The Revival Fellowship
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The Revival Fellowship is a Christian Pentecostal denomination based in Australia.
The group is led by Pastor John Kuhlmann, who is based in Adelaide, South Australia.
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[edit] Church Genealogy of the Revival Fellowship
[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 focuses heavily the necessity of 'speaking in tongues' and water baptism for salvation[2], and deny salvation by faith alone.
The Revival Fellowship had formally held to the British-Israel doctrine, which is used to support white supremacy in some circles, although racist elements of the teaching were officially denied by the group. [3] This has now been removed from curriculum taught.
Bible numerics[4], Prophecy related to the Great Pyramid, and a bias towards the King James theology are also taught.
[edit] Criticism of the Revival Fellowship
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.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Rev. Rowland Ward, Religious Bodies in Australia (3rd edition), 1995.
- ^ http://www.revivalfellowship.org/Speaking_in_Tongues.asp
- ^ http://www.trf.org.au/Anti_racism_Statement.asp
- ^ http://www.revivalfellowship.org/Bible_Numerics.asp
[edit] External links
- The Revival Fellowship - official website