Quote:
Originally Posted by Jo S
Evangelical, I'd be curious to hear your views on the rapid growths of movements such as the Azusa street revival. Do you believe this was a genuine move of God or was it successful because of gimmicks would you say?
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The revival itself I think not of God but of man because it was based on the preaching that tongues is evidence of the Holy Spirit which is unbiblical. We could say that speaking in tongues was the gimmick, in this case. It all started when some people spoke in tongues, this attracted others who also wanted to speak in tongues, and you get this snowball effect. Similar mass herding or flocking phenomena occurs whenever Apple releases a new iPhone. If this revival started from the preaching of the gospel as it did in the Bible then I would find it more believable. At the same time, genuine moves of God on a personal level and genuine salvations would have been occurring because of the increased rate of gospel preaching, but not because of some special revival or the preaching about tongues but simply because more people were getting out and preaching.
I think all revivals are manufactured by men, because they all start and end because of men and front and center is some sort of gimmick and fast growth is not sustainable and it is not genuine growth.