A History of the Charismatic Movements

Transcription

1 A History of the Charismatic Movements CH510 LESSON 05 of 24 John D. Hannah, PhD Experience: Distinguished Professor of Historical Theology, Dallas Theological Seminary We begin this series today with an emphasis upon the National Holiness Movement. But before we begin, I think it might be wise to go back and summarize what we said in the last meeting, in the last series. What I sought to argue was this: that to understand the charismatic movements is to understand Methodism, so we traced the history of Wesley s ideas. We said, second, to understand this movement, you also have to understand American Methodism, because the charismatic movements, at least in their earliest beginning, are an outgrowth of Methodism. We argued this: that within Methodism, though it grew phenomenally at the turn into the nineteenth century to become the largest of the mainline denominations, many became exercised in the 1820s and 1830s that that original zeal and forward motion of that great movement had become blunted. They identified the essential problem of that attrition with a neglect they felt in their teaching of Mr. Wesley s views. And what they argued is this: that though they had been very successful and obedient in preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus, they had neglected that subsequent work of grace called second blessing or perfect love that would have prevented Christians from falling away their redemption and becoming backslidden, according to their view. So there emerged, particularly through Sarah Lankford and more importantly Phoebe Palmer, two very prolific and talented ladies in New York City, an attempt to correct that neglect by emphasizing the doctrine of a second subsequent blessing that is to be identified with power in one s Christian life. So out of it is born the Tuesday Meetings for Bible Study or the holiness meetings. These grow and proliferate and become very productive, and eventually emerge into a group within the Methodist Church and beyond called the National Holiness Movement. 1 of 13

2 The National Holiness Movement identified the necessity of two mighty workings of grace for the believer one to save and a subsequent one to sanctify. Perhaps it could be captured in that hymn, Rock of Ages, by August Toplady. There is a line in there that goes this way: Be of sin, the double cure, saved from wrath and make me pure. Though perhaps it is not to be understood in this way, I am suggesting that it illustrates the notion that sins cure comes from a double movement one to save from God s wrath and the other subsequently to make one pure. What I would like to do, having said this much, is to go back and isolate some of the teachers of the National Holiness Movement and take a more concerted look at how they described and instructed one in this second work of grace. It s terribly important because one does not understand the early Pentecostal movement without understanding that it is an outgrowth of Methodism via the National Holiness Movement, which later is put out of Methodism, but we will come to that. What I would like to emphasize today is this: I d like to speak briefly of the most important and central figure, and that is Phoebe Palmer. We mentioned her briefly, but I would like to go back and deal with her and her teachings more clearly so that we can grasp her understanding that s so pivotal. Second, I d like to take up William Boardman and his teaching. Then Hannah Pearsall Smith and finally Joseph H. Smith. All four teach and taught a second work of grace. Phoebe Palmer called it a crisis of surrender. William Boardman was fond of the cliché a full salvation through full trust. Hannah Pearsall Smith spoke of it as entire abandonment to God. And Joseph H. Smith, one of the great giants of the National Holiness Movement, spoke of it as repentance, consecration, and perfect faith. Let me begin by reflecting upon the most important figure, and that, of course, is Phoebe Palmer. Phoebe Palmer, one has said of her, and I m referring to Charles White s 1986 volume called The Beauty of Holiness, from which I m taking much of my material today, Her main theological contribution was to modify and popularize John Wesley s doctrine of entire sanctification. Her books were many: The Way of Holiness, Entire Devotion, Useful Disciple, Faith and Its Effects, The Economy of Salvation. Perhaps the place to begin is to deal with her testimony. Mrs. Palmer states clearly that sanctification is subsequent or after salvation. 2 of 13

