The Revival Fellowship

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The Revival Fellowship is a Pentecostal Christian denomination based in Australia.

The group is led by council of pastors with John Kuhlmann, who is based in Adelaide, South Australia as the current chairman.

1 History
2 Doctrine
3 Community
4 Second Coming Prophecies
5 Focus of Counter Cult Movement
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] History

The group was formed as a result of a 1995 schism with the Revival Centres International, which was itself the result of a schism from the Christian Revival Crusade.

In 1958, when the Christian Revival Crusade adopted a constitution, pastors Lloyd Longfield and Noel Hollins withdrew - forming the Revival Centres of Australia. This schism from the Crusade then spread to other states, and overseas. Over this time, the group fragmented into various camps - including, in 1972, the Revival Centres associated with Noel Hollins (based in Geelong), and the Christian Assemblies International (a more Europe centred) 1991 split).

The Revival Fellowship was a large schism from this original group. At a Christmas 1994 church camp Lloyd Longfield instituted a policy providing that sexual defaulters would not find restoration possible. The Adelaide assembly, lead by pastor John Kuhlmann opposed the move - withdrawing from the Revival Centre group with approximately half of the assemblies (30), a third of pastors (35) and probably over half of the membership (3,300 including 120 from Melbourne - the bulk of membership outside of Victoria and Tasmania). Approximately half of the missions work in Papua New Guinea adheres (15,000 strong) with smaller assemblies in Europe and a significant work in Malawi.^[1]

[edit] Doctrine

The Revival Fellowship teaches the necessity of repentance, baptism by full immersion, receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the accompanying sign of 'speaking in tongues'^[2] for salvation^[3].

Their statement of belief is as follows:

We believe in the infallibility of the Bible.

We believe Jesus Christ is the son of God.

We believe the gospel of His death, resurrection, and directive to repent, be baptised and receive the Holy Spirit.

We believe we are baptised into the Body of Christ (the Church) through the Holy Spirit, with the Bible evidence of speaking in tongues.

We believe in the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Church.

We believe in prayer for the sick and healing by the power of God.

We believe the Bible identifies modern nations and gives signs of the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

The Revival Fellowship holds to the British-Israel doctrine, although racist elements of the teaching are strongly denied by the group.^[4]

Bible numerics^[5] and pyramidology theology are also taught.

[edit] Community

Members of the Revival Fellowship worship as part of a closely-knit community, with fellowship meetings on Wednesdays and Sundays in addition to another Communion meeting on Sunday. Activities are also scheduled throughout the week, and a number of specific fellowship groups organised (such as for children, young people and women). The group owns a number of campsites throughout Australia, and members are encouraged to holiday in fellowship through Christmas Camps, Easter Camps and Kids' Camps.

A major focus of the group is evangelism, and many activities are structured to encourage new people to come along. Music is also a major focus of fellowship activities, with members encouraged to participate in musical items and acts along with the 'choruses' that are a feature of all fellowship meetings.

[edit] Second Coming Prophecies

17th of September 2001 prophecy.

Before becoming 'The Revival Fellowship', the same group distributed literature in the 1980s indicating that Armageddon and Jesus Christ's return were imminent - holding events such as the "Survival '82" outreach.

In the June/July 1984 Voice of Revival magazine an article indicated that Jesus would return before 17 September 2001 when he would be 'ruling from Zion'.

As this date approached, the teaching was de-emphasised in both Revival Fellowship and Revival Centres International circles.

[edit] Focus of Counter Cult Movement

The Revival Fellowship has come under scrutiny by the counter-cult movement, in a response to a perceived authoritarian focus by this group.[1].

In Adelaide several support groups exist for former members and two churches (Cornerstone and Clear Vision Fellowship) have been founded by disaffected pastors Tom Manolakis and Ray Ledger respectively.^{[citation needed]}