Apostolic Information Service

The Life of Andrew David Urshan
written by J.L. Hall

Andrew David Urshan’s decision to visit his father’s home in Urmia, Persia, led to the first Pentecostal revival in Russia and to the founding of the Jesus Name movement in that nation.

Andrew Urshan’s Early Ministry

Born on May 17, 1884, in the village of Abajaloo, a village thirteen miles from Urmia (Rizayh), Persia (Iran). Andrew grew up in a Presbyterian minister’s home. As a youth he surrendered his life to
God, but his real Christian conversion came after he emigrated to the United States.

In August 1902, he left Persia, arriving in New York in September or October. He was alone in a strange city, but he soon found employment and learned the English language. After living in New York for six
months, he moved to Chicago to be near his cousin, who was a medical student. To his dismay, he discovered that his cousin had lost faith in God.

In New York, Andrew attended church, but in Chicago professingChristians persuaded him to visit dance halls and to go to theaters, telling him that dancing and theaters were not sinful. But he became
miserable dancing and attending theaters. Then a second cousin, a preacher with the Brethren Church,
came from Persia. He persuaded Andrew to attend church with him. It was later at a Methodist church that Andrew repented and changed his ways. His cousin then convinced him to be baptized by immersion. After his cousin baptized him, Andrew visited a Holiness mission where he experienced what he called sanctification.

By 1906 he was attending Moody Church, and in this year he preached his first street service. He also participated in prayer meetings with other young Persian men near Lake Michigan in some lonely lots full of weeds and piles of rubbish. Later he pastored these Persian men, meeting for services in a room on the third floor at Moody Church.

In 1908 many of the Persians in his group received the Holy Ghost. For a while the elders of Moody Church tolerated the Pentecostal services, but eventually they asked Andrew to either stop the practice of speaking in tongues or move. In 1909, Andrew received the Holy Ghost, and in the next year he secured a building at 821 North Clark Street. For the next three years he pastored the church, which was known as the Persian Mission. In 1910, he was ordained into the ministry by William Durham, pastor of North Avenue Mission in Chicago.

The Persian Mission, like many other Pentecostal churches, experienced revival. In one series of meetings, about 150 people received the Holy Ghost in a few weeks. In another revival, 30 more were filled with the
Spirit. During his last year at the mission, 70 people were baptized with the Holy Ghost in a meeting.

REVIVAL AND PERSECUTION IN PERSIA

In the summer of 1913, Andrew felt that God wanted him to visit Persia in order to preach to his relatives and countrymen about the Pentecostal outpouring. He arrived in Abajaloo on March 1, 1914. Although his plans were to stay only a few months, he remained in Persia for more than a year and spent several more months in Russia.

In Persia, he conducted revival services in cities, towns, and villages, and hundreds of people received the Holy Ghost, including many in his immediate family.

World War I brought severe religious persecution to the Christians in Persia. As long as the Russian army was in Persia, it maintained order. However, when the army pulled back to Russian territory in February 1915, marauding Kurds and Turks raided Christian homes, threatened and physically abused Christians, and even murdered many of them, including three men and Elisha, who had received the Holy Ghost in Urshan’s revival services: Jeremiah Eshoo, Andrew, and Elisha.

Andrew, his family, and about thirty thousand other Persian Christians found refuge in the Presbyterian mission compound in Urmia. However, typhus fever swept through the crowded quarters, taking the lives of many people. One of those who died of the fever was Andrew’s mother.

Four months later, the Russian army returned to the area, making it safe again for Christians to return to their homes. Unfortunately, some Christians took revenge against the Moslems, creating more hostility between the two religious groups.

REVIVAL IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA

In the summer of 1915, the Russian army was again recalled to Russian territory, leaving the Christians once more without protection. To escape further tragedy, Andrew Urshan, several members of his family,
and hundreds of other Persians fled to Georgia, a southern territory in the Russian Empire.

Urshan had lost his passport and other citizenship papers in Persia, so the American consul in Tiflis (now Tbilisi), Georgia, issued him a temporary passport. This passport allowed him to travel in Russia while he made arrangements to return to the United States. While he waited for the needed governmental papers, God used his ministry to ignite the first Pentecostal revival in Russia and to establish the message of the oneness of God and water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.

