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

Edward Irving, Morning Star of Renewal

skies of modern Church history were void of any glimmer of light testi fying to spiritual gifts and the prophetic voice, Edward Irving's ministry burst forth like a morning star of hope, a promise of better things to come.

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Irving and his church became important features of Pentecostal his toriography as historical precedents were sought for revivals with empha sis on the charismata, especially glossolalia.It is evident from early peri odical articles that the Irving phenomenon became an interpretative grid by which Pentecostal theologians came to understand and evaluate their own experience. 26 D.D.Bundy Read the lives of the Reformers, of the Puritans, of the covenanters, written by sound and zealous Protestants ...and show me whether these writers hold it blasphemy to say that a man may be, and hath been gifted with both these gifts, especially that of prophecy? 27 Edward Irving Irving would have denied that ...he was a rebel against the church, but he was always a sharp critic of its ways and manners.He did, however, believe that the structure of its life required change.He brought to sharp focus the question which faces us just as urgently to-day-how to reform the Church from within. 28 H.C.Whitley Irving taught that the outward gifts of the Spirit had generally ceased not because they were intended to be temporary, as the Reformers had taught, or because believing Christians had not received a second blessing in the gift of the Holy Spirit, as most Pentecostals were to teach, but sim ply because of a lack of faith, over the centuries.According to him, mirac ulous gifts and ministries would be received both by the church and indi vidual members, if only there was faith. 2 9 -from the final report of the Panel on Doctrine of the Church of Scotland, 1974 The fact of the matter is that the name of Edward Irving, for all the notability which it enjoyed during his own lifetime, is today little more than a name to most students of church history, somewhat vaguely identified with speaking in tongues, prophecy, and other sundry fanaticisms. 30 Larry Christenson

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