Study – Grow – Know

New Order of Latter Rain Begins in the 1940’s…

November 22, 2017 at 3:50 PM 1 comment

NAR/NOLR gospel vs Orthodox gospel

We attended a fairly conservative protestant church when we lived in Northern California. We remained there for some time, until they introduced “40 Days of Purpose” by Rick Warren. This was before I understood who Rick Warren was and some of his questionable and even aberrant teachings. I tried to read the book but it simply did not set well with me. However, many others seemed to appreciate it.

Around this same time, the senior pastor went on a missions trip to Africa. When he returned he shared about the trip from the pulpit. He told the congregation he had met and worked with a number of Roman Catholic priests and missionaries and had grown fond of them and their commitment to the Lord. After about a week with them, he felt that there was more in common with Catholicism than he had previously thought. That, he says, surprised him.

Not long after this, he began speaking about the “spiritual disciplines” highlighted by Rick Foster and several Roman Catholic mystics before him. In the meantime, because of my concerns about the Rick Warren book, I had written an email to the pastor. I never heard back from him and he never mentioned it when he saw me in church.

Because he was really starting to push the spiritual disciplines, I sent him another email indicating we were leaving the church for another, again outlining very briefly my concerns. He responded almost immediately with something along the lines of, “Well, God bless you in your future endeavors,” etc. I thought that was interesting, until I learned that Rick Warren taught and believed that those in the congregation who could not accept new policies and get with the program should be encouraged to find another church (my paraphrase), and even asked to do so.

I heard later that the senior pastor eventually moved onto another much larger church in the Bay Area of California, one that was heavily into spiritual formation (made up of the spiritual disciplines). He eventually died of some form of cancer and whether that was the Lord’s work or not to take him home early because he had gotten seriously off-path, it’s impossible to know. However, for his sake, I’m glad he’s with the Lord and not having to ponder and wind his through all the error that began to embrace that has come to the fore through people like Rick Warren, Rick Foster and many others.

Much of today’s New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), came about because of the embracing and inclusion of spiritual disciplines highlighted above. Those disciplines have been around for many generations, but of course, each new generation needs a new introduction to them (with a new spin). In our last article, we introduced the way NAR has remade itself repeatedly. This information from Church Watch Central:

• The New Order of the Latter Rain (NOLR) in the 1940s.
• The Voice of Healing Movement (VHM) in the 1950s.
• The Charismatic Renewal Movement (CRM) in the 1960s.
• The Shepherding/Discipleship Movement (SDM) in the 1970s.
• The Prophetic-Apostolic Movement (PAM) in the 1980s.
• The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) in the 1990s.

We’re going to highlight each one to flesh out the connected history of NAR specifically, as well as the major people involved, who guided them throughout the decades and handed the baton onto each new generation.

New Order of the Latter Rain (NOLR)
The movement began in Canada in the 1940’s and came about due to schisms within Pentecostalism.

The New Order of the Latter Rain was an organizational schism before it was a spiritual cause.  Its key personnel emerged as the outcome of a succession of disputes involving faculty personnel of Bethel Bible Institute of Saskatoon, Canada, and the sponsoring Saskatchewan District of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (the P.A.O.C). At the outset, there were charges and countercharges within the Institute between administration and faculty.  But as the months passed, the Institute personnel were reconciled and the conflict came to be between the Institute and the District.

Though there was reconciliation, by late 1947, those who were discontent with the way things were, resigned their positions at the institute and moved about 80 miles north. Three specific men who left were key players in the subsequent creation of something new: Rev. George Hawtin, Rev. Ernest Hawtin, and Rev. Percy Hunt. Once they landed in their new location (North Battleford), they joined with Rev. Herrick Holt, a pastor of the Four Square Church there. The four eventually founded and created “Sharon Children’s Homes and Schools which included a high school, an orphanage, a technical institute, and a Bible school.”

When school began again in the fall, many of the students who had previously attended Bethel Bible Institute ended up going north to where the three men had gone, to attend Sharon. These students, along with the men who had left Bethel earlier, formed the nucleus of what became the New Order of Latter Rain (NOLR).

There were a few things that were the direct cause of the birth of the NOLR.

…a young woman at the [Sharon] Bible school prophesied that a great revival was about to come. Ernest Hawtin tells that the very next day, it did just that as the Holy Spirit fell with great power. It was called ‘The Last Great Outpouring that was to consummate God’s Plans on this Earth.’

There are always prophetic voices claiming that God is about to send a new “wave” of revival. It happened often during my days in the Charismatic Movement. The actual revivals never happened and even when meetings were held where signs and wonders occurred, there was no permanent growth for anyone. They created a good deal of excitement, a lot of hype, and much expended energy. In the end, there is simply a feeling of loss that pushes people to the next “revival.”

Apparently, Franklin Hall’s book, Atomic Power with God Through Fasting, and Prayer also played a part in setting the scene. The method of fasting described in it is was done by students and staff. We may have to cover Franklin Hall in a separate article because of the connections to Oral Roberts and others.

Hall believed the Church was hindered in power and answered prayer, he claimed that even the prayers of pagans would be answered if they fasted. His solution, by fasting for long periods, Christians can receive a powerful anointing that would be that they would never be sick and would lead certain “overcomers” to holiness by stages of spiritual transformation who would attain sinless perfection and immortality. That an immortal substance from Christ would come upon their bodies, a golden substance visible to all…that would glorify them and people would see and feel the fire of the Holy Spirit.

