Centennial Notes

Year: 1907
J.H. King, General Overseer of the FBHC, sought for and received the pentecostal baptism and spoke with other tongues on February 15

J.H. King,⁽⁵⁵⁾ General Overseer of the FBHC, learned about the Azusa St. Revival while in Canada from a friend, Rev. A.H. Argue who would come to make a substantial contribution to the Assemblies of God. Argue told him about the revival and gave him a copy of Seymour's The Apostolic Faith. King put it away for later reading.

The Fire Baptized reaction was mixed. There was excitement among many Fire-Baptized to hear Cashwell. Several members from King's Toccoa, Georgia congregation went to Dunn where they, along with several more Fire-Baptized people, received the pentecostal experience.

King did not go to the meeting but at some point in January spent 10 days fasting for divine guidance. Apparently some in his congregation had already accepted the initial-evidence doctrine before he returned to his church or at least spoke favorably of it, and it was not tongues-speech itself but the initial-evidence doctrine that troubled him. King withstood Cashwell personally in private as well as publically during his first three days at Toccoa. King felt that he had bested the new doctrine at each confrontation.⁽⁵⁶⁾

King put together an issue of Live Coals prior to Cashwell's arrival at Toccoa which included an article written by J. Hudson Ballard that refuted the initial-evidence doctrine. Attention was drawn to passages in Acts which refer to tongues in connection with Spirit baptism while other passages do not. Further, the article notes that tongues-speech is not mentioned as an evidence in the Epistles. Tongues could not be the exclusive evidence since this would exclude an untold number of Christians throughout church history from the blessing. The article points out that the group mentioned most in connection with tongues, the Corinthians, were barely saved, and certainly unsanctified. Lastly, if the gift were for all Christians it would have been included in the lists of spiritual gifts in Romans 12:6 and Ephesians 4:11. The study concluded that tongues should be used privately, that the church needs unction for evangelism instead of tongues, and that love is the chief evidence of the grace of God.⁽⁵⁷⁾

On February 14, King made a study of key New Testament Greek words and to his surprise, found that his anti initial-evidence arguments were not supported by either Acts or the best commentators that he had at hand, especially Dean Alford's Critical Notes on the New Testament and Adam Clarke's Commentary. He was particularly impressed with the thought that when Acts 8 says Simon Magus "saw" that the Greek term idon can mean also "hear" so here Simon Magus must have heard speaking in tongues. Although Dean Alford would not support the idea of initial-evidence Spirit baptism (especially involving permanent xenolalia), he did argue that both the Ephesian Pentecost and this episode in Samaria included speaking in tongues. With his arguments now brushed aside, King that night sought for and received the pentecostal baptism and spoke with other tongues on February 15, 1907.⁽⁵⁸⁾

In the April, 1908 Anderson, South Carolina meeting of the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church the denomination changed the Basis of Union to incorporate the doctrine of pentecost "according to its scriptural aspect."