Edward Irving was a pastor in the Church Of Scotland (Presbyterian) in the early 1800’s. In 1826 he came into relationship with pastors of a church who were praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and teaching that the gifts were still active and available. That church experienced a revival which included speaking in tongues. Irving asked his church to begin praying as well. The gifts broke out but they were not generally accepted. He eventually was expelled from the Church of Scotland and started his own church. Most people thought he had gone off the deep end. The distinctives of his church included: Four-fold gifts of apostles, prophets, pastors, and evangelists (why not teachers??) were still in operation. The power gifts of the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost were still needed and necessary – including speaking in tongues. The gifts were needed to prepare the body for the second coming of Christ. Christ was fully God and fully man and was capable of sin but did not sin because of the Holy Spirit.
We have updated his reference list to include 20 books written about and by Irving (before and after his break with the Church of Scotland). This includes the 1862 biography by Mrs. Oliphant which is considered the most complete (and ponderous) biography of Irving available.
John Alexander Dowie believed Irving to be an apostle on the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Many Pentecostals point to him as a fore-runner of the Pentecostal movement that would emerge 55 years after his death.