A Presentation of Perfection - Media Sabda Org

The Church of the Nazarene is the result of three independent holiness groups merging during
1907-1908. The three groups were the Association of Pentecostal Churches in America, Church of
the Nazarene, and the Holiness Church of Christ. These three groups merged to form a new
denomination called the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene. Pentecostal in the name was eventually
dropped because the Nazarene denomination did not want to be confused with those who promoted
speaking in tongues.
Dr. P. F. Bresee was influential in seeing these groups join together as one denomination. Here
is, in part, what took place:
And so at last the October day (1908) came when weary travelers from four corners
of the nation climbed off the trains at Pilot Point and headed for the big tent beside
Brother Robert's rescue home. The links of their fellowship had been forged on many
anvils, yet tense moments of debate must temper them again before they could be
joined. At one point in the proceedings, discussion of such matters as wedding rings
and tobacco became so heated that H. D. Brown rose to suggest that if union could
be had only at the price of multiplying rules the Nazarenes should let the southerners
go. His speech repeated several times, was finally reduced to the words, "Mr.
Chairman, let them go." Dr. Bresee, his hand upraised, responded each time, "We
cannot let them go, Brother Brown; they are our own folks." Like so many other
leaders in both North and South, Bresee had caught the vision of a national holiness
denomination, which should set ablaze a line of churches and missions in every city
of the nation... and so the Nazarenes became one people, North and South, East and
West. [22]
The Nazarene Church endeavors to find a balance concerning church government. They would
not be considered strong promoters of either congregationalism or episcopacy. They have held
strongly to the doctrine of entire sanctification but have increasingly allowed flexibility concerning
matters of lifestyle issues.
Mrs. Alma White was the founder of the Pillar of Fire Church. She preached often and the church
was started out of her evangelistic efforts.
The Pillar of Fire church condemned the modernism in theology that some in the Methodist
Church promoted. Mrs. White, among other things, emphasized the inerrancy of Scripture, second
blessing holiness, and the future judgment. The church, for the most part, kept the Methodist Church
polity. The Pillar of Fire people have about thirty churches and three radio stations devoted to
spreading the holiness message.
The Churches of Christ in Christian Union was started by those leaving an established
denomination, the Christian Union Church. Kenneth Brown in the denomination's history has noted:
Marshall, Ohio, a farming community nestled away in the hills of the southern part
of the State, is located in Highland County, about ten miles from the county seat of