Chapter 4: Simpson’s Impact on the Holiness Movement
IV
Simpson’s Impact on the Holiness Movement
The holiness movement culminated during the Third Great Awakening. During this span of the fifty-year revival, the holiness movement was at its peak. Timothy Smith wrote, “At the high tide of revivalism, perfectionism [holiness] was at the crest of a wave.”316 The Third Great Awakening, which broke out in the fall of 1857 in New York City, was preceded by the ministry of Walter and Phoebe Palmer. Smith goes on to say,
The Awakening of 1858 . . . was both the climax of these long trends and the result of united efforts by urban churchmen of many denominations. In the two years immediately preceding it, hundreds of these labored to precipitate a national Pentecost which they hoped would baptize America in the Holy Spirit and in some mystic manner destroy the evils of slavery, poverty and greed.317
The holiness movement in the United States was disseminated through the Methodist Church and the leaders of Oberlin College, notably Asa Mahan and Charles Finney. The Methodist Church’s understanding of sanctification was defined and governed by the writings of its founder, John Wesley. He wrote that there was a definite second work of grace subsequent to conversion.318 This is a free gift from God, much like the Christian’s salvation.319 After this experience, a believer can, by God’s grace, live a holy life in obedience to God. Wesley described sanctification in the following manner:
Entire sanctification, or Christian perfection, is neither more nor less than pure love; love expelling sin, and governing both the heart and life of a child of God. The Refiner’s fire purges out all that is contrary to love, and that many times by a pleasing smart [to cause a sharp or stinging rebuke]. Leave all this to Him that does all things well, and that loves you better than you do yourself.320
Wesley taught that there comes a definite time when every believer should experience this second work of grace.321
Richard Riss describes Wesley’s view of “complete” sanctification as “an instantaneous experience subsequent to conversion [that] enables a person to live a sanctified life, without conscious or deliberate sin.”322 Melvin Dieter states that Wesley presented before his followers,
The promise of a heart perfected in love, a personal restoration to the moral image of God, and the responsibility and power to express that love in relationship with God and neighbor. Through Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit, the “bent to sinning” [could be cleansed from the repentant, believing heart, and a “bent to loving obedience”] could become a mainspring of one’s life.323
According to Wesley, holiness is purity of intention in dedicating oneself completely to God.324 Wesley encouraged all new believers, immediately after conversion, to seek the experience of entire sanctification.325 Francis Asbury, the first bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, also urged all of his Methodist pastors to preach that every new believer should seek the experience of sanctification immediately after conversion.326 The purpose of holiness is moral and ethical and not simply an opportunity for the believer to claim some special privilege before God.327
This characterization of sanctification was integral to the Methodist Church’s evangelization of the lost. Robert Anderson remarks:
Methodism entered the American religion environment during the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century, and from then until the close of the following century, revivalism and holiness were to march side by side. Revivalism had the dual purpose of converting sinners and rousing the faithful to a life of piety and service, in short, of holiness.328
Keith Hardman goes even further by stating, “The origins of the Third Great Awakening can be traced directly to the Methodists.”329 Charles Finney and Asa Mahan gave the doctrine of sanctification a new definition in the 1830s. They began teaching a new understanding of sanctification that was different than the Wesleyan view of sinless perfection. It had to do with the believer’s perfect trust and consecration, and it resulted in social activism. Finney encouraged new believers to get involved in politics, Christian education, temperance, ending slavery, and helping the poor. He asserted that the spirit of the Christian is also that of the reformer.330
The Wesleyan and Oberlin movements had become the basis of the holiness movement of the Third Great Awakening. The holiness revival would permeate throughout the fifty years of the Third Great Awakening, affecting leaders from a large number of churches. As Vinson Synan states, “With Methodist and Oberlin perfectionists leading the way, the holiness crusade approaches a climax shortly before the Civil War. Ministers of most denominations joined the campaign for perfection.”331
This would become a national movement that spread throughout North America. The holiness movement impacted the revival that broke out in 1857, and it was through this revival that holiness teaching continued to spread. Riss comments, “As the result of the revival of 1857–1860, Phoebe Palmer’s teaching spread far and wide.”332
The Higher Christian Life, written by W. E. Boardman in 1858, had a great impact on the Third Great Awakening. J. Edwin Orr wrote of Boardman:
William Edwin Boardman had published at the height of the Awakening of 1858 a treatise upon the “Higher Christian Life.” He was a zealous young Presbyterian businessman when he started his search in the 1840s for a holier life. His book was a huge success on both sides of the Atlantic (circulation, 200,000), being published in Britain in 1860. It produced its greatest effect in the old country.333
The Higher Christian Life provided new terminology and a new understanding of sanctification in Christian circles. Boardman interpreted sanctification for those outside the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition.334 He presented sanctification in a simple way, without the Wesleyan or holiness terminology. Boardman did not present a systemic treatment of holiness, relying instead on his own experience and spiritual longings. This touched a similar vein in the religious public at the time, and they accepted his interpretation of sanctification.335 Dieter remarks on his popularity in writing,
This combination of both Methodist and Oberlin teaching and expression flowed through his work to produce a statement of the nature and reality of the life of holiness which was more widely received than the expositions on the more classic traditions.336
Boardman presented this biblical truth to Presbyterians, Baptists and Congregationalists. It was made acceptable in more reformed circles. As Dieter comments on The Higher Christian Life, “The book opened the doors of non-Methodist churches to the revival teachings [holiness revival] more widely than any volume which had preceded it.”337 Boardman’s view of sanctification was welcomed by Baptist, Presbyterian, and Congregational churches that would not have accepted the Wesleyan-Holiness view of sanctification. Smith states:
Meanwhile, a growing army of Revivalistic Calvinists who could not accept the second blessing adopted the view that true conversion made one entirely free from sin. In the Awakenings which followed 1858 multitudes of them became convinced their justification in God’s sight must be confirmed by their sanctification in their own and the eyes of the world. The goals were similar, only the method proposed for reaching them varied.338
Sanctification became paramount in the lives of Christians at this time and would be one of the two major building blocks for the Third Great Awakening. The salvation message was primary, but living a sanctified life would be the follow-up to that message.
