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

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

insightful. Living so close to Irving's time lends weight to his comments and indicates Williams' efforts to learn from the past.

It is said that Edward Irving, who became the prominent figure of the movement, was of a most noble character, holy and faithful in his unwea ried labour, and has never been surpassed in zeal. The gifts of the Holy Ghost were publicly manifested in his Church. The writer of this booklet has been confirmed by, and has found many lessons in, the history of his labour that are of great benefit. That there were impulsive actions and a lawless spirit in those that had the prophetic utterances is, unfortunately, clear from his accounts. The channels were not submissive, and acted dis orderly in the meetings, created excitement under the Power, not holding themselves in steadiness and quietness. This led to much confusion. The operation of the Gifts in the Church are supposed to work in a Divine solem nity, decently and in order, and because of the unmannerly and self-impor tant activities of many that are blessed, it has brought reproach on the work of God, and the cause has suffered. 35 Fortunately Williams could learn from Edwards, but this did not ade quately prepare the AC for the new move that came on the scene in 1948, the Latter Rain Movement, with its fresh emphasis on the prophetic. That movement swept through the United States and Canada and made an impact in Europe as well. The AC as a religious body unfortunately did not welcome the renewal with its emphasis on prophecy. Worsfold comments: "The Apostolic Church in Britain simply rode out the storm of 'Latter Rain' rather than taking the opportunity to introduce reforms. This state of affairs lasted at least another ten years. Being 'Apostolic' simply con tinued to mean believing certain doctrines, doing certain things in a cer tain ordered way, and supporting the centralized system of administra "A careful reading of the literature available to this writer about the Apostolic church and the 'Latter Rain' highlights one thing above all: that if church leadership and congregations do not remain open to God and His sovereign will, they run the risk of acting as pious conservatives, and will, in the end, sit down to a banquet of consequences. Self-preserva tionists often lean towards opting for comfort while reformers seek (through spiritual renewal) to initiate changes which often result in chal lenges to the status quo." 36 I hope the historical review and prophetic insights of the past two chap ters have been helpful. Next we will review one of the most controversial prophetic movements of all time: the so-called "Latter Rain movement." A living contemporary of (but not part of) that movement will be dis- • 284 tion in matters of government, finance and property." This next statement by Worsfold seems significant: