Azusa Street Revival

[IanLC]

This revival started a global Christian movement that is still growing today. Azusa started with odds stacked against it. Rev William Seymour was an African American Holiness minister in a time when being African American and Holiness at that was considered low and undesirable. Reverend Seymour studied under his spiritual father Reverend Charles Fox Parham in Topeka and took the Pentecostal message to the world. Reverend Seymour arriving in Los Angelis preached this message at a local Holiness mission and was banished and locked out of the mission. He then moved the message into a stable house and old abandoned AME church and in this place God birthed a movement that would bring more awareness to His Spirit and the gifts the Holy Spirit has given to the church. Azusa brought diverse races and people together to uplift the name of Jesus and experience a deeper relationship with God. Azusa Street Revival was one of the greatest Christian Awakenings in the World. Pentecostals, Lutherans, Baptists, Catholics and many other Christian denomination have experienced the power of the Azusa Revival in small and great cases! This revival really has shaken the entire landscape of Christianity! Prayer, Scripture, Holiness and evangelism were the pillars to the Azusa Street Mission and Pentecostalism as a whole!

Pentecostalism is classified into these groups: Classical Pentecostalism (Pentecostal-Holiness), Finished Work Pentecostalism (Assemblies of God), Oneness Pentecostalism (Apostolic, Jesus Only), Charismatics, Third Wavers "Neo-Pentecostals/Charismatics".
Major Classical Pentecostal bodies include Church of God In Christ (COGIC), United Holy Church of America Inc (UHCA), Church of God (Anderson), Church of God of Prophecy (COGOP), Assemblies of God, CHurch of Foursquare Gospel, Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God of the Americas (FBHCOFA), International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC), African American Greater International Pentecostal Holiness Church (GIPHC) and several other bodies.
Oneness Pentecostal bodies include: Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith (COOLJC), Bible Way Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Bible Way COOLJC), Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (PAW), United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI) and many other cultic groups.

Neo Pentecostals and Charismatic groups: Vineyard Movements, and many other charismatic faith groups,

Classical Pentecostals hold to these main doctrines:

1. Entire Sanctification
2. Wesleyan views on Holiness/Christian Perfection
3. Baptism of the Holy Spirit initial evidence is speaking in tongues
4. salvation in Jesus by grace through faith
5. Believe you can lose salvation

Finished Work Pentecostals:

1. Calvanistic View On Sanctification
2. Calvanistic view on eternal salvation
3. Baptism of the Holy Spirit initial evidence is speaking in tongues

Oneness Pentecostals:
1. Jesus Name Only Baptism for salvation
2. Non-Trinitarian Oneness of God
3. Speaking in tongues as initial evidence of the Holy Ghost and salvation
4. Holiness standards (Radical Extremeist Wesleyan Holiness beliefs)

Charismatics
1. Believe in the operation of all spiritual gifts
2. Speaking in tongues a gift and not the initial evidence of the Spirit baptism
3. Hold to many of the beliefs of their denomination (Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist,etc.)

 

[rockytopva]

Just call me a Wesleyan Pentecostal! :)

 

[IanLC]

Just call me a Wesleyan Pentecostal! :)

Technically you would be classified as Classical Pentecostal! I am that aswell! Born and raised in the United Holy Church of America Inc. the oldest African American Pentecostal body established in 1886!

 

[Arnie Manitoba]

Call me a former pentecostal. I see a lot of emotionalism that they confuse with spiritualism , I see the racket of tongues .... but not mush else accomplished Spiritually ... , I see way too many scandals come out of that denomination , IS THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT AT WORK ? .... I think not. .... Then when they get caught they blame it all on the devil .... that amounts to saying being filled with The Holy Spirit makes you a pawn of the devil. Who is trying to kid who ??

Prosperity gospel scams tend to be birthed from that group. Are Fancy yachts and Rolls Royces evidence of a spirit filled life ? I think not.

Endless day- to- day prophecies emerge but are never fulfilled. "God told me this " .... "God told me that" .... "God spoke to me" .... are make- believe worn- out phrases lacking provable prophetic results.

Most of the people who comprise Pentecostal churches were already Christians who migrated from other denominations. Not many "new converts" to be found.

The biggest problem I see is that the Pentecostal denomination thrives because of an instilled pride that makes them feel they alone have the full measure of The Holy Spirit .... and those other "dead churches" do not. This kind of thinking is dangerous and misleading . ....

Swinging on chandeliers , rolling on the carpet , waving arms in the air along with out of control laughter may be harmless emotionalism , ... but please do not confuse it with Holy Spirit. There is a difference.

Plenty of Holy Spirit workings can be seen in the non-pentecostal groups .

Best wishes and be careful.

 

[Mungo]

Charismatics
1. Believe in the operation of all spiritual gifts
2. Speaking in tongues a gift and not the initial evidence of the Spirit baptism
3. Hold to many of the beliefs of their denomination (Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist,etc.)

