It isn’t every
day that the Holy Spirit arrives via Inter-Library Loan, but that’s
basically what happened this week. And therein lies a story. I have an
almost unquenchable thirst for the history of God’s dealings which we
refer to as "revival". I don’t particularly care for most of the
recently penned works about revival, as so many of them are not so much
histories as polemics which use snippets from the history of revival to
promote a particular "revival agenda." For this reason I am always "on
the hunt" for original material by people who were personally present
when God "rent the heavens and came down." I scour the footnotes of
books and articles in search of a thread I can grab and begin pulling in
the hope of finding one that will lead me to the hem of a garment worn
by "one who was there." Such a thread, found in the footnote of an
article by veteran Presbyterian missionary Samuel Moffett, led me to the
garment of William Newton Blair.
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In 1904 a worldwide outpouring began, starting in the tiny country
of Wales. Beginning as a burning coal fresh from God’s altar under the
ministry of pastor Joseph Jenkins (New Quay Church in Cardiganshire,
Wales) in February of 1904, it became a spreading flame in the itinerant
ministry of evangelist Seth Joshua, until the fall of 1904 when it burst
into an uncontrollable wildfire led and fanned by a 26 year old former
coal miner and Bible school student named Evan Roberts. The River of
Ezekiel 47 was poured out in power the likes of which has seldom been
seen or experienced among God’s people. Beginning in Wales it flowed
east, west, north and south, making a brief stop at an abandoned
livery-stable-turned-church on Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1906, and
finally "ending up" among Presbyterian Missionaries (we Presbyterians
are slow, but we do catch on!) in Korea, meeting with their
congregations for a week of Bible school during the first week of
January, 1907.
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It is there, in the Central Presbyterian Church in Pyengyang,
Korea that we find William Newton Blair. Arriving in Korea in 1901, the
Blair’s would spend the next 45 years as missionaries to Korea. In the
winter of 1907, some 1,500 Korean men gathered in the Central Church in
Pyengyang for their annual Presbyterian Men’s Bible study class. Only a
couple of months earlier Dr. Howard Agnew Johnson had visited the church
and told of how the spreading worldwide awakening had reached India with
great blessing. Daily prayer meetings had begun among the Korean
believers during the Christmas holiday season. The week of Bible classes
began on January 2 and proceeded uneventfully, but with a growing sense
of anticipation that God was at work. On Saturday evening, at the end of
the first week, they began a series of pre-planned evening meetings as
part of the Bible Class. Saturday night passed uneventfully. "Nothing
unusual happened," said Blair, "We were not looking for anything
unusual. Only a hushed, upturned sea of solemn faces and eagerness to
lead in prayer showed how the Spirit was working." According to
Blair, "We went home that night confident that our prayers were being
answered. Sunday night we had a strange experience. The church was
crowded, but something seemed to block everything. After the sermon a
few formal prayers were offered and we went home weary as from a
physical contest, conscious that the adversary was present, apparently
victorious."
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Little did they (or could they) anticipate what was about to
unfold. What follows, "The Korean Pentecost," is William Newton
Blair’s account in his own words.
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"The Korean Pentecost"
(From Gold In Korea, by William Newton Blair)
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Monday noon, we missionaries met and cried out to God in earnest.
We were bound in spirit and refused to let God go until He blessed us.
That night it was very different. Each felt as he entered the church
that the room was full of God’s presence. Not only missionaries, but
Koreans testified to the same thing. I was present once in Wisconsin
when the Spirit of God fell upon a congregation of lumbermen and every
unbeliever in the room rose to ask for prayers. That night in Pyengyang,
the same feeling came to me as I entered the room, a feeling of God’s
nearness impossible to describe.
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After a short sermon, Dr. Lee took charge of the meeting and
called for prayers. So many began praying that Dr. Lee said, ‘If you
want to pray like that, all pray,’ and the whole audience began to
pray out, all together. The effect was indescribable. Not confusion, but
a vast harmony of sound and spirit, a mingling together of souls moved
by an irresistible impulse to prayer. It sounded to me like the falling
of many waters, an ocean of prayer beating against God’s throne. It was
not many, but one, born of one Spirit, lifted to one Father above. Just
as on the Day of Pentecost they were all together in one place, of one
accord praying, ‘and suddenly there came from heaven the sound as of
the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they
were sitting.’
