Roberts’s
testimony of the new birth is far from certain, he affirmed that during his
work in the holiness revival Satan had entered his heart, and he died with
scarcely a glimmer of Christian piety. 
Nonetheless, throughout the Welsh holiness revival, Roberts’s “spiritual
input” was “through ministering the gifts of the Spirit,” leading Welsh
Christendom to a “new respect for the possibilities of supernatural happenings,
such as visions, guidances, and discerning of spirits . . . prophesyings and
healings.”  In this manner he released
“vital forces into chapels and churches of his day” which were spread to
“revival converts” and then “all over the world through the literature and
conferences of The Overcomers,” so
that “charismatic and other fellowships . . . have inherited his teaching.”[1]  “Amongst the ‘children of the revival’ . . .
from Wales speaking in
tongues became very prominent in the early days of the Pentecostal movement,”[2] so
that through them Pentecostalism spread all over Wales.[3]  The practices of Evan Roberts, and those
influenced by him in the Welsh holiness revival, were almost identical with
those of Pentecostalism. Higher Life leaders recognized that a “similar
gracious work of the Spirit to that in Wales
is in progress [in Los Angeles
at Asusa Street],”[4]
since “the Welsh revival . . . served as an inspiration and model for the
Pentecostal revival.”[5] The
only significant difference was that Roberts was a passionate continuationist
who prepared the way for the restoration[6] of
ecstatic jibber-jabber, but had not personally added that particular marvel to
his roster, while the Pentecostals took over the marvels and continuationism of
Roberts and added a gift of babbling to them. 
As Roberts’s revival was, so the Pentecostal Asusa Street revival was
anti-doctrinal, anti-creedal, and ecumenical.[7]
Both works were filled with marvels of healing of the Faith Cure variety,[8]
visions of and encounters with what were affirmed to be the Lord Jesus, Satan,
and other supernatural beings,[9]
and supernatural lights.[10]  Both works were characterized by disorganized
meetings that went on for hours and hours and were led by supernatural powers,
with total spontaneity as to what took place,[11]
rather than organized meetings directed by preachers or other church officials,[12]
people falling to the ground as “slain by the Spirit,”[13] a
heavy emphasis upon testimonial as a validation of their work and a
corresponding absence of careful exposition of Scripture,[14]
predominant support from those not well-grounded in Scripture and opposition
from church leadership,[15] a
rejection of grammatical-historical interpretation of Scripture for
experience-based interpretation and a downplaying of doctrine,[16]
prophetic exhortations delivered not by men only, but also women and children,
to the entire congregation,[17]
and little preaching[18]
or no preaching at all.[19]  The sole difference of note in Pentecostalism
was an increased amount of babbling,[20]
the spawn of the spirits that produced identical babbling in many pagan
religions as a result of demon possession.[21] A
description of a meeting at Asusa
Street, and one where Evan Roberts ministered
marvel-working power, is almost identical. 
By changing a few minor details and by removing the added marvel of
babbling as an alleged restoration of Biblical tongues, the following
eyewitness description of the Pentecostal Asusa Street Mission could be a
description of many a meeting with Evan Roberts:

Breathing strange utterances
and mouthing a creed which it would seem no sane mortal could understand, the
newest religious sect has started in Los
Angeles. 
Meetings are held in a tumble-down shack on Asusa Street . . . and devotees of the
weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites, preach the wildest theories
and work themselves into a state of mad excitement in their peculiar zeal.
Colored people and a sprinkling of whites compose the congregation, and night
is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howlings of the worshippers who
spend hours swaying forth and back in a nerve-[w]racking attitude of prayer and
supplication.  They claim to have “the
gift of tongues,” and to be able to comprehend the babel.

        Such a startling claim has never yet been made by any company
of fanatics, even in Los Angeles,
the home of almost numberless creeds. 
Sacred tenets, reverently mentioned by the orthodox believer, are dealt
with in a familiar, if not irreverent, manner by these latest religionists.

        An old colored exhorter [William Seymour], blind in one eye,
is the major-domo of the company. With his stony optic fixed on some luckless
unbeliever, the old man yells his defiance and challenges an answer. Anathemas
are heaped upon him who shall dare to gainsay the utterances of the preacher.

        Clasped in his big fist the colored brother holds a miniature
Bible from which he reads at intervals one or two words—never more. After an
hour of  exhortation the breth[ren]
present are invited to join in a “meeting of prayer, song, and testimony.” Then
it is that pandemonium breaks loose, and the bounds of reason are passed by
those who are “filled with the spirit,” whatever that may be.

        “You-oo-oo gou-loo-loo come under the bloo-oo-oo bloo-oo,”
shouts an old colored “mammy,” in a frenzy of religious zeal. Swinging her arms
wildly about her, she continues with the strangest harangue ever uttered. Few
of her words are intelligible, and for the most part her testimony contained
the most outrageous jumble of syllables, which are listened to with awe by the
company.

        One of the wildest of the meetings was held last night, and
the highest pitch of excitement was reached by the gathering, which continues
to “worship” until nearly midnight. The old exhorter urged the “sisters” to let
the “tongues come forth” and the women gave themselves over to a riot of
religious fervor. As a result a [plump] dame was overcome with excitement and
almost fainted.

