In this excerpt from his book, The Supernatural Thread in Methodism: Signs and Wonders Among Methodists Then and Now, Methodist historian and renewalist Frank Billman reveals how miracles and supernatural interventions were widespread in the ministries of John Wesley and the early Methodists.

George Whitefield

Whitefield first took to preaching in the open air in Hanham Mount, southeast of Bristol, in one of the worst neighborhoods of the day. Approximately 20,000 poor workers came to hear him, their tears cutting white streaks down their dirty faces and “strong men being moved to hysterical convulsions by God’s wondrous power.”[1]

By the time Whitefield came to America, his preaching was ordinarily accompanied by people toppling over: Dr. John White writes in his book When the Spirit Comes With Power, “Under Mr. Whitefield’s sermon, many of the immense crowd that filled every part of the burial ground, were overcome with fainting. Some sobbed deeply, others wept silently… When the sermon was ended people seemed chained to the ground.”[2]

At Nottingham, Delaware, on May 14, 1740, 12,000 people gathered. Thousands cried out under conviction, almost drowning Whitefield’s voice. Men and women dropped to the ground as though dead, then revived, then dropped again, as Whitefield continued preaching.[3]

His meetings were wild, though not all his listeners were fans. “I was honored with having stones, dirt, rotten eggs, and pieces of dead cats thrown at me,” writes Whitefield.[4]

In October 1741 Rev. Samuel Johnson, acting dean of Yale College, wrote an anxious letter to a friend in England regarding a revival sweeping New England led by George Whitefield. In the letter he stated: “But this new enthusiasm, in consequence of Whitefield’s preaching through the country and his disciple’, has got great footing in the College [Yale]…Many of the scholars have been possessed of it, and two of this year’s candidates were denied their degrees for their disorderly and restless endeavors to propagate it…Not only the minds of many people are at once struck with prodigious distresses upon their hearing the hideous outcries of our itinerant preachers, but even their bodies are frequently in a moment affected with the strangest convulsions and involuntary agitations and cramps, which also have sometimes happened to those who came as mere spectators. …”[5]

In the Cambuslang revival outside Glasgow, Scotland in 1742, a large communion celebration was held. It was here that people began falling out in the Spirit by the droves. Whitefield was there and commented: ‘Such a commotion surely was never heard of, especially at eleven at night. It far outdid all that I ever saw in America. For about an hour and a half there was such weeping, so many falling into deep distress, and expressing it in various ways…their cries and agonies were exceedingly affecting.”[6]

Whitefield, who was serving some of the tables, was “so filled with the love of God as to be in a kind of ecstasy.” At the next revival service, hundreds fell out in the Spirit, along with manifestations of laughter, prophecy, and groaning.[7]

Frank H. Billman, The Supernatural Thread in Methodism: Signs and Wonders Among Methodists Then and Now (Creation House, 2013).

This bibliography is part of an excerpt from The Supernatural Thread in Methodism: Signs and Wonders Among Methodists Then and Now by Methodist historian and renewalist Frank Billman.

Related Articles:

• Frank Billman’s introduction to “A Pentecostal Season: The Methodists in England and America”
• “A Pentecostal Season: The Methodists in England and America,” Part 1 (Summer 2018)
• “A Pentecostal Season: The Methodists in England and America,” Part 2 (Fall 2018)

Bibliography

Arnott, John G. The Father’s Blessing: A refreshing move of God that is shaking Toronto-and the world. St. Mary, FL: Charisma Media. 1996.

Badley, Brenton T. Warne of India: The Life-Story of Bishop Francis Wesley Warne. Madras, India: Madras Publishing House. 1932.

Beard, Steve. Thunderstruck: John Wesley and the Toronto Blessing. Wilmore, KY: Thunderstruck Communications. 1996.

Brawley, Vince. “The Lady from Baga.” Mission Society News. August 25, 2011.

Case, Riley. “Cutting out Options for Seminary Education” in We Confess, March/April. 2007.

Chilcote, Paul Wesley. Her Own Story: Autobiographical Portraits of Early Methodist Women. Nashville: Kingswood Books. 2001.

Clark, Randy. Evangelism Unleashed. Mechanicsburg, PA: Global Awakening. 2005.

