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PENTECOSTAL HISTORY
AD 130
Irenaeus makes a reference to the "charismata": "Wherefore, also, those who are in truth the disciples, receiving grace from Him, do in His name perform [miracles].... Some do certainly and truly drive out devils.... Others have foreknowledge of things to come; they see visions and utter prophetic expressions. Others still, heal the sick by laying their hands upon them."
AD 156
Montanus fought against the liturgical and official ministry swing in the church of his day. He called upon his followers to live in a state of frequent ecstasy and vision."
AD 160
Tertullian also makes an ambiguous reference: "Now all these signs (spiritual gifts such as psalm, vision, prayer in ecstasy) are forthcoming from my side without any difficulty."
AD 345-407
Chrysostom. Charismatic gifts almost disappeared. Speaking in tongues associated with a gift of languages provided to missionaries like St. Francis Xavier and others, languages to be used in their missionary work among strange people.
AD 5th century to Reformation.
Manifestations were almost nonexistent. Some accounts of "'Spirituals' who preached against the worldliness of the clergy, the hyperinstitutionalism; and who were themselves rather quick to respond to what they thought were the direct impulses of the Holy Spirit."
16th century
Radical Anabaptists in Germany - speaking in tongues were reported, though infrequently.
17th century
Camisards and Jansenists in France - again infrequent speaking in tongues.
18th century
Shakers in America. Mother Ann Lee "was often found singing or praying in an unknown tongue." "Respecting such as speak in an unknown tongue, they have a strong faith in this gift; and think a person greatly favored who has the gift of tongues; and at certain times, when the mind is overloaded with a fiery strong zeal, it must have vent some way or other; their faith, or belief, at the time being in this gift, and a will strikes the mind according to their faith; and then such break out in a fiery, energetic manner, and speak they know not what, as I have done several times."
1801
Cane Ridge, Kentucky, Presbyterian camp meeting "about three thousand people fell in the state of trance, and other hundreds were given to such demonstrations as 'jerking, rolling, dancing, and barking'".
1830
Irvington movement, Port Glasgow, Scotland. Tongues and healings. Edward Irving was like John the Baptist, preparing the way. Going against his "Kirk Session", he continued to allow speaking in tongues. The Regent Square church became closed to him and the other charismatics, so in 1832 he began services in the Exhibition Hall. Irvingites believed that their "speaking in tongues" was the same as reported at Pentecost, and evidence of Spirit baptism. Speaking in tongues was deemed to be a prerequisite for the operation of the nine gifts. For them, the "Charismata" are a permanent possession of the church, withheld at times due to unfaithfulness. They were forced to withdraw from the Presbyterian Church, and so established a new denomination called the "Catholic Apostolic Church."
1896
William Bryant, a layman. Cherokee County, North Carolina. "Some of the worshippers were 'so enraptured with the One to whom they prayed that they were curiously exercised by the Holy spirit,' speaking in languages unknown to those who heard the ecstatic utterances." This revival took place near the Tennessee, North Carolina boarder. Richard G. Spurling, Baptist Church pastor in Cokercreek, Monroe County, Tennessee, concerned about traditionalism, legalism, ecclesiolatry, called a conference in 1886 at the Barney Creek Meetinghouse. A union was formed to reassert the intrinsic doctrines of the Bible and the vital matters of Christian service, to "restore primitive Christianity and bring about the union of all denominations." Eight persons responded to come forward, those "desirous to be free from all man-made creeds and traditions . . . willing to take the New Testament for your only rule of faith and practice."
Richard G. Spurling died shortly after the Christian Union was formed; his son took over, travelled by foot in Tennessee and North Carolina, "preaching to individuals he met in the way, debating with antagonistic preachers, praying and weeping constantly, winning what few converts he could."
Through the influence of the Christian Union three men became interested, one Methodist, two Baptists. The three claimed an experience like that of John Wesley. They preached in homes, in the open, and under brush arbors.
At the same time, in Camp Creek, Cherokee County, North Carolina, a group of Baptists began to meet in their homes for prayer, singing, testimonies. The "three" found their way there, the revival began. Using the "Shearer Schoolhouse", they spoke from the Scriptures and their experience, with much prayer and fasting. The meetings began with singing, then testimonies, then prayer, with everyone praying aloud all at once; then followed the discourse, and an altar call. People came from 15 - 30 miles away.
