Peter Fenwick continues to assess the roots of the Toronto Blessing.

(This article is part of a series. Click here for previous instalments)

Restorationism: The Promise of Triumph

In the 1970s most of the ‘new churches’, as the house churches are now called, were swept by Restorationist teaching, which created great expectations of triumph for the Church of God. It was embraced as a very welcome antidote to the widespread and gloomy views of the Church's future which had been disseminated by Dispensationalist teaching.

According to that Dispensationalist view, the Church on earth could look forward only to deterioration leading to failure and ignominy. As is so often the case, one extreme position was rejected, only for another to be embraced.

Restorationism came presenting an absolutely opposite view of the Church, and taught that the Church would, in this age and before the return of Jesus, become overwhelmingly successful in every area of human life. In particular, this meant that the Church would overwhelm the secular world - not by military means, but by the force of righteousness.

The Church's influence would be so massive and extensive that it would dominate Government, education, business and finance, the judiciary, law enforcement, the arts etc. This did not mean that there would necessarily be a Christian political party in Parliament; that would not be necessary. The Church would be seen to be so glorious in wisdom and righteousness that Government and political leaders everywhere would come to it for counsel and advice.

Education planners and captains of industry as well as leaders in other fields of human activity would all in similar fashion be accepting the Church's standards and the Church's direction for their affairs. The righteous rule of Christ which is foretold following the return of Christ to the earth would be in very large measure realised before his return.

Restorationist teaching created great expectations of triumph for the Church.

Almost as a by-product, the Church and its members would become wealthy as a grateful world brought its riches and laid them at the Church's feet. Such beliefs clearly opened the door wide for the ‘health-and-wealth’ errors of the so-called 'Faith Movement'.

It was strongly felt that evangelism would probably not be needed. It would be enough for non-Christians to see how good the 'new brand' of Christianity was as relationships were put right, and as Christians loved and served each other and bore each other's burdens. They would voluntarily press into the Church in great numbers and thus be readily converted. Persecution was not really expected, failure was out of the question, and trials and tribulations were not on anyone's agenda.

Interpretation of Scripture

It must be said that the errors of Restorationism, and errors they are, did not result from the Bible being by-passed as I described last week concerning other practices. On the contrary, extensive appeal was made to the Bible. It is not within the scope of this chapter to thoroughly examine what went wrong. But the nub of the error was as follows.

Jesus and the Apostles, as recorded in the New Testament, took many statements and incidents from the Old Testament and applied them to the Church, thus usually giving them a wider meaning. These statements and incidents originally concerned either certain individuals or the whole Jewish people. Restorationist teaching followed that pattern and applied it to other Old Testament passages relating to promises given to Israel, transferring them to the Church.

I submit to the reader that this approach is not legitimate. Jesus was the divine Son of God and knew all things. He therefore had an absolute right to say which Old Testament passages apply to the Church and which do not. Furthermore, Jesus promised the Spirit of Truth for all believers (John 14:15) which enables us to discern those passages of the Old Testament that were for Israel and those that can be applied to the Church.

Great Expectations

Without doubt, Restorationism was an ultimate statement of over-realised eschatology. What is more, its expectations were to happen soon. When this was being declared in the 1970s and the early 1980s, no-one seriously believed that the year 2000 might arrive without much of this victory already well in place.

The expectations amongst the people of God were quite enormous and they would return in their thousands from the great Bible weeks fully expecting to see progress within the following months.

Naturally the churches themselves expected to see a power and beauty which far exceeded anything that had been experienced in the previous 2,000 years of Church history. Attempts were made to show that throughout the years, certainly since the Reformation, the Church had become, by successive stages, more powerful and more beautiful, and now the ultimate was about to be achieved.

Restorationism was the ultimate statement of over-realised eschatology.

It must be said that there was a great deal of human pride in all of this. It was believed that it would be the charismatic churches which would achieve this, and in particular, the Restorationist charismatic churches. They would pave the way for the other churches to participate, provided of course those other churches embraced Restorationist principles. If they did not, they would be completely by-passed by God himself as he fulfilled his purposes in the earth.

None of this has happened. None of these massive expectations have been fulfilled and many of the people who were in receipt of those promises had reached a point of disappointment and considerable disillusion.

The truth is that the very opposite has happened. In all of those fields that I have previously mentioned where the Church was expected to exercise such a powerful influence, the decline of decades has not even been arrested; moral deterioration continues and the Church which was to have been such a strong influence for good frequently finds itself an object of scorn and ridicule. It has become more than ever marginalised and tends to be thoroughly ignored by Government, industry and society in general.

Restorationism was never openly repudiated, but quietly slipped out of prominence. However, the hunger amongst the people of God for something very spectacular to happen had been born and continues to this day. The great cry was then 'God is doing a new thing' and the momentum has been kept going by new phases with the cry being repeated each time. However, there has still not been any delivery of the expectations.

Hunger for Breakthrough

John Wimber, in 1983, began a process that was to greatly widen this sense of expectation beyond the Restorationist movement. He successfully appealed to the mainline churches, even though he himself was not a 'mainline' man. He taught that signs and wonders allied to evangelism (‘power evangelism’) would lead to great progress in the conversion of the United Kingdom. It did not happen.

Strange things undoubtedly did happen in Wimber meetings and particularly during the ministry times as people screamed, fell about and trembled. The momentum was thus maintained. It was felt that something was happening and that it was all going to lead to a great breakthrough for the Kingdom of God.

The hunger amongst God’s people for something very spectacular to happen continues to this day.

