11:43 am Our challenge today is monumental but clear. I felt that was making an essential issue out of a nonessential issue, and, contrary to both Christ's prayer and "original Pentecostalism," limits the unity of the church by placing an inferred doctrinal issue in the same category as the explicit fundamental doctrines of Christianity.73. For his time, it was a radical idea, and now, for our time, it is just as radical. 19 Ibid., 116. The "color line" was washed away in the blood.

It started with Seymour saying that Durham was the most anointed man in the revival and ended with the former hating the latter all because of a difference on the issue of sanctification. Seymour assumed that Parham was only enforcing the racial segregation in his meetings and school as a temporary concession to the social environment, and that eventually he would phase in greater racial equality. 22 Ibid., 41-42. Scripture places narrative weight on the significance of all nations being represented. Many think it could have been over racism in the church and that is very possible. At some point, we have to stop repeating the same mistakes we have made over and over. God is Lord even of our theology about Him. The supernatural so blatantly interacting with the natural is bound to attract a curious crowd, and as the news spread of the goings-on in the meeting house, the attendance grew rapidly. "51 He consequently viewed the emphasis on racial unity (and the preponderance of black leadership) as misguided, to say the least. The war was over, but not the battle. Seymour soon moved to Cincinnati, OH around the turn of the century, about the same time W. E. B. DuBois made the above statement recognizing the racial problem as crucial to the 20th century.

What they found was in fact something quite different. And occasionally, Seymour would preach. He was the second of eight children born to emancipated slaves and raised Catholic in extreme poverty in Louisiana.

From early on in the revival, there was alot of discussion about holiness and its impact on the believer.

Every region of the United States had a Pentecostal presence, with additional missions planted in 50 nations worldwide. Seymour became involved with this church, traveling as a preacher. In trusting his "white brethren" completely, Seymour was a casualty of his own radical beliefs.

[61] On September 28, 1922, Seymour suffered two heart attacks and died in his wife's arms. [CDATA[ (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); // ]]> Foster describes them as wanting glossolalia and the experience with the Holy Spirit, but not the associated interracial mingling and equality.54 As these leaders separated from Azusa physically, the doctrine separated accordingly. By 1914, the revival was past its peak, but Seymour continued to pastor the Apostolic Faith Mission he founded until his death. We ought therefore to keep in mind a principle that Seymour understood well: "Unity thrives amid diversity.

Laughter, praise, and speech in other tongues filled the room.

Although people usually wanted it in the sense that they repented and sought the baptism of the Holy Spirit, obviously some white leaders (such as Parham and Durham) wanted to lead or control it. Many kinds of different (even antithetically so) people uniting through God and very little else is perpetually radical.

"The Past: Historical Roots of Racial Unity and Division in American Pentecostalism -- Response to a Paper Presented by Dr. Cecil M. Pentecostals identify Ozman as the first person in modern times to receive the gift of speaking in tongues as an answer to prayer for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. //

"13 Seymour did not consider the invitation long. [58] Durham began to attack Seymour publicly, launching a rhetoric campaign claiming that Seymour was no longer following the will of God and was not fit to be a leader. Banned from the church he had been invited to pastor, Seymour did not wallow in despair or seek revenge. Foster reports that Parham "maintained close affinities with the Ku Klux Klan, believed that the mixing of the races had caused the flood in Noah's time, and viewed the Anglo-Saxon race as the lineal descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Without even a Spirit-filled leader, the Spirit's movement was begun. 36 John 17:23. Irregardless of that doctrine's correctness, the history of Pentecostalism reveals it as an inferior brand of Pentecostalism, the one that divided and segregated the work at Azusa, the white man's "Pentecostal distinctive" to replace the unwanted distinctive of inter-racial unity. [33] Over the next three days, the Asberry home became the focus of attention among the various networks of Wesleyan holiness people. [54], Without possession of the mailing list, Seymour lost control of the newspaper, and his authority over the burgeoning Pentecostal revival began to slip. Seymour apparently felt as did Augustine that in these "doubtful questions," liberty and charity should prevail. All our study may show us approved, but it cannot limit God to anything other than His Word.70. He came to view the Holy Spirit practically, as an agent of God's love, filling the believer with divine love, with tongues as more of a side effect. January 1995. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2065/is_n1_v47/ai_16420085 Parham's schools disintegrated, whereas Azusa St. spread across the world. I do not think so. And today we claim to have greatly reduced racism since the Reconstruction a century ago. 2004. p. 6.

The peak of the revival spanned from 1906 through 1908.

