shakers were the followers of Ann Lee Stanley (d. 1784). They were more formally styled the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Coming. Mother Ann Lee migrated from England to America in 1774, and in 1776 convened her few followers into a community near Watervliet, New York. The central emphasis of Shaker teaching was millennial: It was time for Christ's Second Advent, he would come as a woman, and Mother Ann Lee was that personage. A concomitant interest in the restitution of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the church was the result of careful study of Scriptures. The operation of spiritual gifts was a sign of the Last Days. As the community gathered around Mother Lee prepared itself for the "marriage of the Lamb," the fulness of the Holy Spirit would again be its portion. The first few years in upstate New York were devoted primarily to internal organization and stabilization. Then, in 1779, a revival upset the complacent Christianity of the surrounding main-line Protestant community; and the newly awakened regarded with a fresh interest the maligned religious community at Watervliet. Popular rumor declared that Mother Ann Lee was a witch, and that her followers were traitors to the American revolutionary cause. Some had heard reports of people "exercised with very singular and apparently wild operations" who frequently engaged in drunken orgies. On the other hand, some were attracted by reports that all the gifts of the Holy Spirit were again operating in a Christian community. (Nathan Tiffany, "Testimony of Nathan Tiffany," and Benjamin Whitcher, "Testimony of Benjamin Whitcher," Testimonies Concerning the Character and Ministry of Mother Ann Lee, ed. S. Y. Wells (Albany, N.Y., 1827), pp. 153, 169) While opposition was widespread, there were nonetheless those among the revived who realized that "there must be something of God there, else Satan would not bark so." (Abijah Worster, "Testimony of Abijah Worster," ibid., p. 138.) And so some went to see, and increasing numbers returned convinced. Among the reasons they recounted for their persuasion was the operation in Shaker worship of the gift of tongues. For some, tongues served to "confirm the reality of Christ's second appearing." Others noticed the gifts in the services but found the personal dealings of Mother Ann Lee even more compellingly persuasive. One Jethro Turner recalled the first meeting he attended: "There were several young people present who had already confessed their sins, and had received the power of God, which was manifested in various and marvellous operations, in signs and visions, in speaking with tongues and prophesyings." (Jethro Turner, "Testimony of Jethro Turner," p. 80.) Samuel Johnson, Presbyterian minister in neighboring New Lebanon, had been thoroughly trained in Connecticut Presbyterianism since his boyhood. A graduate of Yale, he participated in the revival of 1779 and became convinced by the gifts of the Holy Spirit he observed during the awakening that the second coming of Christ was imminent. Hearing of the Shakers, he went to observe their ways, "received the precious 'unction of the Holy One,' which is the baptism of the Spirit," and "was confirmed beyond a doubt" of the validity of Shaker practices. Johnson reflected at considerable length on the gift of tongues, the signs, and the visions "by which the spiritual world was brought, as it were, into open view to my spiritual sight." With regard to them, Johnson wrote: "... I well know that a spirit of skepticism prevails almost universally, both among professors and profane, and especially among the learned priesthood. They are taught to believe that there can be no such gifts in this day, nor any divine or supernatural inspiration; because they all ceased with the primitive Church. It is true that when the primitive Church lost the life and spirit of Christ, and fell back into the spirit of the world, these gifts actually died away. But a restoration was promised, which was to take place when the true Church should rise in the spirit and life of Christ: for these gifts are the life of the soul, and a seal to the testimony of the true gospel. (Samuel Johnson, "Testimony of Samuel Johnson," p. 113.) Among the Shakers, the gift of tongues was not restricted to a few. Although converts initially encountered it as a sign of the operation of the Holy Spirit, it soon became part of their normal religious experience. The gift of healing was present on a more limited basis. The gift of tongues was not only claimed and defended by Shakers, but also became a favorite target for the ridicule of their critics, and thus its character must be determined by taking into account the charges of contemporaries as well as the accounts of adherents. In Shakerism Unmasked (1828), William Haskett provides the observations of a skeptic. In a chapter with the mildly ironic title "Quick Meeting, or Shaker High," he preserves, against his own basic intention, a rather impressive description of the worship which the Shakers' own more stylized statements often fail to convey. The "Quick Meetings" were traditionally held just before or after Christmas and provided the setting in which the faithful professed to receive "all the divine gifts given to the apostle on the day of Pentecost, besides numerous others given in the 'gospel of mother.' (Haskett, Shakerism Unmasked (Pittsfield, Mass., 1828), p. 189.) Usually conducted in the evening in the "families," these meetings were ordinarily closed to spectators. Haskett, however, was able to observe one; and his literate description, though no doubt tendentious, paints a vivid picture of the frenzied commotion attending the Shaker experience of the gift of tongues. After a scene of stamping, "
[T] he sisters began to talk in "unknown tongues." Then commenced a scene of awful riot. Now was heard the loud shouts of the brethren, then the soft, but hurried note of the sisters, whose gifts were the apostolic gift of tongues. These gently gestured their language, waved themselves backward and forward like a ship on the billows of a ceased storm, shook their heads, seized their garments, and then violently stamped on the floor. The exercise had lost its violence, and exertion grew faint; yet a continued din of frightful yells rendered the scene a scene of confusion, a scene of blasphemy, an awful scene. After, probably, three quarters of an hour had transpired, the members were called to order, and the meeting adjourned." (Haskett, Shakerism Unmasked (Pittsfield, Mass., 1828), pp. 190-91.) Haskett dismissed the gift of tongues as mere "enthusiasm" and went so far as to suggest that it was indicative of an inherent tendency in the individual and was no more than a spiritualizing of one's native inclination to garrulity. (Haskett, Shakerism Unmasked (Pittsfield, Mass., 1828), p. 194.) His theological and psychological frame of reference was, however, inadequate for such generalizations; for elsewhere, as among the Shakers themselves, were those whose conviction that the "end of all things was at hand" (I Pet. 4:7) led them to pray earnestly for the promised restitution of spiritual gifts to the church. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 81-83)
The Shakers: (Charismatics of the 1700's)
Shakers manifested these Charismatic signs:
- Holy Laughter
- Being Drunk in the spirit
- Being Slain in the spirit
- New revelations
- Prophetic utterances
- Physical immortality
- A type of present day truth not revealed in the first century
- Jerking, spasms, hopping, rolling on the ground
- Dancing in the spirit
- Getting songs while in trances
- Cultural redemption
- Belief they were becoming the manifest sons of God
- Belief in their establishing the Kingdom of God
- Low Biblical emphasis, Anti-intellectual
- High experiential and emotional emphasis
- Equality of women in the ministry
Shakers believe these damnable doctrines:
- Considered a cult by most other churches because of apostate and heretical doctrines.
- Shakers denied the true humanity & deity of Christ.
- Shakers deny eternal damnation of the lost
- Shakers believe in universal salvation
- Shakers deny the atonement of Christ on the cross (as does the WOF movement)
- Shakes deny the Trinity of God and believe God is dual - father and mother
- Click here to review Shakers history and official doctrines and creed
Documentation:
- Historically, the Shakers got their
roots from the Quakers, and were known originally as the Shaking Quakers. The Quakers trace their roots back to a heretical group known as the French Prophets.
