Latter Rain Movement

Postscript

2011-12-14T12:01:00.000-08:00

None of the articles on this website are written by me, John Adams. They are from City at the Cross (www.cityatthecross.com) church and were written by Pastor David Copp.

The Apostolic Reformation

2011-02-04T19:50:00.000-08:00

In the early 1990’s the Lord began to move again releasing a further and new reformation. The Pentecostal Movement was still in existence and was attempting some reformations within itself. The Latter Rain had become ‘scatter rain’ in that it scattered all throughout the Pentecostal movement bringing influence and/or birth to many further moves of the Spirit. The Charismatic Movement, the Shepherding Movement, the Worship & Praise Movement, the Word of Faith Movement, the Spiritual Warfare Movement, the Prophetic Movement, and more

Many if not all of the above movements were rapidly becoming inaccurate in many areas with the subsequent loss of true purpose and power.

The Apostolic Reformation (as it is now called) is a movement of God that is not primarily an ‘outworking’ of the Pentecostal/Latter Rain Movement, but a radical reformation moving to the very core of ‘why’ and ‘how’ present day Church is done. Not only was God moving again, but He was not moving from within the context of the previous movement. The First Reformation, the Radical Reformation, and Holiness Reformation flowed out of Europe, influencing the World. The Pentecostal and Latter Rain Reformation flowed out of North America, influencing the World. This present Apostolic Reformation is not flowing from either Europe of North America, but flows from the so-called Third World to influence the World.

The initial and primary flowing of the Apostolic Reformation was from Elijah Centre in Trinidad, West Indies, a church founded and led by Dr. Noel Woodroffe. Through a series of amazing and miraculous events the Lord appeared to Dr. Noel Woodroffe and called him to be an apostle releasing apostolic principles and truth. From 1992 onward church leaders from over 65 nations have flowed to that tiny ‘Nazareth’ of an island hungry for more reformation of God!

Reformation Focus Points

Every Reformation move of God is triggered by and centers around a specific truth, while actually being and releasing more than that trigger truth. The First Reformation was triggered by ‘the just shall live by faith’. The Radical Reformation was triggered by ‘believers’ baptism’. The Holiness Reformation by ‘entire sanctification’ or ‘second blessing’. The Pentecostal Reformation was triggered by ‘speaking in tongues’. The Latter Rain was triggered by ‘restoration’. In the same way the Apostolic Reformation centers around the ‘restoration, understanding, acceptance and release of apostles to the Church’.

That which the Latter Rain had only sown in seed form was now growing into full maturity and understanding. The Latter Rain, while believing in apostles, primarily focused on the ministry of the prophet releasing understanding and acceptance of that ministry. As with all Reformation moves of God there is much confusion and even error found in those who seek to quickly and inaccurately receive and teach the ‘new truth’.

Characteristics of The Apostle

The Apostle As A Sent One

The word ‘apostle’ is the Greek word ‘apostolos’ and means ‘one sent’

John 4.34

Matthew 10.41

The Apostle As a Wise Master Builder

The Apostle Paul describes the grace received by him, making him an apostle, enabled him to function as a ‘wise master builder’. This phrase is filled with key components of apostolic ministry.

‘grace’

Ephesians 3.1-2

Ephesians 4.11-14

Ephesians 4.7

‘wise’

1 Corinthians 3.5

Matthew 23.34 cross-referenced with Luke 11.49

‘master builder’

Hebrews 8.5

Acts 18.24-26

‘foundation’

Ephesians 2.19-20

1 Corinthians 12.28

The Latter Rain Reformation

2011-02-04T19:49:00.000-08:00

“In the fall of 1947, George Hawtin and Percy Hunt joined Herrick Holt of the North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Church of the Foursquare Gospel in an independent work that Holt had already established…During this time, the students began to gather to study the Word of God, with fasting and praying…on February 12, 1948, God moved into their midst in a strange new manner. Some students were under the power of God on the floor, others were kneeling in adoration and worship before the Lord. The anointing deepened until the awe of God was upon everyone. The Lord spoke to one of the brethren. ‘Go and lay hands upon a certain student and pray for him.’ While he was in doubt and contemplation, one of the sisters who had been under the power of God, went to the brother saying the same words, and naming the identical student he was to pray for. He went in obedience and a revelation was given concerning the student’s life and future ministry. After this a long prophecy was given with minute details concerning the great thing that God was about to do. The pattern for revival and many details concerning it were given.” [1]

“In our journey to the camp meeting we went through the Northern States to the south of Saskatchewan; then up over the muddy roads, ending a trek of 1500 miles to the old Air Force grounds at North Battleford. Upon arriving in the early afternoon of the first day of camp, we found that the afternoon meeting was already in progress. There was little or no activity outside—nearly everyone had entered the meeting hall…The atmosphere was one of expectancy—all eyes were on the speaker. Only one man was upon a small platform which was about 8’ x 12’ and approximately one foot high. This rather singular thing attracted our attention—only one man on the platform and he was standing behind a simple pulpit.”

“In the past conventions and camp meetings, we had always been used to seeing a large platform crowded with preachers. Here was a camp meeting from which was to flow a message and a blessing that would rock the religious world; yet what simplicity. No showmanship, no outstanding song leader, no orchestra or choir, an done man at a time on the platform. The only one exception to this being when someone from the audience stepped up to the platform to say something; then in most cases the one already at the position of the speaker to step aside. Yet the first remained on the platform to resume his charge. This simplicity was the first thing that attracted our attention…The next thing that impressed us was the anointed and authoritative word of prophecy. They prophesied as ones having authority…To say that there were no flaws in the prophecies…would be a mistake. The instruments were beginners and undoubtedly made mistakes, but the manifest sovereignty of God was wonderful.” [2]

“At the invitation of Reg Layzell in Vancouver, British Columbia, George and Ern Hawtin held meetings in Glad Tidings Temple during November 14-18, 1948. Myrtle Beall, pastor of Bethesda Missionary Temple in Detroit, Michigan, traveled 2500 miles by car to attend the meetings, and returned to her church to spark revival there…In February 1949 Dr. Thomas Wyatt of Portland, Oregon, invited the Hawtin party to his church, Wings of Healing Temple, where George Hawtin and Milford Kirkpatrick ministered to ninety preachers from almost every part of North America. One of the pastors attending was Dr. A. Earl Lee of Los Angeles, California, whose church became a center of revival soon after he returned.” [3]

It is from A. Earl Lee’s church that the spark that became City At The Cross was ignited through a man named David Schoch, the founder of what was then called Bethany Chapel on October 4, 1953 on the corner of 6^th & Dawson streets in Long Beach, California

“I was born in Pasadena, California, on April twenty-fourth, 1920. I was raised in what is called a classical Pentecostal family. My mother and father received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Azusa Street. They came out of the German Methodist Church, hungering and seeking after God. At that time God was moving in the city of Los Angeles in what is known as the livery stable on Azusa Street. My father went first with his father-in-law. The Lord baptized them with the Holy Spirit. After that my mother, who was quite opposed at the beginning, was baptized with the Holy Spirit right in our living room. It was quite a delightful thing to hear the story of how the Lord brought my family into the fullness of the Spirit.”

“One of the greatest influences in my life, apart from my father, was a man who had been a circuit-rider preacher in the Holiness Movement. He received the baptism of the Holy Spirit twenty-five years before Azusa Street. He didn't know what he had. When the power of God fell and the message was beginning to be taught, he came to the Azusa Street Mission and there heard what God had given him twenty-five years prior. This man's name was Tom Hezmulhalch. This man laid his hands on my head at the age of seven that I might be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I had just been saved in an old-fashioned tent revival. However, I didn't get the fullness of the baptism and the evidence of speaking in tongues until I was about sixteen. At that time God finished whatever had begun at the time when Brother Tom laid his hands upon us.”

“I had made my surrender to the Lord [1948] and right after that he gave me the privilege of taking over the church in East Pasadena, where I was a lay preacher. The pastor left and I began to pastor it and still worked. As a result of that we had a revival break out. The first six months the Lord gave us an increase, adding twenty-five new converts, the first that had been in the church in three years. After six months, however, the district superintendent of the group that I was associated with--which shall remain anonymous for pertinent reasons which are not edifying--decided that I, being a novice (which was true), should not have a church. He set me aside. In the ultimate I found out that he wanted the church for himself. My wife and I were deeply hurt. It cut to the quick. But I thank the Lord that I had enough of the word in me not to just cast away my confidence totally. We left the church, not knowing what to do or where to go. We were disillusioned with the political maneuverings of men.”