""El Azteca": Francisco Olazabal and Latino Pentecostal Charisma, Power, and Faith Healing in the Borderlands". What we do know is that when Seymour started questioning the cardinal foundations of Pentecostalism and the fact that William Durham had planted a church in Los Angeles; he lost complete control of the ministry and it made question some core values of the Azusa Street Revival. In fact, he jumped at it, feeling the invitation to be a "divine call. Until he arrived and began teaching, of course. 34 Ibid., 120. Seymour was of course the leader, but as Sherrill observes, "he led more by suggestion than by direction."

Seymour began teaching a hybridization of Methodist/Holiness beliefs and the new Pentecostalism he had learned under Parham, including Spirit baptism with speaking in tongues. But it would be unfair only to deal with his beliefs in this fashion. For three straight days, the group of "cooks, janitors, laborers, railroad porters, and washwomen carried on in exuberant celebration" as the Holy Spirit continued to move. [38], The revival quickly grew. 18 Foster, 115. Modern Pentecostals face a great difficulty in correcting their doctrine, because Pentecostalism has reached a point where changing the doctrine would condemn the movement.

7 Foster, 114. On any given day the crowd at 312 Azusa may have included both rich and poor people, both white and black, old and young, educated and illiterate. Several of the members of the church had been interested in what Seymour had to say, and one of the members invited Seymour to come teach at her fairly old house.

The greatest tragedy of the story, however, is that if William Seymour was correct in his understanding of the Holy Spirit's work, then Pentecostalism as a whole has misunderstood the work of the Holy Spirit. Benny Hinn School of Ministry : legit training or online scam? It was not. Knapp taught Premillennialismthat Jesus would return prior to a literal millenniumand also took seriously "special revelation" such as dreams and visions. William Seymour and the Original Pentecostal Movement, Pentecostalism: Seymourian Unity vs. White Men's Dogma, Formative Years -- Life on the Color Line, The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line. "33, In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas. Church membership : What should be required of members?

God first implemented diverse tongues at Babel to separate humanity (cf. Seymour began teaching there regularly, not like a typical modern Pentecostal pastor, with raised voice and full of passion, but as a calm teacher sure of his subject. The revival drew large crowds of believers as well as media coverage that focused on the controversial religious practices as well as the racially integrated worship services, which violated the racial norms of the time. And burst it did. During this time, Seymour attended school, learned to read, and pursued his own education.3 He also gained a love of the tradition of spirituals.4 It is remarkable that Seymour resisted succumbing to hatred or resentment, despite growing up in this hotbed of traditional racism.

Often in academia or science we perceive the object of study as beneath the study, coming "under" our scrutiny, and the study is outside the object being studied. "2 Although little is known about his youth, we know that he and his family, including a younger brother and sister, worked very hard to make a way for themselves during the Reconstruction. (One attendee, Jennie Evans Moore, later married Seymour.) Although the color line was a national problem, it was painted in the South by a thick brush. 2 Tim. 53 Ibid., 1056. In rejecting racial unity, these leaders chose to reject a central tenet of Seymour's pneumatology. 30 Ibid., 119. This is the biggest error among revival leaders through history.

Parham, despite his scathing critique of the Azusa St. revival, moved to take control of it, explaining that it was merely an extension of his own ministry that had gone awry.

Among other things, the holiness leadership claimed that sanctification and the baptism of the Holy Spirit were the same thing, while Seymour remained unconvinced that the leaders themselves had been baptized in the Spirit. An interesting thing happened at the second assembly of the World Council of Churches in Evanston, outside Chicago, in August 1954. Parham and other evangelists such as Florence Crawford (Seymour's former State Director of the Pacific Coast Apostolic Faith Movement) began discrediting the movement through doctrinal differences. [65][66] By 1914, Pentecostalism had spread to almost every major U.S. "27 Beyond that, Seymour was not a dynamo of authoritative leadership. In Jesus' words, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Parham described the Azusa happenings scornfully as nothing more than "trances, falling under the power, holy-rolling-dancing-jumping, shaking, jabbering, chattering, wind-sucking and giving vent to meaningless sounds and noises as practiced by the Negroes of the Southland."52. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America. [26][27], Seymour arrived in Los Angeles on February 22, 1906, and preached at Julia Hutchins's church two days later. The lessons of the revival dying the way it did are many but I believe there are three major lessons that we must grab. No sooner had he completed the story, when someone else began to speak in tongues. He never foresaw a time that he would not be the leader. He would later become known as one of the key leaders in the formation of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. He did not have the contacts or the influence of other religious leaders, nor was he as well educated as many of them.28 His race prohibited him from having influence in many white-dominated settings. [47] Seymour refused to back down from his doctrines, and Parham then denounced the Azusa revival as false.

