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Holiness Pentecostalism

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Holiness Pentecostalism is the original branch of Pentecostalism, which is characterized by its teaching of three works of grace: [1] the New Birth (first work of grace), [2] entire sanctification (second work of grace), and [3] Spirit baptism evidenced by speaking in tongues (third work of grace).[1][2] The word Holiness refers specifically to the belief in entire sanctification as an instantaneous, definite second work of grace, in which original sin is cleansed and the believer is made holy, with the heart being made perfect in love.[3][4][5]

Holiness Pentecostalism emerged under the work of ministers Charles Fox Parham and William Joseph Seymour, the latter of whom, beginning in 1906, led the Azusa Street Revival at the Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission.[6] The testimony of those who attended the Azusa Street Revival was "I am saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost" in reference to the three works of grace taught by Holiness Pentecostals, the oldest branch of Pentecostalism.[1] The relationship between the second work of grace and the third work of grace is explained by Holiness Pentecostals who teach the "Holy Spirit cannot fill an unclean vessel", so the cleansing of the heart that takes place in entire sanctification is necessary before a person can be filled or baptized with the Holy Spirit.[7] Inheriting the Wesleyan-Holiness doctrine, Holiness Pentecostals teach entire sanctification is a definite second work of grace, accomplished in an instantaneous crisis experience, that cleanses the heart of the recipient from all sin; this state of Christian perfection is evidenced by love for God and love for neighbour.[1] Holiness Pentecostals operate within the framework of Wesleyan (Methodist) theology with the exception of the unique doctrine that distinguishes Holiness Pentecostalism: the Parhamian-Seymourian belief in a third work of grace (in contrast, traditional Wesleyan theology affirms two works of grace—the New Birth and entire sanctification).[8] In the theology of Methodism, entire sanctification (second work of grace) is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, while Holiness Pentecostalism holds the baptism of the Holy Spirit to be the third work of grace.[9][10] Additionally, while Wesleyan theology of the Methodists holds the second work of grace (entire sanctification) to empower the believer to accomplish that which he/she is called by God to do, in contrast, the Parhamian-Seymourian theology of Holiness Pentecostalism teaches that the believer is empowered through the third work of grace.[11][12] William Joseph Seymour and Florence Crawford published The Apostolic Faith newsletter, which disseminated the teachings of the Holiness Pentecostal movement.[13]

Holiness Pentecostals teach that believers should dress and behave in a manner becoming unto holiness, and as such, historically, Holiness Pentecostals (such as the Apostolic Faith Church, Calvary Holiness Association and Free Holiness Church) traditionally adhere to the Wesleyan doctrine of outward holiness, which include modest dress, as well as abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. The holiness standards vary based on the group and while many Holiness Pentecostal denominations such as the Apostolic Faith Church have specific 'holiness standards', other denominations in the present-day, such as the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, have general principles of living contained in their covenant.[14][15] Holiness Pentecostals observe the Lord's Day with a morning service of worship and an evening service of worship, along with refraining from servile labour and Sunday trading (cf. First-day Sabbatarianism).[16][17]

