Biography
Thomas Ball Barratt was born on July 22, 1862, in Albaston, near Callington, in Cornwall, England, the son of a mining engineer, Richard Barratt, and his wife, Mary. The family was Methodist. When Thomas was about two years old, his father took a post as a mine manager in Norway, at Evje, in the south of the country, and the family moved. Thomas grew up in Norway, in a mining community among the Norwegian people. He learned to speak Norwegian as his own tongue. At the age of eight, he was sent to a school in England, at Cheltenham, and he returned home during the holidays. He was a gifted musician, who played several instruments. He was a boy of a restless and energetic nature.
He was converted in his youth, at a Methodist revival. He had been raised to believe in God, but at the age of fifteen, he had a clear experience of salvation. He wished to preach. He was licensed as a lay preacher and then, in 1889, was received as a minister by the Methodist church in Norway. He served a number of congregations, in Arendal, Fredrikstad and other places. He was a man of unusual ability, and he soon rose to prominence in the church. He was a skilled organizer, and he took part in the work of city missions. In 1902, he was appointed the superintendent of the Methodist church in Kristiania, the capital, which is now called Oslo. He was a man of influence, and he was widely respected.
He was a man who had a hunger for more of God. He had read about the Welsh Revival of 1904 and 1905 and was stirred. He had come into contact with the holiness teaching and had sought the fullness of the Spirit. In 1906, he was sent to the United States to raise funds for a new Methodist church building in Kristiania, which was to be called the City Mission. He went to New York in September 1906. He had little success in raising money. While he was in New York, he heard of the revival at Azusa Street, in Los Angeles, and he read a report in a paper. He was moved. He met with some Christians in New York who had received the baptism in the Spirit, and he began to seek it himself.
On November 15, 1906, in a prayer meeting in New York, he had the experience for which he had been praying. He said that a stream of light poured upon him and that he was filled with power. He began to speak in tongues, in languages that he did not know, and he said that he was overwhelmed with joy. He spent the following weeks in the experience. He gave up his plan of fundraising. He wrote letters to his friends in Norway, telling them what had happened. He returned to Kristiania in December, and he began at once to hold meetings in the church.
The meetings caused a sensation. People crowded in. They were seized by deep conviction, cried out, fell down and spoke in tongues. The revival spread across Norway. He held meetings in a hall, and it was too small. He took the message to Sweden, where he found a ready response, and to Denmark, Germany and England. In 1907, he went to Sunderland, England, at the invitation of the vicar, Alexander Boddy, and held meetings that began the Pentecostal movement in Britain. Smith Wigglesworth was among those who received the baptism there. Barratt also visited Finland, Russia, India and other lands. He wrote and published a magazine, Korsets Seier, or The Victory of the Cross, in 1907, which carried the story to thousands. He was called the apostle of Pentecost to Europe.
The Methodist church in Norway did not welcome the movement. He was criticized for the unusual manifestations, and the church leaders asked him to give up the teaching. In 1916, he left the Methodist ministry and founded the Filadelfia Church, an independent Pentecostal congregation in Oslo. It grew to become one of the largest churches in Norway, with thousands of members. He served as its pastor until his death. He also took a leading part in the international Pentecostal movement. He helped to bring together the leaders in Europe. He wrote a number of books, among them In the Days of the Latter Rain, which was published in 1909.
He had weaknesses. In the 1910s and 1920s, he came to hold a view of the Trinity that led him to be accused of unorthodoxy. He thought that the doctrine had been misunderstood. He was criticized by the Pentecostal leaders in Britain and America, and he ended up in disagreement with them. He was also a man who was somewhat vain and who did not like to take second place. He did not always work well with others. He made enemies. He also had a great sense of the importance of his mission.
He died on January 29, 1940, in Oslo, at the age of seventy-seven, while the war was spreading across Europe. He had been a pioneer for more than thirty years. His life shows the effect of a Methodist minister who was willing to leave his church for the sake of what he had found. The fire that he carried from Azusa Street spread across a continent.