In Tiflis, Urshan at first preached to the Persian refugees, but he was then invited to preach in a Russian Baptist church-in spite of Russian laws against foreign preachers. As a result of his ministry, many
members of the congregation received the Holy Ghost. News of the outpouring of the Spirit quickly spread to other churches across Russia. When Urshan left Tiflis to minister in Armavear, he left a “band of Pentecostal saints” in Tiflis.

His ministry in Armavear was to the Persian refugees. He stayed only a month, but his ministry was again fruitful. Later a large Pentecostal church was established there by one of his converts.

When his father and brothers returned to Iran, Urshan went to Petrograd (the name had been changed from St. Petersburg in 1914; Petrograd was then changed to Leningrad in 1924; and the name, as of October 1, 1991, has been changed back to St. Petersburg). He arrived in late 1915 or early 1916.

Times were not good in Petrograd or in other parts of the nation. The Russian army was suffering defeat in the war, stores were short of food and goods, the economy was collapsing, and the government of Tsar Nicholas II was crumbling.

During the next year, in 1917, the monarchy was overthrown when Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate; riots, mutinies, and revolution erupted in the streets; and the provisional government fell as the Bolshevik coup brought Lenin and the Communist Party to power.

THE REVIVAL IN PETROGRAD

In Tiflis and Armavear the first Pentecostal revival on record came to Russian territory. But it was in Petrograd that Urshan established the first Pentecostal movement in the nation. In Petrograd he preached the Oneness message of the absolute deity of Jesus Christ and water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. Moreover, it was from this city that the Jesus name message spread throughout the Soviet Union.

The leader of a free mission in St. Petersburg had heard of Urshan’s meetings among the Baptists in Tiflis and therefore invited him to visit the mission and to “say a few words.” The mission, a group that had ties with the Evangelical Chris- tians, were meeting in a hall on the third floor of Building 7 on Soljanoy Lane. At the service Urshan, speaking through an interpreter, related his experience in Persia and may have told of the outpouring of the Spirit in Tiflis. The people so enjoyed his message that he was invited to speak again, and then to hold a series of meetings.

The attendance at first was about 25 people but it quickly grew to 200 in a hall that would seat only 150. During the first few days of the meeting, 35 people received the Holy Ghost, and before he left the city two months later, about 150 people had been baptized with the Spirit.

The leaders of the mission, Alexander Ivanov and @Nikolai P. Snored, along with a few of their followers had been introduced to Pentecostalism in Helsinki, Finland, as early as 1909 through the Pentecostal missionary work of Thomas Barratt of Norway. While they embraced the Pentecostal teaching, it is probable that they had not received the Holy Ghost. Urshan never refers to them as being Pentecostal and does not mention any having received the Spirit prior to the meeting. Moreover, Pentecostals in Russia today say that both Ivanov and Snored were converted to Pentecostalism by Urshan. Regardless of their previous experience, it is clear that a Pentecostal revival did not occur in the city until Urshan’s meeting in 1915-16.

THE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS

The free Protestant mission in which Urshan preached in Petrograd emerged from the Evangelical Christian movement. In 1874 Lord Granville Radstock, an English nobleman, came to St. Petersburg to preach to the aristocracy in their private homes. Among the aristocracy that were converted were V. A. Pashkov, M. M. Korf, A. P. Bobrinskii, and V. F. Gagarina. As a member of the Brethren movement, Radstock pointed his converts toward a spiritual revival rather than the establishment of a church organization.

Lord Radstock soon returned to England, but Count Pashkov, who was a colonel of the guard, resigned his military commission in order to devote his time and talents to bring a revival to the masses in Russia. While he continued to preach and work among the aristocracy, his main thrust was to convert the artisans, merchants, workers, and peasants.

To spread the gospel, Pashkov used literature extensively as well as preaching. His co-worker, Count Korf, founded a publishing company, the Society for the Advancement of Spiritual-Ethical Reading, and they published and distributed enormous quantities of gospel pamphlets, books, and periodicals in St. Petersburg and throughout Russia.

Because of Pashkov’s energetic promotion and leadership of the movement, the followers were at first called Pashkovites, but they came to be known as Evangelical Christians. Their Armenian view separated them from Calvinistic Baptists in Russia, but they often associated and worked with the free Baptist movement.

At first authorities in the Russian Orthodox Church attempted to stop the rapid growth of Evangelical Christians by arresting the workers and peasants when they came to the services at Count Pashkov’s quarters. But Pashkov countered their actions by personally meeting the believers in the street and escorting them into the safety of the building.