"Never in history," reports Foster, "had any such leadership surged into the church of a black pastor."49. This unusual meeting of circumcised and uncircumcised results in the entire household of Cornelius receiving salvation and the Holy Spirit, and speaking in tongues, another example of diversified unity bringing the Holy Spirit. //

Parham and Seymour shared pulpits and street corners on several occasions during the early weeks of 1906,[21] with Parham only permitting Seymour to preach to blacks. He started preaching that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit was an ability to divinely love each other. He began to teach things that would later be used in the Sheperding movement. [CDATA[ (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); // ]]> People think it was justWilliam Durham preaching the finished work and just William Seymour questioning it. Pentecostalism has as an advantage a past that tended to avoid drawing up legislation, preferring instead freedom to allow the Holy Spirit to move as He chose through whomever He chose. This idea of unity growing as its diversity grows is easily demonstrated by looking at our celestial future: "The heavenly church represents the ultimate triumph of unity, as every possible us/them is represented in a single body. Perhaps the newness of glossolalia, the Holy Spirit's other manifestations, and such iconoclastic racial unity led visitors to humble themselves in wonder, surrendering prejudices and pride to such an obvious move of God.

43 Ibid., 1057. William Joseph Seymour (May 2, 1870 September 28, 1922) was an African-American holiness preacher who initiated the Azusa Street Revival, an influential event in the rise of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. (Of course, he viewed love practically, which may mean that in a way he viewed love as physical evidence.)

[18], When Houston African American holiness leader Lucy F. Farrow took a position with Charles Parham's evangelistic team as his children's nanny, Farrow asked Seymour to pastor her church. "42, In 1915, Seymour published The Doctrines and Disciplines of the Azusa Street Apostolic Faith Mission of Los Angeles, Cal., a 95-page book containing largely doctrines copied (sometimes verbatim) from the Doctrines and Disciplines of several Methodist organizations, and from the "Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion" of the Anglican Church.

-Prof. Bruce Marshall48, During the height of the revival, Seymour's radical notion of racial unity empowered by the Holy Spirit seemed to be realized. After a series of divine urgings prompts the unusually counter-cultural meeting, Peter and other circumcised believers meet at the Gentile household of the centurion Cornelius. -W. E. B. DuBois1. Seymour warned first against disunity, and second against tongues as the only evidence of baptism in the Spirit.44 Seymour saw the fruit of the Spirit, particularly love, as more important than tongues for determining Spirit baptism. In challenging Pentecostals today to "revive the revival," we are not recommending an exclusive revival of William Seymour's brand of Pentecostalism. Into this setting of racism and segregation was born a black man who would become a prophet of reconciliation, a mouthpiece for Holy Spirit-induced unity. [41] Seymour claimed that the Holy Spirit was bringing people together across all social lines and boundaries to the revival. He continued as pastor until his death. And the new building filled almost immediately, as huge crowds of both races augmented their numbers. Many came out of the old Holiness movement of the 1800s and still believed in the sanctification experience. Yet, many new Pentecostals and theologians were openly questioning this belief because Jesus said It is finished..

By the end of 1909, the movement had achieved geographical ubiquity.

All citations NIV ( 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society) unless otherwise noted. For Seymour, love was more important than anything else, even tongues, and it was in this context that he understood the Holy Spirit. 70 cf. "66 Representatives of most of the known world were present for the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and it began when the believers were all together in one place, in agreement with the opening quote of Seymour's. It was a former livery stable, partially destroyed by fire and then abandoned. Certainly these are important aspects of the Church and the Christian faith, but we must understand their place and purpose. [52] Seymour's marriage to Jennie Evans Moore on May 13, 1908, did not sit well with his secretary, Clara Lum, who had already begun showing allegiance to Crawford. This was a major flaw that he carried with him to the grave. He also began publishing a newspaper, The Apostolic Faith, in September 1906. "At Pentecost [as opposed to Babel]," suggests Dr. James Allen, "God used tongues to unite people."67. 11 Robeck, 1055. [31] The core group was made up of about 15 African Americans, including five children. Seymour took his text, as was expected, from Acts 2:4: "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."

The situation, brought about largely by the work of David du Plessis, was almost an experiment in getting people from various groups within Christendom to dialogue. Pharisees and church leaders in Christ's day used doctrine as a trap, to attempt to limit the ministry of Christ. 10 Foster, 114. ", The prayer group had no idea that Seymour was anything other than a godly pastor in the Holiness tradition. [20][21] Though Seymour's attendance at Parham's school violated Texas Jim Crow laws, with Parham's permission, Seymour simply took a seat just outside the classroom door.

But Seymour refused to leave, seeking the Holy Spirit, until finally he reported feeling an overwhelming sense of God's love as the Holy Spirit filled him.19 This may have been another way of God's continuing to refine Seymour into the leader He wanted to handle so volatile a thing as revival.