Clark, Randy. [Compiler]. Supernatural Missions: The Impact of the Supernatural on World Missions. Mechanicsburg, PA: Global Awakening. 2012. [Editor’s note: Read John Lathrop’s review]

Clark, Randy. There Is More!: Reclaiming the Power of Impartation. Mechanicsburg, PA: Global Awakening. 2006.

Crandall, Chauncey. Raising the Dead: A Doctor Encounters the Miraculous. New York: Faith Words. 2010.

Crawford, Mary. The Shantung Revival. Shanghai, China: China Baptist Publication Society. 1933. Reprinted by Global Awakening, Mechanicsburg, PA. 2005.

Crowder, John. Miracle Workers, Reformers, and the New Mystics: How to Become Part of the Supernatural Generation. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image. 2006.

Crowder, John. The Ecstasy of Loving God: Trances, Raptures, and the Supernatural Pleasures of Jesus Christ. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image. 2009.

Dallimore, Arnold A. George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival. London: The Banner of Truth Trust. 1970.

Daniels, W. H. The Illustrated History of Methodism in Great Britain and America, From the Days of the Wesleys to the Present Time. New York: Philips & Hunt. 1880.

Davies, Larry. www.sowingseedsoffaith.com. February 26, 2012.

DeArteaga, William. Quenching the Spirit: Discover the REAL Spirit behind the Charismatic Controversy. Creation House. 1996. [Editor’s note: See also William De Arteaga’s author page at PneumaReview.com and Mike Dies’ review]

DeCenso Jr., Frank (ed.). God’s Supernatural Power in You. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image. 2009.

Ferguson, Charles W. Organizing to Beat the Devil: Methodists and the Making of America. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company. 1971.

Galli, Mark. “Revival at Cane Ridge”. Christian History. Issue 45 (Vol. XIV, No.1).

Hebert, Albert. J. Saints Who Raised the Dead: True Stories of 400 Resurrection Miracles. Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers. 1986.

Hyatt, Eddie. 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity: A 21st Century Look at Church History from a Pentecostal/Charismatic Perspective. Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House. 2002. [Editor’s note: See also Eddie Hyatt’s author page at PneumaReview.com and Raul Mock’s review]

Miraculous healing, falling down under the power, tongues …

Is this Methodist?

For some, this is a more important question than “Is it Biblical?” or “Has it happened before in church history?”

Frank H. Billman, The Supernatural Thread in Methodism: Signs and Wonders Among Methodists Then and Now (Creation House, 2013).

Randy Clark reports that when several Southern Baptist seminary professors of evangelism were asked by phone, “What was the greatest revival in Baptist history?” The response was unanimously, “The Shantung Revival in China.” Healing, falling, electricity, laughing in the spirit, even the raising of the dead is recorded in The Shantung Revival, a book by Mary Crawford, one of the Southern Baptist missionaries who experienced this revival first-hand in the early 1930’s. In the book are accounts of almost everything that has been characteristic of the Toronto Revival and the Pensacola Outpouring. Unfortunately, most Southern Baptists are not aware of what happened during their greatest revival. Several years ago, the book was reprinted with almost all of the phenomena of the Holy Spirit edited out.[1]

Southern Baptists have “sanitized” their history at this point. They have removed historical accounts that are not consistent with their current theology and practices. Some Presbyterians did the same thing when it came to recording the history of the Cambuslang revival. And some Methodists have done the same “sanitizing” of our history in removing many accounts of the supernatural power and manifestations of the Holy Spirit moving among the Methodists.

So, what about the ministries of Wesley, Whitefield and Asbury? Is this stuff Methodist?

Wesley wrote on April 17, 1739, “We called upon God to confirm his word. Immediately one that stood by (to our no small surprise) cried out aloud, with the utmost vehemence, even as in the agonies of death. But we continued in prayer, till a new song was put in her mouth. … Soon after two other persons, … were seized with strong pain, and constrained to roar for the disquietness of their heart.”[4]

Author’s Introduction for excerpt from The Supernatural Thread in Methodism: Signs and Wonders Among Methodists Then and Now

Baptism in the Holy Spirit for power and manifestations of the power of God in healing, deliverance from demons, angelic encounters, falling over, crying out, shouting, jumping, dancing, laughing, trances, dreams, visions, and other such behaviors are often associated with Pentecostalism. And although most Pentecostals can trace their spiritual lineage back to the Methodists, most Pentecostals and most Methodists of all kinds are not aware that all of these experiences and more were widely observed among the first Methodists. When Methodists today comment on such experiences and say, “That’s not Methodist, that’s Pentecostal,” what they don’t realize is that those experiences were Methodist 150 years before there were any Pentecostals!

