Thomas Barrat
Introduction
Thomas Ball Barratt (1862-1940) was born in Cornwall, England, and immigrated to Norway with his family when he was 5 years old. He attended the Wesleyan Collegiate Institute in preparation for ministry in England; The school eventually became Queen’s College.
After his schooling was completed in June 1878, he became a Norwegian Methodist Episcopal minister. He began teaching Sunday School, started a Temperance Society, and held services throughout Hardanger Fjord.
In the summer of 1902, Barratt was nominated to be a missionary for the city of Christiania (now Oslo) and to lead the Christiania City Mission—a missions arm of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Barratt’s USA Visit
In the early part of 1906, Barratt visited the United States to raise finances for the construction of a new building for the Christiania City Mission. He traveled between New York and Minnesota visiting many churches, many of which were made up of Scandinavian immigrants, but he failed to get the financial support he hoped for.
Azusa Street Los Angeles Revival
The Azusa Street Revival had just started when Barratt was in the USA, and he came across the newsletter “The Apostolic Faith,” published by William Seymour, the leader of the Azusa Street Revival, and what he read deeply stirred his interest. He even wrote an article about it and sent it to be printed in the Christiana City Missions’ newsletter, Byposten (The City Mail).
Baptism of Fire
Barratt’s deep desire for this Pentecostal power led him to diligently pray and seek God for it. He had an encounter with God on October 7, 1906, while staying at the Christian and Missionary Alliance missionary house in New York. Writing about that experience, he said:
Praise the Lord, my heart is burning! It seems to me that I am the happiest man in the world; Everything has become new, I am filled with peace and joy and love to God and man.
The fire of God was constantly burning within.
I could not sleep for some time that night; the Spirit spoke and prayed and rejoiced within me.
Everything seemed changed, although I had as yet entered into the full Pentecostal glory.
Gift of Tongues
A few weeks later, on November 15, while praying with some friends:
I received the tongues with an increase of power that convinced me I had received the gift of the Holy Ghost as the disciples at the beginning.
I was filled with light and such a power that I began to shout as loud as I could in a foreign language. I must have spoken seven or eight languages, to judge from the various sounds and forms of speech used… the most wonderful moment was when I burst into a beautiful baritone solo, using one of the most pure and delightful languages I had ever heard.
(Barratt had studied voice under the famous Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.)
Barratt wrote an account of what he experienced and sent it to Norway to be placed in his mission’s newspaper. An expanded description of what he experienced can be read here.
Unashamed and rejoicing in the reception of this baptism of power, he didn’t fear telling anyone the news. This was, however, the end to his dream of raising finances for the building in Christiania, and he said:
I was advised… to take the first boat home to Norway.
Taking the “advice” of his superiors, he purchased a ticket on the RMS Campania to sail back to Norway, leaving New York on December 8, 1906.
RMS Campania: the ship Barratt sailed on
The Results of the Revival
Upon Barratt’s arrival back in Norway he began conducting meetings in Oslo, one being in a large gymnasium that would seat up to 2,000 people. With the Byposten having already reported on his baptism in the Holy Spirit, people flooded the meetings and revival spread like a grass fire, affecting those from every denomination.
► People were being filled with the Holy Spirit, with all the accompanying signs of that having occurred (tongues, prophecy, trances, etc.).
► Ministers and evangelists were coming in from throughout Norway and neighboring countries to witness, as well as receive, this blessing for themselves.
► Barratt and other ministers like him, embracing the Pentecostal message and experience, were expelled from their denominations.
► Barratt was preaching 2-3 times per day, with services lasting from 4-5 hours.
► Sinners were being saved and Jesus was being glorified.
Danish Actress
Anna Larsen
► Anna Larssen, a very famous Danish actress, was saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit. Doctors placed her under observation for 6 weeks, believing she was under Barratt’s hypnotic spell. Upon release she became a very vocal proponent of the revival, and her subsequent evangelistic preaching threw fuel on the fires that were already burning.
► Another prominent Danish actress, Anna Lewini, also was saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. She became a missionary in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Her testimony can be read here. Her account of services with the English Evangelist Smith Wigglesworth can be read here.
► People were making recommitments of their lives to Jesus.
► By April some began showing up after the preaching was concluded, just to watch the manifestations of God’s power.
► The revival fire began falling upon England, Estonia, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Syria, India, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, and other locations.
► In every country the fire fell the flames leaped out into different towns throughout that country with similar results.
► Barratt invested the remainder of his life as the pastor of the church he started in 1916, Filadelphia Oslo, as well as traveled extensively spreading the Pentecostal message.
► As The Apostolic Faith was the instrument used for spreading the news of the 1906 Azusa Street Revival, the Byposten was what was used to tell of what God was doing in Norway, as well as in other parts of the world. (Later the name of the paper was changed to Korsets Seir—Victory of the Cross.)
► With the Pentecostal revival in Europe beginning in Norway, under Barratt’s work, he became known as the “Apostle of Pentecost” to Europe.
Sources
► When the Fire Fell: An Outline of My Life by T.B. Barratt
► In the Days of the Latter Rain by T. B. Barratt
► In the Latter Days by Vinson Synan
► The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States by Vinson Synan
► Pentecostal Foreign Mission of Norway by Wikipedia
► T. B. Barratt by Wikipedia
► The Work of T. B. Barratt by T. B. Barratt
► Voices of Pentecost by Vinson Synan
► With Signs Following by Stanley Frodsham
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