Eventually, the Russian Orthodox authorities appealed to Tzar Alexander III to issue an order for Pashkov and Korf to sign a statement that they would cease preaching and terminate their fellowship with the
Evangelical Christians. When they refused to sign the statement, they were permanently exiled by the personal command of Alexander III. In exile, Pashkov maintained communications with the Evangelical Christians until the death in Paris in 1902.

Following Pashkov’s exile, Ivan V. Kargel became the leader in St. Petersburg. The movement continued to grow, but when Ivan Stepanovich Prokhanov, who had spent three and on-half years attending theological colleges in Bristol, London, Paris, and Berlin, became the leader, the movement experienced a rapid increase in members. Prokhanov organized the movement, energetically promoted missionary activity throughout Russia, printed and distributed vast quantities of literature, and raised large sums of money from colleges and churches in the United States to support the movement.

Although most converts came from the worker and peasant classes, many of the novelty and royalty continued as believers of Evangelical Christianity. One report compiled for the Department of Police in 1916 listed “Princess Gagarina, Her Highness Princess Paskevich, Princesses Lieven and Bariatinskaia, Chertkov, and heirs of Pashkov” as patrons of a congregation in Petrograd.

In 1908, Ivan S. Prokhanov, the leader of the Evangelical Christians and pastor of a church in St. Petersburg, started a mission in Helsinki, Finland. A year later, in 1909, he appointed Alexander I, Ivanov to be the preacher in the mission in Helsinki. Ivanov, who had earlier left the Russian Orthodox religion and joined the Evangelical Christian movement, had already been preaching in Vyborg, Finland, and his talents and dedication had caught the attention of Prokhanov.

When Ivanov moved to Helsinki he came in contact with followers of the Pentecostal Methodist missionary, Thomas Ball Barratt. Ivanov accepted Barratt’s teaching in 1910, for in 1914 he wrote: “The preaching of the Gospels was begun even before my arrival in Finland by Methodists in 1909 among Russians. From 1910 and to this day, the preaching of the Gospels has been done by me.”

There is evidence that Barratt visited Finland and Petrograd in 1911. His visit apparently strengthened Ivanov in the Pentecostal faith, but it does not appear that his visit was otherwise significant among the Russians.

In 1913, a division occurred in the Helsinki church, apparently over Pentecostalism, since Ivanov organized his followers into an independent congregation. Moreover, he rejected the nicknames given to his group, “Shakers” and “the sect of Christians of the Pentecost,” claiming only the name of Evangelical Christians. He referred to his followers as “free Russian Evangelists.”

In 1914, Prokhanov printed a warning in his newspaper Utreniaia zvezda against Ivanov’s followers: “In Helsingfors, in Vyborg, and also in St. Petersburg there appeared a sect of people calling themselves Pentecostalists but who in reality are Shakers.” He then identified Ivanov, Maslov, Stepanov, S. I. Prokhanov, and Khakkarainen (an Estonian) as members of the sect.

A warning also came in 1914 from Millerovo, a city in the southern part of the Russian Republic near the border of the Ukrainian Republic. A notice published in the Baptist journal mentioned Nikolai P. Snored, who reportedly told the Baptist congregation in Millerovo that he was not a Baptist or Evangelist but a Pentecostalist. Snored, who had been in Finland with Ivanov, had apparently also accepted the Pentecostal teaching.

In 1914, Ivanov, Snored, and their followers moved their mission to Petrograd, and this was the mission Urshan called a free Protestant mission. Apparently Ivanov and Snored served as co-leaders of the
mission, but others in the mission were also recognized as ministers. The mission soon came under attack by the Russian Orthodox Church. In November of 1915, Ivanov, F. A. Tuchkov, A. K. Chernukhin, and K. I. Vetsgaver were arrested and exiled to the Turgay Oblast in the Kazakhstan Republic. Their exile was short, however, for they were back in Petrograd during Urshan’s revival.

Since Ivanov, Snored, and others had already embraced Barratt’s Pentecostal teaching, they readily supported Urshan’s preaching on the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And the outpouring of the Spirit confirmed what they had learned in Finland. Credit must be given to Barratt for introducing Pentecostalism to Ivanov and his mission in Helsinki, but it is significant that Ivanov and Snored claimed Urshan and not Barratt as the founder of Pentecostalism in Russia. Moreover, Urshan ordained these two leaders into the ministry by the laying on of hands, and he placed them over the church in Petrograd.

