If you don't join this group and "speak in tongues" and honestly pay your tithes you won't be saved.

The Adelaide Revival Centre has three meeting places and 2000 members. There are 60 branches in Australia and others in Figi, Papua, Europe and South America.

I learned a little about this group by looking in on their "Bible Prophecy Display" on 11th May in Port Adelaide, and by accepting some of their pamphlets, and by interviewing pastors John Kuhlmann and Paul Nobel, and by reading a book about Australian Pentecostals called Heart of Fire.



In 1941 a father and son team named Cecil and Leo Harris were expelled from the Assemblies of God sect for accepting the belief that the Anglo-Saxons are descended from Israel. These two men founded a sect called Christian Revival Crusade (CRC) [later renamed Christian Family Centre].

In 1952 Melbourne man Lloyd Longford, then about 30, was baptized at a CRC meeting and became pastor of the Melbourne CRC assembly.

In 1958 most CRC leaders agreed to draw up a constitution — needed for legal reasons such as the ownership of property. This was contrary to the Harris' previous stance of the Bible as their "only constitution". Longford wanted to preserve "Christian liberty". He also regarded Leo Harris as too fanatical in expelling demons — the latter "cast out demons from every second or third person he encountered at meetings."

Longford therefore decided to split and called his side Melbourne Revival Centre.

Pastor Kuhlmann, one of the guys I interviewed, at first denied any connection with the CRC but later admitted attending meetings of Leo Harris in the 1950s.

Meetings at Revival Centres are characterized by speaking in "tongues", enthusiastic singing, high expectancy, alleged miracles, a sense of militancy, lambasting of other religions, and emotionalism.

Longfield once said in a sermon: "I meet a lot of people who say they are saved but who never had a phenomenal experience. The gospel should startle. Tell me why people jump out of the bapistry here like a startled antelope shouting, 'who electrified the water?'" (Heart of Fire, p. 171)



The "Bible Prophecy Display" consisted of photos, pictures, typed paragraphs, front pages of newspapers, etc, pinned to panels or notice boards. Each board featured a different theme.

The themes included the return of the Jews to Israel, the throne of David, war and terrorism, earthquakes and famines, the Great Pyramid, Communism/Russia, the drying of the Nile, miracle healing and the Holy Spirit.

The pyramid display was based on Isaiah 19:19, "In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border." Apparently the Revival Centre pastors see something in this verse that other people don't see. (For a detailed discussion on Pyramidology consult Investigator #13 pp 44-58)

One display panel contained testimonies of miraculous healing, nine testimonies, each with a photo of the person and the testimony beneath the photo. The healings were:


Attendant Barry Cross pointed to the account of a boy's deformed foot miraculously restored and said: "That's my grandson."

A fair assessment of such claims would require getting reports from doctors involved in each specific case.

The display about the "Throne of David" had the following information:


This theory will need further investigation. For the present I have two objections. Firstly, the name "Calcol" occurs only once in the Bible and we don't know what happened to him. Secondly, the note accompanying Genesis 28:18 in the margin of The Companion Bible says:




 I spoke with Pastor Nobel for a while. He is a former member of the Church of Christ. Pastor Nobel argued that there is no salvation without receiving the Holy Spirit, and the proof of having received the Holy Spirit is "speaking in tongues". Therefore most of the people in other denominations are on the "broad road" to hell.

I moved to the literature counter and collected a few pamphlets — The Pope And The Church; The Holy Spirit; You Must Be Born Again; Creation Or Evolution?

Here I was informed that Jesus' second coming would be near the year 2000 which will be 6000 years after the creation of Adam and Eve. I enquired about the 4004 BC date found in some King James Bibles — which points to 1997 as the end of 6000 years. The man replied: "There's a fault of three years either way and that's why 'No man knows the day or the hour.' But it's near the end of this century."

By my calculation a "fault of three years either way" places the "Second Coming" between 1994 and 2000 A.D. Well, we'll see.