During this time period, the first view of sanctification that was introduced was the Wesleyan-Holiness view. Some time later, the higher life, or deeper life, understanding of sanctification would become popular. These two views dominated the movement. Grant Wacker explains these two perceptions of sanctification by remarking,
Both higher life and Wesleyan-Holiness leaders were committed to the idea that conversion ought to be followed by another landmark religious experience, and they both called that experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But there were significant differences between them regarding the purpose of the baptism experience. The higher life writers insisted that its main function was to empower believers to serve the church and to witness for Christ, whereas, Wesleyan-Holiness writers argued that its main function was to eradicate “inbred sin” and thereby to break the stronghold of selfish desires. The former, in other words, emphasized service, whereas, the latter stressed purity.339
The higher life, or deeper life, movement would spread from one denomination to another and would quickly move to the forefront of the holiness movement. Boardman and A. B. Earle both espoused the deeper life experience of sanctification. They were respected and accepted throughout America. They were welcomed, along with their view of sanctification, in Congregationalist, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches. They were the most popular evangelists in America until their fame was eclipsed by Moody in 1874.340 The higher life, which was defined and explained by Boardman in The Higher Christian Life, was later popularized by D. L. Moody, A. J. Gordon, F. B. Meyer, R. A. Torrey, and A. B. Simpson.
In the 1870s, Boardman joined forces with two other popular deeper life advocates, Robert Pearsall Smith and his wife, Hannah Whitehall Smith. The Smiths spoke alongside Boardman all over the United States, Great Britain, and Western Europe preaching on “the deeper Christian life.”341 There were those in Great Britain and Europe who were seeking a similar experience and readily accepted their teaching.342 The efforts of Boardman and the Smiths contributed to the founding of the first Keswick Convention in Great Britain in 1875.343 This became an annual event that helped spread to other conferences the higher life or deeper life, which became known as “the Keswick Message.” The Keswick message is not a doctrinal statement, and there has never been an exhaustive treatise on it.344 The Keswick message is that all Christians have a fallen nature prone to sin, yet God requires holiness in Christians. God has provided the believer a provision of holiness, or a victorious Christian life, through union with Christ. It is not only Christ, but also the inner working of the Holy Spirit, that works to combat the downward pull of sin. The Holy Spirit provides a counterforce that enables the believer who has surrendered to trusting Christ to resist the downward pull of our fallen nature. Keswick does not teach the possibility of perfection in a Christian’s life, but the message does teach the possibility that one can live in victory over sin and obey God’s will.345 The believer has to understand the inadequacy of trying to live the Spirit-filled life on their own before they can make that total commitment to God. The believer has to be filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that becomes God’s provision for the Christian to live a life of holiness and to serve in God’s work.346 This is a moment-by-moment walk with God.347 Dieter speaks of the impact of the Keswick message:
The higher life message of Keswick strongly influenced evangelical religious organizations around the world through such men as A. J. Pierson, Hudson Taylor, F. B. Meyer, Andrew Murray, Theodore Monod and Dr. Eugene Stock. The English evangelical community came under the continuing influence through the ministers and laymen who gathered annually at Keswick under the leadership of Webb-Peploe, Harford-Batterersby, and Handley Moule, later Bishop of Durham. Similar higher life conferences standing in an informal relationship to Keswick through their teaching and speaking personnel, were begun in Europe and the United States; through F. B. Meyer and others . . .348
The Keswick movement would reintroduce the deeper life movement to the United States.
The higher and deeper life message had come full circle. It had been brought to England by Boardman and the Smiths and was brought back to the United States by Moody and Ira Sankey. F. B. Meyer would later come to the United States and help popularize it. During the 1890s, Moody welcomed Keswick spokespersons to his Northfield Conferences. The Keswick message also found expression in hymns, devotional literature, periodicals, biographies, and spiritual tracts.349
While the Keswick message was becoming popular in Great Britain and Europe, the Wesleyan-Holiness movement continued to make an impact on the Awakening. Anderson observes:
The resurgence of the Holiness movement was both international and interdenominational, but in America it was predominantly Methodist undertaking. The centennial year of Methodism, 1866, was commemorated across the nation by weekday prayer gatherings, conventions and camp meetings centering on the Holiness Movement. The following year, at Vineland, New Jersey, the National Camp Meeting Association for the Promotion of Holiness was organized, and over the next decade some three dozen national camp meetings and scores of regional and local ones were held under its auspices. Numerous other interdominational Holiness institutions were established, and Holiness periodicals proliferated.350
The Wesleyan-Holiness view of sanctification stayed in Methodist circles, where it failed to expand beyond the confines of Methodism. As a result of the holiness movement, over one hundred holiness denominations would come into existence worldwide within the next forty years.351
Moody, more than any other single individual, helped spread the holiness message through his preaching and through his Northfield Conferences. There were many others, including Simpson, who were also involved in spreading the message of sanctification. All of the leaders of the Third Great Awakening saw the Holy Spirit as key in the movement and in revival. As C. I. Scofield wrote at the end of the nineteenth century in his famous Scofield Reference Bible:
We are in the midst of a marked revival of interest in the person and work of the Holy Spirit. More books, booklets and tracts upon the subject have issued from the press during the last eighty years than all the previous time since the invention of printing. Indeed, within the last twenty years more has been written and said upon the doctrine of the Holy Spirit than the preceding eighteen hundred years.352
The leaders of the revival recognized the centrality of the Holy Spirit in the Awakening and realized if the Awakening was to continue, they needed to be filled or baptized in the Holy Spirit. Anderson, writing about the leading evangelists in the Third Great Awakening, stated that these leaders were not only evangelists, they were also promoters of holiness. He states:
The leading revivalists were first and foremost evangelists, but all were recognized advocates of holiness as well, and many of their converts swelled the ranks of the holiness hosts. Most prominent among these were Dwight L. Moody, sometimes salesman and YMCA worker who dominated revivalism for the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century; Reuban A. Torrey, sometime president of both the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago and the Los Angeles Bible Institute; Adoniram J. Gordon, founder of the Gordon Bible Institute; Albert B. Simpson, father of the Christian and Missionary Alliance; and J. Wilbur Chapman, evangelist of international renown. All of these men professed to have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, and all preached and wrote extensively on the subject . . . .353
The leaders of the holiness movement saw that it would be Spirit-filled men and women who would have a key role in the Third Great Awakening and that was essential in order for the revival to continue. Simpson wrote the following words about R. A. Torrey: “Dr. Torrey in a recent address in the city of Chicago remarked that the greatest need of the church today was an army of spirit-filled men to go forth and ring in the ears of the professing Christians of America this old question, ‘Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?’”354 Simpson recognized the centrality of the Holy Spirit in his life and his ministry. Like Torrey, he saw the great need of the church of his day was to be Spirit-filled. Simpson’s experience of sanctification while serving as the pastor of the Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, was life-changing.
