The last two books #four, five and six all talk about the Great Awakening and Whitfield, Edwards, and later Peter Cartwright. One thing that I have found intersting is when he is talking about the Methodist style of preaching and the "fanaticism" that went on during the preaching. People would start shaking, screaming, and sometimes just faint while there. People would, shout, bark and run when they were converted. They said the the Spirit was fighting for their souls. Many had true conversions this way. The Winslows (from the books) were divided about how they felt about it. I can understand why. I know that I have been to many revivals which have had people, laughing softly because they were so happy to find Jesus, crying because they were so convicted and even lifting up their hands in worship of our Lord, but I have never seen these kind of reactions. Were those extreme reactions from God or Satan? We just happened to have a sermon last Sunday on these kind of behaviours.
"But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves." Jude 1:10 Definiton of brute: "brutus, irrational, senseless"
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord..." Isaiah 1:18 How can you "reason togehter" if you are barking like a dog or in a faint?
Charles Parham and William J. Seymour started the Pentecostal movement. Pentecostals have a lot of irrational behaviour like this. Here is a qoute from Frank Bartleman How Pentecost came to Los Angeles, 1925. "Brother Seymour usually...kept his head inside the (shoebox) during the meeting...Men would fall all over the house...I was truly sealed in the forehead, ceasing from the works of my own natural mind fully...My mind had always been very active...Nothing hinders faith and the operation of the Spirit so much as..the wisdom, strength and self-sufficiency of the human mind...This phenomena violates human reason..."
Here is another article from the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Jan. 10, 2004 "Toronto-Ten years ago this month, worshippers at a small church a stone's throw from this city's airport began laughing uncontrollably. They also made animal noises - braying, barking, howling and roaring. They collapsed to the floor, staggered about as if drunk, shook and jerked; wept, wailed and yelped. Faces contorted with tics. Groans and guffaws hung in the air. Bodies lay prone on the carpet. To the unitiated, this was eerie stuff..." This was obviously from Satan.
2 Peter 2:1 "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you...
2:2....the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
2:3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you...
2:12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not...
2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption...."
Isn't it scary how similar these circumstances are? We all know the great Awakening had severall revivals that brought people to the Lord, but where did these strange behaviours come from? Definitely something to think about!!
If you would like to hear the sermon, here is a link:
http://kingdombaptist.org/videoplayer/Video-player.cfm?media=http://sermon.kingdombaptist.org.s3.amazonaws.com/The-War-On-Reason-01102009.mov&videoID=821
If this link does not work, go to kingdombaptist.org and look under the videos, all videos, you want "The War On Reason! Part 1" date 01/10/10
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