The Sea of Galilee, Summer 2011
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Peter had approached Jesus many times in the past but never in the capacity for which he now had opportunity. The privilege was not merely to walk on the water; instead, it was the opportunity to step out of the natural, physical realm where he had always been and step into the immaterial, incorporeal realm of the Spirit. Nor could Peter go on his own volition; instead, he said to Jesus, “Lord, command me to come to you on the water,” that is, “urge me to come—help me to get through my unbelief to where you are.” Peter was aware that much, much more would be happening than his merely leaving the boat. In that moment, he would be stepping into a sphere where sense and reasoning, gravity and natural forces of the earth, would no longer be in control. Such a step from one dimension to another—from earth’s materialism into the non-physical Kingdom of God—could not be initiated from himself. Apart from Jesus’ specific “urging him on,” he did not possess the ability to approach or enter that realm.

In the old sphere of sense and sight, waves and water, it was impossible to walk on the sea; in Jesus’ ethereal realm where earth’s influence of gravitational pull and nature’s energy were restrained, it was not impossible. Jesus said, “Come!” Peter obeyed and for a very brief moment—for the first time ever—approached Jesus as weightlessly as would a vapor. Gravity no longer touched him, the powers of nature were held back, and Peter, fully conscious and alive, was transported into the dimension of the Spirit. Though visible in the body he was none-the-less out of the body. The instant his feet touched the water Peter stood as securely on the sea as he had ever stood upon a rock. That was the most awesome step conceivable—but he did it. Wonderfully, he had opportunity to remain in that state, walking on water, provided he did not allow the realm of nature to re-possess him. Unfortunately, in a flash, both realms came visibly together, Peter was snatched back into the physical domain and immediately sank.

Scotland is a primary example. Churches in Scotland were once jammed with worshipers seeking God. Sermons were powerful and dominated national thought. Buildings were huge, elegant, and crowded. Not so today. Less than 4 percent of the Scottish population attends church. Many church buildings have been converted into taverns, night clubs, pubs, and one empty Cathedral is used for “rock climbing.” Worst of all, some church buildings have become Mosques. How did it happen? The “Cloud” moved and the Church of Scotland refused to follow. The holy fire with which John Knox ignited the nation and terrified his opponents is today a bed of ashes. And Scottish Presbyterianism is not alone. Numerous other denominations are going the same tragic route as Scotland. The Church of England has closed more than 600 houses of worship while Islam has opened nearly 1,000 new mosques inside Great Britain. Centuries ago, one of the hymn writers saw this decline approaching and prophetically wrote:

Surely once thy garden flourished,
Every part looked gay and green,
Then thy Word our spirit’s nourished,
Happy season we have seen.
But a drought has since succeeded,
And a sad decline we see,
Lord thy help is greatly needed,
Help can only come from Thee!
Lord revive us! O, revive us,
All our help must come from Thee!

Two conditions are expressed in the hymn: The Church’s spiritual drought and the cry, “Lord, revive us!” Thankfully, the prayer for revival is being answered. More than 500,000,000 Christians worldwide now believe in and are experiencing miraculous gifts of the Spirit. That is one-fourth of the world’s total Christian population. Even so, most of the traditional Church, as in the case of Scotland, refuses to accept miraculous manifestations and continues its death-march. The other part of the Church is returning to the spiritual climate of the first century and the “restoration of all things.” Acts 3:21. But much more than a restoration to spiritual gifts is taking place. The present call of the Holy Spirit is for Christians to go far beyond “gifts” and to enter into miraculous living. Believers in the early centuries not only exercised powerful works of the Spirit but experienced visitations of angels, were “caught up into the heavenlies,” were miraculously transported from place to place, and received the Spirit’s fullest manifestations. These same manifestations occurred in Indonesia during the ministry of Mel Tori some 40 years ago and are now appearing on the Church’s horizon. Let me illustrate from Scripture believers whose life-in-the-Spirit went beyond gifts:

1. Angelic appearances: John 1:49-51. Nathanael answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

2. Daylight visions: Acts 10:1-4. There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord?”

The type of angelic-encounter Jesus promised Nathanael and the incredible motivation which accompanies it, is fast-coming to believers in our day. Almost weekly I meet sensible, reliable Christians who have encountered angels. Cornelius’ experience may well be repeated before our eyes. Over 50 years ago I had a night-time visitation of angels in which my room was suddenly filled with an angelic host. When it first happened I was terrified and would have run from the room had they not spoken and put my mind at rest. At the time, I saw nothing but knew I was momentarily lifted into outer space and completely surrounded with them. The next day I shared the experience and then lapsed into years of silence for fear no one would believe me. That has changed. I am now committed to preaching about such encounters. Moslems in all parts of the world are having visions of Jesus and being saved because of it. Some of the most dynamic, out-spoken Christians I know are former Moslems to whom Jesus has sovereignly appeared. R.T. Kendall pressed this fact upon Yasser Arafat in their five private meetings as he attempted to bring the terrorist to Christ.

3. Out-of-body experiences: 2 Corinthians 12:1-5. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord: “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one I will boast; yet of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities.”

My ministry began in 1948 with a daytime vision in which I saw myself preaching. Until that moment I had not the slightest hint that a pastoral life lay before me. That was not my choice. But the vision was so powerful, so totally overwhelming, that at the end of weeks of fighting it, I finally surrendered to the will of God. The vision was followed by another, again in the daytime, in which God assured me He had answers for all my fearful questions. Now, more than seven decades later, those two visions remain the greatest, most unchallengeable motivation in my commitment to Him. This year I will be 94 years old and say without hesitation I expect to receive more anointing and greater revelation through meetings with the Lord that are “out of my boat and into His realm.” I want that! With God’s grace permitting, I will! Come go with me!

PR

Adapted from Charles Carrin Ministries monthly newsletter, Gentle Conquest (January 2020).  www.CharlesCarrin.com Used with permission.

The Holy Spirit has been making Jesus known in China. Veteran missionary Dennis Balcombe shares what he has seen unfolding during his more than fifty years of ministry in China.

Bible teachers believe that many prophecies will have a double fulfillment. The first fulfillment was in the Biblical days and subsequently the last days before the return of Christ.

A good example are the many prophecies relating to the dispersion and restoration of Israel. This was first fulfilled in the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, and later the return to Jerusalem and rebuilding of the temple under leaders such as Ezra and Nehemiah.

Then in the end times we see this is the destruction of Jerusalem and dispersion of the Jews in AD 70, and the restoration of Israel as a nation in 1948.

Directly relating to this was that of Pentecost which was fulfilled in New Testaments days in the Book of Acts and is being fulfilled in our days, which may be the last of the last days.

Acts 2:1, “When the day of Pentecost had fully come” seems to indicate what happened that day in Jerusalem fulfilled all the types and prophecies relating to Pentecost. Then Peter in his sermon by revelation said, “But this is what was spoken by the Prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days …” (Acts 2:16).

The whole prophecy of Joel indicates a world-wide outpouring of the Holy Spirit resulting in all that was lost being restored and a great spiritual harvest. It would seem that this prophecy relating to a Pentecostal outpouring was fulfilled in many parts of the world in the beginning of the 20th century.

Pentecostal Christians in many nations will tell you how Pentecost came to their nation in the first few years of the 20th century. Americans talk about the Azusa Street Revival in 1906, people living in the U.K. will tell you about the early Welsh revival and the ministry of Spirit-filled men of God like Alexander Boddy, Smith Wigglesworth around 1907 and the powerful revivals that shook the British Isles around that time.

This was the same time of great revivals in Pyongyang, Korea, Ireland and South Africa, and the Khasi Hills in India. But many have not heard that Pentecost also came to China in the beginning of the 20th century.

A former street evangelist who was a part of my home church in Oakland, California, Richard Simpson, told me the testimony of his grandfather, a missionary to China.

Missionary William Wallace Simpson was sent out by the Christian Missionary Church (but no relation to A.B. Simpson) and began his ministry in Lhasa, Tibet in the late 19th century (1892). After many months of travel by land from Shanghai travelling through vast plains, forging rivers and ascending high mountain ranges he reached the outskirts of Lhasa.

To his knowledge, no Christian missionary had entered the city to bring the message of Christ, though other European explorers and travelers had previously reached the city. One of the head lamas had gotten the word that Simpson and his entourage had entered Lhasa to bring the Christian religion.

Thus, this lama stood outside the city and proclaimed that if this missionary so much as dared to enter the city to preach his foreign religion, Simpson would be struck dead by the Tibetan gods.

After prayer and knowing he was being led by the Spirit, missionary Simpson entered the city and began to prepare for ministry in the city. However, before he could do anything, this lama who was opposed to him, for some strange reason suddenly died.

This was one of the first examples of ‘power evangelism’ in China, a term that later became popular under John Wimber of the Vineyard Movement in the second part of the 20th century.

The superstitious people in Lhasa revered him as some god with great power. Of course, he denied that he was a god, but through this preached Christ to them and reportedly made some converts. Later they gave him gifts of many of their precious temple artifacts (not realizing their archeological value), which he took back to the USA and sold to the Museum of Chicago. Through this he was able to finance his missionary work in China for several decades.

A few years later the CMA denomination in America took a stand against speaking in tongues and such Pentecostal gifts. Knowing Simpson’s Church in Beiping was now Pentecostal he was ordered to cease teaching Pentecostal doctrines, tongues, and spiritual gifts, or else they would totally cut off his missionary support.

He wrote back, “I am now the pastor of this church, and they are totally supporting me. I don’t care if you cut off my support, but I will not compromise on my beliefs.”