- "Shaker dissent
from orthodox beliefs and practices was so extreme as to be heretical: hence the prejudice, alarm, and violent opposition." (The People Called the Shakers, p44, Edward Deming Andrews)
- About the year 1747, some members of the Society of Quakers, who had become subjects of the revival, formed themselves into a society, of which Jane and James Wardley were the lead. Of this little society
Ann Lee and her parents were members. They were all devoutly sincere in the cause of God. James was gifted in public speaking. This infant society practiced no forms, and adopted no creeds, as rules of faith or worship; but gave themselves up to be led and guided entirely by the operations of the Spirit of God. Their meetings were powerful and animated, and were attended with remarkable signs and operations, and with the spirit of prophecy and Divine revelation. Sometimes, after sitting awhile in silent meditation, they were seized with a mighty trembling, under which they would often express the indignation of God against all sin. At other times, they were exercised with singing, shouting, and leaping for joy, at the near prospect of salvation. They were often exercised with great agitation of body and limbs, shaking, running, and walking the floor, with a variety of other operations and signs, swiftly passing and repassing each other, like clouds agitated with a mighty wind. These exercises, so strange in the eyes of the beholders, brought upon them the appellation of Shakers, which has been their most common name of distinction ever since. They continued to increase in light and power, with occasional additions to their number, till about the year 1770, when, by a special manifestation of Divine light, the present testimony of salvation and eternal life was fully revealed to Ann Lee, and by her to the Society, by whom she, from that time, was acknowledged as Mother in Christ, and by them was called Mother Ann. Mother Ann said: "I saw in vision the Lord Jesus in his kingdom and glory. He revealed to me the depth of man's loss, what it was, and the way of redemption therefrom. Then I was able to bear an open testimony against the sin that is the root of all evil; and I felt the power of God flow into my soul like a fountain of living water. From that day I have been able to take up a full cross against all the doleful works of the flesh." About the year 1774, Mother Ann received a revelation, directing her to repair to America; also that the second Christian Church would be established in America; that the Colonies would gain their independence; and that liberty of conscience would be secured to all people, whereby they would be able to worship God without hindrance or molestation. This revelation was communicated to the Society, and was confirmed by numerous signs, visions, and extraordinary manifestations, to many of the members; and permission was given for all those of the Society who were able, and who felt any special impressions on their own minds so to do, to accompany her. (Ch #1, Origin of the Society, Compendium, 1859, F. W. Evans)
- Besides the wonderful
operations of spiritual power upon their bodies, the subjects of this work were greatly exercised in dreams, visions, revelations, and spirit of prophecy. In these gifts of the Spirit they saw and testified that great day of God was at hand, that Christ was about to set up his kingdom on earth, and that this very work would terminate in the full manifestation of the latter day of glory. (Ch #2, Rise, Progress, And Present State Of The Society, Compendium, 1859, F. W. Evans)
- It is pretty generally known that the Shakers serve God by
singing and dancing; but why they practice this mode of worship is not so generally understood. It should be recollected that "God is a Spirit," and can be worshipped only "in spirit and in truth." Without the presence of the Spirit there can be no true worship. And whatever manner the Spirit may dictate, or whatever the form into which the spirit may lead, it is acceptable to Him from whom the Spirit proceeds. (Ch #9, Mode Of Worship, Compendium, 1859, F. W. Evans)
- "On an August day in 1837 a class of young girls, ten to fourteen years old, was meeting for instruction at the Gathering Order in Niskeyuna.
Suddenly some of them began to shake and whirl. In the evening, after they had retired, the senses of three of the children appeared withdrawn from the scenes of time, and absorbed as in a trance. They began to sing, talk about angels, and describe a journey they were making, under spiritual guidance, to heavenly places." (The People Called the Shakers, p152, Edward Deming Andrews)
- "Finally, on a Sabbath's afternoon in the early spring of 1839, the "work" opened when Philemon Stewart, a member of the Church Order, came into the meeting so agitated that he needed the support of two brethren, and delivered the first direct communication from Jesus and Mother Ann, the sacred parentage of the order...It was a common case, Young relates, that those Instruments
who spoke by Inspiration would be suddenly seized by that mysterious power of influence, with a trembling or shaking, and severely disciplined, apparently to compel them to yield and speak what was given by the spirit. Often they would be struck to the floor, where they lay as dead, or struggling in distress, until someone near lifted them up, when they would begin to speak with great clearness and composure. Frequently the seizure was accompanied by a complete loss, for hours or days, of native speech: the subject would be able to speak only in an unknown tongue or 'mongrel English.' to sing but not be able to speak in English, or able to only talk to the elders. The gift came unexpectedly, usually in meeting." (The People Called the Shakers, p153, Edward Deming Andrews)
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Native songs and dances, vision tunes, inspirational messages, spiritual presentations, and various gifts continued with little or no abatement until 1845. The old warring ceremony was revived. In the 'laughing gift' the worshippers held their sides and reeled in their chairs till they became exhausted; and there were laughing songs so contagious that the room rocked with merriment. Spiritual birds brought instruments of music which were placed on the head or shoulders, whereupon all who owned the gift would join the bird chorus. Mysterious signs -'colored sheets, cloths, and girdles - were seen in the sky." (The People Called the Shakers, p171, Edward Deming Andrews)
- "Thompson's following indulged in
various involuntary acts of mortification, chief among these were the 'rolling exercise,' the jerks, and the 'barks.' In the first of these, the stricken subject would roll over and over on the ground like a log, or like a wheel with the body doubled head to feet.. The jerks began in the head, which would be suddenly jolted, or twitched backward and forward, or from side to side - a movement impossible to suppress. The subject would stagger about, McNemar wrote, 'bounce from place to place like a foot-ball, or hop round with head, limbs and trunk twitching and jolting in every direction.' Features became distorted, as if they must inevitably fly asunder...The jerks were often accompanied by the barks, a 'disgracing' operation in which the victim would take 'the position of a canine beast, move about on all fours, growl, snap the teeth, and bark.' (The People Called the Shakers, p138, Edward Deming Andrews)
- "It has been said that the Shakers were the
forerunners of modern spiritualism. Certain instruments had prophesied, in fact, that similar manifestations would break forth in the world... Unique and inexplicable though it was, Shaker spiritualism was nevertheless not a wholly isolated phenomenon. It was in the year 1827, when the Believers had a brief revival, that the angel Moroni revealed to Joseph Smith the sacred plates of Moroni... The years during which "Mother Ann's Work' was most active coincided with the focal periods of both Fourierism and New England transcendentalism" (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p 175)
- In the best part of their worship
every one acts for himself...one will stand with his arms extended, acting over odd postures, which they call signs, another will be dancing, and some times hopping...another will be prostrate on the floor...nor was their public prayer or preaching. (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p28)
- the
power will take their hand, stretch it up, pull the other down, they interpret it - the hand up, is a sign of mercy, the hand down of judgment:" (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p30)
- A Concise Statement Of the Principles of the
Only True Church according to The Gospel of the Present Appearance of Christ, Oct. 9th, 1785. (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p65)
- At
Cane Ridge, near Paris, Elder Stone welcomed them (the Shakers) warmly and invited them to attend his next camp meeting. (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p74)
- "The revivalists had been foretelling the second coming of Christ; but He had already come to lead the Believers (Shakers), 'step by step in a spiritual travel, and separating farther and farther from the course of a corrupt and fallen nature,'
until they should arrive at 'the perfect stature and measure of the sons of God.' (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p76)
- The Shakers used analogies and an analogous
method of Bible interpretation. (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p 98)
- "Perhaps the entrance of
Indian spirits, and later those of Eskimos, Negroes, Chinese, Abyssinians, Hottentots et cetera, into the bodies of the instruments reflected an eagerness, on the part of the believers, to share their light with those primitive peoples..." (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p169)
- "In the best part of their worship every one acts for himself...one will stand with his arms extended, acting over odd postures, which they call signs, another will be dancing, and some times hopping...another will be prostrate on the floor...nor was their public prayer or preaching." (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p 28)
- "...the power will take their hand, stretch it up, pull the other down, they interpret it - the hand up, is a sign of mercy, the hand down of judgment:" (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p 30)
- "A Concise Statement Of the Principles of the Only True Church according to The Gospel of the Present Appearance of Christ, Oct. 9th, 1785. (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p 65)
- "Divine revelations were known as "gifts of God." (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p 142)
- "Quaffing spiritual wine from 'bottles' fetched by instruments, they felt quite merry, and one medium struck up what was known as the 'fool-song,' during the singing of which, 'fool' was gathered, thrown, and caught, and all acted foolishly,' the Shaker scribe wrote of this incident, 'so that old stiff self conceit was pretty well worked up..." (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p 165)
- "It was rumored that each Believer thought himself a Christ, that the Shakers consequently saw no need for Bibles, that they boasted they would never die." (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p 90)
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1785
John Fletcher |
- John Fletcher (d. 1785):
Among the most esteemed of Wesley's colleagues was John Fletcher (d. 1785), Vicar of Madeley in Shropshire. Fletcher believed that his was the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, in which "every faithful servant of the Lord is enabled to prophesy out of the fulness of his heart; and to speak the wonderful works of God." The "extraordinary gifts" of the Spirit bestowed at Pentecost had been "peculiarly necessary" to the apostles and were entirely "distinct" from the Holy Spirit. Fletcher pointed out that in the Bible speaking in tongues had not always accompanied an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, nor had those in whom the gifts of the Spirit were manifested necessarily displayed more holiness than others. If the "edification of the Church" required it, the Holy Spirit, in taking full possession of an individual, might bestow on him an "extraordinary gift." In general, however, the presence of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22, 23) would demonstrate that an individual had become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Fletcher's theology demanded recognition of the need for personal experiences with the Spirit of Pentecost. (John Fletcher, Works.) The kind of piety and devotion which characterized John Fletcher found expression in the diary of his wife Mary. Mrs. Fletcher's attitude was at once desirous and expectant. She prayed for an infilling with the Spirit, "that [her] tongue, being touched with the fire of heavenly love, might be enabled to plead the cause of truth"; she expected that "an outpouring of [God's] Spirit will soon be given, and 'times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord' " (Acts 3:19); she declared: "We must look for the baptism with the Holy Ghost." What one called that baptism was inconsequential: it remained available for all Christians. Mrs. Fletcher's active faith, stimulated by persistent and increasing longing, was characteristic of many of her Methodist contemporaries. "I've tasted," she proclaimed, "but I want the fulness." (Henry Moore, ea., The Life of Mary Fletcher (New York, 1840), pp. 270-324) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 81)
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1792-1834
Edward Irving |
Edward Irving never himself spoke in tongues! Amazing that the father of modern Pentecostalism never spoke in tongues!
