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CHARLES PARHAM
THE FATHER OF
MODERN PENTECOST
Charles Fox
Parham (1873-1929)
Charles Fox Parham, the ‘father
of the Pentecostal’ Movement, is most well known for perceiving,
proclaiming and then imparting the ‘The Baptism with the Holy
Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in other tongues.’
Birth and Childhood
Charles Parham was born on June 4, 1873 in Muscatine, Iowa,
to William and Ann Maria Parham. As an infant he became infected
with a virus that permanently stunted his growth.
At thirteen he was
converted in a meeting held by a Brother Lippard of the
Congregational Church, though he had only ever heard two preachers
before. No notable events occurred thereafter but he faithfully
served as a Sunday school teacher and church worker. When fifteen
years old he held his first public meetings, which were followed
by marked results.
At age sixteen he enrolled at Southwest Kansas College with a
view to enter the ministry but he struggled with the course
and became discouraged by the secular view of disgust towards
the Christian ministry and the poverty that seemed to be the
lot of ministers. Ill
with rheumatic fever, his rebellion was cut short when a
physician visited him pronounced Parham near death. It was
then that he heard a clear call to preach, and promised God
that if he was healed he would preach.
He cried out
to the Lord for healing and suddenly “every joint in my body
loosened and every organ in my body was healed.
Only his ankles remained
weak, and shortly thereafter he had another experience while
praying under a tree.
He later wrote: “God
instantly sent the virtue of healing like a mighty electric
current through my body and my ankles were made whole, like
the man at the beautiful gate in the temple.”
Henceforth he
would never deny the healing power of the Gospel.
Parham held
his first evangelistic meeting at the age of eighteen, in the
Pleasant Valley School House, near Tonganoxie, Kansas. He was
a stranger to the country community when he asked permission
to hold meetings at their school. As a result of these
meetings he met his wife-to- be Sarah Thistlewaite and gained
a position as a preacher.
Charles Parham and his new wife Sarah had many
meetings in a variety of places, which were greatly
blessed by the Lord. In September 1897 their first
son, Claude, was born, but soon after Charles
collapsed while preaching and was diagnosed with
serious heart disease. At the same time baby Claude
became ill and each patient grew progressively
weaker.
One day Parham was called to pray for a sick man and
while praying the words, ‘Physician,
heal thyself,’
came to his mind. He recognised it as the voice of God
and began praying for himself, not the man.
The
power of God touched his body and made him completely
well, immediately. He returned home with a fresh
commitment to healing prayer, threw away all
medicines, gave up all doctors and believed God for
Claude’s healing. He was soon completely well
and began to grow.
At a friend’s graveside Parham made a vow that “‘Live
or die’ I will preach this gospel of healing.” On
moving to Ottawa, Kansas, the Parham’s opened their
home and a continual stream of sick and needy people
found healing through the Great Physician. Parham was
called to speak on healing at Topeka, Kansas and while
he was away torrential rain caused devastating floods
around their home in Ottawa. When the weather subsided
Parham called his family to Topeka. On November 29,
1898 on Thanksgiving Day, a new baby called Esther
Marie entered the world.
Topeka: Bethel Divine Healing Home
In
1898 Parham opened his divine healing home in Topeka,
which he and Sarah named “Bethel.” The purpose was to
provide ‘home-like comforts for those who were seeking
healing.’
The ground
floor housed a chapel, a public reading room and a
printing office. The second floor had fourteen rooms
with large windows, which were always filled with
fresh flowers, adding to the peace and cheer of the
home. The third floor was an attic which doubled as a
bedroom when all others were full. Each day the Word
of God was taught and prayer was offered individually
whenever it was necessary.
Bethel also offered special studies for ministers
and evangelists which prepared and trained them
for Gospel work. The Parhams also found Christian
homes for orphans, and work for the unemployed.
Parham’s
newsletter, The Apostolic Faith,
published bi-weekly, had a subscription price
initially. But Parham quickly changed this by
referring readers to read Isaiah 55:1, then give
accordingly. The Lord wonderfully provided. Each
edition published wonderful testimonies of
healing and many of the sermons that were taught
at Bethel.
As
well as conversions and powerful healings the
Parhams experienced miraculous provision of
finances on a number of occasions. Another son,
named Charles, was born in March 1900. Soon
after a parsonage was provided for the growing
family.
Ever hungry for truth
Mr.
Parham wrote: “Deciding to know more fully the
latest truths restored by later day movements, I
left my work in charge of two Holiness preachers
and visited various movements, such as Dowie’s
work who was then in Chicago, the Eye-Opener
work of the same city; Malone’s work in
Cleveland; Dr. Simpson’s work in Nyack, New
York; Sandford’s ‘Holy Ghost and Us’ work at
Shiloah, Maine and many others.