When in 1990 the Kansas City prophets were introduced into the United Kingdom the whole matter of expectations stepped up a gear. It was prophesied that there was going to be a revival later that year which would surpass the revival which had taken place in this nation in the 18^th Century under the Wesleys. Yet again nothing happened, the expectations were not fulfilled and the question undoubtedly arose: how much more can even the most gullible people take of this sort of thing?

By this time, undoubtedly, anxiety was at large in charismatic circles. Thus, when the Toronto Blessing appeared, the need for something remarkable was so great that the questioning and testing procedures that should always be applied to such things were frankly superficial and sporadic at best.

Even though the Toronto Blessing was accompanied by manifestations never before seen in the whole history of the Church, including the New Testament record, because something remarkable undoubtedly was happening it has been taken on board in a most indiscriminate manner.

Decline in Bible Knowledge

Let me now turn to the second factor which made the charismatic Church vulnerable to departure from biblical truth and practice.

When the house churches first emerged, there was a lot of healthy radical thinking about Christian life and practice. The object of all of this was to endeavour to re-establish something which was perceived to have been lost, namely the simplicity and purity of the life of the early Church, as depicted in the New Testament.

Therefore, all church practices were subjected afresh to the scrutiny of God's word, and I believe that most objective critics would judge that a very great deal of good emerged from that. Even though leaders in the older denominations often saw house churches as a threat, some of them recognised how their own churches might benefit from the discoveries of these new churches.

The search was on for absolute honesty in all aspects of church life and for genuineness in the exercise of charismatic gifts. Anything that was even slightly false was questioned and as an example, house churches were dangerous places to be for anyone wishing to indulge in super-spirituality.

Unnecessary meetings were scrapped, along with cumbersome committees; silliness in charismatic things was given short shrift, and ridiculous prophecies were given no houseroom at all. There was the development of genuine fellowship and great generosity, and in the realm of demonology there was no dualism whatsoever; Christ was King over all.

The Toronto Blessing was taken on board in a most indiscriminate manner, because something remarkable undoubtedly was happening.

However, in a concerted attack on legalism, diligent application to the Bible itself also came under attack, and whether the message was intended or not, large numbers of Christians began a process of taking personal Bible study less and less seriously. At the same time, expository and doctrinal preaching came to be regarded as old hat, intellectualism, heavy and wearisome.

As a result, there has emerged a famine of the Word of God, and whilst I do not believe that this is confined to the charismatic churches it has nevertheless left large numbers of Christians without the capacity to judge for themselves from Scripture whether a thing is of God or not. They are defenceless against error, in the form of both doctrine and practice, taking hold of the Church of God.

Misuse of Scripture

It even becomes possible for leaders to seriously misquote the scriptures and the people believe that God is speaking. One video of the day showed Rodney Howard-Browne addressing an audience of thousands who cheered as he declared, “Don't try to understand this. Don't you know the natural mind cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God?”

This is taken from 1 Corinthians 2:14 and is almost a correct quotation. Paul actually says 'the natural man', not 'mind', and he is clearly referring to unregenerate man, non-Christian man. Paul goes on to talk about the Christian man, and asserts that this man has the mind of Christ (v16 of the same chapter). Such a man is, 'a spiritual man' and is required to judge all things (v15). What the Apostle Paul teaches is the complete opposite of what Browne is saying, and yet Christian people sit there cheering this appalling manipulation of the word of God.

Many people in the Toronto movement eventually took steps to put some distance between themselves and Rodney Howard-Browne, but many did not. This dictum of Browne's: that is, the by-passing of your mind and your critical faculties, has been carried far and wide into the Toronto Blessing churches and has become a fundamental factor in the whole 'receiving process' of this phenomenon.

I quote examples of what has been said in English churches.

“Don't let the Bible get in the way of the blessing.”

“Some of you Bible-lovers need to put it down and let God work on you.”

“The Bible has let us down. It has not delivered the numbers we need.”

“You must not let your mind hinder the receiving of the blessing.”

The result of all this is that when a new teaching or a new experience comes along, many Christians have no way of assessing whether or not it is of God. Even when the Holy Spirit with them is telling them 'This is very queer', they jump in just in case it is God at work they do not want to miss him.

There has emerged a famine of the Word of God, leaving large numbers of Christians defenceless against error.

If people act in this way, it is inevitable that they will end up in trouble sooner or later, and many well-meaning charismatics have been up one blind alley after another.

The dangers are compounded by the fact that too many preachers/leaders have few skills in expounding the scriptures and laying out the truth before the people. Some hardly speak from the scriptures at all, and of those who do, too many spend their time spiritualising and allegorising them.

Conclusion

The burden of what I am saying is this: within charismatic churches great expectations have been built up among the people of God; expectations that something spectacular, something extraordinary, something perhaps even sensational is going to happen.

Disappointment has followed disappointment, but no-one can possibly be satisfied with the simple life of patiently enduring hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, nor faithfully persevering in the face of setbacks, disappointments and defections as the Apostles evidently had to; no, there must be something very big round the next corner.

But because we live in a day when personal knowledge of the Bible is at its lowest ebb for years, and the capacities for discernment and spiritual discrimination have been discarded, the people of God are left wide open to almost anything.

Am I asserting that absolutely nobody in any pro-Toronto church has received any blessing at all from God? No, because God is always eager to bless hungry children who are truly seeking his face and I am therefore in no doubt that there will be individuals who have been truly blessed of God.

However, from my own experience, I have to add that it is on nothing like the scale that people would have us believe. There have not been huge numbers of lives remarkably changed, nor have there been large numbers of conversions, nor have there been significant numbers of healings. I shall have more to say about this next week.

