This Week in AG History -- Nov. 6, 1960

Although Albert Benjamin (A.B.) Simpson (1843-1919) never joined the Pentecostal movement, few people had greater influence on early Pentecostalism. His concept of a Fourfold Gospel (or Full Gospel) and his emphasis on global evangelism provided the basis for much of the early theology and missiology of the Assemblies of God.

Simpson was born on Prince Edward Island in Canada and converted to Christ in a Presbyterian revival in 1859. He later pastored Presbyterian churches in Canada and, at age 30, accepted the pastorate of the Chestnut Street Presbyterian church in Louisville, Kentucky.

During his ministry in Kentucky, he began emphasizing simple worship that would appeal to common people. His church struggled to embrace his burden for wider evangelistic outreach and in 1880 he moved to New York City, where he established an independent ministry to immigrants and the unchurched called The Gospel Tabernacle.

Soon after arriving in New York, he became involved with the Keswick movement, a stream within the broader Holiness movement that encouraged Christians to seek a deeper spiritual life. He began preaching that “the baptism of the Spirit” would be accompanied by a power for service to the world along with a cleansing from man’s sinful nature.

In 1882, he began the publication of a missionary journal, The Gospel in All Lands, and started holding training classes to reach “the neglected peoples of the world with the neglected resources of the church.”

In 1887, he formed two organizations: The Christian Alliance (to promote domestic missions) and The Evangelical Missionary Alliance (to promote foreign missions). In 1897, he merged these organizations to form the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA), a network of ministers and churches that sought to promote the deeper Christian life and mobilize consecrated Christians for mission work.

To further the purposes of the CMA, Simpson started the Missionary Training Institute (MTI, later Nyack College, and most recently, Alliance University) in New York. MTI, the first Bible institute of its kind in America, taught the Fourfold Gospel: Christ as Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King. As the disciples were trained by Jesus for three years, so Simpson’s Bible institute model was also a three-year program of intense spiritual development and practical training for Christian service. Students called MTI, “Simpson’s matchbox,” reflecting his longing for them to be set on fire for the Lord’s work.

At the turn of the 20th century, many Alliance members began adopting Pentecostal beliefs after experiencing the gift of tongues and other spiritual manifestations at Alliance meetings. Simpson was supportive of their experience, but would not accept the teaching that speaking in tongues was the initial physical evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit. The eventual position of the Christian Missionary Alliance became “seek not, forbid not” on the matter of speaking in tongues.

Many Alliance members who did accept this experience as evidence of Spirit baptism later contributed to the early formation of the Assemblies of God. Among them were Daniel W. Kerr, J. Roswell and Alice Reynolds Flower, Carrie Judd Montgomery, Noel Perkin, John W. Welch, Frank M. Boyd, W.I. Evans, Victor Plymire, and A.G. Ward. More than 40 early Assemblies of God missionaries had been trained by Simpson.

With so many early leaders coming from a CMA background, Simpson’s teachings would be reflected in Assemblies of God beliefs. Faith healing, premillennialism, the importance of a Bible institute program for ministry training, and a vision for missions were all core convictions these leaders developed in their time with the Alliance.

From Simpson’s writings and teachings, the Assemblies of God also developed much of its ecclesiology, and many of its early hymns were his compositions. Like the CMA, the Assemblies of God did not see itself as a formal denomination but as an organization for the promotion of missionary endeavors. The official publication of the Assemblies of God, The Pentecostal Evangel, published more than 100 of his articles, including one in the Nov. 6, 1960, issue, encouraging readers to “pray for the impossible.”

A.B. Simpson died in 1919 and he and his wife, Margaret, are buried at the Nyack College Cemetery in New York. While Simpson never claimed to have experienced the gift of tongues, he did remain open to ecstatic experiences in the Holy Spirit, once describing in his journal that "the Spirit came with a baptism of holy laughter for an hour or more and I am waiting for all He has yet to give and manifest."

Read Simpson’s article on prayer on page 31 of the Nov. 6, 1960, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Deliverance is Not Enough,” by Donald Gee

• “Wanted: A Burden for Souls,” by Burton W. Pierce

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.