WesleyGospel Ministries

From the album Hymns (1982):

• Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee
• Jesus, Lover of My Soul
• Alleluia, Sing to Jesus

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“The crusade team was filing onto the bus for yet another trip when my dad stopped Craig Smith. ‘You need to have this,’ he said. He held out a hymnal with a tattered woven cover. Craig wondered if the book was some castoff from the pile Dad was amassing at Leonard Ravenhill’s suggestions. But in a quiet moment that afternoon, as the bus hummed along, Craig dipped into it. The hymnal was published by the Methodists and was well over a hundred years old [ed.–something probably close to this edition–click here]…Craig was so enamored with the hymns’ beauty that he decided to try to record some of them…‘We did it in a baroque kind of classical style’…When they finished it, Craig gave a copy to my dad. I don’t remember my father ever being excited over a record, but he insisted on listening to this one with the Ravenhills in the Smith’s home. ‘We were all sitting in my little living room–David and Gwen, Leonard and Martha, Dianna and me–listening to the album,’ Craig says. ‘It was a full LP, with two sides, and you know Brother Dave was not given to sitting down for any length of time. Each hymn was long, five to six minutes, because there were a lot of verses. At the end of every song, David would say, ‘Wow.’ He wasn’t responding to me; he was responding to those songs and what it was like to hear them performed.’ The listening party continued for almost forty minutes. Everyone–Dad, my mom, Leonard, and Martha–were crying. ‘I’ll remember that evening till the day I die,’ Craig says. ‘I was so moved, and so incredibly humbled. I had never seen Leonard Ravenhill weep, and I’d never seen David tear up. They all let their guard down and were having a moment. I think Leonard particularly was reliving something of his past, maybe experiencing some of his younger years, listening to songs by writers who loved God with all of their hearts’” (Gary Wilkerson, David Wilkerson, pp. 237-238).

Enthusiasm – “Any of various forms of extreme religious devotion, usually associated with intense emotionalism and a break with orthodoxy”; “possession by a god”; “excessive religious emotion.”

What is Wilkerson grieving over here? The Toronto Blessing / Catch The Fire movement. Rodney Howard-Browne, Kenneth Hagin, and Kenneth Copeland. The Word of Faith / Prosperity Gospel Movement. And the “holy laughter” movement. All of these intermix. But mainly, this would be what is nowadays called the “Third Wave” / or the “Catch The Fire” / or even “prophetic movement.” Modern proponents of these heresies:

• Rodney Howard-Browne
• Randy Clark (Global Awakening)
  
• John Arnott (Catch The Fire)
  
• Todd Bentley
• Bill Johnson (Bethel Church)
• Rick Joyner (MorningStar Ministries)
  
• Kenneth Hagin
• Kenneth Copeland
• etc, etc, etc.

One word about holy laughter. I do believe there is a genuine and a counterfeit. I believe the genuine article occurred under John Wesley’s and Kathryn Kuhlman’s ministries. It was brief and under control, a flood of joy from the presence of God. But even Wesley saw the demonic counterfeit, and condemned it as the “simplicity of the people.” Others call it mass hysteria. When any laughter puts down the Word of God or supports carnal and immoral activities, that’s when you know its a demonic counterfeit, and not a supernatural manifestation of the joy of the Lord. Romans 14:17: “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of RIGHTEOUSNESS, PEACE and JOY IN THE HOLY SPIRIT.”

Further Reading

Beverley, James. Holy Laughter and the Toronto Blessing.

Chevreau, Guy. Catch The Fire. Examines these manifestations in light of Jonathan Edwards’ writings. Supportive, but conditioned on holiness and fruit of the Spirit. I agree with Chevreau.

Hanegraaff, Hank. Counterfeit Revival.

Jennings, Daniel. The Supernatural Occurrences of John Wesley. Chapter 5: “John Wesley’s Experience with ‘Holy Laughter.’”

Martin, Larry, ed. Wild and Weird: William J. Seymour, Azusa Street and Early Pentecostalism as Reported by the Los Angeles Secular Newspapers.

