Baptism In The Holy Spirit And The Evangelical Tradition

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.”

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.

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

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,

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

I would

argue

that if Pentecostals can affirm their

with this stream of church

renewal,they much better understood

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

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

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

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

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,

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

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

103

gifts

mentioned in

Scripture

should be

present

every congregation

which is

fully

awakened and renewed. And I affirm that the nine

gifts

celebrated

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

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

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

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,

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.

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

the second

century

seems to have mislaid the full Pauline

understanding

of our

acceptance

in Christ. It has also

104

These losses

understanding with an extreme one of

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

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

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

an almost masochistic attack on the body.

Thus the ascetic reformers invited those who would be

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,

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

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-

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

yawning gulf

insecurity

with

could throw into the breach: the works of

the intercession

ministry reinterpreted

as priesthood,

inventions like the

treasury

indulgences.8

fathers

saints,

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

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

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

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

106

Still,

we cannot

forget

how fanatical and divisive much of the Radical Reformation was. And we must remember the volcanic spiritual power

Luther,

which could

erupt

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

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

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

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

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,

part, by returning

to Patristic

spirituality

and adopting many aspects

of the ascetic model. But

they

connected these to the new

understanding

justification by

faith.

They balanced this Reformation

emphasis –

and sometimes almost obscured it

–

an increased stress on

sanctification, especially

the first

stage

of this

process: regeneration,

being born

again.

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

pattern

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

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.

practice, however,

Calvinist Puritans and their Lutheran siblings,

the Pietists,

put

most

of their emphasis

on the

powerful surge

spiritual growth accompanying

initial conversion, rather than on the

process

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

conversion, they expected, and may

have experienced,

much of what we call “the

baptism

in the

Holy Spirit.”

Is it

possible

that

Puritans,

carefully

searched out

the rigorous

“law-work”

required

before the

acquisition

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.

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

neglect

the arduous ascetic

disciplines

needed to cultivate “the

power

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.

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

thro’ the World with the

Angels,

and

fly

everlasting Gospel

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

given by

the

glorious Lord,

of His

mighty Angels,

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

Mind; They

are

Impression

coming! They

are

coming! They

will

quickly

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

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

Germany,

England and in

America,

to see how God was

moving

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

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

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

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

might

tempted

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,

refugees

from the

religious

wars –

Moravian

Hussites,

and Lutherans

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

These

representatives

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

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

night.

You who call on the

Lord,

111

give yourselves

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

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”

conjunction

with this baptism

in the

Spirit, only

extraordinary catholicity

of love and mutual

forgiveness.

We should

recognize

that these qualities

are sometimes

missing

from Charismatic communities today, especially

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

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’ …

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.

August,

Zinzendorf concluded, ‘was a of out-

pouring

of the

Holy Spirit upon

the

day

Congregation’;

was ‘its Pentecost,”7

The

similarity

to Pentecost here

lay

not with the outward phenomena

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

yet

untouched

Protestant

Christianity.

Renewal teams took the

message

born-again Christianity

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

the orthodox for decades – and Herrnhuts were attacked even

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.

113

night

of awareness

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

thoroughly

a kind of collective dark were transfixed

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

Eph.

1:17-19.

… That the God of our Lord Jesus

Christ,

the Father

glory, may give you

spirit

of wisdom and of

revelation in the

knowledge

of him,

having

the

that

eyes

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 …

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,”

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

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

in the

ways

of as in his praises.”19

God, singing

The

awakening

created a revolution

been used to

letting

complicated brain-surgery

of Puritan conversion

practice

it on one

another,

the

Spirit

for the salvation of the lost.

Laypeople

and women

began

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

began

114

From another

perspective,

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

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

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

sleepwalkers, they

too often assume that

they are

among zombies,

and that their first

duty

is to

split

the church and

somewhere else with those who are as zealous or

holy

as they

are. This is

complicated by

the

adoption

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

Baptism In The Holy Spirit And The Evangelical Tradition

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