Paul L. King

     With the phenomena associated with the “Toronto Blessing” and the ministry of Rodney Howard-Browne, people have tended to either completely accept or completely reject all such phenomena. Many of these manifestations have occurred in evangelical and holiness revival movements. When we look at the history of the Church, in particular the holiness movements which are akin to the beginnings of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, we see that such phenomena were neither accepted out of hand, nor dismissed summarily. As one of our Alliance writers, T.J. McCrossan, put it, regarding supernatural manifestations we should take “the middle of the road.”¹ This study explores the experiences of evangelical and holiness revivals, including those of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, and how such manifestations were viewed.

Holy Laughter

     Jonathan Edwards describes the reaction of some who were converted in the Great Awakening revival: “Their joyful surprise has caused their hearts as it were to leap, so that they have been ready to break forth into laughter, tearing often at the same time issuing like a flood, and intermingling a loud weeping.”² E.M. Bounds records Wesley saying, “The power of God came mightily upon us, so that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground.”³ Charles Finney wrote that after he testified about his experience of being baptized in the Spirit, a normally serious elder of his church “fell into a most spasmodic laughter. It seemed as if it was impossible for him to keep from laughing from the very bottom of his heart.”⁴

     Manifestations of holy laughter and being drunk in the Spirit occurred during the Australian Keswick Convention of 1891: 

The Convention was marked by clean-cut surrender to God for all His will to be done at all costs, and by an overflowing joy which followed in hundreds of hearts, so that, as Mr. George Soltau wrote, “Literally `our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with singing.' . . . It was impossible to restrain one's heart, the Lord giving us such a foretaste of heaven. Talk of `fleshly excitement,' I wish to bear my testimony that it was nothing less than the fullness of the Spirit. We were verily drunk with the joy of the Lord, and with the vistas of the possibilities of faith opening up to the fully surrendered life of the believer. But it was equally manifest to us all that this joy and blessing is only to be received and retained and increased by the death to self and of self and the most painful crucifixion of self.”⁵

In 1897 A.B. Simpson wrote that one of the effects of being filled with the Spirit is “fullness of Joy so that the heart is constantly radiant. This does not depend on circumstances, but fills the spirit with holy laughter in the midst of the most trying surroundings.”⁶

     Oswald Chambers recorded in his diary on April 19, 1907: 

Last night we had a blessed time. I was called down by the teachers to pray and anoint a lady who wanted healing, and as we were doing it God came so near that upon my word we were laughing as well as praying! How utterly stilted we are in our approach to God. Oh that we lived more up to the light of all our glorious privileges.⁷

     Again Chambers records in his journal May 6, 1907, “It is an unspeakably blessed thing to see souls come out under the blessing of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire. Some simply laugh, peals of the heartiest and most blessed laughter you ever heard, just a modern edition of `Then was our mouth filled with laughter.'”⁸ A third time Chambers writes on May 27, “Many souls cut loose, there were tears and laughter and all the blessed signs of those revival times the Lord brings so mysteriously and suddenly upon His people. It is a great business to open up all the windows of the soul to heaven and live on the Hallelujah side.”⁹ Chambers evidently believed that laughter could be one of the signs of revival and, like Simpson, a result of the baptism in the Spirit.

     Praying John Hyde, the great intercessor and missionary to China, also experienced holy laughter in the summer of the same year. His companion relates of a low caste Punjabi intercessor: 

How often has G_____, after most awful crying seemed to break through the hosts of evil and soar up into the presence of the Father! You could see the smile of God reflected in his face. Then he would laugh aloud in the midst of his prayer. It was the joy of a son revelling in the delight of his father's smile. God has been teaching John [Hyde] and me that his name is the God of Isaac—laughter. . . . Rejoicing, laughing, the same word as Isaac. This holy laughter seemed to relieve the tension and give Heaven's own refreshment to wrestling spirits.¹⁰

Sometimes related to the laughing phenomenon is a spontaneous dancing for joy. Praying Hyde, a staid Presbyterian, is described after a time of intense prayer at the Sialkot Convention (similar to Keswick), “He begins to sing, `'Tis done, the great transaction's done,' and he is so full of joy that his whole body begins to move, he claps his hands, then his feet begin to move, and look! he begins to dance for joy, and others join him until the whole place rings with God's praises.”¹¹

     A.W. Tozer also testified of holy laughter: 

Now I say that worship is subject to degrees of perfection and intensity. There have been those who worshiped God to the place where they were in ecstasies of worship. I once saw a man kneel at an altar, taking Communion. Suddenly he broke into holy laughter. This man laughed until he wrapped his arms around himself as if he was afraid he would bust just out of sheer delight in the presence of Almighty God. . . . So worship is capable of running from the very simple to the most intense and sublime.¹²

