# Azusa History Overturned: The Parhamite Roots — Leaving the Message Ep. 650 **Summary.** John Collins, host of the *Leaving the Message* / William Branham Historical Research podcast (Ep. 650), argues that the [[New Apostolic Reformation]] is not a new movement but a century-old rebranding of "Parhamism" — the "apostolic faith" theology of [[Charles Fox Parham]], whom he calls the true father of modern [[Pentecostalism]]. He says the standard history that traces the movement to [[William J. Seymour]] and the 1906 Azusa Street revival is a "coverup culture" that erased Parham after his 1907 arrest. The episode reads from an original 1906 issue of *The Apostolic Faith* to argue Azusa was a continuation, not an origin. (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots|Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots]]) > [!note] Why this source matters structurally > The wiki already holds a Parham origins-critique cluster ([[readwise-pentecostal-nar-origins-critique-cluster|Readwise — Pentecostal / NAR Origins Critique Cluster]], [[charles-fox-parham|Charles Fox Parham]]). This source sharpens the load-bearing genealogical claim — **"Apostolic Faith" → "New Apostolic Reformation"** as a single name-line — and adds a primary-document core (the 1906 *Apostolic Faith* magazine) rather than resting on characterization alone. It is the same critical lineage, now argued from a period text. ## Key Claims 1. **NAR as rebranded Parhamism.** Collins's organizing thesis: "the New Apostolic Reformation today is just another iteration of Parhamism." The same theological DNA — modern apostles, end-times harvest, tongues, dominion/territorial warfare, a signs-and-wonders hierarchy — reappears under new labels each generation. Parham branded his movement the "Apostolic Faith"; the name reappears almost intact in "New Apostolic Reformation." (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots|Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots]]) 2. **The genealogy Collins draws.** John Alexander Dowie (Zion City faith-healing empire, self-styled Elijah / "first modern apostle") → [[Charles Fox Parham]] (the "Elisha," founder of the Apostolic Faith movement, Topeka 1900–01) → [[William J. Seymour]] (trained under Parham in Houston; led Azusa Street 1906) → the postwar healing revival and [[William Branham]] (mentored by Parhamite F.F. Bosworth) → [[Latter Rain]] / "manifested sons of God" → prophetic networks (Vineyard, Kansas City Prophets, shepherding) → NAR (a term [[C. Peter Wagner]] coined for something Collins says already existed). John G. Lake and F.F. Bosworth are the connective "Parhamites"; Gordon Lindsay (Christ for the Nations, Branham's *Voice of Healing* publicist) claimed conversion in a Parham meeting. (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots|Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots]]) 3. **The documentary core — *The Apostolic Faith*, Vol. 1 No. 1 (Los Angeles, 1906).** Collins reads three items: a "Letter from Brother Parham" naming him "God's leader in the apostolic faith movement"; an "Old-Time Pentecost" column dating the work to Topeka "about 5 years ago" with ~13,000 adherents already and a prayer tower (which he compares to IHOPKC's 24/7 prayer); and a "Tongues Convict Sinners" column clipping text "from the Apostolic Faith published by Charles Fox Parham at Baxter, Kansas." He uses these to argue Azusa was a continuation of Parham's existing work, and even questions whether the "Vol. 1 No. 1" framing is accurate. (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots|Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots]]) 4. **The "coverup."** Per Collins, Parham was arrested in July 1907 — a year after Azusa broke out — on charges involving young men, and his defense in a Texas trial was that he could not help what he did in his sleep. Collins says the movement then swapped its public face to Seymour and declared Azusa the "first," writing Parham out. He cites a highlight in which "Seymour himself declared Charles Fox Parham was that leader," making Azusa's own founder a witness against the erasure. (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots|Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots]]) 5. **The tongues-theology shift.** Parham's original doctrine was **xenoglossy** — real foreign languages missionaries could use abroad (a China mission failed when no one understood the "tongue"). It later evolved into unknown/unintelligible tongues. Collins calls the original intent "more biblical" than what followed — a point that maps onto the [[Pentecostalism]] page's account of how the sign-of-tongues doctrine developed. (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots|Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots]]) 6. **Money and scandal framing.** Parham is tied to a "rocks into gold from God" investment scheme, an Ark-of-the-Covenant fundraising claim, and visits to Frank Sanford's Maine commune and Dowie's Zion City (where, Collins says, an early "deliverance ministry" killed people by forcibly casting out demons). Collins concedes he cannot prove Parham's motives — "whether he was a perpetrator or a true victim… is left open to history." (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots|Azusa History Overturned The Parhamite Roots]]) ## Connections to Existing Wiki - **[[Charles Fox Parham]].** Entity update — a second, primary-document-anchored source for the origins-critique cluster; adds the *Apostolic Faith* magazine evidence and the "Apostolic Faith → NAR" name-line. - **[[Pentecostalism]].** Concept update — the Parham-first vs. Seymour-first origin schism and the xenoglossy-to-unintelligible-tongues shift add period detail to the historical-lineage section. - **[[New Apostolic Reformation]].** The "Wagner named a pre-existing thing" claim reframes NAR's start date; worth noting alongside the existing Wagner-coinage material. - **[[readwise-pentecostal-nar-origins-critique-cluster|Readwise — Pentecostal / NAR Origins Critique Cluster]] / [[William Branham]].** Same William Branham Historical Research orbit; the Bosworth→Branham link ties this to the wider Branham thread. > [!question] Open question — Seymour's own testimony > Collins's strongest evidence for the "coverup" is the claim that Seymour himself named Parham as the leader. If accurate from a primary source, it materially strengthens the Parham-first genealogy the wiki has so far held tentatively. Worth locating the actual Seymour statement (not the podcast's paraphrase) before treating the erasure claim as settled. ## Source Caution Single polemical podcast in the William Branham research orbit (John Collins, *Weaponized Religion* author; the episode cites his own prior work and his william-branham.org archive throughout). The strongest material is documentary — the 1906 *Apostolic Faith* readings are checkable period text. The weaker material is characterization ("the types of circles he ran with," "same DNA") and inference from a single magazine issue; some figures (Dowie's "$10,000 in 10 years" vs. "half a billion in today's money") are internally inconsistent and unsourced in the episode. One highlight is explicitly flagged for an **unfalsifiable move**: "the very fact that people say all of our history traces back to Seymour is pure evidence of the coverup culture" — silence read as confirmation. Confirm the biography against academic historiography (Grant Wacker, *Heaven Below*; Vinson Synan, *The Holiness–Pentecostal Tradition*; Gastón Espinosa on Seymour) before treating Parham's record as settled in any analysis page.