Excerpt From: "Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal"

 

Pat Robertson and Harald Bredesen’s prophecy —Pat Robertson in Harald Bredesen’s Yes, Lord The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901–2001 Together, Harald Bredesen and I watched God open a new chapter of church history—a chapter which today has millions of characters. Now it is called the Charismatic Renewal. Then it had no name. It wasn’t quite born. Those of us involved in it were an underground movement, worshiping behind locked doors. Harald and I and some of my fellow seminary students were doing just that late one night in 1959 in historic First Reformed, the ancient Dutch Reformed church which Harald pastored in Westchester County’s Mount Vernon, New York. We loved that old stone church. With its flying buttresses, graceful arches and jewel-like windows, it was a bit of old Holland in a suburban American setting. Behind its massive walls and locked double doors we felt safe in our newfound freedom of worship. Then suddenly, through Harald’s lips the word came, “I am doing a new thing in the earth. Why will you be bound by fear? Hold nothing back. Hold nothing back!” The new thing God was doing in our midst would draw the attention of the world and vastly bless scores of millions. To that very sanctuary would come New York Times editor Bob Slosser, to experience the new thing and, in book after book, cogently share it. To that very sanctuary would come CBS: The World Tonight, to beam the new thing to the nation. From that old stone church, what we had done behind locked double doors Walter Cronkite would carry to his twenty million viewers, and The Saturday Evening Post to its six millions. Time, the Associated Press and the United Press International would carry it to untold millions around the globe. The very next night (after that word had come through Harald’s lips) found Harald, my classmate, Dick Simmons, and I in the Fifth Avenue home of another Dutch Reformed pastor. Around Norman Vincent Peale’s dinner table we held nothing back. Mrs. Peale went from that dinner to an editorial board meeting of Guidepost; she held nothing back. Senior editor John Sherrill interviewed Harald and set out on a quest which led to his receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and his writing a score of books, holding nothing back. He was in the midst of writing They Speak With Other Tongues when Harald brought to him a street preacher named David Wilkerson. Together they wrote The Cross and the Switchblade. With twenty million copies in print, The Cross and the Switchblade is, next to the Bible, the world’s all-time Christian bestseller. In Kansas City in 1977 as Father Francis McNutt stood to address fifty thousand Catholic and Protestant Charismatics, his first words were, “The Charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church (then numbering thirty million, including the Pope) began with two books, They Speak With Other Tongues and The Cross and the Switchblade.” His words made us glad we had held nothing back. ■ https://biblia.com/books/centhspr/Page.p_1 Details the miraculous story of Pentecostal/Charismatic growth—in the U.S. and around the world; five chapters by the premier Pentecostal historian, Vinson Synan. Additional contributions by leading Pentecostal/Charismatic authorities—David Barrett, David Daniels, David Edwin Harrell Jr., Peter Hocken, Sue Hyatt, Gary McGee, and Ted Olsen. Analyzes the role of all major streams, including women, African-Americans, and Hispanics. Documents the international scene. Thoroughly illustrated with photographs, charts, figures, maps, and vignettes. Includes bibliographies and indexes 4/C fold-out timeline/genealogy tree, plus a 16-page color insert and black-and-white photos throughout. "Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal"  1901–2001 Vinson Synan THOMAS NELSON PUBLISHERS Nashville Copyright © 2001 by Vinson Synan This is a link to go to Logos from the blog post List of books available to purchase on Logos.com which are sometimes quoted in this blog © 2024 Faithlife. All rights reserved. 1313 Commercial St. Bellingham, WA 98225 US Contact Us     Privacy Policy Free Books January 1 to 15 2025 Semi Monthly blog post template