Baptism In The Holy Spirit And The Evangelical Tradition

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101 BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE EVANGELICAL Richard Lovelace* TRADITION I. Ancestral Roots of Charismatic Renewal in the Great Awakenings As W.S. Gilbert observes, seem.” My Charismatic students, roots of their movement, legitimized tongues-speaking puts modern Pentecostals Heretical the “Things are seldom what they searching for the historical ‘ J.S. to often seize upon every group which as an honorable precursor. This in some rather strange company. “spirit-movements” like the Cathari, the Bretheren of Free Spirit, the Ranters, and the Shakers Whale’s dictum that the inner light is often the shortest pathway the outer darkness. Pentecostal Wesley. support One is inclined to ask, “Why does the Holy Spirit have such odd theological preferences?” The deepest theologian in the succession as it is sometimes portrayed is John After him, the list runs downhill, through thinkers like Edward Irving, the Pelagian evangelist Charles Finney, and the later 19th century perfectionists. Bishop Ronald Knox would found this group even more vulnerable than the heroes he assassinates in his instructive work on 1 have Evangelical Enthusiasm not the single gift ancestry should be and will be Clearly the main criterion for Pentecostal the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit in renewing power, of tongues. Speaking in tongues has occurred outside movements of spiritual awakening. And powerful levels of spiritual awakening have occurred apart from tongues. In this article, I want to suggest that the real ancestry of modern Pentecostalism has far stronger roots in the tradition of the Evangelical awakenings – despite the fact that the major awakeners usually kept their distance from the acceptance of I would argue that if Pentecostals can affirm their with this stream of church renewal,they much better understood by church leaders today. Not only will be closer to unity with “standard brand Evangelicals,” but will also find themselves historically closer to the other two main streams in the church, the Protestant and Catholic tongues. basic continuity they they traditions. Elsewhere Protestant I have suggested Evangelical tradition that the actual also differs rootage of the from popular 1 102 misconceptions. In The Fundamentalist Phenonomenon, for example, historian Edward Hindson links the Evangelical succession to a long string of heretical and sectarian movements.2 But a stronger case can be made for the thesis that the Protestant Reformers are rooted in the orthodox reform movement led by the ascetic church fathers from Athanasius through Augustine. These leaders wanted neither to divide the church nor to leave it. They simply wanted to perfect its witness to the deity of Christ, the grandeur and sufficiency of his saving work, and the renewal of the church according to biblical norms of faith and experience.3 We could try to limit Pentecostal roots to the Montanists and others outside this stream. But it may be both truer and safer to insist that Pentecostalism is rooted also in the tradition of renewing activism which runs from Patristic spirituality up through the Reformers. One could make a case that weaker elements in today’s Charismatic Renewal are closely related to spirit-movements in the Radical Reformation, and in the next century to the Puritan Left Wing as Geoffrey Nuttall has described this.4 But the Pentecostal movement as a whole seems to be seeking balance and avoiding enthusiasm, with a caution born of painful first- hand experience. Beyond the Reformation, I would suggest that Pentecostals and Charismatics find their strongest ancestry not only in John Wesley, but in the other great leaders of the Evangelical awakenings, whether or not these leaders promoted glossolalia. It is true that most of these men carried over the resistance to “extraordinary gifts of the Spirit” which the Reformers inherited from Augustine. Still, if we want to see the deepest work of the Spirit in the time between the Reformation and our own century, we must go to the Puritans, the Pietists and the great awakening movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Further, I would suggest that Pentecostal Christianity cannot be either fully Charismatic, or adequately filled with the Spirit, unless it strives after some of the less dramatic gifts and graces, and the culture-transforming goals, sought by the Evangelical awakeners. If this thesis is true, it means that “the baptism in the Holy Spirit – in a sense which may be deeper than any of our experience whether Pentecostals or – today, among Evangelicals can occur in a context where the nine gifts mentioned in I Cornithians are not apparent. Nevertheless, I believe that both Scripture and recent history argue incontestably that all the 2 103 gifts mentioned in Scripture should be present in every congregation which is fully awakened and renewed. And I affirm that the nine gifts celebrated by Charismatics will be shared and celebrated in the future church if it is truly filled with the Spirit. II. The Evangelical Stream before the Awakenings In Scripture we can distinguish two kinds of spirituality. The first, which I call the ascetic model, is rooted in the spiritual disciplines, described ably for our generation in Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline.5 Askesis means e.rercise. The Christian ascetic is like an athlete in training. He or she is busy eradicating bad habits (the process of sanctification), taking in healthful foods (using the means of grace), and following vigorous programs of exercise which build self- control (the spiritual disciplines). The main text for this model of spirituality is I Cor. 9:24-27: “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training … Therefore … I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave … ” ( Cor. 9:25-27 NIV). This text has a lot to say to Protestants today, who do not work very hard at cultivating the Christian life. It speaks especially to some Charismatics, who lack the last fruit of the Spirit, self-control. Still, the ascetic model of spirituality can easily fall into a religion of achievement, a reliance on works and law which eclipses Christ, and substitutes willpower for faith in his saving work. Thus the second kind of spirituality, which I call the Pente- costal model, is essential as a balance to the first kind. This model can be explained by referring to a strong text in Galatians: “I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? … Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?” (Gal 3:2-3, 5). Thus both kinds of spirituality are present in the NT. By the second century, however, the ascetic model has come to pre- dominate, due to the eclipse of the doctrine of justification. Judging from the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, the early church by the second century seems to have mislaid the full Pauline understanding of our acceptance in Christ. It has also 3 104 These losses understanding