Week 4: Azusa Street and Beyond

The Reading: Century (ch. 3-4), Generals (ch. 4-5)

Azusa Street Revival
Review: Roots of Pentecostalism
1) Restoration of Signs and Wonders - Leading up to the Azusa Street Revival of 1906, a number of ministries
began teaching and believing for a restoration of the charismata of the early church - the Jansenists in France,
Edward Irving and his Catholic Apostolic Church in England - and evangelists like John Alexander Dowie, Maria
Woodworth-Etter, and Charles Parham began seeing supernatural signs and wonders on a regular basis.
2) Second Blessing Teaching - Wesleyan holiness churches, Methodist camp meetings, Keswick conventions...
Especially among Methodist churches, there arose an emphasis on a "Second Blessing" experience after salvation
(sometimes referred to as baptism in the Holy Spirit) for inner purity and sanctification, which eventually (in
some groups) came to include supernatural anointing with the Holy Spirit's power.
3) Worldwide Revival - From worldwide prayer movements at the beginning of the 20th century and the Welsh
Revival of 1904, the world began hungering for revival, and God sent it. The Pentecostal Movement, beginning at
Azusa Street, was birthed in the middle of a worldwide revival unlike any other.
Overview: What Happened at Azusa Street?
Revival came to a small church that met at Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California, spreading Pentecostal
teaching worldwide
Before Azusa Street - weak, scattered, small, unorganized:
o Mukti Mission Revival (1890s) - Revival begun in school for orphaned girls under Methodist missionary
Minnie Abrams. Evangelists like Pandita Ramabai spread revival and Pentecostal experience in India
o Charles Parham - Experienced revival in Topeka, KS (1901) with tongues and began teaching Pentecostal
doctrine of baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues in the US, especially the Midwest
o Welsh Revival (1904) - Those in the revival led by Evan Roberts maybe experienced speaking in tongues
o Swedish-Americans in Moorhead, MN (1904) - Experienced a Pentecostal revival under John Thompson
o Though Azusa Street didn't begin Pentecostal teaching or experience, it was at Azusa that the movement
captured the attention of the world and was catapulted everywhere
Leading to the Revival
Los Angeles is Ready for Revival
o Welsh Revival (1904) creates prayer, evangelism, and expectancy in Los Angeles
o Prayer groups throughout the city, city-wide evangelism, expectation of revival
o Joseph Smale - Former pastor of the First Baptist Church of LA, visited Wales to see the Welsh Revival,
and came back more determined than ever before to see revival in LA. He started revival meetings in his
church, but after four months of nightly meetings, his elders didn't want to keep going, so he left and
started the First New Testament Church, with a focus on revival.
o Frank Bartleman - Los Angeles evangelist who contacted Evan Roberts for his advice on how to see
Revival in Wales; later Bartleman preserved accounts and testimonies of the revival
o Julia Hutchins - Leader of a small group of black Holiness Christians devoted to seeing revival, she
would later invite William Seymour to come and be their pastor
Charles Parham (1873-1929)
o Independent American holiness healing evangelist
o Revival in Topeka, KS (1901) - Gave his Bethel Bible school students an assignment to discover if there
is any Biblical evidence for baptism in the Holy Spirit, and when he came back, they all said it was
speaking in tongues. The students were filled with such expectancy that on 1 Jan 1901, Agnes Ozman was
baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues (Chinese for 3 days)
o Parham's Travelling Ministry (1901-1905) - After the revival at Topeka, Parham began travelling the US
teaching on baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, spreading the message despite opposition

Bethel Bible School: Houston (1905) - Parham started a new Bible school in Houston, TX, where he
taught the baptism in the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues. One of his students was a young black
man named William Seymour, who would be the man that God used to spread Pentecostalism at Azusa
Street

Early Pentecostal Doctrines: Tongues are the evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit (if you
don't speak in tongues, you don't have it), every Christian should be baptized in the Holy Spirit,
you could speak in tongues as a normal part of your Christian life, baptism in the Holy Spirit is
the only way you can escape Great Tribulation, missionaries don't need to learn foreign
languages

