Reports of “Strange Fire” at Revival Meeting
June 4th, 2008 by Carl Thomas.Here is what the newsletter said,
Pastor Barratt (of whom more below) said that till recently it was difficult to attract to religious meetings. A Salvation Army officer advertised that a man would rise from his coffin and preach the Gospel, but even this did not effectively draw. But now twice a day and every day and week after week these meetings are thronged by enthusiastic crowds, who go out to spread the strange flame, which they are convinced is Pentecostal and Heavenly and Scriptural.
The meetings are liable at any moment to be swept by a wave of spiritual power sweeping through all human arrangements. At times the noise is strangely awesome, almost appalling to an “outsider.”
Some of us ask ourselves the question, how will this affect the Keswick Convention meetings and other gatherings this year? Those who have “Tongues” will be present, and unable and unwilling to control them when moved by the Spirit.
Published in the Apostolic Faith newsletter. Vol. I. No. 6 February - March, 1907 in reporting about the Azusa Street Revival’s effect on Keswick.
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“and unwilling to control them when moved by the Spirit.”
That has always been one of the problem that eventually hurts revival.
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@jeff - This article was referring to the Azusa Street revival which by most accounts worked out quite well.
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Hi Carl,
I intended to respond to this when I first read it last week, but have to admit you had me going with the title and the text, UNTIL I “Vol. I. No. 6 February - March, 1907″ — that was a good one. I wonder how much more the backlash against Azusa would have been like had the technology, media, internet, “instant everything” existed then? I think the backlash in the blogosphere certainly provides some clues.
Regards,
Rain
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