The history of the Church of God (Anderson) begins in 1881 with
Daniel Sidney Warner and several others. Warner had been a member of
John Winebrenner's
General Eldership of the Church of God, whose members were called Winebrennerians. He differed with the Winebrennerians on the doctrine of
sanctification, which he held to be a
second definite work of grace, and on the nature of the church. The desire of Warner and the others was to forsake denominationalism and
creeds. To this end, they determined to trust in the
Holy Spirit as their guide and the Bible as their creed. Warner's vision was that the Church of God would "extend our hand in fellowship to every blood-washed one", rather than align themselves with a movement. From its beginnings, the Church of God had a commitment to
pacifism and
antiracism. The Church of God held that "interracial worship was a sign of the true Church", with both whites and blacks ministering regularly in Church of God congregations, which invited people of all races to worship there. As time went on the Church of God maintained their stance on pacifism, but as
World War I was erupting across
Europe, the church's stance began to soften. When German Church of God congregants were drafted into the army, the
Gospel Trumpet began running letters submitted about the conditions of training camps and on the battlefields. While encouraging their readers to pray for the German soldiers, the
Gospel Trumpet made no reference to the apparent contrast between supporting the war effort and encouraging pacifism. As the
United States entered World War I, the
Gospel Trumpet restated the church's official stance of pacifism but also reminded their congregants that they supported the authority of the
state and should comply with local laws concerning the
draft. There were articles published to help a pacifist request non-combat duty if they were drafted. For those who decided to volunteer, the church reported that the volunteer would not lose their salvation but would have to answer to God concerning their actions during the war. Strege writes that as the war waged on, "there occurs in print no condemnation of those who entered the army—whether German or American—and there is no questioning of their religious commitment". The Church of God pacifist stance reached a high point in the late 1930s. The Church regarded World War II as a just war because America was attacked. Sentiment against Communism (which advocated for
state atheism in the
Eastern Bloc) has since kept strong pacifism from developing in the Church of God.
Developments in holiness standards The Church of God continues to see itself as a direct outgrowth of the original teachings of D.S. Warner's ministry that began the movement in the 1880s. Warner believed that every group of organized churches who had an earthly headquarters and an earthly creed, other than the Bible, was a part of
Babylon. He and his later followers taught that God had restored the light of Christian unity in 1880. The Evening Light ministry became known as "
come outers" because they traveled from town to town preaching that all of the saved needed to "come out of Babylon" and worship together in one place rather than being separated by creeds, dogmas and doctrines of men. The Reformation Ministry (another name for their ministry) believed that false Christianity was the
harlot woman in the
book of Revelation. The ministry further believed that the harlot woman was a symbol of
Roman Catholicism and that her daughters were a symbol of
Protestantism. As an example of their emphasis on the nature of the true Church, the slogan of the Church of God paper, "One Voice", almost became "On Becoming the Church". The Evening Light Ministry of 1880-1915 believed that they taught the whole truth of Scripture and that they were setting the example for the true Church. In the process, they had placed a strong emphasis on what was seen as "holiness living." This led to a sense that certain cultural practices then common in late nineteenth and early twentieth America were out of bounds for the "sanctified Christian." Adherents saw it as non-conformity to the world, that is, that Christ had called them out of the "worldliness" around them, both internally and externally. Some re-thinking began in 1912 when men were permitted to wear long neck ties. By the 1950s, the movement no longer forcefully taught against the immodesty of
mixed bathing (swimming) among the sexes or the addition of a television to the home. These twentieth century changes focused on the idea that the internal transformations of holiness deserved far more emphasis than debates over its proper outward manifestation, such as styles of dress and some forms of worship. In his 1978 work for the Church,
Receive the Holy Spirit, Arlo Newell addressed his view of the nature of holiness for Christian living, emphasizing its internal requirements. Expressing the still dominant view in the Church of God, Newell stated that "holiness centers in completeness. Christ was and is the perfect sacrifice, none other need ever be made. Every believer in Christ has entered into the 'everlasting covenant,' and the extent of the work of redemption is limitless." Emphasizing the point, Newell went on to give a definition of the man who is holy. He noted that "the holy man is the whole man, integrated, harmonized within by his supreme, inclusive purpose to realize in himself and others the moral image of God revealed in Christ, God incarnate." Thus, as the movement increasingly de-emphasized the importance of external manifestations of "
holy living," teaching against the following list of practices, while still valued by some, is no longer emphasized by the Church of God: • against outward adornment: wedding rings, ear rings, lipstick on women, or following "worldly fashions" (there is still an emphasis by some on "modesty", i.e. non-ostentatiousness in such things) • women should always refrain from wearing clothing that pertains to men, e.g. pants • women should not cut their hair but instead grow it long and men should keep their hair short • ministers should not receive a set salary The
Church of God (Guthrie, Oklahoma), a body in the
conservative holiness movement, was created in the 1910s as a result of
schism with the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) over wanting to maintain traditional standards of
outward holiness. ==Statistics==