William Seymour (1870-1922)

o A black man born to former slaves in Louisiana, blind in one eye from smallpox
o Became a holiness preacher who travelled America preaching the Gospel
o Attended Parham's school (Houston), where he was convinced in baptism in the Holy Spirit and tongues
o Route to Los Angeles - While filling in for his friend Lucy Farrow as pastor of a holiness church in
Houston, Neely Terry, a visitor from Los Angeles and member of Julia Hutchins' holiness church, came
and heard him preach. When she returned to LA, Hutchins said they needed a man to be their group's
pastor, so Terry suggested Seymour, who came in February 1906

The Revival (1906-1909, 1911-1912)

Beginnings
o Julia Hutchins' Church - February 1906, as Seymour's first sermon in his new pastorate, he preached
baptism in the Holy Spirit with accompanying tongues. The church was split over the doctrine, and
Hutchins disagreed, rejecting him as pastor and locking him out. Later, Hutchins joined the revival, was
baptized in the Holy Spirit, spoke in tongues, and went to Liberia as a missionary.
o Lee Home - Locked out of his new church, Seymour was taken in by Edward (Owen) Lee's family. While
there, Seymour began prayer meetings with the family. When others heard of the meetings, a small group
gathered, some from Hutchins' holiness church.

o 214 N Bonnie Brae - As the group grew, Richard and Ruth Asberry later invited Seymour to do
worship services and prayer meetings at their home (214 N Bonnie Brae St). The Aberrys were
Baptists who felt sorry for Seymour though didn't agree with his doctrine. Meetings were
attended mostly by poor black women and a few husbands at first. Soon white Believers joined
in too, yet no one was speaking in tongues.
o Lucy Farrow - In late March, Parham sent Lucy Farrow, Seymour's friend who spoke in tongues,
to help encourage the group and lead them into speaking in tongues
o Fasting - Seymour suggested the group do a 10-day fast until they spoke in tongues
Tongues!
o 9 April 1906 - Edward (Owen) Lee got healed and then started speaking in tongues when
Seymour prayed for him. At the prayer meeting that evening, Seymour and 7 others were also
baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Jennie Moore spoke in Hebrew and
miraculously learned how to play piano.
o Revival - Huge crowds began gathering at Bonnie Brae Street, leading to 24-hour meetings for
3+ days. People filled the streets and every inch of the house. There were so many people that
the porch collapsed!
Azusa Street Mission
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Crowds grew too large for the Asberry home, leading the group to a former African Methodist Episcopal
church at 312 Azusa St, a broken building in the ghetto
The building was really old and in need of repair, so everyone helped fix it
14 April 1906 - First meetings at Azusa St location
Crowds from all over America and the world came to the revival, received the baptism in the Holy Spirit,
spoke in tongues, were healed, saved, delivered, and brought the revival back to their communities
Newspapers reported on the revival, bringing more people and spreading it further. Even the very
negative reports drew seekers

Characteristics of the Meetings

At least 3 services a day (up to 9), 7 days a week, for 3 1/2 years
Sometimes meetings would last all day
Spontaneous, Spirit-led meetings with worship, prayer, singing, prophesying, testimonies,
preaching, and crazy manifestations (some fleshly, some demonic, and some from the Holy
Spirit)
Racial and cultural harmony like nowhere else in the world
Phenomenal healings and deliverances, many salvations, even among skeptics
Upstairs: seeking Holy Spirit, prayer for the sick, rooms for staff to sleep
Downstairs: meetings
Pulpit, in the middle of the room, was 2 wooden crates. Seymour kept his head in the top one.
Crowds reached into the thousands, many others on the streets outside
Two Waves
o First Wave (1906-1909) - Revival began under William Seymour, with thousands coming from all over
the world and receiving baptism in the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues
o Decline (1909-1911) - The revival subsided for a few years, attendance down to 10-15 members, so
Seymour travelled throughout the US preaching
o Second Wave (1911-1912) - After the period of decline, the revival was stirred afresh through the
"Finished Work" preaching of William Durham (February 1911) while Seymour was gone preaching.
William Durham - A former Baptist pastor who became Holiness and then Pentecostal. He taught
the new "Finished Work" doctrine
"Finished Work" - Classical Holiness and early Pentecostal churches taught a "Second Blessing"
instant sanctification experience after salvation. "Finished Work" doctrine said that Jesus' death
and resurrection accomplished everything needed for our salvation and sanctification, with no
need of a "Second Blessing" later. When Jesus said, "It is finished," He meant everything was
finished for us and all we have to do is receive it by faith, meaning salvation, sanctification,
healing, and baptism in the Holy Spirit are dependent on faith, not works.
When Durham preached, the crowds returned to Azusa by the thousands
When Seymour heard about Durham, he returned and locked him out of Azusa
Durham preached his message elsewhere, and the crowds followed
o Decline (1912-?)
o