with an extreme one of By spiritual perfection perfect free them According second century captive to an extreme spirituality. In the mystical Bernard and the Rhineland of communion and the in equipping Keep in mind that was Tertullian, that of and in effect to strap sex; it would property; and it would absolute obediance to spirituality mysticism from the remained through But operations growth This confusion fication is church. Even level of spiritual lost sight of the priority of faith in spiritual growth, Pentecostal pattern of the Holy Spirit’s initiative the Christian community with both gifts and graces.6 led the Western church to adopt the belief that we are justified by being sanctified. The Hellenistic disjunction between spirit and matter, involving distrust of the body and its drives and a special fear of sexuality, further distorted the of sanctification. Godliness became associated form of ascetic spirituality. the worst offenders in this distortion whose Montanist “Charismatic connection” did not prevent him from originating many of today’s Fundamentalist taboos, rejecting the drama, the dance, cosmetics and other elements of culture and creativity because of their pagan origins. the fourth century it was commonly understood could best be gained by the amputation whole areas of life, and by an almost masochistic attack on the body. Thus the ascetic reformers invited those who would be to join a monastic community, themselves into a sanctification machine. The machine would keep them from sexual impurity by amputating deliver them from greed by eliminating from pride by demanding another human being to this analysis, Christian through late Medieval and distorted form of the ascetic model of tradition from Augustine mystics, we regularly encounter experiences with God. And we also find “extra- ordinary works of the Spirit” this is only among those who have climbed the difficult ladder of ascetic discipline, only among the rare and selected few. Only these spiritual athletes could achieve something an assurance of acceptance with God. Only they could expect with some confidence that they might be given conscious experience of the Holy Spirit. Among the majority in the church, there was no encouragement toward faith in these – supernatural and without faith, the main artery of spiritual is cut. in the realms both of justification a main cause of the clergy/ laity split in the early the average priest could hardly hope to achieve the needed for mystical experience. This heroism such as visions and healings. resembling and sancti- 4 was sought Neo-Platonism: ascetic through Climbing philosophers. process according Catholicism grew product 105 pattern derived from of life through repentance and of the mind and heart everything they martyrs and ascetics, strange to the threefold purification discipline; then illumination the Holy Spirit; and finally conscious union with God. such ladders requires the leisure available to To the average layperson, the goal and even the seem remote from daily experience. Luther suggests that the whole structure of Medieval out of the soteriological confusion at the root of its views on Christian experience. The entire system was a of the missing sense of assurance among the people of God. They tried to fill up a yawning gulf of insecurity with could throw into the breach: the works of the intercession ministry reinterpreted as priesthood, inventions like the treasury indulgences.8 of fathers of saints, a pastoral the sacramental system, and of merit which could be tapped through Luther’s discovery of justification by faith alone, on the basis the imputed righteousness of Christ, freed parts of the Western church from captivity to a distorted and exaggerated ascetism. The great wind of freedom which blows through his works is indeed the Pentecostal wind of the Spirit. His writings are electrified by the same spiritual power that we find in the of the early church and the greatest mystics. He has a basic spiritual realism, and an understanding of biblical spiritual which often shows up the shallowness in modern movements. like the other conservative the Schwarmer, the spiritualists wouldn’t believe Luther the Bible,” said Thomas Luther, Reformers, of the if he Muntzer. “And I wouldn’t “if he swallowed the Holy dynamics, spiritual Of course Luther, squared off against Radical Reformation. “I swallowed believe Muntzer,” replied Ghost, feathers and all.” The Reformers were fighting established church claiming left with fanatics tradition because they Facing warfare convenient to assume Montanists, and broaden of the Spirit” since the days case where Protestants face. a battle on the right with an validation by miracles., and on the who discounted Scripture and theological were directly inspired by the Spirit. on two fronts, Luther and Calvin found it Augustine’s position it to exclude all “extraordinary of the Apostles. This is not the only have cut off their nose to spite Rome’s against the works 5 106 Still, we cannot forget how fanatical and divisive much of the Radical Reformation was. And we must remember the volcanic spiritual power in Luther, which could erupt in sparkling wit and brilliant biblical insights. Calvin, also, has a balance and a solid focus on spiritual reality which has given his work a staying power unmatched by any writings from the Protestant Left Wing. But there is no doubt that the magisterial Reformation neglected or even reacted against the role of the Holy Spirit in producing sanctification and providing spiritual gifts for the body of Christ. Though the Reformers sought to destroy the clergy/ laity separation which the Medieval Church had fostered, and to encourage lay vocations and the priesthood of all believers, they failed to equip the laity in two ways. As H. Richard Niebuhr has commented, they did not provide an overarching theology of the Kingdom of Christ which would organize each believer’s life around mission, rather than around individualistic goals like piety and prosperity.9 Beyond this, they did not envision the church as a body in which each part is spiritually gifted with enzymes which are vital to the health of all. Instead, they simply sought to purify the older pattern of church attendance. Laypeople who were used to passive attendance at a sacred drama became students passively involved in a sacred classroom. Since the sacred seminar met only once a week, it is not surprising that many among the laity failed to experience the deep conviction which had prepared the Reformation leaders for conversion. Most laypeople remained solidly mired in the individualistic struggle for survival or success. The pastors who preached to them soon found it convenient to adjust to this unawakened mass by preaching what Bonhoeffer has called “cheap grace.”