Introduction

The purpose of this article is to reveal the initial development of the teaching on the Holy Spirit in the life of Alexander Campbell, founder of the movement named the Disciples of Christ. Campbell’s pneumatology must be placed within the context of American history in the nineteenth century. Beginning with the influence of Cane Ridge and Millennialism on his theology, his weak pneumatology led to an insipid work of the Spirit through the denomination’s history. However, in the charismatic renewal of the twentieth century, Don Basham stood boldly against the rationalistic atmosphere of his church and became well-known for his teachings on deliverance and casting out demons. Consequently, the initial aspect of the paper contains the early history of Campbell’s pneumatology. The second part is a revelation of the charismatic Spirit’s work in one of Campbell’s followers, Don Basham. Though the two appear theologically different, the thesis of the paper is that the operation of the Holy Spirit is the amputated element of Campbell’s theology which is renewed by the baptism in the Holy Spirit in Don Basham and the mainline churches.

Alexander Campbell (1788 – 1866).

The indigenous growth of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in America has a remarkable background and history. As Alexander Campbell searched for a way to end partisan bickering among Presbyterians in Scotland, his company of Christians became one of the largest church movements in American history. As Kevin Ranaghan wrote in his journalistic description of the movement, “one type of revival movement, called Campbellite stressed the word of God well enough, but the word as understood and interpreted by ‘good common sense.’ From the somewhat more rationalistic revival emerged the Disciples of Christ in the north and the Christian Church in the south.”[1] Because the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) had a diluted pneumatology, the Spirit’s presence was submerged in the past 180 years limiting revival and renewal in its members.

Cane Ridge

Interior of the original meeting house at Cane Ridge, Kentucky. Image: Chris Light.

Cane Ridge became known for its unusual manifestations of the Spirit. Though many churches were calm and quiet places of reflection, this experience was diametrically different. Leroy Garrett recorded in the The Stone-Campbell Movement, a graphic description of the “exercises” manifested at Cane Ridge:

They consisted of laughing and singing, the jerks, falling and even screaming and barking. The falling and screaming would sometimes go together, leaving the subject as if he were dead. The jerks were mostly a head movement, which sometimes agitated the whole body. Some people became amazingly acrobatic, for they would stand in one place and jerk backwards and forward with their head almost touching the ground…witnesses would see people on hands and knees in the woods, making the noise with uplifted hands, and would report that ‘they barked up trees like dogs.’[4]

This event was a Pentecost experience before Azusa Street was a reality. C. Dwight Dorough in The Bible Belt Mystique added that “persons were very often favored with visions and heavenly singing.”[5] This early nineteenth century worship was a precursor to what the twentieth century would encounter with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Yet, Alexander Campbell, a rationalist and devout reader of the intellectual philosopher John Locke never incorporated emotional worship into his church.

Most discipleship methods and books admonish believers to do things, but a growing love relationship with our God should be the primary goal of the Christian life.

Discipleship methods vary from church to church, denomination to denomination. I have been in a few of each. New believers are typically instructed to read the Bible, pray at least x number of minutes a day, go to church, tithe, attend small groups, and perform a litany of other activities. However, we would be hard-pressed to find classes or instructions on (for example) “The Necessity of Loving God First”, or “Steps to Divine Intimacy.”

Is it assumed that new believers have a built-in love for God that cannot be augmented in any way or that they do not need help in learning how to love God intimately, as Jesus put it, with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength?

‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment (Mark 12:30).¹

Maybe churches do not think that they need to teach believers the primacy of loving God in all of life. Maybe it is assumed believers already do or will. If this is the case, those churches need to change their discipleship methodology.

As we have seen in Mark 12:30, God’s priority is for His people to engage in a love relationship with Him, and from that mutual relationship, commandments and Christian duties are done naturally, from a heart consumed with love for God. Augustine is believed to have said, “Love God, then do as you please.” When we focus on loving the Lord foremost, all the other desires and motives we have will reflect a loving spirit garnered in those times of intimate communion with God.

Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

When we delight ourselves in God, He will fill our hearts with those desires He wants us to have. Then when those desires turn into actions, the actions will be done from a heart that not only has delighted itself in God first, but also continues to delight itself in Him even while those actions are being performed.

Many figures throughout church history emphasized the primacy of loving God. Below is a small sampling:

Bernard of Clairvaux, d. 1153

“You want me to tell you why God is to be loved and how much. I answer, the reason for loving God is God Himself; and the measure of love due to Him is immeasurable love.”²

Albertus Magnus, d. 1280

“I have had the idea of writing something for myself on and about the state of complete and full abstraction from everything and of cleaving freely, confidently, nakedly and firmly to God alone, so as to describe it fully (in so far as it is possible in this abode of exile and pilgrimage), especially since the goal of Christian perfection is the love by which we cleave to God.”³