Next week: was the Toronto Blessing biblical – and does it matter?

Originally published 1995. Revised and updated December 2017.

Paul Luckraft surveys the Barnabas Fund’s short booklets on Islam.

(See base of article for ordering information)

Is the Muslim Isa the Biblical Jesus? (Patrick Sookhdeo, 2012, 24 pages)

This is one of the most important questions to ask when it comes to comparing Islam with Christianity, and a fitting starting point for our survey of booklets produced by the Barnabas Fund.

Islam is the only non-Christian religion which mentions Jesus in its holy book and yet it “denies His deity, His atonement, and His supreme place as Lord of all” (p5). The person of Christ is clearly a challenge to Muslims and likewise their response to Jesus challenges Christians.

The booklet sets out how Islam views Jesus (called Isa) in both the Qur’an and the Hadith (traditions) with lots of quotes from both which leave us in no doubt about the fundamental differences between the Muslim Isa and the biblical Jesus. There is also a short section on the role of Isa in the Islamic apocalyptic narrative, namely that he will return (as a Muslim) to fight and destroy the enemies of Islam which, of course, includes Jews and Christians!

Overall the booklet “explores Muslim beliefs about Jesus [and] shows how incompatible they are with the Christian confession of Jesus as Lord and Saviour” (p7). Although Islam reveres Isa as a prophet and miracle worker, its claim that he was a mere human being is the major point of departure from Christianity. For Christians who seek common ground with Islam it is important not to ignore or suppress the real differences over these two views of Jesus.

For those seeking to witness to Muslims here is a useful booklet, full of facts to help them discuss and debate from a secure place of knowledge.

In the same series…

Four other booklets in the same series also help equip Christians to this end. ‘What is Islam?’ is a useful 8-page summary covering the history and background of the Quran, Sharia law and what Muslims believe and practice. It concludes with two pages on the different kinds of Muslims in the world today, including Sunni, Shia, Sufi and Wahhabi.

‘What is Sharia?’ adds to the section in the above on the topic of Sharia. It covers its development and characteristics, and discusses the challenges of Sharia in Western countries.

‘Islam and Truth’ tackles the doctrine of taqiyya (dissimulation or concealing true beliefs and motives), and ‘Islam and Slavery’ provides an historical survey of how Islam has interacted with the contentious issue of the enslavement of human beings.

The UK, Islam and Operation Nehemiah

There are two other much longer booklets (just over 50 pages each) which may interest readers who want to know more about Islam in the UK. Both are written by Patrick Sookhdeo and explain the aims and objectives of the Barnabas Fund’s Operation Nehemiah, a project dedicated to the spiritual transformation of the UK.

One of these (‘Slippery Slope’) focuses on the increasing Islamisation of the UK, but also covers similar trends in Europe. The chapters are simply titled ‘Immigration’, ‘Integration’, ‘Islamisation’ and ‘Implications’. It ends with the mission statement of Operation Nehemiah (based on Nehemiah 3, rebuilding the walls) and encourages readers to sign up and support the mission.

The second booklet (‘The Way Ahead’) ends in a similar fashion and is subtitled ‘Returning Britain to its Christian Path’. This may well be on the heart of many who have experienced recent changes in society and at the very least want to understand this better, if not be spurred into action.

The retreat of Christianity in public life over recent decades has created a vacuum that has lent itself well to the increasing influence of Islam. This booklet is an eye-opening and thought-provoking assessment of what has become a vital aspect of the UK today and should be required reading for those wanting to engage in the important debate of how Britain will develop in the years to come.

Ordering information

All booklets are £1 each. Order from the Barnabas Fund website, by telephoning 02476 231923, or by writing to Barnabas Books, 9 Priory Row, Coventry CV1 5EX.

The world seems smaller than ever before. With modern media facilities we can be in touch with anyone, anywhere, within seconds. We can find out what is going on anywhere and feel we are involved in the lives of others even thousands of miles away, as if they were just down the road from us.

This goes for the Church as well as the world. It is relatively straightforward, these days, to build up a general sense of the way the world is going, politically and also prophetically.

Yet, should we be careful? What God is doing and saying in the world is important to understand, yes, but it should not eclipse what He is doing and saying at a local level, within and to our own congregations and prayer groups.

The Churches of Revelation 2-3

Consider the letters to the seven congregations of Revelation 2 and 3. They were all reasonably close to one another in Asia, compared with the scope of the modern world. Yet each had a different set of challenges, according to location and their personal circumstances as congregations of disciples. The Lord had different letters for each of them.

The congregation of Ephesus was hard working, patient and stood against evil, yet they were called to repentance because they had lost their first love.

The congregation of Smyrna had suffered tribulation and the Lord knew that satan was about to bring more suffering, but it was the Lord’s will to let them suffer persecution for ten days. They were to have a testimony of overcomers.

The congregation of Pergamos were living in a very difficult area where satan had set up headquarters, but God still rebuked them for giving ground to false doctrine. Theirs was a spiritual battle.

The congregation of Thyatira were commended for love and good works, but had allowed a false prophetess to be a member of their community and to seduce some of the disciples with immorality. They needed to focus on this and put matters right.

The congregation of Sardis were known for their works, but God judged these works in a different way from the world. They heard the surprising message that they were dead, not alive, and needed to repent of dead works.

The congregation of Philadelphia were commended for their perseverance, promised a special protection from God and encouraged to continue as they were going.