Simpson believed that the indication of Christ as sanctifier was integral in fully understanding the gospel. Simpson felt that next to Christ as Savior, Christ as Sanctifier was next in importance. In fact, the second fold of the Fourfold Gospel espoused by Simpson was “Christ our Sanctifier.” One had to experience Christ as Sanctifier before one could live a holy life and serve Christ effectively. According to Simpson, although salvation was the beginning of the Christian life, sanctification was necessary to grow in the Christian faith. He saw that many Christians stopped at regeneration and therefore never grew in holiness or in their walk with Christ. Simpson described the necessity of sanctification in the treatise The Four-Fold Gospel, where he uses the analogy of a plant and a house. He writes:
Regeneration is the beginning. It is the germ of the seed. But it is not the summer fullness of the plant. The heart has not yet gained entire victory over the old elements of sin. It is sometimes overcome by them. Regeneration is like building a house and having the work done well. Sanctification is to have the owner come and dwell in it and fill it with gladness, and life and beauty. Many Christians are converted and stop there. They do not go on to fullness of their life in Christ, and so are in danger of losing what they already possess.355
Simpson described sanctification in his book Wholly Sanctified in the following manner: “Sanctification is thus God’s own life in the spirit that is yielded up to Him to be His dwelling place and instrument of His power and will.”356 John Sawin explained Simpson’s view of sanctification as follows:
Simpson used the term “sanctification” as if pertaining to the Fourfold Gospel in its objective sense of “holiness,” not in its more frequent objective sense of “setting apart.” The two meanings are interrelated but as far as the second “fold,” sanctification refers to holiness of heart and life that results from the abiding presence of Christ or from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit . . . the indwelling Spirit and the Christ who abides within are simply different expressions of the same truth. It is the truth that prompted Simpson to preach the sermon, “Himself” and to write the poem/hymns of the same title. To Simpson, this was the essence of the second “fold,” sanctification. He believed that to enter this experience necessitated a critical decision, but he also knew that growth and deeper fillings of the spirit ought to characterize the sanctified life. Subjective sanctification, then, to Mr. Simpson, was a distinct experience.357
Simpson was both definite and precise in his understanding of Christ as Sanctifier. In 1885, Simpson had been invited to be one of the speakers at the International Convention of Holiness and Divine Healing in Bethshan, England. This convention had been organized and lead by Boardman. Simpson addressed the conference and also listened to many of the other speakers on their view of holiness. After hearing their views on sanctification, Simpson asked for a special privilege to address the conference. The sermon he preached became known as “Himself.”358
“Himself” is a short sermon that concisely describes Simpson’s understanding of Christ in sanctification. The focus is on Christ himself and on what he did on the cross for all believers. What a Christian needs is not doctrine or theology, although these things are important. What one needs is Jesus Christ himself. One does not need to seek after healing or sanctification but to look instead for the Sanctifier, Christ. One does not look for healing but instead looks for the Healer, Jesus Christ. Instead of looking for what Christ can do for a Christian, the Christian needs to look to Christ himself.
Simpson continued emphasizing that it is Christ who fills the believer with his Holy Spirit. It is Christ’s work in the Christian. The Christian’s part is to surrender their will completely to God and permit Christ to live his life through their own. The believer needs to be filled by Christ moment by moment. It is not something one can do on one’s own—it has to be Christ. Simpson says he learned to take his spiritual life from Jesus moment by moment when Simpson asks the Christian,
Is not that a terrible bondage, to be always so dependent? What? A bondage to be dependent on the One you love—your dearest Friend? Oh no! It comes naturally, spontaneously, like a fountain, without consciousness, without effort. True life is always easy and overflowing.359
For Simpson, the key to sanctification and the Christian life was simply surrendering one’s all to Christ and letting him live through the Christian.
Simpson goes on to say that Christ, and not our own faith, is where our focus has to be. One does not have faith in faith but rather faith in Jesus Christ. Simpson shares his experience of surrendering to Christ. He took Christ as his Healer, and Christ healed him by becoming his strength and health. Simpson also mentions how Christ quickened his mind and gave him strength for ministry. Simpson ends the message by saying he is still learning of the secret of Christ in the believer. He closes with this statement: “I feel I have only begun to learn how well it works. Take it and go on working it out, through time and eternity—Christ for all, grace for grace, from strength to strength, from glory to glory, from this time forth and even for evermore.”360
Samuel Stoesz summarizes the message of Simpson’s “Himself” in the following manner: “He [Simpson] emphasized that the Christian’s need was not blessing or healing or sanctification but Christ Himself. The question was not what people thought of Bethshan or about divine healing but what they thought of Christ.”361 The message of “Himself” was printed in a tract, and it is still in print today. Simpson also made his sermon into a poem that became a hymn called “Himself,” which is still sung in Alliance churches today. Simpson understood Christ as Sanctifier very well, and he poured his life into writing and speaking about Christ as Sanctifier. Sawin comments, “Simpson, in his printed sermons (books), articles and editorials, sought to define precisely his view of sanctification and he sought to lead people into the experience of it.”362 Simpson kept Christ as Sanctifier at the forefront of his preaching and his writing.
