America's Late 19Th Century & Early 20Th Century Pioneers

Click BELOW to Return to the Web Site. http://bibleexplorers.webs.com/ —Appendix 8 rev. 08/03/2014

THE MODERN PENTECOSTALS —America’s Late 19th Century & Early 20th Century Pioneers

FRANK SANFORD founded “The Holy Ghost and Us” Bible School and a religious settlement known as “Shiloh” in late 19th Century Maine. Part of the Fire-Baptized Holiness movement, “Shiloh” is reported to have been an abusive cult center. The following quote is from Wikipedia.com: “...Sandford—who had identified himself with the biblical Elijah and David —was convicted of manslaughter in 1911 and served seven years in a federal penitentiary.” There were also multiple charges of abuse against other Shiloh members.

Most of what is written about CHARLES FOX PARHAM suggests that he was the U.S. pioneer of modern pentecostal doctrines and practices. Further research into the historical record reveals a very different story: Parham modeled his Topeka, Kansas Bible School after Frank Sandford’s “The Holy Ghost and Us” Bible School, in Maine. He first heard “‘tongue’-talking” when Sandford's students emerged from the school's Prayer Towers during his visit to Shiloh in the summer of 1900: http://www.fullnet.net/np/archives/cyberj/hunter.html. He studied for at least six weeks at Shiloh. After his studies, he and Sanford went together on an evangelism tour through Canada: http://www.fwselijah.com and http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~jkh8x/soc257/nrms/AofGod.html The much lauded co-founder of the Assemblies of God, Parham was also a member of the KKK. He was the bitter enemy of the Azusa Street Mission and its African-American founder, William J. Seymour, below. After trying unsuccessfully to take over the Azusa Street Revival, he left in a huff to start his own pentecostal mission nearby. It quickly fizzled. Soon after that, he was arrested and charged with sexual molestation of several young boys. The charges against him were dropped, though: Some claim the boys all refused to testify.

Most writers insist that, on January 1, 1901, AGNES OZMAN became the first U.S. resident ever documented to have spoken, supernaturally, in a supposed known tongue. That language is said to have been perfect German. I have found nothing at all to indicate exactly how Parham and/or his other students might have concluded that. Maybe it had just “sounded” German. At least one other report insists that Miss Ozman spoke, not in German, but in fluent Chinese and that, for days afterward, she also wrote fluently in the Chinese language. Who knows? This photo of Miss Ozman was taken in 1937, the year of her death. The newspaper clipping in which it appeared said this: “Agnes Ozman was the first to speak in tongues at Charles Parham’s Bible School in Topeka Kansas.” Most of what is written about Miss Ozman tends to confirm that. But our further digging into the historical record has revealed new insight: There is strong evidence to suggest that Miss Ozman had also known the Maine cult leader, Frank Sandford, above: She named [A.B.] Simpson and his colleague, Steven Merritt as two of her more esteemed spiritual teachers. Interestingly, Steven Merritt is credited with leading Frank Sandford to his understanding and acceptance of the Holy Spirit. —Charles W. Nienkirchen’s A. B. Simpson and the Pentecostal Movement, p.31,32: http://www.fwselijah.com//Parham

In 1905, WILLIAM J. SEYMOUR enrolled as a student in a six-week Bible school that Charles Fox Parham agreed to bring to Houston, at the behest of the female pastor of a holiness church, there. Because of Seymour’s race, Parham insisted that he always sit in the hallway. Seymour went on to found the famed Azusa Street Mission in 1906, in a poverty-stricken Los Angeles neighborhood. Seymour quickly became disillusioned with white “tongue”-talkers. All of them left, many to start their own pentecostal churches. One of those churches – the Assemblies of God, co-founded by Charles Fox Parham – was to become the world’s largest pentecostal denomination. The Azusa Street mission and its fiery revival slowed to a nearly all black simmer and then faded into complete oblivion. His question was valid: How can and why would the Holy Ghost speak through people who hate other Christians? He doubted the validity of their “tongues.” Seems to me his doubting was fully justified. I cannot help but wonder, though, if Seymour ever studied to learn what the Bible specifically says about “tongues.” You may wonder, too, whether he ever read those strong warnings at 1 Timothy 4:1 and 1 John 4:1 about the seducing spirits that can evoke the same euphoria and “warm fuzzies” that, arguably, most Christians associate with The Holy Spirit. If so, shouldn’t he have known that those seducing spirits were the driving force behind his flash-in-the-pan Azusa Street Revival?