Revivals Pt 12: Pentecostalism Pt 2: The Founders of Pentecostalism

In the last post in this Revival Series I reviewed the thoughts and teachings that some of the key revivalists brought to Protestantism, and I showed how all of them, whether they were Calvinist or Armenian, all of them held to a belief in a coming earthly reign of Christ and all of them promoted Social Justice. But for today I just want to introduce you to some of the men who brought us Pentecostalism.

When we think of Pentecostalism, the names that come to mind are typically William Seymour or Charles Parham. There’s general confusion over who came first. It was Parham. Seymour was a student of his, and possibly more… We’ll get into that in a bit… But the story actually goes back farther than either of them.

Meet John Alexander Dowie.

John Alexander Dowie (1847-1907)

Called “the father of healing revivalism in America,” Dowie founded a cult in Illinois in the 1900s called The City of Zion, which he ruled with an iron hand. (Strong rule by church leadership has been a mark of Pentecostalism since its inception). Zion was one of the most influential centers in early Pentecostal history.

Disillusioned with the failures of doctors, Dowie turned to faith healing, and insisted that those who sought faith-healing give up on all medical care. He believed that any Christian who trusted in God for healing would receive it. And anyone who asked for healing and did not receive it was not a true believer. (Brings to mind Henry Wright’s book “A More Excellent Way” that’s so popular today. These heretical ideas just refuse to die). Dowie viewed druggists and physicians as instruments of the devil… (With what we know about the pharmaceutical industry today, he may have been on to something, but just like today, truth was mixed with deception).

“Disease, like Sin, is God’s enemy, and the devil’s work and can never be God’s will.” – John Alexander Dowie

This is the basis of the Word of Faith (WOF) doctrine that healing is the divine right of every believer in Christ. The heartless teaching maintains that a believer who is walking right with God will be free of sickness and disease, and that if they do become sick its their own fault, because God has granted them the ability to be free from these physical limitations. WOF preacher Benny Hinn:

“Sickness does not belong to you. It has no part in the Body of Christ. Sickness does not belong to any of us. The Bible declares if the Word of God is in our life, there will be health, there will be healing – divine health and divine healing. There will be no sickness for the saint of God. If Moses could live such a healthy life, so can you… He promises to heal all – every one, any, any whatsoever, everything – all our diseases! That means not even a headache, sinus problem, not even a toothache – nothing! No sickness should come your way.” – Benny Hinn (Rise & Be Healed!, p. 14, 32)

BIBLE STUDY TIME!

Is WOF healing scriptural?

In light of the confusion over the role of faith in healing and health today, let’s take a minute and look at this. Follow the link below for a more in-depth study.

The most often quoted passage to support WOF claims is in Isaiah 53.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6 KJV)

WOF teachers assert that physical healing is a foundational part of the Christ’s atonement. There’s no debate that Isaiah 53 is foretelling the coming Messiah. The issue is in the definition of the term “healing.”

In the NIV “chŏlı̂y” in verse 4 is translated as “infirmities.” “Infirmities” – can refer to spiritual flaws or physical sickness.

Strongs H2483
chŏlı̂y
khol-ee’
From H2470; malady, anxiety, calamity

The KJV translates the word “chŏlı̂y” in verse 4 as “iniquities,” which better suits the context of the passage. But the term “healed” in verse 5 comes from Hebrew “Rapha.”

Strongs H7495
Rapha
ra-fah’
Which means: cure, cause to heal, physician, repair, thoroughly, make whole which means healed or repaired.

So the passage is talking about healing, but the question is, “healed from what?” And, of course we find the answer in the context of the passage, which is about sin and Jesus’ coming atonement for that sin. This passage is examined in light of the WOF claim in an article that first appeared on the website “TheReturingKing.wordpress.com.”

