Centennial Notes

Year: 1879
Iowa Holiness Association formed

It was through the ministrations of the Iowa Holiness Association that Benjamin Harden Irwin was won to the holiness ranks. Unsatisfied as a lawyer, B.H. Irwin then decided to enter the ministry and was ordained by the Baptist Church. In the early 1890s, Irwin came into contact with one of the "Bands" of the Iowa Holiness Association and was convinced about the reality of the second blessing. The Iowa group formed in 1879.⁽¹⁾

Irwin devoured the works of John Wesley, but became more interested in John Fletcher, Wesley's successor in the English Methodist Societies. Irwin was especially impressed with John Fletcher's Checks to Antinomianism. According to his reading of Fletcher, many early English Methodists testified to an experience beyond salvation and sanctification which they called "the baptism of burning love."

Should you ask, how many baptisms, or effusions of the sanctifying Spirit are necessary to cleanse ... I should betray a want of modesty if I brought the Holy Ghost ... under a rule ... if two or more be necessary, the Lord can repeat them.⁽²⁾

Published in Way of Faith by 1895, Irwin constructed the doctrine of a "third blessing" for those who had already been sanctified. This was the baptism of the Holy Ghost and with fire, or simply the baptism of fire. This would be the enduement of power from on high through the Holy Spirit.⁽³⁾

Setting aside the Way of Faith and The Guide, J.H. King declared that Irwin's 1899 Live Coals of Fire was the first publication in the nation to teach that the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire was subsequent to sanctification. While perhaps not imitating the exact turn of phrase, other North Americans preceded Irwin in this basic concept.⁽⁴⁾

In 1895 the controversy in Iowa over the new doctrine [Irwin's third blessing] became so heated that Reid and the older leadership of the Iowa Holiness Association invited Irwin and his followers to disassociate themselves from the organization. Irwin then quickly formed a local chapter of Fire Baptized Holiness Association to counter the negative influence of the older group. The first such organization was effected at Olmitz, Iowa in 1895.⁽⁵⁾

A call was made for a general council of his organization to meet July 28 to August 8, 1898 in Anderson, South Carolina. Irwin designated the Anderson meeting the First General Council of the Fire-Baptized Holiness Association. The government was a totally centralized autocracy with the General Overseer chosen for life. He in turn had absolute power to appoint all state "Ruling Elders," as well as to make all pastoral appointments.⁽⁶⁾

J.H. King would later describe Irwin as a man of brilliant intellectual powers, a magnetic personality, an ardent nature, a bold, fearless soul and a disposition which made it natural and easy for him to throw himself whole-heartedly into any task he might choose to undertake.⁽⁷⁾

Campbell⁽⁸⁾ mentions that Irwin being General Overseer for life was included in the discipline passed by the 1898 conference. Although he knew J.H. King served as General Superintendent of the PHC for over 30 years, Campbell struggles with "why any intelligent group would have agreed to it," and then reasons that they had simply become accustomed to Irwin running things this way and felt it quite natural.

The following was included in the Constitution:

We believe also that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is obtainable by a definite act of appropriating faith on the part of the fully cleansed believer. We believe also that the baptism with fire is a definite, scriptural experience, obtainable by faith on the part of the Spirit-filled believers. We do not believe that the baptism with fire is an experience independent of, or disassociated from, the Holy Ghost.⁽⁹⁾

Irwin came to teach that beyond the baptism of fire there were other "fiery baptisms" which he designated by chemical names like dynamite, lyddite, and oxidite. The following is an account of a devotee who tried to relate the reception of at least six separate experiences:

August 1st, 1898, I was pardoned of my sins. On the following Sunday at 11 o'clock, God sanctified me wholly. A few days later I received the Comforter. Later on in October, God gave me the Baptism of fire. The devil, and all the hosts of hell cannot make me doubt this. When my sister Mattie was married I fell into a trance, and saw a vision. During services a night or so afterwards, God showed me that I needed more power for service; so I made my wants known and prayer being offered my faith took hold of God's promises, and I received the Dynamite. A few nights after this I received the definite experience of Lyddite.⁽¹⁰⁾

It is documented that Charles Fox Parham met up with Fire-Baptized enthusiasts in Topeka upon arriving in 1898 and encountered Irwin himself at some point before 1901. Mr. & Mrs. John Linhirt, Mary Linhirt, and Noah Hershey were part of Irwin's 1899 traveling party that accompanied him to the second general council of the Fire-Baptized Holiness Association (1899).⁽¹¹⁾ The first two issues of Live Coals of Fire described an 1899 crusade in Moonlight, Kansas hosted by local Fire-Baptized ministers which brought in Irwin, Martin, Porter, and Dull, among others. The initial report covered nearby Abilene. Irwin could have known about tongues-speech through at least Daniel Awrey, but too many gaps exist to detect particular scenarios.⁽¹²⁾ Yet to be explored adequately is to what extent Agnes Ozman represents a synthesis of these same influences. Ozman-LaBerge evidenced at least a kinship to Frank Sandford by recounting her time with Dowie, classes at Nyack with Stephen Merritt and an evangelistic excursion into Old Orchard, Maine. This 1890s exposure preceded the rupture between Simpson and Sandford. Menzies argues that Ozman-LaBerge, who affiliated with the Fire-Baptized after Topeka, had Fire-Baptized contact prior to 1900. After her xenolalic pneumabaptism at Bethel Bible College, she was part of a group that started out for Shiloh, Maine but stopped short.⁽¹³⁾