He taught a BODY-FELT salvation – the fire of God, the glory, had to be applied to the body for thirty days and would purge out all sickness, tiredness and weakness of the flesh and bring them to immortalization. These Perfected believers would experience power over the forces of gravity, they could teleport to wherever they wished. And there were practical benefits to this spiritual state where their clothes would not wear out, they would have no body odour (sic), so they would never need to wash.

This is undoubtedly why at certain NAR meetings, gold dust of a sort has been seen floating down from the rafters.

The special spiritual move that became the basis of the New Order movement began on February 11, 1948, some months after Sharon began operations.  This day had been preceded by considerable emphasis and observance of long fasts as a means of special power with God.  In extended chapel services for four days from February 11 through the 14th, the procedure emerged of calling out members of the audience and imparting a spiritual gift to them by the laying on of hands accompanied by a suitable prophecy.  The authorization and direction of these activities was a series of vocal prophetic utterances by both students and their teachers.

Interestingly enough, what we find even then are the emphasis on spiritual disciplines (fasting, enthusiastic sustained worship, etc.), as a means of drawing closer to God. This takes one down the road to mysticism as many New Age and ancient religious sects and cults emphasize these things. They are not emphasized within Christianity, although Christians are free to fast, to pray, and to focus their attention on God specifically at various times.

Chapel services featuring the impartation of gifts by the laying on of hands with prophecy took precedence over all other campus activities.  Other worship patterns emerged that were somewhat unique in their time, with stress upon the visible manifestation of the charismata, and such novelties as the so-called “heavenly choir.” Before long, large numbers of visitors were attracted.  Ultimately, all efforts to operate all educational institutions were suspended, and the North Battleford campus became simply a conference and camp meeting center…

NOLR was known for signs and wonders. They emphasized these beliefs from the start and though the explanation of these things has been modified over the decades, the same basic premises undergird the movement of today as NAR.

The gift of prophecy was huge then as it is now within the movement. It was believed that by the laying on of hands, people would receive this gift as led by the Spirit. This is called impartation and folks viewed prophetic utterances as equal with Scripture. Note quote below with emphasis added.

In New Order practice, the gift of prophecy was made to function routinely to identify individuals by name.  It would then proceed to instruct its subjects in a detailed manner regarding personal and practical affairs, both in regard to the work of God, and in matters of everyday living.  Such prophecies were considered to be certain, unalterable, and above evaluative scrutiny.

With respect to the practice of “imparting” gifts of prophesy or other things to people, the group’s leadership denied that people were imparting anything. In fact, Rev. R. E. McAlister wrote a pamphlet about it, and is said he, “is believed to be the first Canadian to have received the baptism in the Spirit at Azusa in 1906” nearly four decades before this.

McAlister’s “‘The Manifestation of the Spirit’ argued that gifts are resident in the triune God, and neither received, imparted, nor confirmed in humans, but manifested.” It is interesting to watch videos from NAR, Word of Faith, and Charismatic services where signs and wonders occur. Quite often, we are led to believe that these modern-day apostles and prophets that lead these services have the actual power to impart or heal. Kenneth Hagin taught that the “anointing [of the Holy Spirit] is transferable” to other people simply by the laying on of hands. Of course the person has to be receptive to that anointing or won’t receive it.

Regarding the aforementioned Azusa Street Revival, it occurred in Los Angeles, CA in 1906 and lasted until about 1915. It is considered the origins of the Pentecostal movement and began under African-American preacher, William J. Seymour. Services held during the “revival” evidenced speaking in tongues and alleged healings. It was panned then not only by Christian theologians, but by the media as well.

Among first-hand accounts were reports of the blind having their sight restored, diseases cured instantly, and immigrants speaking in German, Yiddish, and Spanish all being spoken to in their native language by uneducated black members, who translated the languages into English by ‘supernatural ability.’

The Los Angeles Times reported on one of the meetings by stating, “Breathing strange utterances and mouthing a creed which it would seem no sane mortal could understand…the newest religious sect has started in Los Angeles.”

Another Los Angeles paper related the following, “...disgraceful intermingling of the races…they cry and make howling noises all day and into the night. They run, jump, shake all over, shout to the top of their voice, spin around in circles, fall out on the sawdust blanketed floor jerking, kicking and rolling all over it. Some of them pass out and do not move for hours as though they were dead. These people appear to be mad, mentally deranged or under a spell. They claim to be filled with the spirit. They have a one eyed, illiterate, Negro as their preacher who stays on his knees much of the time with his head hidden between the wooden milk crates. He doesn’t talk very much but at times he can be heard shouting, ‘Repent,’ and he’s supposed to be running the thing… They repeatedly sing the same song, ‘The Comforter Has Come’.”

These same type of antics are seen on many recent videos on the ‘Net, so not much has changed. Azusa birthed Pentecostalism and the NOLR movement was actually renounced by Assemblies of God in 1949, but that didn’t stop NOLR. It has continued resolutely because there are always people who want “more” of God and they want it quickly, through mystical and ecstatic experiences rather than the longer tried and true way of reading through His Word daily to gain a greater understanding of who God is and how He works.

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