‘° “Everything is admirably arranged,” as Henrich Heine said; “I like committing sin, and God likes forgiving it.” . Reacting against this incompleted Reformation, and responding to the serious challenge of Catholic spirituality in the Counter-Reformation, Calvinists and Lutherans in the late 16th century began to build a distinctly Protestant spirituality. They did this, in part, by returning to Patristic spirituality and adopting many aspects of the ascetic model. But they connected these to the new understanding of justification by faith. They balanced this Reformation emphasis – and sometimes almost obscured it – by an increased stress on sanctification, especially the first stage of this process: regeneration, or being born again. 6 107 Puritans were concerned to make sure each congregation was composed of “visible saints.”They did not want churches full of persons who professed Christian faith, but had only a “notional” orthodoxy devoid of trust in Christ and commitment to obey him. They therefore “loaded” initial conversion with all the content which the Catholic model would expect as the product of a lifetime of sanctification. As Gordon Wakefield has commented, Roman Catholics saw conversion as the first step in a long journey of growth in holiness. Accepting Christ as Savior, for Catholics, was like the Prelude to a three act opera.11 I For Puritans, on the other hand, the whole opera often seemed condensed into the prelude. Seekers after conversion were marinated in the Law for weeks of conviction, before they broke through to an understanding of the Gospel and its personal relevance to their needs. The Puritans had also adapted a pattern of progressive growth in holiness from Calvin’s careful development of sancti- fication in the Institutes. This pattern was based on mortification of sin in every part of the personality, leading to revitalization of every department of life. John Owen even went so far as to say that “The vigor and power of spiritual life are dependent on mortification of sin. “12 Owen’s statement implies that we are only filled with the Spirit in proportion to our actual growth in holiness. This is a biblically refined version of the ascetic model of spirituality. in practice, however, Calvinist Puritans and their Lutheran siblings, the Pietists, put most of their emphasis on the powerful surge of spiritual growth accompanying initial conversion, rather than on the process of progressive sanctification. They practically regarded regenerate Christians as presanctified – like a modern watch which has been so carefully tuned at the factory that it will never break down or need adjustment. And it is clear that Puritan converts were spiritually much deeper than the products of modern mass evangelism. At the end of the process of conversion, they expected, and may have experienced, much of what we call “the baptism in the Holy Spirit.” Is it possible that Puritans, so carefully searched out by the rigorous “law-work” required before the acquisition of saving faith, may have experienced more of the Spirit than we do – minus the working of the nine gifts in I Corinthians? Perhaps not. But we may at least say that by homing in on this great leap of spiritual growth at the outset of the Christian life, the Puritans were groping toward the Pentecostal model of spirituality. 7 108 Still Puritan spirituality retains an individualism which reminds us of its ascetic forerunners in the monasteries and nunneries. Ernst Troeltsch calls Puritanism “Innerwehliche Askese, “innerworldly ascetism, a monastic movement with the walls knocked off, and with married monks and nuns. The component of ascetic legalism taken over from Patristic spirituality is strong enough so that second and third generation Puritans found difficulty relating to the high spiritual rigors of their leaders. In the Puritan theocracy of New England, the clergy/ laity gap reappears in the spiritual decline of the second and third generations after the founders. Of course there is more than one possible explanation for “New England’s Spiritual Decline” between 1652 and the late 1720’s. Immigration produced worldly neighbors. Anticlerical reaction against theocratic legalism appeared. The hyper- calvinist conversion pattern, which simultaneously called men to Christ and told them that they were naturally unable to come and might not be elected if they did, discouraged lay initiative. As the popular rhyme put it: “You can but you can’t, you will but you won’t; You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.” And there were other causes of the pathology of decline. The continuing lack of any theology of the Kingdom made it easy for the laity to neglect the arduous ascetic disciplines needed to cultivate “the power of godliness.” As Edmund Morgan points out, the Puritan leaders had talked about world mission as a goal of the New England settlement: outreach to the Indians, and witness to the un- reformed church through the erection of a “city on a hill,” a showcase of godliness in America. But lay expectations were drawn from an OT paradigm rather than the NT model: the pattern of Abraham, whose piety was rewarded by prosperity. New Englanders were more interested in forming personal dynasties that they were in conquering the world for Christ. And when their piety did beget prosperity, as Cotton Mather points out, all too often the daughter devoured the mother. 13 Mather, whom Sydney Mead has called the first American Evangelical, turned away from OT models. He was deeply concerned to reverse the spiritual decline in New England and in the rest of Western Protestantism, where the wind had also been out of the sails since the middle of the 17th Century. Like John XXIII, Mather felt that nothing would reverse the decline except a new Pentecost. 8 109 We can do very Little. Our Encumberances are our Difficulties are infinite. If He would please, insuperable; to fulfill the ancient Prophecy, of pouring out the Spirit on all Flesh, and revive the extraordinary and supernatural Operations with which He planted His Religion in the primitive Times of Christianity, and order a Descent of His holy Angels to enter and His Ministers, and cause them to possess with the of Men under the speak Tongues Energy of thro’ the World with the Angels, and fly everlasting Gospel to . preach unto the Nations, wonderful Things would be done immediately; His Kingdome would make those Advances in a Day, which under our and fruitless Labours, are scarce present made in an Age. I Word had pleaded, that His given us Reason to hope for a Return of these Powers, and for the making bare the Arm of the Lord before nations; and He has promised His holy Spirit unto them that ask Him … And having made this Representation, that Orders for a Descent may be given by the glorious Lord, of His mighty Angels, to give wonderful Shakes unto the World, and so seize upon the Ministers of His Kingdome, as to do Things which will give an irresistible unto their Ministry; I concluded with a strong Efficacy on Mind; They are Impression coming! They are coming! They will my quickly be upon us; and the World shall be shaken wonderfully !14 It is hard to imagine a better prayer for the arrival of the Charismatic Renewal. But what God gave the 18th Century, in response to Pentecostal prayers, was the Great Awakening. This began in Germany in the same