As one of the spokesmen for the holiness movement, Simpson was a bridge between the Wesleyan-Holiness perspective of holiness and the deeper life and Keswick view of sanctification.363 Simpson’s view of holiness was a combination of both camps. He held that it was necessary for the believer to have a crisis experience in which the believer totally surrendered to Christ and was filled with the Holy Spirit. This experience happened subsequent to conversion. This was similar to the Wesleyan-Holiness view that it was necessary to have a second work of grace. But unlike proponents of the Wesleyan-Holiness view, Simpson did not believe in the possibility of the eradication of either sin or sinful nature in a believer’s life. Simpson not only believed that sanctification was a crisis, but he also saw sanctification as progressive. When the believer makes the decision to surrender all to Christ and is filled by the Holy Spirit, sanctification has just begun. It is also progressive because a Christian has to grow in sanctification. This is similar to the Keswick view, which speaks to the importance of a believer’s union with Christ helping Christians grow in holiness. At the conferences Simpson led, he invited both Wesleyan-Holiness speakers such as Phoebe Palmer and Keswick speakers such as F. B. Meyer. He also invited writers of both camps to submit articles to his periodical. Because of Simpson’s gracious attitude and treatment toward both groups, there was very little tension between members of either camp. Instead, they worked together to promote sanctification in both their camp meetings and literature.
Simpson’s great burden and desire was to see people sanctified. He was willing to overlook small differences in the views of sanctification in order to see men and women become Spirit-filled. Although Simpson was concerned about doctrine, he was more concerned about people’s lives. He saw that their greatest need, next to salvation, was sanctification, and Simpson would do anything he could to make sure that they came to know Christ as their Sanctifier.
Edith Blumhofer comments that Simpson “was far less interested in doctrines such as healing, sanctification, and enduement with power than he was cultivating a mystical relationship with Christ.”364 Simpson had a pastor’s heart, and that is where his focus was. He was not a theologian but a pastor. The Christian public saw Simpson as a spokesman for the Wesleyan-Holiness movement and the Keswick movement. He was affiliated with both sides, and that fact made Simpson well received in both groups.
J. B. Culpepper, a Wesleyan-Holiness writer who was a contemporary of Simpson’s, wrote, “I first read of this [Keswick] movement two or three years ago, my animadversions [a critical and usually censorious remark] led me to ask . . . why cross the Atlantic Ocean and publish as a great discovery, that which every Methodist held . . . it is similar to what Mr. A. B. Simpson teaches.”365
In the beginning of the Keswick movement, there were numerous Wesleyan-Holiness theologians who argued against the Keswick movement. The problem they saw in the Keswick message was their denial of the eradication of believers’ sinful nature at the moment of sanctification.366 As time went on, the Wesleyan-Holiness camp began accepting the Keswick view of spirituality.367 They saw those in the Keswick movement as an ally against the modernist movement.368 David Bundy writes, “Wesleyan/Holiness readers happily read the work of A. B. Simpson, F. B. Meyer, W. H. Griffith Thomas, Geddes H. C. MacGregor, and others. Today most Wesleyan/Holiness Christians hold a Keswick theory of sanctification along with a premillennial eschatology.”369 George M. Marsden echoes the unity of the holiness movement in the late nineteenth century. He comments, “Until the 1890s almost all of those who were rediscovering the work of the Holy Spirit had viewed each other as allies. Keswick teachers, A. B. Simpson, the Salvation Army, and the holiness camp meeting movement all gave each other approving nods and borrowed methods and emphasis.”370 Although leaders in both groups would argue over fine points of doctrine, the average Christian saw little difference, and Simpson helped unite the Christian public in a shared understanding of sanctification.
Simpson’s Promotion of Holiness
How did Simpson promote the message of holiness? He did it in three ways: first, in his preaching; secondly, through conventions and conferences; and finally, in his writings. First of all, Simpson preached the message of sanctification at the Gospel Tabernacle and throughout the branches and churches affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He also spoke at conventions and conferences. Many of his books, especially Wholly Sanctified and A Larger Christian Life, were messages preached at the Gospel Tabernacle that were written down stenographically and published in book form.371
Simpson’s most important work on sanctification was a two-volume work on the Holy Spirit. They were originally a series of messages first preached at the Gospel Tabernacle. The first volume, The Holy Spirit: The Old Testament, was a series of messages that began in September 1894 and was completed in April of 1895. The second volume, The Holy Spirit: The New Testament, also originated as a series of messages, beginning in May of 1895 and finishing in April of 1896.372 Walter Turnbull observes that these messages had a tremendous impact on the members of the church. They were preached to lead each member into a deeper walk with God, and they were successful.373 Turnbull goes on to say that Simpson’s “own life flamed with the reality of the messages his lips proclaimed.”374 Simpson made Christ as Sanctifier one of the most important themes in his preaching. His passion was to see people filled with the Holy Spirit so that they might live holy lives and serve the Master in power.
Another way Simpson helped to spread the holiness message was through his conventions and summer conferences. This may have been one of the most effective ways for Simpson to reach a wider audience with his message of sanctification. Conference ministries were widely used in the holiness movement to bring the message of sanctification to the Christian public. Simpson hosted a number of conventions not only at the Gospel Tabernacle in New York City, but also throughout the country. Simpson would speak at these conventions, but he also brought in a number of holiness and deeper life speakers. The list of speakers at his conferences looked like a “Who’s Who in the Holiness and Deeper Life Movement.” The list of speakers who attended his conventions and summer conferences included Andrew Murray, F. B. Meyer, Hudson Taylor, Otto Stockmayer, Charles Townsend, A. J. Gordon, A. J. Pierson, R. A. Torrey, D. L. Moody, D. W. Whittle, C. I. Scofield, James M. Gray, and Phoebe Palmer.375 There were many more speakers who were not as famous but were just as powerful nevertheless.