“It was right at that time that we heard that there was something happening over in Los Angeles. I said to my wife, ``Let's go and see.'' It was a Thursday night in 1948. I hurried home from my job, and she and my daughter had everything ready. We just picked up, packed up and went to Immanuel Gospel Temple down on South Flower Street. We walked in at six o'clock, getting the last three seats in the back of the auditorium. There wasn't anybody on the platform, although the auditorium was full of people. There was a holy hush; just an awesome presence of God in that place. Somebody slipped to the piano and began to play, ``Wonderful, Wonderful Jesus.'' I'll never forget the glory of God that came in that place. I'd never heard the song, but it didn't take long to learn it. In about ten minutes, we all stood. As we sang, the glory of God swept over that place. It is just as real and vital to me today as it was the day I walked in and heard it. A tremendous healing came to my wife and me at that moment. For an hour and a half the whole congregation of hundreds stood with hands in the air worshipping.

“That was the first time I ever heard the song of the Lord: spiritual worship and singing unto the Lord. I didn't even know who the pastor was. Shortly after seven-thirty or eight o'clock a group of people came and sat on the platform. Nobody got up; nobody seemed to take the initiative. We began to sing again; well, we hadn't really stopped. We were just singing and worshipping, and they all joined in. I didn't know who was who, but there were three brethren from Canada plus the pastor and his wife. When it seemed as though the Spirit of God indicated there was order of change, a man got up. I learned later his name was Dr. A. Earl Lee, the pastor of the church. He took an offering. For the first time in my life I saw an offering on this wise. He just asked the folks to come and take care of the needs of the visiting brethren by bringing their offering and laying it on the platform. These people filed down and piled what I could literally say to you was a heap of money on the platform. Nobody seemed bothered or worried about gathering it up. They just left it there, and I guess it was a good place to be. It was being sanctified.”

“A man of experience in wisdom in years, I presume he was about forty or forty-five, stood up. He was introduced as Brother George Hawtin from North Battleford in Canada. His brother, Ernie Hawton, also was there, and Brother Milford Kirkpatrick. The three traveled together as a team. That was their first time in Los Angeles. For two hours he spoke from the first epistle to the Corinthians, taking his text from the third chapter, verses one to four: ``because we are divided and because some say, `We are of Paul and Apollos and Cephas,' are we not only children, are we not carnal, do we not walk as men?'' I never had the word laid on me in such a wonderful way, and yet cut so deeply and bring such conviction.”

“After two hours of sitting under comprehensive teaching, the people fell on their faces before the Lord. Nobody left; everybody laid before God, knelt in his presence and sought God for another hour, asking God to forgive us for our carnality, or divisive attitudes and ways. And there was a tremendous healing. This was my first exposure to Latter Rain. These three men, the Hawtins and Brother Kirkpatrick, returned to Los Angeles twice after that first trip. I wasn't closely involved with them, being just a layman in the church. But I heard them. By the way, the term ``Latter Rain'' was not what we who were involved in the revival called ourselves. It was a label put on us by our antagonists and adversaries. They called us Latter Rain because we were preaching Joel 2:25 and 28 and Hosea 6:1-3. Naturally we were talking about rain, about latter rain, but we weren't saying ‘we were latter rain.’ Others categorized us that way. Actually, there was nothing wrong with it. It was a good designation because Jesus is the rain. Our contention is, “Let her rain.''

“Needless to say, we went to church every night from that time on. As soon as I could get home, my wife had supper ready, and she and the girl were ready. We took a pallet, and she slept on the floor. We didn't have nurseries in those days; we never thought about nurseries. For one year we went every night, and God's glory came down, moved upon us and ministered to us. I was still committed to the Lord as to what God wanted us to do. Then in December of 1949, because of the circumstances that we needed to have prayer for, I had just asked Dr. Lee on a Sunday evening if he would just pray for us. “Instead of just praying, he called the brethren of the presbytery together…They laid their hands on us and set us apart as a prophet of God unto the body of Christ. The Lord told me that we wouldn't have to seek for ministry, we wouldn't have to ask for any open door, we wouldn't have to write a letter or we wouldn't need to use the telephone, but God would open the doors for us whereby we would minister. He said we would go from coast to coast and border to border and we would go to the nations of the world. It was then that God had definitely indicated that our prophetic ministry would be on an international basis.”

“I stayed at Immanuel Temple with them until the summer of 1950. Then in a morning service during a convention around July the Fourth, God spoke to us again. It was one of the greatest conventions I think we've ever been involved with. There were two hundred fifty preachers from all across the country: can you just imagine that? Pastor Fred Poole from the Gospel Temple in Philadelphia, the main speaker, was speaking on the last night of the convention. He preached until midnight, but it wasn't because of a long-winded sermon. God was so sovereign that Brother Poole would make a statement, and the people would stand and begin to worship until worship was the predominant thing. Then Brother Poole would make another statement, and people would just get lost in worship again. A prophet from Ireland named Adam McKeowon was in the congregation on the morning that the Lord spoke to us. Pastor Poole was speaking. There were about a thousand people in that morning service. The word of the Lord came to this Irish prophet, who began to call different ones by name and he set them into office. I didn't know this man and he didn't know me, but God knows who you are. All of a sudden the word of the Lord came, and he called my name. He didn't even mispronounce it.

“He said, ``I've called my servant David Schoch to be a prophet unto the nations, and I'm setting him apart and calling him out from secular life.'' And then he prophesied something that was completely a surprise to me. He said that when I was born, my mother had received a phenomenal visitation which had to do with my calling and my ministry. I questioned him, asking whether he had any understanding or any knowledge of what he had prophesied. He said that was all he had received from the Lord. After the prophetic word came, they set us aside and ordained us to the ministry of the Lord.”

“I took this man, Brother McKeowon, home with me at one in the morning. I wakened my mother, who was living in Pasadena, and said, ``I must talk to you.''She said, ``All right.' Then I brought Brother McKeowon in, and I said to her, ``Tell me what happened when I was born. Did God visit you? Was there something that happened to you concerning my birth?'' And my mother started to cry. She said, ``Who told you? I have said nothing to anyone except your father.'' My father had died about three years prior to that. I explained to her how the word of the Lord had come to Brother McKeowon. Then she told me a about a vision that God had given her in relationship to the call of God. I prefer just to leave that between the Lord and myself.”

“After three glorious months in India, I returned home feeling God wanted me to resign from Immanuel Temple and strike out in a field of evangelism. I submitted my resignation without having a meeting to go to. But I remembered the word of the Lord: ``You won't have to ask for a meeting, you won't have to write, you won't have to telephone, you won't have to do anything.'' As soon as I submitted my resignation I got a call from a man up in Watsonville, California, by the name of Fred White. He said, ``I want you to come for a meeting. Are you free?'' I said, ``Yes, I just resigned.'' I went up there and held my first meeting, staying with him six weeks. I had no other meeting, but about the fifth week a phenomena began to develop. I began to get calls. When I was in prayer, the Lord spoke to me and said, ``This would be my indication to you that it will be time for you to move on. When it is time to move on, I will begin to send to you invitations. ''So I said, ``Thank you, Lord. I appreciate that.''

“I would spend sometimes two or three or four weeks, or maybe one week, at a place. God gave us visitations, pouring out his Spirit. We had tremendous blessings, and God gets the glory. It wasn't through any ability or talents of my own; it was God using us in obedience to his word and to the call. Just about a week before we were to close out a meeting, I'd begin to get calls. My problem wasn't where to go next in the sense of looking for an open door. My problem was which door that was open should I take. Which would be the will of the Lord? My wife and I and our little girl traveled for a year and a half that way, my wife teaching our daughter as we went. We never lacked one single opportunity for a meeting.”