The congregation of the Laodiceans were blind to their own lukewarmness and were at a low point in the Lord’s sight. They too needed to repent, but for different reasons than some of the other congregations.

Unique Messages Today

In our global community there are often tides of new and fascinating things criss-crossing from one area of the world to another. Within the Church, new formulae are always being suggested for what we might sing to please God, what we might focus on in our ministry or how we might be organised. Yet, just as in the early days of the Christian Church, we are all unique in the Lord’s eyes.

Surely then, now is the time for us to learn to listen to the particular word the Lord has to say to each of our congregations. “To the congregation of…write…”

In what unique way will God fill in the blanks for our congregation? We must be listening to Him directly if we want to find out.

Author: Clifford Denton

Knowledge and wisdom in an age of deception and unreality.

The Roman Governor of Jerusalem’s iconic question, “What is truth?” has probably never been more apt than it is today in the 21^st Century AD. Whether Pilate was being sarcastic or he was genuinely seeking for truth has been debated by scholars for 2,000 years. In light of the spat between the leaders of Britain and the USA over the tweeting of video clips, it would be good if all those involved paused to ponder his question.

We live in an age when technology has delivered the tools to create deception, whether by airbrushing photos or by deliberately producing deceptive videos, distorting the truth and creating fake news.

It is certainly unfortunate that the President of the United States should have retweeted video clips that had come from a doubtful source. It shows a lack of wisdom and a willingness to use material from a campaigning group to vilify millions of people who belong to a particular religion.

But it is equally foolish for the British Prime Minister to use the same medium of communication to point out the unreliability of the clips. Surely the more sensible approach would have been to make a quiet phone call. At least that way would have maintained personal relationships and not caused a rift between two friendly nations.

Knowledge AND Wisdom

The trouble with our generation is that we have enormous knowledge but we lack the wisdom in how to use it. There is good reason why Paul, writing to the church in Corinth where there was a lot of squabbling and disunity, referred to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The first two of these he linked together as ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ (1 Cor 12:8).

Celestial truth cannot be understood by the normal processes of human reason – it requires divine revelation.

There is surely a very good reason for linking these two. We can acquire an enormous fund of knowledge in our media-saturated world, where we have the whole internet at our disposal. But without the wisdom of how to use this knowledge, we can create chaos and confusion rather than promote enlightenment.

Jesus is the Light of Truth

As we enter the season of Advent it would be good to ponder on the prologue of John’s Gospel where he focuses upon the theme of light and darkness - also the theme of Hanukkah and Diwali at this time of the year. The unique feature of Advent, according to John’s teaching, is that although the light of truth came into the world at the birth of Jesus, the world did not recognise him.

John says that through the coming of Jesus, God actually came and “made his dwelling among us” – literally – “he pitched his tent among us”, as foretold by the Prophet Zechariah (2:10). But our human reason cannot cope with this. Despite all the accumulated knowledge of centuries of human development, this celestial truth cannot be understood by the normal processes of the human brain. This kind of knowledge requires wisdom that is actually a spiritual gift which can only be received through divine revelation.

God actually has to do something to our human nature to enable us to receive this wisdom, which enables us to perceive truth that goes way beyond the realm of human reason. This is what Jesus had to explain to Rabbi Nicodemus who was a devout scholar, a highly educated man and a senior academic. But his whole mindset was limited to learning on the level of human reason. Only a spiritual revelation would enable him to perceive ‘Kingdom truth’.

It was like opening the curtains in a darkened room, bringing a flood of light that shows all the things that were in the room but previously hidden by the darkness – things that you could stumble over in the dark.

The trouble with our generation is that we have enormous knowledge but we lack the wisdom in how to use it.

Deceit is Easy

In our world today, millions of people are going about stumbling over fake news, half-truths and blatant lies. They are easily deceived because they don’t know the truth that sets them free from all the duplicity, deviousness and unscrupulous machinations of the crooked generation in which we live. They are trying to see in the dark; trying to discern falsehood without having ever known truth.

It should be a salutary wake-up call to us when the leaders of the nations are found peddling fake news. How can we expect our children to discern right from wrong and to be protected from the multiple dangers of the internet and social media, if our leaders shows so little discernment?

It is small wonder that our children peddle nonsense and vilify one another over their mobile phones, sometimes with devastating effects upon their mental health.

Season of Opportunity

During this season of Advent, we have the opportunity in very practical ways to spread the true message of Christmas – the true light that has come into our dark world.

But so much depends upon our relationships with others, and how we use the tools of communication society has given us. If Donald Trump and Theresa May had only spoken to each other instead of tweeting, an embarrassing international incident could have been avoided. Surely this is a lesson to us all.

Postscript

Last week there were comments left on the editorial, speaking of the need for greater interaction between authors and readers. I warmly respond to this - we want to make this site much more open to constructive and thoughtful correspondence. Our Editorial Board are grappling with this subject and we are open to suggestions from any of our readers as to how we can improve such interaction so that we can all learn from one another in our search for the truth.

As part of this, don’t forget that we have established a secure site for such discussion, in partnership with the team at Issachar Ministries. If you would like to use this (there is a fee for joining) please contact Jacqueline at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Avoid the new religion that seeks to dazzle through glitter and sparkle

Coming back to the UK after our unexpectedly lengthy tour of Israel, we were particularly struck by the emphasis on Christmas – even our cappuccino at Heathrow had to be decorated with a tree-shaped sprinkling of chocolate!

Christmas lights soon beamed on us from all sides, reflecting less on the theological aspect of the feast as on the usual glitz and glamour and commercial hype we have all come to know and love – perhaps not!