- Irvingites, England and America. ("Irving and the Catholic Apostolic Churches," ERE, VII, 422-25; "Pentecostal Churches," EB, XIV, 31; "Tongues, Gift of," B IV, 796; "Tongues, Gift of," IV, 3310-11.)
- The Spirit fell among the London congregation of a prominent Church of Scotland pastor named Edward Irving, beginning with Mary Campbell and James and Margaret MacDonald. Soon after, Irvingites formed the Catholic Apostolic Church, which emphasized the gifts of the Spirit. This revival also gave birth to the Christian Catholic Church and the New Apostolic Church, and there were Irvingites in the traditional denominations. Unfortunately, these groups gradually lost the gifts of the Spirit, degenerated into ritualism, suffered rapid decline, and are almost nonexistent today. Church historian Philip Schaff (1819-1893) wrote of observing speaking in tongues in an Irvingite church in New York: "
Several years ago I witnessed this phenomenon in an Irvingite congregation in New York; the words were broken, ejaculatory, and unintelligible, but uttered in abnormal, startling, impressive sounds, in a state of apparent unconsciousness and rapture, and without any control over the tongue, which was seized as it were by a foreign power. A friend and colleague (Dr. Briggs), who witnessed it in 1879 in the principal Irvingite church in London, received the same impression.' (Schaff, I, 115.)
- Then in the early nineteenth century, Scottish Presbyterian pastor Edward Irving and members of his congregation practiced speaking in tongues and prophesying.
Irvingite prophets often contradicted each other, their prophecies failed to come to pass, and their meetings were characterized by wild excesses. The movement was further discredited when some of their prophets admitted to falsifying prophesies and others even attributed their "giftedness" to evil spirits. This group eventually became the Catholic Apostolic Church, which taught many false doctrines, embracing several Roman Catholic doctrines and creating twelve apostolic offices. (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 234)
- Edward Irving (1792-1834), lifelong friend of Thomas Carlyle and popular Scottish Presbyterian minister to a fashionable London congregation, became the man around whom the new tongues movement centered. His initial involvement was at least partially the result of his interest in prophecy and millenarianism. His premillennialism brought him into contact with the growing number whose convictions were moving in that direction and led him to accept the invitation of Henry Drummond (d. 1860) (Drummond later became an Irvingite leader. He should not be confused with Henry Drummond (d. 1897), associate of D.L. Moody and author of Ascent of Man (1894).) to a conference at Albury Park south of London in 1826. Through his participation in that and later Albury conferences, Irving was stimulated to seek for and expect a restoration of spiritual gifts to the church. (For a summary of the significance of the Albury conferences in the context of premillennial thought, see Ernest R. Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism (Chicago, 1970).) He made this a matter of diligent personal and congregational concern. A popular—though lengthy—speaker, Irving meanwhile extended his influence and saw his Regent's Square church experience significant growth. Early in 1830, reports of the appearance of the gifts of tongues and healing near Glasgow reached London; Irving investigated and was intrigued by what he discovered. Among those who had been yearning for the restoration of the gifts was the Campbell family of Fermicarry in the vicinity of Glasgow in western Scotland. One Sunday the family gathered for prayer in the room of the invalid daughter, Mary. During their devotions, "the Holy Ghost came with mighty power upon the sick woman as she lay in her weakness, and constrained her to speak at great length and with superhuman strength in an unknown tongue, to the astonishment of all who heard, and to her own great edification and enjoyment in God...." (Edward Irving, quoted in Jean C. Root, Edward Irving (Boston, 1912), p. 71.) Irving, in London, immediately began special prayer meetings with the sole object of receiving the gifts, especially the gift of tongues. The magnitude of the yearning was attested by the crowds in attendance at the 6:30 a.m. services. By July, 1831, tongues and interpretations had begun to occur. At first, Irving restrained them, but the illogical position of admitting that they were utterances inspired by the Holy Spirit and yet trying to restrain them became increasingly untenable. His decision to permit tongues in any service isolated his more sedate parishioners, who objected to the frequent disruptions during the Sunday morning sermon. "All a tumult yonder, oh me!" observed Carlyle, who also admitted: "Sorrow and disgust were naturally my own feeling: 'How are the mighty fallen'; my once high Irving come to this, by paltry popularities, and Cockney admirations, puddling such a head!" (Thomas Carlyle, Reminiscences (London, 1932), p. 298. Irving published his explanation of the charismatic phenomenon in a series of articles in Frasers Magazine in 1832.) The situation for Irving did, indeed, quickly assume tragic dimensions.
He himself never spoke in tongues; but his inability to lead those who did cost him significant support and evoked the ridicule of the fashionable classes who had once thronged to hear him and the alienation of those whom at a spiritual distance he actually trusted. Expelled by his Scottish presbytery (Annan) on issues of both Christology and tongues, Irving became a victim of his own spiritual and innovative comprehensiveness. Those who possessed the "gifts" claimed the spiritual authority to reorganize themselves as the Church of the Spirit, separate from the Regent's Park parish. All the more grievous to him, they claimed the authority to direct all aspects of church life and they silenced their leader in the name of the Holy Spirit. He died in 1834, a still young, much worn, and lonely proclaimer of the place of tongues in the context of a premillennial eschatology. His work continued, without due recognition, in the hands of "prophets" and "apostles" under the banner of a sacramental Catholic Apostolic Church, which was Catholic in its use of incense, vestments, and creeds based on Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican rites, and Apostolic in its endorsement of tongues and in the active roles assigned to deacons, elders, prophets, and apostles in its ministries and polity. (See Andrew L. Drummond, Edward Iruing and His Circle (London, 1937).) The notoriety which inevitably accompanied the rapid transformation and relocation of a fashionable London congregation as a "fanatical" sect did not prevent the extension of Irving's influence beyond the confines of Great Britain. In the United States and continental Europe, convinced Irvingites made contacts with small but interested Christian groups of various affiliations. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 85-87)
- Horace Bushnell on Edward Irving: "Reports of speaking in tongues naturally resulted in some attempts at objective discussion of the gift among those who had no firsthand knowledge of it in main-line Protestantism. The widely different conclusions that were reached can be demonstrated by considering what two mid-nineteenth-century Congregationalists argued. Horace Bushnell's "Nature and the Supernatural" included a defense of the credibility of Edward Irving's experiences. Against those who charged that the reported spiritual gifts were "mere hallucinations," he contended that the Scotch families involved were of "unimpeachable character" and that Irving himself was "a man of great calmness" and "well poised in the balance of his understanding." There was nothing in the gift of tongues "that could any how become a temptation to the enthusiast or the pretender." That this gift and that of interpretation should function cooperatively was entirely reasonable: "The gift of tongues seems, at first view, to be an exercise so wide of intelligence, as to create no impression of respect. And for just that reason it has the stronger evidence when it occurs; for, notwithstanding all that is said by the commentators about tongues imparted for the preaching of the gospel, I have found no one of all the reported cases of tongues, in which the tongue was intelligible, either to the speaker or the hearers, except as it was made so by a supernatural interpretation—which accords exactly, also with what is said of tongues in the New Testament. And yet, on second thought, they have all the greater dignity and propriety, for just the reason that they require another gift to make them intelligible.... For so it is with all revelations of the Spirit, they are not only uttered or penned by inspiration, but they want a light of the Spirit in the receiver, to really apprehend their power." (Bushnell, Nature and the Supernatural (New York, 1859), pp. 46-67.) Bushnell recognized, of course, that religious "delusion" existed, but he steadily refused to dismiss the gift of tongues as mere enthusiasm. It meant little to him that educated men argued against the authenticity of such gifts. Their negative approaches signified only "that the human mind, as educated mind, is just now at the point of religious apogee; where it is occupied, or preoccupied by nature, and can not think it rational to suppose that God does any thing longer, which exceeds the causalities of nature." Bushnell probed beyond the superficial in an effort to link speaking in tongues with his theory of language. The gift, he suggested, possibly pointed to the fact that all languages are from "the Eternal Word, in souls; there being' in his intelligent nature as Word, millions doubtless of possible tongues, that are as real to him as the spoken tongues of the world. " Of his New England contemporaries Bushnell remarked: "Nothing is farther off from the Christian expectation of our New England communities, than the gift of tongues." He reported, however, that that gift and the gift of interpretation had appeared at a gathering of New England Christians concerned with their need of sanctification. He also recounted several recent healings in the vicinity. Bushnell remarked that the answers to specific prayers to which Pietists had testified had often been deemed too strange for serious consideration. He knew personally of so many direct and remarkable answers to prayer, however, that he ventured to suggest that they were "even common" among certain classes: "In that humbler stratum of life, where the conventionalities and carnal judgements of the world have less power, there are characters blooming in the holiest type of Christian love and beauty, who talk, and pray, and, as they think, operate apostolically, as if God were all to them that he ever was to the church, in the days of her primitive grace." (Bushnell, pp. 478ff.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 88)
- David Green on Edward Irving: "In contrast to Bushnell, David Green, Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, took a much less positive attitude toward the renewed interest in tongues. Green first of all took issue with the teaching that a gift of tongues would enable the recipient to preach in foreign vernaculars.
