Some Pentecostal History

[Sam]

Some Pentecostal History.
By Pentecostal I am referring to the operation and gifting of the Holy Spirit as He has moved upon and within people.

The following is taken from pages 14-24 of “The Happiest People on Earth” which is a biography of Demos Shakarian (1913-1993) founder of the FGBMFI (Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International). The book has a copyright date of 1974 and tells the story of Demos Shakarian and his family as told to John and Elizabeth Sherrill.
----------------------------

I never knew Grandfather Demos --he died before I was born--but I must have heard the stories about him a thousand times....

I’ve heard it described so often that I could actually see the little village of Kara Kala sitting solidly in the rocky foothills of Mount Ararat --the mountain, so the Bible tells us, where Noah’s ark came to rest. Closing my eyes I saw the stone buildings, the sheds and barns, and the one-room farmhouse where my Grandfather Demos lived. In that house Grandfather's five daughters had been born --but no son--and that was a disgrace among the Armenians, as much a disgrace as it was among the ancient Israelites.

I could picture Grandfather walking to the house-church each Sunday morning with his five little girls. Although most armenians were Orthodox, Grandfather and many others in Kara Kala were Presbyterians. I could see him marching through the village to the house where church was meeting that particular Sunday, his head held high in the face of the silent reproach.

In view of his great need, it has always seemed surprising to me that Grandfather did not accept right away the strange message that had been trickling over the mountains for nearly fifty years. The message was brought by the Russians. Grandfather liked the Russians all right, he was just too levelheaded to accept their tales of miracles. The Russians came in long caravans of covered wagons. They were dressed as our people were, in long, high-collared tunics tied at the waist with tasseled cords, the married men in full beards. The Armenians had no difficulty understanding them as most of our people spoke Russian too. They listened to the tales of what the Russians called “the outpouring of the Holy Spirit” upon hundreds of thousands of Russian Orthodox Christians. The Russians came as people bringing gifts: the Gifts of the Spirit, which they wanted to share. I could just hear Grandfather and Grandmother talking late into the night after these visits. One had to admit, Grandfather would have said, that everything the Russians were talking about was Scriptural.

“I mean, healing is in the Bible. So is speaking in tongues. So is prophecy. It’s just that the whole thing doesn’t sound ...Armenian.” By which he would have meant trustworthy. Down-to-earth. Practical.

And Grandmother, her heart forever heavy, might have said, “you know, when you talk about prophecy and healing, you’re talking about miracles.”

“Yes.”

“If we were ever to ‘receive the Holy Spirit’ in this way, do you think we could ask for a miracle?”

“You mean like having a son?”

And then Grandmother might have started to cry. I know for a fact that on a certain sunny morning in May, 1891, Grandmother was weeping.

Over the years several families living in Kara Kala had begun to accept the message of the Russian Pentecostals. Grandfather’s brother-in-law, Magardich Mushegan, was one of these. He received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and on his frequent visits to the Shakarian farm would talk about the newfound joy in his life.

On this particular day --May 25, 1891-- Grandmother and several other women were sewing in the corner of the one-room farm house. That is, Grandmother was trying to sew, but tears kept falling on the material in her lap.

Across the room, next to the window where the light was god, Magardich Mushegan sat with his Bible open on his knee, reading.

Suddenly, Magardich snapped his Bible shut, got up and walked across the room. He stood in front of Grandmother, his heavy black beard bobbing up an own in his excitement.

“Goolisar,” Magardich said. “...the Lord has just spoken to me!”

Grandmother’s back straightened “Yes, Magardich?”

“He’s given me a message for you,” Magardich said “Goolisar, exactly one year from today, you will give birth to a son.”

When Grandfather came in from the fields Grandmother met him at the door with the news of the wondrous prophecy. Pleased, wanting to believe yet skeptical, Grandfather said nothing. He only smiled and shrugged his shoulders --and marked the date on the calendar.

The months passed and Grandmother became pregnant again. By this time everyone in Kara Kala knew of the prophecy, and the whole village waited in suspense. Then, on May 25, 1892, exactly year from the day the prophecy was given, Grandmother gave birth to a baby boy.

It was the first time our family had encountered the Holy Spirit in this personal way. Everyone in Kara Kala agreed that the choice for the little boy’s name was perfect: He was called Isaac, for he was, like Abraham's’ own long-awaited son, the child of promise.