The conventions held at the Gospel Tabernacle in New York City impacted the city and the surrounding areas. As A. E. Thompson observed, “Frequently the attendance of the New York City conventions overflowed the Gospel Tabernacle and the services had to be held in some large neighboring theater or Carnegie Hall.”376 Thompson writes, “One of the proofs of the power of these great conventions was the attention given to them in the daily press.”377 The publicity was not always positive, but the message went out to the public. For the most part, the publicity given by church periodicals was positive, which helped spread the message of Christ as our Sanctifier.378
The main summer conferences for Simpson and the Christian and Missionary Alliance were held at Old Orchard, Maine. There, Simpson would frequently share speakers with D. L. Moody’s Northfield Conferences. Speakers such as F. B. Meyer, Andrew Murray, and Charles Inwood would speak at both conferences.379 Both Northfield and Old Orchard had a tremendous impact in popularizing the holiness message among Christians. Christian leaders of the period recognized the power of these conventions and summer conferences to spread the message of holiness among Christians who attended. These conventions and conferences transformed Christians’ lives. Thompson comments:
The conventions in other cities have been one of the great outlets for the testimony of the Alliance. Unnumbered multitudes have heard the message who otherwise would never have been touched by it. Most of these have remained in their churches, themselves, quickened into new life and their lives empowered for hitherto unthought of service. The ministry of many a pastor has been transformed. Hundreds have been called into Christian service who had never dreamt of such a life.380
Simpson had an impact on other Christian leaders not only in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, but also in other churches and denominations.
Simpson also linked missions with the holiness movement. Therefore, his messages on holiness and missions at the conventions encouraged people not only to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but to also support worldwide missions outreach.381 Thompson recognized that these conferences and conventions did more than anything else to spread Simpson’s message. He comments, “These conventions have done more than any other single agency, except Dr. Simpson’s pen to disseminate the truth which he so loved and call men to service in which his own life burned it.”382 Simpson taught that no person was fit for Christian service unless he or she had met Christ as Sanctifier. Simpson also spread the message of holiness with his pen.
Simpson wrote extensively about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Gilbertson comments:
A. B. Simpson was a prolific writer. He used the written word as an inexpensive way to spread the teachings and activities of the Christian and Missionary Alliance movement. Simpson published over one hundred books, the majority of them compilations of sermons that had been stenographically recorded. In addition, he edited and wrote for a series of periodicals from 1880 until his death in 1919.383
Simpson preached and wrote extensively on sanctification, which he called “the baptism of the Holy Spirit” or “being filled with the Holy Spirit.” Gilbertson states, “The baptism of the Holy Spirit accordingly was a significant experience in Simpson’s life and a dominant motif in his writing and teaching.”384 Simpson would also invite others who held similar views on sanctification to contribute to his periodicals. Gordon and Torrey were frequent contributors to Simpson’s periodicals.385 During this time, paperback books became popular, and Simpson published many of his books using this cheap new method. This way, every Christian could afford the book and the message could be disseminated as widely as possible. This was a successful strategy to spread the Fourfold Gospel, especially the message of sanctification.
Stephen Merritt, a leader in the holiness movement, had spoken to Simpson about a book on the Holy Spirit. It was Merritt who wrote the introduction to the first volume of Simpson’s book on the Holy Spirit. Merritt writes:
It was a cause of great joy to my soul to read the announcement that the first volume of The Holy Spirit, or Power From On High, would soon be issued. You will remember that at the Old Orchard Convention last year I was led to exclaim, “The book of the Holy Ghost is yet unwritten” and to request the vast audience to rise and pray that the Holy Spirit might inspire Rev. A. B. Simpson to write the work of the age for Him. That this petition is now being answered is the delight of my life.386
This was only one of Simpson’s books on the Holy Spirit, but it made an impact on the holiness movement as a whole. The written works of Simpson, Boardman, Gordon, Pierson, and Torrey all impacted the holiness movement and helped spread the message of sanctification.
Simpson also impacted another group during the Third Great Awakening that evolved out of the holiness movement: the emerging pentecostal movement. Many of those in the pentecostal movement saw Simpson as one of the forefathers in the pentecostal revival.
Simpson’s Influence on the Pentecostal Movement
Simpson not only impacted the holiness movement, he is also considered by many to be one of the forerunners of the pentecostal movement. Blumhofer wrote:
Through the institutions and associations he founded as well as by his writings and the gospel songs he composed, A. B. Simpson powerfully influenced the early Pentecostal Movement. His focus on “Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8) that supported his teaching on healing found enduring expression in the song, Yesterday, Today, Forever, (Jesus Is the Same.) (More than any other text, those words became basic to American Pentecostalism. They were often displayed on the walls of Pentecostal storefront missions.) . . . A premillennialist who stressed holiness, Spirit baptism, divine healing and missions, Simpson articulated a message with which emerging Pentecostals easily identified.387
Simpson influenced one of the founders of pentecostalism, Charles Fox Parham. Most pentecostal historians see Simpson as one of the most important contributors to the pentecostal movement.388
Parham opened Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas, on October 15, 1900, at a mansion called “Stone’s Folly.” Parham’s theology came from many sources. Just before Parham opened his college, he traveled to Chicago to hear Alexander Dowie. From there, he went to Nyack, New York, to speak to Simpson and then to Shiloh, Maine, to visit Frank Sanford’s Holy Ghost and Us Church. After talking to these men, Parham felt there was something beyond the experience of sanctification they were missing.389 By December of 1900, Parham was leading his students through a study of the holiness movement and divine healing. They were studying the second chapter of Acts when Parham asked his students to find scriptural evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They became convinced that speaking in tongues was the evidence of that experience.390 At a watch night service on December 31, 1900, a student by the name of Agnes N. Ozman asked Parham to lay hands on her and pray that she receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as evidenced by speaking in unknown tongues. He did so, and Ozman began to speak in other tongues. It was reported that she spoke another language, possibly Chinese, and could not speak English for three days. This was the beginning of the pentecostal movement.391 Ozman had been a student at Simpson’s Missionary Institute at Nyack. She recalled her days at Nyack with fondness.392 She wrote:
Our teachers were A. B. Simpson, Farr, Funk, Wilson and Stephen Merritt. The latter had learned much about the workings of the Holy Ghost, and our hearts were blessed as we were admonished to trust Him to use us . . . At the Christian Mission Alliance Bible School, we were privileged to bid farewell to many dear hearts who laid their lives down going to Africa, China, India and Jerusalem.393
