History and Development of Pentecostalism — Unit 4: Forming Denominations: Holiness Pentecostals, the "Finished Work," and the Oneness Division (1906-1930)

Key Verse

"There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." (Ephesians 4:4-6, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain why early Pentecostals, who at first distrusted denominations, began to organize.

2. Describe the Holiness Pentecostal bodies and their teaching of three works of grace.

3. Explain the "Finished Work" teaching of William H. Durham and the formation of the Assemblies of God in 1914.

4. Describe the Oneness controversy of 1913 to 1916 and the Trinitarian answer.

5. State the main objections raised in this period and explain how Pentecostals answer them.

From Revival to Organization

Unit 3 told of the outpouring. This unit tells of what happened when the first fire had to become a lasting church. The story is not always easy to read. The Pentecostals of these years prayed for unity, yet they divided over holiness, over the nature of God, and also over race, which we study in Unit 5. We tell it honestly. A tradition that can admit its early quarrels is better able to learn from them.

Our key verse reminds us of the ideal: one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. Pentecostals have not always lived up to it. But they have always confessed it.

Why Did They Organize?

At first many Pentecostals did not want denominations. They had often left older churches that they felt had grown cold, and they feared that new organizations would repeat the same mistake. Some thought the Lord's return was so near that organizing was a waste of time. Many early meetings were loose networks of missions held together by friendship and by periodicals.

Over time, practical needs pressed on the movement. Missionaries needed support. Pastors needed recognition, so that railroads and governments would accept them as ministers. Churches needed to hold property. Teaching needed some defense against error. Most important, leaders needed a way to recognize each other and to correct those who taught wrongly.

Scripture does not forbid order. The apostles appointed seven men to serve in Jerusalem (Acts 6:1-6). The church met in council to settle a dispute about Gentile believers (Acts 15). Paul wrote, "Let all things be done decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:40). We believe that good order serves the Spirit's work.

Some historians describe this process as the "routinization" of a movement: first the fire, then the structure. Some see in it a loss of freedom. Our tradition replies that structure is not the enemy of the Spirit. The question is whether it serves mission and holiness or replaces them. Pentecostals have not always answered that question well, and we must keep asking it.

The Holiness Pentecostals: Three Works of Grace

Many early Pentecostals came from the Holiness movement (Unit 2) and brought its teaching with them. They believed that a believer passes through three stages:

1. New birth (conversion), which forgives sin.

2. Entire sanctification, a second work which cleanses the heart.

3. Baptism in the Holy Spirit, a third experience, with tongues as the first sign, which gives power for service.

They found support in Scripture that commands holiness: "Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14) and Paul's prayer, "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Three important bodies took this form. The Church of God, with its center at Cleveland, Tennessee, was a Holiness body in the Appalachian region. It accepted the Pentecostal message in 1908 under A. J. Tomlinson, who became its leader. The Pentecostal Holiness Church came from the union, in 1911 at Falcon, North Carolina, of the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church and the Pentecostal Holiness Church, groups that had received the message largely through G. B. Cashwell. The Church of God in Christ, led by the African American leader Charles H. Mason, who had visited Azusa Street, became a Pentecostal body and grew into a very large church. All three taught the three works of grace.

The Holiness Pentecostals brought important gifts. They insisted that the baptism of the Spirit is never a substitute for a clean life. They called believers to lives separated from worldliness. Our tradition honors that concern and holds it still.

William H. Durham and the "Finished Work"

In 1910 a preacher in Chicago began to teach something different. William H. Durham (1873-1912) led the North Avenue Mission, which became a center of Pentecostal teaching in the Midwest. He had received the baptism of the Spirit with tongues at Azusa Street in 1907. But he had come to believe that the Holiness doctrine of a second crisis of sanctification was not in the Bible.

