Pentecostalism Viewed From The Inside.
The body of this article is the book titled "Ever Increasing Faith". It is about the ministry of Smith Wigglesworth but was not written by him as has been suggested, for he probably had the writing ability of a third grader. His wife taught him how to read. Many of his messages were written down by someone in the congregation. This book appears to have been dictated by him. As the editor of the inserted comments I should say that I am now 74 years old as of 2008 and have been in and around Pentecostal meetings since I was around eleven years old. Based on my experiences and on the testimony of my older friends and relatives I have some limited knowledge about the Pentecostal experience.
I have seen and experienced many things that have convinced me that the power of God has been honestly and marvelously demonstrated in my presence. I have also seen events that I knew were knowingly orchestrated by charlatans. Smith Wigglesworth's story provides an inside view of the dynamics, and the potential found in the Pentecostal experience. My concern and critique of the movement has to do with the negatives that have crippled the success, of not only that movement, but Christianity in general.
I have seen immorality in Christian leadership ignored apparently because those in the position to expose it either were fearful of hurting a Church or because they thought that immoral person had in some sense repented. Unfortunately this ignorance has been portrayed via television in such cases as Jimmy Swaggart and Jim and Tammy Fay Baker, but not in any sense limited to the Pentecostals.
Most Pentecostal organizations, that numbers of charlatans have been affiliated with, have completely, and repeatedly failed to deal with them, especially with those whom have had big ministries. Many in those organizations have expressed the thought that we should not judge, not to touch God's anointed, and that if they have repented they should go on with their ministry. The leaders at TBN have said this in several cases, and they are not alone. I saw one preacher break down weeping on TV because he had been in a meeting where things like this were said by Pentecostal preachers as they attempted to deal with an immoral Christian leader. He was astonished and beside himself over such ignorance.
I have also been made aware of the ignorance of many Christian leaders. It appears that most of them essentially refuse to read their own bible or read and study any of the views of those who have a reputation for effective ministries and who were known to be righteous. Many Christian leaders read contemporary religious material, much of it self help based, or how to build a Church, or how to build your own confidence. They know very little about those early writers, and seemingly avoid reading the theology of those leaders who conducted nation changing revivals and who's reputation for integrity is well known. Those older ministries were most often tied to holiness. The ministries of Charles Finney and Smith Wigglesworth are two that need to be studied in depth.
In my comments inserted in this Public domain copy of "Ever Increasing Faith" I try to uncover some of what I believe has undermined the Pentecostal movement. I will say here again that in a great part it has been short circuited by the ignorance in the leadership. Then I will add that it has been a lack of reliance on the Word of God as we have received it. (My opinion.)
I do not believe Charles Finney or Smith Wigglesworth were infallible. However, they were both gifted men and put great effort in walking in holiness. For Christian leaders to go out and build their ministries from the ground up with out consulting with those who were great men of God and who stood for integrity, to their own hurt, is to be ignorant. It should be evident to any honest God fearing individual that we must get back to the Word of God and repent and cry out to God for a revival that is based on truth and righteousness and flee from the mistakes of the past. The Word of God when read and studied and preached produces conviction and conviction produces repentance and repentance comes about by faith. No one repents unless they believe and the preaching of the whole council of God produces faith.
Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (KJV)
Ever Increasing Faith
From messages given by Smith Wigglesworth
(This book is in Public Domain)
Originally Edited By Zao Ministries International
www.spiritualsurvey.com
Contents
Comments by a recent editor ......
Have Faith in God......
Deliverance to the Captives......
The Power of the Name ......
Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?......
I Am the Lord That Healeth Thee......
Himself Took Our Infirmities ......
Our Risen Christ ......
Righteousness......
"The Words of This Life"......
Life in the Spirit ......
What It Means To Be Full of the Spirit......
The Bible Evidence of the Baptism of The Holy Spirit ......
Concerning Spiritual Gifts......
The Word of Knowledge and Faith......
Gifts of Healing and Miracles......
The Gift of Prophecy ......
The Discerning of Spirits ......
The Gift of Tongues......
Comments by Vern Manson
Followed by inserted comments in the narrative.
It is obvious, based on witnesses of Smith Wigglesworth's ministry, that his faith in God was great relative to any other person since the first century. I know of no one in recorded history since who comes close to the power of God demonstrated through his ministry.
My first father in law attended a service in Orange County CA where brother Smith was ministering. He told me that Smith was a simple man filled with faith. My father in law told me of a miracle that happened while he was in that service.
I have since come to believe that Smith was a man who believed in holiness. I have also come to believe that the Pentecostal Charismatic situation has now effectively removed holiness from their message.
I will endeavor in my comments here to show how some of this failure to seek holiness has been inadvertently promoted. Calvinism was not prominent, nor was Dispensationalism in the 1800s. Methodism and Charles Finney's revivals were influential in the out pouring that took place even before Azusa Street. There were also the Brethren and the Salvation Army in England. These groups were all influenced by strong views of holiness.