3 She says, It has been about eighteen years since I began to live in a state of continuous trust, depending on Christ every moment as my present indwelling Savior. She says in another place, Since the moment that I first laid all upon the altar, I believe I have never removed a gift off the altar, so to her it s a second work of grace in which one places their entire self to God and you experience a phenomenal once-for-all sanctification. I might add that Charles White says of her, Her ideas became dominant within the Holiness Movements of America and Britain and from these movements they were taken up into the charismatic and Pentecostal movements of today. In another place he says, Phoebe Palmer is important as a theologian not only because her thought shaped the theology of the Holiness Movement, but because when the Pentecostal and charismatic movements arose out of the Holiness tradition, they took Phoebe Palmer s theology and added tongues to it. I think that last statement is perceptive and perhaps very useful to us, but returning to her testimony, she says, Since the moment I laid all upon the altar, I believe I have never removed a gift from off the altar. Though the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ momentarily meted out in supplies suited to my necessities, I have been kept by the power of God s through faith, constantly apprehending Christ as my full Savior. These words are terribly important for us as we develop certain themes. I have not since that hollow hour seen the moment, but that I d rather die than knowingly offend God. Yes, I do believe that I have kept all upon the altar and not because of the worthiness of the offerer, or the greatness of the gift, but because of the infinite merits of Christ, the offering has been in a state of continuous acceptance. God, the searcher of hearts, knows that He is the supreme object of my affections. Is this not loving God with all your heart? Or rather, is it not what the Bible terms perfect love? O is this not the man to whom God will not impute sin? Why not? Because the blood of Christ, the Lord, will not impute sin. 3 of 13

4 Why not? Because the blood of Jesus cleanses.not that it can or will cleanse, but that it cleanses, cleanses now. The point is this: Mrs. Palmer connects perfect love with altar terminology, which is an event, a hollowed hour, that is a distinct postconversion crisis in which Christ is comprehended as full Savior. In other words, justification and sanctification are separated into two distinct works. In that second state through full consecration, the recipient no longer practices sin. It is an instantaneous, non-progressive thereafter event in which we are lifted to a state of victory in Christ. She says in her book The Way of Holiness, Long waiting and struggling with the powers of darkness is not necessary. There is a shorter way, and that shorter way is the way of second blessing. She argues that second blessing theology is predicated upon three essential ingredients: entire consecration of the self to God, unwavering faith, and testimony. These three ingredients make up this second work of grace to her. Her favorite text, as you read her material of altar terminology, placing one s all on the altar, has been summarized by White as three central texts: Romans 12:1 2, from which we get the cleansing command, Don t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Matthew 23:19 speaks of a cleansing altar. Exodus 29:37 speaks of a cleansed offering, and Hebrews 13:10 speaks of the cleanser, the Lord Jesus. So what I need to do is to place my all on the altar, consecrating myself to Christ who is my Cleanser, and as long as I leave the offering there of myself, then I can be assured of a state of justification. The need for sanctification is clear from reading Mrs. Palmer s works, because she conceives the state of justification as dependent upon the believer s faithfulness. Remember, I think we have said that within Methodism, the idea of positional justification is not as readily seen. It is conditional justification predicated upon the saint s obedience. So she would say as the Christian grows, a state of conflict emerges because he or she learns of duties that cannot be fulfilled. In this dilemma, she says, One must either fail of salvation or go to a higher plane. She says in her work, As I ascended the heavenly way, clear light shone upon my mind revealing higher duties requiring more of the spirit of sacrifice and furnishing yet stronger tests of obedience, 4 of 13