He remained in China until 1949 when he returned to the USA. His son, William EkvalI Simpson, also was an Assemblies of God missionary. He died at the hands of bandits on the Tibetan-Chinese border in 1932. This testimony was related to me by missionary Simpson’s grandson Richard in the 1970’s.

After the Pentecostal revivals at Azusa Street and in the U.K., many Pentecostal missionaries came to China and preached the Full Gospel message. Significant Pentecostal revivals came to the Scandinavian nations, and many Pentecostal missionaries from Norway, Sweden and Finland travelled to the interior of China bringing the Pentecostal message.

Marie Monson
Image: Wikimedia Commons

One of these Scandinavian missionaries was Marie Monsen (1878-1962). Some considered her the ‘mother of the house church’. But due to her Pentecostal beliefs, she was denounced as a heretic by other evangelical missionaries.

Brother Yun introduced Monsen in his book, The Heavenly Man, as her ministry impacted the churches in Henan where he is from. You can visit her monument today in Bergen, Norway.

Many of these early Pentecostal missionaries were single young women, at great cost and much opposition, spread the Pentecostal message throughout China. Another was Serene Løland, also from Norway, who spent 50 years in China. The last several years of her missionary life was spent in Hong Kong. I was privileged to work with her in Hong Kong in the early 1970s.

Serene was the first Norwegian Methodist missionary to China landing in Fuzhou (then spelled Foo-chow) in 1921. She later worked with the famous Spirit-filled Chinese evangelist, John Sung who is reported to have led over 100,000 to the Lord through his powerful evangelical ministry followed by signs, wonders, and miracles. These converts were not only in China, but many nations throughout SE Asia.

She also spent much time in Shanghai where she helped many leading clergymen to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This was during the great charismatic revival in Shanghai around 1948.

At the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Shanghai, more than 50 of the theological students including their president, the famous Chia Yu Ming, came to her meetings and he received the baptism of the Spirit. His writings were the most popular theological books in China, read by far more than Watchman Nee, whose books were only read by members of his church, The Little Flock church.

Sister Løland worked closely with the most renowned men of God during that period: John Sung, Watchman Nee, Wang Ming-tao, Andrew Gih and Markus Cheng. She was at one time a member of Watchman Nee’s congregation and she told me she prayed with him, and he received the Baptism of the Spirit. But Watchman Nee never claimed to be charismatic.

After most missionaries were forced out of China, Sister Løland remained two more years and in March 1951 came to Hong Kong. She was greatly used of the Lord to promote the Pentecostal movement throughout Hong Kong, especially among the Pentecostal Holiness Church. She left HK to return home to Norway in 1972. Her powerful testimony is related in her autobiography, God in China (now out of print).

Many in the Charismatic/Pentecostal movement have become aware of missionary Heidi Baker. She and her team have been greatly used of the Lord to plant thousands of churches in Mozambique, other parts of Africa and other nations.

Heidi and her husband Rolland were a part of my church in Hong Kong for many years and even today we can converse in fluent Cantonese. I converse with Rolland in Putonghua (Mandarin), for he comes from a family of missionaries to the Chinese.

Rolland’s grandfather was the famous H.A. Baker who wrote the book Visions Beyond the Veil (published 1920), and several other books. He ministered in Tibet from 1911-1919, in Yunnan China from 1919-1950 when all missionaries were forced to leave China. Later in 1955 he went to Miaoli County, Taiwan until his death in 1971.

With his wife Josephine, H.A. Baker started a mission for street children living in the village areas in Yunnan Province, called Adullam Rescue Mission. The children, 6-18 years old were uneducated and few had any knowledge of the Bible and Christianity.

But H.A. Baker led them to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and they saw a series of visions of angels, Jesus, heaven, and hell, totally confirming the Bible. This was part of a significant Pentecostal revival in that part of China.

Many of these children grew up serving the Lord, and many were later pastors of both house church and official Three-Self Patriotic churches in Yunnan. This amazing book documenting the working of the Holy Spirit in the lives of these children is available free as a PDF file on the internet.

My close friend and co-worker, Rev. Moses Yu (1920-2010), born and raised in Shandong, was only 12 when this great revival swept NE China. He could personally recount many events in this revival and he was associated with the great men of God during that period – Rev. John Song, Wang Ming-Tao, Andrew Gih, Chia Yu-ming, Watchman Nee, Allan Yuan and others.

He told me that the indigenous Chinese Pentecostal revivals from the late 1920s through to 1949 were powerful and widespread resulting in hundreds of thousands of conversions. However few if any books giving testimonies to these revivals are available in bookstores.

The reason is most of the publishers of books of Chinese church history are evangelicals, and all their associated denominations theologically hold to the cessation theory. This belief which is adhered to by many even today teaches that all supernatural gifts of the Spirit, speaking in tongues and miraculous healings ended in the 2nd century with the death of the apostles.

Thus Rev. Yu was invited to Hong Kong to conduct a week-long seminar at the Assembly of God Bible Seminary in which he in detail documented the great Pentecostal revivals in indigenous Chinese churches. They can be found today in the Ecclesia Bible Seminary archives.

Space will only allow me to briefly mention a few. Probably the most significant was the Great Shandong Revival which began around 1932 in Shandong Province. The great Korean Pyongyang Revival of 1907 came after years of Western missionaries and Korean pastors associated with the Presbyterian Church seeking the Lord in prayer and fasting.

At a certain time in history, the Holy Spirit moved mightily, and many stood up and openly confessed their sins. Subsequently thousands were baptized in the Holy Spirit with tongues, prophecy, anointed preaching, divine healings, and casting out of demons.

Anyone visiting the house churches and even official churches in Shandong Province today will realize much of the present church leadership are the descendants of this great revival that began in 1932. In fact, this great Pentecostal Revival spread throughout all of NE China.

A Baptist missionary, Mary Crawford published a book, The Shantung Revival in 1933. Again, in as much the manifestations of the Spirit in that revival go against the theological position of the Baptist church, it is not available from the Baptist Press. But the copyright period expired, and the charismatic leader Randy Clark has republished this book which is available today on Amazon.

Directly related to the Shandong Revival, the Jesus Family movement was established in 1921 by Jing Dianying in the rural village of Mazhuang, Taian County of Shandong Province. This was a unique Pentecostal communitarian church.

They lived in Christian communes in which resources were pooled and needs of the poorer in the community were met. In the rural and semi-rural areas, the Jesus Family was formed into small communes of up to a few hundred with the believers working and living together and holding property in common under the direction of the ‘family head.’

There were well over one hundred of these Jesus Family communities by 1949, with a total of several thousand members. All were run entirely by Chinese under the leader Jing Dianying (1890-1957).

The Jesus Family was strongly millenarian, anticipating the imminent return of Christ, and it was very Pentecostal, basing its worship and behavior on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. All the Jesus Family communities were disbanded in 1953, but even today many former adherents or their children are active members and leaders in the Chinese Christian community. In the 1980s, some Jesus Family groups reappeared, but they are technically illegal and subject to persecution by the authorities.

I was privilege to meet many of the leaders of the Jesus Family when China opened in the 1980s and several years ago visited some of the local Shandong house churches whose roots can be traced to the Jesus Family. They would all rehearse testimonies of miracles, healings and gifts of the Spirit that even today are in operation in their local churches.

Another indigenous Pentecostal movement is the True Jesus Church. It was started in 1917 by Paul Wei, Barnabas Zhang and others. It is a powerful Pentecostal Church with many gifts of the Spirit, healings, and miracles. However, they are considered a oneness church because they do not believe in the trinity. They also meet on Saturday as they believe they must keep the Sabbath.

The True Jesus Church is currently one of the largest Christian groups in China and Taiwan, as well as one of the largest independent churches in the world. A few years ago, on a visit to Wuchang, the head leader of the Three-Self church took me to visit one of the True Jesus churches. They had a huge building that could sit several thousand. He told me one-third of all the Christians in the Wuhan area went to churches associated with the True Jesus movement.

He said since they are considered an indigenous Chinese grass-roots movement with no connection with the West, they are not persecuted in the same manner that denominational churches related to the West are persecuted. There are many very large True Jesus congregations in Hong Kong and parts of England.

When I first arrived in Hong Kong in as a missionary called to China in 1969, there was virtually no accurate information about the church in China. The prevalent belief was that Christianity had been basically eliminated from China.

It was common knowledge, though, that all religion had been prohibited during the Cultural Revolution (1967-1976). Even the Three-Self Patriotic Church, which was totally under the control of the Communist Party and preached only liberal theology, was closed. House churches were prohibited, all clergy were sent to labor reform camp or prison, seminaries and Bible Schools were closed, and all Bibles and religious books were destroyed by the Red Guards.

It was assumed by many that the whole nation had become atheistic. As China began to open in 1978, one major ministry printed a tract which simply described the beautiful mountain scenery in Guilin (such as you see depicted in Chinese landscape paintings), and ended with this question, “Is it possible all this somehow occurs through natural processes, or might there perhaps be a Creator?”

One would ask why the Gospel tracts would not be more specific in presenting Christ and the Gospel message. The reason is there was a fear that any religious literature would be confiscated and those distributing it would be arrested. It was thought except for a few older people in the villages, the whole nation was now atheistic.

Liberal churchmen stated, “While the people were relatively poor compared to most in capitalist nations, what they had they shared one with another, the government provided basic educational and medical services, everyone loved greatly Mao and the Communist Party, and most were very happy.”

It was then often stated, “There is no need for Christianity, a Western religion that puts guilt on people and allowed imperialism to take root in China.”

However, within weeks of my first trip to Guangzhou in the spring of 1978, I found all that was totally false. During the past several decades we have been learning about the terrible atrocities, massacres, famines, political infighting, and horrendous persecution of religious believers.