“In fact when I came to Long Beach on October fourth, 1953, I came only to start a revival in an empty Lutheran Church. There were six people that asked me and wanted me to come and pastor, and I said, “Well, let's see what we'll do. We'll start the work, and we'll see what God will do.''…He said to us he would make us a fountain of many tributaries; that out of it would flow many, many streams of life. They would come and stay with us for a season, and then, he said, ``Don't hold them, but release them. Let them go.'' This is what we've tried to do, in order that they would find the level of God's will for their lives, and in so doing they would be able to serve God according to his call.” [4]

“October 4, 1953 Sunday morning finally came. The Lord impressed Pastor Schoch to not write any letters, advertise, or invite anyone to church. He would bring those of His own choosing. At 10.00 a.m. they gathered for prayer. Service was scheduled to begin at 11.00 a.m. While praying, Pastor Schoch could hear people coming in and sitting down, but he couldn’t bring himself to look up and see what was going up. After praying for an hour, Pastor Schoch got up to begin the service and much to his delight, fifty people were sitting in the congregation! They had three services that first Sunday with 125 people in the first Sunday night service. Two weeks after that first service, a Sunday School program began with 90 people in attendance. The Holy Spirit broke out upon the congregation, a revival had begun, and it lasted for six weeks. During that time 25 people gave their hearts to the Lord, 25 backsliders were restored, and 25 people were filled with the Holy Spirit.” [5]

Reformation Focus Points

It is important to remember that the Latter Rain was birthed out of a desire for the Pentecostal movement to continue in accuracy. “Discouraged by waning spiritual fervor and the relentless institutionalization and professionalism of North American Pentecostalism, they viewed their early history as merely having set the stage for a greater event and opted once again to believe that in their day, the restoration of apostolic power would be realized. They discovered—as their forebears had—that emphasis on the latter rain and restoration involved implicit and explicit indictment of their fellow believers.” [6]

“This visitation of God is the fulfillment of Hosea 6.3…it is Jesus appearing to His Body.” [7] Hosea 6.1-3: “Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him. so let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.”

Therefore while emphasizing the Pentecostal doctrines birthed in Azusa Street, the Latter Rain reformation pushed away from what was considered inaccurate in it, and into that which was still not restored

Restoration

“The Church lost everything spiritual and God has for years been fulfilling prophecy and restoring these spiritual truths, virtues and powers that were done away. These Scriptures show the promise of restoration: ‘And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. Joel 2.25’…God began to restore in Luther’s day with the foundation of ‘the just shall live by faith.’

“Notice that Luther, like Ezra and Nehemiah, did not make a new foundation, but merely cleared away the garbage from the one that was already laid. God has been restoring each truth, step by step, as the church can absorb it…With each step of restoration comes opposition and usually from the ones who were used of God to restore the last step. All through church history this has been true. The persecuted of the past now become the persecutors of the present…Each time there has been a restoration, it was Jesus appearing. Some forty-five years ago (1907) He appeared in the great revelation and experience of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. At that time, the message of the Body coming together was proclaimed. Men who are now fighting for their organizations were outspoken in preaching that this new visitation of God must never be organized. ‘How the mighty have fallen!’” [8]

Unity of the Body

“What is the primary message of the Latter Rain and what is the immediate objective? Its greatest message is ‘That they may be one as We are…that the world may believe.’ The world is actually to see the Body one, not only in spirit but in reality. Today only the eye of faith can see it. Some day the natural eye will behold it when the delivering company have reaped the reward of faith. God always some who see His purpose completed by faith before others can see. The primary message is the Body coming together as one, physically and spiritually. Let all who will, laugh or scoff; but it shall be, nevertheless, because Jesus prayed for it.” [9]

“Naturally, this message caused tremendous opposition. There are thousands of jobs and positions at stake—religious political systems are to tumble. This latest move of the Lord’s is to free God’s people from building treasure cities for others. This is raising the wrath of the Pharaohs.”

“The ascension ministries are now coming to the front. Read what they are for and how long they function. They are to function until we come to the unity of the faith. They are to have as their supreme objective and ministry ‘bringing unity among the members of the Body.’…The denominational walls and the doctrinal walls must come down. One cannot say to the other, ‘We agree, but you must join our denomination or accept our doctrine…My brother and sister, this visitation could never be taken into a denomination. Its very message would of necessity tear the walls down. You may take in some of the Pentecostal blessings which were lost and received (this is all that many have taken in), and yet you could never take the message in. It contains the same dynamite that brought down the walls of Jericho. You cannot preach ‘The Body is one’ without breaking down walls of division. No wonder there is so much opposition.” [10]

Laying On Of Hands

“The laying on of hands is a fundamental doctrine of the Church, being one of the foundational doctrines outlined in Hebrews 6…God is now moving to restore the third of the doctrines outlined in Hebrews—the doctrine of laying on of hands. It is just the beginning—the fully glory, and the power of it, is yet to be revealed. The hangers-on, the blessing-seekers, the scoffers, the testers, the unbelievers, are being shaken so that only the true will remain. This visitation from God is no different than the others. The hue and cry is coming from the formalists, the same protests and even the same words are used as were used against every other visitation—the only difference being that the accused of the past are now the accusers!” [11]

“The laying on of hands is not to build the pride of individuals or to satisfy their ambitions, but rather it was the receiving of our equipment to carry out a calling…All ministries did not take in the laying on of hands—only those whom the Spirit indicated had such a ministry. It was generally recognized as the ministry of prophets and apostles….The ministry of laying on of hands and prophecy were the major ministries used to impart gifts and to impart the Holy Ghost. We realized that through this great ministry of ‘laying on of hands’, God was going to bring His Body together. All who had hands laid upon them were no longer independent, but there was a great dependence on one another.” [12]

Biblical Praise

“Jesus told the disciples to wait. Notice two things about their waiting. First they obeyed. Second, notice how they waited…The 53^rd verse of Luke 24 now tells us how they waited. ‘And were continually praising and blessing God’ They waited together, praising and blessing God. When we know the Scripture this is easy to understand. Psalm 119.171 says, ‘My lips shall utter praise, when Thou hast taught me Thy statutes.’ Notice, when? You see Jesus (God) opened their understanding or taught them His statutes. We might ask the question, ‘Why did they praise God?’ We give two Scriptures of the many available on this subject of waiting. Psalms 65.1 – ‘Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion’. Praise is waiting; also, Psalm 22.3, ‘But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.’ Jesus lives in our praises!”

“The early church had unity first in spirit, they were all worshipping Jesus. What greater unity can a church have than all praising and blessing Jesus? Can you with the same breath praise Jesus and murder your brother? We all know that we cannot. Do you want what the early church had? Then follow its steps to perfection…Notice they were all one—not just a few in the front benches, but all every last one of the 120 were praising and blessing God…Before the glory appeared, and the city was stirred, they came to one place, losing all ambitions and personal feelings, to just worship Jesus.”

“Jeremiah 33.11 tells us that this same condition will be restored as the end time appears. A restoration of praise, a restoration of joy, and a restoration of the sacrifice of praise, preparing the way for a restoration of the power that followed the Day of Pentecost…In Hebrews we are told to offer the sacrifice of praise continually—the fruit of our lips. Note it is from the lips or mouth…120 brethren gathered together in unity…All heaven was aglow. The thing the heavens were waiting to see on the earth was before them. Here was the fulfillment of Psalm 133, the unity was (as is only possible) around Jesus, worshipping Him. God speaks? No—He does more than that—HE COMMANDS A BLESSING. He even goes further—He comes Himself as the God of fire and sits on each member in unity. They each one become the habitation of the God of fire…All because…they saw only Jesus and worshipped Him. Are you ready for the same again? Where do you stand on Biblical praise. Which will you have—fire or your own way?” [13]

Dick Iverson, former pastor of Bible Temple and founder of Ministers Fellowship International writes about the impact of Latter Rain worship seen the early 1960’s in his book The Journey, A Life Time of Prophetic Moments saying, “The ‘latter rain’ movement, as I have emphasized, was characterized by the Holy Spirit’s emphasis on prophecy and the laying on of hands, as well as the ‘sacrifice of praise’ form of worship…Just the mere rumor that our church might be a part of it was enough to bar our participation in the Pentecostal ministers’ association. In the beginning, when Edie [Iverson’s wife] had sent letters about this movement, I had been opened to it. Over time, however, things had changed and I had come to see more of the charlatans than the good. That’s why what followed was all the more amazing and I can only praise the Lord for it and for my wife who never forgot what she’d seen and heard and didn’t fail to preserver in her persuasion

“As we pursued our pilgrimage to various churches, Edie was eager that we visit two other churches in particular pastored by two men she had seen minister in Canada—David Schoch and Reg Layzell…My first encounter with David Schoch was, in fact, one of the those key prophetic moments in my life—in more ways than one. Brother Schoch was not only a pastor, he was a prophet. I still remember being with my family in Long Beach, California for the first time. Bethany Chapel [City At The Cross] was an older, traditional building which seated about four hundred. The auditorium was packed and, as the worship service began, the presence of the Lord was powerful. Being raised in a Pentecostal church, I had heard praise before, but this was different. They worshipped the Lord the Lord by lifting their voices and singing praises to Him, spontaneously, both in known and unknown languages.”

