Centennial Notes

Year: 1911
Fire Baptized Holiness and Pentecostal Holiness Church merged in Falcon, NC; S.D. Page elected first general superintendent.

The PHC considered Cashwell's paper to be its semi-official organ during its early years. PHC ministers G.F. Taylor and A.H. Butler served as corresponding editors and major contributors, as did leaders of other denominations, including J.H. King and A.J. Tomlinson. While Cashwell was barnstorming the South, Taylor and Butler took over the local leadership of the PHC and--working closely with King and his FBHC organization--conducted further revivals, opened a holiness school in Falcon, and eventually oversaw a formal merger of the PHC and the FBHC in 1911.⁽⁵⁹⁾

PHC adopted the widespread view that the movement that started with Azusa to be the "latter rain," a comparative reference to the "early rain" found in the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit fell on the apostles at the first Pentecost and they spoke in various languages. With an introduction by J.H. King, G.F. Taylor published the first extended theological defense of Pentecostalism in 1907, and both men stressed that Pentecostalism and its central doctrine of tongues was the next stage in the continual quest for a more spiritual Christian life. For Taylor, the tenets of Pentecostalism were so important that it was worth dividing the holiness movement; the "most pious and deeply spiritual people of the land" were seeking their Pentecost, while holiness preachers who were jealous of their loss of prestige fought against it. Taylor considered religious criticism of Pentecostalism to be misguided and based on an erroneous interpretation of the Bible, and he denounced and dismissed such critics as being unwitting allies of the devil. Taylor wrote that "God, in His mercy, has enabled me to see the unscriptural teachings . . . appearing in the prominent holiness papers and . . . pulpits," and he proceeded to refute them point by Scriptural point.⁽⁶⁰⁾

Taylor's judgments echoed those rendered by Cashwell in his Bridegroom's Messenger editorials. Cashwell claimed that Pentecostals followed the truth that could not be disproved based on the Scriptures, and he argued that the new movement had shown the unbelief and insincerity of a number of holiness leaders. Concerning the holiness and Methodist ministers who opposed Pentecostalism, Cashwell responded: "It is awful how the devil will work to destroy the Word of God but he can't do it."⁽⁶¹⁾

On January 30, 1911, in the octagon-shaped Pentecostal Holiness Church building at Falcon, North Carolina, duly elected delegates met for the purpose of effecting a consolidation between the Pentecostal Holiness Church and the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church. Such was accomplished by the close of the following day. The name of the smaller church, Pentecostal Holiness Church, was accepted for the new union.⁽⁶²⁾