“H” is for Holiness Movement

“H” is for Holiness Movement. Denominations such as the Wesleyan Church, the Church of the Nazarene, the Salvation Army, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance owe their genesis to a 19th century movement that emphasized sanctification or the experience of personal holiness as a “second work of grace” in addition to salvation. Some of those drawn to the movement believed that existing denominations had abandoned this emphasis on holiness and began to form new denominations. However, some of the better-known holiness clergy—such as Robert C. Oliver, founder of the Oliver Gospel Mission in Columbia and Obadiah Dugan, founder of the Star Gospel Mission in Charleston--remained in the Methodist Church. In the 1890s some holiness proponents fused Holiness teaching with Pentecostal notions and many South Carolina Holiness churches gradually embraced Pentecostal teaching.