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Church History before the
Pentecostal Revival Salvation, then, is irreducibly
historical. Nor, does history end with Jesus' death on the cross, or with the
apostles, or with the "victory" of the early church over the pagan
Roman Empire. Sowders declared that through the ages since the early church
God had a people in the earth not represented by that religious system that
came to dominate the world through the Dark Ages until the Reformation. He
declared that what he was doing was part of that vine of Israel, which was
carried to the New World by the Pilgrims. I saw the Water of the River of Life one time while I
was talking. It ran down from Christ, on down through the Old Country, and
across the waters into the United States. I saw that stream cross the waters
into this country; and, thank God, when that stream hit this country those
people got down on their knees and began to give thanks and glory to God who
had saved them and brought them here. And it kept flowing. Right here, at
28th and Wilson, that stream is located. It is still here. If God hadn't of
used the Roman Catholic Church in keeping it alive we would not have been
here today. After much historical investigation,
I have discovered that Will Sowders was right. The church which Jesus planted
did, literally, as well as figuratively, flee into the wilderness and
remained outside the corruption of the great Medieval system. This became the
source of the Reformation; but that history will have to wait for another
time. There was a living vine. The Reformation churches were not part of that
vine. Pretty quickly they became part of that system; but that living vine
was the source of the Reformation. The Pilgrims whose conscious purpose was
to plant the vine of Israel in America, were escaping King James and a Protestant
church. It was a church, not a government or commercial colony, which was
transplanted in America. The similarities in that church of the very first
Pilgrims -- with everyone, including women, prophesying (testifying) as they
were led by the Spirit -- and "that little church" to which Brother
Sowders belonged at the beginning of his ministry, and a lot of other little churches
connected through Brother Sowder's ministry, is amazing. About a hundred
years after the planting at Plymouth Rock, in which period a lot of other
churches moved to America, a Great Awakening of the Spirit took place. This
revival became the first means by which a national unity of the peoples in
America took place. There was a national church before there was a national
government. The churches as well as the nation as
a whole prospered, expecting the restoration of the Kingdom of God in
America. Yet, as ancient Israel turned from God when they began to prosper in
the promised land, so did this country. The turn, at first, was not an
explicit rejection of God. The churches at large remained nominally
Christian; and, later, in Brother Sowders times, even nominally revivalistic;
but they did reject the "movings of the Lord." Church and
community, or church and country, or church and denominational leadership
came to be identified. Those responding to the Spirit of God found themselves
at odds with those who wanted to build the church themselves. If you are
going to understand the ministry of William Sowders -- indeed, even
understand what he was talking about -- you must know something of what was
happening in the Methodist Church in the later years of the Nineteenth
Century. This was the church which Brother Sowders knew as a boy, and his
maternal grandfather was a minister in that church. This is also why Brother
Sowders made so many references to John Wesley. When I was 13 years old in the Methodist Church,
there were a good number of women and men in the church house with their
hands lifted and their eyes shut. They would walk around with their hands
lifted straight up in the air, with eyes shut, for as much as one hour; for
men timed them. Doctors have declared, after timing them, and seeing them
walk for one solid hour, and they would turn as white as that shirt --- they
declared that it had to be supernatural power, for natural power would never
enable a man or woman to hold their hands up like that for one solid hour. I
have seen them fall on the floor. I have seen them shout, run, leap, dance. John Wesley's ministry started out in
the First Great Awakening. He was not the source of that movement. Nor was he
the most outstanding preacher in that movement. He was not even the most
outstanding preacher from the Holy Club at Oxford, where he received the
sudden warming of his heart -- his experience with God. The great preacher in
those days was Wesley's colleague George Whitefield, who came to America and
really brought the First Great Awakening to its most notable peak. And there
was also Joseph Fletcher. Wesley, however, organized those responding to the
revival, though not as a separate church. The interesting thing about Wesley
is that he never rejected the Anglican Church, the state church of England.
He came from a long tradition of Tories. The Tories supported the King, the
bishops, and the ceremonial "high church". They were opposed by the
Whigs, who supported Parliament, and generally had "low church"
roots. Remaining a good Anglican, Wesley could not reject infant baptism, or
the communion, which was a ritual within the Anglican Church and something in
which everyone could participate. He could not associate his new
heart-warming experience with any of the sacramental formalities of the
church without coming into conflict with the Anglican Church. He didn't have
anything by which to call his experience. He just talked about it; but later
the experience became known as "sanctification", because the
purpose of religious experience was to change the life of the believer as
Wesley's own life had been changed. Wesley also inherited the Arminian
tradition of the high church rather than the Calvinist position of the low
church. This meant salvation was possible for everyone, and man could use
"methods" to bring about a revival. These new methods included
holding revivals, then organizing those who were getting saved into
"classes", like the Pietist were having over on the Continent.
