An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

The post-1905 Pentecostals saw their revival as a renewal of the first Christian Pentecostand miracle working through the Holy Spirit (Acts 2), which in turn had its origins in theJewish tradition of Passover. Richardson and Bouden (1999:137) view Pentecostalism as „amovement of Christian renewal typified by the events of Pentecost when the Holy Spiritdescended upon the fearful apostles and transformed them into bold and convincingEvangelists.‟On the 18 th April 1906, the Los Angeles (USA) Daily Times (Thomas-Juggan 2000)published a front page titled „ Wild Babel of Tongues‘ subtitled New sect of fanatics isbreaking loose. ‗Wild scenes last night on Azusa Street‘. ‗Gurgles of wordless talk by aSister‘. Speaking in tongues remains one of the main perceived peculiarities of the classicPentecostal churches, although it has also since been taken up by those of charismatictendencies in both Protestant and Catholic Churches.The newspaper stories from the Los Angeles press conceerning the first outpouring of theHoly Spirit give a clear impression that the reporters had little biblical knowledge ofPentecost. The negative connotations of the press reports imply that this was primarily aBlack group of people or people from the poorer section of the community whoexperienced this outpouring. The Los Angeles press followed the development of thisgroup of churches for about four years from 1902-1906. As a result of the close attentionof the Los Angeles press and the proliferation of new groups of Pentecostal churches, theAzusa Street revival is considered to be the beginnings of the majority of the Pentecostalassemblies around the world during the post-industrial era. Between 1906 and 1960 thePentecostal movement grew to more than twenty two million people, making it then thefifth largest protestant group in the world (Hollenweger 1972). W.J. Seymour, an African-108