Third Wave

The "Third Wave" is the name C. Peter Wagner coined when he divided the history of the Holy Spirit movement into three stages. Wagner identified the first wave as the classical Pentecostal movement, which began around 1906, and the second as the charismatic movement, which spread into the established denominations from about 1960 onward. The third wave is a renewed manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit among evangelicals who do not wish to be called Pentecostals or charismatics. The movement is also known as the "Signs and Wonders movement." It is unrelated to the 1980 book of the same name by the futurist Alvin Toffler.

Participants in the movement recognize divine healing, speaking in tongues, prophecy, and deliverance (the casting out of demons) as gifts that still operate today. However, they generally reject the traditional teaching of Pentecostal denominations that baptism in the Holy Spirit is a distinct second experience subsequent to conversion, or that speaking in tongues is the "initial evidence" of Spirit baptism.

Background

Wagner was a professor of church growth at the School of World Mission of Fuller Theological Seminary. He reportedly said that his views changed while he was studying Pentecostal churches under his mentor, Donald McGavran. John Wimber ministered in a Quaker church and, from 1974 to 1978, worked at an institute for evangelism and church growth established by Fuller Seminary. He later left the Quakers because of their reluctance to embrace charismatic ministry and began a home fellowship, which in 1977 grew into the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Anaheim, California. Wimber combined the Pentecostal emphasis on signs and wonders with the kingdom of God theology of Fuller Seminary professor George Eldon Ladd.

Development

• Fall 1981: Fuller Seminary's School of World Mission approved the course MC510, "Signs, Wonders, and Church Growth."
• 1982: Wagner and Wimber began teaching the course together. The class included hands-on practice in healing prayer, and it soon became both the most popular and the most controversial course at the school. In the same year, Wimber's church broke away from the Calvary Chapel association and became the Anaheim Vineyard.
• 1983: Wagner first used the expression "Third Wave" in a magazine interview.
• Spring 1985: The faculty of Fuller's School of Theology voted not to grant theology students credit for the course.
• January 1986: The School of World Mission announced that MC510 would be discontinued, and students responded with a petition drive in protest.
• 1988: Wagner published The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit.

Results and Influence

Wimber held "power healing" conferences throughout the United States and abroad, traveling to New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, and elsewhere. Through these efforts the Vineyard movement spread to many countries. The term originally referred mainly to the experience of North American evangelical churches. Later, however, it came to be used in a broader sense that includes independent and indigenous churches around the world; in this broader sense, the term "neo-charismatic" is sometimes used instead. In the 1990s Wagner developed this current further into what he called the "New Apostolic Reformation." For this reason, the Third Wave is often discussed in Korean churches together with the New Apostolic movement.

Assessment

Supporters regard the movement as having enabled evangelical churches to recover the gifts of the Holy Spirit without leaving their own denominations. When MC510 was discontinued, however, some at Fuller Seminary argued that the theological basis for claims that God intervenes in extraordinary ways needed to be reexamined. Those who hold that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased after the apostolic age also criticize the movement. The American pastor John MacArthur contended that reported healings had been exaggerated. In Korea as well, some Reformed writers and media outlets denounce the movement as a false Holy Spirit movement that is merely Pentecostalism in a new guise. They take particular issue with experiences such as being slain in the Spirit, bodily shaking, and "holy laughter." Some critics maintain that this current gave rise to phenomena such as the Toronto Blessing. The positions of various denominations on whether the spiritual gifts continue today are covered in the article Cessationism and Continuationism.