“At first I thought it was tremendous, but only for a short while. Soon I found myself becoming agitated. In fact, I wished that they would stop. I had never experienced prolonged praise before, and it just went on and on. After a time, the spontaneous season of worship died down, and several prophecies were given. Then a great volume of praise began again. I remember shifting from one foot to another, waiting for it to finish, eventually realizing that maybe it wasn’t going to end for a while. In my irritation, I began to judge the church and criticize its unusual worship.”

“At that point the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, ‘What’s wrong with what they’re doing?’ I replied, ‘Nothing is wrong. They’re lifting their hands, singing, and worshiping the Lord.’ Then the Spirit said to me, ‘Why don’t you do it too?’ So I lifted my hands and joined in singing songs to the Lord. For the first time I really worshiped Him. The ‘fountains of the deep’ in my spirit broke loose. The heavens opened, and I found myself in the presence of the Lord in a way I had not experienced before.” [14]

Body Ministry

“Many hours were spent around this subject both in teaching and in actual operation. It was unique and new to most of those present and therefore very attractive. The central Scripture for this subject was 1 Corinthians 14.26. this Scripture was interpreted to mean that when the church came together, each member should be ready to contribute something to the meeting. They were to contribute something that would edify the other members present. In this way they were to serve one another.”

“Each member should always be ready to minister both to the unsaved and to the church. The position was taken at the camp that all should come to the meeting with something ready to contribute. This was repeated, over and over again and stated that the day of the ‘one-man’ ministry was over. Each member was now expected to have light and revelation flowing to edify the whole body.”

“Some would do this through a prophecy or through a tongue followed by an interpretation. Others would speak by revelation; there would also be those who would minister by knowledge…There would be the ones who would just read the Scriptures or a psalm which fitted into the tone of the meeting. A song of songs would be sung which had been received by revelation such as a ballad or an ode. Still others would sing a known song that was very appropriate. All this without a given signal from the leader, but as they were led of the Lord.”

World Vision

“The vision of the first camp meeting was a world vision NOW! Calls were prophesied, money was raised, some were sent…The praise and worship of Jesus was the order of the services. The Word was taught with authority. Over and over again it was emphasized that the old organizational leadership was over—now the Holy Ghost would rule. Through the laying on of hands and prophecy each member of the Body of Christ was to receive the gifts of the Spirit. We understood that God was recruiting his last day army. Prayer and fasting were the order of the day. Saints and ministers met on common ground to seek the Lord. These were days of rejoicing and God-consciousness. The spirit of prophecy was everywhere in evidence as was the spirit of revelation—making God’s Word to live in the midst of the people. The field of labor truly was the World. From the very beginning the World Vision burned. We had visions of God’s army going forth, directed by the Spirit and fully equipped for battle. For the purpose of reaching the world, money flowed freely and offerings reached up into thousands of dollars were received easily and frequently. The people had a vision and a mind to fulfill it. Praise the Lord…There are many people who KNOW that God visited His people…When a train leaves a track the very next job is to get it back on again. Every revival God has sent up to the present hour has at some place gone off the track. I do not know one single one which has not done this. And worse still, I do not know of a single revival movement which ever got back on again. Each time a revival goes off track God has had to start another one to begin where the last one went off. What a tragedy! Yet this is all too true. These articles are being written with the hope that we will stay on track of God’s choosing which He gave us in the beginning.” [15]

A Call To Remembrance – Reg Layzell, October 1958

“Eleven years ago a real stir gripped the churches in the land. Some churches were stirred with apprehension—a nervousness gripped them. Other churches were stirred with anticipation—expectancy gripped them. Both groups were affected by the same thing. A revival had broken out, God was on the move, another step in restoration was breaking upon us. As was the case in the day of Pentecost and with every succeeding revival up to the present time, the groups formed two camps. One camp heard the glorious things of God, the other said that are filled with new wine—they meant they are drunk.” One group saw an answer to their much prayer and fasting. The other group saw a threat to their carefully built treasure cities. One group almost recklessly threw open their doors and their arms to receive the rush of the Spirit of God. The other ground sounded an alarm and a call to close the gates and tighten their grip on their possessions. One group followed the experience of all revivals greatly blessed of God Sings and wonders were done by the Holy Ghost and in some cases error and wild fire crept in. The other group so shut themselves in that not even the Holy Ghost could penetrate their defenses.”

“Now the first group, still blessed by God is going forward and accomplishing the purpose of God. They have stopped and taken inventory of their ways and spiritual possessions, they have taken a look at what God challenged them with in the beginning and are returning to the great challenge of the revival and the first camp meeting. The other group is glorying in their earthly possessions and both are miles apart in spiritual actions. Time alone will tell who has followed God in His way. God help us to see God’s vision for this hour and follow on. The challenge of the Spirit has not changed. God moved in this revival for a purpose; He will not veer from it. He will perform what He purposed to do. He will have a people who will follow and fulfill the last day vision. “The challenge of God in the beginning of this revival (and still is) the same as in every revival. First, a fresh call to worship the Lord Jesus. The first and greatest commandment of all to be carried out is worshipping Him with all our four faculties. These four are: the heart, the soul, the mind, and our strength. The heart (our deep inner feelings), the soul (our emotional nature), the mind (the reasoning part of us and the faculty where faith must start), and our strength (no quiet, sedate, half-hearted effort here, but the suggestion is that we tire ourselves out worshipping Him). A new experience in God was introduced by the Spirit as He restored that wholesale, whole-hearted worship to the Lord. This wholesale praise brought a new experience in God. The sacrifice of praise lifted the church to new heights in God.”

“No longer did our feelings rule us. No longer did we praise God only when things went good and we felt good. The church began to catch’s David’s vision of the goodness and mercy of God. The church began to realize that faith was above our feeling. God had divorced faith from our feelings and now at last we could have a steadfast faith irrespective of our feelings. The church began to realize that God was raising up David’s army and like David, they were called to be men after God’s own heart. If you are hungry and thirsty you will hear the joyful sound of the manna and rain and plunge in. He is coming again as the rain upon the mown grass.”

[1] Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988), p. 532.

[2] Reg Layzell, The Pastor’s Pen (Vancouver, British Columbia: Mission Publishing, 1965), p. 8-9.

[3] Dictionary, p. 533.

[4] From the personal recollection of David Schoch.

[5] Preserving the Past, Forging the Future, pp. 4-5.

[6] Edith L. Blumhofer. Restoring the Faith (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993), p. 202.

[7] Reg Layzell, The Pastor’s Pen, p. 69.

[8] Layzell, p. 74-75 (1952).

[9] Layzell, p. 77 (1952).

[10] Layzell, p. 81 (1952).

[11] Layzell, p. 60-61 (1952).

[12] Layzell, p. 66-67 (1951).

[13] Layzell, p. 156-159 (1953).

[14] Dick Iverson. The Journey, A Lifetime of Prophetic Moments (Portland, OR: Bible Temple Publishing, 1995), pp. 104-106.

[15] Layzell, p. 2-3 (1954).