Nevertheless, we must recognize that some laughter is “fleshly excitement” and some may even be demonically inspired. Catholic exorcists have discerned that the devil may cause laughter to distract and disrupt.¹³ In 1912, Evan Roberts and Jessie Penn-Lewis in their book War on the Saints also write of demonical inspired laughter with twisting and jerking.¹⁴ John and Charles Wesley also recognized that some manifestations were unholy laughter.¹⁵

Falling Under the Power of the Spirit

     As cited above, both Wesley and E.M. Bounds recognized falling to the ground as a manifestation from God. George Whitefield criticized Wesley for allowing the phenomenon until it began happening in his own meetings.¹⁶ Jonathan Edwards indicated that a person may “fail bodily strength” due to fear of hell and the conviction of the Holy Spirit or due to a “foretaste of heaven.”¹⁷ Finney's ministry also frequently manifested what he called “falling under the power of God.”¹⁸ R.A. Torrey testifies of people falling under the power of God due to conviction of sin.¹⁹ Presbyterian Jonathan Goforth makes reference to the phenomenon in his book By My Spirit, originally published by The Christian and Missionary Alliance.²⁰

     Instances of falling under the power of the Spirit also occurred at Alliance meetings in 1907, including Simpson's Gospel Tabernacle²¹ and at Fred F. Bosworth's Christian and Missionary Alliance church in Dallas in 1912.²² Greek professor T.J. McCrossan, who wrote the book Speaking in Other Tongues: Sign or Gift, Which? published by The Christian and Missionary Alliance in 1927, three years later wrote in another book, Bodily Healing and the Atonement: 

Hundreds are healed, who do not fall under this power, because they simply trust God's promises; and it is the prayer of faith that heals. Going under this power seems, however, to bring an extra spiritual blessing. . . . This power is not hypnotism. . . . This is not devil power.²³

McCrossan is cautious in his writings about accepting all supernatural manifestations, but he speaks positively about this one in particular. This is because McCrossan is speaking out of the experience of his own life, for he fell under God's power and was enraptured with visions when he was baptized in the Spirit in 1921.²⁴

Physical Sensations

     Such manifestations were sometimes accompanied by unusual bodily sensations. Charles Finney avowed his baptism in the Spirit was “like a wave of electricity, going through and through me.”²⁵ McCrossan wrote of a woman who received the baptism in the Spirit: “The third one was filled, and for days there seemed to be a veritable fire burning within her.”²⁶ Early Alliance pastor Dr. E.D. Whiteside's testimony of healing in 1888 included both physical sensations and falling under the power of the Spirit: 

Like a flash of electricity, I was instantly thrilled. Every point of my body and nerves was controlled by a strange sensation that increased in volume, until I bowed lower and lower to the floor. I was filled with the ecstatic thrill. My physical frame was unable to stand the strain.²⁷

Reminiscent of holy laughter, he reported that he felt he was on the verge of “dying from overjoy.”²⁸

Trembling, Shaking and Convulsions

     At the outset of the Welsh revival of 1904, Evan Roberts experienced the phenomenon of shaking on several occasions: 

In the spring of 1904, Evan found himself, as it were, on the Mount of Transfiguration. In his own home and out on the countryside, his loving Heavenly Father revealed Himself to His child in an amazing overwhelming manner which filled his soul with divine awe. At these special seasons, every member of his body trembled until the bed was shaken.²⁹

     A more intense form of trembling or shaking is a convulsing of the body in contortions, characteristic of some under intense conviction. Jonathan Edwards described a child in this condition, “She continued crying, and writhing her body to and fro, like one in anguish of spirit.”³⁰ Speaking of the revival of 1740-1742, Edwards writes, “It was a very frequent thing to see a house full of outcries, faintings, convulsions, and such like, both with distress, and also with admiration and joy.”³¹ These phenomena also occurred in the ministries of Finney and Wesley.³² In some cases these were regarded as the work of the Holy Spirit, others of the flesh, and still others as demonic in origin.³³

Strange Sounds and Behavior

     Sometimes strange sounds accompanied some of these manifestations, such as groaning or weeping. A companion of Praying Hyde relates of Hyde and the Punjab Prayer Convention of 1906 (similar to Keswick), “We began to pray, and suddenly the great burden of that soul was cast upon us, and the room was filled with sobs and cries for one whom most of us had never seen or heard of before. Strong men lay on the ground groaning in agony for that soul.”³⁴

     On the other hand, not all strange sounds can automatically be accepted as a result of the Spirit's workings. Many animal-like sounds and behavior have been recognized throughout Church history as demonic.³⁵ Such exhibitions in the early Pentecostal movement were also often considered demonic. A.B. Simpson observed, “There have been many instances where [seeking for] the gift of tongues led the subjects and the audiences in to the wildest excesses and were accompanied with voices and actions more closely resembling wild animals than rational beings, impressing the unprejudiced observers that it was the work of the devil.”³⁶ Pentecostal leader Charles Parham also described demonic manifestations of barking like a dog, braying like a donkey, crowing like a rooster and contortions and fits.³⁷ Woodworth-Etter admonished:     

“Try the spirits.” In one of our meetings there was a colored woman who had a wonderful experience spiritually; that is the kind the devil gets after. One day she commenced to go about on her knees, twisting about like a serpent. God does not tell anyone to do that. She spoke in tongues; then she said, “I don't want to do it; I don't want to do it.”

