The Holiness movement, which began in the 19th century, has many Evangelical Christian denominations throughout the world today. Holiness devotees emphasize moral behavior and personal experiences of cleansing themselves of sin to live holy lives.
Here are six events which played an important role in the expansion of the Holiness movement:
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1. Believers in the Holiness doctrine wanted a focus on Christian perfectionism, which they said the Methodist leaders had turned away from in favor of prestige and wealth. Ministers who withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church founded the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America in 1843 to adhere to the strict teachings of Methodist founder John Wesley. Other Protestants throughout the country defected from their churches to join the
Holiness movement.
2. The first camp meeting of the National Holiness Association took place in 1867, attracting 10,000 followers to the event in Vineland, New Jersey. The event increased to more than 20,000 attendees in 1868 in Manheim, Pennsylvania. The association grew throughout the 20th century as an international organization, changing its name to the Christian Holiness Partnership in 1997.
3. The Church of God began as a movement in 1881 in Anderson, Indiana. The founders were Holiness leaders
who abandoned the formal creeds and teachings of Protestant churches in favor of trusting in the Holy Spirit and turning to the Bible for guidance in their creation of the church. The original Church of God now has more than 250,000 members in the U.S. with more than 2,000 churches.
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4. Pentecostalism, which included the practice of speaking in tongues to receive the Holy Spirit, was a part of the Holiness movement. Ambrose Blackman Crumpler, who had been sanctified and cleansed of sin through a holiness preacher along with other former Methodist preachers, founded the Pentecostal Holiness Church in 1900 in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Followers who had similar holiness beliefs and were turned away from their churches were welcomed into the church.
5.
According to the Patheos, charismatic ceremonies, which included ecstatic experiences of receiving the Holy Spirit, were shared by the Pentecostal and Holiness believers. The Azusa Street revival celebrations in Los Angeles began in 1906 and attracted thousands of black, white, rich and poor Christians to the daily Pentecostal services. Protestants who witnessed these events carried the holiness doctrine to their own churches throughout the country.
6.
The Church of the Nazarene was organized in 1908 with the merging of several church organizations around the country, including the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America and the Holiness Church of Christ. The church used evangelism and education to promote the holiness doctrine. The Church of the Nazarene had more than 2 million members in nearly 30,000 churches around the world by 2014.
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