Even though thrd wave Christians claim to have “cutting edge”, “fresh revelations”, and the “new thing” from God, the truth is that there is nothing new under the sun.

This thought came to me when I received a link to a Wikipedia page of a man by the named of Frank Weston Sandford who lived primarily in Main and was in ministry for the first half of the twentieth century.

As I read the Wikipedia entry, I was shocked to see most of the stuff that was documented as being done by Sandford in the name of Christianity. Was I shocked at the actual acts? No, I was more shocked by the fact that the acts Sandford did “in the name of God” are some of the same acts many of these third-wave, revival junkie teachers convince us as being “new thing”, “Fresh revelation”, “cutting edge”, or “the key to power and anointing”.

Here are (per the Wikipedia article) many of the things Sandford did a century ago that we are now seeing again:

(1): Members of his group come to live at or near the headquarters “by faith” instead of having gainful employment.

(2); Hyper-emphasis on “holiness” to the point of believing in a “sinless perfection” similar and traceable to the teachings of Keswick, Wesley, and Finney.

(3): The leaders are known outside as being a authority figure who harps and develops entire theologies on issues such as authority, rebellion, loyality, and submission.

(4): Believed that every one else was stagnant, boring, and lukewarm in their Christianity when compared to himself.

(5): Performed a unusual act of faith that appeared to be impossible to experience “results”

(6): Formed a Bible School to teach his doctrines

(7): Built a building for this outreach that had a “warfare prayer room” at the top

(8): Became obsessed with spiritual warfare and demon possession, remnant purging, sickness was always due to sin…

(9): The day was not divided into disciplined times because schedules were “ruts”, “paradigms” and “flesh”

(10): Self-compared himself to a major anointed Biblical character and descendants to other Bible characters with equal anointing

(11): Fundraising letters

(12): Became obsessed with the Jewish feasts, Israel, claiming Israel for Jesus, and ordered everyone to fast on Maundy Thursday because that was the real day Jesus died

(13): Real big on mega-fasts, and spiritual warfare missions from the outside of the mission target.

(14): Viewed disagreers as ‘touching the anointed’ and possessing “religious spirits’

From the Wikipedia article

Sandford returned to Maine to find his community at what he considered a low spiritual ebb and with many members ill, most fearfully with smallpox. Sandford prescribed a regimen of severe whippings and fastings for children who misbehaved. Peers were encouraged to closely examine each other’s lives for sin. In January 1903, Sandford instituted a “Ninevah Fast” forbidding all food or liquid for thirty-six hours even for infants, animals, and the sick. During that period fourteen-year-old Leander Bartlett, who had confessed to the most serious sin of planning to run away from Shiloh, died of diphtheria. When Sandford’s own six-year-old son, John, disobeyed him, Sandford ordered him to fast without food or water until he declared himself glad to be whipped

Shirley Nelson, Fair Clear and Terrible: The Story of Shiloh, Maine (Latham, New York: British American Publishing, 1989), The “Ninevah Fast” was a reference to Jonah 3.7.

Heavy emphasis on fasts, naming fasts after a Bible event to justify actions, and aberrant means of discipling children in the name of ‘defeating the flesh’.

However, what was even more interesting was that when legal troubles began, Sandford purchased a yacht (brought forth by a 40 day pray-a-thon – see the “thon / distance” pattern and the “40″ significance) and began trips to Jerusalem and later on after his legal troubles were over…

…circumnavigated the globe on what he described as a missionary journey. It was an unconventional missionary enterprise. No one went ashore to preach the Gospel or even distribute religious literature. Sandford intended to “subdue the world for Christ” by intercessory prayer, claiming nations and isles for Christ by sounding brass instruments as they passed by.

Shirley Nelson, Fair Clear and Terrible: The Story of Shiloh, Maine (Latham, New York: British American Publishing, 1989),

Where have we seen this type of missions recently? Oh yes, spiritual mapping, and fasts to break “territorial spirits”. Today, instead of playing brass instruments of trumpets to bring down Jericho, we blow shofars….

If you read the rest of the article, you see similar patterns of blaming others “spiritual weaknesses” for tragedies and shortcomings. You will see a common tactic of running from the law to do the Lord’s work thinking the Lord’s work superceeds a law. You will see a pattern of when in prison, followers writing every word to re-communicate to the other followers. You will also see a pattern of leaders having nice possessions and good meals while the followers lived in poverty and were starving to be a member of the elite remnant.

Sandford eventually fled Maine after everything collapsed to the “burned out district of upstate New York” (see the pattern of Finney here) where he lived the rest of his life. It was there that his death and funeral was a secret to the point where his death was revealed six weeks after he died.

But these things are very critical to be observed because the founding fathers of the modern pentecostal movement were deeply influenced by Sandford and many of these patterns and traits are at work in many of the pentecostal and charismatic churches today.

From Wesley / Keswick / Finney – to Sandford – to Parham and Tomlinson and Azusa Street – to latter rain – to charismatic / word of faith – to Toronto / Brownsville / Smithton – to IHOP, Bob Jones, and the Elijah List Prophets – to now the ugliness of the Lakeland Revival…

Hyper Holiness, impossible perfectionalism, and ungodly spiritual warfare techniques and over-emphaisis on submission and authority seems to be passed on from generation to generation and “move” to “move”. The stuff done years ago suddenly appear as the “new thing”. The same methods that have failed are re-proclaimed as the ‘divine revelation’ to “reclaim” a depraved world. The stuff documented as failed suddenly become the tactics of the latest Christian booksellers, conventions, fast-a-thons, and warfare rallies. What goes around comes around and history is repeating itself all over again.