Taken from page 245 in the Historical Dictionary of the Holiness Movement:

RAVENHILL, LEONARD (b. Leeds, England, 18 June 1907; d. Lindale, Texas, 27 November 1994). International Holiness Mission and Calvary Holiness Church (CHC) minister, evangelist, and author. Raised in a working-class Methodist family, Ravenhill was converted in 1921 and experienced entire sanctification under the ministry of Maynard James in 1929. While attending Cliff College (1930-1931), Ravenhill became one of a number of evangelistically inclined students known as “trekkers” who engaged in an itinerant evangelistic ministry throughout Great Britain. In 1934, he joined with Maynard James and Jack Ford in the organization of the CHC. He served as a CHC pastor and evangelist (1934-1951). He was a fiery evangelist, and his street preaching gained both opposition and notoriety during the 1940s and 1950s. Relocating to the United States, Ravenhill served on the staff of Bethany Fellowship (1958-1964) and as chaplain for David Wilkerson’s Teen Challenge in New York City (1964-1966). Ravenhill’s no-nonsense radicalism and open association with Pentecostals, such as Wilkerson, frequently angered Wesleyan traditionalists. But even as old doors closed, Ravenhill found new audiences among Pentecostals, Charismatics, and radical evangelicals. In fact, with Wilkerson, Ravenhill was one of the key figures in the emergence of the new youth-oriented, so-called Jesus People Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. His books Why Revival Tarries (1959), Tried and Transfigured (1963), and Sodom Had No Bible (1971), are important documents in the creation of an alternative evangelicalism that turned a generation of often unchurched youth into evangelical activists.

Artistic, universalist, liberal Christians are rising in Generations X and Y, under the leadership of Brian McLaren (A Generous Orthodoxy, 2004), Rob Bell (Love Wins, 2011), and other kindred spirits. It is called the “emerging/emergent church movement.”

UNIVERSALISM FOR GENERATION X.

An old, old spirit of the devil.

A good response to this type of universalism is in Mark Galli’s God Wins: Heaven, Hell, and Why the Good News Is Better Than ‘Love Wins’

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58:50 – 1:23:48 – The video has a section on “Contemplative Mysticism.” I have some reservations about this section, which could be more thoroughly explained in my e-book How to Experience God. But in brief, I agree with the critics that Rob Bell’s brand of contemplation should be rejected, because he is a universalist, and is therefore leading contemplatives toward union with a false god–namely, the god of Hinduism, the New Age, yoga, Eastern meditation, and universalism. But for these critics to reject the Desert Fathers is all wrong; A. W. Tozer would have thought it was ludicrous. A thorough study of their theology and practice will find they were one with the orthodox church fathers–namely Athanasius and Jerome, and in John Cassian’s The Conferences, you see a well developed Biblical theology of spiritual disciplines and charismatic experience. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just because Christian mysticism is being abused or misused by liberal Christian universalists, it does not follow that the original mysticism of the Desert Fathers, or even of various Catholic saints, was all wrong. I continue to stand against devotion to the Virgin Mary and praying to dead saints. But I have yet to find any good reason to stop “looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2)–which all Christ-centered mystics see as the ultimate verse on contemplative prayer (for example, Isaac Ambrose’s Looking Unto Jesus). Also, to completely reject the tradition of Catholic mystical theology is not only ignore centuries of charismatic activity and wisdom in the history of the church–it is to leave the church with very little remaining to evaluate and judge modern moves of the Spirit.

1. Ray Comfort – Calvary Chapel-influenced open air preaching.

2. Jed Smock – Confrontational Evangelism.

3. John Arnott – Catch The Fire / The Prophetic Movement

4. Rick Warren – The Seeker-Sensitive Movement

The night he unveiled his vision to an unsuspecting audience. He was scheduled to speak at a massive charismatic conference in Minneapolis, hosted by the acknowledged charismatic movement leader David du Plessis. His invitation to Dad gave my father’s message an added weight. The auditorium held about ten thousand people, mostly charismatic Lutherans…the atmosphere was giddy, with throngs of happy Christians doing sit-down-stand-up songs. It was the sort of thing Dad abided until his turn came to speak. That night, when he stepped to the microphone, he got straight down to business…Several district superintendents in the Assemblies of God shut him off. It was a horribly hard time for him, because he lost some friends. Some just didn’t want to be associated with him, probably to preserve their reputations…Dad’s ministry did suffer…we lost track of how many times we heard someone report that Dad was having a nervous breakdown…When The Vision came out (1973), [the Texas State Baptist Convention/Southern Baptists] pulled away as if they’d been scalded. Brother Dave understood that. I think he knew it was going to happen…Our father got a phone call from a minister friend within the denomination. As Dad hung up the receiver, he was ashen. “So-and-so just told me off,” he said…Even a few people involved in Teen Challenge had turned against him…When they started to hear about little black boxes on TV sets turning homes into porno palaces, they rejected him…Those reactions were tempered somewhat as The Vision’s predictions started coming to pass…Brother Dave brought a prophet’s mantle into the church, and people didn’t know how to respond to it…He was a prophet (Gary Wilkerson, David Wilkerson, pp. 173-174).