year that Mather died – 1727 – at a time when he had almost despaired that his prayer would be answered. Keep in mind that the Evangelical awakenings are not local or national in character. They take place within spiritual ecosystems which are international in scope. We need to look hard at the Awakening as it developed in Germany, in England and in America, to see how God was moving us gradually toward a fully charismatic experience of renewal. III. Evangelicalism in the Great Awakenings The Lutheran Pietists in the late seventeenth century had formed a “born-again” movement with many of the same characteristics of Puritan Calvinism, though it was blessedly free of some the quirks and kinks the Puritans had developed by 9 110 trying to be more Calvinistic produced a “secret ecumenical grace and made orthodoxy. than Calvin. Philip Spener had which attacked cheap and Calvinist elements Spener cherished the “hope of that continued theology” room for Catholic rejected by Lutheran better times” for the church. He expected and renewal would purify the Gentile churches and of the Jews, as Martin Bucer had reformation lead to a massive ingathering first taught in the 16th century. the Protestant churches renewed. identification that but a that August university seventeenth-century The most illustrious graduate layman, Count the needed renovation broader and deeper Alone among his generation, courage to believe that not a permanent renewed. Zinzendorf was the architect networks around us today, Spener also said privately would be reunited after they had been He did not challenge the common Protestant of Rome with Antichrist, although he intimated that at times the Lutheran church was just as problematic. 15 Hermann Francke, Spener’s pupil, had started a at Halle to promote the Lutheran renewal – a equivalent of Fuller or Gordon-Conwell. of Halle was not a pastor Nicolaus von Zinzendorf. Zinzendorf saw in the body of Christ must be even than Halle’s goal of Lutheran renewal. he had the good sense and the even the Roman Catholic Church was villain in history, feel that Zinzendorf – like many but could be reformed and We might be tempted to the Quakers and so who designed all the ecumenical from the World Council of Churches to the World Evangelical Fellowship. the Anabaptists, modern Charismatics – did not know enough theology to confuse him. But we should remember that Karl Barth has called him the most original theologian began to assemble divided world church, of refugees from the religious wars – Moravian Hussites, and Lutherans In 1724, Zinzendorf microcosm of the since Luther. on his estate a sort of a community made up Catholics, Calvinists, the thrown in for the sake of of the shattered body of These representatives to fight like cats and dogs for three years. resorted more and more to systematic in order to achieve his goal: an ecumenical Task Force like the Anabaptist communities, but outward in concern for worldwide spiritual awakening Herrnhut, remnant “the Lord’s presented in respectability. Christ proceeded Meanwhile the Count prayer which would be separated facing and missionary expansion. Zinzendorf’s community watch,” Isaiah 62: they was named after the image of the renewing “I have posted watchmen on your walls, 0 Jerusalem; will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, 10 111 give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth” (Isa. 62:6-7 RSV). This passage is the basis for one of the Count’s most famous innovations, the round-the-clock prayer-watch which continued during the next hundred years of Protestant missionary expansion. Here is something a Catholic circles – stage closer to the monastic model in except that the innerworldly asceticism here is anchored closely to the end of Acts 2. The reference to Acts is appropriate, since the Count could not unite his ecumenical task-force for renewal without a baptism in the Holy Spirit. As in Acts 1, Zinzendorf fought back against division in Herrnhut by escalating prayer. He cultivated especially the “bands,” or small groups for mutual confession and prayer – another innovation which paved the way for the Class Meetings of John Wesley. The result of all this prayer sounds remarkably like the New Pentecost for which Mather had been praying. The morning of August 13, 1727 began at Herrnhut with a sunrise communion. A.J. Lewis describes the scene: “Several brethren prayed with great power and fervour … An inner anointing flowed through every person and with inexpressible joy and love they all partook of one bread and one cup and were ‘baptised into one spirit’. All were convinced that, partaking of the benefits of the Passion of the Lamb in real fellowship with one another, the Holy Spirit had come upon them in all his plentitude of grace. “16 There were no “extraordinary gifts” in conjunction with this baptism in the Spirit, only an extraordinary catholicity of love and mutual forgiveness. We should recognize that these qualities are sometimes missing from Charismatic communities today, especially as they relate to other parts of Christ’s body. Zinzendorf certainly had the faith to believe in “extraordinary gifts,” though he probably did not expect that they would come. He would have had even more trouble explaining them to orthodox Lutherans than he had defending his incredibly daring ecumenical experiment. Still, eyewitnesses present us with a remarkably Pentecostal scene: ‘ ‘On the 13th day of August 1727,’ wrote Arvid Gradin, ‘all the members of this flock in general were touched in a singular manner by the efficacy of the Word of reconciliation through the Blood of Christ, and were so convinced and affected that their hearts were set on fire with new faith and love towards the Saviour, and likewise with burning love towards one another’ … 11 112 Christian David wrote: ‘It is truly a miracle of God that out of so many kinds and sects as Catholics, Lutheran, Reformed, Separatist, Gichtelian and the like, we could have been melted together into one.’ ‘From that time on,’ said David Nitschmann, ‘Herrnhut became a of Christ.’ `Then were we living Congregation baptized by the Himself Holy Spirit to one love,’ said Spangenberg. 