The Toronto Blessing, a term coined by British newspapers, refers to the Christian revival and associated phenomena that began in January 1994 at the Toronto Airport Vineyard church (TAV), which was renamed in 1996 to Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship (TACF) and then later in 2010 renamed to Catch the Fire Toronto. It is categorized as a neo-charismatic Evangelical Christian church and is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Bowker, John. Toronto Blessing. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, 1997. The revival impacted charismatic Christian culture through an increase in popularity and international reach and intensified criticism and denominational disputes. Criticism primarily centered around disagreements about charismatic doctrine, the Latter Rain Movement, and whether or not the physical manifestations people experienced were in line with biblical doctrine or were actually heretical practices.
The Toronto Blessing is also reported as having influenced the Brownsville Revival (1995 – ) and the Lakeland Revival (2008) that occurred later in Florida, and which included similar styles of worship, ministry and reputed supernatural manifestations.
Characteristics
The Toronto Blessing has become synonymous within charismatic Christian circles for terms and actions that include an increased awareness of God's love, religious ecstasy, external observances of ecstatic worship, being slain in the Spirit, uncontrollable laughter, emotional and/or physical euphoria, crying, healing from emotional wounds, healing of damaged relationships, and electric waves of the spirit.Burgess, Stanley. The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements. Zondervan, 2002 "Holy laughter", as a result of overwhelming joy, was a hallmark manifestation,Ostling, Richard. Laughing for the Lord: Revivalist fervor has invaded the Church of England. Time Magazine, 1994, p.38 and there were also some reports of instances of participants roaring like lions or making other animal noises.Maxwell, Joe. "Laughter Draws Toronto Charismatic Crowds". Christianity Today, October 24, 1994 Holy Laughter Chaos. 2008 Leaders and participants present in these services claim that most of these manifestations, including some people roaring like lions, were physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit's presence and power, while some Pentecostal and charismatic leaders believe these were the counterfeits of the Spirit as is mentioned in the biblical passage of 2 Thessalonians 2:9.Hanegraaff, Hank. Counterfeit Revival. Thomas Nelson, 2001Macarthur, John. Strange Fire. Nelson Books, 2014 In December, 1994, Toronto Life Magazine declared TAV as Toronto's most notable tourist attraction for the year.Toronto Life Magazine. Best and worst: A year in the life of the city. 1994
The events that occurred at the Toronto Blessing are not unique in Christian history; similar events were recorded as happening within the Azusa Street revival of the early 1900s as well as in other revival movements throughout the history of Christian church movements.Welchel, Tommy. True Stories of the Miracles of Azusa Street and Beyond: Re-live One of The Greastest Outpourings in History that is Breaking Loose Once Again. Destiny Image, 2013Hyatt, Eddie. 2000 Years Of Charismatic Christianity: A 21st century look at church history from a pentecostal/charismatic prospective. Charisma House, 2002 The Bible also records supernatural events when people encountered God and describes lightning coming from the top of Mount Sinai in Exodus 20:18 when the 10 Commandments were given, Jewish soldiers and temple police falling down in the Garden of Gethsemane when encountering Jesus in John 18:6, Moses' face shining when descending Mount Sinai in Exodus 34:35, and a cloud of glory that appeared over the Hebrew tent of meeting in Exodus 40:34. Proponents of the Toronto Blessing point to these biblical examples as partial evidence of the activities in their meetings being legitimate.
The primary speaker at these meetings for the first few months was Randy Clark, a former Baptist pastor who left his denomination and joined the Association of Vineyard Churches after a team from the Vineyard denomination ministered in his church in 1984.Clark, Randy. The Biblical Guidebook to Deliverance. Charisma House, 2015 Clark testified to being miraculously healed after a bad car accident while a teenager many years earlier.Johnson, Bill and Clark, Randy. Healing: Unplugged. Chosen, 2012 This event made him believe in supernatural healing, even though at the time he was part of a denomination that believed the gifts of the Spirit were no longer part of the way God operates in the lives of Christians.
Miracles and manifestations
A common element described by those in attendance at the meetings was the claim of miraculous events that occurred during the services. Some of these could be categorized as physical healings, while in other instances, people reported they had a new awareness of God's love, a new freedom from past fears, anger, and relationship problems. There were even claims of God putting gold fillings into people's teeth during the service. Some of the more common claims include the following:
More than 300 of the visitors claimed that they supernaturally received gold or silver fillings in their teeth during the meetings. A study was conducted in 1995 that surveyed 1,000 people who visited TAV and approximately half of them reported that they felt spiritually refreshed after the meetings, close to 90% said they were "more in love with Jesus" than they had been in any other point in their lives, and 88% of married respondents stated that they were also more in love with their spouse.Poloma, Margaret. Inspecting the fruit: A 1997 sociological assessment of the blessing. The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, 1998 A follow-up study conducted in 1997 also yielded similar figures from the original survey respondents.