Prostitution then and today was rampant, but prostitutes then sold their bodies to get ration coupons, which were needed to purchase food. We saw this everywhere after China opened in 1978, as even then food could only be purchased with both money and ration coupons. As we begin to travel throughout China, we saw not only prostitutes, but beggars everywhere. Poverty was widespread and in visits to hospitals we saw dirty and rundown buildings with almost none of the equipment or medication that a hospital would need.

I was quickly made aware of one group of believers in a certain district in Guangxi Province of 40,000 believers meeting in multiple house churches but was told they only had one full complete Bible for that many believers.

Due to that report in the first of 1979, we began our Bible ministry to China (called Donkey’s for Jesus) and during the 36 years to 2015 (when Xi Jinping began to take tight control of the nation), countless millions of Bibles were delivered to China from Hong Kong. Most were provided free to house church leaders, and thus during those years I was privileged to travel this vast nation.

Due to the strict control of people’s movements, including that of foreign visitors, it is impossible for anyone to conduct an accurate religious survey. But these estimates are based on the percentage of known Christians in different districts and an analysis of general religious beliefs in the different provinces.

My story: From 1979-1997 I made multiple trips all over China, weekly taught English in Guangzhou leading a few hundred students to Christ and baptizing them in the Guangzhou reservoir, helped to coordinate the Bible ministry in which weekly thousands of Bibles entered China, and travelled all over the nation where I met the Christian leaders in hotel rooms or public parks in the major cities.

Today’s Chinese Version Bible, first published in 1979.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

I had a great desire to visit the rural home churches, especially in Henan (where Hudson Taylor previously worked), but was told it was far too dangerous for a foreigner to visit these house churches. But knowing that our church was a Spirit-filled Pentecostal church, and almost 100% of the Bible couriers and those supporting the ministry were Pentecostals, they desired for me to visit their home church co-workers’ meetings and teach on this subject.

Thus, in early 1988, they arranged for me to go into the rural areas of Henan, Anhui, and Zhejiang provinces to teach in co-workers’ meetings. The co-workers would number from 80-800 or more. Meetings would last 3-5 days in one village and then we would go to another village to share.

Usually, I would teach and preach for up to 9 hours a day, but during that time in every session we would pray for them to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. This continued until 1997 when I lost my visa, but when my visa was restored in 2003, I continued this ministry until 2015 when I again lost my visa.

Before we visited China and taught the Pentecostal message, they would experience miracles of healing and supernatural deliverances. But this was due to the prayers of the Christians. Even decades before I entered the rural areas to teach the Pentecostal message, the churches had a habit of gathering early in the morning for prayer, often lasting up to 2 hours.

Space would not allow me to share even a small percentage of what I saw. Just to state that we saw thousands of co-workers filled with the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues, and a massive outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Miracles, signs, wonders, and divine healings were seen everywhere we went.

Many told me the main reason people became Christians was due to the testimony of divine healing, deliverance from demonic powers and other such miracles. While the Chinese church is not perfect, mistakes have been made, some false doctrine and teaching emerged during those years, nobody can deny the fact that the Chinese church is like the Church in the Book of Acts. The Gospel is being widely preached with signs following, but as in the 1st century persecution is prevalent.

The last several years there have been a lot of restrictions on Christian ministry in general and many overseas missionaries have been forced to leave China. The government is restricting the evangelism of children and the youth, and Bibles can only be purchased in official church bookstores. Atheistic Marxist education is the norm for all Chinese young people. It would seem the present leadership of China is reversing the ‘open door policy’ of Deng Xiaoping which began in the 1980s.

But we thank the Lord during the few short years that China was opened, thousands of Spirit-filled Christians from overseas entered China to provide Bibles, teaching materials and prayed with countless tens of thousands of Chinese Christians to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Thus, the Chinese church has a very good solid foundation based on the Word of God in which the Holy Spirit is honored. I believe despite temporary setbacks, the doors to China are still open in that the Chinese people are very open to Christ and the Holy Spirit. I believe before the return of Christ, perhaps in our generation, this nation of 1.4 billion of Han Chinese and other ethnic groups will be reached with the Full Gospel.

Pastor Dennis Balcombe
Hong Kong

This article is adapted from an earlier version of “Pentecost in China” as it first appeared at ChinaSource.org. Used with permission.

Why is a firm conviction in the ongoing reality, power, and love of God necessary for biblical Christianity? In this book, J. P. Moreland successfully presents principles, arguments, and evidence to convict readers on the essential role of the supernatural in Christianity and Christian living. Moreland, a philosopher, theologian, and apologist, utilizes the tools of his multi-disciplinary vocation to present not just a compelling treatise but also an instructive guidebook for a fuller Christian life. Essentially, he posits that miracles, defined as God’s divine intervention in human affairs (page 96), are part and parcel of the relational religion God offers to humanity. Christians, he says, are to expect miracles, live a naturally supernatural life, and stand firm in their conviction that God, whose kingdom is inbreaking, continues to demonstrate his reality today.

Moreland progressively unpacks the book’s core idea by first establishing foundational principles and arguments for miracles and the supernatural in the book’s first two chapters. He then builds on the views presented in the first two chapters by extrapolating five types of supernatural experiences within the loci of prayer (chapter 3-4), miraculous healing (chapter 5-6), divine communication (chapter 5), angelic and demonic manifestations (chapter 8) and near-death experiences (chapter 9). He ends the book with practical guidance on the way forward (chapter 10) and a selected annotated bibliography for further reading (pages 249-259). Moreland unpacks progressively and logically, uses philosophical argumentation and theological support, and thoroughly investigates evidence.

He presents his case not in the usual “Christianese,” instead he used a principle that investigators use—the Intelligent Agent Principle (IAP) (pages 31-33). The use of the IAP as a method of evaluating the veracity of miraculous claims is refreshing and efficacious for a wider audience; that is, it not just convinces Christians but can also potentially evangelize and respond to agnostics and atheists. The use of an extrabiblical principle is novel yet relevant in today’s world, where people require rational proofs presented in a common-sense manner.

Moreover, Moreland presents his arguments with investigative clarity. He knows that truth claims should be backed by credibility and evidence, so he exerts effort to present verifiable data and credible eyewitness testimony. There is no doubt that the experiences mentioned are not fabricated and are not the product of a creative imagination. Hence, Moreland can convince readers not just emotionally but also cognitively.

That said, the discussion on angelic and demonic manifestations, as well as near-death experiences (NDEs), probably needed more theological explication. Although discourse on these themes relies heavily on eyewitness testimony and biblical support is limited, a constructive theological presentation might be more helpful in presenting these themes convincingly. Nevertheless, the chapter on NDEs was encouraging. The use of well-documented incidences provides verifiable data on the reality of life after death, which can be used to minister to those with debilitating fears.

Overall, the book partially explained the Christian supernatural worldview and presented compelling arguments for the continuation of miracles and supernatural manifestations. It convinces readers of the necessity of living a naturally supernatural life, provides practical guidelines for a supernatural ministry, and defends Christianity’s authenticity, which relationally connects us to the one true God. The book can convince readers that God is powerfully real, actively present even in mundane affairs, loving in his interaction, and purpose-filled in his interventions. Furthermore, Moreland was able to hold on to the polar tensions of skepticism and sensationalism; he is able to present a balanced view of an “already-not-yet” eschatology without falling into an over-realized supernaturalism. He was academic, apologetic and also pastoral.

I highly recommend this book as a supplementary guide for training Spirit empowered ministers in academic institutions, as well as for Church-based trainings. Although certain traditions may have different theological stances on the themes presented, the book nevertheless presents a well-thought out explanation and defense of the continuation of miracles and the practice of a biblically grounded supernatural ministry.

Reviewed by Lora Angeline E. Timenia

Publisher’s page: https://zondervanacademic.com/products/a-simple-guide-to-experience-miracles

Dennis Balcombe has been sharing the story of Jesus in China for over 50 years. Read what this veteran missionary has to say about following God’s call, cultural immersion, watching revival unfold, and how you can be part of the work God is doing wherever you are.

PneumaReview.com: You were called to missions while you were young, please tell our readers how old you were and what you did to prepare yourself for ministry in China after you received the call?

Pastor Dennis Balcombe: I was brought up in the Methodist Church, but in the USA this denomination is extremely liberal and I never heard the true Gospel until I went to a Spirit filled Assembly of God church at age 16 (1961). For the first time in my life, I saw and heard many testimonies of miracles and healings.

People in the church spoke in recognizable languages having never studied them (French and Hebrew), and many testified to healing after prayer. I was so impressed, and that night as I was praying I heard the Lord speak to me. I had been praying since I was 3 years old, but only then did I clearly hear His voice.

He called me to go into the ministry and to be a preacher. I argued with the Lord that I would believe and follow Him, but I could not be a preacher: I had planned a career in science, my family of 9 was financially poor, I was extremely introverted and not qualified for public speaking, etc.

But the Lord continued to speak to me almost every night, that I must surrender and go into the ministry. For nearly 3 months, I did not get much sleep, because I would argue with God every night. Then I visited the same church for the second time, and the pastor’s wife who was leading the meeting had a Word of Knowledge.

Though she never met me, she said a young man was in the meeting who had been called to the ministry, and he needed to come forward, repent and get right with the Lord and obey Him. She said she would not lead any more songs, the pastor would not speak, the choir would not sing until that person repented.

I of course knew that was me. I went forward to pray in which I gave my life to the Lord to go into the ministry. In those days, churches really respected the Holy Spirit, and from the time I went forward about 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, the Sunday meeting just became a huge prayer meeting, for many others also came forward to pray.