Criticism and Persecution

Many negative newspaper accounts (beginning with 18 April 1906 LA Times)
Government tried to break up the meetings
o Police said it was a public nuisance
o Fire Department said people heard explosions and saw fires
o Child Welfare said there were too many unsupervised children
o Health Department said the crowded, cramped conditions were unsanitary and a health risk
Holiness churches ardently disagreed with the manifestations and the emphasis on tongues and signs and
wonders. Tongues was called "the last vomit of Satan" by one Holiness preacher.
Some pastors were against the revival because members left their home churches to join Azusa
Critics, such as Parham, denounced the manifestations as fleshly and demonic, called the meetings anarchy
o Parham claimed they were using hypnotism and witchcraft, that many people were receiving demons
instead of the Holy Spirit, and set up a rival center where he cast demons out of Azusa attendees
Many disagreed with blacks and whites (and other nationalities) mixing together
o In October 1906, Parham called it a "darkey revival" and rebuked attendees for mixing races and demonic
manifestations
Other people didn't like the early Pentecostals because they were mostly poor and uneducated
Others, like William Durham, disagreed with the overly-legalistic works-based views of Seymour
Decline of the Revival
After 1909, the revival began to decline (except for Durham's ministry in 1911-1912), for a number of reasons

Formality and Control - they put a name on the building, built a throne for William Seymour, tried to control the
order of service, tried to orchestrate the spread of revival much like a denomination would do
o Seymour eventually named the Azusa mission "Apostolic Faith Mission," so some feared he was turning
it into just another one of Parham's churches
Sectarianism - self-righteous people turned to judging and criticizing others, fighting over pet doctrines, trying to
get more time in the Upper Room to "tarry" for the Holy Spirit
o Seymour's marriage to Jennie Evans Moore (13 May 1908) was denounced as sin by some
Increasing numbers of demonic manifestations weren't dealt with appropriately
Unlike previous revivals, the Christian community and general public largely rejected the Pentecostal Revival
Increasing segregation was drawing non-blacks away from Azusa and into their own things
People were changing their views on some of the bad teaching
o Works-based theology - if you sinned even once after sanctification, you lost your salvation
o Said sanctification was instantaneous, instead of progressive
o People "tarried" for days to receive the Holy Spirit instead of just receiving Him by faith
o Tongues were seen as only and always for foreign missions, so people who could speak in tongues left on
the mission-field expecting to not have to learn the languages
o Most people only spoke in tongues once and thought that was enough
o Expected God to sovereignly move on them and make them speak in tongues, outside their control
o Believed if you didn't speak in tongues, you weren't baptized in the Holy Spirit
Clara Lum and Florence Crawford stole their 50,000-person mailing list, redirecting funds and seekers to their
own ministry in Portland, Oregon

