Date: 12-Feb-1995 07:24pm
EST
Subject: Long Term Results
Frank, thanks for your message, received here a few days ago. I'm sorry that I do not have any abstracts to send you on the materials that you received. The only thing that I could do would be to re-send anything that you would want to peruse further.
You were asking about long term results in the lives of people who have had various pentecostal experiences, and you mentioned that you were having trouble understanding the value of pentecostal experiences, except that they might be interesting in the same way that a haunted house is interesting.
In my study of Pentecostalism, and of revivals in generally, including the present revival, I have found that people change dramatically as a result of these experiences. In most cases, they do not become great leaders, scholars, champions of social causes, or scientists, but they do change for the better in their daily lives as Christians. To give you a case in point, my wife, Kathryn, came out of many, many years of depression as a result of her involvement in the revival. With respect to her personality, many people do not even recognize her any more. She is cracking jokes for the first time, and it just isn't like her. Her quality of life has improved, and as a result, her relationships with others have improved markedly. We have a friend, Richard Swanson, who was away for two years. He returned Friday, and visited us yesterday. He hardly recongizes Kathryn, and he is rejoicing in the change that has come over her. Testimonies of this kind are very, very frequent from within the current revival. This has also been true in previous revivals. We have a friend in Vancouver, BC, Ruth Welsh, who says that her life was changed for the better in a most dramatic way as a result of the Latter Rain revival of 1948. I know of many others who have said similar things with respect to many different revivals.
I'm sorry that this aspect of things did not seem to come through in my history of the current revival. I will have to re-read it and see what I can do to address this important aspect of revival. Should you wish another copy, feel free to ask.
With warm personal greetings in the Lamb,
Richard M. Riss
RRISS@DREW.EDU