The Early Years of the Tongues Movement
CHAPTER 3
"How Pentecost Came to Los
Angeles"
Frank Bartleman, writer of the book with the above title,
is the most engaging personality we have met in our study of the events before
us. He was a man of God beyond many, devoted to Christ and His cause, an
evangelist most eager to see sinners saved, and ready for every sacrifice. His
prayer-life was intense, even intemperate, accompanied by fasting to excess, to
the serious depletion of health. He was a servant ready to trust his Master.
Though unsupported by any Church or Society it was his fixed rule never to
mention to man his temporal needs, or to hint at financial questions, even when
penniless and without food for his family. His wife was heartily with him in
this and accepted privation when God tested their faith, as He always tests it,
and they rejoiced together in the marked deliverances with which faith is
rewarded. In 1910-1911 he travelled for eleven months, visiting 17 countries
between England and Japan, returning via the Pacific.
He writes: I did
not carry a single dollar with me from Los Angeles. My family trusted God fully
and were better cared for than they had ever been while I was with them. I
returned with about one dollar in my pocket. My wife had fifty dollars in bank.
"Faithful is He who calleth you, who also will do it."
In a wonderful
way the Lord preserved me from sickness. [Happily it was not yet the time when
Governments insist on poisoning travellers with powerful drugs which can do as
much damage as the diseases they prevent.]. I passed through cholera, plague,
and smallpox districts and exposure, and through fever sections at the most
deadly time of the year. But the Lord preserved me. I came home weighing ten
pounds heavier than I had weighed for years. My family had been kept in fair
health during my absence, and with plenty for their temporal needs. I never
asked for a penny nor a collection. All was given me voluntarily. I only
received fifty dollars from America after leaving her shores. In Palestine,
India, and China, help came from the most unexpected and unlikely sources. God
proved He could provide abroad as well as at home. I reached China with only
ten dollars. No money came from America to me there.
The writer does not
show whether he knew that eighty years before A. N. Groves had set the modern
example of serving the Lord on this, the apostolic plan, or whether he had
heard of George Müller of Bristol. Certainly he did not know that at the
very same period (1910, 1911) the present writer was on a tour of over two
years in India, Burma, Egypt, Tunisia, and Switzerland, similarly waiting upon
God alone for money and having the like experience of testings and miraculous
supplies. This life of practical trust in God is not to be attributed to the
Movement, for Bartleman was walking this path before the latter
commenced.
Bartlemans testimony is commended to the attention of
many today who profess to follow the same path but who really have one eye on
some organization or fund. Such send reports to magazines, or issue circular
letters to keep themselves before friends, which circulars often of late bear
the names of the writers wife, and of Susan, John, Mary, and the baby. It
will be healthy for the soul and good for their work when days come in which
magazines, lists of workers, and circulars are no more available. Workers will
then discover whether they are spiritually as far advanced as the saint of the
former dispensation who wrote: "My soul waiteth only upon God: From Him cometh
my salvation. He only is my rock My soul, wait thou only upon God, For my
expectation is from Him. He only is my rock" (Ps. 62:16). The evil in
view is, of course, not new. Spurgeon somewhere said that some evangelists
could not kill a mouse but that they must announce the feat in the Gospel
Magazine: whereas Samson killed a lion and said nothing about it!
Living thus, this dear brother Bartleman was free from bondage to man and
control by his brethren. He could learn more of the mind of Christ and could
practice what he learned. One very important thing that be saw was that control
by man of gatherings of Christians, and the imposing of human order, are denial
of the right of the Spirit of God and restrain His gracious activity in the
saints. He felt that the formal ordering of public worship was a severe and
constant hindrance to such a working of the Spirit as he longed and prayed to
see. And he presently learned of the ceasing of the 19045 revival in
Wales when ministerial control was reinforced, and shortly he saw the blight of
human rule and order quench the Movement in Los Angeles.