Durham preached the "Finished Work of Calvary." He taught that at the cross Christ finished the work of redemption, and that a believer receives sanctification at conversion, when he is placed "in Christ." After this, the believer grows in holiness by faith and by the Spirit throughout life. In Durham's view the believer has only two crisis experiences: new birth and baptism in the Spirit. His main texts were these: "For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14), and "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God--and righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30). He also pointed to Romans 6:11: "Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The effects were powerful. Durham preached in Chicago, and in 1911 at Los Angeles, where many from the Azusa Street Mission came to hear him. William J. Seymour, who held the Holiness position, did not accept the teaching at his mission. Durham died in 1912 at about the age of thirty-nine, but his teaching continued to spread.

The two sides had real arguments. The Holiness Pentecostals feared that the Finished Work would lower the standard of holiness and would deny a crisis that many had actually experienced. The Finished Work side answered that the cross is the source of both justification and sanctification, that Scripture calls all believers "saints" or "sanctified ones" from the start, and that holiness is lived through continued reliance on Christ. Both sides loved the Lord, wanted holiness, and offered Scripture. The Finished Work position was accepted by the Assemblies of God and by many other Pentecostal bodies around the world, while the Holiness position continues in the bodies named above.

Historians disagree about what lay behind these views. Some trace the Holiness position to Wesley. Some trace the Finished Work to the Reformed and Keswick stream, which held that sanctification is a position in Christ and a lifelong growth. Pentecostals reply that the question must finally be settled by Scripture, and that their disagreement, though real, does not divide the churches that hold the Trinity and the gospel.

The Assemblies of God (1914)

Many Pentecostal ministers, especially in the American Midwest and Southwest, held the Finished Work position and wanted a fellowship. In April 1914 a General Council met at Hot Springs, Arkansas. E. N. Bell was elected as its first chairman and J. Roswell Flower as its secretary. The delegates formed the General Council of the Assemblies of God. Their goals were practical and spiritual: to cooperate in missions, to recognize ministers, to protect doctrine, and to preserve the Pentecostal witness.

The Assemblies of God became one of the largest Pentecostal denominations in the world. It also shows a pattern that other Pentecostal bodies followed: a movement that began as a loose network came to hold councils, adopt statements of belief and send out missionaries.

The Oneness Controversy (1913-1916)

Soon after its founding, the new fellowship faced a serious crisis. At a large camp meeting at Arroyo Seco, near Los Angeles, in April 1913, the preacher R. E. McAlister observed that in the book of Acts the apostles baptized "in the name of Jesus Christ" and not with the words used in Matthew 28:19. Some who heard him, including John Scheppe, believed they had received new light from the Lord. Soon the minister Frank Ewart began to teach this widely and, from early 1914, to rebaptize believers in the name of Jesus.

The teaching grew into what we call the Oneness view. Its main claims are these.

• There is one God, and the titles "Father," "Son" and "Holy Spirit" are not three persons but different ways the one God has been revealed.

• Jesus is the one God, and His name is the saving name.

• Baptism should be in the name of Jesus only.

• Many Oneness churches also teach that water baptism in Jesus' name and baptism in the Spirit with tongues are required for salvation, based on Acts 2:38.

Oneness leaders included Garfield T. Haywood, an African American pastor in Indianapolis, whose Pentecostal Assemblies of the World became a leading Oneness body. In 1945 several Oneness groups united to form the United Pentecostal Church International. Oneness believers are sincere, and many love the Bible, prayer and the gifts of the Spirit. We treat them with respect, and we also state plainly where we differ.

In the Assemblies of God the crisis came to a head in 1916. A General Council in St. Louis adopted a Statement of Fundamental Truths that affirmed the doctrine of the Trinity. Many ministers who held the Oneness view then left the fellowship, and separate Oneness bodies developed.

The Trinitarian Answer

Classical Pentecostals answered the Oneness teaching from Scripture. We hold that God is one and that He exists eternally as three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We make these points.

The three appear together. At the baptism of Jesus the Son stands in the water, "the Spirit of God" descends "like a dove," and a voice from heaven says, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:16-17). One God in one person could not do all three at once without confusion.