And then there were massive crowds at the shops on Sunday – now the new religion on what used to be the Christian Sabbath. In Bawtry, on the edge of Doncaster, Christmas trees were lavishly bedecked with baubles in a brilliant array of colours – and, as ever, we sense the danger of not seeing the wood for the trees.

I am reminded, however, that festive lights will also now be adorning Jerusalem in celebration of Hanukkah – marking the time when the menorah candle burned miraculously for eight days despite having only enough oil for one, following victory over the Syrian-Greek emperor Antiochus Epiphanes who desecrated the Jewish Temple by sacrificing a pig there and blasphemously proclaimed himself God. But focus on what the light means, not on its beams!

Look for the True Light

For we’re submerged in so much darkness today – not least the marginalisation of the Christian Gospel to the point where it has become politically incorrect – and yet we all make a big fuss of this incredibly important Christian festival!

In truth, all these bright lights are, for the most part, dragging us further into the gloom of materialism, partying and pointless debt, rather than towards the true light to which they are allegedly designed to draw our attention.

So my Christmas (and Hanukkah) message to readers is: don’t look for the bright lights; look rather for the true light “that gives light to everyone”, according to John the Baptist (John 1:9) – a light that leads to everlasting life, and is not snuffed out with the brief passing of our lives.

Yes, we all like shiny things, but unless they are part of Heaven’s treasure, they will fade and rust and turn to dust (Matt 6:19-21).

All these bright lights are, for the most part, dragging us further into the gloom of materialism, rather than towards the true Light.

The Significance of Jesus’s Coming

A famous passage of Scripture, often associated with Christmas, speaks of the light that the Messiah will bring to the world. Its context, most significantly, is of the darkness of the occult, which has gripped so many in our day (Isa 8:19).

The prophet, however, goes on to predict a great honour that would be bestowed on the region to which he refers as ‘Galilee of the nations, the Way of the Sea’: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (Isa 9:2).

A major highway at the time, connecting Asia, Africa and Europe, straddled the coast of Israel before moving inland towards Galilee and then beyond into Syria. Galilee was thus an international crossroads whose people were immensely privileged to have seen a great light when Jesus came among them.

No Longer Inhabited

The ruins of Capernaum. See Photo Credits.Yet many rejected him and failed to grasp his significance. True, 2,000 years later he is still much spoken against, but he is nevertheless the most famous man who ever lived. He performed many miracles in Galilee – in Capernaum, Chorazin and Bethsaida – and warned those cities that they would be judged for their rejection of Messiah.

As for Capernaum, where much of his ministry took place, he said: “Will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades; for if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day” (Matt 11:23). Capernaum was destroyed by an earthquake in 749 AD. We could only view its ruins. Yet a short distance away is the town of Migdal, still a thriving community where former prostitute turned passionate believer Mary Magdalene came from.

A little further down the coast still is the city of Tiberias, a popular resort frequented by the occupying Romans in Jesus’s day – yet it is not mentioned in the Gospel accounts. Also not mentioned is Sebastia, the ancient capital of Samaria up in the hills, which was the ‘in’ place for the jet-set of the day, with its spa and baths adorned with beautiful columns. Now, apart from a few remaining columns, it is a barren ruin in a dustbowl with little to suggest it was the Las Vegas of a bygone era.

The true light came first to Galilee, but many rejected him and failed to grasp his significance.

The Obedient Blessed

Meanwhile, seemingly insignificant events and people have changed history. One example is Joppa, now known as Jaffa, at the southern tip of Tel Aviv. It was there, in the house of Simon the Tanner, that the Apostle Peter had a vision, and because he acted upon it in obedience to the Lord, it became the means by which the Gospel was preached to the entire Gentile world.

The Roman centurion Cornelius, 40 miles up the coast, had a similar encounter, and he acted upon it because he was a God-fearing man who loved the Jews. Genesis 12:3 tells that those who bless the seed of Abraham will themselves be blessed while those who curse them will come under judgment. And so the Holy Spirit fell on these Gentile believers.

Life in All its Fullness

Joppa (now Jaffa) is once more significant today as the entry point of Jews returning to Israel from every corner of the globe. Airliners from all over the world fly over this ancient port bringing the scattered seed of Abraham back to the Promised Land.

The bright lights of Tel Aviv. See Photo Credits.

What’s more, many of them are now turning back to the Lord, having acknowledged Jesus as their Messiah. And we worshipped with some of them (in Hebrew), which was an amazing privilege. It was such a moving experience to witness hands and eyes lifted to the skies in praise and adoration of the Lord we love.

And they are reaching out to a world still lost and confused; Tel Aviv is a hedonistic city where many indulge in a club-and-coffee bar culture that leaves little room for God. But there is a great openness. They may be lost, but they are looking for a Shepherd. Pray that their eyes will be open; go if you can and tell them about Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus). They are looking for fun and fulfilment, but they often find mere emptiness, as at the bottom of a beer glass or coffee cup.

Like us in Britain, they too are looking for the bright lights, but are so dazzled by the glitzy neon signs that they miss the real thing – the true light that gives light to every man. Jesus says: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

Like us in Britain, Israelis too are looking for the light, but are so dazzled by the glitzy neon signs that they miss the real thing.

Light to the World

As I was standing on the Mount of Olives, I contemplated how Jesus paid such a heavy price for our salvation as he sweated blood among the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane below.