13 August, Zinzendorf concluded, ‘was a of out- pouring of the Holy Spirit upon the day Congregation’; it was ‘its Pentecost,”7 The similarity to Pentecost here lay not with the outward phenomena of tongues and the sound of rushing wind. It consisted in the explosion of mission activity which followed the event, the first great expansion of Protestant world missions. Herrnhut began to revolve like a spiral nebula, throwing off arms of witness in two forms. Mission teams took the Gospel to places as yet untouched by Protestant Christianity. Renewal teams took the message of born-again Christianity to every major communion including the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope’s favorable reception of Moravian leaders was the first of a series of positive contacts between Catholics and Protestants during awakening periods. The Herrnhut experience is the nearest analogue in the Great Awakening to the Pentecostal outpourings in Acts 2 and Acts 4. It has everything in these texts except tongues. We can see reasons in the historical context why this gift was not given. Herrnhut would have been disabled for its task of unifying mission if God had added glossolalia to the Pentecostal empowering the community undoubtedly received. Pietists had been under attack as enthusiasts by the orthodox for decades – and Herrnhuts were attacked even by the Pietists, because of their radical witness to Christian unity. Ironically, the very gift that had unified Jewish and Gentile Christians in the 1 st Century would have divided believers in the l8th. This does not mean that the other sectors of the Awakening were devoid of the spiritual power visible in Herrnhut. All the Northampton received the outpouring of the Spirit in 1734, under the ministry of Jonathan Edwards. The remarkable phenomenon in this case was the exact reversal of ‘New England’s Spiritual Decline,’ which had left the laity totally absorbed in the daily concerns of business. They still went to church, and they could recite orthodox doctrines from memory. But their ultimate concern was certainly prosperity, and they were losing their children to unbelief. 12 113 night of awareness In 1734, Northampton went through the soul. The townspeople from understanding and joy in the your hope Puritan fashion, word of God, In the great preached surrounding was by thoroughly a kind of collective dark were transfixed by an of their sin. in the abstruse material, preached as it and staring at however, was of the holiness of God and the depth Their convictions followed the regular Puritan pattern, leading this deep sense of personal estrangement from God to an of the Gospel, assurance of salvation, and peace vision of the glory of God. Their experience exactly paralleled Edwards’ prayers for them. These followed the lines of Paul’s prayer in Eph. 1:17-19. … That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the that eyes of hearts enlightened, you may know what is the to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe … In typical Edwards had told his people that what they needed was not a notional belief in doctrine, but “a true sense of the divine excellency of the things revealed and a conviction of the truth and reality of them.” sermon on “A Divine and Supernatural Light,” in 1734, Edwards dealt with the whole age him as well as with his people’s lack of awakening. “It is not a thing that belongs to reason, to see the beauty and loveliness of spiritual things; it is not a speculative thing, but depends on the sense of the heart. “18 This may sound like rather a theologian reading from a manuscript the bell rope. The effect upon the townspeople, Pentecostal. “Our public praises,” says Edwards, “were then greatly enlivened … There has been scarce any part of divine worship, wherein good men amongst us have had … their hearts lifted up in the ways of as in his praises.”19 9 God, singing The awakening created a revolution been used to letting complicated brain-surgery of Puritan conversion to practice it on one another, the Spirit for the salvation of the lost. Laypeople and women began to pray and exhort in “promiscuous Miller and Alan Heimert comment that the for the American Revolution was laid during the It turned New England society upside down the poor and ignorant and bypassing the which had began preach, assemblies.” Perry groundwork Great Awakening. and inside out, exalting learned and proud.2° among the laity. Families the pastor handle the suddenly as they were burdened by began to 13 114 From another perspective, of course, the Awakening created a lot of wreckage, in the form of shattered congregations and alienated onlookers. It would be remembered by many as a time when “Multitudes were seriously and soberly out of their wits,” as Ezra Stiles put it.2′ It is to Edwards’ credit that after pointing out that the Awakening had the distinguishing marks of a work of the Spirit of God, he went on to criticize its defects with increasing severity. I have summarized his critique in a chapter of Dynamics of Spiritual Life called “How Revivals Go Wrong.”22 It is to be hoped that evangelical and charismatic leaders will note the similarities in this summary with current renewal, although my criticism there of the misuse of prophetic gifts could now be supplemented by Sullivan’s discussion.23 Edwards has given us the second best analysis of religious flesh, or carnal religiosity, in theological literature. John of the Cross before him had pointed out that the seven deadly sins take on new forms among those who are growing in the Spirit: spiritual pride, spiritual gluttony, spiritual envy, and so on.24 Edwards homes in on spiritual pride as a major problem in young converts which leads them toward censorious judgment of others and sectarian division. Waking up in the midst of congregations of sleepwalkers, they too often assume that they are among zombies, and that their first duty is to split the church and go somewhere else with those who are as zealous or holy as they are. This is complicated by the adoption of wrong theo- logical principles, such as the Donatist heresy, or a presumption of direct guidance which is not sufficientlv guarded.25 Having issued these warnings in the Thoughts on the Revival in New England in 1742, Edwards went on in the Treatise on Gracious Affections of 1744 to point out that many forms of religiosity were “insufficient signs” of a work of the Spirit. Some kinds of experience may stem either from the flesh, or from the Spirit, or from a mixture of the two. Edwards included much in this category that we rather too easily assume must always come from the Spirit: high experiences of joy, involuntary bodily effects, talkativeness on spiritual matters, and even love for others and praise of God when these issue from a selfish motive. In order to be genuine, these signs must be accompanied by an experience of the Holy Spirit which produces, not mere “animal spirits” (Edwards’ term for a nonsupernatural emotional high), but affections of the heart which are centered on God. Such an experience leaves the recipient humble, meek towards others, concerned for the public good, hungering and thirsting after . 