I’m sure it was a proud and happy man who paraded his family to church each Sunday after Isaac was born. But Grandfather had a stubborn streak in him --all Armenians do. he considered himself too tough-minded to accept without reservation that he had witnessed a supernatural prophecy of the sort mentioned in the Bible.. Maybe Magardich’s prediction had been merely a lucky chance.

to be continued

[Sam]

And then --all in one day--Grandfather’s doubts disappeared once and for all.

In the year 1900, when Isaac was eight and his younger sister, Hamas, was four, the news arrived that a hundred Russian Christians were coming over the mountains in their covered wagons. Everyone was pleased. It was the custom in Kara Kala to hold a feast for the visiting Christians whenever they arrived. In spite of the fact that he didn't agree with the "full Gospel" preached by the Russians, Grandfather considered their visits as times set apart for God, and insisted that the welcoming feast be held on the large level plot of ground in front of his own home.

Now, Grandfather was proud of his fine cattle. With the news that the Russians were on their way, he went out to his herd and looked them over. He would choose the very finest, fattest steer for this special meal.

Unfortunately, however, the fattest steer in the herd turned out, on inspection, to have a flaw. The animal was blind in one eye.

What should he do? Grandfather knew his Bible well: He knew he should not offer an imperfect animal to the Lord, for didn't it say in the 22nd chapter of Leviticus, verse 20, "But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable..."?

What a dilemma! No other animal in the herd was large enough to feed 100 guests. Grandfather looked around. No one was watching. Suppose he slaughtered the big steer and simply hid the blemished head? Yes, that was what he would do! Grandfather led the half-blind steer into the barn, butchered it himself, and quickly placed the head in a sack which he hid beneath a pile of threshed wheat in a dark corner.

Grandfather was just in time, for as he finished dressing the beef, he heard the rumble of wagons coming into Kara Kala. What a welcome sight! Coming down the dusty road was the familiar caravan of wagons, each pulled by four perspiring horses. Beside the driver of the first team, erect and commanding as ever, sat the white-haired patriarch who was leader and prophet of the group. Grandfather and little Isaac ran up the road to greet their guests.

All over town preparations for the feast were underway. Soon the big steer was roasting on a spit over a huge bed of charcoal. That evening everyone gathered, expectant and hungry, around the long plank tables. Before the meal could begin, however, the food must be blessed.

These old Russian Christians would not say any prayer --even grace over meals--until they had received what they called the anointing. They would wait before the Lord until, in their phrase, the Spirit fell upon them. They claimed (a little to Grandfather's amusement), that they could literally feel His Presence descend. When this occurred they would raise their arms and dance with joy.

On this occasion as always, the Russians waited for the anointing of the Spirit. Sure enough, as everyone watched, first one and then another began to dance in place. Everything was going as usual. Soon would come the blessing of the food, and the feast could begin.

But to Grandfather's dismay, the patriarch suddenly raised his hand --not in sign of blessing-- but as a signal that everything was to stop. Giving Grandfather a strange penetrating look, the tall white-haired man walked from the table without a word.

Grandfather's eyes followed the old man's every movement as the prophet strode across the yard into the barn. After a moment he reappeared. In his hand he held the sack which Grandfather had hidden beneath the pile of wheat.

Grandfather began to shake. How could the man have known! No one had seen him. The Russians had not even reached the village when he had hidden that head. Now the patriarch placed the telltale sack before Grandfather and let it fall open, revealing to everyone the head with the milk-white eye..

“Have you anything to confess, Brother Demos?” the Russian asked.

‘Yes I have,” said Grandfather, still shaking. “But how did you know?”

“God told me,” the old man said simply. “You still do not believe that He speaks to His people today as in the past. The Spirit gave me this word of knowledge for a special reason: that you and your family might believe. You have been resisting the power of the Spirit. Today is the day you will resist no longer.”

Before his neighbors and guests that evening Grandfather confessed the deception he had attempted. With tears rolling down his face into his bristly beard, he asked their forgiveness. “Show me,” he said to the prophet, “how I, too, can receive the Spirit of God.”

Grandfather knelt and the old Russian laid his work-gnarled hands on his head. Immediately, Grandfather burst into joyous prayer in a language neither he nor anyone present could understand. The Russians called this kind of ecstatic utterance “tongues” and regarded it as a sign that the Holy Spirit was present with the speaker. That night Grandmother, too, received this “Baptism in the Spirit'”.

to be continued

[Sam]

It was the beginning of great changes in our family's life, and one of the first was a change in attitude toward Kara Kala's most famous citizen. This person was known throughout the region as the "Boy Prophet" even though at the time of the incident with the steer's head the Boy Prophet was 58 years old.

