Arthur Wallis- Radical Christian

                                ARTHUR WALLIS: RADICAL CHRISTIAN

Author JONATHAN WALLIS

Publisher KINGSWAY

ISBN 0-86065-852-X

Arthur was personally known to me from about 1968 through 1978, in fact, on quite a regular basis I would join with him and others at prayer times when we sought the Lord and also some public meetings.  He was a man of prayer and one who was constantly waiting on God for the unfolding of His will and truth.  He passed away just before the age of 66 and was a pioneer in the early renewal movement in the late 1950’s and into the eighties in the United Kingdom.  He gradually became a kind of father figure to many younger leaders in the UK as the renewal movement (as it was known in the earlier days) morphed into what is now known as the ‘charismatic church movement.’  He was greatly respected because of his constant return to the scriptures to find ‘whether these things be so.’  Both in those days and nowadays there are many voices, many notions and ideas, fads and fancies that come blowing through the churches and his was a voice that called people back to the things revealed in the Bible, testing all by what was written there.  From earliest days he had a burden for what he called revival.  HIs first book written in the 1950’s “In the Day of Thy Power” became a text book on the subject.  He later rewrote it under the title “Rain from Heaven”.  He was a conference speaker and spent time overseas and was influential in the movings of God taking place in New Zealand out of which many new churches came.  Those churches were influential in the lives of many students from various Asian countries who were at Universities at the time.  He was something of a formal kind of man, known as a conference speaker, writer of books and also one who helped convene a number of conferences seeking to draw together the various ‘streams’ of renewal emerging in the 60’s and 70’s.  He hated compromise, and this emerged often as he felt that the ‘charismatic’ wing of the church was drifting into a lukewarm state.  To challenge this he wrote a book entitled The Radical Christian.  As far as I know none of his writings are now in print but are obtainable second hand.  This biography, written by his son and published in 1991 can only be obtained in that way also but is worth searching out, especially by those who are in the UK and desire to know more about the roots of their churches and the unremitting service and testings of the early pioneers of what are often nowadays exactly in that state of half heartedness Arthur spoke and wrote about so prophetically in his ministry.  He longed for unity in Christ and in the body of Christ, but a unity that was not shallow and that reeked of compromise.  He regarded the World Council of Churches  as an example of a unity that was fatally flawed. His reasoned public preaching ministry and books has profound value and relevance for us today and we do well to consider his prayerful, prophetic teaching ministry.    

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