TheHoliness Baptist Association is aHoliness Pentecostal body ofChristians withBaptist historical roots.
In 19th-centuryAmerica, theHoliness movement developed out of theMethodist emphasis of the Wesleyan teachings of holiness.John Wesley taught that holiness (also known as entire sanctification orChristian perfection), was a definite and instantaneoussecond work of grace received by faith. Methodists, including those in the holiness movement, equated entire sanctification with baptism of the Holy Spirit.[1][2]
Early in the 20th century, some in the Holiness movement also embracedPentecostalism, which taught a third work of grace, whose outward sign was speaking in tongues.Holiness Pentecostals taught that it was the third work of grace, not the second work of grace, that was the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Those in the holiness movement (such as theFree Methodist Church andChurch of the Nazarene) were critical of the Holiness Pentecostals for this reason and rejected the Parhamian-Seymourian doctrine of speaking in tongues.[2] The following bodies have primary roots in the Holiness movement and secondary roots in Pentecostalism.
The holiness movement among Baptists in south Georgia began late in the 19th century inWilcox County among ministers in the Little River Baptist Association. At the annual session of the association in 1893, fellowship was withdrawn from two churches "because of their doctrine of holiness or carnal perfection".¹ The two excluded churches and two newly formed churches met in 1894 to organize theHoliness Baptist Association. The association was organized upon the same articles of faith and rules of decorum as the Little River Association. In 1905, the association adopted new articles of faith and decorum, bringing their statements in line with their holiness beliefs. More changes were made to the articles and decorum in 1916. They have since remained relatively the same. In 1916, the Holiness Baptists agreed to form two separate associations, and continued in that manner until they consolidated in 1925. A periodical calledThe Gospel Standard was started in 1918 by J. N. Salter, and has continued as theHoliness Baptist Association publication to the present. Over the years the Holiness Baptists ofGeorgia moved away from Baptist polity, proceeding through aPresbyterian form to aMethodist form of government, while gradually includingPentecostal distinctives, such asspeaking in tongues, within their services. Their greatest period of growth was from 1905 to 1945, after which they began to decline. In 1949, the association built a camp ground andtabernacle inCoffee County nearDouglas, Georgia. Annual meetings of the association are held at the tabernacle. There is one member church inFlorida.
In 1934, theBaptist Purity Association was formed by members excluded from theHoliness Baptist Association for teaching and practicing the substitution of water for grape juice inthe Lord's supper.
In 1977, discontented members withdrew and formed theCalvary Holiness Association.
According to historian Robert G. Gardner of Mercer University inMacon, Georgia, these three Holiness Baptist bodies currently have about 50 churches with about 1,582 members. Like many other Holiness groups, they maintain strict standards of dress, require long hair for women and short hair for men, and abstain from tobacco, intoxicating beverages, dancing provocatively, gambling, television, etc.
William Jethro Walthall (1858–1931) was ordained as a Missionary Baptist preacher on May 29, 1887. In 1895 he became familiar with the holiness revival, and felt it spoke to what he believed he had already experienced. These teachings were at odds with the local Baptist teachings. Walthall was excluded from his church in 1896 and ostracized by the Red River Baptist Association. In 1899, minister J. C. Kelly and his church were excluded from the Red River Association. Walthall and Kelly continued to preach and formed new churches, mostly in southwesternArkansas, but a few inOklahoma Territory andTexas. By 1903 these churches had founded theHoliness Baptist Churches of Southwestern Arkansas. The first annual session was held November 6–8, 1903 atSutton, Arkansas. This Holiness Baptist group continued until 1917. In that year, Walthall joined theAssemblies of God and brought all 36 congregations of theHoliness Baptist Churches of Southwestern Arkansas into the Assemblies of God.
Early in the 19th century, Holiness Baptist churches atGreenville, South Carolina andHendersonville, North Carolina corresponded with theHoliness Baptist Association of Georgia. A church atBurlington, North Carolina was a member of the Georgia association for a few years. The status of these churches is unknown, though they likely were absorbed into other holiness or Pentecostal bodies.
TheChurch of God Mountain Assembly, though not namedHoliness Baptist, began as a holiness movement among Baptists. It was formed in 1907 by ministers and churches excluded from theSouth Union Association ofUnited Baptists for preaching holiness and the danger of apostasy. TheChurch of God Mountain Assembly corresponded with theHoliness Baptist Association of Georgia early in the 20th century.
The Methodists were also first to coin the phrase baptism of the Holy Spirit as applied to a second and sanctifying grace (experience) of God. (Cf. John Fletcher of Madeley, Methodism's earliest formal theologian.) The Methodists meant by their "baptism" something different from the Pentecostals, but the view that this is an experience of grace separate from and after salvation was the same.
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