Charles Finney was attacked for his peculiar views on holiness even though the revivals he took part in effectively stirred up the conscience of this nation against slavery. His theology is misunderstood and this is because of the lack of bible study by those who have looked over his works. I have seen a popular book written with one single goal, that was to discredit Finney, and yet it was obvious they either did not understand his points or they had an ulterior motive.
When Finney began to minister the Churches were in a terrible decline. During his ministry there was a great revival. After he died the churches began to go into another decline. This has been blamed on his theology, yet declines and revivals have always happened. There were great revivals before Finney and there have been several since.
Finney was for obedience, for holiness, and for the move of the Holy Spirit in revival. Emotion accompanied his revival meetings. He dealt with people individually when they came forward to make sure there was an objective basis for their actions and commitment. He took a stand against people being persuaded only on the basis of their feelings.
He believed a person who had accepted Christ would either be obedient or lose their salvation.
Inserted in the following you will find comments that point to an emphasis that was made by Smith Wigglesworth that tended to undermine holiness. (My opinion.) This emphasis is still being made today but without the example of holiness that was integral with Smith's life. If you have the faith and spiritual depth that he had you would have no problem with a lack of holiness.
To walk as Jesus walked is urged on us in the scripture. He is the ultimate example. Let me say this based on His teachings, he gave us a set of rules to go by in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. Those rules set a standard that is above the OT law. Why did He do this if walking in holiness, just as he did, would be the norm for His followers without their having any laws to go by? He said, at the end of His discourse that those who heard what he said and obeyed them would be like someone who built their house on a rock, but those who did not would fail just like a house would do in a storm that had been built on sand. In the middle of His discourse on morality he said we are to be as perfect as God is perfect. This cannot be an imputed form of righteousness for it takes our volition, we have to obey to get this done.
Christ's imputed righteousness comes only through faith at the time of our conversion. Our conversion is conditioned on our repentance. Repentance does not save us, but do not try to become a Christian without it. God alone is our salvation. We are forgiven then, but following that we must obey. Repentance means to quit doing evil and to turn around and start doing the right thing.
Faith, nor repentance, nor obedience can save us, only God can give us the gift of salvation. He is salvation. The name "Jesus" means Jehovah is salvation. However, you cannot be saved without faith, repentance or obeying God.
Smith Wigglesworth at times brought conviction on people around him, without his saying a word. That is something we can desire to imitate. He was filled with the Holy Spirit beyond what most of us will ever experience. However, do not think being filled is just a good feeling or a desire to worship, for the world and many experiences in the world can create a feeling that makes you want to sing and dance, or cry, etc.
I Jn 2:1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. 3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. (NKJ)
This is in keeping with holiness.
Now to Brother Smith Wigglesworth
Chapter One
Have Faith in God
"For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:23,24).
These are days when we need to have our faith strengthened, when we need to know God. God has designed that the just shall live by faith. Any man can be changed by faith, no matter how he may be fettered.
I know that God's word is sufficient. One word from Him can change a nation. His word is from everlasting to everlasting. It is through the entrance of this everlasting Word, this incorruptible seed, that we are born again, and come into this wonderful salvation.
Man cannot live by bread alone, but must live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. This is the food of faith.
"Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Everywhere men are trying to discredit the Bible and take from it all the miraculous.
One preacher says, "Well, you know, Jesus arranged beforehand to have that colt tied where it was, and for the men to say just what they did." I tell you God can arrange everything without going near. He can plan for you, and when He plans for you, all is peace.
All things are possible if you will believe.
Another preacher said, "It was an easy thing for Jesus to feed the people with five loaves. The loaves were so big in those days that it was a simple matter to cut them into a thousand pieces each." But He forgot that one little boy brought those five loaves all the way in his lunch basket.
There is nothing impossible with god.
All the impossibility is with us when we measure God by the limitations of our unbelief. We have a wonderful God, a God whose ways are past finding out, and whose grace and power are limitless.
I was in Belfast one day and saw one of the brethren of the assembly. He said to me, "Wigglesworth, I am troubled. I have had a good deal of sorrow during the past five months.
I had a woman in my assembly who could always pray the blessing of heaven down on our meetings. She is an old woman, but her presence is always an inspiration. But five months ago she fell and broke her thigh. The doctors put her into a plaster cast, and after five months they broke the cast. But the bones were not properly set and so she fell and broke the thigh again." He took me to her house, and there was a woman lying in a bed on the right hand side of the room. I said to her, "Well, what about it now?" She said, "They have sent me home incurable. The doctors say that I am so old that my bones won't knit. There is no nutriment in my bones and they could never do anything for me and they say I shall have to lie in bed for the rest of my life." I said to her, "Can you believe God?" She replied, "Yes, ever since I heard that you had come to Belfast my faith has been quickened. If you will pray, I will believe. I know there is no power on earth that can make the bones of my thigh knit, but I know there is nothing impossible with God." I said, "Do you believe He will meet you now?" She answered, "I do." It is grand to see people believe God. God knew all about this leg and that it was broken in two places.