The Pentecostal Reformation (1901 - 1948)

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“Late on the first Friday night in January 1901 Agnes Ozman spoke in tongues during prayer at an out-of-the-way residence in the south side of Topeka. A burst of public curiosity quickly subsided, and she faded from the scene. Five years later on a foggy spring evening in Los Angeles, a Los Angeles Times reporter visited a nondescript mission on Azusa Street and wrote about the howling, fanatical rites and wild theories that characterized devotees of a new sect. These events at the turn of the century marked the unlikely beginnings of public awareness of Pentecostalism, a religious movement that relentlessly extended its influence until in the 1990’s its progress had become a central theme in twentieth-century Christianity. Pentecostalism not only spawned new denominations, bit also interacted with virtually every existing Christian form, often influencing both the worship and message of the church around the world.” [1]

Agnes Ozman spoke in tongues in a Topeka Bible School after students had been exhorted to make a study of Biblical baptism in the Spirit by Charles Parham, leader of the Bible School. The release of ‘speaking in tongues’ was preached for about 4 or 5 years without becoming a global reformation move through Parham’s Apostolic Faith Movement. In 1905 Parham’s Bible School was moved to Houston, Texas and from there the seeds of the Pentecostal Reformation was sown.

One of the students of Parham’s Bible School in late 1905 was a man named William Seymour who would be the primary catalyst of the Pentecostal Reformation in Los Angeles, on Azusa Street in early 1906. “William Seymour was born in Centerville, Louisiana, on May 2, 1870 to former slaves Simon and Phillis Seymour. Raised as a Baptist, Seymour was given to dreams and visions as a young man…while in Indianapolis, he joined a local black congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church. From 1900 to 1902, Seymour lived in Cincinatti, Ohio, where he came in contact with the Holiness Movement…accepting the Holiness emphasis on entire sanctification, Seymour joined the Church of God Reformation movement…” [2]

Sadly, the racist roots of the South and Parham himself, mandated that Seymour sit outside the hall with a door propped open in order to hear the message of Pentecost.

Although he himself had not yet experienced the sign of ‘speaking in tongues’, Seymour received and believed the message and in early 1906 moved to Los Angeles to help pastor a Holiness Church. “The Church, which was connected with the Southern California Holiness Association, was founded and pastored by Julia W. Hutchins…In his first sermon in Los Angeles, Seymour preached on Acts 2.4, and to the dismay of Pastor Hutchins, he announced the necessity of speaking in other tongues as evidence of the Pentecostal experience. Because of opposition from the Holiness Association, Hutchins locked the church door, and Seymour was forced to find refuge in the home of Richard Asberry on Bonnie Bray Avenue.” [3]

“Seymour felt compelled to continue his work at all costs and began preaching in the home of Edward Lee and his wife, who were black adherents of one of the Holiness missions in Los Angeles…While Seymour was staying with the Lees, the group that had been turned out…by Mrs. Hutchins began once again to meet at the Asberry home at 214 N. Bonnie Brae Street…Seymour also attended the meetings on Bonnie Brae Street and at one of these meetings, he laid his hands upon Lee that he might receive the Spirit. Although Lee did not speak in tongues at this time, he was slain in the Spirit under the power of God. This caused considerable alarm to his wife, who thought he had fallen into a trance. She called an immediate end to the proceedings. In late March or early April, Lucy Farrow and J. A. Warren came from Houston in response to Seymour’s requests of Parham for help in Los Angeles. Lucy Farrow had already been quite successful in leading other people into the experience of tongues with the laying on of hands.” [4]

“On Monday, April 9, Edward Lee asked Lucy Farrow to lay hands on him for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. She fulfilled this request, and Lee burst forth in tongues. These things took place about an hour and a half before the meeting was to commence at the Asberry home.”

“They walked to the meeting, where Seymour was in charge. After several had prayed and a few had given testimonies, Seymour began preaching from the second chapter of Acts and began recounting what had happened earlier that evening. As Lee began to give his testimony, he lifted his hands in the air and suddenly began speaking in tongues. The others at the evening meeting fell down to their knees. Seated at the piano, Jennie Evans Moore also fell to her knees. An eight year old black boy was the first be baptized in the Spirit and speak in tongues, followed by Jennie Moor and five others. Carl Brumback described the event: …“As though hit by a bolt of lightening, the entire company was knocked down from their chairs to the floor. Seven began to speak in divers kinds of tongues and to magnify God.” [5]

Reformation Focus Points

The central focus of the Pentecostal Reformation was the reception of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues as described in Acts 2. While there were times in Church history when people did speak with ‘other tongues’, the Pentecostal Reformation was the first time it was uniformly and theologically connected to Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2.1-4: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.”

Acts 10.45-47: “All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?”

Acts 19.1-6: “It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.”

While the primary activating focus of the Pentecostal Reformation was the baptism in the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, the larger focus centered on a restoration of the work and gifts of the Holy in the Church. Until the Pentecostal Reformation, the Gifts of the Spirit were considered to have died out with the first century Church and the finishing of the Bible.

The Pentecostals believed that all of the gifts of the Spirit were for the present day Church.

1 Corinthians 12.1-1: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

Persecutions

Just as in the Holiness Reformation the persecutions that the Pentecostal Reformers faced were not physical but social, emotional, and relational. Great persecution came from the Reformed, Methodist, Baptist and Holiness churches. Many of the persecutions themselves were racist in nature and saw the Pentecostal experience as being simply ‘African emotionalism’ and ‘voodoo’.

“In his ‘Holiness, The False and the True, H.A. Ironside in 1912 denounced both the holiness and Pentecostal movements as ‘disgusting…delusions, and insanities. Characterizing Pentecostal meetings as ‘pandemoniums where exhibitions worthy of a madhouse or a collection of howling dervishes are held night after night.” [6]

Even until today, despite the amazing growth and adjustments of error and extremes from within the Pentecostal Movement itself, there are strong critics of it and those who refuse to walk in its truth. John MacArthur in his book on the Holy Spirit boldly declares that anyone who claims to ‘speak in tongues’ does so because of one of four possibilities: 1) They are delusional, 2) They are faking, 3) They are ill, or 4) They are demon-possessed

In spite of those attacks we press on…we retain the treasure of our heritage!

[1] Edith Blumhoffer. Restoring the Faith (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993), p. 1.

[2] Dictionary of the History of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements [Stanley Burgess and Gary B. McGee, ed.] (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1988), p. 780.

[3] Ibid., p. 780

[4] Richard M. Riss. A Survey of Twentieth-Century Revival Movements in North America (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988), p. 52.

[5] Ibid., p. 53.

[6] Vinson Synan. The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement In The United States, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1971), p. 144.

The Holiness Reformation (1735 - 1905)

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The Holiness Movement/Reformation was initiated by the work of John and Charles Wesley in the mid-1700’s, beginning in England and moving into the United States through into the very early 1900’s. There were two phases of this movement, the first connected directly to John Wesley, producing the Methodist Church, and the second a movement away from that Church into Holiness Church’s.

Wesley was an Anglican Priest who became dissatisfied with the level of pursuit of God and holiness within his own life and the Church. The Anglican Church was the English version of the Counter-Reformation that occurred within the Catholic Church as a result of the Reformation. “After receiving an A.B. and A.M. degrees from Oxford, young Wesley took Anglican orders in 1728 at the insistence of his father. Then as a twenty-five year old youth, he began an intensive program of religious reading in order to define his own convictions.” [1]

Wesley traveled to Georgia to preach among the Indians in 1735 and returned having greatly failed in converting either them or himself! In his journal he exclaimed, “I went to America to convert Indians; but, O! who shall convert me” [2] However, it was on this trip that Wesley encountered some Brethren from the Moravian Church, a remnant of the Anabaptist Church in Moravia. In 1738, Wesley joined the Moravian community for a season and was greatly impacted by what he saw in them that they were ‘saved from inward as well as outward.”

The Church of the day was comprised of the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, The Reformed (Calvin) Church, the Lutheran Church, the Baptist Church, and remnants of the Anabaptist Church. Most of the Churches had institutionalized since the Reformation, and the great persecution of the Anabaptists had marginalized them.

