How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles

Frank Bartleman

Description

Travel back in time and find out what it was like to be part of the Asuza Street Revival. Through Frank Bartleman's unvarnished, eyewitness account of Azusa, you'll read about the almost-tangible presence of God experienced by those who were there, as well as the amazing things they saw. Gain insight into the lives and worldviews of early believers and find out how the early twentieth-century Pentecostal Movement swept across Los Angeles, the United States, and, finally, the world. Featuring an introduction by Dr. Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., a leading scholar of the Azusa Street Revival.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Pentecostalism

Informations

• Publié par: Gospel Publishing House
• Date de parution: 03 octobre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781607314899
• Langue: English

Extrait

AZUSA STREET BOOK SERIES EDITORS CECIL M. ROBECK JR.
AND
DARRIN RODGERS
How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles
The Story behind the Azusa Street Revival

FRANK BARTLEMAN
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Originally published as How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles: As It Was in the Beginning. Frank Bartleman, Los Angeles, 1925
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This book is unabridged and unedited from a copy of the original print run.
All Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Series Foreword and Introduction © 2017 by Gospel Publishing House, 1445 N. Boonville Ave., Springfield, Missouri 65802. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except brief quotations used in connection with reviews in magazines or newspapers.
ISBN: 978-1-60731-491-2
19 18 17 • 1 2 3
Printed in United States of America
CONTENTS

Series Foreword
Series Introduction: The Azusa Street Revival and Its Early Impact
1. Trials and Blessings. Revival Begins
2. Pastor Smale Returns from Wales
3. The Fire Falls at “Azusa”
4. Eighth and Maple Meetings
5. From California to Maine
6. A Second Ministry East
7. A Visit to Hawaii. Volcano Kilauea
8. Brother Durham in Los Angeles
9. Sparks from the Anvil
10. A Plea for Unity
Index
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This little book is dedicated to the many precious souls who with the author were privileged to see and experience the early days of blessing of the “Latter Rain” outpouring at the old “powerhouse,” Azusa Street Mission. It is written with the hope and prayer that, where lost, the vision may be renewed to those who once shared with us in the glory of this “former house” of blessing; and also that it may, through this humble little medium, be told “to the generation following.”
Frank Bartleman Los Angeles, California April 1925
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Series Foreword

Cecil M. Robeck Jr.
Over a century has passed since the Azusa Street Revival (1906–1909), the remarkable spiritual outpouring in Los Angeles that became a focal point of the emerging Pentecostal Movement. Pentecostals/charismatics, sometimes described as “Renewalists” these days, have exploded in growth in recent years, and now include as many as 670 million people worldwide. They are not all identified as Classical Pentecostals, but they have embraced the experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit and manifest the gifts or charisms of the Holy Spirit in very similar ways. With this growth has come renewed interest in the faith and testimonies of early Pentecostals, including those at the Azusa Street Revival.
This volume is part of the Azusa Street Series, which once again brings into print several of the earliest published accounts of the Azusa Street Revival and its fruit. These primary resources, which provide context and tell the story of the revival, were originally published primarily for popular audiences. However, they have since proven to be of importance for those within the academic world who wish to understand this singularly significant revival for the ongoing life of the Church today.
It is my hope that in reading these volumes, you will be challenged in new or refreshing ways by what God has to offer to you. Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, pastor of Angelus Temple in Los Angeles and founder of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, quoted the writer of Hebrews (13:8) who wrote so profoundly, “Jesus Christ [is] the same, yesterday, to day, and for ever!” She required that text to be displayed in or on every Foursquare church building. This message—that God is unchanging and that the vibrant spiritual life of the early Church is still available today—was an essential part of the preaching of the apostle Peter when he said that “the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39), and it quickly became part of the worldview embraced by early Pentecostals. May the volumes in this series, likewise, continue to remind Pentecostals of their spiritual heritage and identity.
Introduction