“The text [Isa 53:4-6] uses something called “Parallelism”… Isaiah makes four statements. Each statement is a parallel of the others. And, each statement contains the exact same subject matter. Hebrew parallelism is a poetic device whereby a statement is made twice to reaffirm its meaning in verse. In this parallel, “pierced” is equated with “crushed,” “transgressions” is equated with “iniquities,” “punishment” is equated with “wounds,” and “peace” is equated with “healed.”” – How to Become a Christian <—Follow to read more

Isaiah is speaking about spiritual healing. Remember,

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world… (Jn 18:36)

Also, while healing was part of Jesus’ ministry, all those who He healed, including Lazarus who He raised from the dead did eventually experience physical death. Did they all fail to walk right with God?

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, (Heb 9:27)

If Dowie and the WOF teaching are right, it would logically follow that every Christian who lives a godly life should live forever – right?

Of course it is within God’s power to physically heal, as Jesus demonstrated in his ministry which served to show his divinity and God’s compassion for the world. But, while Isaiah prophesied what Jesus would come and do in the natural, he was talking about healing from the much greater problem man faced, his iniquity; his sin. This is confirmed in verse 6:

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isa 53:6)

So, again, this is taking scripture out of context and physicalizing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Returning again to the article quoted above:

“Isaiah 53 tells one dynamic story from beginning to end: Messiah would come and pay the penalty of man’s sin, as verse 12 concludes the matter,

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. ( Isa 53:12)

Jesus “bore the sin” of the world and made “intercession” for transgressors. The “healing” noted in verse 5 was a healing from sin. The healing was spiritual in nature, not physical. In fact, the penalty of sin is death. It has been death from the very beginning. God did not say to Adam and Eve “the day you eat of it you will surely get sick,” but “the day you eat of it you will surely die.” If this healing of sin were to be understood as physical in nature in Isaiah 53, one would expect that men would stop experiencing physical death! But they do not- because Isaiah 53 speaks of the healing of man’s spiritual condition. He is healed from sin, being given a substitutionary atonement through the stripes of Christ’s vicarious suffering.

Yet, according to WOF teachers, it is physical healing which Isaiah 53 speaks, and that healing is inherently available to all believers through the suffering of Christ on the cross. If you are a believer, then you have healing at your disposal.

“Salvation and healing are two gifts wrapped up in the same package. For God, healing is just as important and necessary as Salvation.”? Rod Parsley (The Backside Of Calvary, Results Publishing, Columbus, OH, 1991, p. 55) – Ibid

End Bible Study.

The narcissistic Dowie stubbornly held to his faulty belief and his family paid the ultimate price. Despite his prayers, his daughter Jeannie died of bronchitis in 1884 at the age of 6, and in 1902 his daughter Esther suffered a terrible fate.

“In 1902 Dowie’s daughter Esther suffered severe burns on her head and face when her hair caught fire from a gas jet. Dowie… was summoned. Upon his arrival he went to his daughter’s bedside.. [A] physician was not called to provide medical treatment. He did, however, allow for salve and bandages to be applied to her wounds. He then spent many hours praying over his daughter. She did not survive. She was 23 years of age and a student at the University of Chicago.” – White Lake Area Historical Society

Dowie was known for his financial irresponsibility and love for personal luxury (gee who does that sound like?)

“Dowie had been misappropriating funds for his own personal use for years, moving money around to cover any shortfalls, and cooking the books if anyone ever started asking questions. He’d taken some $2.5 million for his own personal use, including some $65,000 he’d pulled from the Zion City Bank on its very first day of operation. That money went towards his increasingly elaborate ceremonial robes; lavish furnishings for his mansion in Zion City; the purchase and maintenance of a summer house in White Lake, Michigan; art, books, and more. Whenever he traveled, enjoyed a private train, deluxe hotels, and the finest food.” – Source (<– Not an endorsement, but a well-cited article)

John Alexander Dowie in his robes as “Elijah the Restorer”

In 1899, he claimed to be “God’s Messenger” and, in 1901, he claimed to be the spiritual return of the Biblical prophet Elijah, asserting himself to be “Elijah the Restorer.” Source