Another one of Parham’s students was William J. Seymour, an African American Methodist holiness preacher. He was baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, and he took the message back to Houston and then to Los Angeles.394 It was in Los Angeles, under the ministry of Seymour, that the Azusa Street Revival broke out. It began in April of 1906.395 The pentecostal movement exploded soon afterwards, spreading like wildfire. The revival began in Seymour’s house but could not be contained there and moved to a dilapidated former African Methodist Episcopal church. The church building was located at 312 Azusa Street in downtown Los Angeles. This is how the revival became known as the Azusa Street Revival. Meetings were held at the church three times a day, seven days a week for three-and-a-half years. Seymour sent out a revival newspaper called the Apostolic Faith, free of charge, that helped spread the news of the revival to over fifty thousand people.396 Shortly after the Azusa Street Revival broke out, Seymour and Parham’s relationship fell apart. Up until this time, Parham had been cordial to African Americans and had preached to mixed congregations. It is not clear what caused the rupture, but it has been suggested that the emotionalism Parham witnessed at Azusa and elsewhere among African Americans and white pentecostals repulsed him. He linked this emotionalism to that of Southern blacks in general.397 Wacker comments,
Using crude racial slurs, Parham denounced white women who consorted with black men in worship at the Azusa mission, and deplored that white and black men and women knelt together and fell across one another. Such “foolishness” he charged, had followed the Azusa work everywhere.398
Later, in 1927, Parham publicly praised the Ku Klux Klan. The falling out between Seymour and Parham also may have had to do with Seymour eclipsing him in leading the revival at Azusa. Seymour became more important than Parham. Eventually, the Azusa Revival would begin to separate along racial lines. This was not only true at Asuza, but also in the pentecostal churches. White and black pentecostal denominations emerged at a time when there were strong social pressures toward racial separation, and most of the pentecostal churches followed suit. They bowed to social pressures.399
During the three years of the Azusa Revival, thousands of people received salvation and were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Ministers from all over the country and the world visited Azusa and brought the pentecostal revival back to their churches. The revival rapidly spread to cities such as Indianapolis, Akron, Winnipeg, Dallas, Cleveland, San Francisco, and even Nyack, New York.400 Riss wrote, “By the time the Azusa Street Mission closed in 1909, Pentecostalism had begun to make significant inroads into the mainstream of American religious life. Those effects continued with increasing force throughout all of the twentieth century.”401 Today the charismatic and pentecostal movement has grown to become the second largest group of Christians in the world. The only group larger is the Roman Catholic Church. Over five hundred and twenty-five million people claim to be pentecostal or charismatic.402
The Christian and Missionary Alliance was one of the first religious bodies to feel the impact of the pentecostal movement.403 A pentecostal revival broke out in 1907 in Alliance churches in Akron, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Nyack, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Rocky Springs Park, Pennsylvania; and San Francisco, California.404 In 1908, a pentecostal revival broke out in Alliance, Ohio, at the Christian and Missionary Alliance’s summer conference. The conference was dominated by those who believed in the pentecostal experience. It received a great deal of unfavorable coverage in the press.405 Simpson was beginning to come to be at odds with the pentecostal leaders in the Alliance. Simpson opposed the “evidence doctrine,” which said the evidence of being filled or baptized with the Holy Spirit was speaking in tongues. Simpson wrote in his annual report of 1907–1908:
One of the greatest errors [of pentecostals] is a disposition to make special manifestations evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, giving to them the name of Pentecost as though none had received the spirit of Pentecost but those who had the power to speak in tongues, thus leading many sincere Christians to cast away their confidence, and plunging them in perplexity and darkness, or causing them to seek after special manifestations other than God Himself.
To say that the gift of tongues is the only proper evidence of having been baptized with the Holy Ghost is rash and wholly unscriptural; and places a mere manifestation of the Holy Ghost above His higher ministry of grace.406
Simpson sent his assistant Henry Wilson to investigate the pentecostal outbreak in Alliance, Ohio, in 1908. A. W. Tozer describes the incident:
There were many good people in the Pentecostal movement, and many admirable qualities about its adherents. Mr. Simpson did not want to pass judgment upon them till he had sufficient evidence, so he appointed Dr. Henry Wilson to visit Alliance, Ohio, a hot-bed of the new phenomenon, to study the meetings and report back. After a careful study, Dr. Wilson made the following report and it stands today as the crystallized utterance of the Society: “I am not able to approve the movement, though I am willing to concede that there is probably something of God in it somewhere.”407
Simpson would later make his view public and denounce the “evidence doctrine” that required believers to speak in tongues in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit.408 Charles Nienkirchen writes, “His opposition to this distinctive tenet of pentecostalism set the stage for numerous individuals and congregations with pentecostal sympathies to withdraw from the Alliance and align themselves with the pentecostal movement.”409
It is important to note that some pentecostals did not accept the evidence doctrine. The most famous was Seymour himself, the leader of the Azusa Street Revival. Wacker writes, “William J. Seymour’s steady tumble into obscurity after 1912 probably stemmed from several sources, including white racism and his own lack of leadership inclinations. But Seymour’s decision to renounce his earlier insistence on tongues as the initial evidence of the Holy Spirit baptism surely contributed to his eclipse.”410 F. F. Bosworth, one of the leaders of the early pentecostal movement, also left the Assemblies of God in 1918 because of his rejection of the evidence doctrine.411 The Assemblies of God was one of the first pentecostal denominations; it combined a number of independent pentecostal churches together in one denomination. Synan remarks on Bosworth:
By September 1918, the debate [surrounding evidence doctrine] boiled over in the General Council Assemblies of God with two former members of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA), Fred F. Bosworth and D. W. Kerr, leading the discussions. Bosworth who had spoken in tongues under Charles Parham at Zion City, Illinois in 1906, attacked the teaching as “a doctrinal error,” charging that Charles Parham was “the first man in the history of the world to publicly teach it.” Leading the opposing forces was Kerr who argued that “it is the Word of God, not the experience of famous men, that is the touchstone for the Pentecostal belief concerning the immediate evidence of the baptism.”412
Bosworth would return to the Christian and Missionary Alliance and go on to minister with them until his death in 1958.413
Because of Simpson’s openness to the gift of tongues as a legitimate spiritual gift and because of the Alliance’s general openness to this gift, it was not until 1914 that the Alliance adopted an official policy. Alliance leaders at the time tried to treat speaking in tongues like they did other matters of doctrine such as baptism, church government, and other differences in belief with personal liberty.414 This freedom was one of the early strengths of the Alliance. Unfortunately, it also caused problems. The general openness to the pentecostal movement created a need to make an official policy.415 On April 13, 1914, the Christian and Missionary Alliance adopted an official motion on tongues:416
We believe that the gift of tongues or speaking in tongues did in many cases in the apostolic church accompany or follow the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We believe also that other supernatural and even miraculous operations on the part of the Holy Spirit through His people are competent and possible according to the sovereign will of the Holy Spirit Himself throughout the Christian age. But we hold that none of these manifestations are essentially connected with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that the concerned believer may receive the Spirit in His fullness without speaking in tongues or any miraculous manifestation whatever.417
The Alliance’s official policy states that tongues are a legitimate spiritual gift but not necessarily the evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit. The dictum of “seek not, forbid not” became the Alliance’s official policy on tongues.