I returned
home, fully convinced that while many had
obtained real experience in sanctification
and the anointing that abideth, there still
remained a great outpouring of power for the
Christians who were to close this age.”
It was during this twelve-week trip that
Parham heard much about the ‘Latter Rain’
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, reinforcing
his conviction that Christ’s premillennial
return would occur after an unprecedented
world-wide revival. Isolated reports of
xenolalic tongues amongst missionaries
helped him begin the formulation of his
doctrine of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts
and end time revival.
The Bible School at Topeka
Because of the outstanding success at
Bethel, many began to encourage Parham to
open a Bible School. “I went to my room to
fast and pray, to be alone with God that I
might know His will for my future work….. By
a series of wonderful miracles we were able
to secure what was then known as “Stone’s
Folly, a great mansion patterned after an
English castle, one mile west of Washburn
College in Topeka.”
The Bible
school welcomed all ministers and Christians
who were willing to forsake all, sell what
they had, give it away and enter the school
for study and prayer. It was to be a faith
venture, each trusting God for their
personal provision. There were no charges
for board or tuition; the poor were fed, the
sick were housed and fed, and each day of
each month God provided for their every
needs.
First Wave of the Holy
Spirit
In December of 1900 examinations
were held on the subjects of repentance,
conversion, consecration,
sanctification, healing, and the soon
coming of the Lord.
But there was the problem of the book of
Acts. Parham had always felt that
missionaries to foreign lands needed to
preach in the native language. Having
heard so much about this subject during
his recent travels Parham set the forty
students an assignment to determine the
Biblical evidence of the baptism in the
Holy Spirit and report on their findings
in three days, while he was away in
Kansas City.
He returned on the morning preceding the
watch night service 1900-1901.
Parham was astonished when the students
reported their findings that, while
there were different things that
occurred when the Pentecostal blessing
fell, the indisputable proof on each
occasion was that they spoke in other
tongues.
About seventy-five people
(probably locals) gathered with the
forty students for the watch night
service and there was an intense power
of the Lord present.
It
was here that a student, Agnes
Ozman, (later LaBerge) asked that
hands might be laid upon her to
receive the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. She believed she was called to
the mission field and wanted to be
equipped accordingly. At first Parham
refused, as he himself never had the
experience. Nevertheless, she
persisted and Parham laid his hands
upon her head.
“I had scarcely repeated three
dozen sentences when a glory fell
upon her, a halo seemed to
surround her head and face, and
she began speaking in the Chinese
language, and was unable to speak
English for three days. When she
tried to write in English… she
wrote in Chinese, copies of which
we still have in newspapers
printed at that time”
Tongues of Fire
After this incredible deluge
of the Holy Spirit, the students
moved their beds from the upper
dormitory on the upper floor and
waited on God for two nights and
three days, as an entire body.
On the night of January 3rd
1901, Parham preached at a Free
Methodist Church in Topeka, telling
them what had happened and that he
expected the entire school to be
baptized in the Holy Spirit. On
returning to the school with one of
the students they heard the most
wonderful sounds coming from the
prayer room.
“The room was filled
with a sheen of white light above
the brightness of the lamps.” There
were twelve denominational ministers
who had received the Holy Spirit
baptism and were speaking in other
tongues. Some were gently trembling
under the power of the glory that
had filled them. Sister Stanley, an
elderly lady, came to Parham, and
shared that she saw “tongues of
fire” sitting above their heads just
moments before his arrival. “My
heart was melted in gratitude to God
for my eyes had seen….. I fell to my
knees behind a table unnoticed by
those on whom the power of Pentecost
had fallen to pour out my heart to
God in thanksgiving.”
Then he asked God for the
same blessing, and when he did,
Parham distinctly heard God’s
calling to declare “this mighty
truth to the world. And if I was
willing to stand for it, with
all the persecutions, hardships,
trials, slander, scandal that it
would entailed, He would give me
the blessing.”
It was then that
Charles Parham himself was
filled with the Holy Spirit, and
spoke in other tongues. “Right
then and there came a slight
twist in my throat, a glory fell
over me and I began to worship
God in a Swedish tongue, which
later changed to other languages
and continued so until the
morning”
Within a few days about
half the student body had
received the Holy Spirit with
the evidence of tongues.
Soon the news of what God was
doing had Stone’s Folly besieged
by newspaper reporters, language
professors, foreigners and
government interpreters and they
gave the work the most crucial
test.
They had to agree that Stone’s
Folly’s students were speaking
in the languages of the world,
with the proper accent and
intonation.
The newspapers
broadcast the headlines
“Pentecost! Pentecost!”
Newsboys shouted,
“Read about the
Pentecost!”
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