The olive tree is a symbol of the Messiah. Its fruit is harvested using sticks to beat them down from the overhanging branches; Jesus was whipped for us. The olives are then crushed for their oil; Jesus was crushed for our iniquities (Isa 53:5). But the oil is then used to light a candle…to bring light to the world!

Let’s focus on the true light this Christmas – and Hanukkah.

Tears flow as black and white Christians seek forgiveness for each other’s sins.

A momentous prayer meeting took place in the South African Parliament last Friday that is likely to have significance for generations to come.

The focus was on reconciliation, with white people asking forgiveness from blacks, and blacks confessing their sins against the white community in recent years.

Many were reportedly brought to tears during an extended time of prayer and confession, after which farmer-evangelist Angus Buchan addressed MPs and other dignitaries about the need for faith in South Africa.

One MP, Steve Swart, even confessed the government’s anti-Semitism during World War II when Jews who had fled the Holocaust were not allowed to disembark in Cape Town.

Confessing and Repenting

Inside South Africa's Parliament. See Photo Credits.The meeting was held in the Parliament’s former main chamber where many discriminatory laws were passed, and was by invitation only due to the venue’s maximum 250 capacity.

Anneke Rabe, praying on behalf of South Africa’s whites, sought forgiveness for the way they had treated the nation’s black, Coloured (mixed race) and Indian population along with other minorities – for oppressive laws, land dispossession and the way the churches condoned apartheid:

I repent for the way that we shamed, humiliated and oppressed you…for those who died under the evil system of apartheid in Sharpeville, Soweto and many other places; for the inferior education you received under that system; for the pain, anguish, fear and shock you had to endure; for the detentions, imprisonments, tortures and violence.

Cape Town intercessor Ashley Cloete, a descendant of slaves and the Khoi people,¹ was reduced to tears “when one speaker after another recalled laws that had affected my life down the years such as the Group Areas Act and the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act.

“As a result of the former law, and the related practice of so-called ‘slum clearance’, almost all the buildings and places of my childhood memories had been eradicated. And the latter law was the reason for my exile of just over 18 years,” he told Gateway News.

The meeting was held in the Parliament’s former main chamber where many discriminatory laws were passed.

Representing the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa, Rev Moss Nthla prayed “with a deep sense of awareness of the grace you showed us through what many have described as the miracle of 1994 [the relatively peaceful transfer of power].”

But he went on: “I stand to confess our failure, as a people, to be good stewards of that miracle. We have neither sought nor walked in your ways. As a result, we have harmed ourselves and each other as South Africans. I ask for forgiveness that sadly, a growing number of white South Africans have been made to feel unwelcome in this country and that they have no future for themselves or their children [a possible reference, in part, to the policy of positive discrimination favouring blacks over whites for jobs]. I further ask for forgiveness for the thousands of farmers who have been murdered in our country by black people.”²

Commenting later on the reference to anti-Semitism, Ashley Cloete said: “The attitude of our present government towards Israel is of course something that we are not at all proud of as followers of the Jewish Jesus, our Lord and Saviour” (there are moves afoot to downgrade diplomatic ties with Israel). And he also referred to regular worship on Signal Hill (adjacent to Table Mountain) “in our Isaac-Ishmael prayer battle for Jews and Muslims”.

Drawing People Back to God

South Africa’s Christians have taken the bull by the horns and stepped straight into the very heart of government. Didn’t Jesus say the gates of Hell would not prevail against his Church? They are not shy about their faith, or happy to keep it to themselves. They know it’s the only hope for the nation’s future.

Clearly, God has anointed Angus Buchan and others for such auspicious moments, but we have to ask if there is someone in Britain with comparable courage and conviction, who is prepared to raise his voice among our politicians?

Angus knows where his strength comes from – the mighty power of the Holy Spirit that was first poured out in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost.

South Africa’s Christians are not shy about their faith or happy to keep it themselves - they know it is the only hope for the nation’s future.

In 1960 British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan also addressed the Cape Town Parliament warning of “winds of change” blowing through Africa among nations seeking their independence from colonial powers. But our farmer friend knows that the only wind of change God requires from leaders in these dark days is the acknowledgement of rule from heaven above, and the restoration of our Judeo-Christian heritage.

As with Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and Ezra drawing the people back to God by reading the Law, so South Africa is experiencing a restoration – both in spirit and in truth.

Same Need in Britain

Our need in Britain is the same; chiefly for reconciliation with God, though working together in unity with our Christian brethren is a vital first step, without which our secular nation will not fully grasp that we love one another.

Like Angus and his fellow leaders, we also need courage – the sort that caused those who witnessed the boldness of Peter and John to recall that they “had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

We too need to repent – over the shameful laws we have passed that contradict the commandments handed down to us on Mt Sinai; and over our treatment of Israel, who gave us God’s Law in the first place.

Thankfully, an anti-Semitic campaign calling on the British Government to apologise for the Balfour Declaration (promising to do all we could to restore Jews to their ancient land) has come to nothing. If anything, we should apologise for trying to prevent its eventual implementation, largely through appeasement of Arabs opposing it.

Worse still, we prevented Jews trying to escape the Holocaust from entering the Promised Land through our policy of limited immigration during the (internationally-approved) Mandate we held over the region.

Passion for the Nations

Buchan's 'Mighty Men' conference. See Photo Credits.

And since we’re discussing South Africa, perhaps we also need to repent over our disgraceful dealings with the Afrikaners, 26,000 of whom perished in the British concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.

I am still proud to be South African, despite my problems with immigration when initially refused re-entry to the UK on my recent return from Israel. My loyalty to the country of my birth is chiefly due to the God-fearing Afrikaners who rescued my orphaned great-grandfather and his siblings from possible death in the veldt following the roadside murder of their widowed father.

