A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

A History of Christian Doctrine
testified, “This was my first contact . . . with Christianity
of any sort. . . . I feel that I owe my conversion to
Christianity to hearing people speak in other tongues.” 1
In the aftermath of this revival, Parham started several
churches in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. He
established headquarters for his movement in Baxter
Springs, Kansas, a small town near Galena.
In 1905 Parham received an invitation to hold services
in Orchard, Texas, about forty miles west of
Houston. Many people were converted. Revival spread
throughout the countryside and to Houston, where
Parham conducted services in a downtown auditorium.
The movement enjoyed great success there after a wellknown
woman was healed and raised from a wheelchair.
Due to the tremendous response, Parham soon opened a
short-term Bible school in Houston.
Goss came to Houston as a student worker, although
he had not yet received the Holy Ghost. In April 1906, he
and sixteen others received the Holy Ghost as they rode
a train from Orchard to Alvin, Texas. Goss spoke in
tongues for one week; it was two weeks before he could
preach in English. Revival continued to spread throughout
the Houston area and elsewhere in the state. Parham
soon appointed Goss as field supervisor of the work in
Texas.
In 1907 a controversy arose among some of the
newer workers in Texas as to whether speaking in
tongues was invariably the initial evidence of the Spirit
baptism or simply one of the nine gifts of the Spirit. After
a debate in Waco, the group was convinced that tongues
was the initial evidence. Some of them, however, decided
to seek confirmation at a revival in San Antonio.
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