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God is not always in the whirlwind, neither does He always speak
in a still small voice. He came to us in Pyengyang that night with the
sound of weeping. As the prayer continued a spirit of heaviness and
sorrow came down upon the audience. Over on one side someone began to
weep and in a moment the whole congregation was weeping.
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Dr. Lee’s account, written at the time of the revival, gives the
history of that night better than any words written later, however
carefully penned, can do. "Man after man would rise, confess his sin,
break down and weep, and then throw himself on the floor and beat the
floor with his fists in perfect agony of conviction. My own cook tried
to make a confession, broke down in the midst of it and cried to me
across the room, ‘Pastor, tell me, is there any hope for me, can I be
forgiven, and then he threw himself to the floor and wept and wept, and
almost screamed in agony. Sometimes after a confession, the whole
audience would break out in audible prayer and the effect of that
audience of hundreds of men praying together in audible prayer was
something indescribable. Again, after another confession they would
break out in uncontrollable weeping and we would all weep together, we
couldn’t help it. And so the meeting went on until two o’clock a.m.,
with confession and weeping and praying."
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Only a few missionaries were present Monday night. Tuesday
morning, Dr. Lee and I went from house to house telling those who were
absent about the meeting. That noon the whole foreign community
assembled to render thanks to God.
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I wish to describe that Tuesday night meeting in my own words
because part of what happened concerned me personally. We were aware
that bad feeling existed between several of our church officers,
especially between a Mr. Kang and a Mr. Kim. Mr. Kang confessed his
hatred for Mr. Kim on Monday night, but Mr. Kim was silent. At our noon
prayer-meeting Tuesday several of us agreed to pray for Mr. Kim. I was
especially interested because Mr. Kang was my assistant in the North
Pyengyang Church and Mr. Kim, an elder in the Central Church and one of
the officers in the Young Men’s Association of which I was chairman. As
the meeting progressed, I could see Mr. Kim sitting with the elders back
of the pulpit with his head down. Bowing where I sat I asked God to help
him and looking up I saw him coming forward.
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Holding to the pulpit me made his confession. ‘I have been
guilty of fighting against God. An elder in the church, I have been
guilty of hating not only Kang You-moon, but Pang Moksa.’ "Pang
Moksa" was my Korean name. I never had a greater surprise in my life. To
think that this man, my associate in the Men’s Association, had been
hating me without my knowing it. It seems that I had said something to
him one day in the hurry of managing a school field day exercise which
had given offense, and he had not been able to forgive me.
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Turning to me he said, ‘Can you forgive me? Can you pray for
me?’ I stood up and began to pray, "Aba-ge, Aba-ge," "Father,
Father," and got no further. It seemed as if the roof was lifted
from the building and the Spirit of God came down in a mighty avalanche
of power upon us. I fell at Kim’s side and wept and prayed as I had
never prayed before. My last glimpse of the audience is photographed
indelibly on my brain. Some threw themselves full length on the floor,
hundreds stood with arms outstretched towards heaven. Every man forgot
every other. Each was face to face with God. I can hear yet that fearful
sound of hundreds of men pleading with God for mercy.
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As soon as we were able, we missionaries gathered at the platform
and consulted. ‘What shall we do? If we let them go on this way some
will go crazy.’ Yet we dared not interfere. We had prayed to God for
an outpouring of His Holy Spirit upon the people and it had come.
Separating, we went down and tried to comfort the most distressed,
pulling the agonized men to the floor and saying, ‘Never mind,
brother, if you have sinned God will forgive you. Wait and an
opportunity will be given to speak.’
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Finally Dr. Lee started a hymn and quiet was restored during the
singing. Then began a meeting the like of which I had never seen before,
nor wish to see again unless in God’s sight it is absolutely necessary.
Every sin a human being can commit was publicly confessed that night.
