Pentecostalism :: Religion, Informative

PentecostalismThe first "pentecostals" in the modern sense appeared on the scene in 1901 in the city of Topeka, Kansas in a ledger school conducted by Charles Fox Parham, a holiness teacher and actor Methodist pastor. In spite of controversy over the origins and timing of Parhams strain on glossolalia, all historians agree that the movement began during the first days of 1901 fitting as the area entered the Twentieth Century. The first person to be christen in the Holy Spirit accompanied by speaking in tongues was Agnes Ozman, one of Parhams Bible School students, who spoke in tongues on the precise first day of the modernistic century, January 1, 1901. According to J. Roswell Flower, the founding Secretary of the Assemblies of God, Ozmans screw was the "touch felt round the world," an event which " made the Pentecostal political campaign of the Twentieth Century."As a result of this Topeka pentecost, Parham formulated the teaching that tongue was the "Bible evidence" of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He too taught that tongue was a supernatural impartation of human languages for the purpose of world evangelization. Henceforth, he taught, missionaries need not study foreign languages since they would be equal to preach in miraculous tongues all over the world. Armed with this modernistic theology, Parham founded a church movement, which he called the "Apostolic Faith" and began a whirlwind revitalization tour of the American Middle West to promote his exciting new experience. It was not until 1906, however, that Pentecostalism achieved worldwide attention through the Azusa Street revival in