25 Years of Revivals in America

Thankful for 25 Years of Revivals in America

After 33 years of ministry, more than half of it on this side of the globe, we have now preached revivals in America for over quarter of a century. I have lost count how many times we’ve crossed from the Dakotas to Texas, and from the Carolinas to California to preach the Gospel to all willing to hear. I do remember one time when we drove 18 hours straight to Minneapolis, preached a single sermon, turned around and drove back the same distance due for another appointment. I’ve recorded every place, time and sermon. If needed, I can calculate the distance of getting there and back in total millage too. I’ve long lost the count of sets of brakes and tires worn-out during travel. Maybe, the next 25 years I’ll just fly! But through all this, I’ve often stood at a church parking lot, spent out from preaching, looking at the blue sky above and realizing: I am living my dream. Preaching is all I’ve always wanted to do!

Two times, apart from the 1990 post-Communist revival in Bulgaria, we have experienced continuing Holy Ghost revival in America. The first time was in the summer of 1999 in South Carolina, where one revival night multitudes were called to the ministry and on other nights, we just could not close the services with the power of God so powerfully evident. If you were a pastor back then, we most probably preached in your church one of these revivals, which are now marked by our 25-year anniversary.

In 1999, our revivals were weeks before the Y2K. Perhaps naively, I contributed the unusual move of the Spirit and extraordinary attendance to the turn of the 21st century.  We were forced to see things a bit more prophetically, when we were hit by a fresh wave of revival pre-pandemic in the Spring and Summer 2019. Along with preaching virtually daily during the revival season, we were able to publish our New Testament Interlinear in Bulgaria and distribute it to our churches just before the shutdown.

This time, the revival in 2023 came a bit sooner than the usual decade-long cycle we had experienced with the past two. As we are getting ready to continue our 2023 Revival Harvest Campaign with a Community Communion service just in time for Thanksgiving this week, we have completed two full months of revivals in Polk County. Some 50 back-to-back services can truly change one’s perspective on our days! That God is at work is not even in question here, but what about the Church?

Exactly 20 years ago in his book “A Call to Righteousness: Impending Judgment,” Dr. David Franklin outlined the cycle of repentance for a nation’s revival as following:

  • When a nation persists in violence, the Sovereign Lord confronts and holds responsible,
  • When a nation forgets God, He allows for times of repentance,
  • If repentance is ignored, God will expose and execute judgment on an unfaithful nation.

Every time God renews His covenant with His people, He shows His presence! (a) We know that God is present in the covenant, because He shows His glory. It happened to Moses and his generation. And it also happened to Solomon several hundred years later. (b) When a generation loses the vision of the Glory of God, God begins renewing His covenant again with a new generation. (c) God is not satisfied with a people who know the signs and the blessings of the covenant. He rests not until He is revealed as the God of the Covenant!

This Biblical truth is valid for any nation in the world, and I often draw a painful parallel of similarities with my home country of Bulgaria; where in October the 7th government elections since the start of the 2020 pandemic did not produce the desired change. Though the voting machines imported from Venezuela were pulled out a day before the election for obvious reasons, the vote went in history as the lowest ever with only 33% participating. This halted the acting government, setting the country for another parliamentarian election in 2024. With two regional wars now (Ukraine and Israel) and record high inflation, Bulgaria is walking a close line to another national crisis as we experienced back in 1997. In the midst of this, the Church of God Balkan Ministry Center in Sofia, which was initially sold in 2021, is back on the market with first installment toward its purchase made on November 16, 2023.

Meanwhile, on the national Day of National Awakening (celebrated after All Saints Day on November 1st), we were able to release and present the first Greek-Bulgarian Interlinear of the New Testament online. Its name, Evangelieto.com, means The Gospel in Bulgarian. This new website is a natural continuation of Bibliata.com – the first Bulgarian Bible online, we released back in the fall of 1996. This new online edition, which has been in the works since 2016, is dedicated to those students of the Bible, who prefer working with the original texts, rather than using the multitude of new Bible revisions often with religious and ideological orientation. The Greek-Bulgarian Interlinear of the New Testament online proposed the following solutions to the Bulgarian Bible translation:

  1. A non-received text – Textus Haud Receptus
  2. Critical Edition of the Greek New Testament (Tischendorf, Westcott&Hort, Nestle-Aland, UBS and SBL)
  3. Literal translation from Greek, made word for word without dynamic equivalents
  4. Linguistic paradigm for repetitive parallel permutation structures in the Greek-Bulgarian translation
  5. Analytical Greek New Testament with complete morphology of the words
  6. Complete textual commentary of the New Testament with thousands of references
  7. Audio/video reading of the verse with its original and consequent variations
  8. Discussion board under each verse for pastors and ministers to offer their thoughts on the text.

