BOOK REVIEW: War on the Saints by Jessie Penn-Lewis w. Evan Roberts

 War on the Saints

by

Jessie Penn-Lewis

with

Evan Roberts

Reviewed by Aaron DeWeese

"Some More On the Ain'ts" could be an alternative title. 

Let me clarify:  Undoubtedly Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis could be classified as a Pentecostal, yet she is that rare breed, which other Pentecostals despise: a thinking Pentecostal.  I first heard of her in Roberts Liardon's book "God's Generals".  There she was painted as a dubious figure who kidnapped Evan Roberts, who was then held captive in Mr. and Mrs. Penn-Lewis' home. 

Now, I believe this is what happened:  "God's Generals" admits Evan Roberts had some sort of nervous breakdown.  It's not surprising, given his errant theology of non-theology.  He placed experience above all, including the Word of God.  Roberts Liardon painted the picture that Mrs. Penn-Lewis perhaps had an unwholesome relationship with Evan Roberts, and that she took advantage of using his name, to further her own writing career.  Well, it's a blessed thing that she did do the latter.

I consider Mrs. Penn-Lewis an honest critic of the Welsh revival.  She was witness to a great many unscriptural, ridiculous and dangerous things accredited to the Holy Spirit.  In this book, she lays out proper doctrine, side-by-side with the heretical goings-on she witnessed, and which Evan Roberts no doubt facilitated.  The evidence points that what Evan Roberts was doing in her household was being rehabilitated, being educated, being taught the true Gospel of Christ.  Anyone can have an experience.  Without the foundation of the Word beneath us, experience cannot be trusted.  LSD gives an experience.

I don't agree with everything in "War on the Saints" but I do agree with much of it.  Anyone worried by the influx of superstitious heretical mysticism into Pentecostalism, into now what is called the Charismatic movement, would garner much from this read.  Mrs. Penn-Lewis was not a Calvinist, was not a cessationist, nor a skeptic.  She was a Spirit-filled woman on a mission to right what went wrong at the closing of the Welsh Revival.  Many actually blame her for stamping out the revival.  To that I can only shake my head in unbelief.  A person, such as Evan Roberts, running on fumes and gasses will naturally exhaust and collapse.  Mrs. Penn-Lewis was there to pick up the man, and make sense of it all.

Mrs. Penn-Lewis calls for a return of reason and logic into the sphere of Charismata.  It is a call that has gone unheeded.  The consequence is tragic:  doctrines of devils, and no end to deception, delusion, and false prophets.  I firmly believe the Great Falling Away will on one side be liberal theologians who deny the Truth, and on the other, those Charismatics who have twisted the truth, to fit their experiences.  The people in the middle, who balance intellect, emotion, and will, placing not one over the other, walk the narrow path, with the Sword of the Spirit firmly grasped, the belt of Truth holding their trousers up.

This is a warning to the Charismatic Christian:

Matthew 7:22,23:   "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."