American movement, one that came into existence at about the same time as Restorationism, was the Holiness movement. But whereas Restorationism had grown from the Reformed tradition, the Holiness movement grew out of Methodist revivalism, also a powerful force in the culture of the Second Great Awakening. Methodists from John Wesley on had stressed the centrality of being "entirely sanctified," that, loves God with all one's heart, mind, soul, and strength. Methodists had taught believers to expect "perfect love" in this life.
The Holiness movement grew from the Methodists' preaching of perfect love, but it differed in some respects: Holiness preachers used the expression "baptism of the Holy Spirit" to describe the moment of Christian perfection, and they tended to expect Christian perfection as a second momentary experience (second after conversion) immediately available to those who had been born again in conversion.
The Holiness movement was supported by prominent Methodist leaders before the Civil War, but after the war its leadership tended to feel more and more estranged from Methodism. In the 1870s Holiness leaders formed a "National Camp Meeting Association for the Promotion of Holiness," and this brought an organizational structure to their rather loose web of revival movements. By the time Methodist churches passed ugly resolutions condemning the Holiness movement in the 1890s, the formation of Holiness churches was well underway.
Many of these took the name "Church of God" (also a popular name for early Pentecostal denominations, as we shall see), but the largest is the Church of the Nazarene, formally organized in 1907. Basically, The Holiness movement has understood itself to be a revival movement, brought about to renew the faith and practice of Christian churches. Holiness teaching holds that there is available to Christians a compelling experience of grace that achieves more than justification and.......