"The people felt a strange exaltation that intermittently overflowed in weeping and shouting. Their emotional expression frequently became even more demonstrative, for many danced in spiritual ecstasy or trance as they were deeply moved by a sense of salvation and well being." The Christian Union moved to North Carolina where the two became one.
In 1896, some spoke in tongues. Spurling, hearing of the revival, rushed back, and one of the first to be filled. Crowds grew, many were healed; the opposition began to form. However, a major feature of this movement was the burden or evangelism. "There was a sense of immediacy and urgency in reaching beyond the confines of the mountains with the gospel of redemption, holiness, and the Spirit filled life. Following reports of revivals conducted during the past year was a period of consecration for evangelism during the coming year. The session was a time of much weeping so heavy lay the passion for souls upon their hearts."
1896
Dr. John Alexander Dowie, Zion, Ill. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1847, he emigrated to Australia where he became pastor of a congregational church in 1872. He began to preach "divine healing", an preached in street meetings for which he was arrested and imprisoned. As many as 20,000 attended his healing services. In 1888 he came to the U.S., and in 1896 founded the "Catholic Apostolic Church", and established headquarters in Zion in 1900.
1901
Charles Fox Parham, director of Bethel Bible College. Topeka, KA. Born in Iowa 1873, felt a call into the ministry at age nine. At 14 became an exhorter in the Methodist church, at 16 enrolled in college for training for the ministry. After switching to the study of medicine, was afflicted with rheumatic fever, which he thought was brought on by his rebellion, prayed for healing, was restored, finished college at age 19 and began ministry in the Methodist Church in Kansas.
Left the Methodist and from then on championed "non- denominationalism". In 1898 opened a "faith home" in Topeka, and sponsored a magazine, "The Apostolic Faith." He opened an informal Bible School in an unfinished mansion known as "Stone's folly". Bethel Bible College was only open for one year, dedicated to the intensive study of the Bible in a spiritual atmosphere to develop an effective witness for Christ. 40 students from a variety of denominational backgrounds, and mostly mature, some of whom had already been involved in ministry. The Bible was the only text, emphasis on prayer, and practical service - Parham's mission and home visitation. After studying topics such as repentance, conversion, sanctification, healing, and the second coming, the students were assigned the topic of the Biblical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Parham returned on December 31, 1900, and the students reported their findings.
Agnes Ozman was the first student to experience the fullness of the Holy spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Other students began to seek, although urged by Agnes "not to seek tongues, but to seek for the Holy Ghost."
An evangelistic crusade was launched to spread the message. Parham held meetings in Nevada, Missouri in 1903, and then in El Dorado Springs. Mary Arthur from Galena was prayed for and healed of seriously impaired vision. She invited Parham to Galena, first meeting in her home, then in a tent, and finally in the "Grand Leader Building" seating 2,000. 800 were converted, over 1,000 healed, and many filled with the Spirit with speaking in tongues.
An invitation came from Texas from Walter Oyler and his wife who had been in Galena, MO. A revival was held in Orchard, TX, and a visitor from Houston, Mrs. John C. Calhoun invited Parham there. The revival spread throughout the area. To train workers, Parham opened a faith Bible school in Houston, one of the students was a black holiness preacher named W. J. Seymour.
1905
Welsh Revival. Probably the most significant predecessor to the Pentecostal revival in America was the revival in Wales. Prayerful preparation had gone on for many years, but the spark was kindled through a young miner by the name of Evan Roberts. In the fall of 1904 he felt compelled through a vision to return home from the college he was attending. At 26, he had already spent 13 years praying for a visitation of the Holy Spirit. Getting permission from his pastor, Evan spoke to a small group who remained following the regular prayer meeting at Moriah Chapel in Laughor. Even though this first meeting was a disappointment, more people gathered the next night at a small mission chapel nearby; they heard Evan speak concerning being filled with the Holy Spirit. Each night that week he preached, and on Sunday evening 60 young people committed themselves to Christ. The following night the meeting lasted until 3 a.m. - it had been an unusual mixture of repentance and joy. Just twelve days after Robert's first meeting with 17 people, over 800 tried to get into the little Moriah chapel. People began opening their homes for prayer meetings - these soon overflowed into the streets. The revival fervor spread to nearby Aberdare where Evan and five Spirit filled women (ages 18-20), and then to over two dozen other cities and towns. "Spontaneous prayer meetings began in the mines, factories, schools and shops. Even the amusement parks were filled with a holy awe as brigades of evangelists swept through them. Men who entered taverns to order drinks left them untouched as conviction and the fear of God came upon them."