The man's real name was Efim Gerasemovitch Klubniken, and he had a remarkable history. He was of Russian origin, his family being among the first Pentecostals to come across the border [into Armenia], settling permanently in Kara Kala. From earliest childhood Efim had shown a gift for prayer, frequently going on long fasts and praying around the clock.

As everybody in Kara Kala knew, when Efim was 11 years old he had heard the Lord calling him again to one of his prayer vigils. This time he persisted for 7 days and nights, and during this time received a vision.

This in itself was not extraordinary. Indeed, as Grandfather had been accustomed to grumble, anyone who went that long without eating or sleeping was bound to start seeing things. But what Efim was able to do during those seven days was not so easy to explain.

Efim could neither read nor write. Yet, as he sat in the little stone cottage in Kara Kala, he saw before him a vision of charts and a message in a beautiful handwriting. Efim asked for pen and paper. And for 7 days sitting at the rough plank-table where the family ate, he laboriously copied down the form and shape of letters and diagrams that passed before his eyes.

When he had finished, the manuscript was taken to people in the village who could read. It turned out that this illiterate child had written out in Russian characters a series of instructions and warnings. At some unspecified time in the future, the boy wrote, every Christian in Kara Kala would be in terrible danger. He foretold a time of unspeakable tragedy for the entire area, when hundreds of thousands of men, women and children would be brutally murdered. The time would come, he warned, when everyone in the region must flee. They must go to a land across the sea. Although he had never seen a geography book, the Boy Prophet drew a map showing exactly where the fleeing Christians were to go. To the amazement of the adults, the body of water depicted so accurately in the drawing was not the nearby Black Sea, or the Caspian Sea, or even the farther-off Mediterranean, but the distant and unimaginable Atlantic Ocean! There was no doubt about it, nor about the identity of the land on the other side: the map plainly indicated the east coast of the United States of America.

But the refugees were not to settle down there, the prophecy continued. They were to continue traveling until they reached the west coast of the new land. There, the boy wrote, God would bless them and prosper them, and cause their seed to be a blessing to the nations.

...And then, a little after the turn of the century, Efim announced that the time was near for the fulfillment of the words he had written down nearly 50 years before. “We must flee to America. All who remain here will perish.”

Here and there in Kara Kala Pentecostal families packed up and left the holdings that had been their ancestral possessions time out of mind. Efim and his family were among the first to go. As each group of Pentecostals left Armenia, they were jeered by those who remained behind. Skeptical and disbelieving folk --including many Christians-- refused to believe that God could issue pinpoint instructions for modern people in a modern age.

But the instructions proved correct. In 1914 a period of unimaginable horror arrived for Armenia. With remorseless efficiency the Turks began the bloody business of driving two-thirds of the population out in to the Mesopotamian desert. Over a million men, women and children died in these death marches, including every inhabitant of Kara Kala. Another half a million were massacred in their villages in a progrom that was later to provide Hitler with his blueprint for the extermination of the Jews. “The world did not intervene when Turkey wipe out the Armenians,” he reminded his followers. “It will not intervene now.”

The few Armenians who managed to escape the besieged areas brought with them tales of great heroism. They reported that the Turks sometimes gave Christians an opportunity to deny their faith in exchange for their lives. The favorite procedure was to lock a group of Christians in a barn and set it afire: “If you are willing to accept Mohammed in place of Christ we’ll open the doors” Time and again, the Christians chose to die, chanting hymns of praise as the flames engulfed them.

Those who had heeded the warning of the Boy Prophet and sought asylum in America, heard the news with dismay.

Grandfather Demos was among these who had fled. After his experience with the Russian patriarch, Grandfather no longer discounted the validity of prophecy. In 1905 he sold the farm which had been in the family for generations, accepting whatever bit of money he could get for it....

The family reached New York safely but, mindful of the prophecy, did not settle there. In accordance with the written instructions they kept traveling across the vast bewildering new land, until they reached Los Angeles. There, to their delight, they found a small but growing Armenian sector where several friends from Kara Kala were already living....

...there was one time each week when all cares were set aside: the Sunday worship service. The house on Boston Street had a large front parlor which quickly became the community meeting place. The service followed the customs of the house churches back in Kara Kala. The focal point was a large table on which lay an open Bible. On either side of this sat the men, ranked according to age, the older men closest, behind them the younger ones, finally the boys; on the other side of the room, just as it had always been, were the women, also seated according to age. The elders continued to sport full black beards, although occasionally a younger man shocked everybody by growing only a mustache. And it was expected that, for church (if not for the rest of the week), the men would wear their bright-hued tunics, the women the long, embroidered dresses and hand-crocheted head scarves that had come down through the generations.

