Bethel Bible College

The school is credited with starting the Pentecostal movement, particularly its earliest form—Holiness Pentecostalism—due to a series of fasting days that ended in what was interpreted as speaking in tongues on January 1, 1901.

[1] Although the school would close later in 1901 due to a fire that destroyed the building, after less than two years of operation, the movement itself grew substantially to tens of millions of people around the world.

[2] Forty students including Agnes Ozman had gathered to learn the major tenets of the Holiness Movement from Parham.

In Houston, a black man named William Seymour heard the message and would take this teaching to Los Angeles where he would start the Azusa Street Revival.

The testimony of those who attended the Azusa Street Revival was "I am saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost" in reference to the three works of grace taught by Holiness Pentecostals: (1) the New Birth; (2) entire sanctifiation; and (3) Spirit baptism evidenced by speaking in tongues.