What is the Latter Rain Movement?

Of recent years a number of sincere and earnest Christians have been much taken up with certain remarkable doings and manifestations, which, they claim are a revival of those spiritual gifts of a divine and miraculous kind which were comparatively common in the Apostolic age. In 1 Corinthians 12:7-10, we get a list of those gifts, but the claims as to a modern revival are centred mainly in two only, the "gift" of healing and the "gift" of tongues.

Ever since the Day of Pentecost, when the Gift of Tongues startled the multitudes at Jerusalem, and the Gift of Divine Healing, conferred upon the early disciples, drew attention to the Gospel and attested it as coming from God, there have arisen repeatedly religious movements claiming the revival of these Pentecostal gifts.

Ever since the Day of Pentecost, when the Gift of Tongues startled the multitudes at Jerusalem, and the Gift of Divine Healing, conferred upon the early disciples, drew attention to the Gospel and attested it as coming from God, there have arisen repeatedly religious movements claiming the revival of these Pentecostal gifts.

(For a number of years movements have started which claim to be a new Pentecost. The gift of tongues is the leading feature. They go by different names--Apostolic Faith--Pentecostal Faith--Latter-Day Rain, etc. But is it the work of the Holy Spirit? The divisions which exist in these movements, the unscriptural teachings which are held by some of them and the lack of love, besides other characteristics are not the marks of the energy and power of God's Spirit.)

Because the Lord does all this they are commanded to rejoice, the children of Zion, which does not mean a spiritual Zion, but God's only true Zion. The early and the latter rain is restored to the land. Of late this term, too, has been strangely misapplied. It has been claimed that the early and latter rain mean spiritual blessing. The early rain, it is said, means the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, and the latter rain, these deluded people tell us, is another Pentecost, a greater manifestation of the Spirit. This latter rain, they teach, consists, according to their conception, in a restoration of "Pentecostal gifts" and is especially evidenced in making strange sounds, which, it is claimed, is the original gift of tongues. This unscriptural teaching has led to all kinds of fanaticism and worse things than that.

Nowhere in the Bible is there warrant for us to believe that "the early and latter rain" has a spiritual significance. To say that the early rain and the latter rain typify blessings and manifestations of the spirit of God, peculiar to the opening of this present age and to its close is extremely fanciful and cannot be verified by the Scriptures. It is strange that even men who seem to possess considerable light have endorsed this kind of exposition, which has worked such harm among so many Christian people. There is absolutely no prediction anywhere in the New Testament that the present age is to close with "a latter rain" experience, a time when the Holy Spirit is poured out and that in greater measure. This age, according to divine revelation, ends in apostasy and complete departure from God and His truth (2 Thess. 2:3-12). After the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, for the formation of the Church, the body of Christ, there is nowhere to be found a promise in the Church Epistles that another outpouring is to take place, by which a part of the Church is to get into possession again of the different sign gifts. The enemy of souls has made good use of these distorted teachings to bring in his most subtle delusions.

James exhorts his suffering brethren to be like the husbandman who has to wait between the sowing time and the harvest. But here is another wrong interpretation. The latter rain of which James speaks has been foolishly interpreted as meaning a spiritual latter rain, another Pentecost. This is one of the star arguments of present day Pentecostalism with its supposed revival of apostolic gifts. The former and latter rain of which James speaks has no such meaning; it is purely the rainfall in nature. In Palestine there are two distinct rainy seasons, one in the spring, the other in the fall. (See Deut. 11:14.)

A fresh outpouring of the Spirit will also be experienced at that time. The early rain fell on the Day of Pentecost, and marvellous have been the results. The latter rain will fall on Israel in the day of their millennial glory. God will put His Spirit within them, pouring Him out from on high (Ezek. 37:14; Isa. 32:15). Joel's prophecy, quoted by Peter in Acts 2, will then be completely accomplished. No fresh outpouring must be looked for until then. During this period of grace the Holy Spirit is here as the birthright portion of every individual Christian and of the Church of God. It is ours to walk in the Spirit and to be filled with Him. Many are vague as to this. They observe that the spiritual condition of the Church at large is low, and deplore it, but think that the only corrective is another outpouring or baptism of the Spirit. This is not the case, however well-intentioned the souls may be who think so. The real need is more simple faith in the mighty fact that the Holy Spirit is present on earth. Let us use the power we have, and God will honour the effort.

The underlining of words in the above quotation is as it appears in Mr. Baxter's book. The extract itself is worth careful consideration. It is the product of a mind that had been genuinely deceived. He himself had SPOKEN WITH TONGUES repeatedly. He believed with all his soul that he had come in for the outpouring of “the latter rain,” that the fulfilment of Joel's prophecy had arrived, that he was indeed baptised with the Holy Spirit.

The writer has in his possession a reprint of “Narrative of Facts,” written by Mr. Baxter in 1832. In it he vividly describes how he and others, men and women of culture, were drawn into the movement, how it seemed as if they were, indeed, under the mighty power of God when they spoke in tongues. He testifies that the spirit of praise to the Lord was strong within them, of their ecstasy of soul, of the mighty uplifting of spirit that occurred. It seemed as if there could be no mistake. This must be “the latter rain,” this must be “that which was spoken the prophet Joel.”

The writer has in his possession a reprint of “Narrative of Facts,” written by Mr. Baxter in 1832. In it he vividly describes how he and others, men and women of culture, were drawn into the movement, how it seemed as if they were, indeed, under the mighty power of God when they spoke in tongues. He testifies that the spirit of praise to the Lord was strong within them, of their ecstasy of soul, of the mighty uplifting of spirit that occurred. It seemed as if there could be no mistake. This must be “the latter rain,” this must be “that which was spoken the prophet Joel.”