8. Quotes from Leonard Ravenhill's personal Letters
Quotes from Leonard Ravenhill's personal Letters, Number 8
I do not remember to what two books Ravenhill refers in the following letter, although I’m quite sure that we still have them. He often sent books along with his letters, enriching our personal library. We brought most of them with us over the Atlantic and some were sent after we came to Germany, in spite of the cost of overseas shipping. Sometimes, for out-of-print books, he sent whole volumes printed on a copying machine. What an effort the man made to equip God’s people with valuable material! He cared… he was burdened.
He noticed that people are experts in self-justification. Would to God that we were experts in truth, honest and open to correction and repentance! How many big-time preachers fall and how few fully repent!
Oct. 22: We recently obtained these books. I have the publisher’s permission to quote the whole of the chapter on Hell in my hoped-for book on the Judgment Seat. Your opinion, please, on both books. The quotations on R T Kendall are awful. Jimmy Swaggart says in his love letters to his readers: Some men break down physically or mentally or morally, but he did not break down spiritually. His was some other way! Woe!
Blessings on your son in Russia! O to read of an awakening there…
Leonard Ravenhill was not like a king on a throne, addressing his subjects, but receiving nothing in return. He seemed to appreciate whatever news or observations we would send to him. He was teachable, but not gullible. He was not impressed at all by numerical success, as you will see below:
Oct 22: Your letter is like water to a thirsty soul – so thirsty I feel like the man who said, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. A missionary Pentecostal from Africa told me today, the bulwarks of the Muslim religion will never be lowered except by a ministry with signs and miracles. Maybe, but accompanied by sin-convicting power we have never known… conviction that creates sleepless eyes; the resurrection of the dead conscience. I am burdened beyond expression about this faked Christianity. Close reading of Paul’s two love letters to his beloved son, Timothy, has staggered me. I’m going to list his awesome charges to this rookie evangelist. If Acts 5 is the perennial view of God for deacons and Acts 8 his purpose for evangelists, then is there a truly Pentecostal church in the US today? In his book on Azusa Street, Bartleman says there are 70,000,000 classical Pentecostals in the world today. Bro. Fyordbar, a theologian (classical Pentecostal), in my office a few weeks ago said, “Bro. R, there are 120,000,000 classical Pentecostals in the world today.” I said, “Brother, were there 120 million in the upper room.” He said, “No”. So what is the difference between the baptism then and what is supposed to be the baptism now? This hit-and-run evangelism is a modern-style, one-night stand. Big advertising. Big crowds. Big offerings. Very small results. Rees Howell buried himself in Africa 13 years, now Bro. Bonke is there getting crowds of up to 500,000. ..
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