Pentecostal History Essay -- Church History

To know the history of the Pentecostal movement, one needs to know what they believe. Pentecostalism is a movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit. During Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell upon those in the upper room. Acts 2:1-4 says, â€Å"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[ as the Spirit enabled them.† (1,3) The Pentecostal movement started in the late 19th century in revival movements in Great Britain and in the United States of America. Within this movement more attention was placed on the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. Some people felt that the church was missing the power and authority of the church they read about in the bible. We will look at the Pentecostal movement from the past and look at it all the way up through to today. (1) The earliest date given for the beginning of the Pentecostal movement is January 1, 1901. A man by the name of Charles Parham began teaching that the act of speaking in tongues was the biblical evidence that someone was filled with the Holy Spirit. He started teaching this at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas. Over time Charles Parham moved to Texas to teach. While Charles spoke in Texas, William J. Seymour was attending. William J. Seymour traveled to Los Angeles where he led the Azusa Street Revivals in 1906. The beginning of the w... ...ecostals. It is important to know where we came from in order to know where we are going. The future is bright for the Assemblies of God if they just rely on God and the power of the Holy Spirit. Works Cited 1. Wacker, Grant. Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2001. 2. Miller, Donald E. and Tetsunao Yamamori. Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2007. 3. Hollenweger, Walter. Pentecostalism : Origins and Developments Worldwide. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997 4. Burgess. Encyclopedia of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity 5. Blumhofer, Edith L. Restoring the Faith: The Assemblies of God, Pentecostalism, and American Culture, 1993 6. www.ag.org