Christian Zionism - New Life Tabernacle of Chattanooga

have made such a valedictory statement as this.'
‘The followers of Christ and the followers of Antichrist are now
gathering. Christ is gathering His children into the true Church, to do
Him service there, and, in so doing, to be prepared for His coming;
Satan is gathering his hosts under the standard of Liberalism to
become the pioneers of the man of perdition, the personal Antichrist. In
the progress of this work, Christ hath been calling for the personal
services of nearly all the regular correspondents of this journal; and he
hath at length called the editor to take the place of an elder in His
Church, and hath claimed all his time for the special duties of feeding
and overseeing a sixth part of the flock in London. To this higher
calling the editor now resolves to devote himself wholly, and at the
same time brings the Morning Watch to a close, as he will not transfer
to any other person such a solemn responsibility.’ 250
Timothy Stunt also claims that the CAC emerged through Irving’s influence
among some of those attending the Albury Conferences who ‘came to believe
that the special gifts of the apostolic age were a permanent endowment of the
church, restrained only by the faithlessness of later Christians.’ 251 J.D.
Douglas notes that many of Irving’s followers, sometimes called Irvingites by
critics, 252 were ‘erstwhile Presbyterians’ who eventually became members of
the CAC. 253 Patterson gives this helpful assessment of the legacy of Irving
and the Albury Circle:
‘The Albury Circle was a product of its own age and thus a theology
shaped by romanticism’s love for grand all inclusive systems, the
enlightenment’s rational methodology and their own subjective
polemic. These coalesced to form a system that was tacitly understood
to be God’s final revelation. The progressive nature of revelation, the
prophetic nature of the Bible, the literal-typical hermeneutic, and a
specific philosophy of history determined their approach to theology
and scripture and rendered their systematic program all but inevitable.
Its self-fulfilling character affirmed its validity that in turn locked the
Circle into a system and perspective beyond which they could see
himself was not recognised as one of the twelve latter-day apostles when the CAC was
formed but humbly accepted the position of deacon.
250 Ibid.
251 Timothy Stunt, ‘Catholic Apostolic Church’, The New International Dictionary of the
Christian Church, ed. J.D. Douglas (Exeter, Paternoster, 1978) p203. The early Scottish
Pentecostal manifestations associated with Mary Campbell and James and Margaret
McDonald in 1830 together with similar manifestations in Irving’s London Church in 1831
were also influential in the formation of the CAC as well as their eventual separation from J.
N. Darby and the early Brethren dispensationalists.
252 J. N. Darby, 'Remarks on a tract circulated by the Irvingites,'Collected Writings.,
Doctrinal. IV, 15, p34.
253 J. D. Douglas, ‘Edward Irving’. Ibid., p517.
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