Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

Insights from Modern Church History (A.O. 1830-1980)

These three renewal movements (in contrast to the larger Pentecostal and charismatic renewal movements) provide convenient windows for easier viewing of the blessings and problems connected with spiritual man ifestations, particularly prophecy. Since these movements have each made a significant impact on the Christian world, viewing their strengths and weaknesses is a helpful exercise for today's churches. In this section, there fore, I will devote a chapter to each movement. During my Christian experience of 57 years, I have been impressed by the followers and teachings of these three renewals, so my approach is both sympathetic and cautious. They are close enough to each other in history to have had some overlap, with each later renewal having oppor tunity to learn from its predecessor(s). They are like three segments of a connected time sequence. 1 Thank God for people who have seen the need for the Church to expe rience renewal and return to Bible patterns! Although I may not agree with all they did and believed (I offer free advice for their problems from my armchair!), I sit as a sympathetic observer of these zealous Christians of yesteryear, identifying with their holy objectives. We can learn from them and, I hope, avoid some of the pitfalls that befell them. In his biography The Life of Edward Irving, Arnold Dallimore makes this dramatic opening: Edward Irving was a Presbyterian minister who served in London from 1822 till his death in 1834. But he could also be termed a Pentecostal. That is, during his last five years his doctrinal position was virtually that of the Pentecostal body of today. He believed God was then granting a restoration of the Apostolic gifts, especially those of "tongues," "healing" and "prophecy", and his views were such that, although he preceded our day by a century and a half, he well deserves the recognition he has recently begun to receive: "The fore-runner of the Charismatic Movement". 2 This controversial Church of Scotland minister, famous preacher and close friend of Carlyle, Coleridge and Lamb was a man of great piety, compassion and pulpit eloquence. He was born at Annan, Dumfries, stud ied at the University of Edinburgh, spent several years as a schoolmaster, then served three years as assistant to Dr. Thomas Chalmers at St. John's in Glasgow, where he had great influence among the poor in the slums. • 268 Background of Edward Irving