A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

The Finished Work Controversy
that blessed name in all the earth.
• Not in even one place in the New Testament is it
ever taught that there is any other way of salvation
except through Jesus Christ. Over and over again it
is declared that there is no other way, no name
except His great name that has salvation in it.
The Outcome of the Controversy
The Finished Work doctrine split the emerging
Pentecostal movement in half. In general, the organizations
that had already formed by 1910 rejected Durham’s
message, while the organizations that formed after 1910
embraced his message.
The groups who rejected the Finished Work message
and continued to teach three crisis experiences included
the Apostolic Faith groups of Charles Parham, William
Seymour, and Florence Crawford; the Pentecostal
Holiness Church; the Church of God (Cleveland,
Tennessee) and its later offshoot, the Church of God of
Prophecy; and the Church of God in Christ.
The Pentecostal groups that accepted the Finished
Work view included the Assemblies of God and the
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. The
Oneness groups, including the United Pentecostal Church
International and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the
World, also accepted the Finished Work. Indeed, as we
shall see in chapter 4, their doctrine of the new birth
appears to be a logical development from the premises
that Durham championed.
A few small Oneness groups, offshoots of the Holiness
movement or of the Church of God in Christ, teach
sanctification as a second work of grace. The largest
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