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Hans R. Waldvogel

Hans Rudolf Waldvogel (1893 - 1969). Swiss-American Pentecostal pastor and evangelist born in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Emigrating to the U.S. as a child, he grew up in Chicago, working in his family’s jewelry business until a conversion experience in 1916 led him to ministry. In 1920, he left business to serve as assistant pastor at Kenosha Pentecostal Assembly in Wisconsin for three years, then pursued itinerant evangelism. In 1925, he co-founded Ridgewood Pentecostal Church in Brooklyn, New York, pastoring it for decades and growing it into a vibrant community emphasizing prayer and worship. Influenced by A.B. Simpson, Waldvogel rejected sectarianism, focusing on Christ’s centrality and the Holy Spirit’s work. He delivered thousands of sermons, many recorded, stressing spiritual rest and intimacy with God. Married with children, he lived simply, dedicating his life to preaching across the U.S. His messages, blending Swiss precision with Pentecostal fervor, remain accessible through archives
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Hans R. Waldvogel emphasizes the necessity of repentance and being born again to truly worship God in spirit and truth. He critiques the current state of the church, likening it to a circus where true worship is absent due to a lack of genuine transformation in individuals. Waldvogel asserts that God commands all men everywhere to repent, warning that without repentance, one remains under God's wrath. He illustrates the transformation from sinner to son of God, highlighting the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit and living a life aligned with God's will. Ultimately, he calls for a return to recognizing Jesus as the King who demands obedience and repentance from all.
Repentance ("Ye Must Be Born Again")
Selected Verses: Acts 17:30. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent. John 3:7. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. Opening: And why is it that all of us have not learned to worship God “in spirit and in truth”? Why is it that there is so much hypocrisy? Just for one reason: “Except a man be born again…” You can take a pig to Carnegie Hall to listen to the choir sing The Messiah, but he won’t enjoy it. He might sit there if you give him a nipple to suck from, or a wad of chewing gum to chew. He might stay there if you give him something that appeals to the belly of a pig, but he won’t enjoy The Messiah. And you can get people into a Pentecostal meeting, and they won’t enjoy what’s going on at all unless they’re born again—unless they’re (…), unless they have repented of their sins. And people think they can do just as they please. I’ll tell you why: because the church today has largely become a circus; the preacher has largely become a clown. And if he doesn’t sing a nice song that people like, why, they can choose a thousand other churches to go to—if they want to go to church at all, and if they want to have a salve for their conscience. But God commanded “all men everywhere to repent.” That isn’t something you can choose. God commands all men everywhere to repent! He says, “If you don’t repent, if you don’t believe on the Son of God, the wrath of God abideth upon you.” “The wrath of God from heaven is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of men”—all ungodliness. But there’s one way, thank God! And that way is Jesus Christ. And He said, “Marvel not that I said unto you, ‘Ye must be born again.’” Out of that pig, God has to make a lamb. Out of that sinner, God Almighty has to make a son of God. Out of that servant of flesh and world and devil, God has to create a righteous man whose “delight is in the law of the Lord.” … Selected Quotes: Ah, he’s got a palette for this “bread that comes down from heaven.” His heart has been touched by the living fire of the Almighty God. How did that happen? He’s been filled with the Holy Ghost. He is interested in heavenly things. And God has blessed him “with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” God has enlightened him, has given him an eye which the world cannot have, has made him see the Son of God who is risen from the dead. And wherever he walks, wherever he goes, he lives “in the light of His countenance.” He is changed. He has been transformed. He has been born again. He’s got the evidence of it. “His delight is in the law of the Lord.” You don’t see him hang around the television set and swallow all that rot that the devil cooks up every day. No, he won’t. He’ll fire that thing out of his house. He’ll fire everything out of the house that’s in the way between him and God. He knows it’s a matter of life and death. He knows that unless he puts on “the whole armor of God,” he is licked. … Why repent? Why, because there’s a King. God Almighty has put a King upon the throne, a King that is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens”—a King who has received a charge from Almighty God not only to reign, but to “subdue all things under His feet, to “bring into captivity to the obedience of Christ every thought of man.” … I know the temptations that come to a young man. I’m not any different from any other man in the world. I know all about that. But I know something about a Savior who commanded me to repent, and who gave me no corner at all. He said, “If you live in the flesh, you shall die!” I believed. I believed His word. … Illustrations: HRW comments on science falsely so called. “…Most of our scientific pursuits have been poised by enmity toward God. … [Students] have told me if they don’t believe it, they don’t make their grades—even in our schools in this ‘land of the free’ and this ‘home of the brave.’ ‘Our father’s God, to Thee, Author of liberty, to Thee we sing; long may our land be bright, with freedom’s holy light’!” (from 4:22) Additional comments on the blindness of godless science. “Oh, how it indicts them… Everything that has today become a boastful invention of man is simply the discovery of something God has placed into His natural creation from the foundation of the world. How they boast of being able to fly now! The sparrows were able to do that 6000 years ago, and they didn’t boast of it.” (from 9:23) The story of a Catholic evangelist. “Listen, we’re going to be greatly surprised when Jesus comes. He’s not going to say, ‘Are you Pentecostal?’ … but, ‘Do you belong to Jesus?’ ‘The Lord knoweth them that are His.’” (from 13:52)
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Hans Rudolf Waldvogel (1893 - 1969). Swiss-American Pentecostal pastor and evangelist born in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Emigrating to the U.S. as a child, he grew up in Chicago, working in his family’s jewelry business until a conversion experience in 1916 led him to ministry. In 1920, he left business to serve as assistant pastor at Kenosha Pentecostal Assembly in Wisconsin for three years, then pursued itinerant evangelism. In 1925, he co-founded Ridgewood Pentecostal Church in Brooklyn, New York, pastoring it for decades and growing it into a vibrant community emphasizing prayer and worship. Influenced by A.B. Simpson, Waldvogel rejected sectarianism, focusing on Christ’s centrality and the Holy Spirit’s work. He delivered thousands of sermons, many recorded, stressing spiritual rest and intimacy with God. Married with children, he lived simply, dedicating his life to preaching across the U.S. His messages, blending Swiss precision with Pentecostal fervor, remain accessible through archives