Charismata in church history

[Guest power2u]

Pentecost in church history

A look through church history demonstrates that the Pentecostal experience did not end with the apostles.

There is an argument that Pentecost died out with the early church. Following are some quotes taken from church history that will dispel that argument and bless you in the process.

"That this phenomenon is by no means restricted to early Christianity is universally recognized. It was common in the Christian movement as late as Tertullian and Irenaeus. In later years it appeared again, and has been the seemingly inevitable consequence of all extended seasons of 'revivals.'"

"It has been (and is) a feature of religious, especially revivalist, activities at many periods of church history."

"Tongues recur in Christian revivals in every age, e.g., among...the early Quakers, the converts of Wesley and Whitefield, the persecuted Protestants of the Cevennes, the Irvingites, and the revivalists of Wales and America."

Justin Martyr (died 165) "For the prophetical gifts remain with us, even to the present time."

Irenaeus (died 202) "In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages, and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and declare the mysteries of God."

Tertullian (died 220), replying to Marcion, a Gnostic: "Let Marcion then exhibit, as gifts of his god, some prophets, such as have not spoken by human sense, but with the Spirit of God, such as have both predicted things to come, and have made manifest the secrets of the heart; let him produce a psalm, a vision, a prayer - only let it be by the Spirit, in an ecstasy; that is, in a rapture, whenever an interpretation of tongues has occurred to him...Now all these signs are forthcoming from my side without any difficulty, and they agree, too, with the rules, and the dispensations, and the instructions of the Creator..."

Novatian (died 257) "This is He who places prophets in the Church, instructs teachers, directs tongues, gives powers and healings, does wonderful works, offers discrimination of spirits, affords powers of government, suggests counsels, and orders and arranges whatever other gifts there are of charismata; and thus makes the Lord's Church everywhere, and in all, perfected and completed."

Pachomius (died 346) was reported to have spoken "the language of angels...[and] after seasons of prayer, under the power of the Spirit, was able to speak languages which he had never learned."

Bishop Hilary of Poitiers (died 367) mentioned, among other things, "gifts of either speaking or interpreting divers kinds of tongues." He concluded, "Clearly these are the Church's agents of ministry and work of whom the body of Christ consists; and God has ordained them."

Theodore of Mopsueste (died 428) "Many heathen amongst us are being healed by Christians from whatever sickness they have, so abundant are miracles in our midst."

Augustine (430) experienced a revival that swept North Africa where he was bishop. He wrote of miraculous healings from breast cancer, paralysis, hernia - even raising of the dead after the funeral was arranged. In his own church, two epileptics were instantly healed after they had fallen to the floor in convulsions. "Praise to God was shouted so loud that my ears could scarcely stand the din."

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) "sang in unknown words with such facility and winsomeness that her utterances were known as 'concerts in the Spirit'."

Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) spoke in other tongues according to some editions of the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Clare of Montefalco (c. 1193-1253) spoke ecstatically in French, although her native tongue was Italian.

The Waldenses (c. 1217) These followers of Peter Waldo believed in visions and prophecies. Both healing and speaking in tongues were manifested among these heavily persecuted Christians.

Bridget of Sweden (1302-1373) Concerning this daughter of Birger, Prince of Sweden, Butler records, "To speak the language of angels was the happy privilege of Saint Bridget,"

Louis Bertrand (1526-1581), Catholic missionary to South America, spoke in tongues according to Butler: "The gifts of tongues, of prophecy, and of miracles, were favors conferred by heaven on this new apostle, as the authentic history of his life...assures us."

Martin Luther (c 1540), According to the German church historian Theodor Sauer, Luther spoke in tongues: "Luther was easily the greatest evangelical man after the apostles, full of inner love to the Lord like John, hasty in deed like Peter, deep in thinking like Paul, cunning and powerful in speech like Elijah, uncompromising against God's enemies like David; prophet and evangelist, speaker-in-tongues and interpreter in one person, equipped with all the gifts of grace, a light and pillar of the church..."Whether this refers to the actual gift of tongues (I Cor 12) or the romance languages (i.e. Latin, French, etc.) is not certain. That Luther believed in miracles is certain. In 1541 when Myconius lay speechless in the final stages of consumption, Luther prayed and he was restored to health. He also prayed for Melanchthon who was near death and God healed him also. Melanchthon said: "I should have been a dead man, had I not been recalled from death itself by the coming of Luther."