Tongues had not been a permanent endowment of the church, but rather a supernatural sign of confirmation of the "divine authority of Christianity," and attempts to preserve or resuscitate this gift had inevitably led to confusion such as that in the church at Corinth." (David Green, "The Gift of Tongues," Bibliotheca Sacra, XXII (January, 1865), 99-126.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 89)
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1792-1875
Charles Grandison Finney |
- Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875): In the United States, this pre-Civil War revival was largely a lay movement. During the first half of the century, the phenomenal spread of Methodism had introduced into American revivalism a strong emphasis on an
experience of sanctification. Wesley's teaching on the availability of a "second" definite work of grace (see I Thess. 5:5-23; Heb. 3:19; 4:1) was modified and popularized through the itinerant ministry and the publications of Walter and Phoebe Palmer. The quest for holiness was not confined to Arminian Methodist ranks. From his position at Oberlin College, Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875), Presbyterian- turned- Congregationalist, with his colleague Asa Mahan, expounded a related version of perfectionist doctrine. (See the forthcoming doctoral thesis, "The Public Life of Finney," by Garth Roselle, University of Minnesota.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 90)
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1800
Plymouth Brethren |
- Plymouth Brethren, England. (Bloesch, 1,115-116.)
- There is no proof that the Plymouth Brethren spoke in tongues.
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1801
Cain Ridge and Kentucky Revival
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- Revivals and Camp Meetings, America. It is reported that physical demonstrations occurred in later American revivals, called the Second Awakening, which began with camp meetings in Kentucky and swept across the American frontier. (Clark, pp. 114-17.)
- In the camp meetings people "
shouted, sobbed, leaped in the air, writhed on the ground, fell like dead men and lay insensible for considerable periods, and engaged in unusual bodily contortions," in addition to manifesting the "holy laugh," the "barks," and the "jerks." (Clark, pp. 116-17.)
- Observers at various American revival meetings reported
sobbing, shrieking, shouting, spasms, falling, rolling, running, dancing, barking, whole congregations breathing in distress and weeping, and hundreds under conviction and on the ground repenting. (William Sweet, The Story of Religion in America (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1950), pp. 133, 227-31.)
- These meetings were conducted by Methodists, Baptists, some Presbyterians, and later the Holiness movement. With such a strong emphasis on repentance and free, demonstrative worship, it is not surprising that many people received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. A great revival swept the University of Georgia in 1800-1801, and the students "shouted and talked in unknown tongues." (Vinson Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), p. 25, quoting E. Merton Coulter, College Life in the Old South (New York, 1928), pp. 194-95.)
- In many cases tongues speaking went unreported because observers did not recognize it or its significance and did not distinguish it from other physical phenomena. One historian said, "Throughout the nineteenth century speaking in unknown tongues occurred occasionally in the revivals and camp meetings that dotted the countryside. Perhaps the phenomenon was considered just another of the many evidences that one had been saved or sanctified." (Synan, p. 25 n. 29.)
- "At
Cane Ridge, near Paris, Elder [Barton W.] Stone welcomed them (the Shakers) warmly and invited them to attend his next camp meeting." (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p74)
- Kentucky Revival (1800 ) and Cane Ridge (1801 ):
In the United States, the first several years of the nineteenth century were years of revival. In the frontier areas, the Second Great Awakening was accompanied by unusual demonstrations of religious fervor in increasingly informal services of worship. Shouting, singing, and exhorting, interspersed with laughing, jerking, and barking "exercises" became characteristic of camp meetings. Some contemporary observers and chroniclers recognized a depth behind these superficial expressions which later historical analyses often fail to convey. Such "supernatural and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit" accompanied the revival in Kentucky that a restitution of the "apostolic faith" was believed to have occurred. (Richard M'Nemar, The Kentucky Reuioal (Cincinnati, 1808), p. 32.) Writing of the Cane Ridge meeting of 1801 a year later, Aeneas McCallister claimed that "the like wonders have not been seen, except the Kentucky Revival last summer, since the Apostle's (sic) days. I suppose the exercises of our congregation this last winter, surpassed anything ever seen or heard of." (Richard M'Nemar, The Kentucky Reuioal (Cincinnati, 1808), p. 32.) Stimulated by the revival spirit, people appropriated for their own experiences "the full and perfect accomplishment" of Joel's prophecy. (Richard M'Nemar, The Kentucky Reuioal (Cincinnati, 1808), p. 68.) In the summer of 1801, a North Carolina Presbyterian congregation held a series of special meetings, anticipating a revival. Despite their prayers and efforts, nothing remarkable occurred. The pastor rose to conclude the scheduled services a sorely disappointed man, and found himself so moved that he was speechless. As he regained his composure, someone in the audience stood up and quoted solemnly: "Stand still and see the salvation of God." Immediately, "a wave of emotion swept over the congregation like an electric shock." The awaited revival had begun. Physical manifestations and speaking in tongues made it "like the day of Pentecost and none was careless or indifferent.'' (Quoted in Guion G. Johnson, "Revival Movements in Ante-Bellum North Carolina," North Carolina Historical Reuiew, X (January, 1933), 30.) Local revivals continued sporadically throughout the early nineteenth century. Methodist circuit riders like Peter Cartwright kept the revival fires burning in the West. During the 1820's and 1830's Charles Grandison Finney brought revivalism to the cities of the East, and "new measures" were devised to help ensure the frequency of spiritual renewals. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 84)
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1801
Cain Ridge
The 1835 account of Cain Ridge by Barton W. Stone
Disciples of Christ |
From: Memorials of Methodism in Virginia: 1772-1829, by William W. Bennett, 1870 p430-435:
We give another and fuller account furnished by Rev. Barton W. Stone, a prominent minister of the Presbyterian Church, and a witness of many of the scenes he describes:
"The bodily agitation's or exercises attending the excitement ill the beginning of this century were
various, and called by various names, as the falling exercise, the jerks, the dancing exercise, the barking . exercise, the laughing and singing exercises, and so on. The falling exercise was very common among all cases, the saints and sinners of every .age and: grade, from the philosopher to the clown. The subjects of this exercise would generally, with a piercing scream, fall like a log on the floor or earth, and appear as dead. Of thousands of similar cases, I will mention one: At a meeting two gay young ladies, sisters, were standing together, attending the exercises and preaching at the same time, when in they both fell with a shriek of distress, and lay for more than an hour apparently in a lifeless state; Their mother, a pious Baptist, was in great distress, fearing they would not survive. At length they began to exhibit signs of life, by crying fervently for mercy, and then relapsed into the same death-like state, with an awful gloom on their countenances after a while the gloom on the face of one was succeeded by a heavenly smile, and she cried out, 'Precious Jesus!' and spoke of the glory of the gospel to the surrounding crowd in language almost super-human and exhorted all to repentance. In a little while after the other sister was similarly exercised. From that time they became remarkably pious members of the Church.
"I have seen very many pious persons fall in the same way, from a sense of the dander of their unconverted children, brothers, or sisters, or: from a sense of the danger of their neighbors in a sinful world. I have heard them agonizing in tears, and strongly crying for mercy to be shown to sinners, speaking like angels all around.
"The jerks cannot be so easily described. Sometimes the subject of the jerks would be affected in some one member of the body, and sometimes in the whole system. When the head alone was affected, it would be jerked backward or forward, or from side to side, so quickly that the features of the face could not be distinguished. When the whole system was affected, I have seen the person stand in one place, and jerk backward and forward in quick succession, the head nearly touching the floor behind and before. All classes, saints and sinners, the strong as well as the weak, were thus affected.. I have inquired of these se thus affected if they could not account for it, but some have told me that those were among the happiest seasons of their lives. I have seen some wicked persons thus affected, and all the time cursing the jerks, while they. were thrown to the earth with violence.
