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

George Whitefield

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Miraculous healing, falling down under the power, tongues …

Is this Methodist?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Frank Billman
July 2018

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

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

See also:

Experiencing Life in the Spirit: an interview with Frank Billman

Messianic teacher Kevin Williams commented on the September 11 attacks on the United States in this post originally published on September 17, 2001.

Rosh haShanah [or Hoshanah] is the biblical festival of trumpets (shofar, as pictured), Yom Teruah (the day of blowing, Lev. 23), which marks the Jewish new year and celebration of the creation of the world. The festival concludes with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Some Bible teachers believe the festival to be a prophetic picture of the end of this age, an annual rehearsal of the last days.

It has been the Lord’s good pleasure to sustain me on this earth for 40 years now, and in all that time, no opportunity has been afforded to believers to be a light for truth as now. Confirmed reports come daily that thousands of strangers are wandering into churches in New York. In the lines of grocery stores, current events are the subject of conversation–and before last week, no one talked while waiting in line! Suppliers and customers, who have perhaps been all business, take a few moments to talk about the headlines. People realize there is a spiritual hole in their lives, they are asking questions, and many are turning to the Bride for answers.

Our nation’s leaders, as at no other time in modern history, are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Creator, acknowledging Him in all their ways (Proverbs 3:6). This unprecedented example of biblical faith is speaking, nay shouting from the rooftops, to all the earth. The Christian faith is being carefully examined by men and women of all faiths. How we–as individual believers and as Americans–respond to these events, now and in the weeks and months to come, will be a part of how the earth judges our faith, and ultimately, our Messiah.

In light of the New York and Washington DC tragedies, and as we enter this season of revering the Sovereign King, I guess this comes as a cautionary note to all my friends: that we be “shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16).

My heart aches as I hear believers talking about retaliation, about torturing or exacting revenge. Certainly, the loss of life, the economic repercussions, the orphans, widows and widowers, and the trauma are horrible realities. But brothers and sisters, we are told to never “repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody” (Romans 12:17).

Our leaders have taken the position of stopping the evil and putting it out of our midst. This is most appropriate. This is a biblical principle from Genesis through Revelation. It will likely be difficult. It will likely come at a cost. But if we take an attitude of retaliation, then we are subject to judgement just as those who perpetrated this heinous act of war.

Time and again in the Bible, it is God who repays evil–not man. The prayers of the righteous in Scripture are for God to judge and repay. Friends, I appreciate the anger you may feel, and the passionate response for action, but let us act and speak with maturity of faith, living as examples of the Messiah. Stop the evil, certainly, and take the actions necessary to that end, but let us guard our hearts and tongues that the God of all creation may be glorified in the eyes of all mankind.

Editor’s note: Rosh haShanah will be celebrated in 2014 beginning at sunset, September 24 until nightfall on September 26.