What is the Toronto Blessing?

Question

Just over a decade ago there was much hype in the media about the Toronto Blessing, a phenomenon that began at Toronto Airport Church and subsequently spread from there. What is it? Is it still happening?

Answer 1

The Toronto Blessing is described as a "Revival". The term "revival" means different things to different denominations, and can even mean the different things within a denomination.

In this case, the term describes an outpouring of the Holy Spirit from a Charismatic point of view. The Toronto Blessing consisted of signs accepted by Charismatics as evidence of the Holy Spirit's blessing, including:

• Falling and resting in the Spirit
• Holy Laughter
• Shaking and Crying
• Crunching (a vomit-like heaving to "cleanse" and "release" negative experiences)
• Others

These events drew controversy, of course, centered around the usual arguments over the Charismatic definition of "Gifts of the Spirit" with one side claiming that this was clear evidence of God's hand at work, and others claiming that it's self-centered, emotionalism, demonic, and all of the other charges that Churches that don't believe in these charismatic gifts.

From Wikipedia:

The Toronto blessing began at the Airport church when pastors John and Carol Arnott were inspired by a revival in Argentina led by Claudio Freidzen and in South Africa.2 They invited Randy Clark of St. Louis, Missouri to minister at the church in January 1994. Randy Clark had been influenced by the ministry of Rodney Howard-Browne, a South African preacher, founder of the Rodney Howard-Browne Evangelistic Association in Louisville, Kentucky, and the earliest known proponent of the "holy laughter" revival phenomenon. Clark preached at the Airport church for two months starting January 20 and introduced some of Howard-Browne's approach into TACF practice. In that first revival service, there were about 120 people in attendance. Arnott recalled that most members fell on the floor "laughing, rolling, and carrying on".2 During that first year, the church's size tripled to 1,000 members and meetings were held every night except on Mondays as the revival's influence spread. Reports of similar revivals emerged from Atlanta, Anaheim, Saint Louis, several Canadian sites, Cambodia, and Albania. It was common for visitors to carry the influence of the revival back to their home congregations – two notable British cases in point being Holy Trinity, Brompton and Holy Trinity, Cheltenham. Areas that have become known for Toronto Blessing type revivals worldwide include Pensacola, Florida, home of the Brownsville Revival, and Bath, England.

The Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship claims that this continues, and Churches across the globe claim similar events to this day. The Toronto Airport Christian fellowship changed their name, and of course, they have a website (apparently with video of these events), so that you can see it from their perspective.

Answer 2

I sincerely believe the Toronto blessing to be the "powerful deception sent (allowed) by God, to cause those who do not love the Truth, to believe that which is false." We need to take good notice of the word "cause." I was involved with it for about five years.