In the
earliest days of that Movement there were no arranged speakers or
pre-announcing of subjects, and the singing was equally spontaneous. Old
well-known hymns were used from memory. A fresh feature that developed was
"heavenly singing," without words or else in tongues. Of this he says, "they
finally began to despise this gift when the human spirit asserted
itself again. They drove it out by hymnbooks, and selected songs by leaders. It
was like murdering the Spirit, and most painful to some of us, but the tide was
too strong against us." And then he adds these pungent remarks: "Hymnbooks
today [1925] are largely a commercial proposition, and we would not lose much
without most of them. The old tunes, even, are violated by change, and new
styles must be gotten out every season, for added profit. There is very little
real spirit of worship in them. They move the toes, but not the hearts of men"
(57).
Bartlemans narrative begins with his arrival at Los Angeles
on December 22, 1904. On April 8, 1905, he heard F. B. Meyer describe the then
awakening in Wales. This stirred him deeply. He commenced to distribute
accounts of it by S. B. Shaw and Campbell Morgan. These helped to stir desire
and expectancy in many hearts. He and Evan Roberts exchanged some letters. In
measure the Los Angeles Movement arose out of the movement in Wales, the more
so in that a Los Angeles pastor named Smale had visited Wales and had returned
with some quickening. There being in the Churches and Missions but little
spiritual liberty, a few earnest people met for prayer in a cottage, 214 Bonnie
Brae Street, Los Angeles. On April 9, 1906, a member spoke in tongues. On
Sunday morning, April 15, at the New Testament Church, Burbank Hall, a coloured
sister spoke in tongues. When these things were noised abroad, the crowds came
together. The meetings were removed to 312 Asuza Street. This had been a
Methodist Church but was now a lumber store. Enough space was cleared of dirt
and debris to lay planks on top of empty nail kegs, to seat possibly thirty
persons. They were arranged in a square facing one another. Intense excitement
arose, augmented by some temporary concern in souls caused by the mighty
earthquake which began on April 19, through which some ten thousand people were
killed. The building was soon packed, tongues were frequent, the "heavenly
choir" was heard often, men and women flocked in dozens to the "altar,"
meetings went on continuously, almost round the clock. "Someone might he
speaking. Suddenly the Spirit would fall upon the congregation. God himself
would give the altar call. Men would fall all over the house, like the slain in
battle, or rush for the altar en masse, to seek God" (60).
The
supernatural force concentrated in this humble building was so intense as to
surcharge the immediate neighbourhood, so that persons approaching would fall
under its grip while still a block or two away. Others who had come to the city
to investigate were "baptized" where they were lodging. They had come from all
parts of the earth and returned to their spheres so charged with the energy
operating that through their testimonies and appeals similar scenes were
re-enacted.
Before long the Movement became world-wide. Its leaders
were very confident that it would cover the earth and continue until the coming
of the Lord. Those who participated were possessed by an unquestioning
conviction that the power acting was that of the Holy Spirit of God. This
assurance breathes instinctively in the hundreds of testimonies published in
the magazine "Confidence." The uniformity of description of the experiences is
striking, acceptance of the Divine source of it is invariable, and might easily
overwhelm the incautious reader into acquiescence, as it did so many thousands
of readers and beholders. And yet? When a cautious inquirer, even though
well-disposed to the supernatural and ready to accept its manifestations,
ponders many details as given by participants and believers in them, questions
will clamour for answer. The literature reveals an almost childlike innocence
in the acceptance of the view that the experiences were given by God. None seem
to have at all doubted this. It was just taken for granted. They had sought
earnestly for revival, and surely here it was! Would God give stones to those
who had asked for bread? But the majority in those early days seem not to have
heeded the exhortation of Paul that his readers, as wise men, were to judge
what even he, the apostle, said (1 Cor. 10:15). Apparently they were not warned
by Johns explicit statement that many false prophets were clamouring to
be heard and therefore every spirit must be tested (1 John 4:1).
Later in
the Movement a few leaders gave such warnings, but not it would seem to much
purpose. This habit of mind is dangerous, for it makes easy the work of
deceiving spirits and false prophets. There were leaders, of whom Bartleman was
one, who recognized that evil spirits might counterfeit the work of the Holy
Spirit; but have not read that any one of them scrutinized his own "baptism"
and tongues, or doubted the Divine origin of this exercise or of the healings
of the body that took place. A line of truth was pressed to an extreme and
furthered the tendency not to exercise the judgment as to these experiences.