Thankful for 25 Years of Revivals in America: Revival Must Go On!

DO NOT COPY THE FIRE!

December 1, 2023 by  
Filed under Featured, Media, Missions, News

By Kathryn Donev

If I were to ask you if it would be okay for your child to hang out with a friend that actively practices witchcraft, I’m certain you would be appalled by the question and your very quick response would be a sharp, “No”. But when encompassed in a kid friendly fantasy world, a young boy named Harry who studies at a school of wizardry and possesses a simple stick that shoots cool fireballs seems harmless.
I’m reminded of a story in Leviticus in which two boys thought it would be okay to play with strange fire.

It’s a very simple story. Arron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, who were priests of the wilderness tabernacle took their censers and put unauthorized fire in them. They then were instantly consumed by the Fire that came from the presence of the Lord and died. The Potter’s fire, the true fire, the authorized, familiar fire consumed everything. This is a lesson that teaches that we are not to let our children play with strange fire. A potter’s fire that seems so innocent, could cost your children their life.

It is our responsibility as parents to teach our children that we are not to play with cool looking fire even though it’s only “make-believe”. Witchcraft is real. It is dangerous. It is confusing and The Potter is not a God of confusion. We must protect our children from being consumed.

BULGARIA in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism

November 15, 2023 by  
Filed under Books, Featured, Media, Missions, News, Publication, Research

Brill’s Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism (BEGP) provides a comprehensive overview of worldwide Pentecostalism from a range of disciplinary perspectives. It offers analysis at the level of specific countries and regions, historical figures, movements and organizations, and particular topics and themes. The online version of the Encyclopedia is already available

For some of you it has been a long time ago that you submitted your article(s) for BEGP, for others it was a bit more recent, but I am very happy to announce that this Summer the print edition of Brill’s Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism will finally see the light. With this we can proudly close this chapter and proceed to see what the reception of the volume will bring! Thank you for being part of this great project!

To celebrate, we will organize an online symposium on September 16th, with presentations from the editors as well as 3 experts who will comment on BEGP: Amos Yong, Birgit Meyer and Néstor Medina. You can find more detailed information in the attached flyer. Please be welcome.

Registration is free (but necessary to receive a link); we will raffle one free copy of the print edition among the registered participants. For registration and questions, please send your message to begp@brill.com, mentioning Symposium in the subject line.

We hope to see you then!

SIGNS of the LAST DAYS: Good called evil and evil good

November 10, 2023 by  
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SIGNS of the LAST DAYS: GOSPEL preached to all the world

November 5, 2023 by  
Filed under Events, Media, Missions, News

SIGNS of the LAST DAYS: GOG and MAGOG

October 20, 2023 by  
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SIGNS of the LAST DAYS: Middle East Tension

October 10, 2023 by  
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SIGNS of the LAST DAYS: People will not believe the signs

August 30, 2023 by  
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RESTORING GOD’s church…

August 25, 2023 by  
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The Story of the 1896 Shearer Schoolhouse Revival at Barney Creek

August 20, 2023 by  
Filed under Featured, Media, Missions, News

Schearer Schoolhouse revival

In 1896, a revival was begun in a little schoolhouse near Murphy, North Carolina.  Strong opposition to it arose almost immediately. When opponents of the revival tried to stop it violently, the people who lived in the humble home shown below, gave it protection.  They  had no way of knowing  that the  revival  they protected,  would  bear the fruit of 15,000 churches being started around the world in the 100 years that followed.