Though so awful to behold, I do not remember that any one of the thousands I have seen thus affected ever sustained any bodily injury. This, was as strange as the exercise itself.
The dancing exercise generally began with the jerks, and was peculiar to professors of religion. The subject, after jerking a while, began to dance, and then the jerks would cease Such dancing was indeed heavenly to the spectators. There was nothing in it like levity, nor calculated to excite levity in the beholders. The smile of heaven shone on the countenance of the subject, and assimilated to angels appeared the whole person. Sometimes the motion was quick, and sometimes slow. Thus they continued to move forward and backward in the same track or alley till nature seemed exhausted, and they would fall prostrate on the floor or earth, unless caught by those standing by. While thus exercised, I have heard their solemn praises and prayers ascend to God.
"The barking exercises, as opposers contemptuously called it, was nothing. but the jerks. A person thus affected, especially in his head, would often make a grunt t or. bark, from the suddenness of the jerk. This name of barking seems to had its origin an old Presbyterian preacher of East Tennessee.: He had gone into the woods for private devotion, and seized with the jerks. Standing ding near a sapling, he caught hold of it to prevent his falling; and, as his head jerked back, he uttered a grunt, or a kind noise similar to a bark, his face being turned upward. .Some wag discovered him in this position, and reported that he had found the old preacher barking up a tree.
"The laughing exercise was frequent, confirmed solely to the religious. It was a loud, hearty laughter, but it excited laughter in none that saw it. The subject appeared rapturously solemn, and his laughter produced solemnity in saints and sinners; it was truly indescribable
The running exercise was nothing more than that persons feeling something of these bodily agitations, through fear, attempted to run away, and thus escape from them, but it commonly happened that they ran not far before they fell, when they became so agitated they could no. proceed any farther.
" I knew a young physician, of a celebrated family, who came some distance to a big meeting to see the strange things he had heard of. He and a young lady had sportively agreed to watch over and take care of each other, if either should fall. At length the physician felt something very uncommon, and started from the congregation to run to the woods. He was discovered running as for life, but did not proceed far until he fell down, and there day until he submitted to the Lord, and afterward became a zealous member of the Church. Such cases were common.
The singing exercise is more unaccountable than anything else I ever saw. The subject, in a very happy state of mind, would sing most melodiously, not from the mouth or nose, but entirely in the breast, the sounds issuing thence. Such noise silenced everything, and attracted the attention of all. It was most heavenly; none could ever tire of hearing it. "Thus have I given," says Hr. Stone, "a brief account of the wonderful things that appeared in the great excitement in the beginning of this century. That there were many eccentricities and much fanaticism in this excitement was acknowledged by its warmest advocates. Indeed, it would have been a wonder if such things had not appeared in the circumstances of that time. Yet the good effects were seen and acknowledged in every neighbourhood and among the different sects. It silenced contention and promoted unity for a while." |
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1817
Gustav von Below |
- Gustav von Below (
1817): In 1817, Gustav von Below, a Pomeranian army officer, experienced a profound and life-directing conversion as a result of independent Bible study. Shortly thereafter, his two brothers had similar experiences, and the three young Lutheran aristocrats opened their estates to any who wished to join them in informal study and worship. The rationalism which pervaded much of the contemporary state church in Prussia and elsewhere in the Germanies had made such gatherings unusual and aroused opposition. Worshippers took increasing part in the services and patterned their practices after those of the early Christians. Soon the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including tongues, appeared. Among these people, tongues were sung rather than spoken: people sang "spiritual songs" (Eph. 5:19) in languages unknown ("fremden Sprachen") to the singers and unrecognized by the hearers. An ecclesiastical commission sent to investigate the strange phenomenon declared it to be of God. After a period of extra-ecclesiastical existence, Gustav von Below and his followers returned to active involvement in a newly awakened state church. (Karl Ecke, Durchbruch des Urchristentums (Nurnberg, n.d.), pp. 13ff.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 84)
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1820
David Spleiss |
- David Spleiss, Switzerland (
1820): During the 1820's, revival came to Buch bei Schaffhausen, and David Spleiss saw remarkable transformations in his Swiss congregation. Children as well as adults were "seized by conviction" and cried out for mercy until they received a personal certainty of forgiveness. The revival continued for several months, until it had penetrated nearly every home in the vicinity. (Karl Ecke, Durchbruch des Urchristentums (Nurnberg, n.d.), pp. 9-12.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 85)
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1827
Johann Lutz |
- In southern Germany, a Roman Catholic priest named Johann Lutz had begun to sense a spiritual need among his parishioners in Karlshuld. He consequently preached with exceptional fervor on New Year's Eve, 1827. A few hours later he was awakened by a crowd of penitents desiring to confess, and a revival had begun. For many weeks prayer meetings were held almost continuously until on Ash Wednesday, in an all-night prayer vigil, people suddenly began to speak under inspiration. "Der Herr wird seinen Geist wieder ausgiessen wie im Anfang" (the Lord will again pour out his spirit as in the beginning") became their confident message. The revival lasted several years and was accompanied by operations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In 1831 Catholic authorities decided to silence Lutz, but after a brief and disappointing experiment with Protestantism (in which he was repelled by the rampant rationalism) Lutz returned to Catholic obedience. While a priest at Oberroth, he made the acquaintance of the Irvingite, W. R. Caird. Formally excommunicated by his Catholic bishop in 1856 because of his involvement with the Irvingites, Lutz permanently transferred his allegiance to the Catholic Apostolic Church. (Andrew L. Drummond, Edward Iruing and His Circle (London, 1937), pp. 233-34, 286ff.; Ecke, op. cit., pp. 28-33.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 87)
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1827
Mormons: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, Joseph Smith
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Go to Mormonism refuted Website
Mormons: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Considered a cult by most other churches because of apostate and heretical doctrines.
- It was in the year 1827 that the
angel Moroni revealed to Joseph Smith the sacred plates of Moroni.
- Mormons officially are charismatic and several of their founding leaders claimed to speak in tongues.
- The Book of Mormon, reads, "And again I speak unto you who deny the revelations of God, and say that they are done away, that there are no revelations, no prophecies, nor gifts, nor healing, nor speaking with tongues, and the interpretation of tongues; Behold I say unto you, he that denieth these things knoweth not the gospel of Christ; yea, he has not read the scriptures; if so, he does not understand them" (Mormon 9:7-8)
- Brigham Young Talks To Indians With Gift Of Tongues
: "On January 21, 1836, Joseph Smith received the revelation which is recorded as section 137 in our Doctrine and Covenants. There were a number of other visions which accompanied that revelation; the History of the Church records this: "I saw Elder Brigham Young standing in a strange land, in the far south and west, in a desert place, upon a rock in the midst of about a dozen men of color, who appeared hostile. He was preaching to them in their own tongue, and the angel of God standing above his head, with a drawn sword in his hand, protecting him, but he did not see it." (DHC 2:381.) Years later, an article written by L. G. Hardy for the "Improvement Era" which documented a suggested fulfillment of the prophecy. Jesse W. Fox Sr. often accompanied Brigham Young during his journeys and assisted in surveying the settlements around the Utah territory. He claimed that on several occasions, he heard Brigham speak to the Indians in their own language. One incident was particularly dramatic, as witnessed by Caleb D. Brinton: "This is to certify that the undersigned, in connection with Jacob Hamblin and Ammon Tenney, were located at Kanab, Utah, as missionaries, when President Brigham Young, in connection with Jesse W. Fox Sr., visited the town. "Black Hawk, an Indian Chief, also some other chiefs were camped near there. Black Hawk and his followers had been on the 'warpath' for some time, and President Young was desirous of meeting him with a view of coming to some understanding as to a peaceful settling of the south part of the state. "Jacob Hamblin, an Indian interpreter, was with the party, and while they were trying to parley with the chiefs, President Young commenced to talk to them in their own tongue, and continued to do so for a period of time estimated by me to be 20 or 30 minutes. This incident was quite a surprise to all of us, as we knew that President Young did not know their language. "At the beginning of this talk, the Indians manifested considerable anger. However, at the conclusion of this parley, the Indians seemed to be appeased; for shortly after this incident, the Black Hawk War, as it was termed, ended. "Witness: L. G. Hardy, Caleb D. Brinton" (See Improvement Era, 37:432)
- The Book of Mormon makes this claim: "Do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety? Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God ... and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me. (Alma 5:45-46.)
- The Mormons' seventh article of faith: "We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues" (James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1972), 2.)
