Azusa Street: Revival or Frenzy?

Many proponents of the Azusa Street Revival claim that mighty miracles took place, including incredible healings and even the appearance of the Shekinah glory during some of the services. And yet the newspapers of the day report an entirely different story. What really took place, revival or frenzy?

Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[omnitrus]

We left the charismatic church when the kundalini spirit moved in !We lost family and friends but are so happy to be free and delivered! Thank you for this video!

[CasperLCat]

I appreciate the way Mr. Long solicits and respects his wife’s contributions. Unfortunately many Christian husbands talk over their wives in their impatience to make their own points. (Which isn’t a Christian thing, it’s just a male thing).

I’m not an evangelical, but this couple, it seems to me, set a fine example of Christian marriage.

[derickrae]

Thank you for this video. Being raised Pentecostal, The Azusa Street Revival is almost venerated.

[facepalmingreformer]

Y’all are doing great work. Thank you!

[gayleday]

I've realized in my adulthood that many accounts taught in history books and religious books were lies. But people find it unimaginable that people of God would lie, so they were believed. We gloss over God's warning: "cursed is the man that trusts in man..." Or "let God be true and every man a liar.". That's our fault, not God that we don't inquire to God.

[raywite]

The seeking of sensation over the straight and narrow way sells well with those who require to see and feel, it is emotional not spiritual.

[eladiocofresi]

So much of what I heard in this video reminds me of my upbringing in Hispanic Pentecostal churches. From the excess volume and time length to potentially hearing someone reading the same articles praising it as a move of God.

[TrudyConway]

Wow. I learned some stuff with this one. My family attended a "Holiness" church (COGIC) in Texas. We were military but would go to my mother's hometown when my father was overseas. I never understood why my mother wasn't like the other "church people". She didn't adhere to the strict rules most of them did - not wearing pants, speaking in tongues & shouting aka "getting happy", etc. Mama read her Bible at home and trusted the Lord but I always knew she wasn't like the other COGIC people. When I got grown and became a Christian, I attended non-denom churches. I hadn't yet studied my Bible enough to understand doctrine but I knew in my heart that there was something wrong with people "speaking in tongues" when no one else understood them (and they all usually sounded alike). I didn't understand the frenzied "shout-dancing" thing. And I had never heard anything in the sermons about how to ask for or accept salvation.

Watching this video, a lot of stuff just clicked for me. I just realized how much my old church was like the Toronto-Azusa Street thing. When my mother died and we had her cremated (in Alaska, you have to wait sometimes before burials because of the frozen ground, so cremation was my mother's wish), the pastor of her COGIC church made us feel sinful for doing so.

Sorry for the rant but this just hit my dead center in some childhood memories.

[Matthew-]

I thank God for people like you, Robert Breaker, Justin Peters, etc. I first got saved in a charismatic environment, but I wasn’t taught correct doctrine afterwards. I stayed confused and immature until last year when God brought me to certain teachers who rightly divided the Bible for me, made everything so clear and easy to understand. The scales truly came off my eyes for so many issues. Thank God. I finally have peace with God.

[elwingw]

Martin Lloyd Jones believed in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He experienced it as well as many of the puritans such as John Wesley . George Whitfield etc. and he encouraged people to seek it . And he said he would not dare say there were no tongues today. Though he was rather opposed to, the charasmatic revival of the 1970’s. For it’s lack of preaching repentence. And his written sermons are the best expositors of the word of God I have found yet. He was also a Calvinist.

[ajoy]

Really happy you posted this!
A lot of the "history" to support today's craziness is helping me.

[andreah.]

Thank you for shedding light on the Azusa St revival. I imagined it being some kind of religious block party. We hold a Bible study on Saturdays, and the police were called due to complaints about how we all parked. We complied, didn't sass the officers, and they told us to call every Friday to say we're having our study that way they could approve our parking to the complainers. It's a nice testimony to work with your neighbors and authority. To hear how the police had to be stationed outside their building and how badly they bothered their neighbors is awful! That's no testimony!

[darthjedi]

My church just mentioned him so I came here. Leaving that church now. Thanks.

[Shepherdesscb]

So often unbelievers are being used as enemy agents against the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of Pentecost that was demonstrated at Azuza street.
But God will rise in the face of his enemy once again and scatter the proud in the imaginations of their heart.
He will prove his power in this hour, God himself will prove his power!

[donnakay]

Glory! power! all praise to the most high God! Thank you Jesus for saving a wrench like me, revealing your truth, healing me, & filling me with your Spirit!! HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU FOR STILL DOING MIRACLES TODAY! THANK YOU FOR BEING ACTIVE IN OUR LIVES. THANK YOU FOR OPENING MY EYES& GIVING ME DISCERNMENT. AMEN. YOUR WORD IS TRUE. FORGIVE US FOR EVER PUTTING THE CREATOR OF EVERYTHING IN OUR LITTLE BOX FOR WE KNOW YOUR A BIG BIG GOD WITH NO LIMITATION!

[Testeverything]

I've gone down a rabbit whole of watching all of your videos. I appreciate you guys taking the time to do this. I started by looking into William Branham. You guys are doing a great job getting this info out.

[dekkal]

Perfect Timing. I attended an event in front of LAs City Hall by matter of chance this weekend that was attempting to explicitly reproduce Azusa.Thank you for this clear insight.

[mercyp]

Yes! Another Long for the Truth video! I have been wanting to learn more about Azusa. Dont know much about it except it was the starting point for modern day charismatics? I think I confused it with the Toronto Blessing prior.Also I love the early 1900s intro 😄

[karendemorest]

Thank you so much for this enlightening perspective that comes from many witnesses! Sounds so much like a mental ward gone berserk. I used to smile over youth doing the "holy Pogo". Not anymore! Self control comes from the Holy Spirit, not loss of control. So appreciate your Bereans study style. God bless and keep up the good work.

[MissBe]

I've been a part of charismatic churches for a long time. Kind of want to leave now. But heard of Azuza but never knew any details. Also they used to talk about the shikinah glory. So great to hear all of this now.