The Sad End of Azusa and Seymour

William Seymour died poor, tired, and burnt-out, largely ignored by the church and world, with just a few people
coming to the Azusa Street Mission.
1922 - Seymour died of a heart attack. Only 200 people attended his funeral.
1931 - Azusa Street Mission building declared a fire hazard and torn down
Today all that remains is a small commemorative sign in a city square
Impact of the Revival
Pentecostal Movement was launched, creating hundreds of Pentecostal denominations worldwide
Hundreds of missionaries were launched around the world in the first few years of the movement
Today:
o 520 million classical Pentecostal Christians
o Untold millions of Charismatic and Third Wave Christians

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Second largest Christian denomination in world (under Catholics)

147 million Africans are Pentecostal - 70% of Kenyans, 60% of Nigerians, 30% of S. Africans
138 million Asians are Pentecostal (plus more underground)
30% of Latin Americans are Pentecostal
Most of the world's largest churches trace their heritage to Azusa Street
Beyond Azusa Street

Overview: Rapid Spread Beyond Azusa Street

Overview - Azusa Street was the launching point of the worldwide Pentecostal Movement, one of the
largest and most dynamic Christian movements known to history
Missions Focus - Pentecostals felt a new burden to preach the word of God throughout the world. They
thought that tongues would allow them to do missions without learning new languages, expected signs
and wonders to follow their preaching. They felt the message of the Gospel needed to be proclaimed
outside the church.
Two Ways the Movement Spread:

o 1) Pentecostal missionaries
o 2) Literature - tracts, magazines, newsletters, and secular newspaper reports
Who Were the Missionaries?
o About 200 missionaries in the first years
o Missionaries had a ton of zeal and passion and saw many signs and wonders
o Difficulties: lacked the funding, support, and training of their non-Pentecostal counterparts; were
often rejected by established missionaries; normal disease, lack of funds, death, and stress of
missions; highly-independent and sometimes elitist attitudes made it hard to work cooperatively
Four Types of Missionaries:
o The Naive - the naive ones who left with no training or funding or planning, just the power of the
Holy Spirit and tongues, only to get disappointed and return heartbroken
o The Survivor - the hard-working ones who stayed in the foreign field when things weren't as
easy as they expected, learned the language and culture, wrote letters for finances, overcame
difficulties, and trained converts for leadership posts
o The Veteran - Veteran missionaries already on the field who received the Holy Spirit and then
ministered in more power, adding stability and expertise to the movement
o The Graduate - Graduates of short, intense Bible institutes that trained missionaries to minister in
the power of the Holy Spirit, without all the intellectual training of a formal seminary

Spread in America
The first place Pentecostalism spread after Azusa Street was throughout the US
Multiple Sites of Renewal - Topeka, KS (1901); Moorehead, Minnesota (1904); Azusa St (1906);
Chicago, IL; Dunn, NC; Toronto, Canada
Worldwide Spread
Western Europe
o Roots - Keswick Conventions, Welsh Revival, Holiness teachings
o Norway - English Methodist minister doing missions in Norway (Thomas Ball Barratt), received
baptism in Holy Spirit with tongues in US through reports of Azusa, returned to Norway (1907)
spreading the message
Barratt's church in Oslo became one of the centers of revival in Europe. Many church
leaders visited Barratt's meetings and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and tongues
o England - Alexander A Boddy (Anglican vicar) was seeking revival after visiting Wales, Keswick
Conventions, and Barratt's Oslo meetings. He invited Barratt to preach at his church in
Sunderland, where revival broke out (1907)
Smith Wigglesworth became baptized in the Holy Spirit at his 1907 Sunderland meetings,
taking the teaching worldwide
o Germany - Jonathan Paul visited the Oslo meetings and took the teaching back to Germany,
where they were denounced and suffered much persecution
o Sweden - Lewi Pethrus (Baptist pastor) visited Oslo and came back to Sweden in power,
spreading the movement even further
1902 - Pethrus spontaneously began speaking in tongues, but he didn't understand what
was happening
1907 - Pethrus visited Barratt's meetings and joined the Pentecostal Movement, still
pastoring Baptist churches throughout Sweden
1913 - While pastoring Filadelfia Baptist Church, he was expelled from the Union for his
views on baptism in the Holy Spirit and communion, thus beginning the Pentecostal
Union in Sweden
Pethrus's Pentecostal church became the largest free church in Europe and largest

