Holiness Baptist Association

The Holiness Baptist Association is a Holiness Pentecostal body of Christians with Baptist historical roots.

Holiness movement

In 19th-century America, the Holiness movement developed out of the Methodist emphasis of the Wesleyan teachings of holiness. John Wesley taught that holiness (also known as entire sanctification or Christian perfection), was a definite and instantaneous second work of grace received by faith. Methodists, including those in the holiness movement, equated entire sanctification with baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Early in the 20th century, some in the Holiness movement also embraced Pentecostalism, which taught a third work of grace, whose outward sign was speaking in tongues. Holiness Pentecostals taught that it was the third work of grace, not the second work of grace, that was the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Those in the holiness movement (such as the Free Methodist Church and Church of the Nazarene) were critical of the Holiness Pentecostals for this reason and rejected the Parhamian-Seymourian doctrine of speaking in tongues.