Bartleman describes the occasion when first he spoke in an unknown tongue, and
says: I was truly "sealed in the forehead... ceasing from the works of my own
natural mind fully
My mind, the last fortress of men to yield, was taken
possession of by the Spirit
My mind had always been very active
Nothing hinders faith and the operation of the Spirit so much as the
self-assertiveness of the human spirit, the wisdom, strength and
self-sufficiency of the human mind. This must all be crucified, and here is
where the fight comes in "(72).
There is here a point of importance,
even that the inner man of the heart must he brought into subjection to the
Spirit of God: but that the powers of the human mind "must all be crucified"
simply puts the man off his proper defence, so as to accept whatever is urged
by an extraneous power, whatever that power may be. It was to the same effect
that an Archdeacon, speaking of his "baptism," said "If I might add a word of
caution from experience, it would be to use the greatest care to keep
ones head out of the way. It is not by way of ones head so much as
by way of ones heart that the Holy Ghost loves to enter." (Confidence,
Dec. 1908, 13). Here again is an element of truth. It is certain that with too
many believers it is principally a mental knowledge that is gained while the
affections remain little moved toward Christ. Yet an experience that is mainly
emotional, the feelings stirred though intelligence be meagre, will leave open
the door to false emotionalism and to the mind being misled by false ideas.
Speakers in that period laid much stress on Rom. 6:6: "Your old man was
crucified with Him." It was well urged that the anointing of the Spirit could
not be put upon the old sinful nature but only upon Christ developed in the
believer. Mrs. Boddy was urgent in pressing this truth. But the psychology was
faulty. The term "the old man" points to the moral nature, which is incurably
corrupt and must be held in death, so that the resurrection of Christ may
animate the Christian by faith. But this moral nature is not the intellect, the
mind, as a faculty, but the false perverting influence that blinds the mind.
This moral nature must die with Christ by faith, and the mind be thus liberated
and renewed; but this does not mean that the intellect itself, as a faculty,
must die and cease to operate, so putting the judgment into abeyance on matters
spiritual.
When it is a question of testimony to ordinary events there may
be little need to test the competency of the speaker; but when a man talks upon
one of the more recondite facts and problems of some science it is necessary to
learn that he is competent to speak upon the subject. Even so it is needful to
consider whether those who testify to supernatural events are reliable as
witnesses. In the present case a particular feature is noticeable. The
literature before me gives photographs of quite a number of men and women
connected with the Movement in the early years. They divide into two main
classes: those whose eyes have the dreamy faraway look of the gentle,
sentimental nature, and those whose eyes glitter, are restless, intense. Only
few faces show a normal, placid, controlled spirit. Neither of the two former
classes can be relied upon to form a sober, tested judgment upon exciting
experiences. One who knew Mr. A. A. Boddy as a preacher in those early days has
described to me his preaching as "emotional." His photo confirms this. One who
knew the leader in India of that time, named Moorhead, tells me he was
erratic." The judgement of such is usually hasty, as we shall shortly
have occasion to see.
At the time of the Los Angeles manifestations Frank
Bartleman was aged thirty-four. His photo shows a sweet, intense nature of the
first type mentioned, that of a man likely to be too easily moved and carried
away. An instance can be given. It concerns a Mr and Mrs A. G. Garr. He says: I
preached at Fifth Street Mission, where the "Burning Bush" had gotten
control
They were going wild (6)
The Burning Bush "had spoiled the
spirit of the saints greatly in San Diego. It had made them harsh and hard.
There was little love, but much strife and contention" (31)... [Later] Brother
and Sister Garr closed "the Burning Bush" hall, came to Asuza, received the
"baptism," and were soon on the way to India to spread the fire (54); And in
February 1911 he wrote warmly of them in China, whither they had gone on from
India. Here is a rapid change of judgment about these friends. Before they went
to Asuza their work was "going wild," making saints "harsh and hard," "breeding
strife and contention," but when they had fallen under the Asuza spell they are
at once commended and encouraged.