The tragedy begs the question: can Pentecostalism recover its heart? Seymour recognized that the unity of the church is crucial to the believability of the Gospel, and that unity must transcend race, gender, education, and culture.

Assemblies of God. At Pentecost, "they were all together in one place"65 when the Holy Spirit came upon them. During one of Seymour's revival tours in 1911, he asked Durham if he would serve as the visiting preacher while he was gone. [49], The revival at Azusa continued to grow until 1908.

Seymour dismissed Parham from the mission, but he stayed in town long enough to establish a small, competing congregation just blocks from the mission. Controversy erupted in the small group, to the point that some of the members padlocked the doors of the church to keep Seymour out.14. If we seek unity, let us therefore seek diversity."64.

The revival did grow and became movements like the Assemblies of God, Church of God (Cleveland, Tn) and Church of God in Christ to name a few. Vest addresses the problem: "If, indeed, racial unity was a vital part of the foundation of the Pentecostal Movement (as I believe it was), this vision has been drastically eclipsed."60. 63 Matt. When Christ prayed that "they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me,"36 Seymour prayed in turn, "O how my heart cries out to God in these days that He would make every child of His see the necessity of living in the 17th chapter of John, that we may be one in the body of Christ, as Jesus prayed. [3][4], While serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, Seymour's father contracted an illness from which he finally died in November 1891. What future then has Pentecostalism?

John Sherrill described him as "quietly and logically presenting the Biblical background to his position. [53] Disapproving of Seymour's action, Lum resigned her post, stole the paper's mailing list and joined Crawford in Portland, where they began publishing The Apostolic Faith newspaper without Seymour.

Seymour learned about tongues under Parham, and when he began teaching in L.A., this was the teaching he promulgated. Love leads to a unified church, as opposed to doctrine, which often divides the church (particularly about something so controversial as the Holy Spirit). The Ecumenical Review. Assemblies of God. Robeck." The family was able to keep their property but lived at the poverty level. The emphasis could no longer be on church unity (the hypocrisy would be tangible), and so the distinctive characteristic of Pentecostalism for these leaders became glossolalia.

"25 The Azusa St. revival attracted people from all over the world, in turn sending missionaries all over the world. We propose instead a revival of Pentecost itself, of which the revival at Azusa St. was one example. 71 Robeck, Cecil M. The Ecumenical Review. [32] On April 9, Edward Lee spoke in tongues after Seymour and the newly arrived Lucy Farrow laid hands on him in Lee's home. Is there a united future for Pentecostalism? Parham and Seymour would also venture together into the black community to preach.11 It was from Parham that Seymour learned about the Holy Spirit. "71, Uniting with a fellow believer does not necessarily mean assuming his interpretation of Scripture. [6] In 1895, Seymour moved to Indianapolis,[7] where he attended the Simpson Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church[8] (and possibly other African American churches) and became a born-again Christian. //

"56 This racial schism began the trend toward denominationalism and away from ecumenism. Foster's last reason is Seymour himself. For Seymour, love was "the standard."31.

A Pharisaical obsession with the law (rules and doctrine) is still leading much of our church, while the fulfillment of that law, i.e. This theory has too many holes in it. International Pentecostal Holiness Church, "William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival", "Bishop William J. Seymour, Pastor of the Apostolic Faith Mission", Historically African-American Christian denominations, First African Baptist Church (Richmond, Virginia), First African Baptist Church (Savannah, Georgia), First Baptist Church (Petersburg, Virginia), Fundamental Baptist Fellowship Association. -William Seymour59, We have seen that the history of Pentecostalism is a sad story of the triumph of segregation over the upstart unity achieved through the Holy Spirit during the Azusa Street revival. (KJV) Studying the Word is Biblical, but its purpose is to change ourselves, not to fashion or limit the role of God. 55 Robeck, 1056-1057. "62 The Kingdom of God is united in Christ through the Holy Spirit to glorify God, and the greater the diversity of His Kingdom, the greater His glory. Others joined them, including a former Baptist named Frank Bartleman,[31] who would later publish a detailed account of the Azusa Street Revival. "43 But of greater relevance to us was Seymour's warning against two things, warnings which Pentecostalism as a movement did not heed.

-Augustine. "47 As we will see, this departure from its foundational belief reflects more than just a theological position -- it reflects the triumph of prejudice over unity, of power over humility, pride over reconciliation. At Knapp's school, blacks and whites studied side by side. "On Initial Physical Evidence(s)". Gen. 11).

"41 Perhaps this is why Seymour "opposed those who insisted on speaking in tongues as the 'Bible evidence' of baptism in the Spirit without an equal insistence that the speaker manifest the fruit of the Spirit.

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