14 115 righteousness with a sharpened sense of sin, and bearing the fruits of the Spirit.26 (St. Ignatius, St. Theresa and John of the Cross give substantially the same counsel as Edwards on the distinction between true spirituality and that which is false or defective.) On the subject of the charismata in I Corinthians, Edwards did not rise above the common assumptions of Puritan Calvinism. In the great sermon series on Charity and its Fruits, he limits the “extraordinary gifts of the Spirits” to the apostolic era, and states that the greatest miracles of grace are produced when hearts are transformed and filled with Christian love.27 There is a hint of the Hellenistic spirit/ matter distinction here, and a lack of faith as well as a lack of solid exegetical backing. Still, are the multitudes we process through “the baptism in the Holy Spirit” as Spirit-filled as the converts of the Great Awakening? Have they produced a similar impact on American society? Some frivolous teaching on health and wealth28 seems to baptize the very flaw which led to New England’s spiritual decline: a self-centered concern for personal affluence and success. America’s characteristic sin is the pursuit of prosperity and dynastic success apart from the interests of Christ’s Kingdom. But we are proposing to renew America spiritually by reinforcing these concerns! I sometimes think that if Edwards were among us today he might say that much of what we experience is the effect of ordinary causes. He might tell us that we need to combine in “explicit agreement and visible union in extraordinary prayer” for a new outpouring of the Spirit, which will effect something deeper than either Evangelicals or Charismatics have so far produced in their processing of individuals. The English phase of the Great Awakening, like the American, shows us a variety of workings of the Spirit which have great power but little resemblance to our standardized understanding of “the baptism in the Holy Spirit” today. Pentecostals are happy about Wesley because he defended the legitimacy of extraordinary works of the Spirit, and because he made a place for a second experience of grace in his problematic doctrine of Christian perfection. Still, his own experience of the Spirit is described as a heart strangely warmed through the understanding of Luther’s teaching on justification. We cannot deny that a profound “baptism in the Spirit” accompanied this growth in faith. It seems to have been the one key which needed turning to release the power of the Spirit in Wesley’s ministry. . , 15 116 like modern especially penetrated Clapham powerful Sect, changing power impact ourpouring disciple England give up Puritans Period, outreach by twenty Pentecostalism, was When it separation. But the impulse home by pounds from the British of the Awakening United The Wesleyan impulse, in its outreach to the poor. the Anglican system through John Newton and the it ultimately transformed English society by the middle of the nineteenth century.z9 As we analyze the culture- of this revival, we must conclude that its deep was due to a “United Evangelical Front” across denomi- national lines, an activated laity, and continued prayer for the of the Spirit. John Calvin had told the Puritans they could not properly with a divided church. He had urged them to the quest for presbyterian church order, accept bishops, and use the Prayer Book with its “tolerable stupidities.”3° The had ignored this counsel during the Revolutionary had generated many of the denominational divisions we suffer today, and had discredited their cause and lost the culture. The Wesleyan renewal thrust had been locked out of the centers of power through the Methodist Second Awakening drove the Wesleyan penetrating the established church. Part of the genius of the English phase of this Awakening was the ability of the leaders to combine Wesleyan evangelistic and Edwardsian spiritual depth with Zinzendorf’s ecumenical agenda. The opening of the Empire to missions, the abolition of the slave trade, the release of the slaves compensated million treasury, and all the other social reforms could not have been achieved without an “Evangelical Foster has shown.3′ It would also have been difficult to do these things without three hours daily. They were and their energy into an expansion of the which goes far beyond the agenda of our including those who are Pentecostals and The Holy Spirit was working in this awakening which turned individuals and churches inside out. Laypeople baptized in the Spirit found their attention fixed on issues of moral reform and social justice which our own Spirit- believers either ignore or deliberately resist addressing. All of this, as far as we know, took place without and Front,” as Charles laypeople who were praying pouring their money Kingdom of Christ laity today, Charismatics. a depth filled at tongues prophecies. The same patterns Second Awakening. began with an extremely were at work in the American C.C. Cole notes that the broad evangelistic outreach, phase of the revival typically and then 16 117 the Holy Spirit as a second work of grace, and that the inevitable sign of this baptism is speaking in tongues. But God has made an essential point through this extreme. By segregating out one strain of Christianity which operates with these particular gifts, and giving it an unparalleled rate of growth and numerical expansion. God has proved once and for all that “First Century Christianity” is not obsolete. It is not mere history; it is an option for today. Still Charismatics must ask whether the Pentecostal model is the only container in which renewal can appear. Do we really assume that every member of Christ’s body must manifest our gifts and assume our habits of worship before he or she is renewed in the Spirit? Doesn’t this on the – verge Galatian heresy the claim that first-class Christianity depends on the adoption of a particular cultural style? Further, is a particular way of processing individual Christians what spiritual renewal is really about? Every cell in the body of Christ must experience conversion and the infilling of the Holy Spirit, manifested both by gifts and graces. But is not Zinzendorf correct when he says that the diversity of worship forms, and even of orthodox creeds, is a manifestation of the variety in God’s nature, and of the variety He has created in human beings? Were not Mather and Edwards right when they said that the Holy Spirit initiates and perfects Christian experience in various and subtle ways? Part of the reason the larger church draws back from the different forms of revivalism is that it senses that there is about them some of the predictability, and the monotony, of the assembly line. The material we have covered suggests that “the baptism in the Holy Spirit” can mean many things in the church’s experience. It can mean the release of the Holy Spirit’s gifts and graces through individual recognition of His indwelling and dependence on His enabling. It can mean individual empowering for service. It can also mean an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon a community, in answer to united prayer, usually to equip that community for spiritual warfare, as in Acts 4. The Holy Spirit seems to honor urgency in seeking for further dimensions of His indwelling, more than He does the assumption that we are already blessed possessors of His fullness. In our stress on the single gift of tongues, we may have failed to recognize what God is getting at in His own concern for His people’s gifts. As we look at the Evangelical Awakenings and the present manifestations of renewal to discern what God is building in history, we see an increasing trend toward enabling the laity for ministry. 