Now the "Good Report," the Los Angeles
organ of the Movement, in its issue for June 1913, gave a large portrait of
these friends. Mrs. Garr has a sweet, pensive face of the first type described,
but her husbands expression is fierce, aggressive, bellicose, with no
trace of the meekness and gentleness of Christ, though he was supposed to have
received so recently a special baptism in the Spirit of Christ. There will be
occasion later to learn that Bartlemans estimate of him showed a defect
in judgment and that the spirit that made people harsh and hard was still
dominant in him. This same lack of balance can be seen in another feature of
this excellent man. He was liable to violent illnesses, dangerous and painful,
associated with chronic neurasthenia, the result of excessive efforts. His
children had attacks of convulsions and other conditions inherited from their
neurotic father. He frequently mentions these factors, and of every sickness he
declares that it was the devil trying to kill him and them. This was unfair to
the devil for all neurasthenics are liable to such attacks without Satanic
action. It belongs to the condition. But not only was his reasoning and
judgment at fault as 6 5might naturally follow from his mind having been
"crucified" but regularly he says that prayer was made and that the Lord
delivered him or the children. Yet the steady recurrence and intensifying of
the attacks makes clear that there was nothing more than that cessation of the
violence of the pains known with severe neuralgic spasms, with no plain
indications of distinct Divine healing action. That the Lord supported the
spirit of His dear servant under the strain would certainly be the case, but
that is not direct healing of the body.
But his failure of judgment as to
his own case and that of his children. On the part of so godly a brother and so
prominent a leader, naturally raises the question as to whether the same
feature obtained in many other cases of sickness and healing of those days. The
point is of importance, because the records in "Confidence" indicate that after
a few years the matter of "tongues" lost its early prominence and that of
"healings" came to the front. The most remarkable instance is that of one Smith
Wigglesworth. "Confidence" gives many reports about him and by him, and, if
only half the cases of healing be accepted, he came not a whit behind the very
chiefest Apostles as a healer. It is by no means suggested that there were no
genuine instances of Divine healing. There may have been many, for where faith
presented itself to the Lord He, of course, would respond. Only it must be
remembered that though Peter healed very many sick folk, and even raised the
dead (and several alleged raisings of the dead are given in "Confidence"), that
did not imply the Lords endorsement of all that Peter said and did, such
as his rebuke of Christ (Matt. 16) or his lapse at Antioch (Gal. 2:1118)
Neither would abundance of cases of the sick being healed prove of itself that
accompanying "tongues" and "prophesyings" were of God. Healings take place
among sundry false cults such, for example, as Christian Science. Our present
question is whether with many healers and many healed there may have been the
same deficiency of knowledge and the like defect of judgment as with Frank
Bartleman, and much have been ranked as Divine healing without being really
such. Just as Bartleman saw an attack of the devil in every attack of sickness,
so it seems did Smith Wigglesworth regard all sickness as directly from the
devil and he would curse the demon and command him to depart. It seems scarcely
of Christ that his messenger should curse any one, even a demon. The
exhortation to the Christian is "Bless, and curse not" (Rom. 12:14), and though
one could not bless a demon, neither should one curse him (Jude 9. Zech. 3:1,
2). But in many cases, especially of neurotic types, such daring, dramatic
action would be a likely way to startle, arouse, and benefit the sufferer. It
would have been of value had some competent person examined some of the more
striking instances and formed an opinion upon this aspect. Lapse of time now
precludes this or learning as to the permanence of the cures.
In 1955 a
dear man well in middle life, who was for thirty years a "pastor" in the
Movement and is still a firm adherent narrated to me at length his own
remarkable healing by the Lord (as he believed) when he was a young man. He was
taken with violent abdominal pain, but determined that he would trust the Lord
only for healing. The doctor called by his parents he sent away, and for six
terrible weeks he struggled on, claiming healing and deliverance on the ground
of the Blood of Christ. Abatement came at length, he vomited some black clots,
and gradually regained strength. So little did he know of sickness that he had
all along supposed it was appendicitis, until I told him that the appendix was
on the other side of the body. There is I suppose, little doubt that it was a
gastric ulcer, which took a natural course and reached a natural end, nor was
there any sign whatever of supernatural intervention. Yet all these years the
dear man in his innocence had regarded and narrated this as a gracious instance
of Divine healing.
