Pentecostal History Essay

The largest and the most important religious performance to originate from the coupled States is the pentecostal motion. It is considered as the fourth furiousness in delivery boyendom alongside Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodox, and its exponential growth rate in terms of adherents is testimony to its appeal. The Charismatic mutation Movement has some of its roots in historic Pentecostalism, and it is now deep entrenched in most of the mainline Protestant denominations, in Catholicism, and in some Orthodox.In the 21st Century, the total adherents of Pentecostals and Charismatics probably exceed the feature numbers of Protestants and Orthodox. Pentecostal statistics show a total adherent family of 400 million in 1993,including the two hundred million members designated as nominational Pentecostals and 200 million Charismatics in the main Protestant denominations and Catholicism. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were each(prenominal) unneurotic in one place . And suddenly a sound came from heaven equivalent the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.And in that respect appeared to them tongues as of hassle, distri unlessed and resting on each one of them(Garnett 1987) The Acts of the Apostles, 21-3 (Cox 1995) Background annals Adherents of Pentecostalism take their name from an incident recounted in Chapter two of the Acts of the Apostles. The story describes how the missed followers of a recently crucified Rabbi whom they all believed to be the messiah of the world, had poised to mark the fiftieth day after Passover.Suddenly there was a heavenly sound like the rush of a mighty wind. The sacred character filled them, tongues as of fire crowned their heads, and surprisingly they could bring in each others language although the gathering comprised people from numerous different countries and different linguistic affinities. Apparently, the ancient curse of Babel had been reversed and that g od was creating a bracing inclusive human community in which Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia could all live together.Origins of the Pentecostal Faith The first Pentecost appeared on the scene in 1901 in Topeka, Kansas in a Bible school conducted by Charles play tricks Parham, a holiness teacher and cause Methodist pastor. There exists enormous controversy about the origins and timings of Parhams emphasis on glossolalia there is habitual agreement amongst historians that the movement was initiated in the first days of 1901, in the low gear of the Twentieth Century.One of Parhams Bible School students Agnes Ozman , was the first individual to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and she thereafter began verbalise in different tongues on the very first day of the red-hot century on January 1, 1901. According to J. Roswell Flower, the founding Secretary of the Assemblies of immortal, Ozmans fetch was the touch felt round the world, an event which made t he Pentecostal Movement of the Twentieth Century.Due to the Topeka Pentecost, Parham postulated the doctrine that tongues (glossolalia) was the biblical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit and that it a was a supernatural ability endow for the purpose of world evangelization. Glossolalia is an experiential phenomenon of an ecstatic, altered state of consciousness, in which bacchic techniques are cultivated to achieve ecstasy in the belief that unaccustomed psychological and physical states are synonymous with Spirit-possession. He added that since missionaries had the ability to chatter in any language, they need non learn any stark naked language for the purpose of evangelical preaching.Armed with this new theology, Parham founded a church building movement which he called the Apostolic Faith and began a whirlwind revival fling of the the Statesn Middle West to promote his exciting new experience. sawing machine an angel coming down from heaven With the key to the aby ss and a great Chain in his hand. He seized the dragon and chained him up for a thousand years So that he might non seduce the nations until the thousand years were over. Revelation 201-3 feed by broken packing cases and discarded wrapping paper the fire quickly spread from the boarded-up Casino to the empty Music Hall.From there sparks flew through with(predicate) the arctic night to the roofs of the exposition(Cox 1995). Prophecy of the Pentecost Traditionally, Americans choose always had a strong dose of millenium drilled in to them, covering the time the puritans land in New England to the revival sermonisers who traveled the Midwest on horseback, they were continually being told that the stand firm stages of history was unfolding and that America would play a major role in the grand finale. Going in to the twentieth century, prophecies and speculations regarding a new Pentecost and a New Jerusalem were rife.And in the last days it shall be, matinee idol declares, That I w ill pour out my Spirit upon all flesh Acts of the Apostles 217-19 The fire from heaven descended on April 9, 1906, on a