My great-grandfather, also Charles, was subsequently brought up in the parsonage of the Rev Andrew Murray, a much-loved revivalist who, together with his famous son of the same name, became a father-figure for Dutch Reformed evangelicals throughout the country.

God has anointed Angus Buchan in South Africa, but is there someone in Britain with comparable courage and conviction, who is prepared to raise his voice among our politicians?

The passion for Jesus exhibited by so many Afrikaners today is in no small way connected, in my opinion, to the legacy left by the Murray clan – I happen also to share Scottish ancestry with both Angus Buchan and the Murrays.

But it’s about the heart more than our genes. May passion for God’s rule over our nations drive us to our knees, as we are witnessing so powerfully in South Africa, where 1.7 million Christians converged on a farmer’s field to pray for the nation back in April. Amen.

Notes

1 Original inhabitants of the Cape who are now almost extinct.

2 Gerber, J. There will be no drought in Western Cape by March - Angus Buchan. news24, 24 November 2017. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission that accompanied the transition to multi-racial democracy in the 1990s did much to heal wounds at the time, but there has been a clear failure to build on what was such a hopeful start to the new ‘Rainbow Nation’.

British Muslims flock to hear God's word.

We are pleased to bring you news of the great success of a recent ‘Muslim-Christian Dialogue’ event at the Manor Park Christian Centre (see the report below).

The event was led by minister Steven Hanna, a vicar from Dagenham with a heart to see Muslims come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. 150 people came, 110 of whom were Muslims. Among the Christians present were representatives of a number of missions including Frontiers, Open Air Campaigners and London City Mission. Read on to find out more!

Report: Is this an indication that there is an underlying hunger?

“...but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus
is not from God...You, dear children,
are from God and have overcome them because
the one who is in you is greater
than the one who is in the world.”

NIV, 1 John 4:3-4

Everyone was shocked when 110 Muslims in addition to 40 Christians showed up at the Muslim-Christian dialogue that was held at MPCC. With the exception of one regular such dialogue in East London that draws around 50-60 people, there are usually only 5-10 Muslims who show up for these events. We very quickly ran out of table and chair space in our side hall and had to revert to “standing room only”.

Is this an indication that there is an underlying hunger among Muslims to know the truth about God? It could very well be. One imam who is the leader of a local mosque and who was in attendance at the MPCC dialogue event is one such person. Having witnessed the natural death of several of his close friends, he himself is fearful of dying. He admits that Christians have an inward assurance that they will be in heaven, but he does not. He has an inward hunger for the truth about God but is naturally resistant to embracing any element of Christian truth that goes against his social norms, his peer pressure, and what he has chosen to believe his entire life. But he asked for my mobile phone number so that we can get together to privately discuss these things further.

Please pray that the seeds of God’s Word that were sown at this Muslim-Christian dialogue will start to take root within the hearts of many of the Muslims who were present. “The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labour” (NIV, 1 Corinthians 3:8). We can plant the seed, others can water it, but God is the one who makes it grow and gives the increase.

“The Lord in not slow in keeping his promise,
as some understand slowness.
He is patient with you,
not wanting anyone to perish,
but everyone to come to repentance”

NIV, 2 Peter 3:9

Every blessing in our Lord Jesus Christ,

David Foster

Peter Fenwick looks at the roots of the Toronto blessing.

It is the Church's task to proclaim God's will and intentions to the world: a world which over the past 50 years has progressively abandoned God's laws and standards.

The condition of society is now so serious that many Christians, myself included, believe that only a full-scale revival can reverse this moral decline.

Since January 1994 the Toronto Blessing has been hailed as either a great revival or its precursor. Because of the earnest desire for revival in the hearts of many it is understandable that these claims have been widely accepted, but we must recognise that their hopes and expectations have led many people to embrace the movement without fully considering all the implications.

Can we be sure that the Toronto Blessing was a genuine move of God? There were many features of the Toronto Blessing which have given me grave cause for concern; features which, if unchecked, will seriously impair the church's ability to perform its God-given task.

My greatest fear springs from the fact that the Bible no longer occupies the place which once it did in the evangelical community. Indeed, the whole controversy surrounding the Toronto Blessing is in fact a major battle for the Bible. Traditionally, evangelicals have sought a firm biblical foundation for all matters relating to doctrine and conduct. It is my contention that the Toronto Blessing represented, in its day, the most recent stage in a process whereby this tradition is being gradually eroded. Am I right to fear that it will soon be abandoned altogether?
In this article I will set out the stages which preceded the Toronto Blessing in the process of erosion to which I have referred. It will, I hope, become clear that the Toronto Blessing is no sudden or unexpected phenomenon; but that in fact the ground has been well prepared by the acceptance of previous unbiblical practices.

Over the next two weeks I will also offer an explanation as to why the Church has become vulnerable to such errors and indicate the features of the Toronto Blessing which are unbiblical.

Because of earnest desire for revival, many have embraced the Toronto movement without fully considering all the implications.

Unbiblical Practices

During the 1980s and early 1990s a number of practices were introduced, mostly in the charismatic churches, which had either no biblical foundation or only a very dubious one. These practices were accepted without question and are now a normal part of much charismatic theology. Here are some examples.

End of meetings ministry times

This is now a normal part of many charismatic meetings, both in churches and in joint celebrations. People are called forward for prayer and usually laying on of hands, with a view to deliverance from rejections, hurts, abuses, fears, inadequacies and such-like; the hope is that they will go on in a more positive way of living. Sometimes people are prayed for in order to receive particular gifts. Usually the subjects of prayer have little, if anything, to do with the content of the sermon.