I began to preach the next day, Monday, sharing my testimony in every class in high school. After five days I led my first convert to the Lord, the saxophone player in the school band that I was a part of. I took him to church on Sunday and he prayed for the Baptism of the Spirit, and people testified that he spoke in several different recognizable languages.

Two weeks later, the Lord revealed to me that I was to go to China, the PRC (we called it Red China in those days). I was doing homework and in the encyclopaedia I saw a picture of a young Chinese boy living in the PRC, and I heard the Lord say, “I want you to take the Gospel to him.” I knew from that second that I would go to China.

The next Sunday I told the pastor’s wife (Marjorie McKay), a highly spiritual woman, that God called me to China and I must go right away, in a few weeks. She told me that the Lord had revealed the same to her when I gave my life to the Lord, but I must first receive training and have experience in practical ministry before I could consider going to China. She said it would be at a future date, but I would not have to wait that long. Only 8 years later, I found myself in Hong Kong as a missionary.

My first ministry experience began right away in weekly street evangelism, weekly door-to-door evangelism and preaching in a skid-row mission in Los Angeles. I was invited to share in the youth group meetings, and got involved in all the ministries of the church.

In 1963, I joined the Assemblies of God Bible School in S. California, then called Southern California College (now called Vanguard University). Several months later, some of the students began to attend special “laying on of hands and ministry of the presbytery” meetings in Long Beach at a church called Bethany Chapel under Pastor David Schoch. He was undoubtedly one of the most powerful prophets in the 2nd half of the 20th century.

This church was part of the Restoration Movement, which was also called Later Rain. They came back with amazing testimonies of the prophetic ministry and I decided to attend. The ‘prophets’ would call people out to the platform, and as they knelt there, 5-8 prophets (mostly pastors of large and successful churches) ministered in prophecy using Words of Knowledge and imparting gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We were amazed, for they prophesied to over a dozen of the students, whom they had never met before. They spoke in great detail of God’s calling on their lives, spoke about their particular personality and area of ministry, and sometimes spoke words of loving rebuke from the Lord.

We could not deny this was genuine, for there was no possible way they could know so much about so many people they had never even met. And many began right away to operate in the gifts imparted. Some would begin to prophecy right away; others who received the gift of healing would then lay hands and heal people right in the meeting.

At that time in order to be more accepted by “good and educated” people, some of the Assembly of God churches in the area played down praying in tongues, over-expressive prayer and worship as they did not want to scare away these “good” people.

This came to the Bible College and that year during a period of time we were told not to pray out loud or in tongues, as the State Education Accreditation Association would be visiting and they did not want to lose their chance of accreditation by “wild religious manifestations.” They did get their accreditation, but perhaps the Holy Spirit lifted off that school. It was set up first in L.A after the Azusa Street Revival and the founding of the Assemblies of God to train pastors and missionaries.

Thus after one year, in 1964, I moved to Long Beach and joined Bethany Chapel. They had a tremendous practical training program, but it was in the evenings and weekends. I got a job as a cook on the local State college. For 4 years, I followed this man of God and sat under the ministry of some of the most powerful apostles and prophets of that age, learning so much through both the classes and the practical outreach ministries.

In 1967, I was drafted into the US army, trained as an infantryman and sent to Vietnam. Though I was trained as infantry, due to my previous secular job as a cook, I was assigned to the mess (kitchen) with the 1st Air Calvary, and only seldom had to do actual patrols or get involved in the fighting.

Pastor David Schoch, who was a well-known prophet, prophesied the Vietnam War would spread to Cambodia and that the USA would pull out in defeat. I determined if the Lord helped me, I would never kill anyone in Vietnam and had great faith God would protect me.

Therefore, I carried no ammunition for my 45-calibre pistol and M-79 grenade launcher. I also encouraged the other soldiers in my unit to never deliberately kill anyone, unless it was for self-defense. I told them we Americans would eventually come back to Vietnam after the war ended to travel and invest, and we would be friends with this nation even after it became Communist. That is what is happening now and I have been back many times doing missionary work.

This prophet also said during my tour in Vietnam the Lord would protect me and “not one hair of my head would be harmed,” for after Vietnam I would eventually go to China as a missionary. I had great faith in that word and experienced “perfect peace that passes all understanding.”

As the Army Chaplain was a liberal theologian that did not believe or preach the Bible, I started my own church for the soldiers, and also did some evangelism to the Vietnamese. I would take the excess food the soldiers did not need, and deliver it to the villagers with Vietnamese Gospel tracts.

During that year, I made a trip to Hong Kong for R&R and the Holy Spirit led a prophet from Australia, Paul Collins, to come and sit beside me during the ferry crossing from Kowloon to Hong Kong. This was a miracle, because in 1967, there were 4 million people in Hong Kong and he had no idea where I was or how to contact me, and it was the same for me.

Deng Xiaoping in 1979, with US President Jimmy Carter in the background.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

The situation in Hong Kong looked dire. There were severe riots in Hong Kong, an overspill of the Cultural Revolution in China. It seemed likely China would soon invade Hong Kong. It was so bad that many churches had closed and missionaries and pastors were fleeing.

However, he prophesied that God would protect Hong Kong, the riots would stop, and eventually the doors to China would open and I would be one of the first foreign missionaries to enter China. The Lord through him said I was to come back here as soon as possible after leaving the Army, start a church and prepare for China’s open door.

I was discharged from the Army in April 1968 and I returned to Hong Kong in March 1969. It took me about 7 months to learn enough Chinese to preach, and I started our present church, Revival Christian Church in October 1969. The doors to China opened under Deng Xiaoping’s policy and I was perhaps the first missionary to enter China in the Spring of 1978.

PneumaReview.com: How many churches or individuals supported you when you first set out for China?

Balcombe: My main support was from my home church, Shiloh Church in Oakland. It was a small church of less than 100 when they sent me to Hong Kong, but due to its support of missions and evangelism, it is a now a large church of 3,000. The congregation is mostly African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians, while white Caucasians are just a small minority.

The main support came as we began the ministry of taking Bibles to China, called “Donkeys for Jesus” in 1969. For many years we would have several hundred to several thousand ‘couriers’ come to help to deliver Bibles and other solid teaching materials, and we have estimated to have taken in over 10 million such books. Many were pastors and church leaders, and they would take the vision of missions back to their home churches, and often these churches would provide support of our ministry.

In 1997, at the time of the handover of Hong Kong to the PRC, we set up another ministry, Revival Chinese Ministries International, which replaced the old Bible courier ministry of our church, Revival Christian Church.

Now we have offices or representatives in many offices in Asia and other nations, and for the past couple decades have had an effective ministry to people in many nations around the world. One of the responsibilities of the overseas offices is to arrange for speaking engagements for me or our staff to travel and share the China ministry. Another is to arrange local courier teams to come to Hong Kong to deliver Bibles to China.

PneumaReview.com: You have spent about 50 years on the mission field. What are some of the lessons you have learned while serving on the field?

Balcombe: The first and utmost to do mission work is to totally bond with the people you are called to minister to. This means you learn to speak their language fluently, take on their culture and lifestyles, eat the food they eat, and spend as much time as possible with these people.

This was the pattern of Jesus (John 1:14) and the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 9:19-23). Just to make this effort will win you many friends and eventually many converts. You will probably make many mistakes in the language at the beginning, but as long as people see you trying to improve yourself, they will get right behind you. It shows to them that you must really be dedicated to reach them with your Gospel message if you will go to that effort, and is a testimony that there is truth to your religion.

In China missions, most successful former missionaries did that, the most notable being those of the China Inland Mission under Hudson Taylor. Thus, most Chinese churches today can trace their roots to the work of his missionaries. However, few modern missionaries immerse themselves in the culture they are trying to reach, their denomination often providing translators, and they have no motivation to do so. Thus, many are less than effective in their ministry.

Secondly, there is nothing more important than the prayer life of the missionary, and this is of course is directly related to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit where people can pray in the Spirit, often hours a day.

I have yet to see a really successful missionary or local worker who did not have a solid and consistent prayer life to back up their ministry. Some who are not skilled orators or speakers of the local language, are not good administrators and even lack overseas financial support have still been amazingly successful. This can be related to their prayer life.

The third is to delegate. Within months of starting a new work, you must begin to give ministerial authority to others. This will give the young people coming up in the ministry a chance to mature, and the people in the church or ministry will realize this is their church, not that of the foreign missionary. Then the missionary will be free to go to other locations to start new works, set up a Bible School, or start other ministries.

PneumaReview.com: What advice would you give to someone who feels that the Lord has called them to serve in a country other than their homeland?

Balcombe: First, learn all you can about that nation or people group without having to travel to that nation. Most nations have been evangelized to a certain degree, and there are many books and historical documentaries on YouTube and other video or audio formats that can introduce you to that nation and the history of missions in that country.

The Balcombes in April, 1976.

Most nationalities and lingual groups are represented in almost every major city, such as Chinatown, Japantown, the Hispanic part of the city, etc. If possible, visit these areas, meet with the people, especially the churches. Make contacts, make friends, and learn some of the language.

As in my case, write to the missionaries (now you can send emails) on that field to get advice from them about the people, their culture, needs, and advice on how to prepare for future ministry.

If you have the finances, try to make at least one trip to that country to make contact and learn before you go as a full time missionary. Check out language schools, living costs, renting homes, and learn about the state of Christianity in that country.

The most important is to be a part of a local church in your homeland that believes in missions and will send you. See Romans 10:15. Even if they do not have the finances to support you, you will be sent as Paul and Barnabas were in Acts 13. That church will provide you with a spiritual covering.

PneumaReview.com: In addition to preaching salvation in Jesus, the baptism in the Holy Spirit is a major emphasis of your ministry. How has the message of Spirit baptism been received in China?