Pentecostal church in the world until 1960s

Sent out hundreds of missionaries throughout the world
Planted over 500 churches in Sweden
Fed the poor during the Depression
Eastern Europe and Russia
o 1907 - reports of a Pentecostal mission in Riga, Latvia and Estonian girls speaking in tongues
o Russia
Eleanor Patrick - Englishwoman working with Pentecostals in Frankfort, Germany, who
built a church in Saratov, Russia for Volga Germans
Nicolai J Poysti - Finnish native who took Pentecostal message to Siberia and Manchuria
(1918), despite the fact that it was Russians who were invading Finland. He had a very
dangerous ministry, but saw lots of fruit.
Ivan Voronaev - Russian Baptist pastor who fled to New York City to avoid persecution
from the Orthodox Church. Spread Pentecostalism to Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Russia
1920, through prophetic guidance, Vornoaev and his family moved back to USSR
Upon arriving in Varna, Bulgaria, he preached and planted Pentecostal churches
there, beginning the movement in Bulgaria
In Ukraine, the Baptist churches rejected his message, so he planted a church in
Odessa that grew to 1,000 members.
Despite intense persecution, Voronaev travelled and planted hundreds of churches
throughout USSR
1929 - Voronaev arrested and sent to a labor camp, where he died trying to escape
o Romania - through correspondence with Romanians in the US, Baptist pastor Gheorghe Bradin
brought the Pentecostal message to Romania in 1922, where it thrived despite persecution
Australia
o Roots - John Alexander Dowie, Keswick Conventions, RA Torrey and Wilbur Chapman crusades
o Janet Lancaster - A former Methodist and mother of 9 who was supernaturally healed and filled
with the Holy Spirit after reading a pamphlet from England (1908) and then began holding
meetings in Melbourne's Good News Hall with other Spirit-filled people
Revival in Melbourne - Six weeks of day-and-night meetings where many were baptized
in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, received healing, even raised from the dead
o Australian missionaries went to the aborigines, India, China, S Africa, etc.
India
o Roots - Revivals with charismatic phenomena in India before 1900s (tongues, prophecy, visions,
dreams, etc.), Wesleyan holiness, Keswick Higher Life teachings, Welsh Revival, Pandita
Ramabai and Minnie Abrams' Mukti Misson revival begun among orphan girls
Pandita Ramabai and Minnie Abrams - completely unrelated to Azusa St, saw revival
among girls at their Methodist orphan school and Mukti Mission, visible fire on their
heads, repentance, charismatic phenomena, miracle provision of food, tongues
o Alfred G. and Lillian Garr - left Azusa St for Calcutta in 1907, where they preached about what
was happening and some were baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, launching the
movement in India
East Asia
o China
TJ McIntosh - first Pentecostal missionary to China (August 1907), saw a few people
baptized in the Holy Spirit
Alfred and Lillian Garr - arrived in China from India (October 1907) and began
ministering throughout the nation. His teaching divided existing missionaries. Garr's
translator Mok Lai Chi planted the first Pentecostal church.

Martin Ryan - arrived in Hong Kong with a team of 20 church members from US
(October 1907), with a lot of zeal but little training or plan, yet despite discouragement
they pressed on and saw fruit
1907 - revival fell among missionaries in Wuchow, many of them speaking in tongues
Tibet - Victor G Plymire, a Christian and Missionary Alliance missionary to Tibet, received
baptism in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues while on furlough in US (1908), returned to
Tibet in power, where he baptized their first convert after 16 years of work
Japan - Martin Ryan, together with his team, stayed in Japan for a time, witnessing to students
with the hope they would spread Jesus back to their home cities and nations
Korea
Sister Daniels and Sister Brand came from California and preached Pentecost in Korea
(1908)
Yong Do Lee - Methodist evangelist who began a Pentecostal ministry that saw many
miracles and tongues (1928)
Mary Rumsey - received the Holy Spirit baptism at Azusa then came to Japan and
established a beachhead to reach into East Asia (1928)
Inner Mongolia - Swedish Pentecostals like Folke Boberg came here in 1922

