THE ROOTS OFAZUSA STREET REVIVAL ____________________

A Research Paper Presented to Professor Dale Buffington The Kings College

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In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Class HIS283.10- Christianity and American Culture _____________________

by Ruben Nolasco October, 2011

Who are the Pentecostals? What are their practices? What do they believe? Where do they come from? Is this movement another invention of religion? Until recently almost nobody had heard of the Pentecostals, but since the early 1900s this began to change. The main focus of Pentecostals is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is not the same as water baptism. While water baptism is performed by a man, be it a priest or a pastor, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is performed by Jesus Christ. Human responses to this experience vary from a little whisper to an ecstatic, explosive outbreak accompanied by waves of joy in the believer. Most will sense the presence of Jesus as never before and will receive the power to become effective witnesses of the gospel of Jesus. These are all signs of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but according to Pentecostalism, the main sign or proof of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the ability to speak in unknown tongues. Because it is so spectacular, speaking in tongues is the most controversial point among Protestants of other denominations. These experiences has been so criticized, so despised that in 1927 Colgate Universitys President, George B. Cutten, wrote against speaking in tongues. He believed that this experience was practiced by those of low mental ability and that none of the large Christian denominations would ever engage in this practice. How wrong was he and others who thought similarly! Today, Pentecostals are one of the fastest growing churches in the world. Speaking in tongues and other spiritual gifts have been so widespread among Christianity that it has been necessary to label groups as Classical Pentecostals, Protestant NeoPentecostals and Catholic Pentecostals for distinguishing purposes.1 It all started in 1906 at the Azusa Street Revival with William J. Seymour, one of the most influential and respected early Pentecostal leaders. What took place at the Azusa Street Mission was so impacting that 100 years later over 600,000,000 people belonged to this movement and almost every movement, whether Classical Pentecostal or Neo-Pentecostal, can trace part of their spiritual heritage to the Azusa Street Mission under the leadership of William J. Seymour.2 He

3 received his education in Houston at Parhams Bible school. One of the teachings that influenced Seymours life and ministry the most was the doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit accompanied with the initial sign of speaking in tongues. Little did he know that this teaching of speaking in tongues would revolutionize and start the reformation of Pentecostalism within in the 1900s. In 1906 he received an invitation to preach in a church in Los Angeles, California, but was locked out of the church due to his sermon on the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Although he did not speak in tongues at the time he was rejected from the Holiness church, Seymour spoke in tongues at the meetings he started in the home of Richard Asberry on Bonnie Brea Street. These home prayer meetings were so successful that soon it was necessary to look for another place to accommodate the eager crowds that would come to hear Seymour speak on the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit tongues. After searching for a place, Seymour found an abandoned old building at Azusa Street which had been previously used as a church, a stable and a warehouse. This building became the historical place where the Pentecostal Revival began in April of 1906.3 It did not take long after he began preaching at the Azusa Mission that a revival began. Followers began to receive the baptism of the Spirit accompanied with strange manifestations. The norm was for people to fall under the power of the Holy Spirit and then arise speaking in tongues. Los Angeles Times began reporting what was taking place at the Azusa mission by mid-April of the same year. Reporters described the revival as wild scenes of a new sect of fanatics led by an old colored exhorter who acted as mayordomo of the company. They also reported that old colored mammys were seen to gurgle wordless talk in a frenzy of religious zeal. As the Azusa Street revival continued, thousands of people began to flock to the mission, both the curious and the serious. News and accounts of the meetings began to spread around the country by both the secular and religious press. Most reports agreed upon one thing- disorder in the services. For three years and a half men and women would shout,

4 weep, dance, jump, roll, fall into trances, speak and sing in tongues and interpret their message into English. Although, Seymour was the pastor or leader of this movement, at times it seemed as if he did not care about order for he barely preached but kept his head covered in an empty packing crate behind the pulpit. While he would hide behind the pulpit, anyone who felt led by the Spirit would sing, prophesy or preach. There was no order of services, no hymnals, no robed quires, but there was a lot of enthusiasm! In addition to this, visitors to the meetings claimed they could feel a supernatural atmosphere within several blocks of the mission. Sounds of shouting and rejoicing were heard over the shops and surroundings of the mission. As the meetings continued, more and more people began to attend. By the summer of 1906 people of every race and nationality in the Los Angeles area had been part of the crowds that pressed into the mission from the street. Blacks, Chinese, Whites and Jews attended side by side to hear Seymour preach. Although the majority of the attendants were White, there was a complete integration of the races in the services, and by 1906 many believed that Pentecost had come to Los Angeles, the American Jerusalem.4 Despite the criticism and the negative press about this revival, Pentecostalism spread to the entire nation and many parts of the world. By 1909, Pentecostalism had spread to India and as far as Korea by the efforts of a well educated Christian woman, Pandita Ramabai of Mukti. Sometime before 1910, the Pentecostal message took hold in Johannesburg, South Africa by the efforts of two American evangelists, John Lake and Thomas Hezmalhalch. Central Africa was evangelized no later than 1914 by two Englishmen, William Burton and James Salter. In Latin America, Chile and Brazil were introduced to the Pentecostal experience very early. By 1907, an American pastor named Willis Hoover, had help a Methodist church in Chile engage in Pentecostal experience and theology. In North America, Canada was evangelized for Pentecostalism in the early years of the movements history. The Pentecostal movement also