And many cases are on record in which recovery was more
or less slow and seemingly natural. We do well to give God thanks when we pull
through and recover health, but to proclaim these as instances of direct Divine
action argues that lack of knowledge and judgment here before us. But seeing
that in such physical matters the judgment of good Christians could either err
or be in abeyance, may it not have been so as regards the more difficult and
distinctly spiritual matters they shared? We have quoted Bartlemans
account of how at Asuza the Spirit would fall suddenly and men would drop to
the ground all over the house, or rush in crowds to the front, till the place
was like a forest of fallen trees. Many would talk in tongues together, though
this is plainly contrary to Scripture.
Curious things are described.
Brother Seymour [a coloured brother, a godly man] was recognized as the nominal
leader in charge
Brother Seymour generally sat behind two empty shoe
boxes, one on top of the other. He usually kept his head inside of the top one
during the meetings, in prayer (58). A singular spectacle this the leader with
his head hidden in a box while the fire of excitement blazed and roared around
him. We wanted God. When we first reached the meeting we avoided as much as
possible human contact and greeting. We wanted to meet God first. We got our
head under some bench in the corner in prayer, and met men only in the Spirit,
knowing them " after the flesh" no more (59).
Here again are excellencies
and eccentricities. To come to meet God, to avoid merely human contacts
good indeed but why get ones head under a bench? Why hide ones head
in a box? Another feature provokes inquiry. We had a "tarrying" room upstairs,
for those especially seeking God for the "baptism," though many got it in the
main assembly room also. In fact they often got it in their seats in those
days. On the wall of the tarrying room was hung a placard with the words, "No
talking above a whisper." We knew nothing of jazzing them through at that time
(55) Our so called tarrying and prayer rooms today [l925] are but a shadow of
the former ones, too often a place to blow off steam in human enthusiasm, or
become mentally intoxicated supposedly from the Holy Ghost. Many of them are a
kind of lethal chamber with very little of the pure Spirit of God (81)
Thus
there were two apartments, greatly in contrast. One retired and quiet, where
God could be sought in stillness the other marked by crowds, excitement,
movement, noise. Which of these was according to God? Apparently it made little
difference, for people were "baptized " in both some finding the gift by quiet
seeking, others while sitting in the public and restless meeting. Here is
another strange scene from the public meeting. Brother Ansell Post, a Baptist
preacher, was sitting on a chair the middle of the floor one evening in the
meeting. Suddenly the Spirit fell upon him. He sprang from his chair began to
praise God in a loud voice in "tongues," and ran all over the place, hugging
all the brethren he could get hold of. He was filled with divine love. He later
went to Egypt as a missionary (61). That some spirit urged the dear man seems
certain but it is hard to believe that the Spirit of God, who commands and
produces decency and order in public, provoked a preacher to rush about the
assembly, shouting in a strange tongue that edified no one, and seizing and
hugging the men folk. But Bartleman had no doubt it was the Holy Spirit, which
suggests a judgment faulty and unreliable.
Again: At the New Testament
Church a young lady of refinement was prostrate on the floor for hours, while
at times the most heavenly singing would issue from her lips
All over the
house men and women were weeping. A preacher was flat on his face on the floor,
crying out. " Pentecost has fully come" (61). It is safe to say that if at
Pentecost of old any Oriental young woman had been stretched on the floor for
hours in the presence of men, and singing, it would have been impossible to
convince people that the Spirit of the Holy One (of Israel) was the cause of
this. Or again, of another centre in Los Angeles in the same opening year,
1906, we read: The atmosphere at Eighth and Maple was for a time even deeper
than at "Asuza." God came so wonderfully near us, the very atmosphere of heaven
seemed to surround us. Such a divine "weight of glory" was upon us we could
only lie on our faces. For a long time we could hardly remain seated even. All
would be on their faces on the floor, sometimes during the whole service. I was
seldom able to keep from lying full length on the floor on my face. There was a
little raise of about a foot, for a platform, when we moved into the church. On
this I generally lay, while God ran the meetings (69).
Once more, in 1908
in Indianapolis: At one meeting when I was through the slain of the Lord lay
all over the floor. I looked for the preachers behind me and they lay stretched
out on the floor too. One of them had his feet tangled up in a chair, so I knew
they had gone down under the power of God. I stepped over near the piano, among
the people. My body began to rock under the power of God and I fell over on to
the piano and lay there. It was a cyclic manifestation of the power of God
(122). These scenes from the first days, when the power acting was working most
energetically and pervading the Movement, were given by this chief and godly
leader as displaying what characterized those days and proved to him that
Pentecost had been renewed and the ever-blessed Spirit had fallen afresh.