Holiness Pentecostals are distinguished from Finished Work Pentecostals, the other branch of Pentecostalism that separated from Holiness Pentecostalism in 1910 under William Howard Durham, who denied the Wesleyan-Holiness doctrine of entire sanctification.[5][18][19][3]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Synan2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Barrett, David B. (July 1988). "The Twentieth-Century Pentecostal/Charismatic Renewal in the Holy Spirit, with its Goal of World Evangelization". International Bulletin of Missionary Research. 12 (3): 119–129. doi:10.1177/239693938801200303. ISSN 0272-6122. S2CID 149417223.
  3. ^ a b Demarest, Bruce (1 August 2006). The Cross and Salvation (Hardcover): The Doctrine of Salvation. Crossway. pp. 393–394. ISBN 978-1-4335-1957-4. Holiness Pentecostals ... trace their roots to the nineteenth century Wesleyan-Holiness revival. They identify three instantaneous works of grace, as follows. (1) The regenerating work of grace includes justification and the new birth. Here God forgives sins and imputes to believers Christ's righteousness. (2) A post-conversion, sanctifying work of grace eradicates the Adamic nature and completely purifies the Christian's heart and mind. Following Wesley, the believer's state following this second blessing is known as "entire sanctification," "Christian perfection," or "perfect love." The second work of grace renders believers purified vessels fit for the Spirit's filling. The Pentecostal Holiness Church affirms, "We believe that entire sanctification is an instantaneous, definite second work of grace, obtainable by faith on the part of the fully justified believer." (3) The empowering work of grace represents the Pentecostal experience of baptism in the Spirit. Here the Holy Spirit takes full possession of perfected believers. Tongues-speaking represents the initial sign that this Spirit-baptism has occurred. The Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) sums up the sequence as follows: "We believe...in sanctification subsequent to the new birth...and in the baptism of the Holy Ghost subsequent to a clean heart." ... Other Pentecostal groups arose independently of Wesleyanism. The Assemblies of God and related groups deny the experience of entire sanctification that destroys inbred sin.
  4. ^ "Sanctification (In Depth)". Apostolic Faith Church. Retrieved 12 June 2024. For this reason, the experience of sanctification is also sometimes referred to as "holiness." The verb sanctify has three basic meanings: "to make holy or purify," "to consecrate or to separate from ungodliness and dedicate to God," and finally, "to hallow." A study of these words reveals that sanctification is the purification of the heart of a person—a dedication to God and an eradication of the sin nature. A holy and sanctified person, then, is one who has been consecrated or set apart to serve God and is cleansed from his old sin nature.
  5. ^ a b Stewart, Adam S. (15 April 2012). Handbook of Pentecostal Christianity. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-60909-047-0. By 1910 Durham had become convinced that the Holiness doctrine that sanctification was a "second work of grace" was an error. This doctrine presented sanctification as something that happened at a specific moment subsequent to conversion. Holiness preachers often described this as an instantaneous experience of "entire sanctification" or "Christian perfection." Durham's strenuous opposition to the doctrine was controversial because it was a common doctrine among Pentecostals of his day; indeed, it was a doctrine that Durham himself had previously preached. ... Durham's break with the Holiness tradition was not so much that he believed sanctification was provided through the cross of Christ, but, rather, because of the implications that he made from this; namely, he taught a two-stage Pentecostal experience of conversion and then baptism in the Holy Spirit, rather than the three-stage Pentecostal experiene his Pentecostal-Holiness counterparts were teaching (conversion, sanctification, and then baptism in the Holy Spirit).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Synan2024 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Campbell, Ted (1 January 1996). Christian Confessions: A Historical Introduction. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 237. ISBN 978-0-664-25650-0.
  8. ^ Bagheri, Alireza (13 April 2021). Abortion: Global Positions and Practices, Religious and Legal Perspectives. Springer Nature. p. 93. ISBN 978-3-030-63023-2.
  9. ^ "Guidelines: The UMC and the Charismatic Movement". The United Methodist Church. 2012. Archived from the original on 31 July 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2019. The Methodists were also first to coin the phrase baptism of the Holy Spirit as applied to a second and sanctifying grace (experience) of God. (Cf. John Fletcher of Madeley, Methodism's earliest formal theologian.) The Methodists meant by their "baptism" something different from the Pentecostals, but the view that this is an experience of grace separate from and after salvation was the same.
  10. ^ "Doctrine". Pilgrim Holiness Church of New York, Inc. 15 December 2000. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  11. ^ Fudge, Thomas A. (2003). Christianity Without the Cross: A History of Salvation in Oneness Pentecostalism. Universal-Publishers. pp. 14–16. ISBN 978-1-58112-584-9.
  12. ^ Shapiro, Stephen; Barnard, Philip (9 February 2017). Pentecostal Modernism: Lovecraft, Los Angeles, and World-Systems Culture. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-4742-3874-8.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference AlexanderYong2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ "Holiness in Appearance". Apostolic Faith Church. 2024. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
  15. ^ Gardner, J. Talmadge; Ely, Bob; Nisbett, Michelle; Spencer, Shirley G. (2021). Manual (PDF). International Pentecostal Holiness Church. pp. 63–71.
  16. ^ Strang, Stephen E. (2023). Spirit-Led Living in an Upside-Down World. Charisma Media. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-63641-139-2.
  17. ^ 2016 Minutes of the Fortieth Annual Session of the Calvary Holiness Association. Coffee County, Georgia: Calvary Holiness Association. 6 August 2016. p. 23. We recognize Sunday as the Sabbath. Ordinary labor and business should be strictly avoided by our members (Ex. 20:8-9).
  18. ^ Anderson, Allan (13 May 2004). An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity. Cambridge University Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-521-53280-8. Those who resisted Durham's teaching and remained in the 'three-stage' camp were Seymour, Crawford and Parham, and Bishops Charles H. Mason, A. J. Tomlinson and J. H. King, respectively leaders of the Church of God in Christ, the Church of God (Cleveland) and the Pentecostal Holiness Church. Tomlinson and King each issued tirades against the 'finished work' doctrine in their periodicals, but by 1914 some 60 percent of all North American Pentecostals had embraced Durham's position. ... The 'Finished Work' controversy was only the first of many subsequent divisions in North American Pentecostalism. Not only did Pentecostal churches split over the question of sanctification as a distinct experience, but a more fundamental and acrimonious split erupted in 1916 over the doctrine of the Trinity. ... The 'New Issue' was a schism in the ranks of the 'Finished Work' Pentecostals that began as a teaching that the correct formula for baptism is 'in the name of Jesus' and developed into a dispute about the Trinity. It confirmed for Holiness Pentecostals that they should have no further fellowship with the 'Finished Work' Pentecostals, who were in 'heresy'.
  19. ^ Leonard, Bill J.; Crainshaw, Jill Y. (5 December 2012). Encyclopedia of Religious Controversies in the United States: [2 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 306. ISBN 978-1-59884-868-7. Finished Work Pentecostalism is inseparable from the influence of William Howard Durham (1873–1912). A Pentecostal minister based in Chicago, Durham was active throughout the Midwest and in parts of Canada. In 1910, he began to preach on "The Finished Work of Calvary", a message that rejected the Wesleyan understanding of sanctification as a distinct second experience of grace separate from conversion and which bestowed "Christian perfection" on the recipient. For Durham, both salvation and sanctification occurred for the believer at the time of conversion, when the believer appropriated the "finished work" of Christ on the cross.

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