5 but with increasing light, increasing strength was given, enabling me to be answerable to these higher duties. For I had not learned to retain justification while under condemnation at the same time for neglecting known duties. The solution for Mrs. Palmer is this: a second work of grace in which justification that could be lost is retained by laying one s all on the altar, and it s a memorable crisis event after salvation to Mrs. Palmer. She says, But the memorable crisis came when I could not have retained a state of justification one hour longer without passing into a state where entire sanctification begins. Others may act upon the principle that it is optional with themselves whether they will remain in a state of justification or go on to a state of entire sanctification, but with me, the command is absolute. And she quotes 1 Peter 1, Be ye holy, for I am holy. The event is a crisis, because to her the issue is loss or retention of justification. I saw, I could not. I must either make the necessary sacrifices or I must sin, and by my sin forfeit a state of justification, and it is here justification would have ended with me had I refused to be holy. The specific avenue for attaining this perfection, our perfect love, our entire sanctification, she says, is offering yourself on the altar. Arguing from Old Testament analogy, she wrote, The sacrifice of the offerer could not be sanctified until it was laid on the altar, for it was by virtue of the altar that it was sanctified. When I clearly perceived this, O what a struggle of nature ensued. I will give up all. The result? As a poem she selected so ably states: The land of rest from inbred sin, the land of perfect holiness. Where did Phoebe Palmer gain her insight? From what sources did she get her insight into her doctrine of a second work? From John Wesley, it seems, she obtained her basic structure and embryonic presuppositions. Basic structure being a work of grace after salvation, whereby one enters into the state of perfect love. From John Fletcher, a contemporary of John Wesley, she gained the insight of separating justification from sanctification into two separate events: the identification of sanctification with a Pentecostal experience. 5 of 13

6 Obviously Mrs. Palmer has no evidence of speaking in tongues or manifesting a miraculous sign or miracle gift as the evidence of that second work. It s just not there. From Hester Ann Rogers, a Methodist lady, she bound the stress upon active faith. From John Adam Clarke, the theologian, she developed the notion of altar terminology, which has come obviously into not only charismatic circles but many, many evangelical circles. And from Timothy Merritt, the early 1820s writer, she obtained the idea of a covenant with God. Those five sources seem to have been the threads that she wove into the fabric of her theology. Before we pass on, however, it is important to note that there are major or significant differences, at least, between John Wesley s teaching and Mrs. Palmer s teaching on the doctrine of sanctification. For instance, the identification of sanctification with a Pentecostal experience of Acts 2 is rooted in John Fletcher, not in John Wesley. Second, the identification of sanctification with power for the Christian life is not so much rooted in John Wesley as it is in Fletcher and Adam Clarke. Remember that Phoebe stresses sanctification as an instantaneous, once-forall event. Again, John Wesley saw it more as a progression. But that s a distinct insight, I think, of Phoebe Palmer. I don t find that in Adam Clarke or John Fletcher. I think that s her unique contribution. Further, to Phoebe, sanctification is not the goal of the Christian life, but it s the beginning of the Christian life. That s seems to be rooted in John Clarke. Fifth, Clarke is the source, as we ve already said, of the development of altar terminology from Romans 12:1, and I think it was Phoebe who developed a distinct three-step process that we do not find in John Wesley. So all that I m arguing here is that there is a development that technically Palmer does not always follow her Methodist heritage as is rooted in Wesley but finds sources for her teaching in other theologians, as well as her own understanding of Scripture, which would be terribly normal. So what she says to us is this: After I am saved and I obtain salvation, there is a point in which I come when I understand the implications of my newfound salvation relative to obedience, and at that juncture of that insight, I must then make a decision. 6 of 13

