Check.Church

Holiness

The Holiness movement grew inside Methodism from the 1830s and produced its own denominations from 1843: the Wesleyan Methodists, the Free Methodists, the Salvation Army, the Church of the Nazarene and others. Large sectors adopted Darby's dispensational premillennialism, and out of this matrix Pentecostalism was born.

On the tree

The Holiness family and the bodies it separated from or was organized out ofAD 33today1004314511054153417291784183518431860186518951897The post-apostolic church (The spine)The post-apostolicchurchThe spineThe conciliar church (The spine)The conciliar churchThe spineThe Chalcedonian church (The spine)The Chalcedonian churchThe spineRoman Catholicism (Catholic)Roman CatholicismCatholicChurch of England (Anglican)Church of EnglandAnglicanMethodism (Methodist)MethodismMethodistMethodist Episcopal Church (Methodist)Methodist EpiscopalChurchMethodistThe Holiness movement (Holiness)The Holiness movementHolinessWesleyan Church (Holiness)Wesleyan ChurchHolinessFree Methodist Church (Holiness)Free Methodist ChurchHolinessThe Salvation Army (Holiness)The Salvation ArmyHolinessChurch of the Nazarene (Holiness)Church of the NazareneHolinessPilgrim Holiness Church (Holiness)Pilgrim Holiness ChurchHoliness

Solid lines are separations and unions; dashed lines are renewals that began inside a body; dotted gray lines are national organizations of one communion; a diamond marks a fork event where neither side is drawn as the one that left. Every line runs back to the post-apostolic church; no body descends from the assembly of Acts 2.

Bodies in this family

  1. The Holiness movement1835–1867 · continued

    The 19th-century revival of Wesley's doctrine of entire sanctification, organized around camp meetings from Vineland (1867); its 'come-outer' wing produced the Holiness denominations, and its matrix produced Pentecostalism. Large sectors adopted J. N. Darby's dispensational premillennialism — a documented line from Brethren teaching into this cascade.

  2. Wesleyan Church1843

    Methodist abolitionists under Orange Scott left the MEC in 1843, grounding immediate emancipation in Wesleyan perfectionism; the 1968 merger with the Pilgrim Holiness Church produced the present Wesleyan Church.

  3. Free Methodist Church1860

    Founded by B. T. Roberts and John Wesley Redfield on abolition, free pews, and second-blessing holiness after Roberts's expulsion from the MEC — 'free' for freed slaves, free seats, and freedom in worship.

  4. The Salvation Army1865–1878

    The Booths' holiness mission to the urban poor, reorganized on quasi-military lines in 1878; distinctive for not practicing the sacraments and for women's ministry from the start (Catherine Booth, influenced by Phoebe Palmer's Promise of the Father).

  5. Church of the Nazarene1895–1908

    The largest Holiness denomination, formed by the successive union of eastern, western, and southern holiness bodies between 1895 and 1908 around the doctrine of entire sanctification and ministry to the poor.

  6. Pilgrim Holiness Church1897–1922 · merged

    A Holiness body that formed around Cincinnati at the end of the nineteenth century and took the Pilgrim Holiness name in the 1920s. In 1968 it merged with the Wesleyan Methodist Connection to form the Wesleyan Church, the merger the dossier records.

Research compiled July 2026. Page data built 2026-10-10.