Introduction
In the spring of 1947, a schism emerged between the faculty of the Bethel Bible Institute of Saskatoon, Canada, and the Saskatchewan District of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God of Canada (PAOC). The school was under the oversight of the PAOC which looked disapprovingly on the faculty’s zealous pursuit of the manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the eyes of the PAOC, the faculty was being too extreme, and it was, in their eyes, a diminishing of the school’s pursuit of academic excellence.
By October 1947, the discontented faculty members, as well as the majority of the student body (about 70 of them), relocated to North Battleford, Saskatchewan, and started Sharon Children’s Homes and Schools, which included
► A Bible school
► An orphanage
► A technical institute
George Hawtin: President
of Bethel Bible
Institute in Saskatoon
The faculty members leading this move became the main leaders in the upcoming Latter Rain Revival, and they were:
► George Hawtin
► Ernest (Ern) Hawtin, George’s brother
► Percy Hunt
► Milford Kirkpatrick
In North Battleford they linked arms with the Foursquare Church pastor, Rev. Herrick Holt, who was also a teacher at the Bethel Bible Institute.
William Branham’s Connection to the Latter Rain Revival
In November 1947, healing evangelist William Branham, the initiator of the 1947 Healing Revival, was invited by three pastors of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to come and hold meetings in their town. The pastors were:
► Walter McAllister
► Clarence Hall
► W. J. Ern Baxter
Ern Baxter
Branham’s 14 days of meetings in Vancouver were described by W. J. Ern Baxter like this, in the April 1948 edition of the Voice of Healing:
Scenes of indescribable glory were witnessed during the all-too-brief, four-day, city-wide campaign with Rev. William Branham. As in other cities, so in Vancouver, the largest available auditoriums were inadequate to accommodate the teeming multitudes that waited on the ministry of our brother. Surrounding towns and villages seemed to literally empty into Vancouver until the whole city was conscious of the spiritual impact of thousands of praying, believing people.
Thousands were unable to gain access to the meetings…
Many testimonies of healing have continued to come to the attention of local pastors, and many marvelous works were wrought by the immediate action of the Holy Spirit at the time of prayer…
► crossed eyes straightened
► bed-ridden invalids raised
► deaf had hearing restored
► mute became able to speak
► cancers were healed
► tumors disappeared
► goiters disappeared
Present at these Vancouver meetings were the two brothers from North Battleford, Saskatchewan, George and Ernest Hawtin. They had traveled to Vancouver to observe firsthand what they had been hearing about.
After witnessing powerful scenes of God’s glory, the Hawtin brothers returned home with renewed zeal and passion to see the Holy Spirit do the same at the Sharon School.
Extraordinary Prayer
Beginning in November 1947, Hawtin led the student body through several months of prayer and fasting, coupled with intense study of the Scriptures.
By February 1948, the spiritual anticipation had reached such a peak at the Sharon School that they scheduled February 11-14, 1948, for there to be extended chapel services.
Sharon Orphanage and Schools
Revival Starts at Sharon Schools
On day two of the 4-day series of meetings, Thursday, February 12, Ernest Hawtin wrote in the Sharon Star magazine what occurred:
Some students were under the power of God on the floor, others were kneeling in adoration and worship before the Lord. The anointing deepened until the awe was upon everyone. The Lord spoke to one of the brethren, ‘Go and lay hands upon a certain student and pray for him.’ While he was in doubt and contemplation one of the sisters who had been under the power of God went to the brother saying the same words, and naming the identical student he was to pray for. He went in obedience and a revelation was given concerning the student’s life and future ministry. After this a long prophecy was given with minute details concerning the great thing God was about to do. The pattern for the revival and many details concerning it were given.
On Friday of that same week, Hawtin wrote:
It seemed that all Heaven broke loose upon our souls, and heaven came down to greet us.
Soon a visible manifestation of gifts was received when candidates were prayed over, and many as a result began to be healed, as gifts of healing were received.
Day after day the Glory and power of God came among us. Great repentance, humbling, fasting and prayer prevailed in everyone.
The believers at this time were praying for others with the laying on of hands, and doing so resulted in the reception of spiritual gifts by the person being prayed for. This development led to people from all over the region coming to participate in the meetings, so that they too might receive these gifts that they had been praying so long to receive.
George Hawtin wrote about what he witnessed during this time:
During the past six weeks we have enjoyed a great visitation of the Spirit of God. Some of us have been praying for twenty years that the nine gifts of the Spirit would be restored to the Church. The Spirit of fasting and prayer has rested upon the whole school all winter. Finally the great “Break Through” came and the spiritual gifts began to operate among us… The revival is spreading all over the province.
