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Chapter 3 The Comforter Has Come Arise, shine; for thy light is come. . . (Isaiah 60:1) Fifty days after the first Passover, Israel stood before Mount Sinai. There, God spoke with fire and shaking, while, Jewish tradition says that God's voice was simultaneously heard in every language of the earth. This event initiated the Old Covenant and is remembered as the first Feast of Pentecost. The old Prophets also foresaw another Pentecostal encounter with God. This was to be God's speaking out of Zion.1 It seems most fitting that God's New Covenant should also be established on the Feast of Pentecost. On that unique Pentecost the true Passover lamb had just been offered. Now, fifty days later the greatest Pentecost arrived. The disciples were waiting for the promise of the Father. They were gathered upon Zion in one of the Temple's meeting rooms. Very early that morning, something marvelous occurred. ----------------------------- 1. God's Spirit upon Zion Psalms 110:2 "The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies." Psalms 50:1-2 "A Psalm of Asaph. The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." _______________________________ The Day of Pentecost, --William Author, 1856 "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. Not, mark you, a wind: no gale sweeping over the city struck the sides of the house, and rustled round it. But ' from heaven' directly downward fell 'a sound,' without shape, or step, or movement to account for it -- a sound as if a mighty wind were rushing straight from on high, like showers in a dead calm. Yet no wind stirred. As to motion, the air of the room was still as death; as to sound, it was awful as a hurricane. Mysterious sound, whence comest thou? Is it the Lord again breathing upon them, but this time from his throne? Is it the wind of Ezekiel preparing to blow? Shaken by this supernatural sign, we may see each head bowed low. They timidly turn upward. John sees Peter's hand crowned with fire: Peter sees James crowned with fire: James sees Nathaniel crowned with fire: Nathaniel sees Mary crowned with fire; and round and round the fire sits 'on each of them.'2 --------------------- 2 The Tongue of Fire; or, the True Power of Christianity -- William Arthur, A.M., Southern Methodist Publishing House, edited 1856, published 1879, pg. 46. The Methodist, William Arthur was a forerunner of modern PENTECOSTALISM. His theology grasped the message of Pentecost and faith for the gifts and infilling of the Holy Spirit. Author's views were common in his generation and sprang from a true heart that said yes to Scripture. __________________________________ The fire is not a shapeless flame. It is not Abraham's lamp, nor the pillar of the desert, not the coal of Isaiah, nor the enfolding flame of Ezekiel. It is a tongue; yea, cloven tongues. On each brow glows a sheet of flame, parted into many tongues. here was the symbol of the new dispensation. Christianity was to be a Tongue of Fire. It was a symbol of their 'power:' the power whereby the new kingdom was to be built up; the power for which they had so long to tarry, and so eagerly to pray, when all other things were prepared; for which the whole arrangement for the world's conversion was commanded to stand still. The appearance of this one symbol was the signal that former ones had waxed old, and are ready to vanish away; Altar and cherubim, sacrifice and incense, ephod and breastplate, Urim and Thummim -- their work was done. Even of the most sacred emblem of all, that which was the 'pattern things in the heaven,' the ark itself, it had been foretold, 'They shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember neither shell they visit it; neither shall it be magnified anymore.' Of the Temple itself, the Master had said that not one stone should be left upon another." William Arthur further says that this tongue of fire was, "The symbol which, once for all, announced to the Church the advent of her conquering power -- the power by which she was to stand before king, to confound synagogues, to silence councils, to still mobs, to confront the learned, to illuminate the senseless, and to inflame the cold -- the power by which, beginning at Jerusalem, where the name of Jesus was a byword, she was to proclaim His glory though all Judea, throughout Samaria, and throughout the uttermost parts of the earth. The symbol is a Tongue, the only instrument of the grandest war ever waged: a tongue -- man's speech to his fellow-man; a message in human words to human faculties, from the understanding to the understanding, from the heart to the heart. A tongue of fire -- man's voice, God's truth; man's speech, the Holy Spirit's inspiration; a human organ, a superhuman power: Not one tongue, but cloven tongues. As the speech of men is various, here we see the Creator taking to himself the language of every man's mother; so that in the very words wherein he heard her say, 'I love thee,' he might also hear the Father of all say, 'I love thee.' How does that fire-symbol, shining on the brow of the primitive Church, rebuke that system which would force all men to worship God in one tongue, (Latin) and that not a tongue of fire, but a dead tongue, wherein no man now on earth can hear his mother's tones! Cloven tongues sat on each of them; so that each had not only the fire-impulse to go and tell aloud the message of reconciliation, but also the fire-token that all mankind, of whatever nation, kindred, people, or tongue, were heirs alike of the gospel of salvation, and of the word whereby that salvation is proclaimed. Blessed by the hour when that TONGUE OF FIRE descended from the giver of speech into a cold world! Had it never come, my mother might had led me, when a child, to see slaughter for worship and I should have taught my little ones that stones were gods. 'Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous thing!"3 ---------------------------------- 3 ibid., pp. 49-52 _____________________________ After Pentecost Once the Comforter had come the early church shared God's heavenly message and delivering power. Wherever they preached miraculous signs followed. The only thing that could possibly interrupt their mission was the return of their Lord. Nothing could stand in their way. Everything was expendable to obtain the prize. Death brought life, trial brought rejoicing, trouble inspired prayer, and prayer brought comfort and the supernatural working of God's Holy Spirit. Often, the blood of the martyrs is credited with the early success of Christianity. This concept is greatly over rated because the Gospel is the true seed of the Church! (Luke 8:11) If human martyrdom could have saved the world, there would have been no need for the unique sacrifice of Christ. The power of Christianity lies in the Gospel. The Gospel is confirmed in changed lives and in supernatural manifestations! It is the Holy Ghost that effects these wonders and thanks be to God that the Holy Ghost is still with us today.
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