The Free Methodist Church, the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Salvation Army and the Church of the Nazarene)
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A Study of Denominations 1 Corinthians 14:33 (KJV 1900) - 33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. Holiness Churches - Introduction • In historical perspective, the Pentecostal movement was the child of the Holiness movement, which in turn was a child of Methodism. • Methodism began in the 1700s on account of the teachings of John and Charles Wesley. One of their most distinguishing beliefs was a distinction they made between ordinary and sanctified Christians. • Sanctification was thought of as a second work of grace which perfected the Christian. Also, Methodists were generally more emotional and less formal in their worship. – We believe that God calls every believer to holiness that rises out of His character. We understand it to begin in the new birth, include a second work of grace that empowers, purifies and fills each person with the Holy Spirit, and continue in a lifelong pursuit. ―Core Values, Bible Methodist Connection of Churches • By the late 1800s most Methodists had become quite secularized and they no longer emphasized their distinctive doctrines. At this time, the "Holiness movement" began. • It attempted to return the church to its historic beliefs and practices. Theologian Charles Finney was one of the leaders in this movement. When it became evident that the reformers were not going to be able to change the church, they began to form various "holiness" sects. • These sects attempted to return to true Wesleyan doctrine. Among the most important of these sects were the Nazarene church and the Salvation Army. Vinson Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement In The United States Catholic Church 1534 Anglican Church (Episcopal) 1738 Methodists 1784: Methodists USA 1814: African Methodist Episcopal (AME) 1880: Salvation Army 1887: Christian and Missionary Alliances 1908: Church of the Nazarene 1901 1901: Bible students in Pentecostals Kansas speak in tongues 1886: Church of God (TN) 1907: Pentecostal Assemblies 1906: Azusa Street 1914: Assemblies of God Revival begins with 1927: Foursquare Gospel William Seymour Charismatic: 1965: Calvary Chapel 1983: Vineyard Ministries Holiness Churches - Introduction • American Holiness associations began to form as an outgrowth of this new wave of camp meetings, such as the Western Holiness Association—first of the regional associations formed at Bloomington, Illinois. • While the great majority of Holiness proponents remained within the three major denominations of the mainline Methodist church, Holiness people from other theological traditions established standalone bodies. In 1881, D. S. Warner started the Church of God Reformation Movement, later the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana), bringing Restorationism to the Holiness family. • Palmer's The Promise of the Father, published in 1859 which argued in favor of women in ministry, later influenced Catherine Booth, co-founder of the Salvation Army .The founding of the Salvation Army in 1878 helped to rekindle Holiness sentiment in the cradle of Methodism. • Though many Holiness preachers, camp meeting leaders, authors, and periodical editors were Methodists, this movement was not universally popular with Methodist leadership. • Southern Methodist minister B. F. Haynes wrote in his book, Tempest-Tossed on Methodist Seas, about his decision to leave the Methodist church and join what would become Church of the Nazarene. In it, he described the bitter divisions within the Methodist church over the Holiness movement. • In the years that followed, scores of new Holiness Methodist associations were formed -- many of these "come-outer" associations and various parties alienated by Mainline Methodism consolidated to form new denominations (e.g. the Free Methodist Church, the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Salvation Army and the Church of the Nazarene). Pentecostal Church- Introduction • The Pentecostal movement, with beginnings from 1901 to 1906, represented a theological division within the Holiness movement. That division was essentially caused by a controversy over the evidence required to prove that one had been baptized with the Holy Spirit. • The precise beginning of the Pentecostal movement is usually traced to Charles Parham, a Kansas preacher, who began in 1901 to preach `glossolalia' as the only evidence of one's having received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and who taught that it should be a part of `normal' Christian worship. • One of Parham's students W.J. Seymour, went to conduct a prayer meeting in Los Angeles in April, 1906. • He soon rented an old Methodist church building at 312 Azusa Street and a massive revival was started. • The distinctive feature of this revival was Holy Spirit baptism with evidence of speaking in tongues. • The Azusa Street revival is commonly regarded as the beginning of the modern Pentecostal movement. Although many persons had supposedly spoken in tongues in the United States in the years preceding 1906, this meeting brought this belief to the attention of the world and served as the catalyst for the formation of scores of Pentecostal denominations. • Directly or indirectly, practically all of the Pentecostal groups in existence can trace their lineage to the Azusa Mission. Vinson Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement In The United States Pentecostal Church- - Introduction • News of these activities in Los Angeles was carried in detail in Holiness papers and, in a few months, much of the Holiness movement had been converted to Pentecostal doctrine. • In the South especially, many entire Holiness denominations became Pentecostal. Other denominations, especially Baptist, had many congregations that were converted to this new doctrine. • Pentecostalism spread very rapidly, particularly among the economically under privileged and African American communities. • As the movement grew, serious divisions occurred. The first concerned sanctification. – The "Holiness Pentecostals" believed that sanctification was a second work of grace, instantaneously received. Baptism in the Holy Spirit was thus considered the third step in the conversion process. – Those converted from a Baptist background, on the other hand, believed that sanctification was a finished work, progressively received. Other differences also helped polarize the two groups. • Those from Holiness backgrounds believed the church should have a strong central government; "Baptist Pentecostals" believed in more congregational independence. • In 1914, the Assembly of God was formed. Doctrinally, this group took a non-Holiness view of sanctification; organizationally, church government was congregational. Vinson Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement In The United States Church of God- Introduction Origins (1886–1902) – R. G. Spurling (1857–1935), a Missionary Baptist minister, and his father Richard Spurling (1810–91), an ordained elder, rejected some of the views of the Baptists in his area as not being in accord with New Testament Christianity. – R. G. Spurling disagreed with Landmarkism, an ecclesiology which held that only churches descending from churches with Baptist doctrine were true Church and that they should not associate with Christians of other traditions. – Spurling felt that there needed to be another reformation of the Church that went beyond the Protestant Reformation so that Christians would be united together by love and not by creeds, which he believed divided. – On August 19, 1886, after being barred from his local Baptist church, he and eight others organized the Christian Union at the Barney Creek Meeting House in Monroe County, Tennessee. – They agreed to free themselves from man-made creeds and unite upon the principles of the New Testament. – Between 1889 and 1895, Spurling organized three other congregations, all with the name Christian Union and functioning independently under Baptist polity. While this group would later disband and its members return to their original churches, the Church of God traces its origins to this 1886 meeting. Church of God- Introduction Tomlinson era (1903–1923) • It would be Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson and his organizational skills, however, that would be responsible for the growth of the Camp Creek Holiness Church into a national denomination. • By 1905, there was a desire for greater organization among the churches. Delegates from four churches met at Camp Creek in January 1906 to conduct the 1st General Assembly of the "Churches of East Tennessee, North Georgia and Western North Carolina. • The 1st Assembly decided that foot washing was on the same level as the sacrament of communion and, like other holiness groups, condemned the use of tobacco. The name "Church of God" was adopted in 1907, and Tomlinson was elected general overseer in 1909. • As news of the Azusa Street Revival (Pentecostals) began to spread and reach the Southeast, Church of God adherents began to seek and obtain Spirit baptism. • Tomlinson, impeached because of financial bookkeeping, took his followers and formed a new group that eventually became known as the Church of God of Prophecy. The other identified as the Church of God (Cleveland). • The practice of snake handling briefly became a controversy in the denomination in the 1920s after it was endorsed by George Went Hensley, a Church of God minister. The practice was quickly repudiated by the Church of God leadership and Hensley and the small number of congregations which practiced it left to become independent congregations generally using the name Church of God with Signs Following. Hensley died