1905
Chile and Brazil. A Chicago doctor by the name of Willis Hoover, now a Methodist missionary and District Superintendent for Chile, heard about an unusual revival in India. Breaking out among the students in a girls' school in Puna, this move of God yielded many reports of trances, visions, dreams, prophecies and speaking in tongues. One of Hoover's members in the Valparaiso Methodist church, a simple watchman, had a dream in which he was instructed to go to his pastor and tell him to call the spiritual people together for a daily prayer meeting. In this dream, Jesus said, "I intend to baptize them with tongues of fire." These 5:00 a.m. parsonage prayer meetings resulted in an unusual, historic revival which soon spread to the country's capital city of Santiago. There were reports of dancing, spiritual visions, "they spoke in angelic languages, prophesying about this great spiritual revival. The Holy Spirit took them into the streets. The authorities took them to the police stations as arrested prisoners, but they continued to dance in the stations, speaking with other tongues and prophesying to the same authorities. We were persecuted from many directions, and were cast out of the Methodist temples because their pastors would not accept this form of revival. They treated us like crazy men."
This movement has continued so that it is expected that if the present growth pattern persists, by the turn of the century Chile's population will be 50% Pentecostal.
The beginnings of the Pentecostal movement in Brazil are also dramatic. Two Swedish immigrants in South Bend Indiana attended a small Pentecostal prayer meeting in which a prophesy directed them to go to "Para" as missionaries. At the Chicago Library they found out that this name belonged to a province in northeast Brazil. A later prophecy told these two to go to a particular site in New York City where an unknown man would meet them. They simply obeyed, a man appeared to give them the exact amount of money to buy one way tickets to Brazil. They traveled by steamer in 1910, and began attending a small Baptist church in Belem, Para. Soon the Spirit fell with gifts of healing and tongues; their meetings were moved to the basement, but before long almost everybody was in the basement, and the sanctuary was nearly empty! Due to the ensuing tension, an 18 member "Assembly of God (prior to the U.S. Assemblies of God) was organized. This church now exceeds 30,000; the number of Pentecostals in Brazil now numbers more than 13 million. According to one account, in 1900 Protestants numbered 50,000 in all of Latin America. By 2,000 it is expected that this number will have swollen to 100 million, 75% of them being Pentecostal.
1906
Asuza Street Mission, Los Angeles, California. W. J. Seymour became convinced of the truth of the Pentecostal message while sitting under Parham's teaching in the training school in Houston.
In LA the pastor of the First Baptist Church, Joseph Smale, after visiting the outstanding "Welsh Revival", began prayer meetings in 1905. These included spontaneous worship and many people were healed. His enthusiasm caused difficulty with his board, and Pastor Smale left the church to start "New Testament Assembly." There continued to be much prayer for revival in this church as well as in numerous "cottage prayer meetings."
Neeley Terry was associated with a small Nazarene church in LA She visited Houston in 1905, and when she return she told about the "very godly man" she had met while in Houston, W. J. Seymour. This Nazarene church then invited him to preach in their church. His first sermon was on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4), even though at that time he had not yet been filled with the Spirit with speaking in tongues. That same afternoon, when he returned to the small church, the door was locked, and he was told that the church believed that he was teaching false doctrine, and that he was no longer welcome. So he moved his meetings to a private home of some Baptists on Bonnie Brae St. On April 9, 1906, the Spirit fell upon this small group of African American believers. A former Methodist church building was arranged for at 312 Azusa Street. (The building had been converted into a tenement house.) A space on the first floor was cleared out to accommodate 30-40 people, planks set on nail kegs.
The revival continued for three years. W. J. Seymour served as the leader. He was humble, simple, relatively uneducated, obscure, and had a notably defective eye. A news reporter was sent with the obvious intent of exposing this event as a ridiculous "circus". However, during the meeting a woman began speaking out in tongues, the very language of this foreign born reporter, confronting him with his sin. Afterward he found this woman, and verified that she had not know what she was saying, and the reporter declared that he would accept Jesus. He told his supervisor that he could not write the article as instructed, but would be willing to write an accurate account. The newspaper didn't want that, and terminated his services.
Visitors came from many parts of the nation, as well as many Christian workers and missionaries. One such person was Elder Sturdevant, an African American preacher on his way to Africa, brought the Pentecostal message to New York City in December of 1906. Word spread throughout the states as well as Canada, and Norway.
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