17 118 heroic asceticism, salvation by Venn. D.L. Moody was a we can say about the is that it was connected development the English phase were laypersons – the names of John layperson, and Dispensational Theology with the Plymouth Brethren, fault. And Pentecostal introduced a pew-centered activism even by diversified experience At a crucial moment the leaders articulated gifts of the Spirit juncture, Cardinal Pentecostal teaching, Luther freed the laity from the weight of earning and taught the priesthood of believers. The Great Awakening galvanized laypeople into action through the of small groups at Herrnhut and in Methodism. In of the Second Awakening the main actors we all know Wilberforce, but few remember and Henry the best thing he imported who emphasized lay activity to a and Charismatic Christianity have which demands lay its worship pattern, which returns to the described in I Cor. 14:26 ff. in the Second Vatican . Christianity Council, one of that extraordinary era. At that the old assumption are limited to the Apostolic Suenens rose, long before his contact with to insist on the continuation of the gifts in the present age. He sensed that the thing at issue was the gifting of the laity for ministry. He saw that without the charismata in the church would continue to be a hierarchical the body of Christ would be paralyzed, dominated the laity, smothered their gifts, and were in turn as they tried to care for an unawakened action, monolith, smothered chtirch.36 themselves, the Spirit Spirit is released which are essential Kilian McDonnell has pointed as the clergy link connecting the gifts of Those in whom the of gifts out, This may be the most important with the baptism in the Spirit. and working manifest a plentitude for the health of a fully awakened church. As the signs of the Spirit’s working include both the gifts A through P (those we commonly find among non-Pentecostals), and the gifts Q through Z (the nine gifts of I Cor. 12). Unless all these gifts are fully distributed and in use in individual congregations and in the church at at less than optimum spiritual large, it will be operating health This illuminates Suenens. running Evangelical particularly Movement! This would congregation and mine … reviewed. the importance He says that there are two great streams through the twentieth current of which the Charismatic Renewal strong component. shock but of another statement by of renewal century. One is the broad is a The other is the Ecumenical the socks off your local it is implicit in the data we have 18 119 moved into five levels of additional wave of home and foreign literature for the converts; foundations); activity. These included a missions; a wave of producing a wave of establishing (or reviving colleges which had drifted a wave of moral reform or crusades, edifying educational institutions from their Christian “reformation of manners”; particularly the Most of disciples, Dwight expanded Kingdom Charles approach phenomenon experienced sense of total inability for a Pelagian evangelist, then and the great socialjustice attack on slavery.32 this activity emerged from Jonathan Edwards’ the “New School Presbyterians,” such as Timothy and Lyman Beecher. But of course the epitome of the vision of the “Benevolent Empire” was G. Finney, whose experience duplicated our modern to “the baptism in the Spirit” better than any other in the Evangelical awakenings. Finney a typically Puritan conversion, complete with a to change – an Augustinian conversion B.B. Warfield wryly comments – and almost immediately went on to a second level of any expectation of it, my any . through me, body . into the experience: … As I turned and was about to take a seat by the fire, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost. Without without ever having the thought in mind that there was any such for me, without recollection that I had ever thing heard the thing mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go and soul. No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy … 33 is individualized in a way which we have universalized his own experience and made for all Christian workers in his Memoirs and on Revival. From these sources it passed Moody, R.A. Torrey and a host of both in America and Europe. As Donald Dayton have shown, by the end of the nineteenth century it assumed that all mature Christians should duplicate experience. Parham to add the teaching that tongues was the initial evidence in the Spirit, and the modern Pentecostal movement Here ” the baptism” not yet seen. Finney it normative Lectures teaching of D.L. Evangelicals and others was very widely Finney’s It remained only for Charles . of baptism was launched. Perhaps theology, adapted blow up effectively destroyed it is a little unfair to add that the rest of Finney’s from the liberal N.W. Taylor, went on to the Presbyterian Church in 1837 and 1838. This the “Evangelical United Front” in 19 120 America, so that slavery War rather than a bloodless in the North and South. General Assembly, Finney’s through a Civil revolution led by Christians had his own response, with time there is a Presbyterian in hell.” Still, whatever in his life, it did Roger Nicole have that Kingdom theology, blended spiritual of individual an for awakening among the was had to be abolished moral Finney which I have often agreed: “Every there is a jubilee kind of perfection baptism produced not guarantee sound theology. As my colleague comments: “My students ask me, What did Finney I answer, A revival!” Finney had an agressive Smith has shown, awakening to bring every phase and corporate with God’s will. Thus Finney the last great expression of evangelical awakening not merely multiply the number of Christians, but American Society.34 Prayer Revival of 1857-8 establishes of daily prayer as J. Edwin Orr has shown, and not limited to Wales or to the But Evangelical decline in the late 19th century. The result was division with the ensuing loss of the controlling had maintained both within most historic churches and society since the early 19th century. the Neo-Evangelical and Neo-Pentecostal recoveries have we begun to dream again about regaining of spiritual awakening which prevailed between 1727 and 1837. Pelagius didn’t? Nevertheless, which, as Timothy with the attempt life into harmony helped guide which did also transformed The subsequent admirable pattern laity. The revival of 1904-5, international in scope Pentecostal Movement.35 Evangelicals, they within American decades IV. Conclusions God writes straight movement to establish with crooked Trinitarian to reason and Calvinist passivity theology. began to among influence Only with in recent the level by lines. He used the ascetic orthodoxy and preserve the the influx of half-converted the hyper- church from being dissolved pagans. He used Luther’s solafideism to offset Catholic legalism, and Puritan spirituality rebuild an understanding of holiness. He used Edwards to fight the Enlightenment’s confidence in human ability, and Finney to counter Edwards had failed to correct. God also used Charles F. Parham and William J. Seymour to break through the church’s resistance to the supernatural gifts listed in I Corinthians 12. Parham may have been extreme in that every