The reader must judge for himself whether this is sufficiently proved
by a preacher lying on the platform before the audience with "his feet tangled
up in a chair" and by another "falling over on to the piano and lying there."
Is there any parallel to such scenes in the Acts of the Apostles? This good man
makes prominent another feature concerning himself, which has a lesson and a
warning. It refers to his health, already mentioned. [1904] My nerves had been
worn threadbare from years of previous pioneer mission work
My back was
my weak spot (10)
I have always worked harder than my natural strength
reasonably allowed (13). [1905] My life was by this time literally swallowed up
in prayer. I was praying day and night (18)
We prayed for a spirit of
revival for Pasadena until the burden became well-nigh unbearable. I cried out
like a woman in birth pangs (19)
I had an awful attack of neuralgia of the
stomach. I felt I would die. I fasted and prayed a whole day and night and the
lord delivered. (26)
[brother Boehmer, a gardener] spent several hours in
prayer
We often spent whole nights together in prayer during those days.
It seemed a great privilege to spend a whole night with the Lord. He drew so
near. We never seemed to get weary on such occasions (33) The spirit of prayer
came more and more heavily upon us
I would lie on my bed in the daytime
and roll and groan under the burden. I fasted much, not caring for food when
burdened. At one time I was in soul travail for nearly twenty four hours
without intermission. It nearly used me up. Prayer literally consumed me. I
would groan all night in my sleep (35) I had a blessed weeping burden for a
number of days. I had such a burden one night I could not sleep (40). I spent
another all night of prayer with Brother Boehmer. My nerves were getting very
worn from constant conflict in prayer with the pow-ers of darkness (42). [1907]
I then began to stay at home more to rest and recuperate. I had written much,
attended meetings constantly, besides going through the terrific siege of
prayer both before and after the outpouring, so that my nerves were completely
exhausted. I could hardly contemplate the writing of an ordinary postcard
without mental agony at this time
I can sympathize with Evan
Roberts nervous breakdown after the revival in Wales (92).
Readers of my pamphlets "Praying is Working" and "Prayer Focused and
Fighting" will be aware that the Lord taught me something of the need and power
of prayer conflict. I have experienced the strain and the blessed effects of
prayer, and of some fasting. But is it of God, is it a necessity in the world
of spirits, that servants of Christ should disable themselves from the wars of
the Lord by such extreme and sustained pressure as induces nervous exhaustion
and mental collapse? The histories of the Bible offer no instance of it. The
closing letters of Paul and Peter and John show no brain fag, but are as
vigorous as their early writing and preaching, and they were old men. But the
above pathetic extracts are from a man only thirty-four to thirty-six years of
age. The first photo in his hook shows eyes already with signs of weariness,
and his portrait of only nineteen years later gives a man of only fifty three
years yet prematurely aged, gaunt and grey, with knitted brow and strained
eyes.
One can respect the zeal and revere the devotion, but question the
wisdom, or want of wisdom. And in all spheres such early exhaustion is seen in
servants of Christ, with often premature death and consequent weakening of the
armies of the Lord. And for the purpose of our present inquiry it is to be
pondered that a brain thus wearied means a reduced power of reflection and
discernment, with a proportionate liability to unrecognized adverse influence
by the powers of darkness. So devoted a disciple as Simon Peter had not the
least notion that it was from Satan there had come a false idea. Skilfully
mingled with a genuine desire for his Masters welfare (Matt.
16:2223). Simon was not a worn-out man: much more will the exhausted
disciple be open to such harmful influence. This leads to the observation that
in the Movement before us there was plainly a deep mixture of what was of God
and what was not of Him. Many who joined early in the Movement and received the
"baptism" were already serious and instructed Christians. They held firmly the
great truths of the faith, loved Christ, sought to bring sinners to Him, looked
for His return. The entrance into their hearts and lives of the fresh elements
the "baptism" brought did not affect this earlier stock of knowledge and
experience, and when the new stimulus came these believers went forth and still
preached salvation by the atoning blood, sanctification by the Spirit and much
else that was godly and helpful.
