The Pentecostal Movement - A Short History And An Interpretation For British Readers

By Donald Gee

Just so much of the history of the Movement in its world-wide aspect has been introduced as is necessary to retain a sense of proportion, and illustrate the truly world-wide scope of the Pentecostal Revival. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing many of these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Dec 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781447493983

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

1875—1905

INTRODUCTION. THE SPRINGS OF THE MOVEMENT. THE HOLINESS MOVEMENTS. THE WELSH REVIVAL. THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS FOR THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT. PENTECOSTAL PHENOMENA IN HISTORY.

THERE is something both wise and winsome in the straightforward reason given by Luke for the writing of the third gospel. He sees the increasing value of an authentic and orderly record of the things most surely believed among the early Christians; and realises the importance of this being based upon a first-hand knowledge of facts in the possession of those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. Therefore he collates his material and, inspired by the Spirit of God, writes for his most excellent Theophilus.

Something of the same conviction and urge will arise in those who have been connected with powerful and far-reaching revival movements within the Church, when they realise the time has arrived that calls for a record of those things that have become the heritage of multitudes. The generation who participated in the rise of what has come to be called the Pentecostal Movement is swiftly passing away. We owe it to our children to place in their hands as true a record as may be of the beginning of the Movement with which their parents, either natural or spiritual, have been identified, and with whose progress many of them are still deeply concerned.

Nevertheless, the fact that a history, however brief, is desired and even possible gives reason for some heart-searching. On one hand the fact of survival, world-wide expansion and establishment in the teeth of great opposition, until there is now something to write a history about, cannot but be gratifying to those who have borne the brunt of the battle. Whatever explanation is offered for the facts, this is now proved to be more than a mere flash-in-the-pan, and it merits consideration by the thoughtful. On the other hand, it is with something of a pang that those who shared in the first flush of a new-born revival movement hear any suggestion to write its history. To them it sounds ominous. The morning is passed. Whence is the Movement now trending? The pioneers of Pentecost visualised a revival that was to touch and inspire every section of the Christian Church; for they belonged to so many different sections. Above all things, their hearts glowed with the expectation and conviction that this was destined to be the last revival before the coming of the Lord, and that, for them, all earthly history would soon be consummated by the Rapture.

That Hope remains: but the passing decades, the inevitable developments produced by the formation of distinctive Pentecostal Assemblies, the resultant rise of organisation, and finally of recognised denominationalism, has now produced a situation and an outlook vastly different from that which pertained at the beginning. The clock cannot be put back. But Vision can still inspire and direct. The significance of the Movement should be interpreted. This, however, demands an examination of the facts from the start.

The Springs of the Movement.

THE Pentecostal Movement had its rise as a recognised entity during the early years of the twentieth century; and to understand its origins we must recall the general situation in the more spiritual sections of the Church about that time.

This is the more important because of one highly significant feature of the Movement that distinguishes it in a striking way from most of those that have gone before. The Pentecostal Movement does not owe its origin to any outstanding personality or religious leader, but was a spontaneous revival appearing almost simultaneously in various parts of the world. We instinctively connect the Reformation with Luther, the Quakers with George Fox, Methodism with Wesley, the Plymouth Brethren with Darby and Groves, the Salvation Army with William Booth, and so on. But the outstanding leaders of the Pentecostal Movement are themselves the products of the Movement. They did not make it; it made them. Some of them have been powerfully used to extend its borders, and some have been the founders of particular sectional organisations within it or arising from it; but perhaps one of the facts most needed to be understood correctly is their relationship to the Movement as a whole. The profound spiritual significance of this has always been to many one of the most beautiful things about the Movement. They felt it provided something peculiarly of the Spirit of God.

The Holiness Movements.

The last quarter of the Nineteenth Century was blessed on both sides of the Atlantic by the outstanding evangelistic move associated with Moody and Sankey; and by the growth, within the Church, of what may broadly be called the Holiness Movement. In England, besides the rise of the now world-famous Keswick Conventions for the deepening of spiritual life, there were Conferences associated with such names as W. E. Boardman. These attracted visitors of the spiritual calibre of men like Pastor Stockmayer of Germany, and exerted a far-reaching spiritual influence.

These movements all agreed in stressing a deeper experience for the Christian than just conversion. Although differing in points of doctrine, they mostly agreed in teaching some kind of definite second blessing for believers. The scriptural phrase the Baptism of the Holy Ghost began to appear and become familiar in the sense of a real spiritual crisis for the Christian subsequent to regeneration.

