History of the Korean Holiness Church

Background

The Holiness Church is a denomination that emerged from the Holiness movement, which arose within and around American Methodism in the nineteenth century. It emphasizes the perfectionism of John Wesley, the teaching that Christians can be set free from sin and become entirely holy. The parent body of the Korean Holiness Church is the Oriental Missionary Society (OMS), which was founded in Tokyo in 1901 by the American missionary Charles Cowman and his wife, the American Ernest Kilbourne, and Nakada Jūji of Japan. The society evangelized by opening "Gospel Mission Halls" and trained local evangelists at the Tokyo Bible Institute.

Development

• 1907: Kim Sang-jun and Jeong Bin, graduates of the Tokyo Bible Institute, returned to Korea in May. On May 30 the two opened the "Oriental Missionary Society Gospel Mission Hall" at Yeomgok in Gyeongseong (in what is now the Jongno area of Seoul). This event marks the beginning of the Korean Holiness Church.
• 1911: On March 13 the Gyeongseong Bible Institute was established within the mission hall. Later known as Gyeongseong Theological Seminary and then Seoul Theological Seminary, the school became the present-day Seoul Theological University.
• 1914: Kim Sang-jun, Lee Jang-ha, Kang Tae-on, Lee Myeong-jik, and Lee Myeong-heon became the first ministers of the Holiness Church to be ordained.
• 1921: With Kilbourne's arrival in Korea, a denominational structure was established under the name "Joseon Jesus Church Oriental Missionary Society Holiness Church."
• 1930s: Some ministers who objected to the church hierarchy and to missionary control left the denomination and founded the "Church of God." This group reportedly joined the Korea Nazarene Church in 1948.
• 1943: The Japanese colonial authorities regarded the Holiness Church's doctrine of the Second Coming as incompatible with the emperor-centered kokutai (national polity). On these grounds they arrested more than 300 ministers and lay leaders in May and forcibly dissolved the denomination on December 29.
• 1946–1949: After liberation, the General Assembly was reconstituted in April 1946. In 1948 the church adopted a representative presbyterial polity, and at the April 1949 General Assembly it changed its name to the "Korea Evangelical Holiness Church."
• 1950–1953: During the Korean War, many churches were destroyed, and ministers and church members were killed or abducted to the North.
• 1961: The denomination split over its membership in interdenominational bodies. According to the records of the Korea Evangelical Holiness Church, when a motion to withdraw from the NCC (now the National Council of Churches in Korea) was defeated at the 16th General Assembly, leaders aligned with the NAE (National Association of Evangelicals) walked out. In December of that year they organized the Jesus Korea Sungkyul Church in Busan. The Jesus Korea Sungkyul Church describes this separation as a decision to defend the truth of the gospel against the ecumenical movement centered on the World Council of Churches (WCC) and against liberal theology.

Outcomes and Influence

After the schism, the Korea Evangelical Holiness Church withdrew from the NCC and sought reunification, and a considerable number of churches that had belonged to the Jesus Korea Sungkyul Church reportedly returned. Full reunification, however, was never achieved. The Jesus Korea Sungkyul Church established itself as a separate body with its own seminary, founded by Kim Eung-jo in 1962 (now Sungkyul University). Today the Korean Holiness tradition is represented chiefly by the Korea Evangelical Holiness Church and the Jesus Korea Sungkyul Church. Both denominations hold the Fourfold Gospel—regeneration, sanctification, divine healing, and the Second Coming—as the pillars of their faith.

Assessment

Because it was first established by Korean evangelists, the Holiness Church describes itself as an "indigenous denomination." It has become one of Korea's major denominations, to the extent that it is grouped with the Presbyterian and Methodist churches under the abbreviation Jang-Gam-Seong. Its dissolution in the final years of Japanese rule on account of its belief in the Second Coming is remembered as a chapter in the history of the Korean church's suffering. The 1961 schism is also cited as an example of the WCC controversy dividing a denomination.