7 Will I go on and walk with God or will I decide that the restrictions and imperatives are too great? If I choose to not go on with God, then I lose my justification. If I choose to go on with God by laying my all on the altar, by sincere faith, then I enter a state instantaneously in which sin s grip is gone, and I enter the realm of second blessing. Now I want to go on to a second figure, although of all the people we ll talk about today, certainly Phoebe Palmer is the most outstanding and crucial person. There s a lot in her teaching I think that should cause us to ponder and reflect, but for our purposes, we would like to isolate these individual teachers. All four of them have the same basic characteristics, that is, they offer to us and teach two works of grace. Be of sin, the double cure. They each separate justification from sanctification and do not see a necessitated link between the two. All of them seem to define sin relative to knowledge and ability. Sin is what you do. Sin is what you know you do more than sin is in our natures. And all four of them define perfection, the state of perfection, relative to knowledge and ability. So, that is, we are perfect to the degree that we have no known sin in our lives, and that s perfection. Let me come to the second and crucial individual, and what I m saying is that both within Methodism and without Methodism in the Keswick Movement and so on, there s a tremendous interest in the late nineteenth century about the doctrine of sanctification as separated from justification. Or to say it another way, in addition to the rise of holiness teaching, particularly through the Palmers, and the abandonment of Calvinism through the rise of revivalism, major book-length explanations of the second blessing appeared and were best sellers. A man that I would like to turn to is an example of that, and his name is William E. Boardman. William E. Boardman was raised or born in Illinois. He sought and found true sanctification as a second work in 1842 as a thirty-two-yearold man, and then attended Lane Seminary using his home as a center of holiness testimony to students. After seminary, he traveled widely, organizing conventions for the promotion of holiness. His work from which I will gather my comments, called The Higher Christian Life, was published at the height of the prayer revival of 1858 and made its author the leading teacher of holiness theology in America and England. It sold over one hundred thousand copies. Boardman in essence stresses a full salvation through full trust. 7 of 13

8 He sees full salvation as two distinct works, received by two distinct acts of faith, that full salvation coming in the midst of the second work is immediate and that struggle need not be part of the normal Christian life. Mrs. Palmer taught the same notion, but obviously John Wesley argued that even in the state of perfection, the saint can anticipate turmoil and struggle until consummation. Now, what did William Boardman teach? It seems that his most unique contributions were in his use of terms, full salvation through full trust; that is, he sees justification and salvation as two separate, distinct acts and events of faith. The fullness of salvation is not in justification but comes later. He says in his book, After having found acceptance in Jesus by faith, we think to go on to perfection by strugglings and resolves, by fastings and prayers, not knowing the better way of taking Jesus for our sanctification, just as we have already taken Him for our justification. Unlike Mrs. Palmer, who taught that the crisis of the second work is a crisis over retention or loss of justification, Boardman being more of the Calvinistical heritage doesn t see it as a crisis of sanctification but as an event of coming into the fullest expression of one s salvation. He says, We see and believe in Jesus as our atonement on earth and our Advocate and Mediator in heaven, but we fail to see and receive Him as our ever-present Savior from sin now here within us in the hourly scenes of the daily journey toward heaven. By ever-present Savior from sin, holiness writers understand this in a physical, tangible way, not in a spiritual positional sense. His present deliverance from the struggles with sin is a function of his limiting of sin to simply the knowledge of it. Boardman then argues for the nature and cause of these two steps in the Christian experience. These steps have the same avenue. Faith, that is, Christ all-sufficient. Faith, all inclusive. The way of freedom from sin is the very same as the way from freedom from condemnation. Faith is the purifying presence of Jesus. Of tremendous import is that Boardman places the apostles awakening to sanctification in the Pentecostal scene of baptism. 8 of 13

9 What I m trying to do is to gather up pieces of thread that will coalesce into a fabric and make sense out of the birth of classical Pentecostalism and the subsequent manifestations of the charismatic movements in the world, as well as in America. Here s a thread. Boardman places the apostles wakening to sanctification in the Pentecostal scene of baptism. He says this, this is terribly important to us, By and by on the day of Pentecost, the time came for the apostles second conversion. The Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father was received by the Son and shed down upon Him and His fellow disciples. Fire crowns sat upon their heads and with other tongues they spoke of the wonderful works of God. These tongues of fire and tongues of eloquence were, however, on the outward symbols and the outward manifestation of the glorious work of God wrought in their hearts. I want you to see that that is fairly pivotal and in many ways with Palmer and Boardman presupposes a set of characteristics that will become very, very important in trying to understand the origins of the charismatic movements. The experience of sanctification is not viewed as a crisis of fear and frustration, as in Mrs. Palmer, but it s much more positive, but of confidence and trust. It is forward looking. It is trust in Christ by faith. He says, When a man sick unto death has become fully convinced of the utter hopelessness of his case in his own hands and thrown away every remedy devised by himself or recommended by his friends and sent for a physician who has wisdom to understand and skill to heal his disease, it would be folly to say that at that moment his case was entrusted to the physician, his cure was complete. So the transfer and the trust of the soul, the whole work of sanctification by the Holy Spirit is but the first effectual step in the work. It is the door of the way fairly entered and the way clearly proceed, Jesus has freely offered us our sanctification as well as our justification. Faith, full trust in Him, will bring full salvation with Him to the soul. 9 of 13