Balcombe: In general, this message has been well received throughout China, in both home and official churches. The only exception is where people have followed the teachings of Reformed Theology as represented by John MacArthur in N. America and Stephen Tong in Asia. It is only in the last 10-20 years that these teachings have begun to infiltrate the Chinese Church, and those leaders who receive this often turn against everything Pentecostal/charismatic.

April 3, 2011.

The key is the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are a result of a Spirit-filled life. As one house church leader expressed to me, “Before you came and taught this to us, we would see many miracles. They were simply the result of prayer, fasting and preaching the Gospel. But now we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, and many of the preachers operate in one or several gifts of the Holy Spirit. Miracles have increased fourfold, but so has persecution.”

Healings and other miracles always cause the church to grow, which always bring persecution against the church.

Persecution leads to more prayer and unity, which results in more people being baptized in the Holy Spirit, which results in more miracles. It is a cycle repeated throughout church history.

PneumaReview.com: Tell us about a significant move of the Holy Spirit you have witnessed in your ministry.

Balcombe: September 1992, I and two Chinese sisters and one Chinese brother from Singapore and Malaysia were teaching 160 house churches in Henan on worship and praise. I preached the first night, but the Lord led me to preach on persecution, and I heard myself saying, “Tomorrow there will be a great persecution but it will result in a great revival.”

They had only carried the casket with me in it a block when they met the police, who demanded they open the casket to check it. But the Christians said, “This man died of HIV AIDS disease.” That was when people thought the HIV virus could be conveyed through the air, and the police told the Christians not to the open the casket.

Henan Province in China.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

The Singaporeans looked like the other local Chinese, but the police asked their names, and when they heard their accents they knew they were not local people. One of the Singaporean sisters, Eunice, was able to escape.

She said she needed to go to the bathroom, which was a hole in the round by the back wall. There was a bamboo curtain around the ‘toilet’ and once she was inside, she jumped over the wall and ran away. I later caught up with her, and though there was an all-points bulletin by the police looking for us, a local farmer had us dress up like local farmers, and took us out of the area on his bicycle.

The others from Singapore and Malaysia were released after only a month, but 120 of the local Christians were not released until the middle of December of 1992. Of the 160 preachers, 40 were mostly middle aged or older men who had been in prison before and were always very cautious, and when they saw me leave and heard the commotion outside, they took off.

The other 120 were mostly young people, the majority being young women who had not been arrested before, because that local area had seen relative freedom for many years. But then as now, the real qualification for ministry is to have spent time in prison. It proves God really called you.

So these believers were rejoicing that finally they could suffer for the Lord and spend time in prison. Because they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, they used this as an opportunity to preach the Gospel. Many of the other women in prison were murderesses, prostitutes, drug pushers, or addicts.

Through the gifts of the Spirit, these women preached the Gospel, cast out demons and healed hundreds of sick prisoners. During those 4 months, we smuggled Bibles into the prison and they began Bible studies. Even many of the prison guards and prison officials became Christians.

While it resulted in a model prison with almost zero problems with discipline, the head of the prison department in Zhengzhou, Henan, a hard-line Communist, was very upset when he heard his prison had become a church. He instructed these Christians must be released, lest the ‘Christian religious fervor’ spread to other prisons.

This was a time when China was relatively open and free, before the hard-line policies of the past few years. Because no one had signed a confession of committing a crime, and there was no real proof of a crime, they released them in December 1992.

I want back in March 1993 and they showed me a document which listed the numbers of new believers baptized in all the districts in Henan and Anhui Provinces from this Gospel outreach, and it was a total 46,500. That was an amazing miracle.

Then the next year, February 1994, I was arrested in the same general area with 6 other overseas Chinese. We were in prison for less than a week, and our release became a world-wide news item reported by every major news agency.

As a result, I was able to address the USA Congress (House of Representatives), meet the assistant Secretary of State in Washington, and address the House of Lords in the Parliament in the UK. I was interviewed by many news agencies and I spoke on the BBC.

In my interview with the BBC, I spoke in English, Cantonese and Putonghua (Mandarin). The last was officiated by a young Spirit-filled Chinese Christian sister working for the BBC, but sent from Beijing, and she encouraged me to use this time (close to an hour) to preach the Gospel, which I did.

The day after I met with him, the Assistant Secretary of State in Washington, D.C. flew to Beijing where he had a scheduled meeting with the leaders of China. They had not been made aware of this situation, as it was a local matter that local PSB did not want to be made known in Beijing. Their real intention was to get money from me, our group and the local Christians. In addition, they broke the law for they are required to notify the US embassy in 3 days of the arrest of an American, which they did not do.

The Chinese officials in Beijing told the Henan PSB to release the several dozen key house Church leaders which they did. Knowing they would not be arrested again, as this was now a major diplomatic affair, they were very bold in preaching the Gospel.

In a little over 3 months, by June 1994, approximately 120,000 people were added to the churches in Henan and Anhui.

Once again, it was proven persecution leads to revival.

PneumaReview.com: Please share a transformation story of how you have seen God change a family or a community.

Balcombe: This is more the testimony of what God has done through others, not so much through me. One of my first ministries in the USA was working with Teen Challenge under David Wilkerson. At that time, the book The Cross and the Switchblade was very popular.

When I first came to Hong Kong while I was pioneering my first church here, I also worked with another similar ministry that ministered to drug addicts, alcoholics and others addicted to substance abuse.

A well-known Christian missionary from the U.K., Jackie Pullinger, arrived in Hong Kong a few years before I did, and started a ministry called St. Stephen’s Society. She began a ministry in the Kowloon Walled City among drug addicts and saw countless addicts set free from drugs and other addictions. Her powerful story is told in the classic book, Chasing the Dragon. [Editor’s note: see also Missionary David Joannes account in “The City of Darkness.”]

An aerial photo of the Kowloon Walled City taken in 1989.
Image: Ian Lambot / Wikimedia Common

Recently we have seen a proliferation of teachers producing videos and holding conferences that attack the very fundamentals of our Christian faith. They base these claims on supposedly recently discovered ancient manuscripts (which often are simply Gnostic gospels), archaeological or historical documents or higher criticism of Scripture.

Hearing these attacks is often a challenge to my faith because I don’t have the academic or even theological training to refute these teachers. But when I have doubts, I simply look at proof of the power of the Gospel in changed lives.

These testimonies are so common, widespread all over the world with irrefutable proof of the power of the Gospel that this demonstrates beyond a doubt the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. No other religion anywhere can produce the same results.

PneumaReview.com: What are some of the most meaningful ways that pastors and churches back home have helped you keep going even in difficult times?

Balcombe: Hundreds of churches and individual Christians back home in N. America and Europe have stood behind us in our ministry to the Body of Christ in China. This has been primarily in providing financial support and courier teams to provide Bibles and teaching materials for the Chinese church.

Many of these Spirit-filled minsters have sacrificed to travel to Hong Kong and even to enter China to assist in teaching leaders and conducting large conferences in Hong Kong. Many of them, such as Bill Johnson, have had their excellent books translated into Chinese and provided them free to the Chinese Christians.

Dennis Balcombe speaking at the Empowered21 Asia conference in 2017.

Many churches have us on the church prayer list and we provide frequent prayer requests. Any success we may have had is related to their prayers.

While many in the West have recently been spewing out hateful words attacking China, primarily for it’s role in the spread of COVID-19, others have been showing their love for China and its people in prayers and by providing financial support to meet the needs of the church in China and other developing nations.

The United States has been the most powerful world power since the 20th Century, just as the United Kingdom was for hundreds of years before that. It all relates to missions—sending out missionaries, supporting missionaries and supporting churches overseas. The Lord has blessed us so that we might bless others, and when we stop doing that and want to be great and rich at the expense of others, we will in the end loose it all.

PneumaReview.com: What are some of your plans for the future?

Balcombe: Through the disaster of COVID-19, the churches have learned the power using the internet and virtual meetings such as Zoom conferences, Facebook, etc. to conduct meetings, preach the Gospel and minster to people near and far including people who would not be able to attend a church meeting.

Daily we are teaching countless numbers all through China and other nations using on-line conferences and meetings. Whole Bible College courses can be done on-line, and still people can interact with others and develop close relationships.

In China, Hong Kong and most of Asia COVID-19 has almost been defeated and everything is opening up, including church meetings. The church is stronger than before, and now we have a new tool to reach even more people. The church is investing in the equipment and necessary technology to produce high quality teaching and preaching videos whereby every member in the church can receive Bible College training and the Gospel can be widely preached.

Having said that, we will still be planting more churches all over China, focusing on reaching the ethnic minorities that have been neglected in the past.

While we certainly do not believe in Communist ideology, we recognize God has allowed China to have a Communist government, and we will do whatever we can legally to obey the Great Commission. We do not hate the Chinese government, nor do we think they are a threat to world-peace as some American Christians claim.

There have been major political problems in Hong Kong from demonstrations that arose from a proposed extradition law that was withdrawn. But now we have the Hong Kong National Security Law that is even more threatening to basic freedoms.

Thus the USA no longer recognizes Hong Kong as a separate part of China under the ‘one country, two systems’ formula, and says Hong Kong is just another city in China. If that is so, Hong Kong still is and still will be the freest city in China, continuing to be a base from which to evangelize the estimated 1.3 billion people in China who have never heard the Gospel.

There is, of course, a possibility that hardliners will tighten their control of Hong Kong and even try to take back Taiwan. In that case, we will simply become a true underground church movement, as much of the Chinese church of some 100 million already is.