When unknown & unheralded preachers, connected to the Fire-Baptized Holiness Association, William Martin, a Methodist preacher, Joe  M. Tipton and Milton McNabb, members  of the  Baptist  church,  walked  from  their  homes  in   Monroe  County, TN  to begin a revival at the Schearer Schoolhouse in Murphy County, North Carolina, they had no way of knowing that  what  would happen there would still be blessing people a hundred years later.  Possibly as you read this true story, you may labor in a place that seems  isolated  or  far  removed  from  the  light   of recognition  and popularity, but what you do faithfully day by day, is planting seed now that will rise up  as blessings throughout  the years  to come. As the song says, “Little is much when God is in it.” Martin, Tipton and McNabb (to our knowledge there are no photos of  them)  began  the  revival  with  one  motive,   to share Christ with anyone who would listen so  their neighbors to spend eternity in hell.

Though they preached simple   sermons about  Christ and living a holy life, all during the spring of 1896 and on into the summer, amazing and  phenomenal Holy  Spirit  motivated events  took   place at the Schoolhouse revival. If someone had asked them what a “Pentecostal” was or how to be one, probably  nobody there  could have  answered  the question. They were Baptists, Methodists and  prossibly a few  Presbyterians attending  the schoolhouse revival meetings. Once again, the Holy Spirit  demonstrated that He moves where He  wants  upon  the  hearts  that   He  chooses, regardless  the person’s denominational membership or background.


DENOMINATIONAL MEN OPPOSED THEM


This is   not  intended  to be  against  denominations.   Much can be accomplished when  people unite their efforts for spreading  the Gospel.  We should remember that what happened at the Schearer Schoolhouse, put  them in direct  conflict with  their denominations. It was denominational  men who opposed them. The  disciples also had that conflict when they were before their organization’s Council, they said, ‘”We would obey God rather than man.”

Charles W. Conn, Church Historian for the Church of God  and   author  of “Like A Mighty Army,” says that over   100  people received what is now referred to as “The Baptism of the Holy Spirit” at the Schearer Schoolhouse revival. That’s a big crowd when  one considers the population was very  sparse (it’s not too crowded in that area even today). Conn’s  historical   account says, “They  laughed  (interesting), rejoiced, praised, spoke in tongues and danced for joy.”

It is believed  the Schearer Schoolhouse revival was  the first time a group of people had received  such blessings  anywhere on this side of the Atlantic ocean.  There had  been scattered reports of individuals, some in  the NY  meetings held by Phoebe  Palmer, that had experienced what people now call “speaking in tongues.”

C.T. Davidson,  author   of  “Upon This Rock,”  wrote  this description.  “In buggies  and wagons, by  horseback and walking, people  came  from miles around.  The  lives  of   hardhearted men and women were changed and sinners were constrained  to make restitution as they sought forgiveness.”  Davidson continued, “While many were blessed, others rejected the revival   because  it  conflicted with  their  rituals,   creeds  and ecclesiasticism.  Many   faithful  members  were  persecuted   and excommunicated. One church excommunicated 30 of them at one meeting.”

Persecution became so intense  until  the revival  was moved  a  short distance  to a  more  secure  log   building.  Some accounts  say  the  sheriff, local ministers who opposed the revival and a mob  of supporters,  tore the building  down log by log, piled them up and burned them. Without a place to worship, the meetings were finally moved to the tiny  home of  W.F. Bryant, a respected Christian leader in the community. Opponents came to his house and demanded that the meetings stop.   They showered the home with  stones and bullets but  W.F. Bryant wouldn’t back down. Those who had received the blessings at the revival, began to believe  then,  as  most  Pentecostals  do today,  that   what  was happening among  them first occurred  in the Upper Room on the day of Pentecost and was a continuation of what happened there (The fifth book of the New Testament; Acts, Chapters 1 & 2).

Described by Charles W. Conn as pivotal to Church of God formation, a 1896 revival in Cherokee County, North Carolina provoked charismatic phenomena now familiar in pentecostal circles. (1) It is known that the primary evangelists–Martin, Tipton, and McNabb–were connected to the Fire-Baptized Holiness Association. In view of the imposing number of instances of tongues-speech spread throughout nineteenth century North America, (2) the well-traveled reports of such activities in certain circles and especially the presence of Daniel Awrey at Beniah, Tennessee, it seems reasonable to suggest the possibility that William Martin, Joe Tipton, and/or Milton McNabb were exposed to at least stories about tongues-speech before the 1896 revival. (3)

