Modern Denominations - The Holiness Movement
Introduction
In our previous study, we saw that the "Christian Church" was, at least at its beginning, more of a movement than an organized effort. In that case, it began with those in established denominations--especially Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist--but soon transcended those boundaries. The desire for the ecumenicalism seen in the camp meetings on the frontier, coupled with a desire to return to the practice and beliefs of the Primitive Church, freed from creeds and confessions, was the driving impetus behind this "Restoration Movement", as it came to be called.
Now we turn our attention to the "Holiness Movement". It too, at least in its inception, was more of a movement that transcended denominational boundaries. From this movement, however, just like in our previous study, several denominations have emerged.
The Precusor of the Movement
Although the Holiness Movement is generally considered to have arisen in the 1840s & 1850s, to find its true origins, one must look back a hundred years or so to the time of John Wesley. While we generally associate Arminianism with Wesley, we tend to overlook that Perfectionism was also a key ingredient of his teaching. Alongside his particular brand of Arminian theology, Wesley taught that it was possible to arrive at a perfectly sanctified state in this present life. To his credit, he admitted on his deathbed that he himself had never arrived at it. Nevertheless, he opened the door to this possibility, and many of his followers became enamoured with attaining this state. This was a concept quite foreign to Reformed doctrine, which taught instead a progressive sanctification, culiminating in perfection only at the time of the glorification of the believer in heaven.
There is a certain intrinsic connection between Arminianism and Holiness doctrines. If it's man's will that is the driving force behind his justification, why isn't it his will that's behind his sanctification as well? And if a man can will himself into a state of grace, why can't he will himself into a state of perfection as well?
The Catalyst of the Movement
Several factors converged to bring about this movement, including the camp meetings that we've already discussed in the previous study. But none are more important than the ministry of Charles Finney. Finney managed to bring the excitement and fire of the camp meeting into the church, and to export the same from the frontier fringes into established urban areas. One might think the following quote was from modern times: "Without new measures it is impossible that the Church should succeed in gaining the attention of the world to religion. There are so many exciting subjects constantly brought before the public mind, such a running to and fro, so many that cry 'Lo here!' and 'Lo there!' that the Church cannot maintain her ground without sufficient novelty in measures, to get the public ear." Instead, this is a quote from Finney's "Revival Lectures" published in the 1830s!
Finney, trained as a lawyer, was dramatically converted in 1821. Soon afterwards in 1824, he was licensed to preach by the Presbyterian church. In that capacity, began an itinerant ministry as a revivalist preacher in upstate New York--the so-called "burnt over district", named for the many revival fires that had swept through the area. Whereas Wesley was Arminian in his views, Finney's theology is almost Pelagian! In his view, spiritual phenomena was subject to laws of cause and effect, much like natural phenomena. To produce individual salvation, you simply go through the steps that lead up to it. God's grace merely makes salvation possible by putting the ingredients necessary for it before man. But man himself then uses these ingredients to product the salvation desired. Further, not only conversion, but revival itself could be produced by churches by simply following the recipe that leads to it. While Finney had success producing these "revivals", he also rankled established pastors in the areas where he ministered. He especially outraged Presbyterian and Congregationalist pastors by the publication of his "How Can Two Walk Together, Except They Be Agreed?". In it he suggested that if churches have pastors that cannot inspire revival, they'd do well to rid themselves of them. An attempt at compromise and to arrive at a place of common ground was made through Lyman Beecher and Asahel Nettleton at the New Lebanon Conference in 1827. Although no theological positions changed, Finney did cease his direct attacks on the local clergy and received support from established pastors.
This ushed in a time of great success and respectability for Finney. Arguably, his greatest success was during the Rochester revival during the winter of 1830-1831. Though he went on to hold revival meetings in Wilmington, Philadelphia, Providence, New York and Boston, none of these later meetings captured the fire of the Rochester revival.
In 1835, he accepted a professorship at Oberlin College in Ohio, and would later serve the school as its president. Oberlin's first president, Asa Mahan, was firmly convinced of perfectionism and soon convinced Finney along the same lines. To this point, Finney's teachings were more concerned with the implementation of "New Measures"--new techniques within the church--than with perfectionism. From this point onward, however, his emphasis began to change. Now his revival efforts centered upon attaining this higher degree of holiness. These ideas were further embranced and disseminated by the many students trained at Oberlin. A "perfectionist revival" began to develop in which, in addition to exhorting sinners to be saved and the saints to become more dedicated, Christians were exhorted to seek this higher state of perfectionism. To Finney, this consisted, not so much of perfect obediance to God's Law as in a perfect surrender to God and absolute faith in God. Neither did he view the attaining of this level of sanctification as some sort of a crisis experience, but rather as the result of progressing in a deeper and deeper faith. But others would soon have other ideas about the matter.
The Mother of the Movement
Phoebe Worrall was born to devout Methodist parents in 1807. Her parents held family worship twice a day, and there was never a time when Phoebe did not consider herself a Christian. However, she knew nothing of the deep and powerful conversion experience that others within Methodism had experienced. This became a source of doubt that plagued her throughout her early years.
She later married Methodist physician Walter Palmer. However, her first two children died just months after birth, and Phoebe was convinced that God was judging her for her lack of consecration to Him. Shortly thereafter, during a visit from her sister Sarah Lankford, Phoebe became convinced that she didn’t need deep emotion to achieve a state of holiness but mere faith alone. Taking Jesus’ words that the altar sanctifies the gift, she believed God would make her holy if she “laid her all on the altar”. Eventually, she would divide perfectionism into a 3 step process: consecrating oneself wholly to God, believing God will sanctify what is consecrated, and telling others about it.