        Undismayed by the fearful attitude of the colored worshipper,
another black wom[an] jumped to the floor and began a wild gesticulation, which
ended in a gurgle of wordless prayers which were nothing less than shocking.

        “She’s speakin’ in unknown tongues,” announced the leader, in
[an] awed whisper, “keep on sister.” The sister continued until it was
necessary to assist her to a seat because of the bodily fatigue. Among the
“believers” is a man who . . . claims to have been miraculously healed and is a
convert of the new sect.  Another speaker
had a vision in which he saw the people of Los Angeles flocking in a mighty stream to
perdition. He prophesied awful destruction to this city unless its citizens are
brought to a belief in the tenets of the new faith.[22]

Indeed, “the
most enduring effect of the [Welsh] revival was the contribution it made to the
development of Pentecostalism in Britain. . . . The revival  . . . creat[ed] new, Pentecostal denominations.
. . . it was the Pentecostals who would continue the revival emphases[.]”[23]  It is very clear that the “origins of the
British Pentecostal movement . . . [are found] . . . in the revival in Wales . . .
which played such an important part in the origins of Pentecostalism”[24]
as a whole, since the “British Pentecostal movement . . . [was of] decisive
importance . . . for many European Pentecostal bodies.”[25]  Thus, the Welsh holiness revival was truly at
the root of European Pentecostalism in general. 
Donald Gee, a “very influential figure in the growth of the Assemblies
of God,”[26] and,
indeed, the “greatest teacher of the Pentecostal movement . . . was brought to
the Pentecostal movement by the revival in Wales”
after being “converted in 1905, during the revival in Wales.”[27]  Gee went on to become the chairman of the
British Assemblies of God and the president of the Bible
School of the Assemblies of God in London.  He took long worldwide journeys to spread the
Pentecostal message everywhere.[28]  Indeed, if “one looks through a year’s issues
of almost any Pentecostal journal, it is virtually impossible not to come
across an article by him.”[29]  Keswick theology permeates the Assemblies of
God and other Pentecostal denominations.[30]
Gee “compares Evan Roberts with the healing evangelists of Pentecostalism.”[31]  Daniel Powell Williams professed conversion
through Roberts’s ministry and went on to found the Pentecostal Apostolic
Church.[32]  George and Stephen Jeffreys, co-founders of
the Elim Pentecostal Movement, were leading spiritual products of the holiness
revival.[33]  George Jeffries had “responded totally to
Evan Roberts’s call to obey the Spirit in everything,” and was possessed by the
“revival fire” along with his brother Stephen, so that they became the “evangelists
and founders of great Pentecostal movements,”[34]
as George Jeffries came to spread not only Pentecostal marvels and healings but
also British Israelism.[35]  After being “drawn into the revival in Wales . . .
George and Stephen Jeffreys . . . brought into being . . . [t]he Elim
Pentecostal churches.”[36]  Stephen participated in “large . . . healing
campaigns” that perpetuated within Pentecostalism the characteristics of Faith
Cure healings, namely, “mechanical and auto-suggestive methods of healing . . .
relatively small numbers healed, [and] the considerable difference [in number]
between those who ‘professed conversion in the campaigns’ and those who later
joined”[37]
churches.  Furthermore, the “father of
the British Pentecostal movement . . . [and] a leading personality in the
international Pentecostal movement . . . the Anglican priest A. A. Boddy, took
part in the revival movement in Wales and worked with Evan Roberts.  He was convinced that the Pentecostal
movement was a direct continuation of the revival.”[38]  Soon he was hosting national and international
Pentecostal conferences in his Anglican church.[39]  As an Anglican priest wanting to spread
charismatic doctrine and practices, “Boddy . . . was fortunate in having a
Bishop who was exceptionally lenient, and even sympathetic, [to] the notorious
Pentecostal meetings” he held, namely, the great Keswick continuationist
“Handley G. Moule . . . [who] raised . . . no ecclesiastical hindrances . . .
to those remarkable scenes in connection with a Parish Church in his diocese”
because of his sympathy for Boddy.[40]  “Boddy . . .[also]  brought the Keswick understanding of ‘baptism
in the Spirit’ as an enduement of power into the British Pentecostal movement,”[41]
so that “through his influence, a Keswickian understanding of ‘baptism of the
Holy Spirit’ became normative for most Pentecostal movements.”[42]  This Anglican priest distributed thousands of
copies of his charismatic promotional work Pentecost
for England at the Keswick Convention in 1907, leading many into the experience
of Pentecostal tongues.[43]  Indeed, at Keswick in 1907  “[t]hose who [had] tongues [were] present, and
unable and unwilling to control them when moved by the Spirit.”[44]  Boddy went on to found the Sunderland
Conventions, which from “the point of view of the early history of the
Pentecostal Movement in the British Isles . .
. must occupy the supreme place in importance. . . . From those early
Sunderland Conventions the Pentecostal Flame was carried into practically every
corner of the British Isles.”[45]  Similarly, Pentecostals were engaged in
prominent proselytizing at the 1908 Keswick Convention.[46]  Indubitably, the British “prominent
Pentecostal streams were . . . deeply influenced by the revival in Wales”[47]
and its Keswick continuationism.

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