Catholic Charismatics hold on to ALL of the beliefs of the Catholic Church. :)

 

[Stumpmaster]

I look back to a ten year period between 1984 & 1994, when I fellowshipped at a 1000 strong Assemblies Of God church, with the wisdom of hindsight, remembering good friendships, but also remembering some rather unsound doctrines and practices.

Much was made of speaking in tongues, and it was a generally upheld belief that without this gift a person was spiritually lacking.

There is no basis in Scripture for this belief since, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, God may give a gift to one person but not to another, who may be given a different gift.

On the other hand, those who do not have the gift of tongues, and perhaps attend a church that forbids speaking in tongues during their services, should not condemn those who genuinely do have the gift.

The Azusa Street revival was rife with counterfeits and false utterances, and these were discerned, while those who came seeking attention were soon identified and warned off. Only about ten people remained at Asuza Street when it quietened down, and while many went away inspired, there were many rifts and clashes over doctrine in the new denominations and streams.

In a book review by Henry Lederle, Synan’s 2001 book The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal was described as “a lasting contribution to the recording of Pentecostalism,” and a book that is “poised to become the standard work of reference for the historical development of the various Pentecostal and Charismatic awakenings of the twentieth century.” This book, which Lederle calls Synan’s “magnum opus,” contains 15 chapters, seven of which were written by Synan and the remaining eight chapters by contributing authors. While the primary focus of the book is the 21st century, it also provides a brief history of the Wesleyan Holiness antecedents which begin in the early 18th century.

 

[IanLC]

I appreciate your admonishment. I am currently and have grown up Pentecostal. I have not experienced some much of the "prosperity gospel" because being that my church came out of the Holiness movement much teaching is placed upon sanctification and holiness. The United Holy Church of America have no distinct "Pentecostal" doctrine in our Articles/Affirmation of Faith. But many in our body hold to Pentecostal teachings and our worship can be described as Pentecostal. The founders said and I quote "the United Holy Church of America encourages and promotes the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit baptism but does not canonize it.". So with in our body you see some local churches that hold to speaking in tongues as the initial evidence and some who just believe in the total operation of the gifts and a few that do not believe in any of the gifts. Most of the body though classifies themselves as Holiness or Pentecostal Holiness. I am in a church where Jesus Christ and holiness is stressed more than speaking in tongues. My pastor does hold to the belief that speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of the Spirit baptism and encourages it but does not preach or teach much on it. There needs to be a balance of the Holy Spirit and the Word of Truth. A church with too much emotionalism is on the brink of fanaticism and withcraft and a church with little of the Holy Spirit is a lifeless church. But a church with that balance is a fruitful church.

United Holy Church of America's Affirmation of Faith (http://www.uhcoa.org/index.html)
"We believe in the Father who is God Almighty. The Creator of all things and the Preserver of Light and Life. We believe in the Son, who is Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son. He was human and divine, truly lived, suffered and died, rose again from the dead, ascended on high and is coming again. We believe that Jesus was sent by God to man. That whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. We believe in the Holy Ghost, who was sent from God the Father and the Son. That the Holy Spirit convicts and converts sinners, dwells in the believer, keeps the believer from the power of sin and leads him to the father, through His Son, Jesus Christ. We believer the Bible is the word of God, given by inspiration through holy men. That in the bible, God seeks to reveal his will to man and man seeks to respond to God's revelation. We believe that the union of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are revealed through His church. That all believers are united into one body - the Church. We believe that Christ is coming back for His holy Church, without spot or wrinkle. That without holiness in Spirit, soul and body, no man shall see the Lord. Amen."

We would be blind to say that another great division in Christianity as a whole and specifically in Pentecostalism is race. I belonging to an African American Pentecostal-Holiness church find our worship and some doctrine vastly different from our Caucasion bretheren.

 

[Stumpmaster]

My pastor does hold to the belief that speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of the Spirit baptism

Does he back this with Scripture?

1Co 12:4-13 KJV

(4) Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

(5) And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
(6) And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
(7) But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
(8) For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
(9) To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
(10) To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
(11) But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
(12) For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

(13) For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

 

[Arnie Manitoba]

UHCAlan .... thanks for your input , I agree with what you said. I think it comes down to having the right balance , I think the Christian Church ignored the gifts of the Spirit far too long , and it took the Pentecostal revival to bring it to the forefront.

Some groups go way too far into emotionalism and end up abandoning the Spirit .

Emotion is great , love is an emotion , our love for The Lord and His love for us is important to Christianity . I love the Pentecostal worship and music , it can be a great pick-me-up in a dreary world , but if we mistake it for Spirit filling we have missed something.

The church I attend now is not Pentecostal , but a lot of the members are (were) ... they fit in well and they bring wonderful enthusiasm into the service , combine that with sober doctrine and the results are very good.

 

[Stumpmaster]

combine that with sober doctrine and the results are very good.

The evidence, or fruit, of the Spirit is produced when the flesh is rendered ineffective. If the gifts of the Spirit are misused, as the gift of tongues was in Corinth, prompting Paul to write a word of correction, (1 Cor.14), the flesh reigns over the Spirit, which leads to deception and error among other things.


Gal 5:22-25 KJV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
(23) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
(24) And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
(25) If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.