Originally from here.

The term charismatic comes from the Greek word charismata, which means spiritual gifts. It is the informal name given to the movement which is calling the Christian church back to a fuller recognition of the Holy Spirit in Christian experience, and in the life and mission of the church, including the exercise of all the spiritual gifts described in the New Testament.

The modern Pentecostal movement which began in 1906 did not make much of an impact on the mainline denominations, affecting mainly the lower classes of society. What is called the charismatic movement emerged in the early 1960s in the mainline denominations and has had an impact on most denominations. It holds that being a Christian includes having a definite experience with the Spirit and the exercise of spiritual gifts, often speaking in tongues.

In the Mennonite Church (MC), in 1906 the Pacific Coast Conference resolved that all ministers, evangelists, and all members having the baptism of the Holy Ghost encourage everywhere that believers seek a definite experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Some lay leaders and ministers planned a churchwide charismatic conference in 1974, held at the Landisville (Pennsylvania) campgrounds and a second one at the Missionary Church campgrounds (Goshen) in 1975. Kevin Ranaghan, executive director of the Conference on Christian Renewal Among the Churches, wrote Nelson Litwiller and Harold Bauman, asking whether the Mennonite Church would help in planning the event.

A group of 32 people met in Youngstown, Ohio, in October 1975 and formed Mennonite Renewal Services (MRS). The purposes were to provide consultative and liaison services to individuals and conferences, to represent charismatic Mennonites to groups within and beyond the denomination, to converse with leaders of the Mennonite Church, to provide information and referral services, and to sponsor teaching ministries and conferences. Nelson Litwiller represented MRS on the planning for the Conference on Christian Renewal (interdenominational charismatic conference) at Kansas City in 1977 and for the North American Congress on the Spirit and World Evangelization, held in New Orleans in 1987. Mennonite Renewal Services has reported to each Mennonite Church (MC) General Assembly and has been affirmed in its work by Mennonite Church General Board. The leaders of MRS sought to renew the church and to encourage renewed members to stay with the church and not to leave it. A significant factor in the renewal in the Mennonite Church (MC) has been renewal conferences. Mennonite Renewal Services continued holding churchwide conferences until 1978. Annual regional conferences emerged in 10 to 12 areas across North America. The MRS organization also held annual consultations involving persons active in renewal ministries throughout the church. People from other Anabaptist and Mennonite groups were invited to participate in the early stages of this development. While some members of other groups joined MRS, no official delegates were sent more than a few times.

In April 1987 MRS decided to change its name to Believers Church Renewal Ministries and incorporated people from the Church of the Brethren renewal ministries. This was the result of working with these leaders for several years. In the same month an Apostolic and Prophetic Council was established as an aid to charismatic congregations which needed a different kind of ministry than what their conference leaders were able to provide. In November 1987 a consultation brought together leaders of charismatic congregations and conference leaders to work at strengthening relationships. Sponsored by the Mennonite Board of Congregational Ministries, the consultation developed practical steps to strengthen relationships. By 1989 the new body was known as Empowered Ministries. This organization continued until 1995 when reduced financial support prevented its continuation. Its periodical, Empowered, also ceased at this time.

In a survey of one of every three Mennonite Church (MC) congregations in 1986, pastors reported 10 to 15 percent of the members called themselves charismatic. Between 25 to 30 percent of the pastors identified themselves as charismatic.

The General Conference Mennonite Church has been affected less by the charismatic movement in the United States than in Canada. A number of Canadian Mennonite congregations in the western provinces have a significant number of people with the charismatic experience. Some congregations have been able to minister to these persons while in others there have been tensions. Some members have left to join Pentecostal groups.

Some of the issues the charismatic movement has brought to congregations include whether the baptism with the Spirit is another name for the new birth, or is a definite experience with the Spirit as a part of conversion, or is an experience subsequent to conversion. Other issues involve worship: the raising of hands, speaking in tongues, prophecy, and the use of Scripture songs. Some charismatics have borrowed views of central leadership authority from other charismatic groups. Some of the contributions of the charismatic movement have been renewed vigor in worship, renewed interest in releasing spiritual gifts in congregational life, and new motivation for evangelism and missions.

