A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

The Jesus Name Controversy
enced Ewart, Cook, and McAlister to associate with this
group. 72 However, at the time of his rebaptism, he was in
close fellowship with the Assemblies of God.
The Assemblies of God
The Assemblies of God was organized at a convention
on April 2-14, 1914, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. (The conference
ended one day before Ewart and Cook rebaptized
each other.) The prime movers were Howard Goss and
Eudorus N. Bell. The need for this organization arose
from two major factors: the demise of Parham’s organization,
particularly in the South, and the lack of an organization
that embraced the Finished Work doctrine.
It appears that the primary catalyst for the formation
of the new organization was Howard Goss, pastor in Hot
Springs at that time. He had previously been Parham’s
field director for Texas, but he and most workers in Texas
and Arkansas had broken with Parham over the allegations
of Parham’s misconduct, and they had accepted
Durham’s Finished Work teaching.
In 1910, Goss had received permission from C. H.
Mason to use the name of his organization—Church of
God in Christ—to issue credentials to white ministers and
to obtain clergy railroad discounts. Mason exercised no
authority over them, and they did not adhere to his doctrine
of sanctification as a second work of grace.
Moreover, they apparently conducted little or no business
among themselves.
Another loose ministerial association had formed in
1909 in Dothan, Alabama, under H. G. Rodgers. They
chose the name Church of God, not realizing that a preexisting
Pentecostal organization was using the same
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