5 spread to Mexico during the early years of its growth, attracting men and women in different towns and cities. In South America, the Pentecostal message was introduced to Argentina by a group of Italians from Chicago who brought the experience in 1909 mainly to their own people who had settled there. But the largest work in Argentina was undertaken only in 1921 with the arrival of Swedish and Canadian missionaries in Buenos Aires. Pentecostalism came to Australia but was slow to develop. Although the power of Pentecostalism had been felt in Australia, the widespread revival came until Aimee McPherson preached revival in 1922. The Pentecostal movement was introduced in Indonesia by two American missionaries in 1921. Its growth over the decades has been significant!5 This is a significant and outstanding growth, considering the humble beginnings at the Azusa Street Mission! But this is not something new as many have though it is. Pentecostalism did not begin in Azusa Street but its origins can be traced to the book of Acts and can be seen throughout 2000 years of Christian history. In his book, The New Charismatic, Richard Quebedeaux, affirms that even though it seems that Pentecostalism disappeared during the period between the apostolic era and the twentieth century, there is both Biblical and historical data to prove the contrary.6 In effect, Pentecostalism was new to most Americans, but did not have its origins in America. What cannot be denied is that America was the chosen nation to spread Pentecostalism to its own people and the rest of the world! And even though the revival only lasted three years and a half and the founder of the Azusa Street Mission, William J. Seymour died, the movement continues to this day. To the surprise of many, the origin of early Pentecostalism can be traced all the way back to the Bible in the book of Acts. Contemporary Pentecostals do not claim to possess a new set of beliefs originated by a twentieth-century denomination. Rather, they maintain that their main beliefs point back to the early church and its exercise of the supernatural gifts of the Spirit. Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He gave them clear instructions as to what the disciples were

6 to do in the next days. These instructions are clear in Scripture - He gave them this command: do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:4) From the context of the chapter, it is clear that Jesus was not referring to water baptism but to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The fulfillment of the Fathers promise came to pass in the second chapter of the book of Acts! This chapter is a description of what went on the day the Spirit came upon 120 followers of Christ which had gathered in an upper room there in Jerusalem in obedience to the command of Jesus. Verse 4 says that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Sprit led them. The same exact thing was happening at the Azusa Street Revival! Mary, the mother of Jesus and all the disciples must have spoken in tongues just as those who visited the Azusa Mission Street began speaking in tongues! So central to modern Pentecostal was Acts 2 that in one occasion Seymour said that the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the second chapter of Acts.7 This is not the only time that Christ would baptize Christians with tongues of fire but the evidence is plenty for any serious reader to ignore. Like anything else, some theological mistakes were made by the fathers of modern Pentecostalism in the late 1800s and early 1900s. For example, in one occasion Charles Fox Parham, the theological father of modern Pentecostalism, prayed for his followers to receive the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues. On January, 1 at 11 p.m., Agnes N. Ozman received the baptism with the Spirit and began to speak in tongues. It was reported that she spoke an unlearned Chinese language. Soon, Parham and the rest of the students began to speak in tongues also and Parham began to preach about this experience. In his teaching, he said that missionaries did not need to learn foreign languages of their mission but could receive it with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This was a great theological error which was later corrected by Pentecostals of early 1900.8

7 It seems that Pentecostal phenomena disappeared between the apostolic era and the twentieth century, but this is not the case at all. Although reports of glossolalia and manifestations of the Holy Spirits are present within 2000 years of Christian history, cessation of the charismata was the norm. The view that the gifts of the Spirit, including speaking in tongues had ceased after the last apostle is known as Cessationist theology and was the creation of the western church by John Chrysostom and Augustine in the fourth century.9 Due to this doctrine, speaking in tongues became so rare that the church forgot their function in the Christian community, but sparks of revival continued among men and women who refused to settle for anything else than the genuine work of the Holy Spirit. The writings of men called the Church Fathers are helpful to trace the continuity of the spiritual gifts throughout the first three centuries. Bishop Irenaeus, who studied under Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John, gives evidence of being a firm believer of spiritual gifts by frequent usage of the word Spirit in his writings10 and by observing that many brethren in the church possessed the gifts of the Spirit and spoke in all kinds of languages. In an effort to recapture the manifestations of the Spirit recorded in the book of Acts, a man named Montanus stirred up in the lives of his followers a desire for a Pentecostal renewal, resulting in a sect known as the Montanists. Even though they went to the extreme on some of their Pentecostal doctrine they survived from the first century to the sixth century.11 In the 18th century, John Wesley introduced to his Methodist followers the idea of a second blessing. By that he meant entire sanctification, an experience that led people to, in his own words, Christian perfection. Radical Wesleyans, who left Methodism in the 19th century to join the Holiness movement referred to the second blessing as the baptism in the Holy Spirit.12 By this time the gift of tongues was a sign of the baptism in the Spirit as evidenced by Christian giants of the recent past such as Edward Irving, Spurgeon and William Arthur among

