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Pentecostal History EssayThe largest and the most important religious movement to get down from the United States is the Pentecostal Movement. It is considered as the fourth force in Christendom alongside Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodox, and its exponential growth outrank in terms of adherents is testimony to its appeal. The Charismatic Re advancedal Movement has virtually of its roots in diachronic Pentecostalism, and it is now deeply 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 combined numbers of Protestants and Orthodox. Pentecostal statistics show a total adherent base of 400 million in 1993,including the cc 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 all together in one place. And dead a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the kinsperson where they were sitting.And there appeared to them tongues as of erect, distributed and resting on each one of them(Garnett 1987) The Acts of the Apostles, 21-3 (Cox 1995) Background History Adherents of Pentecostalism take their scream from an incident recounted in Chapter two of the Acts of the Apostles. The story describes how the confused 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 Pass everyplace.Suddenly there was a heavenly sound like the rush of a mighty wind. The devoted spirit filled them, tongues as of call forth crowned their heads, and surprisingly they could down the stairsstand 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 God was creating a new 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 paroxysm in 1901 in Topeka, Kansas in a Bible school conducted by Charles Fox Parham, a pietism teacher and former Methodist pastor. There exists considerable controversy about the origins and timings of Parhams emphasis on glossolalia there is general agreement amongst historians that the movement was initiated in the first old age of 1901, in the beginning of the ordinal Century.One of Parhams Bible School students Agnes Ozman , was the first person to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and she thereafter began speaking in different tongues on the very first day of the new vitamin C on January 1, 1901. According to J. Roswell Flower, the founding Secretary of the Assemblies of God, Ozmans experience was the touch felt round the world, an event which make the Penteco stal 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 endowed for the purpose of world evangelization. Glossolalia is an experiential phenomenon of an ecstatic, altered state of consciousness, in which orgiastic techniques are cultivated to achieve ecstasy in the belief that comical psychological and physical states are synonymous with Spirit-possession. He added that since missionaries had the ability to speak in any language, they withdraw not learn any new language for the purpose of evangelical preaching.Armed with this new theology, Parham founded a church movement which he called the Apostolic Faith and began a whirlwind revival tour of the American shopping center West to promote his exciting new experience. saw an angel coming down from heaven With the bring up to the abyss and a great Chain in his h and. He seized the dragon and chained him up for a thousand years So that he might not seduce the nations until the thousand years were over. Revelation 201-3 Fed by broken packing cases and discarded wrapping paper the recruit quickly cattle farm from the boarded-up Casino to the empty Music Hall.From there sparks flew through the arctic night to the roofs of the expo(Cox 1995). Prophecy of the Pentecost Traditionally, Americans have always had a strong dose of millenium drilled in to them, covering the sentence the puritans landed in New England to the revival preachers who traveled the Midwest on horseback, they were continually being told that the support stages of history was unfolding and that America would play a major role in the grand finale. dismissal in to the 20th century, prophecies and speculations regarding a new Pentecost and a New Jerusalem were rife.And in the last days it shall be, God declares, That I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh Acts of the Apos tles 217-19 The fire from heaven descended on April 9, 1906, on a small band of black domestic servants and custodial employees gathered for prayer in a wooden bungalow at 214 North Bonnie Brae Avenue in Los Angeles, California. (Cox 1995) Pastor at Azusa route 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 diachronic meeting in April, 1906 in a former African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church edifice at 312 Azusa Street 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 trey years thereafter, the Azusa Street Apostolic Faith Mission conducted three services a day, seven days a week, where thousands of seekers received the tongues baptism. Word of the revival was spread abroad through The Apostolic Faith, a pa per that Seymour sent free of charge to some 50,000 subscribers.From Azusa Street Pentecostalism spread rapidly around the world and began its advance 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 black Christian tradition which had developed since the days of chattel slavery in the South. The expressive worship and assess at Azusa Street, which included shouting and dancing, had been common among Appalachian whites as well as Southern blacks.The adulteration of tongues and other charisms with black music and worship styles created a new and indigenous form of Pentecostalism that was to prove super attractive to disinherited and deprived 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. (Fran k Bartleman,1906). The disguise racial Aspect The interracial mingling at the congregations was a stark contrast to the existing racial tensions and segregations 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 many observers. The event similarly cemented William Seymours place as not still 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 burn down 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 faith, which until then had not really captured popular imagination. The first wave of Azusa pilgrims journeyed throughout the United States spreading 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 tour of the South in 1907 resulted in major inroads among southern holiness folk.Under 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 Mason ,upon his pass by 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 burst in the chur ch in 1907, the Church of God in Christ experienced such detonative growth that by 1993, it was by far the largest Pentecostal denomination in North America, claiming some 5,500,000 members in 15,300 local 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 established 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. Conclusion 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 Catholic churches had turned their energy and resources to world evangelization. The future will reveal the ultimate resul ts of this movement which has greatly impacted the world during the Twentieth Century.