[4] Influenced by the 1906 Azusa Street Revival, he later founded the Apostolic Faith Mission in China (later amalgamated with the Assemblies of God) with a group of American missionaries associated with the Pentecostal movement.

[10] In December 1906, Berntsen came across an early publication of The Apostolic Faith from Los Angeles which detailed the events of the Azusa Street Revival.

In 1907, he journeyed to the Centennial Missionary Conference in Shanghai with the hope of finding someone who had experienced the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the people there told him it was the 'work of the devil'.

Berntsen ultimately travelled to Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles where he received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit through speaking in tongues on September 15, 1907.

Upon his trip back to Seattle, Berntsen and a group of eleven adult Pentecostal missionaries gathered together to form a non-denominational Apostolic Faith Mission.

[16] Berntsen also maintained contacts with the emerging Pentecostal movement in Norway, led by Thomas Ball Barratt and Erik Andersen Nordquelle.

In 1912, they printed a Chinese-language publication named Popular Gospel Truths[19] which emphasized on the importance of receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

[21] He agreed to do so and on September 1, 1916, Berntsen announced on the thirteenth edition of the Popular Gospel Truth publication that they would be holding Seventh-day worship from now on.

Hence in the spring of 1918, Zhang and Paul cooperated as co-workers, announced at the Tianjin chapel that they were to be keeping the Sabbath worship on a Saturday and thus formed their independent Pentecostal-Sabbatarian True Jesus Church.

[24] During the middle of 1919, Berntsen clarified his viewpoint regarding the Sabbath on the Popular Gospel Truth publication, ...Recently some of our brethren have argued that China and the land of the Judea belong to the same continent of Asia; however if there are any Jews who travel by land to China, then they would not need to deduct one day whilst they are travelling halfway through their journey.