In the last few years of his life he was accused of “sexual irregularities.” Dowie’s wife (and first cousin) Jane Dowie told Dowie’s successor Wilbur Voliva and other Church overseers of the City of Zion that her husband had:

“[G]iven into the “black lusts of the flesh”: drinking, tobacco, and women. He had committed adultery for years, and beat Jane whenever she protested. He had seven spiritual wives already, and his Zion Paradise Planation in Mexico was just a secret plan to establish a polygamous colony outside the reach of American law. Less than a year ago he had attempted to divorce Jane so he could marry a Swiss heiress and steal all of her money.” Source

Like the other esteemed revivalists, Dowie was anything but a godly man who was above reproach.

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, (1 Tim 3:2)

if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. (Titus 1:6)

Less known about Dowie, was his role in the creation of Zionism.

“Put quite simply, the entire Zionist enterprise was founded by a professional con man—John Alexander Dowie—a man who perfected the dark art of “faith healing” to attract followers, after which he fleeced them for as much money as he could. His fraudulent methods were exposed by a number of investigators early in the twentieth century,and the residents of Chicago and the United States alike viewed him viewed him as a mountebank and fraud while he was alive.”

– I.D. Bowman, Dowieism Exposed (Philadelphia: ???, 1904); J.M. Buckley, “Dowie, Analyzed and Classified,”

In 1905 he suffered a stroke and retreated to Mexico where he bought a large piece of land for a “plantation paradise.” There, he had a second stroke which left him immobilized. He was removed as the head of Zion. (source – White Lake Area Historical Society<- great article if you want to read more).

Duplicitous

The anatomy of deception is that it contains some truth. We’ve found duplicity in the other leaders of these “Revivals” and Dowie was no exception. While spreading his heretical doctrines, he openly condemned Freemasonry and other false teachings.

“[Dowie rightly] preached against Spiritualism… denounced Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, Methodism, Unitarianism, Buddhism… Islam… Christian Science… Mental Science… [He claimed] that the United States was not a Christian nation… [He] “spat on secret societies, especially the Freemasons, who he seemed to blame for his difficulties in Australia… [and rightly] taught that a man could get to heaven without faith in Christ, and that they planned to take over the world.”

And the “unnamed benefactor” is an all-too-familiar phrase:

“The Dowies arrived in San Francisco on June 9, 1888 and checked into the Palace Hotel. John Alexander announced to the press that he was there to spread the good news about faith healing in a non-denominational way. With the support of an unnamed benefactor, he was introduced to key religious figures and held meetings up and down the coast from San Diego to Vancouver.” – Source

While maintaining his false teachings about faith-healing, Voliva continued to correctly argue against both theoretical Evolution and the Spherical Earth model as unbiblical.

Dowie’s heretical theology helped pave the way for Pentecostalism and Charles Parham, who assumed the leadership of the City of Zion from Voliva.

“[I]n 1906… John Alexander Dowie was incapacitated, due to a stroke, and the city was being run by Wilbur G. Voliva. Parham saw Zion City as a revival center ripe for the gospel of Pentecostalism. Dowie and Voliva both opposed Parham’s teaching on tongues and although he did pick up many converts he did not take hold of the city in the way that he had hoped. – Biography of Charles Parham

“Dowie died a broken man at the mansion “Shiloh House” in the City of Zion on March 9, 1907 and Zion City was declared bankrupt.” – White Lake Area Historical Society

*This Satterfield cartoon shows how John Alexander Dowie was received in his day.*

The Dowie effect

*Click on image for link to book. Collins makes some incredible connections to today’s NAR and more.*

Researcher John Collins grew up in the White Supremacist ” Message” cult and wrote a book exposing the cult and its leader, William Branham (1909-1965). In this 2022 interview on Jeremiah Roberts’ show “Cultish,” Collins explains how the cult held John Alexander Dowie in the highest esteem.