Frank H. Billman, The Supernatural Thread in Methodism: Signs and Wonders Among Methodists Then and Now (Creation House, 2013).

In August 2017, I was privileged to speak at a summer conference in Estonia on the shores of the Baltic Sea. About 200 people had gathered from multiple countries to be part of this gathering. At the close of the conference we provided the people with a “fire tunnel” where the leaders of the conference formed two lines facing each other and the participants slowly walked through this “tunnel” as the leaders lightly laid hands on them and prayed for them in their native language or in tongues. Numbers of people needed help to stand and walk through the tunnel because the power of God was so strong upon them. A teenaged boy came through and part way through the line he fell to the ground, broke out in loud holy laughter and began rolling. The leaders on the one side of the tunnel had to jump over him as he rolled out of the tunnel.

This was not a Pentecostal conference, it was a United Methodist conference. A United Methodist District Superintendent called the conference. The leaders were Methodists from the US, the UK and Estonia. And the teen who fell and rolled was a United Methodist pastor’s son. I had witnessed my first Methodist Holy Roller! A United Methodist man from Finland happened to be standing at the end of the tunnel when the “Holy Roller” went by. He turned to me and others and said, “What is this? I have never seen anything like this! What is this?” And we explained that this was the power of God moving like he did among the early Methodists.

That man went back to Finland and told people about what he experienced at the Methodist conference in Estonia. In June of this year the United Methodist annual conference of Finland hosted a Life in the Spirit Seminar from Aldersgate Renewal Ministries. The Supernatural Thread continues to be found among the Methodists!

Frank Billman
July 2018

A Pentecostal Season: The Methodists in England and America, Part 1
(Summer 2018)

A Pentecostal Season: The Methodists in England and America, Part 2
(Fall 2018)

See also:

Experiencing Life in the Spirit: an interview with Frank Billman

PneumaReview.com speaks with Christian historian and renewalist, Frank Billman, about John Wesley, the Methodist Church, and the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit today.

PneumaReview.com: You have written a book called The Supernatural Thread in Methodism. Please tell our readers a little bit about the book.

Frank H. Billman, The Supernatural Thread in Methodism: Signs and Wonders Among Methodists Then and Now (Creation House, 2013).

Frank Billman: I have always had an interest in history, especially church history. And when I took the Methodist history course required for United Methodist ordination at a United Methodist seminary, I really enjoyed the course. The course was taught by the author of the textbook we used, a well-known Methodist historian. However, sometime after seminary graduation I began to read some other books and articles that highlighted supernatural elements of our Methodist history that I never learned about in seminary—like John Wesley praying for healing and casting out demons, and experiencing angelic encounters, and even raising a man from the dead. Wesley taught that all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Bible (including speaking in tongues) are valid for today. Methodists rested in the Spirit, and experienced trances and visions and dreams. The power of God would show up in Methodist preaching services, love feasts, communion services, camp meetings, even annual conference sessions. This supernatural history is not only the heritage of United Methodists, but all the denominations today that trace their history back to John Wesley and the Methodists.

So as I would share in various settings about what I found in our history I was encouraged to gather my findings together in a book. It was published by Creation House Press, a publishing arm of Charisma Magazine. Charisma Media shut down that part of their publishing business so the book has gone out of print. (Aldersgate Renewal Ministries still has some copies and I have some.) I am in the process of revising and updating the book with some additional chapters and I need to connect with a new publisher.

PneumaReview.com: How did you personally come into the charismatic experience of the Spirit?

Frank Billman: I grew up in the Methodist Church. My parents and grandparents were Methodists. I gave my life to Christ at a Lay Witness Mission that came to our Methodist church in Philadelphia when I was in high school. Although this event was not about the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit was very much a part of that weekend. It was during that weekend that I first heard people speak in tongues.

When I went to college I got involved with a Catholic Charismatic prayer group. Although the majority of those in this group were Catholic there were also a number of us Protestants from various denominations. That group prayed for me to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and shortly thereafter I began to speak in tongues. In my college and seminary years I was involved with a number of different charismatic groups. And when I graduated from seminary and began pastoring a local United Methodist church I knew I would have to find some like-minded Spirit-filled United Methodists if I was going to survive.