In 1836, Phoebe Palmer and her sister began holding a women’s prayer meeting on Tuesday afternoons—the “Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness”--at the Palmer home in New York City. A few years later, in 1839, men began attending these meetings as well. Soon other such prayer meetings were organized and held around the country, bringing people from various denominations together to pray. Methodist bishops, educators and clergy would join these women in the quest for holiness for the next four decades. Phoebe soon found herself as the most influential leader in the fastest growing movement in America!
She would often preach at these meetings, though she refused to call it “preaching” in the technical sense of the word. To her critics, she held that she must obey God, not man, and that God may sometimes raise a woman up out of her ordinary role to occupy a high position.
The Methodist Holiness Groups
Quite early in all this history, some Methodists began to feel that their denomination was moving towards respectibility and acceptance, losing much of their original fire for holiness. Largely because of this, the Wesleyan Methodists in 1843, and the Free Methodists in 1860, broke away from the larger Methodist Church. After the civil war, a renewed emphasis on holiness was once again seen. A major holiness revival originated in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvannia through the National Holiness Camp Meeting Association, founded in 1867. Methodists such as Poebe Palmer were active leaders in the meetings, which sometimes drew as many as 20,000 people. Literally thousands claimed to have received some form of perfectionist “blessing” through these meetings. From 1867 until 1880, the holiness movement spread like wildfire and it was hoped by many that this movement would reform and purfiy existing churches, especially within Methodism.
However, in time, the rise of more and more holiness evangelists, the spread of the movement into non-Methodist quarters, and the many nondenominational ties and associations the movement brought about began to cause friction between those firmly in the holiness camp and those who belonged to traditional Methodism. Increasingly, the Methodist Church was drifting towards middle class protestantism while holiness groups typically appealed to the lower class and claimed they were the true representatives of Wesleyanism in America.
By the 1880s, new voices appeared calling for those who truly desired holiness to withdraw from established churches, and the first independent Holiness denominations began to appear. Again, the call was to lay aside allegiance to man’s denominations and creeds and come together due to a common experience, rather than a common belief. These small schismatic groups gradually coalesced into larger, formal denominations including the Church of God, Anderson, Indiana (founded in 1881, tongues are not emphasized or allowed in public worship, amillenial view of eschatology), the Church of the Nazarene (1908, tongues are not allowed), and the Pilgrim Holiness Church (1897—merged with the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1968 to form the Wesleyan Church).
Holiness Distinctives
As might be expected, the adherents to this view, almost without exception, held to an Arminian
view of theology. Human decision was the driving force, not only behind initial salvation, but behind this quest for perfectionism as well.
What, exactly, is this state of “perfection”? Originally as taught by Wesley and later by Finney, it was not some second crisis or radical experience, but simply the arrival of a Christian to the point of a “perfect love”--where he loved God with all His heart, or a “perfect faith”—where he completely trusted himself to God. Notice that this is not quite the same as how we normally view “sinless perfection”. This original teaching didn’t hold that the state was sinless, as defined by total conformity to God’s law, but simply a state where there was no conscious deviation from God’s will—i.e. it was “subjective” perfection rather than “objective” perfection. Further, as is almost always true, the definition of sin tends to become skewed when thinking in perfectionistic terms. Rather than any deviation, no matter how slight, in practice, in word, in thought, in motive, etc., being defined as “sin”, sin typically becomes defined by outward matters while ignoring the inward sins of the heart.
As time went on, the attaining of this perfectionist state was viewed more and more as a second crisis experience, similar to what one experienced at their initial conversion. Different names were used to describe this state—entire sanctification, full salvation, the rest of faith, the higher life, the deeper life, the victorious life, the Spirit-filled life, and, yes, even a “baptism of the Spirit”. In any event, whatever you called it, this was an experience, subsequent to initial salvation, constituting a “second blessing”. Originally, no one seemed to connect this “baptism” with the history of Acts 2, but later that would, of course, change with the rise of Pentecostalism. In some circles this “second blessing” was viewed as a permanent shift to another spiritual level, while in others it was seen as something that the one who possessed it must maintain by continual acts of consecration. Ourwardly, those who adhered to the holiness viewpoint adopted a rather austere way of life, plainness and modesty in dress, temperance in food and drink, and the disavowal of earthly entertainments and amusements.
One additional feature found in most Holiness churches is the ordination of women to the Gospel ministry. Beginning with Poebe Palmer, this has been a long-standing practice. Presently, it’s estimated that among the Wesleyan-Holiness denominations approximately 25% of the clergy are women.
The Holiness Movement also served as a bridge to the later Pentecostal movement. The first Pentecostal churches originally were Holiness churches that went on to adopt the practice of glossalalia. But most mainline Holiness churches today reject the practice of speaking in tongues, while otherwise they hold very similar positions with Pentecostal churches.
Another matter of note is the spread of this movement to Britain. It is especially seen in the Keswick movement which originated in Britain in 1875 at a "Convention for the Promotion of Practical Holiness" in the Lake District town of that name. Speakers at the annual Keswick conferences emphasized the "deeper life" instead of holiness, believing that the tendency to sin is not extinguished but is counteracted by victorious living through the Holy Spirit. The predominance of Reformed Anglicans along with like minded Free Church evangelicals in the movement prevented the Wesley - Arminian view of sanctification from establishing a foothold. This was a non-Wesleyan view of holiness teaching which emphasized an experience whereby one had a power to live above sin, not the eradification of sin taught by the Wesleyans. This movement was both influenced by teachers in the U.S. and many in the U.S., notably R.A. Torrey, the Christian Missionary Alliance denomination, Moody Institute, etc., were directly influenced by it.