By Mark D.J. Smith
St. Matthew Publishing. 221 pages. £6.25
ISBN 0 9524672 7 5
This splendid book is subtitled A Biblical Analysis of the Toronto Blessing, and is the most readable and helpful one that I have read on the subject. He tackles, in a loving and measured manner, the teaching of Mark Stibbe, Gerald Coates, Guy Chevreau and Patrick Dixon. He shows how the use of phrases like 'seasons of refreshing' can be quite wrongly applied.
He deals with the point that if 'the fruits of the blessing' are good, then we should not judge all the phenomena badly. The 'test of the consequences' is kindly but properly considered. He then asks two key questions: is it spiritual and is it due to ASC? It was Dixon who used the phrase 'altered states of consciousness' (ASC) to describe hysteria, and Smith shows the dangers of ASC's being given 'spiritual' value. It is so easy to forget 'epidemic hysteria' and its long history.