See also Amor Viviente, Honduras; Holy Spirit; Sanctification

Bibliography

Bauman, Harold E. and Ernest Hershberger in Gospel Herald (27 January 1987): 52-55.

Wittlinger, Carolton O. Quest for Piety and Obedience: the Story of the Brethren in Christ. Nappanee, IN: Evangel Press, 1978: 527ff.

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Originally from here.

Spirituality

Charismatic Manifestations

Within the inspirationist wing of the Anabaptist movement, it was not unusual for charismatic manifestations to appear, such as dancing, falling under the power of the Holy Spirit, “prophetic processions” (at Zurich in 1525, at Munster in 1534 and at Amsterdam in 1535),^[39] and speaking in tongues.^[40] In Germany some Anabaptists, “excited by mass hysteria, experienced healings, glossolalia, contortions and other manifestations of a camp-meeting revival”.^[41] The Anabaptist congregations that later developed into the Mennonite and Hutterite churches tended not to promote these manifestations, but did not totally reject the miraculous. Pilgram Marpeck, for example, wrote against the exclusion of miracles: “Nor does Scripture assert this exclusion…God has a free hand even in these last days.” Referring to some who had been raised from the dead, he wrote: “Many of them have remained constant, enduring tortures inflicted by sword, rope, fire and water and suffering terrible, tyrannical, unheard-of deaths and martyrdoms, all of which they could easily have avoided by recantation. Moreover one also marvels when he sees how the faithful God (Who, after all, overflows with goodness) raises from the dead several such brothers and sisters of Christ after they were hanged, drowned, or killed in other ways. Even today, they are found alive and we can hear their own testimony…Cannot everyone who sees, even the blind, say with a good conscience that such things are a powerful, unusual, and miraculous act of God? Those who would deny it must be hardened men.”^[42] The Hutterite Chronicle and The Martyrs Mirror record several accounts of miraculous events, such as when a man named Martin prophesied while being led across a bridge to his execution in 1531: “…this once yet the pious are led over this bridge, but no more hereafter.” Just “a short time afterwards such a violent storm and flood came that the bridge was demolished.”^[43]

Holy Spirit Leadership

The Anabaptists insisted upon the “free course” of the Holy Spirit in worship, yet still maintained it all must be judged according to the Scriptures.^[44] The Swiss Anabaptist document titled Answer of Some Who Are Called (Ana-)Baptists – Why They Do Not Attend the Churches. One reason given for not attending the state churches was that these institutions forbade the congregation to exercise spiritual gifts according to “the Christian order as taught in the Gospel or the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 14.” “When such believers come together, ‘Everyone of you (note every one) hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation’ (1 Corinthians 14:26), and so on. When someone comes to church and constantly hears only one person speaking, and all the listeners are silent, neither speaking nor prophesying, who can or will regard or confess the same to be a spiritual congregation, or confess according to 1 Corinthians 14 that God is dwelling and operating in them through His Holy Spirit with His gifts, impelling them one after another in the above-mentioned order of speaking and prophesying.“^[45]

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[39] Klaassen 1973, p. 63. Klaassen, Walter (1973), Anabaptism: Neither Catholic Nor Protestant, Waterloo, ON: Conrad Press.

[40] Little, Franklin H (1964), The Origins of Sectarian Protestantism, New York: Beacons, p. 19.

[41] Williams 1992, p. 443. Williams, George Hunston (2000) [1962], The Radical Reformation (3rd ed.), Truman State University Press

[42] Marpeck 1978, p. 50. Marpeck, Pilgram (1978), Klassen, William; Klassen, Walter, eds., Covenant and Community: The Life, Writings, and Hermeneutics, Scottdale, PA: Herald.

[43] van Braght 1950, p. 440. van Braght, Thieleman J (1950) [1938], Martyrs Mirror, Scottdale, PA: Herald Press

[44] Oyer, John S (1964), Lutheran Reformers Against Anabaptists, The Hague: M Nijhoff, p. 86.

[45] Peachey, Paul; Peachey, Shem, eds. (1971), “Answer of Some Who Are Called (Ana-)Baptists – Why They Do Not Attend the Churches”, Mennonite Quarterly Review 45 (1): 10, 11.