Adamites, the forerunners of the Tabernacle Experience
One night I woke up around 3 A.M. I am usually a sound sleeper, but for reasons I did not yet understand, I felt wide awake. Getting up, I threw on my bathrobe and walked out into our living room where I have an easy chair nestled in a corner next to a bookcase with my favorite books.
Hidden history
I keep a collection of books on Christianity, Islam, travel, and many biographies that I feel a kinship with. However, my three favorite books are an old leather-bound world history set that dates from the late 1800’s. I found these volumes at an antique books store and fell in love with their pen and ink drawings. I like world history anyway, so I ponied up the bucks and bought it.
The three-volume set is quite a tome. Each volume is 600 to 700 pages long. I sat and read about half of the book and, though it isn’t totally historically accurate, it’s a good read. On this particular night, as I sat in my easy chair, the air in the living room seemed somehow lighter. In the past I have noticed that when the Holy Spirit is present my senses sharpen. Sitting there is my comfy chair, my mind seemed unusually clear, especially for the wee hours of the morning. I felt that God wanted me to find something.
I stood up, looked at the history set, and God said, “Pick up the third volume and open it.” As I held the aged leather in my hands, I opened it and read a section with the heading of “Adamites.” Intrigued, I sat down in my cushy chair and read the selection underneath that curious title.
A return to innocence
Though history is sketchy, it seems that different groups loosely termed “Adamites” have sprung up throughout the New Testament age. Around 167 AD is the first time Adamites are mentioned in the region of Ethiopia. Many view these groups as heretical. Moreover, the religious establishment usually persecutes these pre-tabernacle Christians to extinction.
Adamites believe, in one form or another, mankind is meant to return to the sinless perfection of the Garden of Eden. Furthermore, Adamites believed that such a state of innocence is possible here on Earth.
As I read on I wondered “Could these historical groups of people be the forerunners of the Tabernacle movement that I experienced?” I read through the article and re-read it came to the conclusion that the Tabernacles experience has surfaced many times throughout world history.
Brutal suppression or excess?
Unfortunately, people either derailed God’s divine love into excess or it was brutally suppressed. I found out from subsequent study the historical record doesn’t paint a pretty picture of those of this ilk. People persecuted the move of God I experienced, therefore I am not surprised. Those who historically disparage the Adamites could just be smearing them in similar fashion as Community Chapel & Bible Training Center.
Adamites and the Tabernacle Experience
As I closed the history book that night I felt like God showed me something near and dear to His heart. I understood by His Spirit that what I had tasted of Tabernacles is something that He has been trying to bring to His church for thousands of years. Turning to that exact page, out of all of the pages of those three volumes, was surely a sign. I am grateful that my Father spoke to me through that old, leather-bound history set. YHWH helped me to understand His will for my life in a deeper more meaningful way. I went back to bed and fell into a very sweet sleep.