1. Charles W. Conn, Our First 100 Years: 1886-1986 (Cleveland: Pathway Press, 1986) 17, goes on to ascribe importance to the event because it “prepared the way for the universal outpouring that followed ten years later.” This is a welcome appraisal in light of an earlier judgment often bound up in the North American church’s self-perception, namely [Charles W. Conn, Like A Mighty Army (Cleveland: Pathway Press, 1977) 25]: “… this was the first general outpouring that would continue unabated until it encompassed the Christian world.” Cf. Charles W. Conn, Like A Mighty Army: A History of the Church of God: Definitive Edition, 1886-1995 (Cleveland: Pathway Press, 1996) 29-31. The re-evaluation process can be followed in Charles W. Conn, Cradle of Pentecost (Cleveland: Pathway, 1981) 17, “If it was not the beginning of the modern Pentecostal Awakening, it was certainly the greatest prelude to it.” Then “Church of God” by Charles W. Conn in Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, ed. by Samuel S. Hill (Macon: Mercer University Press, 1984) 160, calls this an “extraordinary event” “without precedent in the region.” On the other hand, Conn’s entry in the same volume on “A.J. Tomlinson,” repeats the older view espoused in Army. Conn’s piece on the revival in DPCM, 161, says the group “formulated no doctrine about it. They simply thanked God for the ‘blessing’ …” He opens the article by calling this “one of the earliest known outpourings of the Holy Spirit in America” in contrast to the closing statement that the “universal outpouring would begin ten years later, 1906, in far away California.” cf. E.L. Simmons, History of the Church of God (Cleveland: Church of God Publishing House, 1938) 11f; Crews, The Church of God, 10.

The official Church of God position seems entrenched in the earlier Conn view. During the 1995 Pentecostal World Conference in Jerusalem, Church of God started a celebration of their 100 years of pentecostal revival. This was to have culminated in the 1996 General Assembly of the Church of God. Meanwhile, this viewpoint continued to play a factor in the view expressed in the 1990’s Church of God web page (http://www.mindspring.com/~cog/cog.html) which originally trumpeted “America’s Oldest Pentecostal Church” then replaced with the equally loud “America’s First Pentecostal Church.”

Contrast this to the 2001 celebration in Los Angles of the birth of Pentecostism hosted by the Pentecostal World Conference, noting the planning began while the PWC was led by Dr. Ray H. Hughes of the Church of God. The Pentecostal Charismatic Churches of North America (PCCNA) signed on as partners and the North American Renewal Service Committee (NARSC) endorsed the event as an effort to celebrate all the offspring of the pentecostal revival.

2. Assemblies of God Heritage has analyzed several such examples like that of W. Jethro Walthall. See Glenn Gohr, “William Jethro Walthall and the Holiness Baptist Churches of Southwestern Arkansas,” Assemblies of God Heritage 12:3 (Fall 1992) 19f. Also: Mary Woodworth Etter, Signs and Wonders God Wrought in the Ministry for Forty Years (Indianapolis, 1916) 117; Wayne E. Warner, The Woman Evangelist (Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1986) 70n33; Brumback, Suddenly, 13; Kendrick, Promise, 35; Frodsham, Signs, 11-17; Cyril Williams, Tongues, 50; Bresson, Ecstasy, 109; Worsfold, Charismatic, 82; Lewi Pethrus, A Spiritual Memoir (Plainfield: Logos, 1973) 20; Aimee Semple McPherson, Lost and Restored as cited by Robert Cornwall, “Primitivism and the Redefinition of Dispensationalism in the Theology of Aimee Semple McPherson,” Pneuma 14:1 (Spring 1992) 37; A.M. Kiergan, Historical Sketches of the Revival of True Holiness and Local Church Polity from 1865-1916 (Fort Scott: Church Advocate and Good Way, 1971) 31; Davidson, Rock 1:298; C.E. Jones, “Tongues-Speaking and The Wesleyan-Holiness Question for Assurance of Sanctification,” Wesleyan Theological Journal 22:2 (Fall 1989) 120.

3. “History of Pentecost,” The Faithful Standard 1:6 (September 1922) 6, noted William Hamby as the fourth evangelist. Also Nettie Bryant, Interview p. 2, and W.F. Bryant, Interview p. 2. R.G. Spurling, Jr., married Barbara Hamby in 1876. So McCauley, “Appalachian Mountain Religion,” 360.

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