Jesus speaks to the Father and sends the Spirit. He says, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever" (John 14:16). The Son prays; the Father hears; the Spirit is sent.

The baptismal command names three. Jesus told His disciples to baptize "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). The word "name" is singular, and it covers all three. Acts 2:38 does not contradict this. In Acts the phrase "in the name of Jesus" tells us by whose authority and in whose faith believers are baptized. Luke reports it as a summary, not as a formula given by Christ.

The blessing names three. Paul closes a letter, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Salvation is also not earned by an act or sign. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). We baptize in water as an act of obedience and testimony, and we seek the baptism of the Spirit as a promise, but we do not make either a condition for new birth.

The Main Objections and Our Answers

Objection 1: Organization quenches the Spirit and betrays the early vision.

Our answer. The early church organized (Acts 6, Acts 15). The test is whether structure serves mission and holiness. A denomination should keep Spirit-led worship alive, and the first Pentecostals themselves, when they formed councils, did so to protect and spread their witness.

Objection 2: The Finished Work lowers the standard of holiness, or the Holiness doctrine of a second crisis is not biblical.

Each side makes one of these charges against the other.

Our answer. Both sides accept Scripture's command to holiness. We teach that the believer is set apart in Christ at conversion and called to grow in holiness by the Spirit all his life (Hebrews 10:14; 12:14). We do not break fellowship over the number of crises, and the baptism of the Spirit is never a substitute for a holy life.

Objection 3: The word "Trinity" is not in the Bible, and Acts shows baptism in Jesus' name.

Our answer. The word is not in Scripture, but the truth is. The Bible teaches that there is one God and that the Father, the Son and the Spirit are each called God and are distinct. Early Christians used the word "Trinity" to protect that truth, as we do. Baptism in the name of Jesus in Acts does not cancel the command of Matthew 28:19.

Pastoral Application

Pastor Elena has a visitor in her church, a kind man who attends a Oneness church. After the service he says, "I am glad you love Jesus. But your church baptizes with the wrong words. Acts 2:38 says in the name of Jesus. Were you really baptized?" A young member of her church is troubled.

Elena first thanks him for his love of the Lord and for his questions. She does not mock him.

Second, she opens Scripture with him and the young member: Matthew 3:16-17, John 14:16, Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14. She shows him how the three persons appear together in Scripture.

Third, she explains the meaning of "in the name of Jesus" in Acts, and she is honest that she cannot make every question simple.

Fourth, she teaches the young member the difference between Scripture and a quarrel. She speaks firmly on the Trinity, which is central, and gently on matters where godly believers have differed.

Summary

Early Pentecostals at first distrusted denominations, but practical needs and the example of the apostolic church led them to organize. Holiness Pentecostal bodies, such as the Church of God (Cleveland), the Pentecostal Holiness Church and the Church of God in Christ, taught three works of grace: new birth, entire sanctification and Spirit baptism. In 1910 William H. Durham taught the Finished Work of Calvary, in which sanctification begins at conversion and grows through life, and many ministers who agreed formed the Assemblies of God at Hot Springs in 1914. In 1913 at Arroyo Seco, a teaching arose that baptism should be in the name of Jesus only, and it grew into the Oneness view, which holds that God is one person and not three. The Assemblies of God adopted its Statement of Fundamental Truths in 1916, and classical Pentecostals have answered Oneness teaching from Matthew 3, Matthew 28 and John 14. We state differences openly, hold the Trinity firmly and keep the unity of the Spirit.

Further Reading

• Vinson Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition (1997).

• Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism (2nd ed., 2014).

• Grant Wacker, Heaven Below (2001).

• Cecil M. Robeck Jr., The Azusa Street Mission and Revival (2006).

• William J. Seymour, Doctrines and Discipline (1915), a primary source.

• The Apostolic Faith (Los Angeles, 1906-1908), a primary source.

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