So Azusa Began With Trinitarians? More ?'s Follow

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by houston

Right. No disputing that.

I read somewhere (link I posted) that Azusa had strange things going on, similar to what took place in Toronto and Pensacola. The writer stated that THAT has always been the fruit of Azusa.

So, when someone claims that there has always been an apostolic church (Oneness, acts 238) I wonder if it can be substantiated through recent history. If it can be shown that there was an apostolic church during the time of the Azusa revival I then would agree that Azusa had some strange fire burning.
If there wasn't an apostolic church then I'd ask why the Trinitarian Pentecostals began to offer strange fire while the apostolic did not, being "birthed" from the same movement.

At the original meetings, Bartleman reports that all sorts of cranks and whackos came to see what was going on, including spiritists, mediums, witches, etc and tried to 'get involved'. They were usually chased from the meetings or fell under conviction and repented. Later, as the revival spread to other cities and other meetings, various eccentricities started popping up here and there. It has always been that way with revivals. The early Methodists meetings had similar 'strange fire' going on, as did the Cane Ridge meetings. Some might even argue Cane Ridge was 95 percent 'strange fire' although I wouldn't say that. Jonathan Edwards noted some stuff that nowadays would possibly dwarf Toronto and Pensacola antics, Finney noted weirdness going on, the Holiness movement always had some fringe stuff happening.

In the book of Acts we see some weirdness with the pythoness - girl with a spirit of divination - and the 'sons of Sceva', not to mention first century near eastern society had a lot of general weirdness going on to begin with anyway.

In other words, the 'weirdness' of Azusa street is, historically speaking, wholly unremarkable.

[houston]

The author of the article must be writing with a slant. He stated that mediums participated. They felt at home. He cites several sources (books). I haven't had time to look into much. It was an interesting read.
The writer als stated that Parham denounced Azusa for the strange things that were taking place.

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by Scott Pitta

American Pentecostalism is the direct result of Azusa Street.

This is not quite accurate. Azusa Street gets the credit, but Pentecostalism in America was a confluence of several streams. There were midwestern Scandinavian Evangelicals experiencing glossolalia in revivals that were breaking out in the late 1800s and early 1900s, independent of Azusa street and the Holiness movement in general. The Church of God, Cleveland and all it's later schisms trace their beginnings to revival in Appalachia during the 1890s which included glossolalia and 'Holy Ghost baptism' along with 'entire sanctification'. The Welsh revival also played a big part in American Pentecostalism including influencing what was happening in Los Angeles at that time.

[houston]

I do know that weird stuff happens. I have a pal who cast a huge blob thing out of an ill woman. It was the spirit of infirmity.
He has other stories. Nothing recent. Think he's losing his touch.
(ROFLOL)

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by houston

The author of the article must be writing with a slant. He stated that mediums participated. They felt at home. He cites several sources (books). I haven't had time to look into much. It was an interesting read.
The writer als stated that Parham denounced Azusa for the strange things that were taking place.

Read Bartleman's Azusa Street, it's a first hand eyewitness account by one of the founding participants. Parham had beef with Azusa Street because he felt everything was starting to look more like 'African jungle religion' and 'animalism', the church wasn't segregated enough, and things were beginning to be conducive to 'free love' type stuff, in his opinion. There was a power struggle between Parham and Seymour. But by the time Parham was trying to influence things the revival had actually moved on from Azusa Street mission.

[Scott Pitta]

The Azusa Street outpouring began in 1906 and by 1922, he had passed away. By 1922, pentecostalism was established in San Francisco and in Los Angeles. Actually, in many places.

By 1922, many missionaries had gone around the world, Pentecostal Bible schools were established, and the Oneness revelation was spreading.

Azusa was where the fire was lit. Mistakes were made, but not repeated.