In the hands of teachers like Reader Harris, K.C. in England, who founded a Holiness Movement known as The Pentecostal League; and under similar teaching from godly and powerful leaders in America; the term The Baptism in the Holy Ghost came to be used for a vivid experience of sanctification received by faith. The emphasis was upon cleansing from sin. The baptism was essentially a purifying baptism, and the Fire was refining fire. There can be no doubt that thousands did receive a very real and definite experience that changed their whole Christian testimony. One of the most abiding and beautiful evidences of this remains in the special hymns produced by such writers in the Holiness Movement as Mrs. C. H. Morris, whose hymns have been enthusiastically adopted by the Pentecostal Movement all over the world. It should also be remembered that the Salvation Army is a Holiness Movement as far as its doctrines for the progress of the Christian life are concerned. When the Holiness Movement was at its zenith in America great Camp Meetings were held that probably equalled for scenes of enthusiasm, even if they did not exceed, anything more recently seen in the Pentecostal Movement. Although the old Holiness Movements were certainly not free from scenes of grievous fanaticism, they also produced some mighty saints. Many of the first Pentecostal leaders had originally been in the Holiness Movement.

It was, perhaps, Dr. Torrey who first gave the teaching of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost a new, and certainly more scriptural and doctrinally correct, emphasis on the line of power from on high, especially for service and witness (Acts i. 8). His logical presentation of truth did much to establish the doctrine. About that time he visited Berlin, and his preaching there of the Baptism of the Spirit sowed seeds that undoubtedly flourished a few years later when the Pentecostal Movement broke out in Germany. In America a parallel ministry in many ways was being accomplished by the saintly A. B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He also, like others in Europe, began to boldly teach the truth of divine healing. It was in connection with the renowned Dr. Dowie that Divine healing received its greatest notoriety at that time. Critics made much capital out of some of the later phrases of Dowie’s work, but it is the testimony of all who knew him that he was, in the beginning, a man signally and genuinely used by God for some undoubted miracles. Some of his followers also became the first Pentecostal leaders, among whom in England were Mr. and Mrs. Cantei of North London.

There was inevitable theological and denominational opposition to the doctrine of a second blessing, and all testimony arising from it, among prominent preachers and influential sects that found no place for such things in their systems. Doubtless extravagances and extremes not only in testimony, but in presentation of the doctrine, merited some criticism; but by the year 1900 the phrase The Baptism in the Holy Ghost had become familiar among all circles of more spiritually-minded believers, and those interested in the subject of revival. Many were testifying that they had actually received such an experience, and were exhorting others to seek for the same.

The Great Welsh Revival of 1904.

Then came the great Welsh Revival of 1904. It is impossible, and would be historically incorrect, to disassociate the Pentecostal Movement from that remarkable visitation of God’s Spirit.

The profound impression which the Welsh Revival made upon the entire Christian world can scarcely be realised by those who were not living at the time. Visitors came from far and near. Newspapers sent special reporters, and published lengthy reports. Some mocked; some were converted; all were impressed. It seemed, for a time, like an irresistible torrent.

Perhaps the most formative result was the creation of a widespread spirit of expectation for still greater things. Men justly asked Why Wales only? Why not other lands? Why not a world-wide Revival? Prayer to that end received a tremendous new impetus. And while so many were interceding for a wider outpouring of the Holy Spirit, others were pleading equally for a deeper work. Faith was rising to visualise a return to apostolic Christianity in all its pristine beauty and power.

Consequently there were, at that time, earnest and hungry groups of Christians, and individual believers, all over the British Isles, on the Continent of Europe, over in America, away in India, and scattered throughout the whole world who were eager for every bit of news that seemed like an answer to their prayers. In this manner the spiritual soil was prepared in the providence of God for the rise of the Pentecostal Movement.

Of special interest to British people is the little group that gathered around the godly vicar of All Saints’ Parish Church, Sunderland. Alexander A. Boddy had been their spiritual leader since 1886. When the Revival broke out in Wales in 1904 he made a special journey to Wales, and stood beside Evan Roberts in the midst of some of the amazing scenes at Tonypandy. When he recounted to his people at All Saints’ what he had personally seen in Wales it stirred both pastor and people up to yet more earnest prayer and expectation of great things from God. Sunderland was being prepared in the purposes of God to become a centre of new, and far-reaching blessing.

The Scriptural Basis for the Pentecostal Movement.

It is advisable, before proceeding further with the history of the Movement, to state very briefly the scriptural basis for its distinctive testimony.

The designation Pentecostal arises from its emphasis upon a baptism in the Holy Spirit such as that recorded in Acts ii. that occurred on the Day of Pentecost. The Pentecostal Movement shares with most sections of the Holiness Movement, and some others in the Church, the conviction that such a baptism in the Holy Spirit remains as a separate individual experience possible for all Christians, irrespective of time or place (Acts ii. 38, 39). The dispensational significance of the gift of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost is fully recognised (Acts ii. 33): but there were also subsequent local repetitions of that blessing (e.g., at Samaria, Acts viii.; at Csesaraea on the Gentiles, Acts x.; and twenty-three years later at Ephesus, Acts xix.). Moreover for the individual recipient of the baptism in the Spirit it is subsequent to, and distinct from, regeneration (e.g., at Samaria, after their baptism as believers by Philip—Acts viii. 12 and 17: in the case of Saul of Tarsus, three days after his conversion—Acts ix. 6 and 17: the Ephesian believers who were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise after they had believed—Eph. i. 13 and Acts xix. 6). Our Lord Himself received the fulness of the Spirit as a separate and distinct enduement of power when He was about thirty years of age (Luke iii. 22 and iv. 1).