Annual Camp Meeting
In North Battleford, the annual Feast of Pentecost camp meeting was held on March 30 – April 4, 1948. The issue of the Sharon Star was evidently successful in attracting a lot of people to the camp meeting, as Milford Kirkpatrick wrote of a large number of people being in attendance:
We never saw such a variety of cars and license plates before, from many provinces in Canada and from so many states across the border [United States]. People drove for miles.
Of that camp meeting, George Hawtin wrote:
The sick are being healed; the Devils are being cast out; Saints are being edified; sinners are being saved.
Reports Coming Back
After the camp meeting concluded, letters began trickling in, reporting that churches of those who attended the meetings, some of them 1,500 miles away, were experiencing extraordinary power during their services.
According to the Hawtin brothers, what they were experiencing was
Like living in another Chapter in the Acts of the Apostles.
North Battleford Camp Meeting
During the 1930s-1940s, the manifestations of the Holy Spirit’s gifts were rare; at least it was nothing like what was experienced at the first part of the century. So when the news of what occurred at the North Battleford camp meeting spread, it created tremendous interest, and it ultimately led to the revival spreading throughout the world.
A school paper, The Sharon Star, reported about the 12-day fast that the school held June 17-July 4, 1948, in preparation for the camp meeting planned for July 7-18 in North Battleford. The participation during the fast was very good, but for the camp meeting that began on July 7, the leaders were greatly surprised as visitors from throughout Canada and the United States came. Noel McNeill, a Pentecostal historian wrote:
In the last few years of the ‘40’s it seemed as if the wind of God’s Spirit was blowing with greater force… It began through the work of Rev. Hawtin and the Sharon Bible Institute at North Battleford, Saskatchewan. There was such an effusion of Divine power in healings, miracles and utterance gifts that wide attention was attracted. Thousands flocked from every part of the continent and the world to special Camp Meeting-Conventions.
This was George Hawtin’s description of the July 1948 camp meeting:
Day after day the Word was taught, and then the signs followed its teachings. Morning, afternoon and evening, people were slain under the power of God and filled with the Holy Spirit… We have been praying for a return of the days when people would be filled with the spirit immediately when hands were laid upon them as they were at Samaria and Ephesus. It was our great joy one night to have two ladies walk up before the whole crowd and receive the Holy Spirit in this fashion. When hands were laid upon them one immediately fell under the power of God; the other began to speak in tongues as the spirit gave her utterance.
Some of the main locations
where the revival spread
The Revival Spreads
Edmonton, Alberta
In October 1948, the North Battleford ministry team held meetings for one week in Edmonton, Alberta. Present at these meetings were those from several Pentecostal denominations, as well as those from distant locations, like Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, Iceland, and various parts of the United States.
A unique phenomenon occurred during the Edmonton meeting, which has been defined as a “heavenly choir.” James Watt described this phenomenon with these words:
It was as a mighty organ, with great swelling chords, and solo parts weaving in and out, yet with perfect harmony. Those who heard it some blocks away said that it did something to their souls that no power on earth had previously touched.
George Hawtin described the “heavenly choir” like this:
From a little distance it sounded like a master choir accompanied by a matchless symphony orchestra. It seems difficult to credit that such sound could be reproduced by human vocal chords. There was such perfect order and timing as the mighty chords swell and roll that one is forced to concede that there is an unseen conductor.
Reg Layzell
Vancouver, British Columbia
Reg Layzell, pastor of Glad Tidings Temple in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, invited George and Ernest Hawtin to hold meetings at his church on November 14-18, 1948.
Even with two meetings being held every day and three each Sunday, the auditorium was always well filled, and the presence of God was overwhelmingly obvious during the meetings.
Layzell wrote a report of the meetings:
I have seen more souls saved in the last two months than I saw in two years of ordinary church life while in Toronto.
People were healed! There were many outstanding healings and thanks be to God they were lasting healings.
Myrtle Beall
Detroit, Michigan
Myrtle D. Beall, pastor of Bethesda Missionary Temple in Detroit, Michigan, drove 2,500 miles to be part of the November 1948 Vancouver meetings. While in Vancouver Beall was prophesied to with these words:
They shall come to thee from the ends of the earth and shall go forth from thee as lions equipped as from a mighty Armory.
That confirmed what the Lord had previously spoken to her.
About what she witnessed in Vancouver, Beall said:
Everything we saw in the meetings was scriptural and beautiful. We left the meeting with a new touch of God upon our souls and ministry. We certainly feel transformed by the power of God. Never in our lives had we ever felt the power of God as we do now and we feel we are carrying something back to our assembly we never had before.
Beall’s daughter, Patricia Beall Gruits, gives this report upon her mother’s return to Detroit:
At the first service after mother’s return from Vancouver, December 5, 1948, we gathered together in the Basement Church with great expectancy, eager to hear what had happened in Vancouver… Suddenly everyone in the building started singing praises to God. This spiritual worship and praise which was unheard of at this time continued for about an hour.