Wesley’s methods of ‘church’ were followed and the Methodist Church was born and transplanted to America in 1766, and formally organized in 1784. “We believe that God’s design in raising up preachers called Methodists in America is to reform the continent and spread Scriptural holiness over these lands.” [3]

In the mid to late 1800’s, there arose a movement within the Methodist Churches that called for a return to the holiness message of Wesley that when opposed by the official Methodist Church, sprung up in dozens of ‘Holiness’ denominations’. “Defenders of holiness became less loyal to the Church [organized Methodist Church], and defenders of holiness became less loyal to the doctrine of holiness…During the last decade of the century [1890’s], the Methodist Church formed the largest body of Protestants in the nation…Of the four million…those who left the Methodist churches to form the holiness denominations numbered no more than 100,000.” [4] The Churches of God, the Nazarene, Christian Missionary Alliance, and others were all birthed as Holiness Churches out of the Methodist Church

Reformation Focus Points

‘Holiness’ was a term used to describe a radical encounter with the God that was subsequent to and distinct from conversion and water baptism. It was called ‘second blessing’, ‘sanctification’, ‘perfection’, and later ‘fire baptism’ and ‘spirit baptism’, a ‘reception of the Holy Ghost’. “…[I]t involved two separate phases of experience for the believer; the first, conversion, or justification, and the second, Christian perfection, or sanctification. In the first experience the penitent was forgiven for his actual sins of commission, becoming a Christian but retaining a residue of sin within. This remaining inbred sin was the result of Adam’s fall and had to be dealt with by a ‘second blessing’…This experience purified the believer of ‘inward sin’ and gave him ‘perfect love’ toward God and man.” [5]

Holiness declared that there was more to God than conversion, but that there was an intimate encounter after conversion that dealt with the tendency to sin…Holiness taught the need of being ‘saved’ and ‘sanctified’. This expectation and promise of a radical and intimate encounter with God subsequent to conversion led to revival ‘camp meetings’ in which men and women sought after the second blessing releasing sanctification

“Many were panting and groaning for pardon while others were entreating God, with strong cries and tears to save them from the remains of inbred sin and to sanctify them throughout…Some would be seized with a trembling, and in a few moments drop on the floor as if they were dead; while others were embracing each other with streaming eyes, and all were lost in wonder, love and praise…some wept for grief while others shouted for joy so that it was hard to distinguish one shout from another. At times the congregations would ‘raise a great shout’ that could be heard for miles around.” [6]

Great preaching campaigns, such as led by Finney, swept over America into the late 1800’s, beginning in Virginia, but finding its greatest acceptance and release in the pioneering states of the Mid-West such as Kentucky, Iowa, and Texas. After the civil war, the Southern States opened up to the Holiness message and revivals spread throughout those states as well.

Holiness inside had to be revealed on the outside and this led to a clear definition of external regulations for those having been sanctified. “Great emphasis was laid on dress and ‘worldly amusements…Irwin and his preachers declaring that they would ‘rather have a rattlesnake around their necks than a tie.’” [7] Notwithstanding the extreme legalism of some of the holiness preachers, the presence of practical holiness led to the rise of many social events as the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, temperance, etc.

Persecutions

In that the primary release of Methodism and Holiness was released in America, a nation that closely guarded against state persecution of religious variance, the persecutions were not so much physical as emotional, relational, and social. “Since the Southern Methodist Church had declared war on the holiness movement…Crumpler ran into trouble with his superiors in the Church. In October 1899 the North Carolina Annual Conference tried him for insubordination for refusing to stop preaching the doctrine of sanctification…Crumpler thereupon withdrew from the church ‘for the sake of peace and harmony…and formed a new denomination ‘that those who had been saved and sanctified, many of whom belonged to no church, and many of whom had been turned out of their churches for professing holiness, might have a congenial church home.’” [8] This persecuted ‘out’ group became the seed of the Pentecostal Movement!

[1] Vinson Synan. The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1971), p. 14

[2] Ibid, p. 17.

[3] John Leland Peters, Christian Perfection and American Methodism, (New York: Abingdon Press, 1956), p. 88.

[4] Synan, p. 53-54.

[5] Ibid, p. 18.

[6] Synan, p. 21.

[7] Ibid, p. 67.

[8] Ibid, p. 72.

The Radical Reformation (1525)

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The Radical Reformation involved a group of people who were part of the Lutheran Reformation, but felt that the reforms initiated by Luther and the other Reformers were partial and insufficient. This movement was initiated in Zurich although it had components scattered across Europe and within the entire Reformation. Generally speaking, the Radical Reformation was comprised of three components: The Anabaptists, Inspirationists, and Rationalists; all of which were named such by their opponents.

The Anabaptists were aligned most closely to the Lutheran Reformation in terms of Scriptural interpretation. The Inspirationists were called such for their belief in the present speaking of the Holy Spirit to give them illumination regarding the Word of God, and generally supported military resistance to or overthrow of the State Church. The Rationalists were intellectually connected to the Renaissance of the day and opposed a Trinitarian understanding of God, generally denying the deity of Jesus. The Puritans who migrated to America were of the Radical Reformation, primarily Anabaptists.

The names of those who forged the Radical Reformation are generally unknown to the Church, yet the Radical Reformation lies at the heart of the majority of Church reality today! In Switzerland/Zurich there were Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, Michael Sattler, and others. In Germany there were Thomas Muntzer and the Zwickau Prophets.

Reformation Focus Points

Believers’ baptism was the primary rallying of the Radical Reformation, which created a ‘free’ church apart from the state church power and control. The First Reformation left intact the State Church that saw everyone in a certain geographical region as belonging to the Church through infant baptism. This created a unity of power between the Church and State and led to the misuse of power and people. It is important to remember that the Lutheran Reformation’s goal was not the destruction of the nature of the Church as defined by the Catholic Church, but a reforming of its inaccurate positions. The nature of the Lord’s Supper as a ‘remembrance’ and not a ‘sacrifice’ was also a strong point focus for the Radical Reformation.

These two areas, Baptism and The Lord’s Supper determine the identity of the Church. “The concept of a church of committed believers had taken the place of a church made up of the mixed multitude. This new church, like that of the apostles, was to be made up only of those confessing Christ as Lord followed by believers’ baptism, instead of everyone born in a given parish. The Lord’s supper would then be observed by the baptized in a simple manner, shorn of its medieval trappings as a pledge of brotherly love in remembrance of the one, all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ.” [2]

The charges brought against Michael Sattler by the Roman Catholic Church reveal the nature of the Radical Reformation.

“1. That he and his adherents acted contrary to the decree of the emperor.

2. He taught, maintained, and believed, that the body and blood of Christ were not present in his sacrament.

3. He taught and believed that infant-baptism was not promotive of salvation.

4. They rejected the sacrament of unction. 5. They despised and reviled the Mother of God, and condemned the saints.

6. He declared, that men should not swear before a magistrate.

7. He has commenced a new and unheard of custom in regard to the Lord’s Supper, placing the bread and wine on a plate and eating and drinking the same.

8. Contrary to the rule, he has married a wife.

9. He said that if the Turks invaded the country, we ought not to resist them, and if he approved of war, he would rather take the field against the Christians than against the Turks…to set the greatest enemies of our faith against us.” [3]

After several years of disappointing dialogue with Zwingli over believers’ baptism, and his refusal to go forward, the baptism, or re-baptism of a group of people on January 21, 1525 constituted the beginning of the Radical Reformation. “…[A] dozen or so men slowly trudged through the snow. Quietly, but resolutely, singly or in pairs they came to the home of Felix Mann near the Grossmunster. The chill of the wind blowing off the lake did not match the chill of disappointment that gripped that little band that fateful night. The dramatic events of the unforgettable gathering have been preserved… ‘And it came to pass that they were together until anxiety came upon them, yes, they were so pressed within their hearts. Thereupon they began to bow their knees to the Most High God in heaven and called upon Him as the Informer of hearts, and they prayed that he would give to them his divine will and that he would show mercy unto them. For flesh and blood and human forwardness did not drive them, since they will knew what they would have to suffer on account of it. After the prayer, George of the House of Jacob stood up and besought Conrad Grebel for God’s sake to baptize him with the true Christian baptism upon his faith and knowledge. And when he knelt down with such a request and desire, Conrad baptized him, since at that time there was no ordained minister to perform such work.’ After his baptism at the hands of Grebel, Blaurock proceed to baptize all the others present. The newly baptized then pledged themselves as true disciples of Christ to live lives separated from the world and to teach the gospel and hold the faith. Anabaptism was born. With this first baptism, the earliest church of the Swiss Brethren was born. This was clearly the most revolutionary act of the Reformation. NO other event so completely symbolized the break with Rome. Here, for the first time in the course of the Reformation, a group of Christians dared to form a church after what was conceived to be the New Testament pattern. The Brethren emphasized the absolute necessity of a personal commitment to Christ as essential to salvation and a prerequisite to baptism.” [4]