10 So to Boardman, sanctification, a second work of grace, is a mystical experience entered into by faith, but not through the gate of crisis. This sanctification is not complete but inaugurates a process. In comparing the two steps he wrote, In the one the atonement has been made and the moment it is accepted, the pardon is complete. In the other, although the righteousness of Christ is perfect in which the soul is to be clothed, yet the work is unfolding, is a work of time and process. So there we see two major distinctives between Boardman and Palmer; that is, she saw it as a crisis; he sees it as a more positive thing. She says once you enter into the experience, it admits of no progress; he, like John Wesley, though, would argue that you enter into the state progressively. He summarizes his theology thusly, This in substance is the sum of all religious experience. All may be condensed in three words. The first expressive of the sinner s necessities, salvation. The second expressive of the gospel provision for the sinner, a Savior. The third embodying the condition of the Savior s entire deliverance, faith. Some would argue that both Palmer and Mr. Boardman and the two others we ll mention do not emphasize the passive voice of Scripture and the activities of God for the sinner to bring him to glory, and these systems place a lot of emphasis, too much perhaps, some would say, upon the active voice of what we must do and of our abilities to do it. But that is an issue that others will have to relate to. So to Palmer this second work of grace is a great crisis. It is foreboding. You either lose your salvation or you go on to nonprogressive, instantaneous victory over sin. To William Boardman, it is a positive thing, not so much a crisis, for he did not believe you could lose your justification, but it is a tremendous second act of faith in which you come to a plane which admits a progression as you walk progressively with the Lord. What is important, though, about him is he connects the second work to the notion of the experience of Peter in Acts 2, baptism, and he speaks of evidential signs of that second work, though there is no evidence at all that he evidenced or necessitated it by motoric speech. 10 of 13

11 Let me come quickly to two others. One is terribly important, Hannah Whitall Smith, who wrote the very famous book The Christian Secret of a Happy Life. Hannah Smith was married to Robert Pearsall Smith, a Presbyterian. She was of Quaker persuasion, gained her theological concepts from Bartley and the Friends, as the Quakers are called, as well as Methodism. Her conversion came in the summer of 1858, but she still longed for a present deliverance, not a future deliverance only. Through a Methodist layperson in New Jersey, she obtained her present deliverance, a second work, in She published her book in 1875, which has gone through many, many editions and has sold literally millions and millions of copies. In structure, her teaching emphasizes not so much the negative fear of Mrs. Palmer but joy and happiness, stressing the happy life. In structure, she follows the cardinal teachings of holiness theology by dichotomizing justification from sanctification. She defines the higher Christian life as follows: Its chief characteristics are an entire surrender to the Lord and a perfect trust in Him, resulting in victory over sin and inward rest of soul, and it differs from the lower range of Christian experience in that it causes us to let the Lord carry our burdens and manage our affairs for us instead of trying to do it ourselves. Elsewhere she describes it as a life of faith, a life of blessedness and rest. In general, Mrs. Smith viewed sanctification as stemming from two sources one divine, one human. She calls it sides. She wrote, to state it in brief, I would say that man s part is to trust and God s part is to work, and it could be seen at a glance how these two parts contrast with each other yet are not necessarily contradictory. Mrs. Smith then attempts to delay the exact path of entire sanctification. First, the Christian must realize that it is the gift of God. Second, the Christian must realize that consecration is imperative. She says, The soul must utterly abandon to Him and must lie passive in His hands. Where Boardman is much more active in his sanctification crisis, Mrs. Smith is much more passive. She says, 11 of 13

