This week in Christian history: William Penn born, Pentecostal school founded, France attacks Protestants

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, October 13, 2019

Charles Fox Parham founds Bible school – Oct. 15, 1900

Charles Fox Parham (1873-1929), a notable Pentecostal leader who founded the Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas in 1900. | Wikimedia Commons

This week marks the anniversary of when notable American Pentecostal leader Charles Fox Parham founded the Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas.

Based on a property known as “Stone’s Folly,” Bethel began with an enrollment of 40 students and hosted a new year’s eve service with around twice that number in attendance.

“Parham’s Bible school was tuition-free and open to all those who were willing to forsake everything to follow Christ. The Bible was the only textbook,” explains Got Questions.org.

“Parham believed that the gift of tongues involved speaking in actual human languages and would be a necessary tool for carrying out missions activity.”