The name adopted by the movement was Evangelical Christians in the Spirit of the Apostles, a name that remains today. However, since Snored became the sole leader of the movement after Ivanov’s death in 1934, the movement was often called Smorodintsy (the followers of Snored). In some areas of the Soviet Union, the name has been slightly changed to Evangelical Christians according to the Teachings of the Apostles. The Jesus Name people are also called “the people who believe in one God.”

WATER BAPTISM IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST

Urshan, who had left North America before the issue over the baptismal formula emerged, learned about the controversy from his correspondence with people in America. He knew the biblical teaching on water baptism in the name of Jesus, for he had baptized new converts in the name of Jesus as early as 1910. But he himself had not been baptized in the name of Jesus, nor had he advocated rebaptism for those baptized by immersion the traditional Trinitarian formula.

He wanted to wait until he returned to the United States before deciding on the issue. In Petrograd he tried to avoid baptism by not mentioning it in his preaching. Yet he realized that he needed to know what to do if a new convert asked to be baptized. So he prayed that if God wanted him to baptize as the Apostles did in the Book of Acts, then let the first convert who asked to be baptized show him in the Bible the chapter and verse referring to baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.

Urshan did not mention his prayer or the matter of water baptism. But during the testimony service one evening, a man rushed to Urshan with his Bible in his hand. Crying he said, “Oh! Brother Urshan, the Lord Jesus told me last night to ask you to baptize me, just like this text.” The man’s finger was in Acts 8:16.

At the first baptismal service, Urshan baptized twelve converts in the name of Jesus Christ. Although did not explain why he baptized in the name of Jesus, the baptismal service caused many other people to repent and desire baptism. At the next baptismal service, however, he preached a message on Isaiah 9:6 on the deity of Jesus Christ. Then he explained why the apostles always baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus without using the titles of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. When he finished, to his surprise many people who had been baptized in the Trinitarian formula wanted to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Urshan tried to discourage them against rebaptism, saying that it was not necessary. When they insisted, he told them about the controversy in North America and tried to persuade them to change their minds. Then he asked them to pray, thinking this would end the matter. But after praying, the people said,”Now, Brother Urshan, we are ready to be baptized.” Urshan again refused, telling them that they could baptize each other but he would not baptize them.

The people, however, insisted that since he had taught them from the Scriptures about this truth he should be the one to baptize them. The appeal to Scripture broke his resistance. And he became convinced that he too should be baptized in the name of Jesus.

Urshan and the others chose the eldest leader among them who had received the Holy Ghost, F. A. Tuchkov, a retired navy guard, to baptize Urshan. Then Urshan baptized Tuchkov and about 75 others in the name of Jesus. Before he left Russia two months later, he had baptized about two hundred Russian believers in the name of Jesus Christ.

Before Urshan left Petrograd, he appointed Ivanov and Snored to be the leaders of the church and movement. When he wrote his life story a few years later he mentioned that news had reached him that the church in Leningrad had grown to about 1,000 and that Ivanov and Snored “were holding onto the truth in Leningrad.” He also mentioned that many of the saints had emigrated to South America, where they were spreading the Oneness message.

REPRESSION, PERSECUTION AND SURVIVAL

One year after Andrew Urshan preached in Petrograd (Leningrad, St. Petersburg), the Bolshevik coup brought the Communist Party to power in the nation. For the first decade of Communist rule, evangelicals, including Pentecostals, had freedom to preach and promote their message throughout the nation. But the government took severe repressive measures against evangelicals beginning in 1928. The next year, in 1929, the Soviet government passed a set of laws that essentially made the practice of religion a crime. The government had set out to eradicate all religions, including Pentecostalism, in the Soviet Union.

Using the laws passed in 1929, the Communist government imprisoned thousands of evangelical believers, including Oneness Pentecostals. It was a crime to print or distribute religious literature, to meet for religious service, to teach one’s children about God, and to witness about God to others. Christians were relocated to work on collective farms, in factories, and in labor camps. Most if not all the pastors of Jesus Name churches were sent to prisons or to work in labor camps. If and when they were released from prison or labor camps, they were soon arrested and imprisoned again. Many of them disappeared in prison, and the authorities would not tell their families what happened to them.

Still Pentecostals and other evangelicals refused to bow to the godless demands of the government, even if it meant prison and death. They went underground, meeting secretly in homes. They soon lost communication with other Pentecostals, not only those in other cities but also many in their own communities. They took the worst persecution Communism had to give, and they survived by God’s grace to see the collapse of this enemy of the work of God.