The Azusa Street Revival and Its Early Impact
Cecil M. Robeck Jr.
The revival that took place at the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles, California at the beginning of the twentieth century is without parallel in the story of the Pentecostal Movement. It began in 1906, shortly after an African American pastor, William J. Seymour, arrived in Los Angeles where he had been invited to become the pastor of a small Holiness congregation. He had traveled from Houston, Texas, arriving in Los Angeles on February 22. While in Houston, Pastor Seymour had been a student at Charles Parham’s Apostolic Faith Bible School for about six weeks.
Shortly after Seymour began his ministry with that little storefront congregation, part of the Holiness Church of Southern California and Arizona, he preached a sermon that was based upon the experience of those who waited in Jerusalem as Jesus had commanded them, and were subsequently baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4, 8 and 2:4). He explained to his flock that this was the pattern of empowerment intended for the whole church, and as such, his congregation could ask and expect to be baptized in the Holy Spirit in the very same way and with the very same evidence, the “Bible evidence,” that is, the ability to speak in other tongues. Some members of the congregation were open to his message, but others were not. A meeting with denominational leaders was called to evaluate his theology, and by the following week, Pastor Seymour found himself without a job.
Fortunately, one of the African American couples, Edward and Mattie Lee, who were part of this congregation, invited Pastor Seymour to stay with them while he sought the mind of the Lord on what to do next. During the evenings they shared together, Brother Seymour led them in prayer and Bible study. He continued to share with them his conviction that if they sought the Lord, He would baptize them in the Holy Spirit just as He had done for those who waited for the Promise of the Father in Jerusalem. As their relationship developed, the Lees invited other friends to join them in hearing William Seymour. This was where Frank Bartleman, the primary chronicler of the Azusa Street Revival, first met Pastor Seymour. At the same time, Pastor Seymour sent for a couple of friends from Houston to join him. One of them was another African American, Mrs. Lucy Farrow, who had been baptized in the Holy Spirit under the ministry of Charles Parham. She would become a great helper to Seymour in the days that followed. As the meeting outgrew the Lee home, it moved to the home of another African American couple, Richard and Ruth Asberry, at 214 North Bonnie Brae Street.
On April 9, 1906, Edward Lee came home from his janitorial job, complaining that he didn’t feel well. He asked Seymour to pray for him so that they could attend the prayer meeting at the Asberry home. Pastor Seymour laid hands on Edward Lee and prayed for his healing, and then Lucy Farrow joined him and prayed that Lee would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Suddenly, Lee fell to the floor and began to speak in other tongues. Excited by this spiritual breakthrough, this small group hurried the two blocks to the Asberry home, where they shared what had just happened. Before the night had ended, several from the group had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoken in tongues, including Jennie Evans Moore, who would two years later become Mrs. Seymour.
News of this initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Los Angeles quickly spread among the various Holiness churches in the area, including the Holiness Church of Southern California and Arizona, the Free Methodist Church, the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene, two very lively Holiness congregations, one known as the Burning Bush, and other as the Pillar of Fire, and an independent holiness congregation of Swedish immigrants. The group managed to continue its nightly meetings at the Asberry home for the remainder of the week, but by April 15, Easter Sunday, they had relocated to the former Stephens African Methodist Episcopal Church building at 312 Azusa Street in the heart of Los Angeles. That congregation had built a new and larger sanctuary about six blocks away, renamed their church First African Methodist Episcopal Church, and then leased their previous building to Seymour’s group.
The building was in very bad shape. After the congregation had vacated the building, an arsonist had set it ablaze. The congregation that owned the facility had tried to remodel the second floor, where the original sanctuary had been, into several small apartments for possible rental. The ground floor, which was completely unfinished and had a dirt floor where horses had been kept, along with a few building supplies, would become the new sanctuary. Seymour and his little congregation quickly went to work cleaning up the place. They scattered sawdust on the floor, took down cobwebs, whitewashed the unfinished walls, placed boards on nail kegs that they found there and supplemented them with a few mismatched chairs to provide more seating, arranged the seats more or less in a circle, placed a makeshift pulpit in the middle, and by Easter Sunday, April 15, they had held their first meeting. It would soon be known the world over as the Azusa Street Mission.
Two days after Easter, April 17, a reporter showed up from the Los Angeles Daily Times , one of at least eight regular newspapers that then served the roughly 238,000 people of the city. The following day, April 18, the city of Los Angeles woke to an introduction