What comfort it must have been for Grandfather to draw on spiritual support from this body of Christians. They had long since learned that God could speak to them directly from the Bible. With his need for work on his mind, Grandfather would kneel on the small oriental rug that had been brought from the old country and ask “for a word.” Then the whole congregation would start to pray softly, often in the unknown, ecstatic languages called tongues. At last one of the elders would step to the Bible and place his finger on a passage at random. Always the words seemed to speak straight to the need. Maybe they were about the Lord’s faithfulness, or about the coming of milk-and-honey days just as the Boy Prophet had foretold. Well, the little Armenian church was waiting for those days to arrive, but at least while it waited, there were these beautiful moments of communion.

One day there was another encouragement It happened that Grandfather and his brother-in-law, Magardich Mushegan (the same man who had predicted Isaac’s birth) were walking down San Pedro Street in Los Angeles, looking for work in the livery stables. As they passed a side road called Azusa Street they stopped short. Along with the smell of horses and harness leather came the unmistakable sounds of people praising God in tongues. They had not known that anywhere in the United States were people who worshiped as they did. They rushed up to the converted stable from which the sounds were coming and knocked on the door. By now Grandfather had collected a few English words.

“Can we ...in?” Grandfather asked.

“Of course!” The door was flung open. There were embraces, hands lifted to God in thanksgiving, singing, and praising the Lord, and Grandfather and Magardich returned to Boston Street with the news that Pentecost had come even to this distant land across the sea. No one knew then that Azusa Street was to become a famous name. There was a revival going on in the old livery stable which would spark the charismatic renewal in scores of different places around the globe. At the moment Grandfather saw this other body of believers simply as a welcome confirmation of God’s promise to do something new and wonderful in California.

[Sam]

here is some more Pentecostal history:

Report on Heritage Conference
by J.L. Hall
from the July 1989 Pentecostal Herald

More than five hundred people attended the 1989 biennial Feast of Pentecost Heritage Conference in Los Angeles on March 1-3. From the first evening, the conference enjoyed the rich anointing of the Lord; the people were blessed by the preaching of the Word, the lecture sessions, the tour of historical sites, and the moving of the Spirit. Many people stated that it was one of the most informative meetings they have attended and that the spiritual atmosphere was outstanding.

During the evening services, the people were moved by the ministry of General Secretary C. M. Becton, D. L. Welch, Charles A. Rutter, Philip White, and General Superintendent Nathaniel A. Urshan. The inspired singing of the choirs from area churches-Azusa Tabernacle Choir of Azusa, Larry Payne, pastor: Apostolic Tabernacle Choir of Bellflower, Samuel S. White, pastor; and Bethlehem Temple Choir of Los Angeles, Bishop William L. Smith, pastor- enhanced the worship and brought the refreshing move of the Spirit. Many people from the local churches helped with the music, transportation, and ushering.

The day sessions focused upon aspects of the Pentecostal heritage in Los Angeles and California. Lectures on the Azusa Street revival, the origin of the Spanish Pentecostal movement, the doctrine of the Finished Work of Calvary, the history of Western District, Pentecostalism in California, the life and ministry of Frank Ewart, and the life and ministry of Harry Morse provided vivid insights into the tremendous debt we owe the Pentecostal pioneers from the early years of this century.

During the early days of the Pentecostal revival in California, from 1906 to 1909, the focal point was the Apostolic Faith Mission, located at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles and popularly known as the Azusa Street Mission. Beginning in April 1906, the revival exploded from the old, deteriorating building, spreading the Pentecostal message not only in Los Angeles and California but also across North America and around the world. Perhaps thousands of seekers were filled with the Spirit at the old building, and many of them traveled to other cities and even across oceans to tell the wonderful works of God.

Remarkably, within a few years, thousands of people across North America came into the Pentecostal experience, including entire organizations such as the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church, Pentecostal Holiness Church, Church of God, Freewill Baptist Church, and Church of God in Christ. Holiness leaders, such as William Durham in Chicago, received the Holy Ghost at Azusa Street Mission and made their churches Pentecostal centers in their areas.

By the end of 1907, evangelists such as Glenn Cook made preaching tours to cities in the Midwest and East, and the revival that accompanied their ministry brought thousands of new and enthusiastic converts into the growing movement. The Pentecostals from California joined more than thirteen thousand Pentecostals in the Midwest who had already been converted under the ministry of Charles Parham. Parham began the Pentecostal revival in 1901 in Topeka, Kansas. In 1905 he conducted a tremendous revival in and around Houston, Texas (where the leader of the Azusa Street revival, William J. Seymour, attended Parham's school). In October 1906, Parham took the Pentecostal message to Zion City, Illinois, and about two thousand (approximately twenty percent of the population) came into the Pentecostal movement. From California to New York and into Canada, North America felt the impact of the Pentecostals.

