Good history begins with asking good questions. You might not always get the answer you were hoping for (in fact, you shouldn’t be looking for answers…follow where the evidence leads). History is not the discipline or reducing phenomena down to simple/basic causes (that’s science); history is making sense of the complex. In the field of history, it is common to develop even more questions as your research progresses.
As you look deeper, the evidence will show you that the historical context is more of a kaleidoscope. When we study history, we should remember that we are studying from a binocular's perspective. We need to get as close to our subjects as possible without losing sight of the full picture.
And truthfully, history is never normally a picture. Quite often, history is a beautiful mosaic.
As you look deeper, the evidence will show you that the historical context is more of a kaleidoscope. When we study history, we should remember that we are studying from a binocular's perspective. We need to get as close to our subjects as possible without losing sight of the full picture.
And truthfully, history is never normally a picture. Quite often, history is a beautiful mosaic.
Other Questions of Historical Inquiry in early Assemblies of God history:
- Was there a direct relationship between railroad executives and the Pentecostal movement, especially with B. F. Yoakum? (Preliminary evidence suggests more than a cursory awareness.) B. F. Yoakum was THE railroad magnate of the United States in the early 1900s. Yoakum controlled over 17,500 miles of railroad through the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railways as well as the FRISCO. Yoakum's brother was Dr. F. E. Yoakum of Pisgah home. Stanley Frodsham's wife had spent a significant amount of time at the Pisgah home and many early Pentecostal leaders were familiar with Dr. Yoakum's work. See page 81 through 104 of the study for more information.
- Clergy Rates for Ministers are very important to understanding the formation of the Assemblies of God. However, there is little historical evidence to help with analysis. This study covers many of the available sources, but extensive digging into archives of the Clergy Bureau is needed.
- How defined were the connections between Bell and Goss’s Churches of God in Christ organization and the Bishop Mason organization of the same name? (The historical record is eerily silent between 1907-1911.)
- How diverse was the ethnic and linguistic makeup of the Assemblies of God in 1914-1918 (Kerr for instance held more German-speaking meetings than English)?
- Did the return of missionaries displaced by World War I significantly impact the Assemblies of God’s doctrinal position statements?
- Of all the Churches of God in Christ members that left the Assemblies of God in 1916, how many remained or returned to Trinitarianism?
- What impact did the development of labor laws and workdays being shortened to just eight hours play in the emergence of Pentecostalism especially at Stone Church in Chicago?
- Railroad Postal Mail Carriers
- Actual routes of 1914 Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railway and Frisco railway systems and particular routes influence on the formation of the Assemblies of God and other religious movements.
- When did the first meeting of the Churches of God in Christ ACTUALLY happen? There is a single sentence in a report on the 1912 meeting that the first meeting happened not in 1912 but in 1911. ANSWERED August 30, 2023: 1911 Eureka Springs Meeting - CHRISTIAN EVANGEL
- Why did some ministers mentioned in the March 1914 meeting announcement not affiliate with the Assemblies of God?
- Eureka Springs post office was built in 1916, the same year that D. C. O. Opperman left the Assemblies of God and started the Apostolic Faith Assemblies. Focus on Eureka Springs local history.
- W. F. Carothers, who was affiliated with Parham's Apostolic Faith movement (Carothers issued William Seymour credentials), claimed that he had received a spiritual gift to forecast the weather. What is that all about?
- A. G. Garr, Aimee Semple McPherson, Frank Bartleman and many others were missionaries in Hong Kong, India, and China. What role did geopolitical events play in their moves back to the United States? In China in 1911 for instance, the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. Many missionaries seem to have been displaced because of this and returned to the United States to reinforce many orthodox positions within religious movements like the Assemblies of God. McPherson returned home because her husband at the time, Robert Semple, had fallen ill and died while in the mission field.