- While London watched the Irvingite spectacle, a new American sect was emerging. The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) consisted of the growing number of those who gave credence to the revelations claimed by Joseph Smith (1805-44). Although the Mormons may be classified as post-Christian (because of their acceptance of the Book of Mormon as a revelation supplementary to the Bible), their reading of Scripture made them advocates of the place of the apostolic gifts in their church. "We believe," Smith wrote, "in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc." ("The Wentworth Letter," March, 1842, reprinted in William Mulder and Russell Mortensen, Among the Mormons: Historic Accounts by Contemporary Observers (Lincoln, Neb., 1973), p. 16. See also Moroni, Chapter 10, book of Mormon. ) The gift of tongues first appeared among Mormons in Pennsylvania and became widespread among them during their stay in Kirkland, Ohio, where they built their first temple. There Brigham Young received the gift several weeks after his baptism while praying with some friends: "The Spirit came on me, and I spoke in tongues, and we thought only of the day of Pentecost." The Saints anxiously awaited the arrival and the verdict of their Prophet, Joseph Smith. When he came, he informed Young that his gift of tongues was "the pure Adamic language. " (Brigham Young, "The History of Brigham Young," The Latter-Day Saints Millennial Star, XXV (11 July 1863), 439.) Shortly thereafter, Smith himself received the gift. (Joseph Smith, History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet (Salt Lake City, 1902),1, 296.) Early Mormons considered the hands the "natural channel through which those who are filled with the Holy Ghost... can communicate it to others" and practiced the laying on of hands for the Holy Ghost mentioned in Acts 8 and 19 (Millennial Star, XVII (28 July 1855), 483-84.) They also laid hands on the sick for healing. (James Talmage, A Study of the Articles of Faith (Salt Lake City, 1949), p. 225. The Millennial Star contains many testimonies of healing, e.g., XVIII (27 September 1856).) A man who lived among the Mormons as an elder for eight years : published an account of his "adventure." Included in it were some critical comments about the Mormon experience of glossolalia. He accused some of the speakers in tongues with stopping at a "gin shop" on their way to meeting and arriving "beastly drunk with whisky." As a typical example of the use of the gift in a service, he recalled that one would jump up, "put forth his arm, stretch out his neck, shut his eyes, and at the top of his voice" begin a series of disjointed utterances. When he had finished, he collapsed, and, at his last "fiz," another arose to interpret. Some who doubted were not content merely to mock, however. One day a skeptic arrived and delivered a memorized Latin "message in tongues" which a fervent Mormon promptly—and wrongly—interpreted. (S. Hawthornwaite, Mr. Hawthornwaite's Adventure Among the Mormons (London, 1857), pp. 86-93; William Kirby, Mormonism Exposed and Refused (Nashville, 1893), pp. 91-92.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 87-88)
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1831
Alexandre Vinet |
- Alexandre Vinet (1831 ): The Erweckungsbewegung (revival) penetrated French-speaking Lausanne as the Reveil, with Prof. Alexandre Vinet (d. 1847) its chief spokesman. While Vinet was much interested in spiritual manifestations, on which he wrote in 1831 and 1842, and in Jansenism, which movement did include the gift of tongues, there is no evidence that Eglise Libre du pays Vaud experienced glossolalia (despite the proximity and memory of the Camisards), but otherwise the movement shared fully in the universal revival. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 85)
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1835
Barton W. Stone
Disciples of Christ |
- Although Stone held these views, neither he, or anyone in the Stone-Campbell movement ever spoke in tongues or claimed to have any of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit.
- Stone, B.W. "Obj. 4 But Paul says, miracles will cease, ... quotes 1 Cor 13:8-10 ... Ans. I ask, When shall these miracles cease? The Apostle answers, "When that which is perfect is come." When that period shall come, there will be no necessity for them. But we have seen, that time has never yet come; nor can we expect it in this state of mortality." (Barton W. Stone, "The Gift of the Holy Spirit" Christian Messenger, 9/8(August 1835), 179. The Perfect I Cor. xiii 8.)
- At
Cane Ridge, near Paris, Elder [Barton W.] Stone welcomed them (the Shakers) warmly and invited them to attend his next camp meeting. (The People Called the Shakers, Edward Deming Andrews, p74)
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1841
The Readers, Lasare |
- Readers (followers of Lasare), 1841-43, Sweden. ("Tongues, Gift of," Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, IV, 3310-11; Schaff, 1,114.)
- Pietism movement that "em
phasized devotional reading of the liturgy, the Bible and Luthers & Arndt's sermons." (Readers, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1979)
- There is no evidence that the Readers spoke in tongues, in fact, with their solid focus on the word of God, it is highly unlikely that they did, since modern Pentecostals sacrifice the Bible at the alter of their feelings!
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1851
Revivals: English, Irish |
- Cornwall, England (1851): At mid-century the waning of the revival moods in the "Atlantic community" was suddenly quickened beyond expectations by a new series of spiritual awakenings, this time first in Cornwall, England (1851), then spreading through the United States, then to Wales, Ireland, and other parts of England beyond Cornwall.
Glossolalia was not reported in this renewal, but fervent prayer, spontaneous shouts of praise, exuberant singing, and joyful testimonies were evidences of transforming spiritual experiences. The Holy Spirit came "with wondrous power," one observer of the Irish awakening reported. Cases of prostrations were common, and some of the physical manifestations were "very violent." Healings often accompanied experiences of salvation. (William Gibson, The Year of Grace (Boston, 1860), pp. 203-04.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 89)
- Revivals, Ireland. ("Tongues, Gift of," Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, IV, 3310-11; Schaff, 1,114.) in the Irish Revivals of 1859
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1859
William Edwin Boardman |
- William Edwin Boardman: 1859: William Edwin Boardman, a Presbyterian, published The Higher Christian Life in 1859. This quickly became a classic expression of the teachings of many who aspired to an experiential understanding of the Wesleyan dictum: "Go on unto perfection." During the second half of the nineteenth century, this pre-Civil War interest in a religious-crisis experience subsequent to conversion was channeled into a structured Holiness movement. Originating at Vineland, New Jersey, in 1867, the National Camp Meeting Association for the Promotion of Holiness was initially a Methodist organization. The association attracted some of that denomination's most illustrious leaders and soon expanded its activities beyond the con fines of camp meetings. Local Holiness revivals and special publications devoted to holiness teaching drew the attention of non-Methodists and gave the movement a broad evangelical base. The Holiness revival renewed emphasis on a normative Christian experience, variously termed entire sanctification, second blessing, perfection, perfect love and baptism with the Holy Spirit, and it popularized the terminology which was subsequently adopted by organized Pentecostalism. (In an unpublished paper, "From 'Christian Perfection' to the 'Baptism of the Holy Ghost'," Donald Dayton (graduate student at the University of Chicago Divinity School) has noted the shift of terminology among advocates of Christian perfection which helped introduce the vocabulary of later Pentecostalism.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 90)
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1864
Salvation Army |
- "the founders of the Salvation Army are reported to have spoken in tongues"
- William and Catherine Booth:
There is no evidence that any of the founders of the Salvation Army movement also experienced speaking in tongues as commonly rumored. From its beginning to the present day, tongues is not manifested in the Salvation Army.
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1870
McGarvey, Pendlton |
McGarvey never spoke in tongues
- "All Christians who mistakenly yearn for a renewal of these spiritual gifts, should note the clear import of these words of the apostle, which show that their presence in the church would be an evidence of immaturity and weakness, rather than of fully developed power and seasoned strength. But if the gifts have passed from the church as transient and ephemeral, shall not that which they have produced abide? Assuredly they shall, until that which is perfect is come; i. c., until the coming of Christ. ... It therefore seems more consistent to understand the apostle as asserting that the three graces shall abide while the earth stands; in contrast with miraculous gifts, which, according to his own prophetic statement, have ceased." (McGarvey, Pendlton, commentary on 1 Corinthians 13:8-13, p132,133)
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1870
David Lipscomb |
Lipscomb never spoke in tongues
- David Lipscomb: "these gifts were to continue in the church to guide and instruct it until the complete will of God was made known" (Lipscomb, commentary on the new testament epistles, p200)
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1870
Roman Catholic
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Go to Roman Catholic examined Website
- At the Vatican Council of 1870 Pope Pius IX first tried to have his claim to infallibility accepted by the Bishops.
- The Roman Catholic church had its official beginning in 606 AD, when the first universal pope came into existence. Many of the "saints" mentioned in this document after the 10th century were Roman Catholics who claimed to speak in tongues.
- The Roman Catholic church falls into the general class of Charismatic because they openly believe they are in direct communication with God by inspiration, continue, even to this day, to make many claims of outright healing.
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1870
Seventh-day Adventists
Ellen G. White, prophet
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Go to Seventh-day Adventists refuted website
- Considered a cult by most other churches because of apostate and heretical doctrines.