Everyone knew it was not of God; and I said to her: “that is not God; the enemy has got hold of you.”³⁸

     While we see from this overview that animal sounds and behavior have been viewed throughout Church history as predominately demonic in origin, that is not to say that in every instance animal-like sounds and behavior are demonic. They may be of the flesh, or they may be a response to something God is doing in a person—like the unutterable groanings of Romans 8:26-27. The phenomena may even be misinterpreted by observers. A colleague of this writer who is a researcher of the Campbellite/Christian church movement determined through his research on the 1800 Cane Ridge revival that what was reported by the media as “barking up a tree” and “treeing the devil” was, in reality, people under such conviction and emotional distress that they were heaving and groaning in such a manner that it sounded like barking and all the while feeling faint so that they were holding themselves up against a tree.

     A missionary friend in South Africa reported that on two separate occasions he observed two different pastors apparently roaring. Believing the phenomena to be demonic, he attempted to cast out demons without any response. When questioned about it, in both instances each pastor responded that he was crying out in words for the nations to repent, but the listeners only heard roaring. This could be a similar phenomenon to the incident when God the Father spoke to Jesus and some thought it thundered (John 12:28-29), or when Paul heard Jesus speak but others only heard a sound (Acts 22:9).

     This calls for caution in automatically branding all such phenomena as demonic. There may be occasions in which sounds are made that are from the heart and soul which cannot be articulated clearly, which may fall under the category of “groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26). Nonetheless, the preponderance of evidence would indicate that the vast majority of such animal-like manifestations are either demonically inspired or originate in the flesh. Those which are demonic in nature may be satanic counterfeits meant to deceive, or they may be already existing demonic influences being exposed or brought to the surface by the moving of the Holy Spirit in revival, like a bird dog flushing out a pheasant.

Impressions, Prophecies, Visions and Dreams

     Contrary to the beliefs of some modern authors, such as Gary Friezen, who has claimed impressions have no part in a believer's life,³⁹ impressions and supernatural revelation from God were experienced in holiness and evangelical revival movements. A.T. Pierson writes of George Müller, “Müller cultivated habits of life which made his whole nature more and more open to divine impression, and so his sense of God became more and more keen and constant.”⁴⁰ Praying Hyde, it is recorded, “began to have visions of the glorified Christ as a Lamb on His throne—suffering such infinite pain for and with His suffering Body on earth.”⁴¹ Torrey recalled that a man praying for revival in Australia saw a prophetic vision of crowds of people coming to hear Torrey speak.⁴² Prophecies and visions were features of the Welsh revival.⁴³

     Such manifestations occurred in the early Christian and Missionary Alliance as well. In fact, the missions emphasis of The Christian and Missionary Alliance was established on Simpson's response to a vivid dream in which he awoke trembling.⁴⁴ In 1883 early Alliance leader John Cookman had an experience in which “The Lord appeared to him in a vision, and said, `I am thy Healer, thy Sanctifier, thy Savior, and thy Lord.'⁴⁵ Robert Jaffray experienced several dreams with strong impressions from the Lord.⁴⁶ C.H. Gootee recounts a healing service led by A.B. Simpson and Henry Wilson in which he received a miraculous healing. When Wilson anointed him with oil, he saw a vision of the blood of Jesus sprinkled on his breast and body.⁴⁷

     But such experiences were not accepted automatically among holiness leaders and some Pentecostals.⁴⁸ In 1898 when Carrie Judd Montgomery had been very ill, she testified at The Christian and Missionary Alliance convention of prophecies that she received from three women, two of which said she would die, one of which said she would recover: “The Lord spoke to her and told her that I would be raised up speedily and that I would be able to attend the Christian Alliance [now The Christian and Missionary Alliance] convention, which would take place in a few days. I was so very weak and ill that her prophecy seemed incredible, but praise God, it came true.” Of the two other women she said: “Two Christian women thought they had it from the Lord that I was going to die. . . . How this shows us that we must not depend on impressions that do not harmonize with the word of God. . . . Dear readers, always stand firmly upon God's Word, and not upon the impressions of those around you.”⁴⁹