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Africa
o Roots - John Alexander Dowie already had a strong network of churches in South Africa
o South Africa
Mary Johnson and Ida Andersson - left Moorhead, MN, in November 1904 as
missionaries to South Africa after the Swedish-American revival
John G. Lake and Thomas Hezmalhalch
John G Lake - a businessman and elder at John Alexander Dowie's church in
Zion, IL, who received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and tongues in 1906 under
Parham's ministry. Established churches in Africa and healing rooms in America,
everywhere seeing incredible signs and wonders.
1908 - Lake, his wife and 7 kids, Hezmalhach, and 3 others arrived in Africa.
Lake's wife died the first year due to malnutrition and exhaustion.
Their ministry planted hundreds of churches in Africa and saw many miracles
1912 - After a highly-successful ministry in South Africa, Lake returned to US
Elias Letwaba - A black South African preacher who worked with Lake, built a Bible
school, and spread Pentecostalism especially among the black South Africans
Charles and Emma Chawner - Canadian missionaries to Zulu in South Africa (1908)
o Liberia - Lucy Farrow and Julia Hutchins arrived shortly after Azusa Street
Other black Americans went to Liberia, Angola, and elsewhere on the western coast
William Wade Harris - from a Liberian Methodist family, he led an indigenous movement
in Ivory Coast and Ghana, with thousands converted, tongues, healings, miracles, etc.
Incredible testimonies of power encounters and the hand of God
o Other missionaries went to Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria, and elsewhere
Latin America
o Argentina - Luigi Francescon, an Italian-American baptized in the Holy Spirit in Chicago under
William Durham (1907), preached to Italians in Argentina (1909), beginning the movement there
o Chile - Dr. Willis Hoover and First Methodist Church in Valparaiso were studying the book of
Acts and praying for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which they learned about through books and
testimonies. Soon revival came to the church, and though the Methodist denomination rejected it,
one of the fastest-growing Pentecostal movements in the world began as a result
o Brazil
Most spectacular growth of Pentecostalism in the world

Luigi Francescon - Visited Sao Paulo and established a church (1909)

Daniel Berg and Adolf Gunnar Vingren - Swedish-Americans who attended William
Durham's church.
1910 - Someone prophesied over them to go to "Para" to preach. They didn't
know where that was, so they went to a library and discovered a region named
"Para" in Brazil, so they headed there
Baptists warmly welcomed them until they preached on baptism in the Holy Spirit
Began a new church that became the largest Protestant community in Brazil

Pentecostalism Enters Romania

Roots of Pentecostalism in Romania
o Bucovina - an unknown Romanian woman who came from the US brought with her Pentecostal teachings

and was spreading them around the Bucovina region (sometime before 1914). There are even some
reports of people speaking in tongues.
o Transylvanian Saxons
1919 - A Saxon Baptist woman in Drlos (near Sibiu), influenced by an unknown American
Pentecostal's teaching, got baptized in the Holy Spirit, creating a small Pentecostal revival among
Lutheran Saxons, which was largely ignored by the Romanian community
1923 - Michael Thelman was baptized in the Holy Spirit and later became pastor over the Saxon
Pentecostal churches of Transylvania
o US - First Romanian-American Pentecostal churches were formed in Michigan and Ohio (1921-1922)
1923 - Pavel Budeanu was ordained the first Romanian Pentecostal minister (Assemblies of
God), wrote a pamphlet called "Biblical Truth" about baptism in the Holy Spirit and healing
Most Pentecostal Romanians were immigrants from Transylvania
Gheorghe Bradin (1895-1962)

