Agnes Ozman spoke in tongues in a Topeka Bible School after students had been exhorted to make a study of Biblical baptism in the Spirit by Charles Parham, leader of the Bible School. The release of ‘speaking in tongues’ was preached for about 4 or 5 years without becoming a global reformation move through Parham’s Apostolic Faith Movement. In 1905 Parham’s Bible School was moved to Houston, Texas and from there the seeds of the Pentecostal Reformation was sown.
One of the students of Parham’s Bible School in late 1905 was a man named William Seymour who would be the primary catalyst of the Pentecostal Reformation in Los Angeles, on Azusa Street in early 1906. “William Seymour was born in Centerville, Louisiana, on May 2, 1870 to former slaves Simon and Phillis Seymour. Raised as a Baptist, Seymour was given to dreams and visions as a young man…while in Indianapolis, he joined a local black congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church. From 1900 to 1902, Seymour lived in Cincinatti, Ohio, where he came in contact with the Holiness Movement…accepting the Holiness emphasis on entire sanctification, Seymour joined the Church of God Reformation movement…” [2]
Sadly, the racist roots of the South and Parham himself, mandated that Seymour sit outside the hall with a door propped open in order to hear the message of Pentecost.
Although he himself had not yet experienced the sign of ‘speaking in tongues’, Seymour received and believed the message and in early 1906 moved to Los Angeles to help pastor a Holiness Church. “The Church, which was connected with the Southern California Holiness Association, was founded and pastored by Julia W. Hutchins…In his first sermon in Los Angeles, Seymour preached on Acts 2.4, and to the dismay of Pastor Hutchins, he announced the necessity of speaking in other tongues as evidence of the Pentecostal experience. Because of opposition from the Holiness Association, Hutchins locked the church door, and Seymour was forced to find refuge in the home of Richard Asberry on Bonnie Bray Avenue.” [3]
“Seymour felt compelled to continue his work at all costs and began preaching in the home of Edward Lee and his wife, who were black adherents of one of the Holiness missions in Los Angeles…While Seymour was staying with the Lees, the group that had been turned out…by Mrs. Hutchins began once again to meet at the Asberry home at 214 N. Bonnie Brae Street…Seymour also attended the meetings on Bonnie Brae Street and at one of these meetings, he laid his hands upon Lee that he might receive the Spirit. Although Lee did not speak in tongues at this time, he was slain in the Spirit under the power of God. This caused considerable alarm to his wife, who thought he had fallen into a trance. She called an immediate end to the proceedings. In late March or early April, Lucy Farrow and J. A. Warren came from Houston in response to Seymour’s requests of Parham for help in Los Angeles. Lucy Farrow had already been quite successful in leading other people into the experience of tongues with the laying on of hands.” [4]
“On Monday, April 9, Edward Lee asked Lucy Farrow to lay hands on him for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. She fulfilled this request, and Lee burst forth in tongues. These things took place about an hour and a half before the meeting was to commence at the Asberry home.”
“They walked to the meeting, where Seymour was in charge. After several had prayed and a few had given testimonies, Seymour began preaching from the second chapter of Acts and began recounting what had happened earlier that evening. As Lee began to give his testimony, he lifted his hands in the air and suddenly began speaking in tongues. The others at the evening meeting fell down to their knees. Seated at the piano, Jennie Evans Moore also fell to her knees. An eight year old black boy was the first be baptized in the Spirit and speak in tongues, followed by Jennie Moor and five others. Carl Brumback described the event: …“As though hit by a bolt of lightening, the entire company was knocked down from their chairs to the floor. Seven began to speak in divers kinds of tongues and to magnify God.” [5]
Reformation Focus Points
The central focus of the Pentecostal Reformation was the reception of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues as described in Acts 2. While there were times in Church history when people did speak with ‘other tongues’, the Pentecostal Reformation was the first time it was uniformly and theologically connected to Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2.1-4: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.”
Acts 10.45-47: “All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?”
Acts 19.1-6: “It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.”
While the primary activating focus of the Pentecostal Reformation was the baptism in the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, the larger focus centered on a restoration of the work and gifts of the Holy in the Church. Until the Pentecostal Reformation, the Gifts of the Spirit were considered to have died out with the first century Church and the finishing of the Bible.
The Pentecostals believed that all of the gifts of the Spirit were for the present day Church.
1 Corinthians 12.1-1: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
Persecutions
Just as in the Holiness Reformation the persecutions that the Pentecostal Reformers faced were not physical but social, emotional, and relational. Great persecution came from the Reformed, Methodist, Baptist and Holiness churches. Many of the persecutions themselves were racist in nature and saw the Pentecostal experience as being simply ‘African emotionalism’ and ‘voodoo’.
“In his ‘Holiness, The False and the True, H.A. Ironside in 1912 denounced both the holiness and Pentecostal movements as ‘disgusting…delusions, and insanities. Characterizing Pentecostal meetings as ‘pandemoniums where exhibitions worthy of a madhouse or a collection of howling dervishes are held night after night.” [6]
Even until today, despite the amazing growth and adjustments of error and extremes from within the Pentecostal Movement itself, there are strong critics of it and those who refuse to walk in its truth. John MacArthur in his book on the Holy Spirit boldly declares that anyone who claims to ‘speak in tongues’ does so because of one of four possibilities: 1) They are delusional, 2) They are faking, 3) They are ill, or 4) They are demon-possessed
In spite of those attacks we press on…we retain the treasure of our heritage!
[1] Edith Blumhoffer. Restoring the Faith (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993), p. 1.
[2] Dictionary of the History of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements [Stanley Burgess and Gary B. McGee, ed.] (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1988), p. 780.
[3] Ibid., p. 780
[4] Richard M. Riss. A Survey of Twentieth-Century Revival Movements in North America (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988), p. 52.
[5] Ibid., p. 53.
[6] Vinson Synan. The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement In The United States, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1971), p. 144.
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