04.02-CHAPTER 2 THE CHURCH OF GOD

CHAPTER 2 THE CHURCH OF GOD THIS EXTENSIVE and highly organized Community had its rise in 1886, twenty years prior to the outburst at Los Angeles. It commenced in Tennessee, U.S.A, among a scattered farming people in rough country. They were mostly illiterate, with few books, yet in general were religious. though largely without the power of godliness. To read of the violent lawless deeds perpetrated with no restraint by authority, is a revelation of the backward moral and social conditions in country regions of the U.S.A. only seventy years ago. A Baptist pastor became distressed in soul about the spiritual deadness prevailing. He devoted himself to prayer and study of the Bible. A few joined him. In 1886 these saw that no general awakening of the Churches was to be expected, so nine persons formed themselves into a Christian Union, with the laudable but in part Scripturally unwarranted objective “to restore primitive Christianity and bring about the Union of all denominations” (p. 7). [All the page references in this chapter are to Conn: Like a Mighty Army Moves the Church of God.]

It is obvious that this latter hope was at variance with the plain and united forecast of the Word of God that the course of Christianity would be persistent declension culminating in final apostasy, so that “When the Son of Man cometh shall He find faith on the earth?

“(Luke 18:8). It is necessary to our present inquiry to note that this earnest group were from the start deficient in Bible teaching and therefore in power of discernment in things spiritual. In spite of fierce opposition their influence extended and their numbers increased. The few early evangelists were earnest and moving speakers. Their chief theme was personal holiness; but they did not teach, but plainly rejected, present assurance of eternal life, and therefore, though there were conversions of openly evil men, and others gained some experience of holiness, they did not bring these into a deep and solid state of heart. In consequence there was much spiritual emotionalism, and the historian tells that “the people felt a strange exaltation that intermittently overflowed in weeping and shouting. Their emotional expression frequently became even more demonstrative, for many danced in spiritual ecstasy or trance (p. 20)... leaping, shouting, and other manifestations were much in evidence (130) shouting, dancing, talking in tongues, and praising God” (148). This last sentence refers to public occasions, even when walking to meetings.

We need not wonder that with emotion so high further uncontrolled ecstatic developments followed. “For ten years the Spirit of God had been preparing the hearts of the people for something extraordinary... in ecstasy they spoke in languages unknown to those who heard the utterances.. regardless of the place, time, or circumstances contingent to the experience, one manifestation was uniform in all: they spoke in tongues, or languages, unknown to those who listened in wonder and hope” (24).

Examining the Scriptures, they concluded that what was taking place was a renewal of Pentecost, Caesarea. and Ephesus. “While the meetings were in progress, one after another fell under the power of God, and soon quite a number were speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (25).

Both the subjects of these experiences and the historian took for granted that this was a genuine working of the Spirit of God. But is it wise to take this for granted? Twenty years later, in 1906, while these exalted ecstasies were still in progress, the similar events in Los Angeles commenced. The leading pastor of the older Movement invited a preacher who had been “baptized” at Los Angeles to visit him. The pastor had himself long been seeking the “baptism” and this is his description of how it came. “On Sunday morning, January 12 [1908], while he [the visitor] was preaching, a peculiar sensation took hold of me, and almost unconsciously I slipped off my chair in a heap on the rostrum at Brother Cashwell’s feet. As I lay there great joy flooded my soul.” He wrote further that “he spoke in about ten languages unknown to him” (p.85).

Paul spoke with tongues more than others but declared. “howbeit in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (1 Corinthians 14:19). In the case before us there had been no interpretation. It was rather a case of ten thousand words in tongues and not even five spoken with the understanding. This was rectified in one instance on August 25th of that year. “The service was pregnant with the Divine Presence, and the altar was filled with sixty-five or seventy souls. This young Christian, completely overcome, started to the altar but fell weakly under the passion of his soul into the sawdust aisle.” He was carried to the “altar” and ‘within a short time, the humble seeker was baptized in the Holy Ghost and began to speak in tongues. A quiet, retiring, unobtrusive personality before, he was now exuberant, overflowing, vocal.

Under the spell of the Spirit, he arose from the altar where he had lain prostrate. Then how wonderfully the Spirit wafted him across the platform and up and down the aisles, during which time he preached powerfully and eloquently in other tongues... “ He “ remained in this state of ecstasy for several hours.” “Mexicans present testified that he spoke Spanish during his discoursing” (89, 90). The next day he went six miles to his father’s farm, and “sat on the front porch steps and endeavoured to tell them of the exhilaration 3rd tranquility he felt in his heart... He was immediately overcome with ecstasy and fell back across the steps, where he lay speaking forth the praises of God in an unknown tongue, interpreting the messages under the affiatus of the Spirit” (91). In addition to such demonstrations there were healings of the sick, singing in tongues, and, what seems a unique feature, persons who were not musical, playing well on piano or organ. A woman rose in a meeting and moved toward the piano. Her husband, knowing she could not play, shut the piano to avoid a fiasco. But she, though walking among the seats with her eyes tightly closed, reached the piano safely, opened it and played musically.

It will suffice to give one more scene from those early days, in the year 1914. It concerns one of the most renowned and effective of the evangelists of that Church. “The meetings were so emotionally pitched and the booming voice of the evangelist so sincere that people often fell into the sawdust as he invited them to the altar. He stalked the aisles pointing his finger at sinners and commanding them to seek God, many of whom fell screaming in either fear or ecstasy as they started toward the altar” (26). Does this describe Jesus preaching on the hillsides of Galilee or in the Temple courts? Did Paul “stalk the aisles” in the synagogues or the temple on Mars Hill. and make people “scream” with fear?

It is to be borne in mind that the scenes and features here given are not culled from attacks by hostile critics, and are not false and regrettable extravagancies of which sober minded leaders of that Church now feel ashamed. They are recorded by the official historian of the Church, who selected them after fifty years as being the very features he, and his Supreme Council who highly commend his book, wish to offer as accurately exhibiting the proper character of their Movement.

Let the reader put together what is thus commended to him as workings of the blessed Holy Spirit of God. Walking about a hall and playing a piano with one’s eyes shut: public weeping, shouting, dancing, leaping, lying in a heap on the rostrum before the congregation: falling backward across steps, constant speaking in tongues often simultaneously, tongues which usually no one understood and which mostly were not interpreted. Both these last two items are activities expressly forbidden in public (1 Corinthians 14:27-28). Let the reader watch an estimable young Christian man, seeking the “baptism,” moving toward the “altar” (known elsewhere as the “penitent form”), suddenly becoming exhausted and collapsing in the sawdust of the aisle, carried helpless to the front, lying there prostrate, and then suddenly “wafted across the platform and up and down the aisles” preaching in tongues. Let him further study the vigorous, vociferous evangelist, using his powerful voice as he strode up and down among the audience, frightening some until they screamed.

Let the serious Christian with a fair knowledge of his New Testament, try to fit such extravagancies into the public gatherings of The Acts of the Apostles or make them to harmonize with the sobriety and order demanded in 1 Corinthians 14:1-40. Dull, lifeless routine in Divine worship is indeed unscriptural: the Spirit of life will infuse heavenly life and vigour into gatherings where He has true liberty, bringing fervour of spirit and spontaneity of utterance, but if it is He who produces such unrestrained excesses as are above reviewed, then have we read our New Testament to little purpose.