8 others. The following is an example of what Irving believed on the manifestations of the Holy Spirit: This gift of tongues is the crowning act of all. None of the old prophets had it, Christ had it not; it belongs to the dispensation of the Holy Spirit proceeding from the risen Christ: it is the proclamation that man is enthroned in heaven, that man is the dwelling place of God, that all creation if they would know God, must give ear to mans tongue, and how the compass of reason. It is not we that speak, but Christ that speaketh. It is not in us as men that God speaks; but in us as members of Christ, as the church and body of Christ that God speaks. The honor is not to us, but to Christ; not to the God-head of Christ, which is ever the same, but to the manhood of Christ, which hath been raised from the state of death to the state of being Gods temple, Gods most holy place, Gods shechinah, Gods oracle, forever and ever.13 Although this was not the norm among the protestant church, to Irving, tongues were the outward and visible sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit! London Baptist preacher Charles H. Spurgeon said in an 1857 sermon titled The Power of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit was going to be poured out in a far different style from the present. He hoped to live and see with his own eyes the repetition of Acts 2. A year earlier, a British Methodist preacher, William Arthur wrote a book entitled The Tongue of Fire. This book was the first one to dismiss the traditional view of the cessation and withdrawal of the charismata. He closed his memorable book with this challenge to the church: And now adorable Spiritbaptize your people generally O, baptize them yet again with tongues of fire!14 After all the renewals, revivals and reforms in more than two thousand years of Christian history, it is impossible to deny the existence of the spiritual visitations of the Holy Spirit to different sectors of Christianity. Furthermore, it is difficult to deny the veracity of what took place in the Azusa Street Revival. It was not a new phenomenon as many have tried to suggest, but it was a visitation of the Holy Spirit just as it had happened in the streets of Jerusalem about two thousand years ago! This event could be considered as the reformation of the spiritual gifts by William J. Seymour just as the reformation of the word by Martin Luther in the 16th century.

9 And just as the reformers suffered opposition and persecution by the dominant belief of their time, it is not strange that the reformers of the Spirit had to go through the same kind of persecution as well. In spite of accusations of being demon possessed and referred to as Holy Rollers in the early 1900s, today they are one of the largest and fastest growing movements in the world. Of course, anyone in their right mind would know that fast growth is not a synonym for genuine. Rather the truthfulness of Pentecostalism rests on the fact that its origin begins in the book of Acts and is evidenced by two thousand years of Christian history. Another sign of the genuine work of the Holy Spirit as known in the Azusa Street revival is the unity that it brought among Christians of most denominations. What appeared to be impossible became a reality as mainstream Protestantism welcomed the gifts of the Spirit into their particular denominations! Pentecostalism is also accepted by many nations of the world. Its flexibility attracts the conservative as well as emotional worshipers as they call on the name of Jesus, welcome the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth, and wait for the second coming of the living Christ!

NOTES

1 Steve Durasoff, Bright Wind of the Spirit: Pentecostalism Today, (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1972), 6. 2 3 Frank Bartleman, Azusa Street: An Eyewitness Account, (Gainesville, Florida: Bridge Logos, 1980), 11. Ibid., 26.

4 Vinson Synan, The Holiness Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movement in the Twentieth Century, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), 97-99. 5 Richard Quebedeaux, The New Charismatics: The origins, Development, and Significance of Neo-Pentecostalism, (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1976), 43-44. 6 Ibid.,20.

7 Grant Wacker, Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American History, (Cambridge, Masachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2001), 43. 8 21. Mark J. Cartledge, Encountering the Spirit: The Charismatic Tradition, (MaryKnoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2006),

9 Vinson Synan, The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001), 19-20. 10 11 12 13 14 Justo L. Gonzlez, The Story of Christianity, Vol. I, (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1984), 302 Durasoff, 35. Synan, 15. Synan, 23. Synan, 25-26.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Durasoff Steve. Bright Wind of the Spirit: Pentecostalism Today. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1972.

Bartleman Frank. Azusa Street: An Eye Witness Account. Gainesville, Florida: Bridge-Logos, 1980. Synan Vinson. The Holiness Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movements in the Twentieth Century. Grand Rapids, Michigan. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997. Quebedeaux Richard. The New Charismatics. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1976. Wacker Grant. Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2001. Cartledge Mark J. Encountering the Spirit: The Charismatic Tradition. Mary Knoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2006. Synan Vinson. The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001. Gonzlez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity, Vol. I. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco,1984.