By the first of 1908, several Pentecostal families had sailed to foreign countries to spread the Pentecostal experience, and soon reports of revival from these nations were printed in the numerous Pentecostal papers and magazines published by individuals and churches. Some of these periodicals served to collect missionary funds for the support of Pentecostal missionaries.

By 1909, the first and most influential wave of revival subsided in Los Angeles. The revival at Azusa Street Mission was essentially over, but it had one last brief moment of glory in 1911 when William Durham from Chicago arrived to preach the Finished Work of Calvary message. For a few nights the Azusa Mission filled to capacity and overflowed into the street, but Seymour, who returned from a preaching tour, so disagreed with Durham's message that he locked the mission's door and Durham had to seek another building. The revival under Durham continued in a large building at Seventh and Los Angeles Streets, attracting about a thousand people to its services.

The Jesus Name message came into the Pentecostal movement in April 1914, but it had its roots in a baptismal message preached at the Arroyo Seco camp meeting in Los Angeles in 1913. At the baptismal service, R. E. McAlister noted that the apostles always baptized in the name of Jesus Christ or Lord Jesus and not in the traditional formula, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. This led to a study of the Scriptures on water baptism, and by the spring of 1914, Frank Ewart and others had come to an understanding of the oneness of God and water baptism in the name of Jesus.

Ewart baptized Glenn Cook and Cook baptized him in the Jesus Name formula in April. In December, Cook took the message to Oklahoma, Missouri, and Indiana, rebaptizing hundreds of Pentecostals in the name of the Lord Jesus. It is difficult for us to grasp the active faith and abandoned dedication of our pioneers. Great miracles accompanied their witness, and God provided for their needs in unusual ways; they willingly stepped out by faith to take the message to other places. They had few worldly possessions, but they possessed a heavenly experience that told them of an inheritance that would not fade away. For long hours at missions and in homes, they sought God in prayer; they wanted Him more than the necessities of life itself, and they obtained their desire.

The Heritage Conference sought to give us a glimpse of what they did and how they did it in the hopes that this glimpse would inspire us to look heavenward for another great wave of revival. The responses from those attending the Heritage Conference indicate that we are poised for such a moment.

More than eighty people went on the heritage tour of historical sites. Our first stop was at Angelus Temple, which was completed in 1923 under the ministry of Aimie Semple McPherson. At that time, the building was the largest domed structure in America, seating more than five thousand. Then the tour visited the house on Bonnie Brae Street, the place where the revival started before the services were moved to Azusa Street. The group assembled in the crowded house where the General Superintendent spoke briefly and then led us in prayer. The Spirit moved and ministered to us in the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues.

At the site of the Azusa Street Mission, Brother James Kilgore led the group in worship. Sister Mae Wyant, who as a young girl in 1911 received the Holy Ghost at the Azusa Street Mission, testified. At the Arroyo Seco campground, which is now a park, Brother C. M. Becton spoke and led us in worship The Spirit moved upon us and encouraged us with a message from heaven. What a blessing to visit the places where events shaped the Pentecostal movement!

We will not forget the lessons about our heritage that we learned at the conference. The new insights will help us in our own dedication and commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We also realize that we have only a glimpse of our past, but this glimpse has inspired us for a longer gaze. We will look again in two years when we visit another city to explore our roots in another part of North America.

[BoredOutOfMyMind]

FGBMI are SIX Steppers!

1. [1]
   
   
   Acknowledge
   
   "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)
   
   "God be merciful to me a sinner." (Luke 18:13)
   
   [2]
   
   
   Repent
   
   "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3)
   
   [3]
   
   
   Confess
   
   "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1John 1:9)"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans 10:9)
   
   [4]
   
   
   Forsake
   
   "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord...for He will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:7)
   
   [5]
   
   
   Believe
   
   "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
   
   "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." (Mark 16:16)
   
   
   [6]
   
   
   Receive
   
   "He came unto His own, and His own received him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to those that believe on His name." (John 1:11, 12)
   
   
   
   Why not make your eternal decision now?
   
   "Lord Jesus, I believe You died for my sins and I ask Your forgiveness. I receive You now as my personal Saviour and invite You to manage my life from this day forward. Amen."