Pale and trembling with emotion, in agony of mind and body, guilty souls
standing in the white light of that judgment, saw themselves as God saw
them. Their sins rose up in all their vileness ‘till shame and grief and
self-loathing took complete possession. Pride was driven out; the face
of man forgotten. Looking up to heaven, to Jesus whom they had betrayed,
they smote themselves and cried out with bitter wailing, "Lord, Lord,
cast us not away forever." Everything else was forgotten; nothing
else mattered. The scorn of men, the penalty of the law, even death
itself seemed of small consequence if only God forgave. We may have our
theories of the desirability or undesirability of public confession of
sin. I have had mine, but I know now that when the Spirit of God falls
upon guilty souls there will be confession and no power on earth can
stop it. (End of Blair Account)
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And The River Flows . . .
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As I sat at my desk reading this account of God’s dealings with
people not unlike you and me, I had a profound sense that the Holy
Spirit was speaking. Suddenly and unconsciously I found myself thumbing
through the opening pages of the book, examining the title page, the
copyright page, the dedication page . . . and there I found it. Written
in blue ink and in William Newton Blair’s own hand was this dedication:
"To my beloved wife and partner in everything, Stella N. Blair, with
deep affection and appreciation. William N. Blair." Then a note in
Korean, followed by "with my loving greetings - Pang Util Yang"
(his Korean name). I suddenly realized that, compliments of the
University of Oregon, Eugene, I was holding in my hands Blair’s personal
copy of his personal account of the day when "God rent the heavens and
came down." Suddenly time and distance collapsed and disappeared as I
heard the Spirit of God ask, "Is this what you seek? Is this the
outpouring you desire? Are you prepared to welcome me on my terms?"
I sat on my couch and wept the tears of one confronted with his own
death, and yet strangely longing for it more than one would long for
life. And the Holy Spirit visited me in my study, via Inter Library
Loan.
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There is much talk today about both revival and house church. Much
of the revival talk that I have heard, and much of the activity I have
seen, resembles men attempting to organize a parade complete with food,
music & entertainment in the hope that God will show up and agree to
lead it. I confess that there have been times that I, too, have engaged
in the same behavior. But is that really God’s heart? And is that really
what we want God to do? Is that what we are praying and longing for in
terms of "revival"? Or are we willing to invite God to "rend the heavens
and come down" and to send the Holy Spirit on His terms, even if the
price of such a visitation includes our own profound "death-to-self"?
Parades are fun - death to self is not.
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And what does all of this have to do with house church? Bill
Beckham, an internationally recognized leader in the cell church
movement, makes a profound observation when he observes, "You never
change a structure until you change a value. We do not transplant
systems and structures. We transplant values and life." Amen! Much
of what I have observed and experienced in our movement thus far,
including the current rising interest in house church among traditional
church practitioners, represents a "fiddling with the structure," an
experimentation with methodology, rather than a genuine imbibing and
incarnation of new values - new wine skins sans the requisite new
wine. This cannot and will not last. Infatuation with the "novel" never
does. When I look at the "house-to-house" church movement of Acts
2:41-47 I am reminded that it was the product of Acts 2:1-40 and the
Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit that brought thousands to
new-found faith in Christ (just as the exploding church of Korea over
the past 100 years is nothing less than the product of that 1907
outpouring of the Holy Spirit). The new wine of Acts 2:1-40 produced the
new wine skins of Acts 2:41-47. That’s the way it works. Not the other
way around. If we are not careful, "house church" will become little
more than a new structure in search of a value, a wine skin in search of
wine. And that would be disastrous.
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But I believe that God has different plans. Like those
Presbyterian missionaries and Korean believers of 1907, I believe we are
standing on the eve of an outpouring of the River of Ezekiel 47 the like
of which has not been seen or experienced in well over 100 years. And
like those early believers of Acts Chapter 2, this is the "value" that
will create, fill and guide our structure throughout this generation,
and probably well into the next. But I believe that the Spirit of God
would ask you the same question which He asked me (yep, via Inter
Library Loan!): "Is this what you seek? Is this the outpouring you
desire? Are you prepared to welcome me on my terms?" Are you? Are
you prepared to embrace the profound "death-to-self" that it may (and
probably will) require? Are you prepared for your house church to become
a new channel through which the River of his Spirit can flow? When the
"values" of our house church "structure" is examined by future
generations, let it be said of us, "They set their hearts to become
a channel through which the River of God could flow . . . and He did."