We will not immigrate, not leave under any circumstances for this is our home, our calling and our ministry. Whatever happens there will be a great spiritual harvest of ingathering of many Chinese souls, and we expect to be a part of it.

Pastor Dennis Balcombe
Hong Kong

Pneuma Review had the privilege of speaking with two brave women that God used to share the story of Jesus with thousands in their homeland of Iran.

Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh introduce themselves:

We were born into Muslim families in Iran. As young adults we became Christians and met each other while studying theology in Turkey in 2005. Then we returned to Iran and began sharing our faith with many Iranians by distributing Bibles and leading house churches. In 2009, we were arrested in Tehran for promoting Christianity. The official charges against us were apostasy, blasphemy, and anti-government activities, for which we faced execution by hanging. We spent 259 days in Evin, one of the most notorious prisons in the world. Following international pressures and after months of interrogations and abuse, we were freed in November 2009. We were threatened by our interrogators that we could not live in Iran as Christians anymore and therefore were forced to leave our country Iran in 2010.

In 2011 we moved to the United States as refugees and shared our prison experiences, as well as the human rights violations we experienced in Evin in our book Captive in Iran, which was published in April 2013. Since then we have been actively sharing our story in the United States and in other countries, with people and policymakers, in order to bring awareness about the ongoing human rights violations and persecution of religious minorities in Iran. We have also been full time students at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, working on our BS and MS in International Affairs. We just finished our studies and graduated with Master of International Affairs in December 2019. We hope that our experiences and education will help us to better advocate for the voiceless people who experience human rights violations, particularly those who experience daily abuse and persecution by the Iranian regime.

PneumaReview.com: You were both raised in the Islamic Republic of Iran. How did you become followers of Jesus Christ?

Maryam Rostampour

Maryam: When I was growing up, I always had a lot of questions in my mind: What is the truth? Who is God, and how I can have a close relationship with Him? Why do I have to talk to God in a language I don’t know, praying words I don’t understand? I had many other questions about Islam and its rules, which frustrated and confused me. I was eager to find the truth, so I tried to study and research other religions on my own. I read a Persian translation of the Koran and some other books—but not the Bible, because I couldn’t find one. Sometimes I prayed Namaz (Islamic prayers), and I also attended meetings of other religions from time to time. However, none of these efforts could quench my thirst.

At age seventeen, I was completely disappointed and thought it would be better not to follow any religion. I was tired of the meaningless rules and religious laws, and tired of a faraway God whose voice I never heard. I had always longed for two-way communication with Him but had never experienced it in Islam. Eventually, I completely stopped doing research. But even then, sometimes when I was alone, especially at night, I looked up into the sky and asked God to reveal Himself to me and speak to me. At times, I would talk to Him in Farsi, like a conversation, for an hour or two, and enjoyed it very much.

One day my sister gave me a little booklet titled His Name Is Wonderful. It was part of the Gospel of Luke, from the Bible. She said she had received it from a man at the church near her university. She knew I was searching to know God and that I would read any book on the subject. “Just don’t read the last page,” she warned, “because it is a confession prayer for anyone who wants to become a Christian.” I took the booklet from her and went to my room right away, closed the door, and started reading. From the first page, my heart was deeply moved. I started to cry because I could feel the presence of Christ in the room right in front of me. While I was reading, I felt as if I had already known and heard all of these words in the book and had just found what I had been seeking for many years: the love of Christ. During those hours alone in my room, I realized why I had always felt a barrier between myself and God. As I read about the love of Christ and the work He did on the cross for my sins, I said to myself, that is exactly what I have been looking for all these years: love without conditions. None of those words sounded strange or unbelievable to me, even when I read that Jesus is the Son of God. I always tell people that Jesus Himself witnessed and delivered to me the Good News of salvation as a gift, even before I had spoken to anyone about Him or gone to church. He revealed His truth to me and prepared my heart for accepting it. After two or three hours in my room, I knew I had discovered what I had been searching for; I felt like I had already known Jesus for many years. When I got to the last page of the booklet, I prayed the written prayer and gave my heart to Jesus without any doubt or second thought.

For two years, I attended a weekly Bible study in a woman’s home in Tehran, taking the hour-long taxi ride each way from my home in Karaj. One day, she led a Bible study on the book of Acts and read about believers in the early church receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. She spoke to me about her own experience. I was intrigued with the idea that God would give a gift to humans, a promise of a special spiritual experience. I wanted it for myself. Later that day, in my room at home, I received this gift and spoke in tongues. I was surprised and overwhelmed with joy. Nothing like this had happened to me before. I realize that not every Christian has this experience. The Bible describes many gifts, and this was one that I received. I believe that God, in His wisdom, uses whatever tools He has available to bring the Gospel into people’s hearts.

I wanted to be baptized in the official church in Tehran, where we attended, but the regime monitored the church closely and frowned on church baptisms. Instead, in 2002, I was baptized secretly at midnight in the basement of another small church. Though I was only nineteen, the pastors asked me to start serving in the church, speaking to new believers and working with a group of elderly ladies. The pastors said I had a great passion for evangelism, though when I boldly talked about Christ in the subway or riding in a taxi, the pastors said with a note of caution, “Save it for church!” After I had served in that church for a year and a half, my pastor introduced me to a ministry in Turkey. I travelled there to study theology and leadership courses in 2005; that was when I met Marziyeh for the first time.

Marziyeh Amirizadeh

Marziyeh: Ever since I was a young child, I loved God and wanted to find out more about His truth. I did everything I knew to get closer to Him. My only means of getting to know God were through Muslim religious teachings and things I learned at school. But I always had many questions about God that Islamic theology and Sharia law could not answer. I used to think of God as a kind father who is closer to us than members of our own family, because I believed that the God who created my body was closer to my heart than my own flesh and blood. I had been taught the beliefs of Islam and debated them with friends and teachers in school; I could not accept the Koran’s teachings, as they did not seem true to me. I did not accept the image of God that many Muslims have as one who harshly rules over the human race and punishes us for the slightest sins. That is a terrifying image of God. I believed that the daily Namaz prayers, bending several times a day in front of a God who was already in my heart, were a waste of time and unnecessary, and I could not accept them. I also had many questions about why I had to speak to God in Arabic instead of in Farsi, my native language. Doesn’t this God who taught me my own mother tongue know it Himself? Why should I pray to Him as if He’s a great leader or ruler over me? Why can’t I speak with Him in my own language? These were the questions that had long occupied my mind.

The answers I received at school were not convincing. Despite my reservations, I did my best to fulfill my religious duties. I told myself that I might be wrong, and that the truth would show itself to me one day in the future. I prayed Namaz for two years without fail. I used to read the Koran, and I would even wake up in the middle of the night and pray again. But these types of prayers and worship were not making me feel any closer to God. On the contrary, they created a greater distance from Him as they became a routine action that I was forced to do, not something that I wanted to do.

Even before I found Christ, I was certain that God spoke to me in dreams. In one dream, I was praying toward the sky when it opened up and a white horse came down and spoke to me: “Sit on my back,” it said. When I obeyed, the horse took me to a city where worshipers coming out of a mosque were performing the Ashura and Tasua ceremonies (Islamic ceremonies), mournful chanting and self-beating. At first, they couldn’t see me or the horse. But suddenly they appeared to change into wild animals with savage features, not like people at all. As soon as I saw them, they could also see me and tried to kill me. The horse ran like the wind to save me. As I held fast to its neck, I felt its love pouring into me with a power and purity I had never known. After we eluded our pursuers, the horse came to a fork in the road where one path turned up into the sky. As the tired horse started on the upward path, I awoke. For a week after that, all I could think about was the deep love I had experienced in the dream. I have never since experienced love like that in this world. God, why did you let me wake up? I wanted to be in this dream forever! (That same horse has reappeared to me in a dream, with a message, every few years since then.)

After some thought and consideration, I came to the conclusion that the most important part of being a believer is my heart, and I decided to put aside my religion. I began to speak to God with my heart, in the manner of a relationship between a child and her father. One day, I heard from a friend of mine who had converted to Christianity that, in their religion, Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of humankind, who has come to the earth to free people from their sins. I became curious; I had not heard anything like that before about Jesus. I used to think He was just another prophet, as He had been introduced to us in our textbooks at school. I said to myself, how do I know He is the truth? I decided to study different religions in search of the truth and began to read the Bible. After a while, I realized I could not possibly spend the many years necessary to study all the religions of the world, and that there might be some faith in the world that I would never be able to know in full. Therefore, I knelt and prayed, asking God to show me the right path to reach the truth. I said, “If Jesus is the truth, then you must guide me in the path that would take me to the truth and save me from being misguided.” The next thing that happened was a real miracle. During this time, I was invited to a church by a friend. On that same day, I had a medical appointment scheduled with a specialist. My visit to the church was an incredible experience. People were worshiping with joy and praying freely to God. Suddenly, in my heart, I heard a voice: Marziyeh, you are healed. I wanted to ignore this voice, but when I told my friend, she said it was Jesus and that He could heal me. Later, at my medical appointment, the doctor picked up his pen to write me a prescription. Then he stopped. I waited, wondering why he was hesitating. Finally, he said, “I don’t know why, but I cannot write a prescription for you. Come back another time.” At that time, I sensed that God reminded me of His message in the church and told me to trust Him. The symptoms were immediately cleared up. But even after Jesus healed me, I did not fully believe in Him. To me, the healing wasn’t enough proof to convert to Christianity, so I asked God to show me more reasons. At the bottom of my heart, I had begun to believe in Jesus, but I still had my doubts.