Persecutions

Persecution arose immediately against the Radical Reformation, as it did against Luther’s Reformation and all subsequent ones. Persecution against the Radical Reformation came in a two-fold form, from the Catholic Church, and from the Lutheran/Reformed Churches. In that both aspects still held to a state church, rebellion against the status quo of the Church equaled treason or sedition against the government, and thus enabled the persecution to have a ‘legal’ air to it

The Catholic Persecution

Michael Sattler’s arrest and execution represents the epitome of the Catholic Church persecution against the Reformation, Luther, Reformed, and Radical. Sattler was a Benedictine monk in Freiburg, Germany, in the early 1500’s who in his time at a monastery, after studying Paul’s theology, became increasingly dissatisfied with the Church and eventually left the priesthood to join the Reformation and the Swiss Brethren in Zurich, 1525.

“On May 20, 1527, Sattler was executed. The torture, a prelude to the execution, began at the marketplace, where a piece was cut from Sattler’s tongue. Pieces of flesh were torn from his body twice with red-hot tongs. He was then forged to a cart. On the way to the scene of the execution the tongs were applied five times again…After being bound to a ladder with ropes and pushed into the fire, he admonished the people, the judges, and the mayor to repent and be converted. Then he prayed, ‘Almighty, eternal God, Thou art the way and the truth; because I have not been shown to be in error, I will with Thy help to this day testify to the truth and seal it with my blood.’ As soon as the ropes on his wrists were burned, Sattler raised the two forefingers of his hands, giving the promised signal to the brethren that a martyr’s death was bearable…Three others were then executed. After every attempt to secure a recantation from Sattler’s faithful wife had failed, she was drowned eight days later in the Neckar.” [5]

The Lutheran / Reformed Persecution

One of the saddest of all aspects of the Reformation was the persecution of the Radical Reformers by the Reformers themselves, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and more. In Zurich, Zwingli had made the baptism of an adult a crime carrying the death penalty as its punishment. Anabaptists were repeatedly arrested, beaten, and eventually executed via various forms.

“On January 5, 1527 he [Felix Manz] was sentenced to death, ‘because contrary to Christian order and custom he had become involved in Anabaptism…because he confessed having said that he wanted to gather those who wanted to accept Christ and follow Him, and unite himself with them through baptism…so that he and his followers separated themselves from the Christian Church and were about to raise up and prepare a sect of their own…since such doctrine is harmful to the unified usage of all Christendom…Manz shall be delivered to the executioner, who shall tie his hands, put him into a boat, take him to the lower hut, there strip his bound hands down over his knees, place a stick between his knees and arms, and thus push him into the water and let him perish in the water; thereby he shall have atoned to the law and justice…his property shall be confiscated by my lords.’…Manzs’ execution took place January 5, 1527, at 2 o’clock Saturday afternoon.” [6]

“In Swabia…four hundred special police force were hired to hunt down Anabaptists and execute them on the spot. This group proved too small and was increased to one thousand.” [7]

[1] Of course it is impossible to exactly date a move of God, but 1525, for reasons outlined below, seems to be a good date from which the Radical Reformation proceeded.

[2] William R. Estep. The Anabaptist Story (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1975, 1996), p. 20

[3] Ibid, p. 69.

[4] Ibid, p. 15.

[5] Ibid, p. 71.

[6] Ibid, p. 47.

[7] Ibid, p. 74

The First Reformation (300’s to the 1300’s)

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After the first century church faded away the church began to become more and more secular and void of the Spirit, climaxing in the Constantinian Era. Constantine was the Roman Emperor who after becoming a Christian in the early 300’s, made Christianity the official religion of Rome. This ‘legalizing’ of Christianity became the very thing that ushered Her, and the world into the Dark Ages

James Rutz writes, “A funny thing happened on the way to the Millennium: In the fourth century, the Church’s wheels fell off…Just after 300 A.D., the church made the biggest blunder in its history and crashed…the final straw came in 313, when Emperor Constantine I issued the Edict of Milan, officially tolerating the Church and ending persecutions…by 400, just 87 years later, the Roman Empire had gone from being less than four per cent Christian to eighty per cent Christian…with no conversions! All the major problems of the Church today—other than sin—can be traced back 1700 years, to when the church became an audience.” [1]

During the Dark Ages from the late 300’s to the 1300’s the Church became more and more religious and institutionalized, out of which sprang the Roman Catholic Church with its Pope, Mariology and like doctrines and tradition. The epitome of the Dark Ages was a Church that no longer resembled in any point that which was exploded onto the world scene on the Day of Pentecost. “The newborn church, as vulnerable as any human child, having neither money, influence nor power in the ordinary sense, is setting forth joyfully and courageously to win the pagan world for God through Christ. The young Church, like all young creatures, is appealing in its simplicity and single-heartedness. Here we are seeing the Church in its first youth, valiant and unspoiled—a body of ordinary men and women joined in an unconquerable fellowship never before seen on this earth.”

The Church of the Dark Ages was no longer the Body of Christ, but the place of power struggles, politics, oppression, and financial gain at the expense of the common believer centering in the following abuses:

Misuse of the Word

“It is also unquestionable that a knowledge of the Scriptures in the vernacular [common language], especially by uneducated men and women was always deemed a sign of heretical tendency. ‘The third cause of heresy’, says an Austrian inquisitor, writing about the end of the thirteenth century, ‘is that they translate the Old and New Testaments into the vulgar tongue; and so they learn and teach. I have heard and seen a certain clown who repeated the Book of Job word for word, and several who know the New Testament perfectly.’ A survey of the evidence seem to lead to the conclusion that the rulers of the mediaeval Church regarded knowledge of the vernacular Scriptures with grave suspicion…” [3]

Misuse of Power

“Nay it is you who are mistaken when in supposing that the Lord sets tyrants over his people to rule them at pleasure, when He bestowed so much authority on those whom He sent to promulgate the gospel. Your error lies here, viz., in no reflecting that their power, before they were furnished with it, was circumscribed with certain limits. We admit, therefore, that…pastors are to be heard just like Christ Himself, but they must be pastors who execute the office entrusted to them. And this office, we maintain, is not presumptuously to introduce whatever their own pleasure has rashly devise…we maintain that the Roman Pontiff [Pope], with his whole herd of pseudo-bishops, who have seized the pastor’s office, are ravenous wolves, whose only study has hitherto been to scatter and trample down the kingdom of Christ, filling it with ruin and devastation. Nor are we the first to make the complaint…for iniquity has reached its height, and now these shadowy prelates [church leaders], by whom you think the Church stands or perishes, and by whom we say she has been cruelly torn and mutilated, and brought to the very brink of destruction, can neither bear their vices nor the cure of them.” [4]

Misuse of Money

“Under your most distinguished name, papal indulgences are offered across the land for the construction of St. Peter. Now, I do not so much complain about the quacking of the preachers…but I bewail the gross misunderstanding among the people which comes from these preachers and which they spread everywhere among the common men. Evidently the poor souls believe that when they have bought indulgence letters they are then assured of their salvation. They are likewise convinced that souls escape from purgatory as soon as they have placed a contribution into the chest. Further, they assume that the grace obtained through these indulgences is so completely effective that there is no sin of such magnitude that it cannot be forgiven—even if (as they say) someone should rape the Mother of God…finally, they believe that man is freed from every penalty and guilt by these indulgences. O great God! The souls committed to your care, excellent father, are thus directed to death… This is why I entered the disputation; that is, I have provoked all the people, the great, the average, the mediocre, to hate me thoroughly, at least as much as could be engineered and accomplished by these men who have such great zeal for money (oh, no, I should have said for souls!). Since these ‘lovely’ people cannot refute what I have said, they arm themselves with the greatest cunning and pretend that I violated papal authority by my theses.” [5]