Circuit-rider ministers would regularly visit the local classes. It was an
organization in the making. The situation in America was
different. Here people had an option in religion. The great masses of the
people in the early Eighteenth Century did not belong to any Church. The
Great Awakening was essentially a salvation revival. The great cry in the
First Great Awakening was "What shall I do to be saved?" The
leaders of the revival declared that there were ministers who weren't saved,
and this stirred not a little opposition to the revival. How could the
unsaved really be in the church? This caused some of the most thorough-going
revivalists to re-baptize those who were saved in the revival, and separate
themselves from the Old Church. This was the real beginnings of the Baptist
churches. There were Baptists before this time, but they were a tiny
minority, then called General Baptists, who actually opposed the Separate
Baptists until persecution from the Anglican Churches in North Carolina and
Virginia brought the two Baptist groups together. The other important revival
groups in America were the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians. Because
these churches believed in infant baptism, the revivalists in these churches
focussed more on participation in the Lord's Supper as the requirement for
standing in the Church. Only those who had actually been through an
experience of condemnation, and had repented and received the effects of
"saving" as opposed to "common" grace, were allowed to
participate in Communion. Too much certainty about one's salvation was not
regarded as a sign of saving grace, but rather as a delusion, and though one
was suppose to live a holy life, everyone was suppose to remember the
Reformer's position that everyone remained a sinner, saved by grace. Wesley challenged
this uncertainty about one's salvation, and the continuing need to sin. Without the Calvinistic baggage,
Wesley was free to explain the new experience in his own terms. The
experience was not for salvation. It was for sanctification. The purpose of
the experience was to eradicate sin from the life of the individual, and to
let someone know for certain that they were saved. This became the
theological basis for reform and perfectionism in Nineteenth Century America.
Americans became concern about all kind of sins both personal and social.
Because almost everyone was a church member in the early days these things
became merged together. At the Revolutionary War there was a tremendous
problem all over the Country with alcoholism. People were getting drunk at
funerals, and at the Lord's supper, just like at Corinth. Everyone from the
Old Country drank beer or wine, but the Great Awakening turned this into a
nation and kingdom of Nazerenes. At first the individual and the family, then
the entire church, and often that meant the entire community; and, finally,
that meant universal temperance. And there was to be more strict observance
of the Sabbath, no dancing, no gambling, no slave holding, and, in some
cases, not even marriage. Some were concerned about saving the entire nation.
Others believed that the perfect should live in separated communities, such
as those of the Shakers. These ideal communities, especially the Owenites,
became the model for European socialism and the Marxists. Wesley had a miserable experience on
his first trip to America. He received his heart-warming religious experience
after he got back to England, and he never again came to America. But he did
preach against the Americans who were rebellious to the English King. This
alienated the man from the very people who in America were responding to the
revivals. The revivalists were Patriots almost to a man, and those opposed to
the revivals were Tories almost to a man. After the war, Wesleys' American
lieutenants decided to separate themselves from Wesley and begin their own
Methodist movement. Before the Revolutionary War, the Methodists were the
smallest and least significant church in America, and their ministers were
neither well educated nor socially prominent. At that time ministers were
expected to be learned, and this was true even of many Baptist ministers.
These Methodist circuit riders, however, became the most successful preachers
in the back country; and their system was specifically suited to the moving
and expanding West. They emphasized experience and sanctification, opposing
alcohol, tobacco, slavery, jewelry and cosmetics for women, as well as social
dancing. By the time of the Civil War the Methodist had became the largest
church in America, though the Baptist were not far behind. The Methodist were
not the only ones preaching revival and reform in America, but they were the
best organized. In the Guilded Age, after the Civil
War, many Americans were prospering and becoming rich, some had more money
than they knew what to do with, especially after they died. It could be used,
perhaps, to buy salvation. There were many self-made men. Some of them had to
belong to the biggest churches. This money was used to build churches, and
those with great building projects needed church members who could support
these things. The Methodists leaders, who had humble beginnings, were proud
to have these prosperous new members. They didn't want to tighten up the
standards so as to drive these members out of the church, and in the South most
of the rich members were slave owners or tobacco growers. Beautiful church
buildings also needed professional choirs; and, they didn't want a lot of
"Amens" and shouting interrupting these professional performances.
To keep the people in line for the worship, they were handed programs with
the "order of service", and to keep them in tune they were given
songbooks and even responsive readings. More and more the Methodist Church
started looking like the Anglican or Episcopal Church from which it had
separated. This was also the beginning of the "princes of the
pulpits", though they were mostly in the Congregationalist and Baptist
churches. These were great and talented preachers who could attract crowds
and build big churches, especially in the big cities. These great preachers
and evangelists, like D.L. Moody, didn't want competition from the audience.
They taught the ushers to quietly remove those who still "had
religion" which might compete with the shining stars on the stage. |