Simpson’s and the early Christian and Missionary Alliance’s openness to the pentecostal movement and the gift of tongues made them unusual among early leaders in the evangelical movement. G. Cambell Morgan, an important Bible teacher and preacher at this time, called the movement “The vomit of Satan.”418 Torrey proclaimed that it was “emphatically not of God, and founded by a Sodomite.”419
In 1912, Harry Ironside denounced the pentecostal movement in his book Holiness, the False and the True, where he described the pentecostal movement as “superstition and fanaticism of the grossest character find a hotbed among ‘holiness’ advocates. Witness the present disgusting ‘Tongues Movement,’ with all its attendant delusions and insanities.”420 Ironside goes on to say that the result was lunacy and infidelity.421 Oswald Chambers, speaking of the pentecostal movement, said, “In the modern tongues movement the responsibility is with the teachers. May God have mercy on them!”422 Pierson, another leader in the holiness movement who was integral in the Third Great Awakening, also had a less-than-positive outlook on the pentecostal revival. Blumhofer wrote of Pierson:
Arthur Pierson shared Torrey’s concern over an emphasis on glossolalia; in two articles in the Missionary Review of the World, he cautioned readers against unduly coveting this gift. Tongues speakers seemed to him to be too often unsuccessful in separating the genuine from the spurious. He noted a tendency among Christians to become too absorbed in “Holy Spirit manifestations” and warned that overemphasis on the Spirit might “hinder His revelation of Christ.”423
Pierson was less critical than many of the others. Simpson, as one of the leaders in the holiness movement, seemed to be the most open to the pentecostal movement, except in his rejection of the “evidence doctrine.”
Simpson’s influence is seen in the very beginning of the pentecostal movement with his impact on Parham and Ozman. Many of the leaders of the pentecostal movement came out of the Alliance. The early pentecostal leaders adopted Simpson’s Fourfold Gospel. Nienkirchen observes that
Donald Gee, the astute British Pentecostal leader and theologian credits Simpson with originating the slogan, “Fourfold Gospel” observing the Pentecostals adopted it for their own purposes by substituting the baptism of the Holy Spirit for sanctification. Gee bemoans the lack of attention given to holy living in the Pentecostal Assemblies and prefers to have “a fivefold gospel [including] sanctification [to] a fourfold gospel without it.”424
Many of the pentecostal leaders were trained at Simpson’s Missionary Training Institute at Nyack, New York. Of those who served as missionaries with the Assemblies of God, the largest number had come as alumni of Nyack.425 Many of the most educated men and women of the pentecostal movement came out of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.426 It is interesting to note that a number of Simpson’s hymns were adopted by the early pentecostals, even though these songs were very difficult to sing.427 Gary McGee, a pentecostal theologian and a professor at the Assemblies of God graduate school, wrote:
The Assemblies of God has a marvelous heritage, and part of it is traced back to the ministry of A. B. Simpson, the Alliance and the school at Nyack. Through these means the Spirit of the Lord prepared a surprising number of leaders to guide the Assemblies of God in the early years. In addition, these leaders, both men and women, brought with them sound Bible teaching on salvation, the deeper life of the Spirit, divine healing, the second coming of Christ and the importance of world evangelization.428
Carl Brumback, an Assemblies of God Church historian, states that the pentecostal movement owes the Christian and Missionary Alliance a sevenfold debt:429
Doctrines borrowed from the Alliance; 2) the hymns of Simpson; 3) the books of Simpson, Pardington, Tozer and others; 4) the terminology “Gospel Tabernacle” which when supplemented with “full” became a popular name for churches among Pentecostals; 5) the polity of the early Alliance Society, after which the Assemblies of God was styled; 6) a worldwide mission vision; and 7) numerous leaders converted and trained in Alliance circles.430
Simpson and the early Alliance had a tremendous impact on the pentecostal movement. It can be said that Simpson was one of the forerunners of the movement.
Although Simpson did not accept the “evidence doctrine,” he is still looked on with respect and admiration by the pentecostal movement for the early influence he had on the movement. Simpson’s writings are still popular today in pentecostal circles. Nienkirchen makes an astute comment on Simpson’s impact on the pentecostal movement: “A. B. Simpson’s life and teaching embodied several of the strains of spiritual awakening that flowed through the second half of the nineteenth century and ultimately emptied into the river of pentecostalism.”431 Simpson’s impact on the pentecostal revival was integral, and his important influence is still being felt today in both the pentecostal and charismatic movements.
The holiness movement was an integral part of the Third Great Awakening. Most of the leaders in the Awakening were also leaders in the holiness movement. They saw the necessity of being filled with the Holy Spirit to not only live a holy life, but also to evangelize and see the revival spread. Evangelism and holiness went hand in hand in the spread of the revival. Simpson was one of the leaders of the holiness movement and helped spread the message with his emphasis on Christ the Sanctifier. From the holiness movement, the pentecostal movement was born. The pentecostal and charismatic movements ultimately eclipsed the holiness movement in the twentieth century. Those in the pentecostal movement would look to Simpson as one of their forerunners. From the holiness movement emerged the divine healing movement. At holiness conventions and camp meetings, there would be a divine healing service, and the divine healing movement grew and spread to became an important part of American Christianity.