- 27 Fundamental beliefs, #17 "The gift of Prophecy: One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G. White. As the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction. They also make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested. Support is found in these Bible passages: Joel 2:28,29: Acts 2:14-21: Hebrews 1:1-3: Revelation 12:17: Revelation 19:10"
- "At this time (20th century) the special endowment of the divine grace and power is not less needful to the church than in the apostolic day. Through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the scenes of the long-continued conflict between good and evil have been opened to the writer of these pages. From time to time I have been permitted to behold the working, in different ages, of the great controversy between Christ ... and satan." ... "As the Spirit of God has opened my mind the great truths of His word, and the scenes of the past and the future, I have been bidden to make known to others that which has thus been revealed" ... "ELLEN G. WHITE (1827-1915) was the author of 55 volumes translated internationally into 100 languages with close to 20,000,000 copies in circulation. She is considered to have been inspired by God. Many of her prophecies about world events and the modern-day condition of man have already been dramatically fulfilled. Her insights into the fields of medicine and nutrition are being progressively substantiated by scientific research. Her words have lifted mankind and have helped bring the truths of Christianity to uncounted millions the world over." (Great Controversy, Authors introduction, White: p. 13, p. 14, Back cover)
- In 1867 White said: "Although I am as dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord in writing my views as I am in receiving them, yet the words I employ in describing what I have seen are my own." (EGW, Selected Messages, 3 bks. (Washington: RHPA, 1958­58­80), bk. l, p. 37)
- In 1876 White said: "In ancient times God spoke to men by the mouth of prophets and apostles. In these days He speaks to them by the Testimonies of His Spirit." (EGW, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, pp. 147­48. Testimony 27; 1876.)
- White, placing herself and her writings on an increasingly elevated level, said in 1882: "If you lessen the confidence of God's people in the testimonies He has sent them, you are rebelling against God as certainly as were Korah, Dathan, and Abiram." (EGW, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 66. Testimony 31; 1882.)
- White's claims of personal inspiration had grown, with the passing of time, until she was able to outdo herself in 1882: "When I went to Colorado I was so burdened for you that, in my weakness, I wrote many pages to be read at your camp meeting. Weak and trembling, I arose at three o'clock in the morning to write you. God was speaking through clay. You might say that this communication was only a letter. Yes, It was a letter, but prompted by the Spirit of God, to bring before your minds things that had been shown me. In these letters which I write, in the testimonies I bear, I am presenting to you that which the Lord has presented to me. I do not write one article in the paper, expressing merely my own ideas. They are what God has opened before me in vision-the precious rays of light shining from the throne." "What voice will you acknowledge as the voice of God? What power has the Lord in reserve to correct your errors and show you your course as it is? ... If you refuse to believe until every shadow of uncertainty and every possibility of doubt is removed, you will never believe. The doubt that demands perfect knowledge will never yield to faith. Faith rests upon evidence, not demonstration. The Lord requires us to obey the voice of duty, when there are other voices all around us urging us to pursue an opposite course. It requires earnest attention from us to distinguish the voice which speaks from God." (EGW, Selected Messages, bk. l, p. 27.)
- "I believe in the Testimonies. Mrs. White's writings are the world's only inspired Bible commentary. They Constitute the most serious challenge to Christian Living That Has Come To The Church Since John's Patmos Revelation..." (E. E. Cleveland, At One Time Assoc. Sec., Ministerial Assoc., Gen. Conf. SDA's. As Quoted In "Facts And Com Meets About The Spirit Of Prophecy", P. 14)
- "Ellen White reinterprets Daniel for our time. And because I fully believe and am convinced that God spoke to and through Ellen White, I accept her writings 100%. I accept Ellen White's reinterpretation, her approval of the Adventist interpretation of the heavenly sanctuary, the Investigative Judgment and 1844, because I accept her as an inspired writer..." - Raymond F. Cottrell, in talk given for Association of Adventist Forums, Loma Linda, CA shortly after the Glacier View meetings. I can provide the cassette tape for documentation if you need it, and the exact date.
Doctrine of Seventh-day Adventists: (much in common with Jehovah's Witnesses)
- Considered a cult by most other churches because of apostate and heretical doctrines.
- Incorrectly restore the abolished Sabbath day and refuse to worship on Sunday, the Lord's day: Col 2:16; 1 Cor 16:1-2; Acts 20:7
- Reject that man has a soul that consciously survives death: Lk 16:19
- Reject eternal punishment and teach annihilation: Mt 25:46
- Forbid eating meat and especially the "Jewish unclean meats": 1 Tim 4:1-4
- Believe in a literal garden paradise upon the earth.
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1875
Dwight Moody, Baptist |
Moody never spoke in tongues!
- a friend of Dwight Moody described some of Moody's followers speaking in tongues. (Brumback, pp. 92-94, quoting Souer [or Sauer], History of the Christian Church, III, 406 and R. Boyd, Trials and Triumphs of Faith (1875), p. 402.) However, it is unclear whether either source definitely meant speaking in tongues as we know it. The Wesof Presbyterian Calvinism adopted by English Puritans in 1648, specifically required that prayer be made in a known tongue. (Justo Gonzalez, A History of Christian Thought (Nashville: Abingdon, 1975), III, 271.)
- R. Boyd, D.D., an intimate friend of Moody, wrote: "When I got to the rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association, I found the meeting "on fire". The young men were speaking with tongues, prophesying. What on earth did it mean? Only that Moody had been addressing them that afternoon!". Since early this century, an unprecedented Holy Ghost revival has been occurring such that today many millions of people world-wide speak in tongues.
- Dwight L. Moody (d. 1899): The vocabulary of the Holiness movement pervaded much of American Evangelicalism in the last three decades of the century. The revivalist Dwight L. Moody (d. 1899) had a remarkable Spirit baptism and often urged upon participants in his Northfield Conferences their need for a similar outpouring. (Torrey, Why God Used D.L. Moody (New York, 1923).) He frequently requested his associate and successor, Reuben A. Torrey, to preach his sermon on the baptism with the Holy Ghost which claimed that spiritual baptism resulted in power for service. (Torrey's views were most fully expressed in his book, The Baptism with the Holy Spirit (Chicago, 1895).) Torrey was a prominent participant in the annual British Keswick Conventions in the Lake District, which had resulted primarily from the efforts of the American Quaker couple R. Pearsall and Hannah Whitall Smith. Leading Keswick speakers like the Dutch-Reformed South African, Andrew Murray, (Andrew Murray, The Full Blessing of Pentecost (London, 1908).) and the German-born British Baptist, Frederick Brotherton Meyer, frequently visited Northfield and contributed an international perspective to American Evangelical holiness teaching. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 91)
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1878
A. R. Fausset |
- A. R. Fausset: yes (1878 and revisers 1921): "A primary fulfilment took place when the Church attained its maturity; then 'tongues ceased,' and 'prophesyings' and 'knowledge,' as _supernatural_ gifts were superseded, as no longer required, when the Scriptures of the New Testament had been collected together."(1 Corinthians: A Commentary, ed R. Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown (1878 ed.), III, p. 322)
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1879
Church of Christ, Scientist; Christian Science; Mary Baker Eddy
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- Considered a cult by most other churches because of apostate and heretical doctrines
. The primary focus of Christian Science, is supernatural healing from God.
- Christian Science is another cult that bases its teaching on truth supposedly given by God in addition to Scripture. The Christian Science Journal stated: "Because it is not a human philosophy but a divine revelation, the divinity-based reason and logic of Christian Science necessarily separates it from all other systems.'' (The Christian Science Journal (July 1975), 362.) It calls Mary Baker Eddy "the revelator of truth for this age." (The Christian Science Journal (July 1975), 361.) (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 80)
- Mrs. Eddy wrote, "I should blush to write of 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures' as I have, were it of human origin, and were I, apart from God, its author. But, as I was only a scribe echoing the harmonies of heaven in divine metaphysics, I cannot be super modest in my estimate of the Christian Science textbook." (Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany (Boston: First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1941), 115.) Although the errors of Christian Science regarding God, Christ, and the Scriptures are well documented in numerous books, Mrs. Eddy was convinced she was used by God to reveal his truth for her day. (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 80)
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1880
Albert Benjamin Simpson, (Christian and Missionary Alliance founder) |
- Albert Benjamin Simpson, (Christian and Missionary Alliance) 1880: Considerable concern with a "deeper," "higher," or "happy" Christian life was also demonstrated outside of the auspices of the Holiness associations. Albert Benjamin Simpson, Presbyterian founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, preached a fourfold Gospel of Christ the Saviour, Healer, Sanctifier, and Coming King. (see A.E. Thompson, A.B. Simpson (New York, 1920), for a brief historical account.) His premillennial and divine healing emphases formed an accepted part of the common holiness message of "Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, and today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8). Simpson was among the most creative of Holiness contributors to the Pentecostal movement in process of separate denominational organization. (The Presbyterian polity of Simpson's Christian and Missionary Alliance has been adopted by the largest Pentecostal body, the Assemblies of God.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 90)
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1881
Jehovah's Witnesses
(Catholics with Arian theology)
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Go to Jehovah's Witnesses Refuted website
Considered a cult by most other churches because of apostate and heretical doctrines.