12 To some minds, perhaps, the word abandonment might express this idea than the word consecration, but whatever word we use, we mean an entire surrender of the whole being to God, Spirit, soul, and body placed under His absolute control for Him to do with us just as He pleases. The third step is faith and having done the human part surrender, yield, trust God is then free to do His part; that is, to sanctify us. She says, God s ways of working is to get possession of the inside of a man to take control and management of his will and to do it for him. That is, do it for Him after we allow Him, by consent, to have an area of our lives. Mrs. Smith s sanctification at this point is indicative of holiness theology. Christ saves from the guilt of sin, but the sinner has free will to control his life. Man has to let God into one room of the house and then another. If man chooses to let God do that, Christ will enter the other rooms bringing peace. The effect of this surrender is instantaneous. God then molds us according to His will. The perfect state has to do with the will, not the heart and nature. The final person is perhaps the least known person, but I felt that I should reflect upon Joseph H. Smith, because he is the dean of the National Holiness Movement. He was born in 1855 and died in Of a Presbyterian heritage but converted through the Arch Street Methodist Church in Philadelphia and then subsequently sanctified. He was licensed by the Methodist Church, labored initially in itineracy in Georgia, and later became a full-time evangelist. He became the sixth president of the National Holiness Movement, wrote voluminously, becoming the dean of holiness expositors, and labored as an educator. Smith approaches the doctrine somewhat differently; that is, Joseph H. Smith, from those previously noted. Perhaps more theologically and systematically, he views merely justified believers as relatively sanctified, separated from sinful living, in that Paul addressed the Corinthians as sanctified yet carnal. The necessity of entire sanctification is that it removes the stain of inbred sin, while justification has dealt with the preconversion sins. He argues that such a plateau must exist, because Christians often experience the need of desire for it. 12 of 13

13 Second, the Christian is commanded to seek it, and Christ has made provision for it. So whereas Wesley says inbred sin in that initial work of grace for all people, thereby giving them ability to repent and accept Christ, Joseph H. Smith sees the second work of grace, after salvation, or we would call it third as cleansing from inbred sin. He then says that carnality, though subdued and subjective, remains after regeneration, that the blood of Christ provides for its complete removal in this life. Complete removal in this life. That s somewhat different than Boardman or even Hannah Pearsall Smith. That this removal connects with the promised baptism with the Spirit. Now that s important for us. Boardman makes the same comment. That the baptism with the Spirit is not the same as, but is subsequent to the birth by the Spirit. Now that s important. That it is instantaneous, so in that sense, he is more like Phoebe Palmer. That it is to be earnestly sought, that it is the condition of entire consecration. That it is to be received by faith. That it results in the abiding presence of God. As with holiness proponents, Smith denied that man has constitutional defects, and therefore he resists sanctification merely for personal reasons. Man s will is free, not inhibited by Adam s first act. The believer is sovereign, for even God waits for his decision. He says, One of the great hindrances to becoming sanctified is wanting it our own way instead of God s way. When did the devil make man an idolater? When the serpent came to Eve, he proposed to her to make herself her god instead of God. No matter what holds you back, it is idolatry of self, your own will, your own plans, your own ambitions, instead of God s plan for you. The constituents for him of entire sanctification are purity, the absolute absence of anything contrary to love, and perfect love. The term perfect he limits. In the state of perfect love, progression is possible on the ground of self-effort. What I ve tried to argue in our few moments together today is to help you to understand the exact methodology of this second blessing, sometimes called baptism of the Spirit, which delivers you to a state of ability to live above sin. What is common in these four people is the teaching of two works of grace one to save, one to sanctify. They don t identify it with a miraculous gift, but nomenclature is coming that will help us to see it when it eventually appears upon the scene. Thank you. Christ-Centered Learning Anytime, Anywhere 13 of 13