In time, I obtained certifications as a manager and trainer in a cosmetology school. Working with trainees gave me opportunities every day to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Many women were eager to know more and gladly accepted a Bible from me. Though I was successful and secure in my profession, I was sure that the Lord wanted me to serve Him fulltime. Nothing compared to telling the world about Jesus. When a pastor friend suggested I study theology, I quit my job and traded a certain future for the unknown. I had started with nothing in Tehran and in five years had achieved worldly success. Now I was starting over again. I planned to study theology in London, but I was unable to get a visa. Instead, I traveled to Turkey for studying leadership and theology courses. That’s where I met Maryam.

PneumaReview.com: Once the two of you met, you began to work together distributing 20,000 New Testaments. Please tell us a bit about that.

Marziyeh: After we gave our hearts to Jesus, we had so much passion to know more about Him, to serve Him and also share the message of salvation with our people. We were invited to a Christian conference in Turkey in 2005 where we met each other for the first time. After returning to Iran from Turkey, we both had the same vision from God for evangelizing people by distributing Bibles, because in our country there is just a false and distorted version of Bible (the Barnabas Bible) printed in Farsi and people can’t find the real version of Bible. In three years, we distributed about twenty thousand New Testaments in Tehran and a few other cities.

We divided the city into squares on a huge wall map, at night we carried 140 New Testaments in our back bags, visited one area at a time between eight p.m. and midnight and put them in mailboxes.

PneumaReview.com: When the authorities found out about your activities, what happened?

Maryam: Some people reported about our activities and the government arrested us in March 2009. The day we got arrested we were sent to the security police. We were so scared, pale, and we were both in shock. We had long hours of interrogation until midnight and we were threatened with physical torture by our first interrogator. They sent us to a dark and dirty cell in the basement and told us “you should give us all the information about your friends, your network and your activities as Christians otherwise we will beat you until you vomit blood.” We can’t explain in words how scary that situation was for both of us. It was the first time in our lives that we had such an experience. Before going to prison we had heard about women who had been tortured both physically and mentally, raped and been killed in the Iranian prison. We were now facing the same fears.

We remember we were so scared, in that dark cell we just hugged each other, saying goodbye as we were praying for each other and asking the Holy Spirit to strengthen us. We were in that dark cell from 8 in the morning until 11 at night, and every moment we were waiting for someone to come in and to take us for torture. We don’t know exactly what happened that day, but they didn’t even come to our cell until midnight and they said that they wanted to transfer us to a detention facility. We believe that the only thing that gave us the power to stand in that difficult situation was the presence of the Holy Spirit and God’s grace. For the first few days we were praying for our release because the conditions were so awful. For example, for the first 14 days we were in a detention center, which was in a basement, we had to sleep on a freezing and filthy ground floor with no carpet, we could only use some wet blankets, smelling strongly of urine, to cover ourselves and to keep ourselves warm. We later realized that the guards locked the cells from 8 at night until morning and prisoners could not even use the restroom. For days we didn’t eat or drink or even see the light. Physically we were under so much pressure. However, when we saw God’s miracles through our prayers for prisoners and how He was using us as a tool to give His message to our fellow prisoners and even to some guards, we understood that God had a plan for us even in that dark place and we could trust His plans.

Later, we understood that some of the guards also were curious to know about Jesus because they could see how much prisoners wanted to spend time with us and they wanted us to pray for them. When we were leaving the detention center there were some guards who came to us, they would hold our hands behind bars and asked us to pray for them and forgive them, which was a miracle. Then, after 14 days, we were transferred to Evin prison with charges of apostasy, blasphemy, promoting Christianity and being anti-government.

We also had the experience of being interrogated in solitary confinements of 209, which is a separate building in Evin and is famous for its mental and physical torture. Once a week, we were being interrogated for long hours by two interrogators and during that time, we were separated.

We saw many injustices inside Evin prison. For example, one of the most painful of our experiences was the execution of prisoners with whom we were living every day. We had never experienced such a thing. After these executions we could feel the spirit of sorrow and death. There was deadly silence everywhere, all the prisoners could feel this. We couldn’t say anything. Everyone was under pressure, we stared at each other, but we had no power to speak. Executions had the worst effect on prisoners. They also executed one of our best friends who was only 28 years old.

We spent 259 days in prison, and we were supposed to be executed by hanging. We believe that the first reason that we are free today is because of God’s grace and also, we heard that many Christians from all around the world were supporting us either by praying or sending letters to prison, which made a huge difference. When people started sending letters to prison to show their support for us, our judges and the guards started to change their behavior with us because they could see that there was a unity among Christians, and that we were not alone. Furthermore, the Iranian government was under lots of pressure from some international organizations like the United Nations and Amnesty International, even the Pope in the Vatican sent a letter to the Iranian government and asked for our release. So, contrary to their desire, they had to release us because they wanted to show the world that there is religious freedom in Iran, which is not true. There are still many people in prison because of their faith.

PneumaReview.com: Based on your experiences how hungry would you say that the people of Iran are for the Gospel?

Maryam: The majority of Iranians are tired of the Islamic regime and the harsh rules of Islam. That is why they are very thirsty and open to hear and receive the message of Christianity. During the years we were serving the Lord in Iran and evangelizing Iranians, we did not have even one bad experience; people were so open to hear about Jesus and God’s forgiveness. God is revealing Himself in dreams and visions to many Iranians and preparing their hearts for the message of Christianity.

PneumaReview.com: In what ways has being filled with the Holy Spirit helped you?

Maryziyeh: The presence of the Holy Spirit with us has strengthened us in difficult times, especially during the time we were in prison. Without the presence of the Holy Spirit we could not stand even one day in prison and go through all those difficulties. There were times we could not even pray in Farsi because of lots of stress and pressures from our interrogators. In those times we would pray in tongues and we could see how the Holy Spirit was strengthening us, praying on our behalf, and giving us power to stand firm on our faith.

PneumaReview.com: Do most believers in Iran receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit?

Maryam: Yes, most believers in Iran receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. There is no specific story we can share here, except in the church or house churches we have seen several people who were praying to receive the gift of speaking in tongues. They would receive the Holy Spirit and would start speaking in tongues.

PneumaReview.com: What gifts of the Holy Spirit have you seen in operation in Iran?

Marziyeh: My experience includes seeing speaking in tongues, interpreting of tongues, prophecies, deliverance, as well as having visions and dreams.

When I was attending a few house churches after my conversion I witnessed people receiving the Holy Spirit. They were giving prophecies, speaking in tongues, and having visions that they would share with others. Also, I witnessed the gift of deliverance. In one of the house church meetings, one of the members brought his wife and told the pastor that he thought she was possessed by demons and asked him to pray for her. He explained that “sometimes her voice changes and she screams, she has the sounds of wolves and makes other strange sounds.” At the beginning the woman was quiet and listening. I had doubts that she had demons because she seemed very kind and quiet. The pastor started praying for her and suddenly after hearing the name of Jesus she started screaming and cursing the pastor. Her voice completely changed, and she started beating the pastor and attacking others. Even though she was very thin, Satan had given her a lot of power. A few strong men were not able to stop that tiny woman. They continued praying for her and I saw the shape of her bones on her chest was changing. It was Satan inside her that was controlling her body. She was screaming all the time and cursing those who were praying for her. The pastor and others stopped praying because there were many loud noises and they were concerned about the neighbors. They had to take her to a car, and they took her outside the city for deliverance. After she was delivered, I would see her at the house church and she became one of the strong believers who was attending the house church regularly.

PneumaReview.com: At this time what are the most pressing spiritual needs in Iran and how should believers in the West pray for Iran?

PR

Visit the publisher’s page for more information about Captive in Iran, including a PDF excerpt.

The Case for Miracles marks the latest installment in Lee Strobel’s series of “The Case for…” books. Strobel, a former atheist and award winning legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, is probably best known for his 1998 book, The Case for Christ, and with over twenty books under his belt, he has established himself as a well-respected voice in the world of Christian apologetics.

What makes Strobel’s “cases” so compelling is the fact that, as a journalist with a legal background and the former perspective of an atheist, he tries to employ an objective approach to all his work by taking on the role almost akin to that of a private investigator.

As has come to be expected by those familiar with Strobel’s work, The Case for Miracles takes the form of a series of interviews that function as the various chapters of the book. He takes the bold step of first interviewing Dr. Michael Shermer, founder of The Skeptics Society and editor-in-chief of the magazine, Skeptic. Interestingly, Shermer comes from an antipodal position of being a former Christian turned agnostic. Shermer’s skepticism was cemented with unanswered prayer regarding his college sweetheart who was paralyzed in a car accident. As is often the case with so many who have tuned their back on God, it begins with the perceived radio silence of a God they used to think existed.

Lee Strobel

Shermer makes what appears to be some cogent arguments against the existence of miracles. He cites anecdotal evidence as questionable and inconclusive and goes on to reference The Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP). Through the Harvard Medical School, STEP was a ten-year, $2.4 million clinical trial of the effects of prayer involving 1,802 cardiac bypass patients at six hospitals (p. 51).  The results showed that “there was no difference in the rate of complications for patients who were prayed for and those who were not.” (p. 51). Translate that as ‘prayer changes nothing’, or in Shermer’s words, “That’s not good for your side, Lee.” (p. 52). Shermer goes on to acknowledge the work of Scottish philosopher, David Hume, as influential on his view towards miracles or anything supernatural, saying, “Oh yeah. I think his treatise against miracles is pretty much a knockdown argument. Everything else is a footnote.” (p. 54).

While the first three chapters are dedicated to expounding Michael Shermer’s criterion for miracles being unlikely to impossible, the rest of the book focuses on the evidence that favors miracles. Strobel begins with interviewing Dr. Craig Keener.

At the Craig S. Keener author page at PneumaReview.com you will find numerous articles, reviews, lectures, and videos about biblical studies, including excerpts from Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts.