- 1936 "The Lord has graciously provided for the publication of his message in the form of books, that the people many be informed of the truth....those books do not contain the opinion of any man." (Riches, 1936, p. 384, 385)
- 1937 "The Watchtower is issued twice each month and brings to its readers the current report which the Lord, in the exercise of his loving-kindness, manifests in the unfolding of his prophecies to those who are devoted to him....the Watchtower being the means the Lord is pleased to use to transmit his message of truth to the people, it is a real comfort to the remnant and the other sheep of the Lord to have this given to the regularly twice each month." (1937 Yearbook, p. 82)
- 1938 "Jehovah provides the machinery, the printing presses, and all material for the purpose of preparing his fiery message that must be poured out or scattered upon 'Christendom', and this is done by his 'faithful servant' class." (Watchtower May 1, 1938 p 143)
- 1939 "It should be expected that the Lord would have a means of communicating to his people on the earth, and he has clearly shown that the magazine called The Watchtower is used for that purpose." (1939 Yearbook Of Jehovah's Witnesses, P 85)
- 1940 Court's Question to Franz: "Who subsequently became the Editor of the magazine, the main editor of the 'Watch Tower' magazine?" Franz's Answer: "Jehovah God." (Fred W. Franz on the witness stand under oath, New York King's County Clerks' Court Record, 1940, vol. II, p 795)
- 1942 Christ Jesus has caused the understanding of the prophetic dramas and pictures to be clear and set forth in the Watchtower publications. (Watchtower, Dec. 15, 1942 p. 376)
- 1943 "The Watchtower is a magazine without equal in the earth, and is conceded this rank by all that have been faithful readers thereof during its more than sixty years of publications.... This is not giving any credit to the magazines publishers, but is due to the great author of the Bible with its truths and prophecies, and who now interprets its prophecies. He it is that makes possible the material that is published in the columns of this magazine and who give promise that it shall continue to publish the advancing truths as long as it continues to exist for the service of the interests of his Theocratic Government. (Watchtower, April 15, 1943, p. 127)
- 1959 "The evidence of the holy spirit in the quality and content of the writings published by the Watchtower Society should be the thing that satisfies, that convinces, together with a comparison of these things with the inspired Word of God, the Holy Scriptures." (Watchtower, Oct. 1, 1959, p. 607-608)
Doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses (Catholics with Arian docrines)
- Considered a cult by most other churches because of apostate and heretical doctrines.
- Reject that man has a soul that consciously survives death: Lk 16:19
- Reject eternal punishment and teach annihilation: Mt 25:46
- Believe in a literal garden paradise upon the earth.
- Deny the personality of the Holy Spirit
- Teach that Jesus is a creature and not divine God.
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1885
Charles Price Jones |
- Charles Price Jones 1885: The dramatic inroads of holiness doctrines and the concomitant revival spirit, alas, fostered division as well as cohesion. In the South, a black preacher of holiness, Charles Price Jones, was not only locked out of his church—an attempt was made on his life. (Charles Price Jones, "Autobiographical Sketch," History of Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A., ed. Otho B. Cobbins (New York, 1966), pp. 27-30, 410-11.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 91)
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1890
Church of God (Cleveland) |
- Church of God (Cleveland) 1890: In Tennessee the struggling group which later emerged as the influential Church of God (Cleveland) found their church building demolished one Sunday morning. Their homes were frequently stoned, and they were harassed. (The early struggles of the Church of God are ably recounted in Charles Conn, Like a Mighty Army (Cleveland, Tenn., 1955). The Diary of A.J. Tomlinson, edited by Homer A. Tomlinson, contains personal reminiscences.) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 91)
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1894
Methodist Episcopal Church (South) |
- Methodist Episcopal Church (South) 1894: By 1894, the Methodist Episcopal Church (South) had second thoughts and issued a statement deploring the independent nature and activities of the Holiness Associations. The opposition of the last decade of the century proved decisive: a number of groups emerged as independent Holiness denominations. (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 91)
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1901
Charles Parham
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- The modern Pentecostal movement began on January 1, 1901, in Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas, operated by Charles Parham, a minister with a background in the Holiness movement. The students began to seek the baptism of the Spirit with tongues, and Agnes Ozman was the first student to experience speaking in tongues. She claimed she spoke in several languages immediately. This spawned numerous copy-cat Holy Spirit baptisms among her fellow students and all of them were accompanied with this alleged ability to speak several foreign languages instantly. The revival soon spread to many denominations and around the world. Since then speaking in tongues has been verified and documented many times.
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1923
Johannes Greber
X-Catholic
Jehovah's Witness connection with the NWT
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Johannes Greber did a translation of the New Testament. Greber is one of the most common references Jehovah's Witnesses once used to support "a god" in John 1:1 in their New World Translation, since it is based upon Greber's translation. There is irrefutable proof that Greber was known to the Watchtower as an occult spiritist in 1953, but they did not stop using Greber until 1976. Then in 1983, the Watchtower deceptively claims "new light" and condemns Greber altogether, leading the blind followers to believe they only found out in the 1980's.
Greber was a Catholic priest in Germany in the 1920's. In 1923, he was invited by one of his parishioners to a prayer meeting. Greber describes what he encountered there:
- "Scarcely was the prayer ended when the boy fell over forward with a slump and an exhalation of breath so suddenly that I was startled...After a few seconds he was pushed upright in a series of jerks as though by an invisible hand, and remained sitting with his eyes closed." (Johannes Greber, "Communication with the Spirit World of God--Its Laws and Purpose.)
The spirit later then invited Greber to further investigate this world of spirit communication. Greber responded to this invitation:
- "What captivated me most of all, and I might say, irresistibly, was the clear-cut reasoning and convincing logic of that to which I had listened for the first time in my life. Only the truth could exert so great an influence upon me, an influence from which I had not the power to withdraw, even had I been so inclined. ... In the end, I resolved to follow the directions I had received [from the spirit] , even though it meant the greatest personal sacrifice, the loss of my position and my means of support." (Johannes Greber, "Communication with the Spirit World of God--Its Laws and Purpose.)
Click here to see the whole story! |
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1933
Worldwide Church of God
Herbert W. Armstrong
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- The Worldwide Church of God is another group that teaches salvation by works and new revelation from God beyond Scripture. It was founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, who also began Ambassador College, The Plain Truth magazine, and the radio and television programs "The World Tomorrow." And how did Armstrong get his start?
Through new revelation from Mrs. Armstrong, who had a vision in which an angel laid out the entire system for her. She told her husband and a new cult was born. (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 81)
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1939
Vine's Dictionary |
- Commenting on 1 Cor 13:8-13: Vine's Expository Dictionary (1939) "teleios (5049): signifies having reached its end (telos), finished, complete, perfect. It is used ... of things, complete, perfect, Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 13:10 (referring to the complete revelation of God's will and ways, whether in the completed Scriptures or in the hereafter)"
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1954
Sun Myung Moon
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- Sun Myung Moon, self-styled messiah from Korea,
claims he is a divine messenger from God. Moon says he has the ultimate truth— not from Scripture, not from literature, and not from any person's brain. According to Moon, if his "truth" contradicts the Bible (and it does), then the Bible is wrong. (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 81)
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1950
revival of tongues
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- In the late 1950's a revival of tongues speaking, known as the charismatic or neo-Pentecostal movement, began among non-Pentecostal churches and has spread throughout the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox world. (Don Basham, Face Up with a Miracle (Springdale, Pa.: Whitaker House, 1967); Hamilton, passim; John Sherrill, They Speak with Other Tongues (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964). ) Some charismatics have joined Pentecostal churches, others have formed their own churches, and many have remained in their traditional denominations.
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1960
Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship
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- Tongue speaking blossomed again in the early 1960's. Largely responsible for it was an organization named "Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship." Many of their members were not only famous, they were very "charismatic" to boot. Pat Boone, the famous entertainer, became heavily involved in the movement. His book, "A New Song," describes his experiences in detail.
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1996
David Koresh
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- David Koresh was 98% Seventh-day Adventist. He came from the Seventh-day Adventists and merely took their doctrines to their LOGICAL end. He claimed to have supernatural powers, speak in tongues and to be a prophet.
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1900+ |
For a more detailed examination of the period from 1900 to the present
click here: Neo-Montanism: 19th century heresy: 1900 to present |
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Home page: 20th Century tongues refuted 
