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| Open Bible School, Topeka, Kansas |
At a Watch Night Service on December 31, 1900, Parham laid hands on missionary Agnes Ozman at his Open Bible School in Topeka, Kansas. She received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues.
Charles Parham was a Holiness preacher who believed that sanctification was a second, separate work of grace. He also believed in a third experience: the “baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire,” with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Parham opened a Bible school in Topeka to train evangelists and missionaries. He taught that the return of Christ was imminent and that God would give believers the gift of known languages (tongues) to quickly evangelize the world.
Parham assigned his students the task of finding if the Bible indicated any sign for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The students determined that tongues were the clear sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures.
During a service to usher in the New Year, he prayed for Agnes Ozman to receive the Holy Spirit and, “…a glory fell upon her, a halo seemed to surround her head and face,” and she spoke in fluent Chinese for three days. When she tried to speak in English, all that would come out was Chinese. When she tried to write a message in English, all she could write was Chinese.
“Parham’s doctrine of tongues as the ‘Bible evidence’ of the baptism of the Holy Spirit would directly lead to the Azusa Street revival of 1906 and the creation of the world Pentecostal movement.” (Vinson Synan, The Century of the Holy Spirit, p. 42)
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| Parham officiating at a Baptismal Service |
Parham soon left Kansas and established a training center in Houston, Texas. William Seymour, a one-eyed son of former slaves, attended his school and became convinced of his message. In 1906, Seymour went to Los Angeles, and began a series of meetings at an abandoned AME church at 312 Azusa Street.
The Azusa Street meetings soon eclipsed Parham’s ministry and he visited Azusa to see what was happening. As he sat on the front row, he felt disgust at what he called “Southern darkey camp meetings.” Parham split with Seymour and spent the latter part of his life an avid supporter of the Ku Klux Klan.
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