Page 152 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

A History of the Church in Africa

Soon the Methodist movement spread to America and to other countries
of the world, including Africa. The Great Awakening of the eighteenth
century was a work of the Holy Spirit. The Moravian mission, John and
Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and others were used as instruments
to revive the church and renew its mission to declare the glory of God to
the nations.

While the awakening was taking place in England, Scotland, and
Wales, a similar revival was taking place in North America. God used
men like Jonathan Edwards, John and William Tennent, and others to
awaken the church to its spiritual responsibilities. Walls lists “three
powerful convictions” that characterized the two movements:

• The centrality of the death of Christ for salvation.
• The necessity of the new birth.
• The certainty of the second coming of Christ and His kingdom of
righteousness. (79–85)

The Pentecostal historian can only wonder if the whole story has
been told about these awakenings. Unfortunately, a certain bias has
caused some to omit stories about the work of the Holy Spirit. In 1956,
I had the privilege of studying the History of the Assemblies of God under
J. R. Flower, the first General Secretary of the American Assemblies of
God. In his class notes, Flower stated:

A book was issued in 1749 by the learned Dr. Middleton who
discredited the miraculous powers, especially speaking in tongues.
He said: “After the Apostolic times, there is not, in all history, one
instance, either well-attested or even so much as mentioned of
any particular person who had ever exercised the gift (speaking in
tongues) or pretended to exercise it in any age whatever.” It was left
to John Wesley to make a protest against this statement. He wrote
“Sir, your memory fails you again.… It has been heard of more than
once, no further off than the valleys of Dauphiny” [England]. (7)

Other records exist of Charismatic/Pentecostal outpourings during
the centuries—far more than we have space to record in this brief history.

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