RUSSIAN ONENESS PENTECOSTALISM TODAY

During the years of repression, the Jesus Name people in the West lost contact with their brothers and sisters in the Soviet Union. After the changes that began in Russia in 1986, the United Pentecostal Church heard of a Jesus Name church in Leningrad. Our missionaries visited the congregation in 1988. Since that time our missionaries, officials, and other ministers have visited churches in Leningrad, Moscow, Brest, Minsk, Odessa, and Tallinn.

During June 1991, General Superintendent Nathaniel A. Urshan, who is the son of Andrew D. Urshan, Regional Field Supervisor Robert Rodenbush, Missionary Harold Kinney, and Editor in Chief J. L. Hall visited Leningrad and Moscow. They met in session with ministers and leaders from churches across the Soviet Union. Brother Urshan preached to the churches in Leningrad and Moscow and at a crusade service held at a civic auditorium in Leningrad. The information we have received indicates that there are at least eighty Jesus Name churches and groups in the Soviet Union.

Brother and Sister Dmitri Shatrov, pastor of the church in Leningrad, attended the 1990 Pentecostal World Conference in Amsterdam. He and his wife also attended the General Conference of the United Pentecostal Church, held in Indianapolis, Indiana, during October 1991. Pastor Shatrov is working to unite the ministers and churches in the Soviet Union into an organization.

Fellowship with the Oneness Pentecostal believers in the Soviet Union is being restored, but the task of assisting them has only begun. The United Pentecostal Church has sent 19,000 Bibles to the churches in the Soviet Union.

Some small offerings have also been given to churches for specific needs. We are in the process of translating books, pamphlets, and tracts into the Russian language for distribution among the Russian churches. Our missionaries have participated in ministerial seminars and arranged for North American ministers to preach in Russian churches.

Our assistance, however, must be strengthened and expanded quickly if we are to meet the critical needs of people in Oneness Pentecostal churches and assist them in their efforts to reach the tens of thousands of spiritually hungry people in the Soviet Union. They will need finances to purchase church property, printing equipment, and evangelism tools, and to publish an official periodical. But basic to all we must do to help them, we need to pray and encourage them in the Lord as they emerge from the dark, repressive shadows of godless communism to evangelize the cities, towns, and communities in their nation.

References

Urshan, Andrew David. The Life of Andrew Bar David Urshan. Portland, Oregon: Apostolic Book Publishers, 1967.
Hollenweger, Walter T. The Pentecostals. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1972.
Klibanov, A. I. History oy Religious Sectarianism in Aussia (1860s-1917). New York: Pergamon Press, 1982.
Fletcher, William C. Soviet Charismatics: The Pentecostals in the USSR. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1985.
Durasoff, Steve. The Aussian Protestants: Euangellca!s irt the Soviet Union: 1944-1964. Cranbury, N.J.: Associated University Presses, 1969.
Sawatsky, Walter. Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II. Kitchener, Ont.: Herald Press, 1981.

This article is from the PENTECOSTAL HERALD, November 1991, and December 1991 edition. It was written by J.L. Hall editor in chief. This material is copyrighted and may be used for study purposes only.

CHRISTIAN INFORMATION NETWORK

The Reason for the Rise of the Pentecostal Movement

Thomas F. Zimmerman

Late in 1969, Jessyca Russell Gaver received a clipping from the September 6, 1969, edition of the New York Times sent by her publisher, Arnold Abramson. The headline read, “Pentecostal Movement Finding New Adherents.”

Abramson wanted Mrs. Gaver to write a book about this phenomenon, and to encourage her to accept the assignment, he included the story of the growth of Pentecostals. She accepted, and the result was an almost 300-page paperback entitled Pentecostalism.

While there were certainly other considerations which caused Mrs. Gaver to take the assignment, a prominent motivating factor was one sentence in the newspaper article:

Pentecostalism has developed into the world’s fastest-growing denomination at a time when membership in most other churches is declining as a proportion of the population.

Like the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the Pentecostal movement today has received widespread attention. It has been referred to by various designations-both kind and unkind. Possibly one of the most appropriate descriptions from a biblical point of view is the term “revival.” The rise of the Pentecostal movement came under conditions which existed prior to revivals both in Bible times and in later Church history. The rise of the present-day move of the Spirit is directly attributable to believers who fulfill God’s conditions for revival.

