LATTER RAIN REVIVAL

early name for the Pentecostal movement within U.S. Protestantism; it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Tennessee and North Carolina and took its name from the latter rain referred to in Joel 2:23. The Bible passage states that the former (fall) rain and latter (spring) rain were poured down from God. These rains marked the beginning and end of the Jewish harvest. According to Pentecostal interpretation, the former rain referred to speaking in tongues during the first Christian Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured down on the followers of Christ, and the latter rain referred to a second period, when people would again receive the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues as a sign that the Second Coming of Christ would soon occur.