The Birth of Pentecost
In the Fall of 1901 Charles F. Parham rented an old mansion on the outskirts of Topeka, Kansas to start a Bible college. Because the grandiose old house was never finished the locals referred to it as Stone's Folly as a way of mocking the builder, Erastus Stone. Parham sent out an invitation for students to his Bethel College and around forty people gathered. They had no textbooks or formal curriculum, studying only the Bible. They also had twenty-four hour prayer every day. All this together created a climate for revival.
After a study of the book of Acts, the students entered a time of prayer and waiting on God. On January 1, 1901, Agnes Nevada Ozman, a thirty-year old student, received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in a language she did not know (known as glossolalia). In the days following, Parham and a number of other students received the experience and spoke with tongues.
Most church historians agree that the episode at Stone's Mansion initiated the modern Pentecostal revival. In less than a century the breath of God would spread the flames of Pentecost like a windswept fire from the Kansas prairies to the uttermost parts of the earth.
This is not to suggest that this was the first modern incident of tongues speaking. In fact, from the time of the Apostles there have been occasions when believers, caught up in the Spirit, spoke in tongues. The Huguenots in France and Irvingites in England both shared the experience.The great revivals of Wesley, Finney, and Moody were sometimes accompanied by manifestations of spiritual gifts. 14
By the latter Nineteenth Century there had been numerous occurrences of speaking in tongues. Confirmed reports came from Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas and Tennessee in the decade before Parham's group received their Baptism in the Holy Ghost.
Yet, the experience at Bethel College was unique. Parham and his students reached the theological conclusion that speaking in other tongues was the scriptural evidence of the Holy Spirit Baptism. Earlier, tongues had been viewed as a demonstration of the Spirit similar to weeping, shouting, or shaking. Parham's group received the baptism with evidential tongues while earnestly seeking the experience. 15 Unlike his predecessors, Parham taught that those who did not speak in tongues had never received the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