Similarities to other revival movements The Toronto Blessing appears to share similarities with other past events where historical records report similar activities of laughter, crying, falling down, shaking and claims of miraculous healings. According to some, these events have been recorded as occurring throughout, not only the recent past, but for the approximate 2,000 years since the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ took place.
Some of the events in the past few hundred years that bear these similarities include, but are not limited to, the following:
Lakeland Revival Brownsville Revival Holiness Pentecostal Revivals in 1875-1907 Welsh Revival Jotebeche Methodist Church Revival Azusa Street Revival Cane Ridge RevivalStone, Barton. An account of the remarkable religious exercises witnessed in the beginning of the 19th century. 1847 Second Great Awakening led by Charles FinneyFinney, Chalres. Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney. A. S. Barnes and Company, 1876
Reaction and criticism Some Christian leaders were enthusiastic about what they saw as a renewal in North American Christianity, while others saw it as heretical and spiritually dangerous.Jesus Culture Conference 2015: Los Angeles – Session 1 – A Powerful Prayer. The laughter portion of these meetings was endorsed by Benny Hinn, Oral Roberts and Pat Robertson, who said in one interview that "The Bible says in the presence of the Lord there is fullness of joy."Waxman, Sharon. Filled with Ho Ho Holy Spirit. Washington Post, 1996
Critics referred to it as self-centered and evil and claimed that the strange manifestations were warning signs for other Christian believers to stay away. Others defended the blessing as historically rooted in earlier revivals, such as those seen by pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards, and as having positive effects in the lives of participants.
In his book, Counterfeit Revival, Hank Hanegraaff claimed that the revival has done more damage than good and that the Toronto blessing was a matter of people being enslaved into altered states of consciousness where they obscure reality and enshrine absurdity. Hank Hanegraaff also stated in a 1996 Washington Post interview that, "It's nice to feel all these things, but the fact is, these feelings will wear off, and then disappointment steps in. I call it post-Holy Laughter depression syndrome."
At the time of the renewal, B. J. Oropeza, then a researcher for the Christian Research Institute, compared phenomena from the Toronto meetings with phenomena from previous Western revivals. He concluded that while authentic signs of revival might be present at such meetings, ministerial leaders have a biblical responsibility to ensure that parishioners maintain orderly conduct at the gatherings and this seemed to be lacking at many of the meetings.Oropeza, B. J. A Time to Laugh: The Holy Laughter Phenomenon Examined (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1995).
James Beverley, a critic of the Toronto Blessing and a professor at Toronto-based Tyndale Seminary, stated that these events were a "mixed blessing", but was later quoted in 2014 as saying, "whatever the weaknesses are, they are more than compensated for by thousands and thousands of people having had tremendous encounters with God, receiving inner healings, and being renewed."Duek, Lorna. The Enduring Revival. Christianity Today, 2014 He also stated, "My concerns have changed a bit. I regret saying that they did not give enough attention to Jesus. I think that was too hard. The leaders and the people, they love Jesus. We all do not give enough attention to Jesus."
It is also important to note that other Vineyard churches, such as Harvest Rock in Pasadena, California experienced the same manifestations as those that occurred at TAV around the same time as the events of 1994.White, John. When the Spirit Comes with Power. IVP Books, 1988
Timeline of immediate and subsequently impacted events
1994: The Toronto Blessing began at the Toronto Airport Vineyard church, when pastors John and Carol Arnott were reportedly inspired by revivals in South Africa as well as those in Argentina that were led by Claudio Freidzon. They invited Randy Clark, a Vineyard pastor from St. Louis, Missouri, to minister at the church from January 20–23, 1994. Randy Clark had been influenced by his own personal life experiences of miracles happening in the church he pastored, as well as the ministry of Rodney Howard-Browne, a South African preacher, and founder of the Rodney Howard-Browne Evangelistic Association in Louisville, Kentucky. Clark preached at TAV church over the course of 60 days, starting January 20, and the meetings continued for 6 days each week for the next 12 1/2 years. He spent 42 of those first 60 days in Canada with a few in-between trips back home to see his family.Steingard, Jerry. From Here to the Nations: The Story of the Toronto Blessing. Catch the Fire Books, 2014