Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843–1919) and his Christian and Missionary Alliance (founded in 1887) was very influential in the early years of Pentecostalism, especially on the development of the Assemblies of God.
Another early influence on Pentecostals was John Alexander Dowie (1847–1907) and his Christian Catholic Apostolic Church (founded in 1896).
In 1900, Charles Parham, an American evangelist and faith healer, began teaching that speaking in tongues was the Bible evidence of Spirit baptism.
The holiness movement provided a theological explanation for what was happening to these Christians, and they adapted Wesleyan soteriology to accommodate their new understanding. ===Early revivals: 1900–29=== Charles Fox Parham, an independent holiness evangelist who believed strongly in divine healing, was an important figure to the emergence of Pentecostalism as a distinct Christian movement.
In 1900, he started a school near Topeka, Kansas, which he named Bethel Bible School.
On January 1, 1901, after a watch night service, the students prayed for and received the baptism with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.
After 1901, Parham closed his Topeka school and began a four-year revival tour throughout Kansas and Missouri.
Sanctification cleansed the believer, but Spirit baptism empowered for service. At about the same time that Parham was spreading his doctrine of initial evidence in the Midwestern United States, news of the Welsh Revival of 1904–05 ignited intense speculation among radical evangelicals around the world and particularly in the US of a coming move of the Spirit which would renew the entire Christian Church.
This revival saw thousands of conversions and also exhibited speaking in tongues. In 1905, Parham moved to Houston, Texas, where he started a Bible training school.
Seymour traveled to Los Angeles where his preaching sparked the three-year-long Azusa Street Revival in 1906.
The revival first broke out on Monday April 9, 1906 at 214 Bonnie Brae Street and then moved to 312 Azusa Street on Friday, April 14, 1906.
During the period of 1906–24, Pentecostals defied social, cultural and political norms of the time that called for racial segregation and the enactment of Jim Crow laws.
By December 1906, he had returned to Europe and is credited with beginning the Pentecostal movement in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France and England.
One of the first areas of involvement was the African continent, where, by 1907, American missionaries were established in Liberia, as well as in South Africa by 1908.
After 1907, Azusa participant William Howard Durham, pastor of the North Avenue Mission in Chicago, returned to the Midwest to lay the groundwork for the movement in that region.
One of the first areas of involvement was the African continent, where, by 1907, American missionaries were established in Liberia, as well as in South Africa by 1908.
Early Pentecostals saw themselves as outsiders from mainstream society, dedicated solely to preparing the way for Christ's return. An associate of Seymour's, Florence Crawford, brought the message to the Northwest, forming what would become the Apostolic Faith Church by 1908.
In 1908, Giacomo Lombardi led the first Pentecostal services in Italy.
In November 1910, two Swedish Pentecostal missionaries arrived in Belem, Brazil and established what would become the Assembleias de Deus (Assemblies of God of Brazil).
Alma White, leader of the Pillar of Fire Church, wrote a book against the movement titled Demons and Tongues in 1910.
In 1910, William Durham of Chicago first articulated the Finished Work, a doctrine which located sanctification at the moment of salvation and held that after conversion the Christian would progressively grow in grace in a lifelong process.
After 1911, most new Pentecostal denominations would adhere to Finished Work sanctification. In 1914, a group of predominately 300 white Pentecostal ministers and laymen from all regions of the United States gathered in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to create a new, national Pentecostal fellowship—the General Council of the Assemblies of God.
By 1911, many of these white ministers were distancing themselves from an existing arrangement under an African-American leader.
Thus, the creation of the Assemblies of God marked an official end of Pentecostal doctrinal unity and racial integration. Among these Finished Work Pentecostals, the new Assemblies of God would soon face a "new issue" which first emerged at a 1913 camp meeting.
After 1911, most new Pentecostal denominations would adhere to Finished Work sanctification. In 1914, a group of predominately 300 white Pentecostal ministers and laymen from all regions of the United States gathered in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to create a new, national Pentecostal fellowship—the General Council of the Assemblies of God.
To further such distance, Bishop Mason and other African-American Pentecostal leaders were not invited to the initial 1914 fellowship of Pentecostal ministers.
Ewart and those who adopted his belief, which is known as Oneness Pentecostalism, called themselves "oneness" or "Jesus' Name" Pentecostals, but their opponents called them "Jesus Only". Amid great controversy, the Assemblies of God rejected the Oneness teaching, and many of its churches and pastors were forced to withdraw from the denomination in 1916.
To avoid confusion, the church changed its name in 1919 to the Church of the Nazarene.
The Church of God in Christ, the Church of God (Cleveland), the Pentecostal Holiness Church, and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World were all interracial denominations before the 1920s.
This church maintained an interracial identity until 1924 when the white ministers withdrew to form the Pentecostal Church, Incorporated.
In 1928, the World Christian Fundamentals Association labeled Pentecostalism "fanatical" and "unscriptural".
By the early 1940s, this rejection of Pentecostals was giving way to a new cooperation between them and leaders of the "new evangelicalism", and American Pentecostals were involved in the founding of the 1942 National Association of Evangelicals.
Because of their tongues speaking their members were considered mentally ill, and many pastors were sent either to confinement or to concentration camps. Though Pentecostals began to find acceptance among evangelicals in the 1940s, the previous decade was widely viewed as a time of spiritual dryness, when healings and other miraculous phenomena were perceived as being less prevalent than in earlier decades of the movement.
It was in this environment that the Latter Rain Movement, the most important controversy to affect Pentecostalism since World War II, began in North America and spread around the world in the late 1940s.
By the early 1940s, this rejection of Pentecostals was giving way to a new cooperation between them and leaders of the "new evangelicalism", and American Pentecostals were involved in the founding of the 1942 National Association of Evangelicals.
Pentecostal denominations also began to interact with each other both on national levels and international levels through the Pentecostal World Fellowship, which was founded in 1947. Some Pentecostal churches in Europe, especially in Italy and Germany, during the war were also victims of the Shoah.
With the help of many healing evangelists such as Oral Roberts, Pentecostalism spread across America by the 1950s. International visitors and Pentecostal missionaries would eventually export the revival to other nations.
Since the 1960s, Pentecostalism has increasingly gained acceptance from other Christian traditions, and Pentecostal beliefs concerning Spirit baptism and spiritual gifts have been embraced by non-Pentecostal Christians in Protestant and Catholic churches through the Charismatic Movement.
The Latter Rain and the Healing Revival influenced many leaders of the charismatic movement of the 1960s and 1970s. ===1960–present=== Before the 1960s, most non-Pentecostal Christians who experienced the Pentecostal baptism in the Holy Spirit typically kept their experience a private matter or joined a Pentecostal church afterward.
The 1960s saw a new pattern develop where large numbers of Spirit baptized Christians from mainline churches in the US, Europe, and other parts of the world chose to remain and work for spiritual renewal within their traditional churches.
The liberalizing influence of the Charismatic Movement on classical Pentecostalism can be seen in the disappearance of many of these taboos since the 1960s.
The Latter Rain and the Healing Revival influenced many leaders of the charismatic movement of the 1960s and 1970s. ===1960–present=== Before the 1960s, most non-Pentecostal Christians who experienced the Pentecostal baptism in the Holy Spirit typically kept their experience a private matter or joined a Pentecostal church afterward.
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