The particular and distinctive testimony of the Pentecostal Movement has been that the outward evidences that accompanied the baptism in the Holy Spirit in primitive Christian experience can be, should be, and are being repeated up-to-date. It is this special witness that has earned for it among its opponents the sobriquet of the tongues Movement.

The New Testament is clear that the gift of the Spirit in the beginning was invariably witnessed to by some physical manifestation—something others could see and hear (Acts ii. 33). The most usual and most persistent manifestation was speaking with tongues (Acts ii. 4; x. 44; xix. 6). In order to safeguard the vital point that the baptism in the Holy Spirit ought to be regarded by Christians as a perfectly definite experience and spiritual crisis for the individual, the Pentecostal Movement has consistently taught that speaking with tongues is the scriptural initial evidence of that baptism. This challenging doctrine has proved to be the most provocative feature in the testimony. Sometimes it may not have been presented wisely or well, but Pentecostal people feel that God has entrusted them with this testimony on that point. Our present task is not controversy, but history. The emphasis of the Movement upon the matter is an historical fact, whatever controversialists may have to say about the matter.

Arising from a belief in the restoration, or continuance, of the manifestations of the Spirit occurring at the baptism in the Holy Spirit, is the logical expectation that the following supernatural spiritual gifts that operated in the Early Church may also be enjoyed to-day. These gifts are particularly referred to in I. Corinthians xii. to xiv., with some added notice in other parts of the New Testament. They include not only the gift of Tongues, but Prophesying, Healing, Visions, etc.

Further to the individual gifts of the Spirit the Pentecostal Movement also stands for gifted ministers as a bestowal of Christ upon His Church, as distinct from trained natural talent (Eph. iv. 11). They regard these offices as arising from Spiritual Gifts.

Summed up broadly, the distinctive testimony of the Pentecostal Movement within the Church is to the abiding possibility and importance of the supernatural element in Christian life and service, particularly as contained in the manifestation of the Spirit. The real value of such a witness and such a faith would seem to be beyond question, whatever divergence of view may exist upon details.

Pentecostal Phenomena in History.

It is a commonplace of Church History that the special phenomena now associated with the Pentecostal Movement have occurred again and again during periods of spiritual revival and enthusiasm. A long list of such happenings could be cited, but it will be sufficient to quote such an acknowledged authority as the Encyclopedia Brittanica (vol. 27: pp. 7 and 10; 11th edition) that the Glossolalia, (or speaking with tongues) recurs in Christian revivals in every age; e.g., among the mendicant friars of the thirteenth century, among the Jansenists and early Quakers, the converts of Wesley and Whitfield, the persecuted Protestants of the Cevennes, and the Irvingites.

In David Smith’s Life and Letters of St. Paul we have, in his notes on the gift of tongues, a scholarly account of modern appearances of the phenomena. ‘The most striking instances of the gift of tongues in modern times are the prophets of the Cevennes at the close of the seventeenth century, and Irvingites early in the nineteenth. With reference to the latter Movement, which had its rise in Scotland, he goes onto say The gifts, especially prophecy and tongues, continued and increased; and the fame of so marvellous a manifestation spread abroad and the two dwellings were frequented by visitors from far and Near. One of these was the wise and saintly Thomas Erskine of Liniathen, who after sojourning six weeks with these people published this testimony: ‘Whilst I see nothing in the Scriptures against the reappearance, or rather the continuance, of miraculous gifts in the Church, but a great deal for it, I must further say that I see a great deal of internal evidence in the West Country (of Scotland) to prove their genuine miraculous character, especially in the speaking with tongues . . . after witnessing what I have witnessed among these people, I cannot think of any person decidedly condemning them as imposters without a feeling of great alarm. It is certainly a thing not to be lightly, or rashly, believed, but neither is it a thing to be lightly or rashly rejected. I believe that it is of God.’ "

It is fair to record that Smith goes on to relate that some of the subsequent developments, especially in the community that gathered around Edward Irving, compelled Erskine to revise such an unqualified approval. Even then, however, Erskine questioned not the gifts themselves, but the rather their flagrant abuse—exactly as Paul found himself compelled to do regarding their abuse in Corinth. But surely they shall yet appear, said Erskine, when God has prepared men to receive them. That sentence seems prophetic.

The guarded language of reverent scholarship recognises that neither Scripture, nor logic, nor history can produce any sound and convincing argument against the continuance of the early Pentecostal phenomena of the Church. Great leaders of Christian thought and work, like John Wesley, William Booth, and others have fearlessly placed on record their personal conviction that the manifestation of the Spirit is highly desirable, and that the Church only ceases to enjoy His gifts through her own lukewarmness and unbelief, and not because God arbitrarily withdraws them as unnecessary to-day.

A condition of spiritual revival seems essential for their reappearance. Surely this is in their