All of this has been a common part of charismatic meetings for a long time, despite the fact that there is neither precedent nor teaching anywhere in the New Testament for this practice.
It has to be said that it has not created any significant opposition, since it has seemed harmless enough and has surely been practised out of good motives; what can possibly be wrong with seeking to bless someone? The fact that in many cases the same people come forward time after time has also not raised too many questions.

'Word of Knowledge' healing meetings

This again is a very common charismatic practice. Someone, usually from the front of the church, but not exclusively so, makes a succession of statements to the effect that, 'There is someone here with...' and there follows the recital of a number of ailments. People are expected to stand, declaring themselves to be the person referred to. Prayer is made and the whole procedure moves on. There is often little or no checking out as to whether a healing has taken place.

However, the real point at issue is that this technique was never practised by Jesus nor by any of the apostles at any point in the whole of the New Testament. This has not been considered important by those concerned, since the assumption is that from time to time some people do actually get healed, and therefore the feeling is that if it works, albeit occasionally, it is acceptable.

During the 1980s and early 1990s a number of practices were introduced, mostly in the charismatic churches, which had either no biblical foundation or only a very dubious one.

Demons as the cause of sin

Over the last 40 years or so, there has been an ever-increasing tendency to identify demons as a primary cause of sin in Christians. It goes without saying that if a demon is causing certain sinful human behaviour, then repentance for sins is not appropriate and is rarely called for; the matter will be dealt with by exorcism. The blame for sin can be laid fully at the door of the demon.

Once again this is profoundly contrary to New Testament practice and teaching.

The doctrine of territorial spirits

It has for a number of years been sweepingly assumed that hamlets, towns, cities or nations are dominated by specific spirits whose size and power is appropriate to the population mass over which they are said to rule.

It is consequently assumed that effective evangelisation of such a location will not happen until these territorial spirits have been engaged in spiritual warfare and decisively expelled. This is not the same as praying for the conversion of one's friends and family. It is praying for the extermination of these evil spirits and very often actually addressing them.

There is not a shred of New Testament teaching or practice to support this kind of activity. The theology of it is based on a passage in Daniel (10:13) where the Prince of the kingdom of Persia is said to have withstood an angelic helper sent by God to Daniel. This Prince of the kingdom of Persia hindered the angel for 21 days.

It is pure speculation to assert that this Prince was a demon. Since Daniel was not waging spiritual warfare in the modern sense of the word; since there is not another single example in the whole of the Bible of this sort of activity; and since we are given no theological explanation of it all, it is therefore astonishing that a definitive theology has been built up from this brief incident and has introduced into the charismatic church what is now a very dominant practice.

As I have already said, this practice is deemed to be vitally necessary before proper evangelisation of a particular territory can be expected to succeed. For almost 2,000 years the Church has not known this dogma and consequently has been unable to engage in this activity. It is amazing that it has nevertheless achieved such astounding success at different times and in different places.

These practices were accepted without question and became a normal part of much charismatic theology.

Christians Vulnerable to Error

The whole point of presenting these examples (and there are others) is to demonstrate that the charismatic movement has been taking on board teaching and practices that have either no, or at best flimsy, biblical foundation and turning them into dogma.

It is almost certainly true that many members of charismatic churches do believe that there actually is a biblical foundation, and this fact will raise a different concern in subsequent articles.
But the ground for accepting such practices has been well and truly prepared and into this situation there has come an even more unbiblical teaching, namely the Toronto Blessing.

Next week: Two factors which have made the charismatic church vulnerable to departures from biblical truth and practice: the rise of restorationism and a decline in biblical knowledge.

First published in 1995. Revised and updated (including all references to time frames) November 2017. Previous articles in this series can be found here.

Taking festive opportunities to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

We are delighted to bring you a prayer request from our friends Syd and Liz Doyle, inspirational evangelists from the US. Read on to be encouraged – and perhaps inspired to do something similar in your community!

Dear Praying Friends,

We are asking for special prayer as we go Christmas caroling in the Dearborn, MI area this Saturday afternoon and evening (2 December, 2017).

This year we are planning our annual ‘Caroling to our Neighbors’ on 2nd December, meeting at 1pm and also 5pm. It's our 13th annual Christmas Caroling Outreach. We are expecting around 200 carolers from many different churches and groups from southern Michigan and northwest Ohio to join us!

We begin with prayer, a bit of training, simple instructions on how to approach the doors and what to say and do - then we organize ourselves in groups of 6-8 and go out to assigned streets prepared to give out 500 gift bags and share the love of God with our Arab/American friends.

Christmas caroling is a tradition for many of us, but is a new experience for most Arabs. When they open the door they are delighted as they listen to us sing. They are very hospitable and often invite us in for delicious treats.

We also bring a present for them - a gift bag filled with Christmas material, a Jesus story DVD, a New Testament in Arabic, and some candy.

We ask each family if they have any prayer needs, then pray for them. Pray for receptive hearts as the Lord shows His love to them. Pray for the weather to be good, and for us as carolers to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit as we sing, pray and give the gifts.

We are also inviting each family to a "Live Nativity" to be presented at church the following day. We hope the draw of the animals and the story of Christmas will bring many to the church and to Jesus Christ the Savior of the world!

Thanks for praying for safety, boldness, love, friendliness and peace for everyone.

Happy Christmas, prayer warriors!

Syd & Liz Doyle