Beliefs Concerning the Doctrine of Entire Sanctification Held by Lay Full Members of the Atlantic District of the Wesleyan Church
Publication Details
The purpose of this study has been to identify and describe the beliefs concerning the doctrine of entire sanctification currently held by lay full members of the Atlantic District of The Wesleyan Church. The Wesleyan Church has a rich heritage in Methodism and can trace its roots back to eighteenth century England and Methodism's founder, John Wesley. Wesley stressed the doctrine of entire sanctification and taught that all believers could experience a clean heart filled with perfect love in this life. This doctrine was successfully transplanted into early American Methodism and subsequently into The Wesleyan Church. The Atlantic District of The Wesleyan Church has not always been a part of this rich Methodist heritage. Until 1966, this district was an independent denomination known as The Alliance of The Reformed Baptist Church of Canada. The Reformed Baptists organized as a denomination in Woodstock, New Brunswick, November 3, 1888, as a result of the disfellowshipping of five ministers of The Free Christian Baptist Church for preaching and teaching the doctrine of entire sanctification. In July, 1966, The Reformed Baptist Church merged with The Wesleyan Methodist Church (now The Wesleyan Church) and became The Atlantic District of that denomination. The qualitative paradigm and case study design was selected as the most appropriate methodology for meeting the requirements of this study. A random sample of forty lay full members was selected from a representative case selected within The Atlantic District of The Wesleyan Church. Guided interviews were conducted with participants in order to determine their views on various aspects of the doctrine of entire sanctification. The data reveals that only 55% of lay full members in the representative case profess to be entirely sanctified. Seventy-two percent of participants state that preaching is the major contributor to their understanding of this doctrine. From the data it is also evident that there is a general lack of understanding of the doctrine of entire sanctification among lay full members of the representative case in The Atlantic District.
Physical Description: 179 pp.