     Classic evangelical and holiness leaders understood that God can lead by such impressions and revelations, but they needed to be tested.⁵⁰ Moravian leader Count Zinzendorf, who was open to supernatural movings of the Holy Spirit, witnessed a man falling into an “inspired fit, jerking and convulsing, and prophesying. Zinzendorf did not hesitate to reject the inspiration.”⁵¹ John Wesley's timeless counsel is: 

Do not hastily ascribe things to God. Do not easily suppose dreams, voices, impressions, visions, or revelations to be from God. They may be from Him. They may be from Nature. They may be from the devil. Therefore believe not every spirit, but “try the spirits whether they be from God.”⁵²

Evan Roberts and Jessie Penn-Lewis comment that “No one can with safety accept all the supernatural manifestations which accompany Revival, or believe all seeming `Pentecostal power' to be of God.”⁵³ They recognized that gifts of the Spirit such as prophecy, healing and tongues could be genuine or false, saying that counterfeit tongues were only a fraction of the counterfeit manifestations.⁵⁴ Again they warn: “Counterfeit manifestations of the Divine life in various ways now follow quickly; movements in the body, pleasant thrills, touches, a glow as of fire in different parts of the body, or sensations of cold, or shakings and tremblings, all of which are accepted as from God.”⁵⁵ However, they did not dismiss all such manifestations as demonic, for Roberts himself experienced some of these manifestations authentically during the Welsh revival, and was by experience able to recognize the counterfeit.⁵⁶

Conclusion

     These are just a sampling of the occurrences of such manifestations in evangelical and holiness movements. Hank Hanegraaff claims these phenomena are indicators of counterfeit revival.⁵⁷ While some such phenomena clearly are counterfeit, in the light of these examples it would be more accurate to say that there are counterfeits in the midst of revival. In most every revival in Church history—Wesleyan, Great Awakening, Cane Ridge, Welsh Revival—there has been mixture. Where there is counterfeit, there must also be the genuine. Wesley warned of a twofold danger: 1) to regard them too much, as essential to revival, 2) to regard them too little, condemning them altogether.⁵⁸ The position of the Alliance and early holiness leaders was one of a “middle ground,” as McCrossan suggests, one that neither accepts nor rejects such phenomena without further discernment. The viewpoint of Jonathan Edwards (which both critics like Hanegraaff and Toronto Blessing supporters seem to ignore) is perhaps the wisest counsel: 

A work is not to be judged of by any effects on the bodies of men; such as tears, trembling, groans, loud outcries, agonies of body, or the failing of bodily strength. The influence persons are under is not to be judged of one way or other by such effects on the body; and the reason is because the Scripture no where gives us any such rule. We cannot conclude that persons are under the influence of the true Spirit because we see such effects on their bodies, because this is not given as a mark of the true Spirit; nor on the other hand, have we any reason to conclude, from any such outward appearances, that persons are not under the influence of the Spirit of God, because there is no rule of Scripture given us to judge of spirits by, that does neither expressly or indirectly exclude such effects on the body, nor does reason exclude them.⁵⁹

Through studying the history of revivals, Martyn Lloyd-Jones came to much the same conclusion: 

I would conclude that the phenomena are not essential to revival. . . . I believe that in their origin they are essentially of the Spirit of God, but we must always allow for the fact that because of the very frailty of human nature, and of our physical frames, you will have a tendency to an admixture, partly along the physical, partly along the psychic, and partly as the result of the Devil's activity. But there is nothing more foolish or more ridiculous than to dismiss the whole because of a very, very small part. . . . [E]xpect this, and . . . be on guard against the false and spurious. . . . But we must not seek phenomena and strange experiences. . . . What we must seek is revival. . . . Anyone who tries to work up phenomena is a tool of the Devil, and is putting himself in the position of the psychic and the psychological.⁶⁰

     How then can people guard against deceiving spirits regarding such phenomena today? Two suggestions are recommended. First, A.B. Simpson's counsel from the first decade of the century is just as timely and timeless in the last decade as well: “In these days when the forces of heaven and hell are so intensely active, let us seek from God that gift which is of such practical value, the Spirit of discernment.”⁶¹ Secondly, Neil T. Anderson recommends the following prayer which bears repeating here: 

Heavenly Father, I commit myself unreservedly to Your will. If I have been deceived in any way, I pray that You will open my eyes to the deception. I command in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that all deceiving spirits depart from me, and I renounce and reject all counterfeit gifts (or any other spiritual phenomena). Lord, if it is from You, bless it and cause it to grow that Your body may be blessed and edified through it. Amen.⁶²

     If these guidelines are followed, we do not need to fear being deceived by counterfeit manifestations.