Nor need one doubt that some sincere
longers after Gods fullness were met by Him in grace, irrespective of
what in the meetings was not of Him, and there received a fullness of Holy
Spirit not known before. Also it is quite believable that the truly expectant
found healing of the body. All this would call forth praise to His holy name.
Whatever features can be paralleled in the New Testament should be received
gratefully. But when it is urged that these features prove that the "tongues",
"prophecies", "ecstasies", "visions", were of God, then must be kept in mind
the mixed condition above indicated. And these startling additional experiences
must be tested, lest anything false has commingled with the truth. This
necessary scrutiny was too much neglected, and, moreover some had become
disqualified for exercising it by causes above suggested.
A Movement
cannot be tested by those features which it has in common with other Christians
or bodies of Christians but only by the features peculiar to itself. Adherence
to true doctrine, love for Christ, zeal in spreading the gospel, and similar
conditions were not first generated in this Movement; they are found in equal
vigour where no supernatural gifts have been claimed, and cannot therefore be a
guarantee that the latter are from God. It may not be so. This examination of
the first days of the Movement raises grave doubts as to this with regard to
the Movement as a whole, which doubt is confirmed when details are examined.
One further matter deserves special mention because it provides a test in
some other vital questions. From the very first, and throughout all the early
years, there was persistent assertion that the second advent of Christ was just
at hand. From 1911 to 1917 there was given on the first page of "Confidence" a
brief summary of doctrines believed, which included "the soon-coming of the
Lord." This imminency was emphasized in addresses, reports, and letters, so
that few pages of that magazine are without such a statement. This erroneous
expectation has been entertained by very many outside the Movement, but the
difference is that these believers generally set forth the view as no more than
their opinion of the meaning of Scripture, whereas in the Movement it was
announced as a Divine communication. In "tongues," interpretations, prophecies,
and visions it was iterated and reiterated, as, for example, when in a vision
of Christ He was reported to have said He was coming soon and they were to tell
people this. It is evident that the Lord never made this misstatement. Fifty
years have passed and He is not here.
It follows that the visions,
tongues. and prophecies which contained these unfounded statements were either
not inspired at all, but were entirely the utterances of the natural mind, or
else they were inspired by lying spirits. Many of the utterances were quite
precise, as that the Lord will come "this year" or within two years, or that
this may be the last winter before He comes. Few speaking from their own mind
would be thus daring; it suggests an outside foreign source or impulse, but
this source could not have been the Spirit of truth. This false prediction was
so constant, so emphatic, so universal as to constitute a major feature of the
whole Movement from its start, which forces serious doubt as to the energy
animating it.
Quite apart from this Movement there is something
startling, almost sinister, in the way this false hope has seized vast numbers
of truly godly persons. It has been fostered by the equally unwarranted
assertion that the apostles and the early church expected the Lord to return at
any time so ought we not to cherish the same hope? Yet it is abundantly clear
that the first generation of Christians knew that Christ would not return in
their day certainly not till after Peter should have grown old and died (John
21:1823). The Lord had specifically warned the apostles against this very
idea, saying. "Take heed that no one lead you astray
for the end is not
yet, not immediately" (Matt. 24:36; Luke 21:79). And Paul
distinctly contemplated that false spirits and even forged letters would seek
to make Christians think that the day of the Lord was already come (2 Thess.
2:14). The indulging of this false hope, ever disproved from generation
to generation, has served to bring into disrepute the whole theme of the second
Advent, which has served well the scheme of the powers of darkness. It is
regrettable that the Movement here in view served their ends in this
particular. It raises the whole question of the origin of the supernatural
element in the Movement, seeing that the error was inculcated by persistent
utterances alleged to have been given by supernatural agency. If the power was
supernatural, then it was evil otherwise the utterances were not supernatural
as was claimed, and then the Movement from its beginning largely loses its
supernatural character as regards its two most distinctive features of tongues
and prophecies. Yet without some supernatural agency it will be hard to account
for much that undoubtedly took place as recorded by this evidently honest
witness, Frank Bartleman. His book bears the impress of complete sincerity, and
he was esteemed by the contemporary actors in these events, as is shown by
several cordial references to him in "Confidence."
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