Great revivals have often begun in times of spiritual and moral darkness. Conditions of gross darkness prevailed before revivals under such leaders as Asa (2 Chronicles 15: 1-15), Joash (2 Kings 11, 12), Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29-31), Josiah (2 Kings 22, 23), Zerubbabel (Ezra 5, 6), and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 8:9; 12:44-47). The people and leaders were guilty of idolatry, neglect of and in some cases contempt for the house of God, unjust and sometimes cruel treatment of fellow Israelites, entangling alliances and associations with heathen nations, and the practice of spiritualism and other forms of the occult.

Against this backdrop of ungodliness, there were always those who were earnestly looking to the Lord for His intervention. These people were never disappointed, for when God’s people sought the Lord with the whole heart, a spiritual and moral revival always followed.

A quick perusal of history books makes it very evident that conditions  prior to the present Pentecostal revival were deplorable. Post-Civil War America was fraught with sectional hostility and financial turmoil. Increasing population movements into the cities were accompanied by the usual moral decay-crime, gambling, alcoholism, and prostitution grew rampant. Corruption reached high levels of federal and state governments, and many became rich quickly at the expense of the taxpayers. In the business world, those who became wealthy through stock manipulations, oil speculations, and other fraudulent means often outnumbered those who succeeded through honesty.

Nor was the church exempt from the spirit of the times. American seminaries exchanged professors with the German universities where liberal theology and higher criticism of the Bible were in vogue. It wasn’t long until pulpits were being populated by literal apostles of unbelief. They ridiculed the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, and the substitutionary atonement. The social gospel was supplanting the supernatural Gospel, and the theory of Christian nurture preempted the necessity of repentance.

But still there were many devout believers in every denomination who continued to “contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” As these people began to pray more earnestly because of deteriorating world conditions, it was not long until God began to pour out His Spirit and to restore to the remnant Church the gifts of His Spirit, notably speaking in tongues.

Not all these people upon whom the Spirit fell realized, at first, the biblical precedent for the experiences they were having. But soon, from many different places, they began to declare that the Holy Spirit was being outpoured as during the first days of the Church age. Once again God had honored His ancient promise in a time of deep darkness.

This, then, is the explanation for the remarkable growth of the pentecostal movement. Men have tried to adduce all kinds of reasons for it in terms of sociology, psychology, ecology, and economics. But nothing short of the almighty power of God responding to the contrition of His faithful remnant could have produced such results.

Let us then review the essential elements in the lives of these people on whom the Spirit fell.

1. First, they revered the Word of God, the Bible. And so it always was. The revivals under Asa (2 Chronicles 15:8-19), Joash (2 Chronicles 24:6), and Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:6), as well as those under Josiah, Zerubbabel, and Nehemiah, were attributable largely to the fact that these Old Testament leaders insisted on a renewed commitment to the Mosaic documents, especially to Deuteronomy.

Evan Roberts, leader of the famous Welsh revival at the turn of this century, exemplified this same dedication to the priority of Scripture. A contemporary observer said of him, “He is no orator, he is not widely read. The only book he knows from cover to cover is the Bible.” George T. B. Davis, in his book, When the fire fell, reported that a religious paper in Chicago made this observation of Evan Roberts: “First he worked in a coal mine, then became an apprentice in a forge, then a student for the ministry. But all his life he has yearned to preach.”

The Bible was given priority in Bethel College, Topeka, Kansas, where about forty students came together primarily to study the Word of God. It was after exhaustive study of the Bible that the students unanimously agreed that speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of the Baptism in the Spirit. What they believed the Word of God taught, they soon began to experience, and so the modern Pentecostal movement was launched.

2. Secondly, these people on whom the Spirit fell lived holy lives. They studied to avoid sin and to shun the very appearance of evil.

Since the pentecostal movement is strongly biblical, emphasis on holiness is not surprising. It might have seemed that such an emphasis would inhibit its growth, but the opposite has been true. The committed life with all its attendant blessings came to be appreciated by people who recognized the greater price which had to be paid for selfish and sinful living. Holiness was not to them a cross to be borne, but a cherished delight.

While there have been different doctrinal positions on the matter of sanctification, all Pentecostal fellowships have emphasized holiness. A careful study of the past seventy years would show that this has certainly been a factor in the growth of these bodies.

