REVIVALS' "BELLS AND WHISTLES"!
by Raymond Cox

The following article,except for the last sentence, appeareded in early 1997 in the revival paper "SECOND WIND" published in Portland, Oregon by Foursquare members, Larry and Ruth Hebert. Wisely, I now believe, the editors substituted a less personal sentence. Much of this material was presented by the author at Seattle Revival Center on the last Sunday night of April 1997.



In the history of God's dealings with mankind "bells and whistles"--remarkable revelations, manifestations, and demonstrations--have accompanied virtually every renewal or revival. It was so on the day of Pentecost when a sound like wind, an appearance like fire, and a response resembling drunkeness accompanied the initial outpouring of the Holy Ghost. It has been so throughout church history, as Guy Chevrauu has documented in a videotape and books circulated by the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. In American revivals like the first Great Awakening in the 1770's under Jonathan Edwards in New England and the Second beginning in 1801 at Pine Ridge, Kentucky under the Presbyterians (cf. Archie Robertson, "The Old Time Religion"), and subsequently at the Azusa Street Mission, and at Aimee Semple McPherson's Angelus Temple, especially after April 1936, as well as at Toronto, Canada since 1994, amazing and bizarre features have graced the revivals. Charles G. Finney offered an explanation for the strange goings-on: "God has found it necessary to take advantage of the excitability there is in mankind to produce powerful excitements among them, before He can lead them to obey. Men are so sluggish, there are so many things to lead their minds off from religion and to oppose the influence of the Gospel, that it is necessary to raise an excitement among them, till the tide rises so high as to sweep away opposing obstacles. They must be so aroused that they will break over these counteracting influences, before they will obey God" (sermon reprinted in the "Prairie Overcomer", Nov 1953, p 338). T DeWitt Talmadge shared similar sentiments eloquently in his famous sermon, "Sensation or Stagnation," insisting that we have far less to fear from sensation than from stagnation. They say, "Still waters run deep." That, however, isn't universally true. Sometimes still waters get stagnant. Fervency of spirit is usually the atmosphere in which God manifests himelf in glory. Leaders have usually discovered that it is easier to restrain a fanatic than than to resurrect a corpse! As a student of historical revivals for many decades I have come to an interesting conclusion. It has been true throughout church history that when the manifestations and demonstrations wane revivals ebb! Revivalists often crave for respectability and usually are able to achieve it. But the cost has almost always included decline after downplaying manifestations! Near the end of his life Donald Gee realized his conservative approach had to some extent quenched the Spirit. His letter to me dated May 27, 1965 confessed, "It is so very easy, as I know to my shame, to let the necessity of correction in some points so fill our hearts and minds that we become unwittingly negative." In 1921 Aimee Semple McPherson began to react so negatively to some outlandish fanaticism in her meetings, especially in Baltimore, MD and Witchita, KS that the "Pentecostal Evangel" asked, "Is Mrs. McPherson Pentecostal?" (cf. article in June 10, 1922 issue, p. 9). Most Pentecostals outside of her movement were sure she was not. But by 1936 when she returned to Angelus Temple from a protracted absence, she invited revivalists from the old Azusa Street Mission and personally led her church into a glorious revival which included almost all the "bells and whistles" conspicuous in the heistoric revivals except the "barks", manifestations and demonstrations never witnessed before in her ministry at Angelus Temple. Perhaps there is hope for John Wimber! (see explanation at beginning).
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