The last great conflict

by A.J. Tomlinson

A J Tomlinson seeks to convey to his readers the results of his own relentless searching out of biblical truths, a search which began with his conversion, continued through his North Carolina sojourn and prompted the publishing of this book in Cleveland Tennessee.

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1913

Reviews

[Michael Martinez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mostly very boring, mostly poor teachings—and they’re not even argued for very well, and mostly very bad prose. Some interesting stuff in the book had more to do with the history of the Church of God of Prophecy, than with their teachings. Learning about an obscure mini-war between Methodists and Baptists on one side, and this organization on the other side, all taking place in Cherokee County, North Carolina, is interesting enough. Throughout the book, AJ Tomlinson does at least do a good job at analogies, like for instance, comparing people who want to be part of the church and not follow its rules, to people who want to migrate to the USA and not follow its customs. Don’t expect to find very intellectually-compelling arguments in this book, as being a Pentecostal (they are notorious for their anti-intellectualism), AJ Tomlinson doesn’t give any. He argues for some ridiculous things like that if you seek out physical medicine in any shape or form, that you’re literally just not a Christian, and his argument for this is based on a non-sequitur in which he cites the Bible recording how God has healed people miraculously, and how he cursed a specific Egyptian group in making physical medicines useless to them; he concludes from this, that everybody is cursed who seeks medicine, and that we always have to rely on miraculous healing when we get sick, unnecessarily turning a can into an ought. He makes a similar non-sequitur in arguing that someone does not have the baptism with the Holy Ghost, unless they produce the evidence of speaking in other tongues; he thinks that because Cornelius and others were given this charismatic gift, that everybody must receive it. He says some other basic stuff too, like that we should be joyful and not melancholic (though he also says that if you’re sad, you’re a weak Christian, which is a weird thing to say, showing how Pentecostals base their religion on flimsy emotions; though it is fair to say that others react to what you put out, and a joyful Christian is probably more attractive than a sad Christian in many cases), and that we shouldn’t turn back, but press forward in the charge that leads to Heaven. Another poor part about this book, consists in how he arbitrarily picks and chooses which people throughout history have been part of this allusive “Church of God” that he talks about. He thinks there was some Great Apostasy with Emperor Constantine basically, though he thinks it began before that, so just normie Protestant conspiracy stuff that doesn’t understand history. He seemingly picks and chooses whichever people he feels like, and then says they were the reformers leading up to him specifically, even though he could have picked anyone else who happens to share at least some of his beliefs, since clearly he doesn’t think these “reformers” of the “Church of God” in history had it all right, for otherwise he wouldn’t feel himself necessary. He alleges that he had some supernatural experience in which he was transported to Central America and then South America, being able to speak Indian languages in miraculously evangelizing to Indian tribes. Muhammad similarly reports having ridden a Pegasus to Jerusalem. Indians in North America report to Jesuits that they were already Christian converts in light of a woman that the Jesuits were able to identify as Saint Mary of Ágreda. The difference between the 3 is that only the 3rd is verified, as the first two are just self-reports, and there is no proof from any Indians of AJ Tomlinson speaking to them in their tongues at this time, whereas it is the Indians themselves who report of Saint Mary of Ágreda converting them, not her self-reporting this bilocation.