3. A third prominent feature of all revivals of Bible and church history has been a strong emphasis on the truth of substitutionary atonement. Sin is a reality which can only be taken care of through
the transfer of the offender’s guilt to Christ, and the transfer of Christ’s righteousness to the believer.

The work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ (John 16: 14). This is why, when Pentecostal believers have emphasized the atoning work of Christ, lost souls have responded with joy. Persuasive human eloquence did not produce these many conversions, but the convicting power of the Holy Spirit who honored the cross-centered preaching of the Pentecostals.

4. Perhaps one of the most significant and widely observed phenomena of the Pentecostal revival is its emphasis upon free and exuberant worship. Man is a worshiping creature. He will worship something. If he doesn’t worship God, he is surely an idolater.

When people are filled with the Holy Spirit, they are indwelt by the one who glorified Christ and who also empowers authentic worship. This Spirit of worship which has attracted so many in the past will certainly continue to do so.

Dr. Leland R. Keys, a retired minister who has served many years with distinction both as a pastor and educator, was introduced to Pentecost in a mission in an eastern city in the early years of this century. He said there was one custom of that mission which attracted his attention most: a lady would play the pump organ before the service and sometimes would sing familiar choruses and hymns. Without waiting for the service to commence formally, the people as they gathered would join in, and God’s presence would become wonderfully real.
Dr. Keys continued, “A Spirit-baptized body of believers, loving the Lord with all their hearts, singing and making melody to the Lord, expressing their joy in the public assembly, prepared the way for what
was called a ‘Holy Ghost meeting.’ The gifts of the Spirit were manifested, and the Word of God was proclaimed with power. The result was that the altars were filled with those who were hungry for God.”

Much more could be said about the numerous features which attracted People into the Pentecostal ranks from every walk of life. The joy of salvation, their irrepressible happiness, miraculous healing and deliverances, transformed homes-all had great appeal.

Less appealing was the persecution. It happened in the home, in the community, in the schoolhouse. Wary onlookers quickly coined epithets to describe these people whose behavior they considered bizarre. As in the early church, however, persecution didn’t hinder the work of God-it helped.

5. The final characteristic of the early Pentecostals which accounts for much of their success was their consuming evangelistic zeal. In spite of charges to the contrary, Pentecostals do not spend all their
time talking in or about tongues. They have instead consistently sought to bring people to Christ. Like the people described in the Book of Acts, they have gone everywhere, earnestly proclaiming the message of salvation.

A.W. Orwig, who attended some of the Azusa Street meetings in Los Angeles, later wrote:

One thing that somewhat surprised me was the presence of so many from different churches. Some were pastors, evangelists, or foreign missionaries. Persons of many nationalities were present. Sometimes these, many of them unsaved, would be seized with deep conviction of sin under the burning testimony of one of their own nationality, and at once heartily turn to the Lord. Occasionally some foreigner would hear a testimony or earnest exhortation in his native tongue from a person not at all acquainted with that language, and thereby be pungently convicted that it was a call from God to repent of sin.

W.J. Seymour, a leader in the Azusa Street mission, was often heard to say, “Now, do not go from this meeting and talk about tongues, but try to get people saved.”

In conclusion, we must not overlook the prophetic and eschatological implication of the Pentecostal movement. When the multitude gathered at the first Pentecostal outpouring, some were angered, some were in doubt, and some mocked. It was then Peter who offered an explanation in terms of the prophecy of Joel:

And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: and I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:17-21)

The Pentecostal revival is a fulfillment of prophecy-a sign of the last days.
Paul made a less buoyant forecast about those days: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come” (2 Timothy 3:1). He followed that with a dreary catalog of evils which would characterize the last days-a list that convinces believers more than ever of the imminence of the end of the age. But Pentecostals know that where sin abounds, grace is even more plentiful, and they are optimistic. They expect an outpouring of the Spirit greater than ever.

Thank God for what happened on the day of Pentecost! Thank God for the rise of the twentieth-century Pentecostal movement. But let us especially thank God that the best days are not in the past. They are in the future.

Convinced of this, we will continue to sensitively follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit; we will continue in dedicated service to Christ; and we shall continue to pray, “Even so, come Lord Jesus! Maranatha!”

From Azusa Street and Beyond, L.G. McClung, Jr., Editor; Bridge Publishers, 1986.

A foremost leader is world Pentecostalism, Thomas F. Zimmerman is the former General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God (1960-1985). Since 1964 he has served as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the World Pentecostal Conference.