The International Pentecostal Holiness Church is a Pentecostal Christian body whose history, name, and theology bear the marks of two major American revival movements: the holiness revival of the late 19th century, and the pentecostal revival of the early 20th century. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South adopted a statement in 1894 which opposed the growing holiness movement in the church. Within a decade about 25 new holiness groups, including the Pentecostal Holiness Church, came into existence.
The oldest group that is part of the foundation of the present denomination originated in 1895 as the Fire-Baptized Holiness Association in Iowa . The leader, Benjamin H. Irwin of Lincoln, Nebraska, a former Baptist preacher, organized the body into the national Fire-Baptized Holiness Church at Anderson, South Carolina in August of 1898. By this time, Irwin's group had organized churches in eight U. S. states and two Canadian provinces.
Abner Blackmon Crumpler, a Methodist Holiness evangelist in North Carolina, founded the Pentecostal Holiness in 1897, as the inter-denominational North Carolina Holiness Association. The first congregation to carry the name Pentecostal Holiness Church was formed in Goldsboro, North Carolina, in 1898. Pentecostal was dropped from the name in 1901, but was restored in 1908.
Gaston B. Cashwell, a minister of the Methodist Church, joined the Pentecostal Holiness Church in 1903. He became a leading figure in the church and the pentecostal movement on the east coast. In 1906, he traveled to Los Angeles to visit the pentecostal revival at the Azusa Street mission. While there he professed having received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the evidence of speaking in tongues. Upon returning to Dunn, North Carolina, in December of 1906, Cashwell preached the Pentecost experience in the local Holiness church. The leader of the church, Abner Crumpler, though willing to accept speaking in tongues, did not accept the idea that it was the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and eventually left the church. At their annual conference in November of 1908, the body added an article to the statement of faith, recognizing tongues as the initial evidence: We believe the pentecostal baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire is obtainable by a definite act of appropriating faith on the part of the fully cleansed believer, and the initial evidence of the reception of this experience is speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance (Luke 11:13; Acts 1:5; 2:1-4; 8:17; 10:44-46; 19:6). This opened the way for the merger of the Pentecostal Holiness Church with the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church (which was already teaching this third blessing). This merger occurred in January 30, 1911 at the Pentecostal Holiness Church building in Falcon, North Carolina. The Tabernacle Pentecostal Church, churches affiliated with Nickes Holmes' Bible College in Greenville, South Carolina, merged with the Pentecostal Holiness Church in 1915. These congregations had Presbyterian roots and were located mostly in South Carolina. After the mergers, the denomination had about 200 churches with approximately 5000 members.
Since the adoption of the article of faith on the baptism of the Holy Ghost in 1908, the Pentecostal Holiness Church has taught the following beliefs as their five cardinal doctrines: justification by faith, entire sanctification, the baptism in the Holy Spirit evidenced by speaking in tongues, Christ's atonement (including divine healing), and the premillennial second coming of Christ. The church holds water baptism and holy communion (open communion observed quarterly) to be divine ordinances. Though not considered an ordinance, some of the churches also engage in the practice of feet washing. The Pentecostal Holiness Church is apparently the first church in the United States to adopt a pentecostal statement as official doctrine.
In 1920 a schism came into the Pentecostal Holiness Church over divine healing and the use of medicine. Some pastors believed Christians had the right to use medicine and doctors, while the majority of the church believed in trusting God for healing without the use of medicine and doctors. The minority withdrew and formed the Congregational Holiness Church in 1921.
The church in 1999 had 8383 churches with 1,040,400 members. U. S. membership was 184,431 individuals in 1771 churches. There were 28 regional conferences and missionaries in more than 90 nations. International offices are located in Bethany, Oklahoma (a suburb of Oklahoma City). The church sponsors two accredited colleges, a children's home, and a convalescent center. The Pentecostal Holiness Church was a charter member of the National Association of Evangelicals in 1943, and joined the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America (now Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America) in 1948. The current name (the addition of International) was adopted in 1975.
Several ministers who were raised in the Pentecostal Holiness Church have risen to greater name recognition than the church itself, such as Oral Roberts, an internationally known charismatic evangelist, Charles Stanley, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and C.M. Ward, a former Assemblies of God radio preacher.
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