The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movement: Its History and Error

Pastor Cloud has been a missionary in Nepal for many years and is also the author of many books. He was saved in 1973 (at the age of 23) having previously become a 'pot head' in the USA army in Vietnam, then a Hindu Hippie.
This book in easy, page-turning style races through the unsavoury history of the tongues and signs movement, showing how in the past it developed in the ministries of the weirdest of people. Then came Charles Parham - the virtual 'father' of modern Pentecostalism - and Cloud provides the details of his fanaticism and eventual moral disgrace. Then follow thumbnail accounts of a sequence of drunkards, charlatans, fraudsters and divorcees who promoted tongues-speaking and bogus healing claims. We read of Oral Roberts, who pioneered the money-raising techniques so widely used by Benny Hinn and so many other big names of the charismatic world, many of whom maintained lavish spending lifestyles. All the major false teachers of the worldwide charismatic movement are here, with their antics and unbiblical assertions.
Then the author turns to the principal teachings of the movement, highlighting 17 key errors (averaging 9-10 pages for each). This is a highly readable book, full of surprising facts and biblical assessments. Numerous other critiques of the Pentecostal-charismatic position also deal with the mistaken beliefs, but this book uniquely reviews the personalities and their actions also, and is strongly recommended to all. The charismatic movement is discrediting and destroying true Christianity, and true believers need to be rescued out of it.