A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

The Healing Revival and the Latter Rain
stituents), also known as the School of the Prophets, is a
similar and related organization. These groups have a relatively
small number of churches and constituents.
Most of the Latter Rain churches left their parent
organizations and became independent. Some ceased to
exist. For the most part, the New Order of the Latter Rain
has become part of the Charismatic movement.
Doctrines of the Latter Rain Movement
As we have seen, the New Order of the Latter Rain
was a Pentecostal revival movement. Although it was not
primarily doctrinal in nature, it developed some distinctive
approaches and practices. The classical Pentecostal
denominations—including the Assemblies of God, the
United Pentecostal Church International, the International
Pentecostal Holiness Church, and the Pentecostal
Assemblies of Canada—rejected the movement because
of these characteristics, which they regarded as extreme
and excessive. They also opposed it for drawing people
away from existing congregations, splitting many
churches, and advocating that churches should become
independent. The movement was theologically diverse,
and not everyone embraced all the beliefs and practices
we will discuss. In general, however, the Latter Rain
emphases were as follows:
1. Spiritual gifts, including the bestowal of gifts
upon others. Pentecostals have always advocated the
gifts of the Spirit, but Latter Rain people urged individuals
to seek various gifts, sometimes even naming the gifts
they would receive or attempting to transfer gifts to one
other.
2. Laying on of hands, including its use to bestow
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