09/06/2026
🔥 HE TRAVELED NEARLY 3,500 MILES BELIEVING TONGUES WERE OF THE DEVIL
R. J. Scott was superintendent of Home and Foreign Missions in Winnipeg, Canada, when he began hearing reports of what was happening at Azusa Street. Before leaving for Los Angeles, someone handed him a copy of The Apostolic Faith. Scott was intrigued, but deeply skeptical. He believed speaking in tongues was “of the devil” and intended to do everything in his power to stamp it out. After traveling nearly 3,500 miles, Scott arrived in Los Angeles and went with his son to investigate the Azusa Mission for himself.
Inside the mission, Scott watched a woman begin trembling under the power of God. He deliberately moved close to observe her, describing himself as a “spy” who had promised Christians back home that he would determine whether the work was of God or the devil. Then the woman began speaking directly to him in an unknown tongue. After several sentences, she switched to English and interpreted what she had said, then returned to the unknown tongue. Scott left the room shaken. When his son asked what he thought, Scott admitted that he still didn't know, but said, “the power is in that place and God's Spirit had hold of that woman.”
But Scott wanted stronger evidence. Because he knew portions of Indigenous languages and trading dialects used in Canada, he asked God to let someone speak in a language he could recognize. According to Scott, a young woman from his own area, whom he knew had never lived among those people, suddenly began singing an Indigenous song Scott had known since childhood. Then she changed languages again. Scott reported that an Armenian man nearby recognized the second language as his own and told him that the woman was speaking to him about Jesus. Scott said the encounter brought the man under conviction and led to his conversion.
Scott still wasn't finished. He asked God to give the experience to his wife if it truly was for him, and he reported that she subsequently began speaking in unknown tongues. That made Scott intensely hungry for the experience himself. After seeking God, repentance, and prayer, Scott testified that about nine days later he was baptized with the Holy Ghost and began speaking and singing in tongues. Then Pentecost spread through his family: he reported that his eleven-year-old daughter received the Holy Ghost and spoke in several languages, and that his sixteen-year-old son, who had previously fought against tongues, was saved, sanctified, baptized with the Holy Ghost, and called to preach.
The man who traveled thousands of miles intending to help stamp out speaking in tongues left Azusa testifying to the very experience he had opposed. After nearly three months observing the meetings, Scott wrote that scarcely a day passed without something occurring through interpreted tongues or a language being understood by someone present that brought conviction and caused people to seek God. He came to investigate. He came skeptical. He came believing tongues were of the devil. But he left convinced that God was pouring out His Spirit. 🔥
🔥📖 Want to read the remarkable testimonies that came directly out of the Azusa Street Revival? The Azusa Street Papers preserves the reports, testimonies, teachings, healings, missionary accounts, and firsthand stories published while the revival was spreading around the world.
Get The Azusa Street Papers from Revival Press and read these incredible accounts for yourself. Shop the Photo or look for the link in the comments.