*Researcher, Author of Preachers Behind The Hoods – John Collins*

“I found an incredible amount of creepy-weird information about not only William Branham, but all of the men connected with him. I almost equate it to the Marvel Universe – and if you look at it like that, Dowie is Spiderman’s kingpin, right? He’s the big boss. But there are so many men and they’re all connected…” – John Collins

My friends Menno Zweers of NAR Connections and Laura Strocki of the Youtube Channel Magical Mystery Church deal with the men and connections Collins mentions.

OK, now let’s look at the “Father of Pentecostalism” Charles Fox Parham.

Charles Fox Parham (1873 – 1929)

According to en.wikipedia,

“Charles F. Parham… was an American preacher and evangelist. Together with William J. Seymour, Parham was one of the two central figures in the development and early spread of American Pentecostalism. It was Parham who associated glossolalia with the baptism in the Holy Spirit, a theological connection crucial to the emergence of Pentecostalism as a distinct movement. Parham was the first preacher to articulate Pentecostalism’s distinctive doctrine of evidential tongues, and to expand the movement.” – en.wikipedia.org

Quite a few things are greatly downplayed in the above article.

Parham’s theology was rooted in Methodism. But it developed and grew over time. The Father of Pentecostalism worked out his doctrinal ideas in private meditation, believing that the Holy Spirit communicated with him directly through extra-biblical revelation. This is the earmark of virtually every cult. Beginning with an alleged respect for the Bible, it quickly adds some revelation that effectively cancels the teaching of God’s Word for “a new revelation” from God… Cult leaders use phrases like; “God spoke to me last week or last year” or “A spirit or the Spirit told me to tell you…” The Apostle Paul warned that this would happen (Gal 1:8,-9). God has spoken to us by His Son (Heb 1:2, Psa 119:89).

An avowed racist, Parham was the founder of the West Coast Order of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He was still a member of the KKK in 1910, 9 years after the Azusa Street ‘revival.’

Parham fervently believed in and promoted British-Israelism. British-Israelism, like we talked about last time, was a racial, biological, national, and territorial theory claiming that Queen Victoria was descended from the Biblical King David, and was hence a descendant of the Davidic family line that produced Jesus. It taught that the tribes of Israel wandered into northern Europe, and that by this supposed genealogy, the British are the real Chosen People, and the British Empire is God’s empire. Parham looked forward to Israel and Judah “becoming one stick.” To Parham, the return of the Jews to Palestine was the first in a series of end-times events that would facilitate the inevitable reuniting of “All Israel.”

He was a Grand-Master of Freemasonry and member of the Baxter Springs Masonic Lodge 12. Better yet, Parham was a disciple of Albert Pike (Source).

He believed and taught the annihilation of the unsaved and denied the doctrine of eternal torment. He taught that there were two separate creations; that Adam was not the first man God created, and that Adam and Eve were of a different race than people who allegedly lived outside of the Garden of Eden.

“Where did Cain get his wife… was there a pre-Adamite race![?]”

He claimed that the first race of men did not have souls and this race of unsouled people was destroyed in the flood.

This is the two-seed or “Serpent Seed” doctrine, which is at the core of the racist Christian Identity movement, the fallen angel/human hybrid or “nephilim” theory and the “ancient alien” theory. This same theory was later taught by Pentecostal preacher William Branham.

Parham taught that those who received the latter days spirit baptism and spoke in tongues would make up the bride of Christ and have a special place of authority at Christ’s return and in a partial rapture composed of tongues-speakers. 🤨 (I’m not going to tongues. There’s plenty of information online about how unscripturally this gift is being used).

Like Dowie, Parham believed that it was always God’s will to heal and that medicine and doctors must be shunned. Tragically, one of Parham’s own sons died at age 16 years of an illness and Parham himself suffered various sicknesses throughout his life, sometimes being too sick to preach or travel.

He believed that baptism by the Holy Spirit in a second work of grace was necessary to confirm a believer’s salvation. There were Christians speaking in tongues and teaching about the experience of Spirit baptism before Parham, but it was Parham who first taught that tongues were the “evidence” of necessary Spirit baptism. Later on he claimed that there were not only two, but three works of grace that a true believer needed to experience: conversion, sanctification, and Spirit baptism.