Craig Keener, a prolific New Testament scholar and author, has among many works, penned a two-volume epic study of miracles. He is quick to refute Hume’s “knockdown” argument against the validity of miracles. “Hume defines miracle as a violation of natural law, and he defines natural law as being principles that cannot be violated. So, he’s ruling out the possibility of miracles at the outset. He’s assuming that which he’s already stated he will prove—which is circular reasoning. In fact, it’s an anti-supernatural bias, not a cogent philosophical argument.”  Keener goes on to cite a number of modern-day miracles that he has investigated. One of the most impressive and moving miracles documents the case of a woman who, due to multiple sclerosis, had deteriorated to the point of death and was in hospice care confined to a bed and unable to care for herself. After a radio station of Moody Bible Institute put out a prayer request for the woman and some 450 Christians shared they were praying for the woman, she heard a voice from behind her say, “My child get up and walk” (p. 103). What resulted was a full and complete recovery that, thirty years later, still confounds the medical community. There are years of medical records to substantiate the illness and recovery, and the attestation of board certified surgeons with thousands of operations under their belts.

Billy Graham in 1966

Billy Graham, Evangelicalism’s chief architect, declared, “As we approach the end of the age … I believe we will see a dramatic recurrence of signs and wonders which will demonstrate the power of God to a skeptical world.”[3] Nevertheless, “there is also a need for a word of caution: There are many frauds and charlatans … one must have spiritual discernment.”[4]

I find Graham and like-minded Evangelicals paradoxical.[5] This conundrum shows up in Christianity Today, the movement’s flagship periodical. While conciliatory,[6] this magazine reiterates that spiritual gifts are outside the norm.

An example is demonstrated in Andrew Wilson’s recent article, “Whatever Happened to Gifts of Language, Prophecy, and Healing? Let’s Ask The Early Church Fathers,” Christianity Today” (April 20, 2018).

Wilson contends that in Evangelicalism, historicity should be valued alongside orthodoxy. He asserts that a truncated theology is often a result of beginning “history in the wrong place.” When Evangelicals take “a longer view… tracing our roots back to the early church fathers,” it leads us to “surprises … Angels and demons … or, more surprisingly, miraculous gifts.”

Drawing from a sampling of Church Fathers,[7] Wilson contends that healing, prophecy, and exorcism were evident five centuries across a vast geographical span. He selectively argues for the charismata.

Yet, in Wilson’s essay, telltale Evangelical caveats emerge. Reluctant to advance beyond the fifth century,[8] he suggests that there is “general agreement” that “languages, prophecy, and healing disappeared early in the church’s history.”[9] Sadly, Wilson insinuates that miraculous gifts can be an “excuse for speculation, self-indulgence, sectarianism, and silliness.”

Evangelicals love to flirt with continuationism but often disavow it as soon as their Reformed ethos gets upended. Tragically, most will side with Wilson, proposing that the charismata are “relatively unusual” (and the unusual cannot be normative).

In every era since Pentecost, God has been actively moving with His marvelous gifts. Rather than being mired in the doubts of modernity, Bible-believing Christians should steadfastly embrace the age of the Spirit. It is time to own the miraculous without caveats.

PR

Notes

^[1]. Douglas Jacobsen, Thinking in the Spirit: Theologies of the Early Pentecostal Movement (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003), 356.

^[2]. Leonard Sweet, Health and Medicine in the Evangelical Tradition: “Not by Might nor Power” (Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International, 1994), 151, 158.

This text by an accomplished Pentecostal scholar provides the reader with an accessible and up-to-date treatment of Jesus’ miracles that is sufficiently apprised of the primary and secondary literature to keep advanced students and specialists interested. Moreover, Warrington provides an enjoyable read, and those familiar with his Pentecostal Theology will not likely be disappointed by his prose or content [Editor’s note: Read the full chapter “The Quest for a Pentecostal Theology” from Pentecostal Theology: A Theology of Encounter (2008)].

Keith Warrington

“Historical Context” (chapter 2) examines suffering, miracles, then Greco-Roman healing data, Jewish exorcism, and more. Modern psychologizing of exorcisms is incorrect: Jesus speaks to demons not victims. John ostensibly did not see exorcisms as necessary to his purpose, recording none. The Synoptics “point to Jesus’ authority and apparently do not provide “guidelines for exorcistic practice.” Thus, Warrington consistently moves away from much scholarship that sees the miracles as models for the church. Warrington also detaches from the legacy of form criticism that carried over to redaction criticism and beyond which finds the Sitz im Leben of the Gospels the surest guide to understanding their compositional intention: the miracle stories primarily and saliently apprise of Jesus, not the Church (but, e.g., note his sensitivity to initial audiences on p. 209). Modern scholars debate the definition of miracle, which Warrington says is “a supernatural action that transforms a previous dire and humanly insoluble situation …” Consistent with today’s miracle scholarship, Warrington notes that the Gospel writers do not hold that “God has broken his own laws; rather, he has achieved what is his right to do.” Warrington concludes that miracle reports are rare outside the Gospels, briefly mentioning Onias (Ḥoni the Circle Drawer) and Ḥanina ben Dosa regarding miracles and especially Asclepius for Greco-Roman healings. Quick attention is drawn the Old Testament’s “limited” appreciation of physicians as compared to Sirach 38’s positive view, which presents, says Warrington, a bleaker understanding of this role, as does the Mishnah regarding demon-possession in the Gospels. Warrington also recognizes the honor-shame culture of Luke’s time, noting that the synagogue ruler was rebuked by Jesus and became ashamed: not because he was remorseful but because he was dishonored in the eyes of the people, which jeopardized his status.

Historian Jeff Oliver has written a three-volume series on how the gifts of the Spirit have continued all through Christian history. PneumaReview.com speaks with Jeff about his series and how we should expect God to do supernatural things through his church today.

PneumaReview.com: Tell us some of your story. What Christian traditions influenced you growing up and how did you become interested in the renewalist movement of Pentecostals and charismatics?

Jeff Oliver: I was raised in the Dutch Reformed Church in Schenectady, New York. My family moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, when I was a teenager. There we joined a Methodist Church (since there were no Reformed churches). At the Methodist Church, I was exposed to a Spirit-filled evangelist. I prayed, “Lord, whatever it is that this man has that I don’t have, I want it!” A few weeks later, a friend invited me to a downtown storefront charismatic church. I thought it was a bilingual church because one pastor spoke in a foreign language and another interpreted what he said in English. The Holy Spirit fell on me, as on the day of Pentecost, and I raised my hands and spoke in tongues. I have been a Pentecostal-charismatic ever since.

PneumaReview.com: You have written the three-volume book Pentecost to the Present. How did you become interested in writing about the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts?

Jeff Oliver: While serving as a Christian Education Director for a large independent Pentecostal church in Lakeland, Florida, the senior pastor kept teasing me saying, “Jeff, if only you were a Pentecostal, you’d be all right.” Or, “Jeff, we’re going to make a Pentecostal out of you yet!” This led me to research the nuances between Pentecostals and charismatics and the origins of Pentecostalism. But it seemed no matter how far back I went, there was always more. Finally, the Lord challenged me one day saying, “Why don’t you go back to the day of Pentecost and study church history in the order the events actually took place?” I did, and what I found was nothing short of shocking and amazing in light of an abbreviated Pentecostal history. Then I learned there was this whole pool of Pentecostal scholars who knew all this, studied and wrote books to each other about it, while the rest of the church remained largely ignorant. Someone had to tell the church.

PneumaReview.com: Briefly tell us what is contained in each volume.

Jeff Oliver: Book One: Early Prophetic and Spiritual Gifts Movements covers the period from the early church through the Middle Ages when much of Northern Eu­rope was converted through miracle-working missionary monks. Book Two: Reformations and Awakenings covers the period from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century, including the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and how they affected Christianity both in Europe and in the New World. Book Three: Worldwide Revivals and Renewal brings us up to the present day, sparked by the 1904-05 Welsh Revival and the Azusa Street Revival in 1906 followed by the charis­matic renewal and the global rise of Pentecostalism.

Image: Zuanzuanfuwa / Wikimedia Commons

I am Evangelist Matti Wendelin from Finland, and I was able to hold a crusade at Mendi, Papua New Guinea, January 8 through 12. Local churches came together to make this outreach possible. Thousands of people come every night, and hundreds got saved every single evening. That was glorious.

Starting at the first meeting, many healing miracles took place. For example, there was a well-known pastor whose right hand had been paralysed for 31 years after being shot in his shoulder. He received an instant miracle. As you can imagine, if someone has not been able to use their hand for 31 years, all of the muscles were tired out. God showed Himself to be a Miraculous God, He still makes miracles today. There was another man, someone everybody knew, who could not walk without help, and the Lord healed him in front of everyone’s eyes. Many other miracles took place at the first meeting, so many people came to listen to the Good news after that, evening after evening. There were about 3600 people attending every evening. Meetings were hold in the big tent. That tent is already too old and in bad condition and we are in great need to get a new one [If you would like to help, please ask for the latest contact information].

The fields are ripe and the harvest is ready in Papua New Guinea. Last year, in January 2016, I went to hold another crusade at Poroma, Papua New Guinea, where thousands of people came, received salvation and were healed. Since that crusade, all of the local churches in that area are living in revival. Almost 500 people have since been water baptised and there is no more place for people in local churches. Now we are very interested to see what fruit comes from the Mendi Crusade.

The harvest is ready now, but the harvest only comes in when labourers are sent into the fields. The Good news is free, but everybody knows it costs a lot of money to send those to preach it, and it must be preached.

God bless you all,
Matti Wendelin
January 26, 2017