|
Message
Board |
Projects and programs multiplied.
These projects started with some noble purpose like helping the poor, but
they soon became social programs to entertain the members of the church --
something for all ages, and special programs. Sunday schools were developed
for nurturing the young; and certainly if you learned anything about the
Bible you would have to learn it there because the preaching was becoming
more concerned with the political and social issues of the day. There was a
need for planning all these activities, and ministers and church staffs
became very busy with all these activities. Everything was managed and
controlled by a committee, or by an overseer, or what would later be called a
senior minister. They would still have revivals -- all very planned -- from
some visiting revivalist star in order to get new members and to put
enthusiasm back into the existing members. There were certain times when the
people were allowed to respond to the Spirit. This was a very nice church if
you already had your act together, if you were healthy, if you could respond
to the pressure for tithing, and if you were a respected and desired member
of the community. If you had a real need for God, you weren't going to feel a
lot in these churches, and if you did you were out of place. Now, keep this
in mind, because this was what Brother Sowders had in mind when he made
references to "Babylon". The Holiness Movement Then some people got to remembering
how things use to be; just like those in this movement are beginning to
remember how things were in the days of Brother Sowders. Some people were
devastated by the Civil War. They found more comfort in that old-time,
circuit-riding religion. Right after the war, a revival took place among the
Methodist. In the tradition of the Methodist, an annual camp meeting was
begun at Vineland, New Jersey. This meeting was not led by the now powerful
and prosperous Methodist hierarchy; but they did not oppose the Camp Meeting,
and thought it would do the Methodist Church good if it brought new
enthusiasm and people into the church. At these camp meetings new Holiness
associations were formed, mostly by lay people. Those attracted to the
Holiness associations were interested in a higher life, and were resisting
the new worldliness coming into the Methodist church. Lay associations were
an old tradition in the Methodists church. After all, the church itself began
as lay classes in the Anglican Church. John Wesley had no intention of
founding a new church, and as long as he lived he remained in the Anglican
Church. When the Methodist bishops begin to try to tone down or to oppose the
activities of the Holiness associations some of these groups begin to form
their own churches, and called for others to come out of the fallen Methodist
church. The response of the Methodist leaders then became to crush the
Holiness associations with the Methodist church. "Come outerism"
then became "crush outerism". When the Holiness trouble makers were
expelled, the Methodist leaders turned the camp meetings into summer
retreats. They made sure they didn't get too spiritual, and cause them
trouble again. This was the beginnings of most of the Holiness churches in
America. This includes all those churches who have "Church of God"
as part of their name, even those who later became Pentecostal. It also
includes the Nazerene Church, and all the churches which have Holiness in
their name. The Fire Baptized Way One of the new Holiness leaders was
Benjamin Hardin Irwin, a preacher in the Iowa Holliness Association. Irwin
discovered a new baptism after sanctification. Since sanctification was the
Spirit baptism following water baptism, this baptism must be the one of fire.
He influenced a lot of people both in the Midwest and in the South. Those who
followed him added a lot of new Holiness restrictions such as coffee, tea,
and pork. They also didn't believe in the new neck ties, which men were
beginning to wear. I believe that Brother Aubrey was probably a Fire Baptized
preacher. That is possibly where Brother Sowders got his early teaching
against neck ties. Despite all this strictness, Irwin fell into sin. Before
this, however, he had already taught Parham that there might be some new
baptisms. The Apostolic Faith of Charles
Parham Charles Parham, the apostle of
Pentecostalism, also had his beginnings in the Methodist Church; and with the
separated Holiness associations. Parham was interested in a lot of things
including healing, prophesy and the return of Christ, and helping the poor.
He called his movement the Apostolic Faith, and the apostolic name has stuck
with Pentecostals ever since. What made Parham important to the Pentecostals
was that he was a theologian actively studying practical Christianity. It was
Parham who associated tongues with the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and taught
people to seek this experience. This was in a school which he taught in
Topeka, Kansas. Agnes Ozman was the first person to receive the new
experience, around midnight on New Years day, 1901. The association of the
Baptism of the Holy Ghost with tongues -- an objective sign of a supernatural
experience -- practically kept the new baptism from being reduced to a
formality. People didn't get it automatically from laying on of hands of the
priests or ministers. This was an important step, and in 1901 Parham
conducted a Holy Ghost revival in Kansas and Missouri. The elder Brother
William Pennock, associated with Brother Sowders, received the baptism in
Parham's first revival. The Holy Ghost revival, however, subsided; and Parham
went back to his healing revivals. It is easier for people to see their need
for bodily healing than for spiritual transformation. Parham didn't quit
teaching his doctrine of tongues in his School of the Prophets, but his
revivals had largely turned to healing campaigns. It 1905, he received an invitation to
bring his revival to Orchard, Texas. This is near Houston. Brother Pennock
accompanied him on his trip to Texas. That campaign got a lot of attention
when a prominent woman in Houston, who had been injured in a street-car
accident, was miraculously healed. Since everyone in the town knew her
condition, her healing created quiet a sensation. Parham also taught his
school there in Texas, and it was in this school that William Seymour heard
the message about the link between tongues and the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Seymour was a black man. In accordance with the custom of his day, Parham was
much prejudiced against blacks, but in Houston he allowed William Seymour to
listen in on his school where he was teaching the doctrine of tongues
baptism. Azuza Street After a time, Seymour decided to take
this teaching to a contact of his in Los Angeles. He was invited to preach in
a Holiness church in Los Angeles, but when he began to teach Parham's
doctrine of tongues as the evidence of the Holy Ghost, the doors of that
mission were closed to him. He was then invited to preach at a house in the
Los Angeles slums. There, in that house, broke out the greatest revival of
modern times. The outbreak of tongues and other strange phenomena caught the
interest of local reporters at the Los Angeles news paper. This brought a lot
of people to the house, so soon the revival was moved to a livery stable on
Azuza Street. Church leaders and other individuals in the area begin to go to
Azuza Street and check out the revival. Some of them opposed the revival, and
some of them supported the revival. Either way, the revival got a lot of
attention. The revival in Los Angeles was a lot more accessible to national
and international travelers than Parham's revival in Kansas. Soon reports of
the revival spread all over the nation and all over the world. For three
years, between 1906 and 1909, seekers and other interested parties traveled
to Los Angeles to observe or receive the new experience of baptism with
tongues. They carried their experience and understanding back with them, and
begin to propagate the Pentecostal revival that would become the fastest
growing religious movement in history. Azuza Spreads to the Midwest In the lower Midwest the revival was
spread through the evangelistic efforts of two women from Saint Louis,
"Mothers" Mary Gill Moise and Leanore Barnes. Mother Moise had a
"faith home" for wayward girls, drunks, prostitutes, and other
social outcasts, for which she was awarded first prize in the 1904 World's
Fair. She open her mission to the new Pentecostal evangelists. Mother Barnes
gained notoriety in Thayer, Missouri in 1909, when hoodlums threaten to kill
her. Instead of getting killed, she gained hundreds of converts to the new
baptism experience. It was probably these two sisters who conducted the
revival near Vienna, Illinois in 1909 at such place and time that Bob Shelton
received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. He then hurried to Olmstead, Illinois
to his brother's house. Before he reached the porch, he shouted to Bye
Shelton, "I have just received the baptism taught in Acts 2:4, with the
evidence of speaking in tongues!" So in their home on the banks of the
Ohio, River they started a new mission. Soon these brothers and their wives
were joined by Frank Knight and Brother Aubrey and their wives. Brother
Aubrey had a gospel boat. This was the beginning of "that little
church", which was so precious to Brother Sowders. |
