Agnes Ozman

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Agnes Ozman (1870-1937) was a female student at Charles Fox Parham's Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas. Ozman was considered by many as “the first to speak in tongues,” and her experience which sparked the modern Pentecostal-Holiness movement, which began in the early 20th century.

  • Parham taught his students with regard to the Holiness movement from which he introduced the concepts of Divine healing and Sanctification. Parham pondered over what the Bible verse "receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Baptism of the Holy Spirit)" (Acts 2:38) might mean and whether any evidence specifically related to this gift could be found. Parham gave his students three days, while he was absent, to ponder over this issue.
  • By the time he returned his students collectively agreed that if the Holy Spirit had descended upon an individual, then speaking in other tongues would be present and constitute sufficient proof of that. The students pointed out that this type of event was mentioned four times in the Acts of the Apostles.
  • Therefore on a New Year's Eve Parham and his students planned to pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit. So it was that in 1901, after midnight of the first day, Ozman asked her mentor to pray specifically so that she could be filled with the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands so that she might speak in other tongues.
  • According to her fellow students, their prayers were heard, and her colleagues reported that a halo had surrounded both her face and head and that she started speaking in the Chinese language. Not long afterward Parham and thirty-four other students also began speaking in unknown languages.
  • As Quoted [1]: "It is said that Ozman could not speak English for three days and was only able to write in Chinese characters." and "Many that day experienced other gifts of the Spirit, and soon the little group went off from Kansas City to share the good news". [2].
  • Later in her life Agnes changed her views and admitted that she had been wrong to believe that all people would speak in tongues when they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. This view is one held by many in the charismatic movement.

In 1937, Ozman died from heart failure.