A BRIEF HISTORY OF PENTECOSTALS

In 1906, on Asuza Street in Los Angeles, California a great revival was ignited. The revival was sparked by William Joseph Seymour who was seeking for the Holy Ghost and for God’s will to be done. He preached the baptism of the Holy Spirit as told in the book of Acts.

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. ~ Acts 2:1-4

Services were held seven days a week and people came from all over the world came to experience the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. There was a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit and thousands of people came to Asuza Street, and they would go back to their home states, cities and countries spreading the Pentecostal Movement all over the world.

From this revival on Asuza Street stemmed many different organizations of Pentecostal faith. Pentecostals believe in water baptism, some baptize in Jesus’ name and some in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. We believe in the baptism in Jesus’ name as was taught by the apostles on the Day of Pentecost.

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. ~ Acts 2:38

What separates true Pentecostals as a whole from other organizations is that their teachings are from the book of Acts and we believe in the Baptism by Fire, which is the receiving of the Holy Ghost. The Pentecostals base their experience on the book of Acts because it was the beginning of the church.

Today, there are thousands of different Pentecostal organizations all over the world with more than half a billion followers. The Pentecostal movement is one of the fastest growing movements ever, and one that has had a profound impact on even mainstream religions. There are groups of Pentecostal people within the Catholic Church, they are called Charismatic Catholics. There are certain Baptist organizations that also believe in receiving the Holy Ghost and many other denominations which believe in receiving the Holy Ghost.

In the early church with the apostles, there were no organizations and denominations, the church was under one banner, Jesus Christ and they all taught the same thing. Because of men, we have to label ourselves, and we believe that is not the way it is supposed to be. We believe in one church, and one mind which is the mind of God. That is why our founder, Dr. Rosemary Redmon Cosby (Mama) started the Voice of God’s Ministry, Back to the Foundation. Because of her vision that God gave her, she believed and we believe that the churches should all be saying the same thing, not a divided Christ. Our church is like the school of prophets that Elisha founded, our church is a school of ministers. Our goal is to perfect a ministry where everyone will be preaching the same thing according to the scriptures and not according to the mind of man.

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. ~ Acts 2:1