The next chapter will look at the divine healing movement and its influence on the Third Great Awakening.
316. Smith, Revivalism and Social Reform, 142.
317. Ibid., 62.
318. Wesley, Letters of John Wesley, 222.
319. Ibid., 268.
320. Wesley, Works of John Wesley, 432.
321. Ibid.
322. Riss, Survey of Twentieth-century Revival Movements, 17.
323. Gundry, Five Views on Sanctification, 21.
324. Ibid., 27–28.
325. Ibid., 37.
326. Ibid.
327. Ibid., 32.
328. Anderson, Vision of the Disinherited, 28.
329. Hardman, Seasons of Refreshing, 172.
330. Anderson, Vision of the Disinherited, 28.
331. Synan, Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States, 30.
332. Riss, Survey of Twentieth-century Revival Movements, 18.
333. Orr, Fervent Prayer, 142.
334. Riss, Survey of Twentieth-century Revival Movements, 18–19
335. Dieter, Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Century, 49.
336. Ibid., 50.
337. Ibid., 49.
338. Smith, Revivalism and Social Reform, 113.
339. Wacker, “Holy Spirit and the Spirit of the Age,” 48.
340. Smith, Revivalism and Social Reform, 113.
341. Blumhofer, Restoring the Faith, 32–33.
342. Ibid., 33.
343. Ibid.
344. Gundry, Five Views on Sanctification, 153.
345. Ibid., 154–55.
346. Ibid., 155.
347. Barabas, So Great Salvation, 84. Barabas, in his seminal work on the Keswick movement, gives the following definition of the Keswick message. It comes from the original “call” of the convention, a “Convention for the Promotion of the Practiced Holiness.” He writes:
In the very first issue of The Christian Pathway to Power, the editor stated what he conceived to be the practical possibilities of faith. ‘We believe the Word of God teaches that the normal Christian life is one of uniform evident victory over sin; and that no temptation is permitted to happen to us without a way of escape being provided by God, so that we may be able to bear it.’ Keswick has never departed from this faith. From the beginning until the present it has been taught that a life of faith and victory, or peace and rest, are the rightful heritage of every child of God, and that he may step into it . . . ‘not by long prayers and laborious effort, but by a deliberate and decisive act of faith.’ It teaches that the normal experience of the child of God should be one of victory instead of constant defeat, one of liberty instead of grinding bondage, one of ‘perfect peace’ instead of restless worry. It shows that in Christ there is provided for every believer victory, liberty, and rest, and that this may be obtained not by a life-long struggle after an impossible ideal but by the surrender of the individual to God, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (ibid.).
348. Dieter, Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Century, 158.
349. Blumhofer, Restoring the Faith, 40.
350. Anderson, Vision of the Disinherited, 29.
351. Riss, Survey of Twentieth-century Revival Movements, 20.
352. Dayton, Theological Roots of Pentecostalism, 78–79.
353. Anderson, Vision of the Disinherited, 37.
354. Gilbertson, Baptism of the Holy Spirit, 312.
355. Simpson, Four-Fold Gospel, 28.
356. Ibid., Wholly Sanctified, 39.
357. Hartzfeld and Nienkirchen, Birth of a Vision, 8–9.
358. Ibid., 116.
359. Bailey, Best of A. B. Simpson, 8.
360. Ibid., 14.
361. Ibid.
362. Ibid.
363. Blumhofer, Restoring the Faith, 34.
364. Ibid.
365. Blumhofer and Balmer, Modern Christian Revivals, 132.
366. Ibid.
367. Ibid., 133.
368. Ibid.
369. Ibid.
370. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture, 94.
371. Hartzfeld and Nienkirchen, Birth of a Vision, 279.
372. Ibid., 287.
373. Simpson, Holy Spirit, 1:3.
374. Ibid.
375. Thompson, A. B. Simpson, 110.
376. Ibid., 111.
377. Ibid.
378. Ibid., 107.
379. Gilbertson, Baptism of the Holy Spirit, 180.
380. Thompson, A. B. Simpson, 112.
381. Taylor, Global Missiology for the 21st Century, 119.
382. Thompson, A. B. Simpson, 105.
383. Gilbertson, Baptism of the Holy Spirit, 49–50.
384. Ibid., 4.
385. Ibid., 42.
386. Simpson, Holy Spirit, 1:7.
387. Blumhofer, Assemblies of God, 31.
388. Synan, Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States, 101.
389. Ibid.
390. Ibid.
391. Ibid.
392. Hartzfeld and Nienkirchen, Birth of a Vision, 127.
393. Ibid.
394. Riss, Survey of Twentieth-century Revival Movements, 27.
395. Wacker, Heaven Below, 6.
396. Synan, Century of the Holy Spirit, 4.
397. Wacker, Heaven Below, 232.
398. Ibid.
399. Ibid., 235.
400. Hardman, Seasons of Refreshing, 243.
401. Riss, Survey of Twentieth-century Revival Movements, 72.
402. Wacker, Heaven Below, 8.
403. Riss, Survey of Twentieth-century Revival Movements, 72.
404. Ibid., 72–77.
405. Ibid., 77.
406. Gilbertson, Baptism of the Holy Spirit, 229.
407. Tozer, Wingspread, 133.
408. Hartzfeld and Nienkirchen, Birth of a Vision, 125.
409. Ibid., 125–26.
410. Wacker, Heaven Below, 43–44.
411. Ibid., 43.
412. Synan, Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition, 164.
413. Ibid.
414. Blumhofer, Restoring the Faith, 104.
415. Ibid.
416. Ibid.
417. Ibid., 105.
418. Synan, Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition, 144.
419. Ibid.
420. Ironside, Holiness, the False and the True, 38.
421. Ibid., 39.
422. Chambers, Biblical Psychology, 225.
423. Hart, ed., Reckoning with the Past, 298.
424. Hartzfeld and Nienkirchen, Birth of a Vision, 128–29.
425. Ibid., 129.
426. Wacker, Heaven Below, 152.
427. Blumhofer, Assemblies of God, 61.
428. Hartzfeld and Nienkirchen, Birth of a Vision, 128.
429. Ibid., 129–30.
430. Ibid., 130.
431. Ibid.