And as was prophesied, it was literally fulfilled, for in just a few months, Beall said,
People began to come from the ends of the earth… They came to receive an impartation of spiritual equipment to be given them… They continued to come and fill the auditorium from morning to night.
For three and a half years they came!
Bethesda Missionary Temple – Detroit, Michigan
Dedication of New Building in Detroit
The ongoing revival in Detroit was intense, as illustrated by what happened on Sunday, February 13, 1949, when they dedicated their new building, on the corner of Nevada and Van Dyke Streets (the building now owned by The Perfecting Church):
There were 3000 in the new auditorium.
At least 500 in the old, and it was necessary to turn 1500 away.
Following that dedication service, the revival fire spread:
► Many miracles occurred during a convention a few months after the church dedication.
► A District Superintendent of the Wisconsin Assemblies of God came to the Temple along with his Presbytery to investigate and observe firsthand what he had heard to be a great move of God. His testimony was terse and straightforward and spoken without a doubt or hesitation. “I ran into God…I’d hate to think I didn’t know God when I met Him!”
► Because so many were being saved and healed…, the Sunday meeting had to be moved to the Coliseum at the State Fair Grounds in Detroit, where there was seating for 10,000. Yet even this tremendous capacity was not enough.
Bethesda Missionary Temple (today Bethesda Christian Church) has since relocated to 14000 Metro Parkway, Sterling Heights, MI, 12 miles from their former location.
Elim Bible Institute: Lima, New York
Elim Bible Institute
Ivan Q. Spencer and his wife, Minnie, were two of the many who drove to Detroit to participate in services at Bethesda Missionary Temple. Spencer was the founder of the Elim Bible Institute in Hornell, New York. (Today Elim Fellowship and Elim Bible Institute and College is located in Lima, New York).
When Spencer arrived at the Detroit church he was immediately taken to the basement where a prayer meeting was in progress. Someone present at the time (Sixto Lopez) described what that prayer meeting was like:
[it was] characterized by brokenness, yieldedness, illumination upon the Word, restfulness in his presence… Also, through the laying on of hands, there was a confirmation of missionary calls and the setting apart of individuals for specific ministry.
Lopez continued:
Every Scripture and every message took on a new meaning to me.
The most outstanding thing I felt in those meetings was a desire to pray—just to stay before the Lord. I have always found it difficult to spend long periods in prayer. Many other people there have lost their appetite for food and go days without food. I had a big appetite for food but came to the place that I did not care to eat.
Ivan Q. and Minnie Spencer, of Elim Bible Institute
– Hornell, New York
The influence of the services in Detroit on the Spencers was profound, and it led Elim Bible Institute to become a major promotor of the revival.
Thomas Wyatt
Portland, Oregon
On February 20, 1949, Thomas Wyatt, pastor of the Wings of Healing Temple in Portland, Oregon, invited the North Battleford ministry team to Portland to conduct meetings.
Present at these meetings were 90 ministers from all across North America. The ministry team was scheduled to be there for 4 days but stayed 3 weeks.
When the ministry time in Oregon began, there were instant results, as Lloyd Westover, of Oregon City, Oregon ,wrote:
Within a few moments after Bro. Hawtin and Bro. Kirkpatrick took charge of the service, the Spirit began to fall. The huge congregation was soon singing in the Spirit. THE HEAVENLY CHOIR. Oh! the ecstatic joy that filled my whole being…
Perhaps you can imagine how our hearts ached and longed for more of God, as day after day we heard such scriptures opened, such music, miraculous healings and wonders in his name.
Los Angeles, California
Present at the Portland, Oregon, meetings was A. Earl Lee, pastor of Immanuel Temple in Los Angeles, California. About what he saw in Portland, he said:
After the laying on of hands, I returned to Los Angeles, and beginning with the Sunday service of February 27 [1949] until this present hour, two services have been held daily in our church, with three on Sunday. There has been a constant outpouring of the Spirit of the Lord. Many hours have been spent in waiting on the Lord in quietness. The Heavenly Choir has been constantly with us. Many of the congregation prophesied by revelation. Scores have received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and week upon week, people are converted and healed.
Decentralization of the Revival
As the revival spread, the ministry team in North Battleford became less prominent, as larger and more influential churches began to run with the revival. These influential churches, like Immanuel Temple in Los Angeles, Bethesda Missionary Temple in Detroit, and Elim Bible Institute in Hornell, New York, became revival centers that provided spiritual advice and counsel to many hundreds of other “revival churches” in their surrounding area.
Denominational Conflicts
Just as most denominations separated and distanced themselves from the 1947 Healing Revival, they did the same with the Latter Rain Revival.
