On the very first day of the twentieth century, a group of Kansas Bible school students laid hands on Agnes Ozman, praying that she would be baptized in the Holy Spirit with the expected sign of speaking in tongues. In what was later called "the touch felt around the world," the 30-year-old, while "a halo surrounded her head and face," began to "speak the Chinese language."

With that, the Pentecostal movement, which now numbers over a half-billion adherents, was born. But despite the movement's association with tongues ever since that centennial prayer meeting, early Pentecostalism was less a tongues movement and more a Jesus-is-coming movement.

The Topeka Pentecost occurred in an atmosphere of millennial expectations. After Ozman spoke in tongues, her teacher, Charles Fox Parham, and most of the other students also experienced tongues. In short order, Parham formulated the doctrine that tongues was the "Bible evidence" of baptism in the Holy Spirit. He also ...

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