Early Quakers "We received often the pouring down of the Spirit upon us, and our hearts were made glad and our tongues loosed and our mouths opened, and we spake with new tongues as the Lord gave utterance, and as His Spirit led us."

John Wesley. Wesley's journal record over 200 cases of Divine healing; including once when he prayed for his horse which had gone lame while he was on a preaching circuit, and the horse recovered.People in Wesley's meetings would be Spirit filled while he preached. "What so impressed and encouraged John Wesley and his followers, what so shocked, startled, and bewildered his contemporaries, is no mystery to the modern psychologist, to whom it is known as glossolalia, or "speaking with tongues"...After Paul laid his hands upon them "they spoke with tongues and prophesied," and such displays...had accompanied all the revivals of the faith and all the persecution of the martyrs. It is no wonder then, that John Wesley refused to listen to the skepticism of Charles (Wesley) or to the reproaches of his opponents, and continued to note down with interest...the extraordinary effects that he was able to produce in those who came to listen to him preach."

Thomas Walsh (one of Wesley's foremost preachers) made this entry in his diary; "This morning the Lord gave me a language that I knew not of, raising my soul to Him in a wonderful manner."

England (1830) There was a revival under Edward Irving where gifts of the Spirit were manifested. One member of the congregations writes: "The moment I am visited with the Spirit, and carried out to God in a tongue which I know not... I am more conscious than ever of the presence of God. He and He alone is in my soul. I am filled with some form of the mind of God, be it joy or grief, desire, love, pity, compassion, or indignation; and I am made to utter it in words which are full of power over my spirit, but not being accessible to my understanding, my devotion is not interrupted by association of suggestions from the visible or intellectual world: I feel myself, as it were, shut in with God in His pavilion, and hidden close from the invasions of the world, the devil, and the flesh."

Charles G. Finney "I received a mighty baptism in the Holy Ghost...No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love; and I do not know but I should say, I literally bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my heart."

D. L. Moody "One the following Sunday night, when I got to the rooms of the Y.M.C.A. I found the meetings on fire. The young men were speaking in tongues and prophesying. What on earth did it all mean? Only that Moody had been addressing them that afternoon." At a meeting in Los Angeles, Dr. R.A. Torrey told of a service in London where Moody took the pulpit to preach and instead broke into another language. He tried again, with similar results. The third time, after prayer and praise, he was able to preach his message.

Charles H. Spurgeon A British preacher told how Spurgeon once asked his audience to forgive him that when he got especially happy in the Lord, "I break forth into a kind of gibberish which I do not myself understand."

Conclusion

Elijah felt all alone against Ahab and Jezebel, but Obadiah had hid 100 other prophets by 50 in a cave (I Ki 18:4). Sometimes it has seemed that those with the Pentecostal experience were outside of the main stream of Christianity and alone. However we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (He 12:1) and as you can see from the quotes above Pentecost is not just a recent (i.e. 20th century) fad.

Here is one last quote from John Wesley. "Oh, Lord, send us the old revival, without the defects; but if this cannot be, send it - with all its defects. We must have the revival."30

Edited November 8, 2004 by power2u

[AnotherTraveler]

Good Post!

[Guest Hebrew Hammer]

Cool,

Maybe even the Baptist's are the Third wave?

http://s3.invisionfree.com/Bapticostals_Online/index.php

[IslandRose]

Not this Baptist.

[Guest Hebrew Hammer]

I should have posted "Bapticostals" rather than Baptist

[stevehut]

Wesley spoke in Tongues? I attended a Methodist church for many years, and they never thaught this...

[Guest power2u]

Stevehut there might be many things they have`nt told you, I have a document of a vision he had I bet you never heard of this either.

There are many members of the missionary alliance I have spoken with even some pastors who never knew that thier founder A.B Simpson had a healing ministry.

[stevehut]

there might be many things they have`nt told you, I have a document of a vision he had I bet you never heard of this either.

Where can I find a record of Wesley speaking in tongues?