“The preachers, by daily sermons, or hymns, and processions, urged the people, with extravagant laudations of the Pope’s bull, to purchase letters of indulgences for their own benefit, and at the same time played upon their sympathies for departed relatives and friends whom they might release from their sufferings in purgatory ‘as soon as the penny tinkles in the box.’” [6]

“The confused and vague theology of forgiveness of the late medieval period lent weight to the suggestion that it was possible to purchase the forgiveness of sins and procure the remission of ‘purgatorial penalties’ through the purchase of indulgences. In other words, the eternal penalties resulting from sinful actions could be reduced, if not eliminated, by payment of an appropriate sum of money to the appropriate ecclesiastical figure. Thus Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg manage to accumulate a remission of purgatorial penalties reckoned to total 39, 245,120 years…The power and the income of much of the ecclesiastical establishment and its patrons were actually linked with the continuance of such practices and beliefs.” [7]

Misuse of People

All of the above leads to the abuse and misuse of the people in the Church. One of the great rallying cries of the Reformation was ‘the priesthood of all the believers’ which taught that it was not only a special class of people who had access to God, but all those who were believers. “One has to insult and antagonize the Devil to make him produce one Scripture passage through which it can be proven that the ordained clergy alone are called priests…just as I previously scoffed in my book.” [8]

Martin Luther

Into this crooked and internally ‘bent’ system called Church God sent forth Martin Luther. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a monk himself, nailed 95 theses to his seminary door hoping to initiate dialogue regarding the issues contained therein. Instead the First Reformation was ignited centering around the truth ‘the just shall live by faith’. This phrase became the rallying cry for the First Reformation placing into question the system of indulgences and the various other means that the Catholic Church had established for people to relate rightly to God.

While the First Reformation soon became a far-reaching movement and reality of diverse nature, the primary historical figures driving it were Martin Luther, John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli. Luther was the most outspoken and spent the majority of his life hiding from legal authorities as he wrote reformation literature.

[1] James Rutz. The Open Church (The SeedSowers, Auburn, MA: 1992), p. 8, 11.

[2] J. B. Phillips. The Young Church In Action, (The MacMillan Company, NY: 1957), p. vii.

[3] T. M. Lindsay. History of the Reformation, Vol. 1, (T & T Clark, Edinburgh: 1906), p. 148.

[4] John Calvin [Ed, John Olin]. A Reformation Debate, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1966), pp. 75-78.

[5] Martin Luther. Luther’s Works, Vol. 1., (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1963), pp. 44ff, and 68ff.

[6] Phillip Schaff. History of the Christian Church, Vol. 7, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1888), p. 152.

[7] Alister McGrath. Reformation Thought, (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, Inc., 1988), p. 103.

[8] Luther, ibid.

Introduction to the Reformation

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God is moving by His Spirit once again in the world. There is no question that the Lord is initiating a move of His Spirit within the global church. When God moves, our responsibility is to respond to His moving. The Church is the Body of Christ, the vehicle by which the Holy Spirit can act and move in the earth. The Church is not social club, a democratic society, or a religious organization. We exist to be the dwelling place of God by the Holy Spirit.

The Church is the Body of Christ, and exists for one reason and purpose—to facilitate the will and purpose of Christ through His Spirit! [1]

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church—we are the Body! [2] This is more than a nice metaphor, it speaks of a reality of the Spirit which the natural man cannot understand. It defines our relationship, as the Church, to the Lord Jesus. We are His Body…He is the Head. The word translated ‘head’ is the Greek word kephale, and describes the source, or origin out of which a thing comes and in which it continues to exist.

The head of a body provides all that the body needs, and gives the body its ability to think and reason with purposeful direction. In the same manner, the Head of the Body of Christ is the Lord Jesus, and as such is the source and origin for our existence, purpose, and destiny as the Body of Christ. He has a specific will and purpose for His Body, and we, as the Body of Christ must exist in accordance with that will and purpose.

Whenever the Church begins to be something that the Lord has not designed to be, God begins to initiate a move to restore the Church to accuracy! When God moves, we must respond. This movement to return us, His people, the Body to a correct alignment and relationship with the Head, is called a ‘reformation’. The movement of God to restore the Church to its accuracy of alignment and relationship to its Head is called by the Scriptures ‘a time a reformation’ The first such great ‘reformation’ occurred with the first coming of the Lord Jesus!

Hebrews 9.8-11 reads, ‘The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshipper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation. But when Christ appeared…”

The implication of these verses are that the old Mosaic system of worship was not the ultimate, nor complete goal and purpose of God for His people. It was unable to make the worshipper perfect in conscience. In other words, it could only deal with the external ‘cleansing’ of the people of God. Therefore, its offerings and laws and sacrifices existed as regulations for the body…UNTIL a time of reformation. That ‘time of reformation’ occurred when Christ came!

There are four points from this passage concerning the first ‘time of reformation’ inaugurated by the first coming of the Lord Jesus into the Jewish system of temple worship that we will look at.

Number 1: There is a specific ‘way’ to access God. The writer of Hebrews declares that the ‘way into the holy place’ had not yet been disclosed as long as the ‘outer tabernacle’, or the temple, was still standing. The Letter to the Hebrews, written just prior to the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies in A.D. 70, assumes the presence of the Temple in Jerusalem around which Judaism centered. It was the Temple system of worship, with its sacrifices, its laws, and its Priesthood, together with the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Elders that Jesus came into conflict with over and over, as He brought ‘a time of reformation’. The Old Mosaic system could only foreshadow the ‘way’ into the Holy Place.

The people of God have a right to fully access the presence of God in the Holy Place. Jesus Christ came to show us the ‘way’ into that place to which we may ‘draw near with confidence’ [3] and ‘full assurance of faith’. [4] Every reformation move of God defines and brings the People of God into the Holy Place by revealing the ‘way’ to that place! There is a ‘specific way into the ‘holy place’, the place of God’s presence and purpose for this generation. We want clarity into that place!

Whenever God moves to take us into the ‘holy place’, the present system is no longer able to take God’s people into that place. It must be ‘reformed’, it must once again be aligned to the Spirit of God. Religiosity and traditions must come up against the uprightness and straightness of God’s Word. Whatever is not accurate must be made accurate. Whatever exists in what is called ‘church’ must be made straight. Our ‘way’ of doing Church and relating to Christ must come into alignment with ‘His way’. This process of becoming straight is what the writer of Hebrews called ‘a time of reformation’.

Number 2: The Goal of Reformation is Perfection. Whenever God moves and we respond with faith and obedience to His movement, we move closer to perfection. Note that the Hebrews 9.9 tells us that the old system was unable to ‘make the worshiper perfect in conscience’. The goal is perfection. The word translated ‘perfection’ is the Greek word telios, which speaks of fulfillment of a goal, completion, or maturity. The Lord is wanting a Church that is mature, complete, and arriving at the fulfillment of the goal for which they have come into existence.

Although perfection has implications for sin, it points to issues much more important than that. It speaks the Church growing up into the Head in a manner that allows the Head to pour its purpose and power into the Body without any hesitation or reserve. The Lord is looking for a body that will be able to do and be all that the Head desires and wills.

Note that the implication of perfection focuses the reader on the internal realities of the Christ-centered life. ‘Perfect in conscience’ points to the internal components of our walk with Christ. Not the external, but the internal. That which is imperfect focuses attention on the external. This was the primary issue with which the Lord dealt with the Pharisees during His ministry. ‘Clean the outside of the cup and the inside will also be clean’ [5] , said the Lord many times.

As we move into this present reformation, towards perfection and maturity, accessing the ‘way into the holy place’, we will be continually confronted by the Holy Spirit with the internal issues of our faith. The Holy Spirit is interested in the condition of our heart. The Word of the Lord deals with the intents and motives of the heart. The worshiper of the Lord hungers for a perfection within the conscience. The present Church system cannot provide the worshiper with this reality…it can only offer the cleansing of the external with regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation!

Brothers and sisters, that time of reformation is upon us. God is once again looking inside the Church and those who call themselves Christians to see the condition of the heart. What a wonderful time to be in Christ. A time of reformation, a time of making straight that which is crooked that we might move towards the finish, towards perfection, towards maturity!