So, there’s the “second experience” again… plus “required evidence,” plus one more.

He was documented to have ‘mental, emotional, psychological and sociological disorders,’ and was at best controversial in his own lifetime. His dark story caused him to lose most of his following and die in obscurity at the age of 55.

Clearly, Parham did not exhibit any fruit of salvation and deliverance in his own life, before or after Azusa Street. – Leavethechurch.me

William Seymour

William Seymour listened to Parham’s bible studies on speaking in tongues and infilling of the Holy Ghost in the church, yet he was forced to listen from outside the building due to segregation rules at the time.

Briefly touching on Azusa Street

Parham sponsored the Azusa Street Pentecostal Movement and had planned to make William Seymour the head of the church that would promote his doctrines of Holy Spirit baptism, tongues and British Israelism. I read one account and other inferences that the two men were in a homosexual relationship. But regardless, Parham and Seymour had a falling out over Seymour baptizing white people.

“Many portray Seymour as this humble man who started a revival, but I present to you he had a religious spirit and false humility.

It is reported that witches and warlocks frequented the Apostolic Mission….often. We only hear of the people speaking in tongues, being healed, slain in the spirit, etc. regarding Azusa Street. We all assumed that EVERYTHING that went on at Azusa was God. And it was not.

Seymour often wrote Parham for counsel and advice on how to handle the witches coming to services, holding seances and trances right in the middle of service. Parham left him hanging and didn’t answer him. I don’t believe it was intentional: I believe it was because they both began to realize they opened up a spiritual can of worms and could not close it. So now evil spirits were manifesting in the midst and NO ONE knew what to do to stop it.

All of the charismatic movements today involving holy laughter, rolling all in the floor, strange bodily contortions, etc during services had their birthplace…..AT AZUSA!!!” – Leavethechurch.me

Here’s an excerpt from ‘The Life of Charles F Parham’ by his daughter Sarah about Parham’s response.

“Parham could not shift this awful pestilence. He was ‘repelled’ by what he witnessed and when he attempted to rectify the situation, Seymour and his followers split from him. They did not like it. This is exactly how Toronto Blessing leaders reacted to rebuke and help from faithful Christians. Parham saw hypnotists (occultists) practicing hypnotism at the altar. Later, he confessed that it was all of Satan, for he saw “hypnotic influences, familiar spirit influences, spiritualistic influences, mesmeric influences and all kinds of spells and spasms, falling in trances etc….” – Sarah Parham, The Life of Charles F Parham (Garland Publishing. 1985)

In short, the 1906 Azusa Street Pentecostal Movement was not a move of God, but of satan.

The 2006 anniversary of the Azusa Street Revival was strongly opposed by Christian leaders who called for sound doctrine, just as they did at the original one.

“Scholarly preachers spoke up about these [1906 Azusa] meetings; such as R.A. Torrey who declared that this new Pentecostal movement was ’emphatically not of God, and founded by a Sodomite.’ G. Campbell Morgan called it, ‘the last vomit of SATAN.’

In 2006, I watched some of the anniversary Azusa Street Ministry on television with a great deal of curiosity. I noticed that the all of evangelists pounded on the same common theme. They argued that if you weren’t rich, happy and prosperous- it wasn’t anyone’s fault but your own. It wasn’t the police, no New World Order, not even Satan. It was your fault by not giving enough money to God– their ministries as intermediaries between the people and Christ.” – Source – Mind Control Assassins

Which brings up an important point. The majority of these false teachers were not well received in their time. In fact, since the beginning of Christ’s spiritual kingdom reign, true Christians have spoken out for, and fought, some to their deaths, to protect sound doctrine. This speaks to the immense power of the enemy’s financially-backed world system with its Mystery School Universities, infiltrated seminaries, massive media influence and the like.

The Parhamite Killings

A less-known part of Parham’s history is his brief leadership of a group in the City of Zion, Illinois known as the Parhamites, where people were literally killed in the name of “faith healing.”