Christian must experience insisting the baptism of 20 121 event in this he has ever history architect is responsible has threatened had to face: earth waking up This implies baptism body body of Christ church by Catholic concerns for tradition faith and openness concerns Mackay It may be no accident that the most Pentecostal was the unification of Herrnhut. Zinzendorf was the of Protestant ecumenism. Deficient as that has been, it for triggering the Second Vatican Council, which the devil with the worst nightmare the possibility of the largest body of Christians on in the power of the Holy Spirit. that we may not fully understand what “the in the Holy Spirit” is all about until we are living in a which is substantially whole once more. In order for the to be fully baptized in the Spirit, we need a in which Protestant zeal for biblical reforms is balanced . experienced of the body at work shattered, full inheritance and unity, and Charismatic are balanced by the current As John . take us back to a time when we Actually, no single part all of the genes which were to the Spirit Evangelical for reason and organization. used to say, we need both ardor and order. The great eras of awakening these qualities in balance. of Christ today preserves in the awakening eras. The genetic pool has been and we desperately need one another to recover our in Christ. The life-giving river of the church has been split into three streams which must be reunited. May we avoid every theological definition of “the baptism in the Holy which hinders the recovery of unity and wholeness, and fullness. Spirit” thus of the Spirit’s Society Theological of Church History. at the 1984 meeting of the at Gordon-Conwell for inclusion in Paul M. Horton Publishers, permission *This paper was originally presented for Pentecostal Studies held Seminary where Dr. Lovelace serves as Professor It was then revised Elbert, ed. Faces of Renewal: Studies in Honor of Stanley on his 70th Birthday (Peabody, Ma.: Hendrickson It is printed here with the of Dr. Lovelace and Professor Elbert. forthcoming). ‘Ronald Knox, Enthusiasm: A Chapter in the History of Religion Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950. 2Jerry Falwell, Edward Hindson and Ed Dobson, The Funda- mentalist Phenomenon Garden City, NY.: Doubleday & Company, 1981. Inc., 21 122 3Richard Lovelace, “A Call to Historic Roots and Continuity,” The Orthodox Evangelicals Robert Webber and Donald Bloesch, eds. (New York: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1978), The Holy Spirit pp. 43-67. 4Geoffrey F. Nuttall, in Puritan Faith and Second Edition. Experience (Oxford: Blackwell, 1947), 5 Richard Foster, A Celebration of Discipline San Francisco: & Row, Publishers, 1978. Harper 6Thomas F. Torrance, The Doctrine of Grace in the William B. Eerdmans Aposrolic Fathers Grand Rapids: Publishing Company, 1959. 7Cf. H.B. Workman, The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal 1913; Boston: Beacon Press, rpt. 1962. 8Martin Luther Table Talk. Theodore Tappert, ed. and trans. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967), p. 340. `’H. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America New York: Willett and Clark, 1937. ‘°Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, R.H. Fuller, trans. (New York: Macmillan Press, 1959), pp. 34 – 37. “Gordon Wakefield, Puritan Devotion London: Epworth Press. l 957. ”-John Owen, Of the Mortification ojSin in Believers, Works VII, Thomas Russell, ed. (London: Baynes, 1823), p. 350. ‘3Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana I (London: Parkhurst, 1702), p. 63. “Cotton Mather, Diary, 11 (2 vols.; New York: Unger, 1957), pp. 365-366. ‘SA.W. Nagler, Pietism and Methodism (Nashville: Methodist Episcopal Church, no date), p. 41. ‘6A.J. Lewis, Zinzendorf the Ecumenical Pioneer (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962), p. 58 “Lewis, Zinzendorf, p. 59 ‘8 Jonathan Edwards, “A Divine and Supernatural Light,” Works II Sereno Dwight, ed.; 1834; Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust. rpt. 1974), pp. 12 – 17. 19Jonathan Edwards, “Narrative of the Surprising Work of God,” Works I, p. 348. Perry Miller and Alan Heimert, eds. The Great Awakening (Indianapolis: and the Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), Introduction, and Alan Heimert, Religion American Mind Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University, 1966. ‘-‘Quoted in Edwin Scott Gausted, The Great Awakening in New England (New York: Harper, 1957), p. 103. 2? dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology pf Renewal (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979), pp. 239 – 270; or in the German Edition, Theologie der Erweckung (Marburg/ Lahn: Franke, 1984), pp. 251 – 258. 23Francis Sullivan, Charisms and Charismatic Renewal: A Biblical and Theological Study (Ann Arbor, Mi.: Servant Books, 1982), pp. 91 1 – 1 19. 22 123 24J ohn of the Cross, “The Dark Night of the Soul,” E. Allison Peers, ed. and Trans., The Complete Works of John of the Cross (West- minster, Md.: Newman Press, 1964), pp. 332 – 349. 25Jonathan Edwards, “Thoughts on the Revival in New England,” The Great Awakening, ed. C.C. Goen (New Haven, Ct.: Yale 414 – 423. University, 1972), pp. z6Jonathan Edwards, ‘Treatise on the Religious Affection, Part III,” Works 1. This point summarizes the whole thrust of this treatise; actually it ought not even be limited to Part III. 27Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits Tryon Edwards, ed. (London: Banner of Truth, 1978), pp. 26 -49. 28 Contra Sullivan, Charisma, pp. 160 – 165; Gordon Fee, “Some Reflections on a Current Disease: Part I, The Cult of Prosperity” and “Some Reflections on a Current Disease” Part II, The Gospel of Perfect Health” Agora 2:4 (Spring, 1979), pp. 12 – 16 and 3:1-2 1979), pp. 12 – 18. (Summer/ Fall, 29Cf. E.M. Howse, Saints in Politics Toronto : University of Toronto, 1952 and Ford K. Brown, Fathers of the Victorians Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961. 3oCf. John T. McNeill, “The Ecumenical Idea and Efforts to Realize It, 15 l7-1618,” Ruth Rouse and Stephen C. Neill, eds., A History of the Ecumenical Movement, I (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1967), Second Edition, pp. 27 – 69. 31Charles Foster, An Errand of Mercy Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina, 1960. 32C.C. Cole, The Social Ideas of the Northern Evangelists (New York: Octagon Books, 1966), pp. 102 -103. 33Charles G. Finney, Memoirs (New York: A.S. Barnes & Company, 1876), p. 17 34Timothy L. Smith, Revivalism and Social Reform in Mid- Nineteenth Century America New York: Abingdon Press, 1957. 35J. Edwin Orr, The Flaming Tongue Chicago: Moody Press, 1975. 36Elizabeth Hamilton, Suenens: A Portrait (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1975), pp. 107 – 1 1 1. 37Kilian McDonnell, “Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal: Malines Document I,” Presence, Power, Praise: Documents on the Charismatic Renewal (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1980), pp. 13 – 70. 23