small band of black domestic servants and custodial employees self-possessed for prayer in a wooden bungalow at 214 northwest Bonnie Brae Avenue in Los Angeles, California. (Cox 1995) Pastor at Azusa passage Seymour who had learned the tongues-attested baptism in a Bible school that Parham conducted in Houston, Texas in 1905 was invited to pastor a black holiness church in Los Angeles in 1906.Seymour opened the historic meeting in April, 1906 in a former African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church building at 312 Azusa track in downtown Los Angeles. The happenings at Azusa have fascinated church historians for decades and have never been fully understood or explained (Wackman 1994). For three years thereafter, the Azusa passage Apostolic Faith Mission conducted three services a day, seven-spot days a week, where thousands of seekers received the tongues baptism. Word of the revival was spread overseas through The Apostolic Faith, a paper that Seymour sent free of pick to some 50,000 subscribers.From Azusa Street Pentecostalism spread rapidly around the world and began its rear toward becoming a major force in Christendom. The Azusa Street movement seems to have been a merger of white American holiness religion with worship styles derived from the African-American Christian tradition which had developed since the days of chattel slavery in the South. The expressive worship and praise at Azusa Street, which include shouting and dancing, had been common among Appalachian whites as well as southerly blacks.The admixture of tongues and other charisms with black music and worship styles created a new and indigenous form of Pentecostalism that was to prove extremely attractive to disinherited and disadvantaged people, both in America and other nations of the world(MacRoberts 1988). Pentecost has come to Los Angeles, the American Jerusalem. all sect, creed and doctrine under heaven as well as every nation is represented. (Frank Bartleman,1906). The Inter racial Aspect The racial alter at the congregations was a stark contrast to the existing racial tensions and sequestrations of the times.The interracial aspects of the movement in Los Angeles were a striking exception to the racism and segregation of the times. The phenomenon of blacks and whites worshipping together under a black pastor seemed incredible to umteen observers. The event also cemented William Seymours place as not and the most influential black leader in American History, but also as a co-founder of world Pentecostalism(Deyoung et al 2003). This is the work of God, and cannot be stopped. While our enemies scold, we pray and the fire burns Household of God, Nov. 1907Spread of Pentecostal The Azusa Street movement in 1906, led by the African-American preacher William Joseph Seymour provided the much needed impetus for the spread of the Pentecostal fa ith, which until then had not really captured popular imagination. The first wave of Azusa pilgrims journeyed throughout the United States spread the Pentecostal fire, primarily in holiness churches, missions, and camp meetings. In America Gaston Barnabas Cashwell of North Carolina, who spoke in tongues in 1906 was one of the Azusa Pilgrims, whose six-month preaching round of the South in 1907 resulted in major inroads among southern holiness folk. chthonic his ministry, Cashwell saw several holiness denominations swept into the new movement, including the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), the Pentecostal Holiness Church, the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church, and the Pentecostal Free-Will Baptist Church. Also in 1906, Charles Harrison stonemason ,upon his return to Memphis from Azusa Street, spread the Pentecostal fire in the Church of God in Christ. The Church he founded comprised African-Americans only one generation removed from slavery. (The parents of both Seymour and Mason had been born as southern slaves).Although tongues caused a cling in the church in 1907, the Church of God in Christ experienced such explosive growth that by 1993, it was by out-of-the-way(prenominal) the largest Pentecostal denomination in North America, claiming some 5,500,000 members in 15,300 local anaesthetic churches. Another Azusa pilgrim was William H. Durham of Chicago. After receiving his tongues experience at Azusa Street in 1907, he returned to Chicago, where he led thousands of mid-western Americans and Canadians into the Pentecostal movement.In 1914, he found the Assemblies of God, which by 1993 had over 2,000,000 members in the U.S. and some 25,000,000 adherents in 150 nations of the world. closing curtain The Pentecostal Movement has proved to be a major force in Christendom throughout the world with unprecedented exponential growth of adherents. By the Nineties, The Pentecostals and their charismatic brothers and sisters in the mainline Protestant and Catholi c churches had turned their susceptibility and resources to world evangelization. The future will reveal the ultimate results of this movement which has greatly impacted the world during the Twentieth Century.