Case and point, the story of Letitia Greenhaulgh.

One of an estimated 12 or more killings was that of Letitia Greenhaulgh, a 64 year old invalid suffering with rheumatism, whose arms, legs, and neck were broken during a Paramite exorcism.

“In September of 1907, five Parhamites were arrested in connection to the torture and death of 64-year-old Letitia Greenhaulgh of Zion City. Harold Mitchell confessed to choking the woman, but claimed that the devil made him do it– literally…” – Ottawa Evening Herald, Sept. 21, 1907.

“Court documents indicate that the five Parhamites had planned their actions down to the last detail. Knowing that the woman’s husband was a supporter of Dowie, they lured him away from the house on a false pretext. When Mrs. Greenhaulgh was alone, the Parhamites entered her bedroom and grabbed the bedridden woman by the limbs. “Mitchell took her by the hand,” the victim’s son, Walter, testified, “and pulled her arm away from her body. She screamed. Oh, she screamed terribly. I jumped forward. Mitchell held me back and put his hand over my mother’s mouth and stopped her cries. He said… those cries are not her cries. That is the screaming of the demons and devils as they leave her. She is all right…

They took her arms and drew them out straight. There was a cracking sound. I found out afterwards that they broke the bones. They did the same with her legs. They pulled at her head. They pinched and worked her flesh. She groaned and cried out. They said she would soon be all right.” – Bizarre Journal

She was not alright. Mrs. Greenhaulgh died as a result of the torture inflicted by the Parhamites. The article goes on;

“The fervor surrounding the death of Mrs. Greenhaulgh led to an investigation by authorities, and several other suspicious deaths in Zion City were linked to the Parhamites, including the tragic death of a young boy named Frank Crowe, whose Parhamite parents had denied him medical treatment for his typhoid fever. Witnesses who were at the boy’s bedside claim that he cried piteously for water, which his parents refused to provide. They told their dying son that the Lord would provide water. They later thrust their fingers down the boy’s throat in order to yank out the “devils that were tormenting him.” The coroner who examined the body stated that the boy’s tongue had nearly been cut off, as though with a knife…

According to Mitchell (whose wife was a high priestess in the Parhamite cult), he was “seized by demons”, and when under the influence of these demons he felt an uncontrollable urge to “take a grip on the throat of a human being and crush until life is extinct.” On September 21 he was arrested, along with his wife and the son and daughter of the victim…” – Bizarre Journal

That’s no random article. You can read more about the Parhamites here. – The Messed Up Church

And here’s a full-length video from the above article.

Many of Parham’s followers at Zion joined the Assemblies of God at its formation in 1914. In fact, three of the original eight members of the AOG general council were from Zion City. – Source: Deception in the Church

“In 1907 Parham was arrested for sexual misconduct, but all charges were dropped due to a lack of witnesses…

Opponents believed he was guilty and supporters believed he had been set up.” – Biography of Charles Parham

Charles Parham was not a man who should be highly esteemed by Christians. In 1907, six years after the Azusa Street revival,

“Charles Parham was later arrested for “sexual indiscretions” with boys, although charges were dropped, some suggest because no one would testify…

Parham was arrested for having sex with boys.

The toll these allegations took on Parham, the man, was immense and the change it brought to his ministry was equally obvious to his hearers. He became harsh and critical of other Pentecostals. Although plagued by troubles and controversies towards the end of his ministry, Charles Parham died on January 29, 1929, at the age of 56. His family, fearing that someone would damage his grave, buried him with a small stone marker that did not even include his name. Years later a memorial was put up by friends.

Though the Azusa Street mission had a brief life, its impact on the Pentecostal movement has been a lasting one. Many new churches and missions were founded across America which carried the new emphasis on seeking the baptism of the Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues. Today, there are over 200,000,000 denominational Pentecostals and another 200,000,000 who identify themselves as Pentecostal or charismatic in mainline churches.” – A Twisted Crown of Thorns