Stanley Frodsham
Stanley Frodsham, a pioneer of the Pentecostal movement in the early 1900s, who also had, for 28 years, been the editor of the Pentecostal Evangel and all other Assembly of God publications, was pressured to resign from his denominational positions, as he defended the revival. Here is one thing he said in its defense:
I can see that the Council [Assembly of God] is waging an all out war against the new revival God is sending. Of course there are frailties in the folks that are in this new revival. They have made mistakes. But there are frailties in all of God’s Saints, and I could recite a story of mistakes that have been made by my Council brethren that I have seen during the past 33 years. But I want to keep silent. I have to confess that I have made many mistakes myself.
Some of the main doctrines and practices of the North Battleford ministry team that denominations disapproved of, and which caused much conflict, were:
► Laying on of hands and prophecy for revealing one’s place in the Body of Christ and for the impartation and activation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Timothy 1:18; 4:14).
► That same ministry team believed that they were the only ones that could call for and confer such blessings upon the believers.
► A recognition of apostles and prophets in the church (Ephesians 4:11).
► Through prophecy, some were given direction on how to conduct practical affairs, like who they were to marry. These prophecies were construed as being sealed, with no questioning being allowed—in opposition to 1 Corinthians 14:29.
Dick Iverson, pastor of the Portland, Oregon, City Bible Church, speaking of both the Latter Rain Revival, and the 1947 Healing Revival, said:
Unfortunately, the movement was judged on the basis of the most radical element which used the gifts and callings of God for their own gain. Hence, many have looked with consternation on what took place in those years, letting the abuses and fanaticism of a few blind them to the spiritual truth God wanted to reveal…
This, then, is precisely what happened in the early 1950’s. Many who were involved in this original move went into extreme fanaticism and religious racketeering. Hence, the whole movement was considered negatively.
Regardless of the denominations acceptance or rejection of the revival, God was working powerfully within that movement as well as among churches that were outside of it.
Results of the Revival
► The practice of “tarrying” for the baptism of the Holy Spirit was displaced by an immediate outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands.
► The revival contributed greatly to the upcoming 1960 Charismatic Movement, 1967 Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and the 1967 Jesus Movement.
► Many healings occurred.
► The gift of prophecy was stirred up throughout the body of Christ.
► A blind woman on the staff of Elim Bible Institute, Rita Kelligan, developed a gift of setting Psalms to music. It was her work that resulted in many of the songs that were sung during the 1970s.
► There was a renewed focus on ministry gifts as found in Ephesians 4:11 (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher).
► The teaching on the laying on of hands became prominent.
► The Feasts of the Lord became a rich source of study at this time, focusing strongly on the Feast of Tabernacles.
► There was a return to the foundational truths as listed in Hebrews 6:1-2.
► There was singing in the Spirit.
► There was dancing.
Sources
► 2,000 Take Part in Daily Rites at Religious Camp by Star-Phoenix Newspaper: Saturday, July 23, 1949
► A Chronology of the Latter Rain Revival by The Latter Rain Movement of ’48
► A Hand On My Shoulder by Myrtle D. Beall
► A Survey of 20th-Century Revival Movements in North America by Richard Riss
► An Eyewitness Account by seekfind.net
► Fasting: Atomic Power with God by Franklin Hall
► Bethesda Missionary Temple Turns 80 by The Latter Rain Movement
► Elim Moves to Lima, New York by Democrat and Chronicle (Oct. 21, 1951)
► Latter Rain (post-World War II movement) by Wikipedia
► Latter Rain: The Latter Rain Movement of 1948 and the mid-twentieth century evangelical awakening by Richard M. Riss
► Mid-twentieth Century Revivals by Renewal Journal
► Mom Beall and Bethesda by The Latter Rain Movement of ’48
► Present Day Truths by Dick Iverson
► Songs Spiritual by Seeley D. Kinne
► The Eternal Church by Bill Hamond
► The Latter Rain Movement by theremnantradio.com
► The New Order of The Latter Rain by L. Thomas Holdcroft
► The Revival & Outpouring of The Holy Spirit in 1948 by Ewald H. Wanagas
► Voice of Healing – The Voice of Healing, April 1948
► William M. Branham by Wikipedia
► William Branham: A Man Sent from God by Gordon Lindsay
Video
► Sylvia Evans, Remembering Ivan and Minnie Spencer by Elim Fellowship
► #1 Latter Rain Chronology by Dr. John Roddam
► #2 Positives of Latter Rain by Dr. John Roddam
► #3 Negatives of Latter Rain by Dr. John Roddam
► #4 Streams of Latter Rain by Dr. John Roddam
► #5 Presbytery by Dr. John Roddam
► #6 Five Fold Ministry by Dr. John Roddam
► #7 Jim Watt’s Testimony by Dr. John Roddam
► #8 Marie on The Latter Rain by Dr. John Roddam
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