Product Description

John White has extensively interviewed many people, including those from John Wimber's Vineyard Christian Fellowship. His years of work as a psychiatrist and as a missionary in the Third World qualify him in a special way to analyze the experiences described in this book. In addition he has thoroughly studied revivals of the past, highlighting the differences and the similarities to what is happening today. As always, John White remains thoroughly biblical as he handles many controversial topics. The result is a book full of pracitcal wisdom and remarkable insight with conclusions that are fresh and surprising.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #166210 in Books
• Published on: 1988-06
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 251 pages

Customer Reviews

Biased & unbalanced view, lacks discernment
This is supposed to be a book about spiritual manifestations, yet not once are the words 'mesmerism' or 'hypnotism' even mentioned. This betrays a severe lack of discernment and a biased view, as in many places in the modern church (note I do not say all) these techniques are used, consciously or not, to work an audience.

This is an interesting book albeit it is far too biased towards the heretical Vineyard Churches. It is certainly not an impartical viewpoint. Demonic manifestations are not considered as particularly significant, so for instance when 'Godfrey the godley giggler' repeatedly interupts 'serious' reflective moments in church services and ruins the mood, it is because of his 'need' for self worth, not the fact that decieving spirits may have been responsible for the holy laughter - this possibility was not even considered by the author - yet does not 1 John tell us to test the spirits? Testing the spirits just does not seem to happen here!

Far more time could have been spent examining the spiritual manifestions against scripture, rather than examining them from what is effectively a more secularised and incomplete at that point of view. There are a scattering of interesting accounts though, hence the 2 stars instead of one as I do not merit the conclusions.

I highly recommend War on The Saints by Jessie Penn-Lewis which talks about TESTING for the counterfeit.

Helpful in personal preparation for revival
John White, M.D. is a psychiatrist, bible teacher, and former missionary.His experiences in these roles give him the qualifications to sort out for us the claims and controversies about what God is doing--or not doing-- around the world. As a Bible teacher he examines revival experiences being reported today, and with the cautious insight of the scientifically-trained physician subjects them to rigorous scrutiny. The church--the entire church--should listen to White. A few chapter titles show his concerns: "Has It Ever Happened before?" "Should We Fear Emotions?" Are Revival Experiences Psychological?" "Are Revival Experiences Spiritual?" "Preparing for Revival" and so on for 11 more chapters. Near the end of this excellent book, White writes: "[The] earnest cry to God in prayer at a critical point in the church's history had incredible results. It is time to prove God again." (p.235) This work will certainly help to promote the human preparation for a revival which will come when God chooses to pour down his blessings.