o 1914 - Bradin became born-again after visiting a Baptist church

o After getting wounded in WWI, he returned home to find his wife (Persida) sick with
tuberculosis and dropsy
o 1921 - Constantin Sida received a letter from a friend in America (Petru Pernevan) which
mentioned some healing testimonies from Aimee Semple-McPherson and probably contained
Pavel Budeanu's pamphlet
Sida shared the letter and pamphlet with Bradin and Persida, who gained faith that she
would be healed
o June 1922 - Persida was miraculously healed when Bradin prayed for her, and they both became
convinced that miracles like in the book of Acts are for today
The First Pentecostal Churches
o Correspondence with America
With this new experience and not sure what to do, Bradin wrote to his wife's relatives in
America, who encouraged him to begin a Pentecostal church
Bradin sent another letter to an address he found on the back of a Romanian Pentecostal
song-book he had received from the Andra family in America, asking their advice
September 1922 - Pavel Budeanu (who would become the first ordained Romanian
Pentecostal minister in the world) wrote back, suggesting he open a Pentecostal church

o 10 September 1922 - Bradin left the Baptist church and began the first Pentecostal church in
Romania, in Pauli (near Arad)
By the end of the year, about 30 people were meeting together, yet no one was baptized in
the Holy Spirit or spoke in tongues
They named this new church "Biserica lui Dumnezeu"
The meetings were essentially extended prayer meetings, people seeking the power of God
At this time, Pentecostals called themselves "baptisti penticostali"

o February 1923 - The second Pentecostal church was founded, in nearby Cuvin, in the house of
Vasile and Persida Semenascu, who met together with three others
Persida Semenascu became the first Romanian baptized in the Holy Spirit
o 3 June 1923 - In a meeting of the group in Pauli, 8 people were baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke

in tongues, including both Persida and Gheorghe Bradin

Persecution
o 1923 - Pentecostal churches, influenced by the Orthodox Church, were banned by the state
o 1924 - Pavel Budeanu came to Romania to preach, bringing with him Romanian Pentecostal song-books
16 October 1924 - At 10am, Budeanu officiated the first Pentecostal baptism, done secretly at
10am in the Mure River near Pauli, leading to Budeanu's arrest

Many appeals were made to legalize the Pentecostal churches, to no avail

o January 1925 - Ministry of Cults decided that the Pentecostal Christians had false doctrine and
would be banned by the state. This decision was printed and widely distributed as an attempt to
discourage it's growth, but the attempt backfired, creating more interest in the Pentecostal
teachings
o 1925 - Increasing verbal attacks and persecution by the Orthodox Church
o 1926 - Orthodox Bishop of Arad, Dr Grigorie Coma, accused the Pentecostals for being fanatics and
tools of the communists, recommending oppression and action against Pentecostals
Gheorghe Bradin was arrested and tried before a martial court before being released on lack of
evidence

Growth
o January 1925 - After the publication of the Ministry of Cults' decision on Pentecostal teaching,
many people grew interested in this new doctrine.
Hundreds of people came to Gheorghe Bradin asking to learn more about baptism in the
Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues
Those who couldn't visit wrote letters
As a result, the ideas spread further in Romania
o 1926 - Despite persecution, there were by now 6 illegal Pentecostal churches in Romania: Puli, Cuvin,
Arad, Mderat, Pncota, and oimo

o 1927 - A Hungarian Pentecostal Church in Timioara was begun and allowed to operate freely, because
they were Hungarian and the Orthodox Church wasn't so concerned about them

o 1948 - Despite opposition and persecution by the Orthodox Church, the Pentecostal churches expand at

an astounding rate. By 1948, they have over 700 illegal churches with 3,061 total members.
Official Recognition and Further Growth
o 4 November 1948 - Under the Communists, two of the three main Pentecostal streams joined together and
filed documents to become a legally recognized religion in Romania
Gheorghe Bradin's "Apostolic Churches" (with 500 houses of prayer)
"Holy Spirit-Baptized Christians and Disciples of the Lord" (with 200 houses of prayer)
o 1948-1958 - Romanian Pentecostal churches grew by a factor of 17
3,061 members in 1948 --> 53,691 in 1958
o 2002 - Pentecostal Christians are the fourth-largest in Romania with 324,462 members (just behind
Orthodox, Roman-Catholic, and Reformed Christians)