Memoirs of the Azusa Revival was published in the Enrichment Journal in 2006. It is one of our reading materials in the Pentecostal Foundation subject. This memoirs was written by Frank Bartleman describing his experience attending the Pentecostal Revival that happened in Azusa Street, Los Angeles. Surprisingly, he described things that happened as the "ark of God" which he said as "moved off slowly but surely." I'm not entirely sure but I think he is talking about the presence of God. That gets me thinking. Why was he associating the presence of God in Azusa with the ark? Did he meant that the Azusa believers had somehow become the new Israel? Did he meant that God only specially present at Azusa at that time? Is that even in line with the New Testament teaching? He goes on to mention that Christians meetings at other places began to close up due to their people coming to Azusa. The tone of his writing suggesting that it was something to be proud of. Now should any thinking believers be proud when people abandoned their respective ministry/fellowship of believers for another revival in other places? Well, when Jesus came to the world, his ministry was restricted around Galilee and Judea in Palestine. Jews in diaspora did miss out but then eventually through his disciples they did come to hear and experience their Messiah (but of course many rejected him after hearing). My point is, celebrating the fact the God moved in one place in not the other is really meaningless because God is sovereign over the entire universe. Bartleman even said Los Angeles is the American Jerusalem...a statement I found really strange. In the Bible, didn't the Holy Spirit also fall in Samaria, Caesarea and Ephesus? What about the Welsh Revival and revival in other places in America prior to Los Angeles? Of all these, my biggest surprise is that of all his description and commentary on what he experienced in Azusa, at least in this article, there is no single mentioned of the Name of Jesus! It makes me wonder, what kind of working of God's Spirit that would not glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom the Spirit testify? Now I am by no means questioning the authenticity of the Azusa Revival but I wonder if everyone attending the meetings really understand what God was doing and really benefited from it according to Divine purpose.
