Harrison Keely, Church of God International Headquarters in Cleveland, Tennessee, 2023. CC BY-SA 4.0.
1886 to today · The churches · Featured Study
The Church of God (Cleveland)
A Pentecostal church of the Holiness line with its offices in Cleveland, Tennessee.
The church's first paper, printed at Cleveland on 1 March 1910, took its title from Zechariah's evening light.
It will be a day known only to the LORD, without day or night; but when evening comes, there will be light.
- Began
- 19 August 1886 in Monroe County, Tennessee, as the church dates itself
- Bodies
- The Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), The Church of God of Prophecy
The church's first paper, printed at Cleveland on 1 March 1910, took its title from Zechariah's evening light.
Summary
The Church of God grew from a Christian Union of eight people in Tennessee in 1886. It confesses tongues as the first evidence of the Spirit's baptism.
- Its two present-day histories differ on when its people first spoke in tongues.
- Its Declaration sets holiness before the baptism in the Spirit.
- A schism divided it into two churches.
The Texts of Its Paper and Its Declaration
The texts come from Acts 2, Acts 10 and John 13.
Two of these verses stood on the masthead of the church's first paper, and two stand behind words of its Declaration of Faith.
On the masthead
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
The masthead of the first issue carried this verse.
Acts 2:1BSB
For they heard them speaking in tongues and exalting God. Then Peter said,
The masthead carried it beside the account of Pentecost.
Acts 10:46BSB
In the Declaration of Faith
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
The Declaration's words on tongues “as the Spirit gives utterance” echo this verse.
Acts 2:4BSB
So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
The Declaration keeps the washing of the saints' feet that Jesus gave here.
John 13:14BSB
Acts 2:4, John 13:14
The Church's Branch of the Pentecostal Family
From Barney Creek in 1886 to the parting of 1923.
The Church of God grew from a Christian Union of 1886 and divided in 1923 into two churches.
1886 to 1896
- The Christian Union at Barney Creek1886
- The revival at the Shearer Schoolhouseten years after, by the church's count
1902 to 1907
- The Holiness Church at Camp Creek15 May 1902, by the Prophecy history
- The International General Assembly1906, the church's history
- The name Church of God1907, the General Assembly
1910 to 1923
- The Evening Light and Church of God Evangel1 March 1910
- The Church of God (Cleveland)the parting of 1923
- The Church of God of Prophecythe parting of 1923
Today
- The Pentecostal churchesthe wider family
The dates come from the church's own history and from the history of the Church of God of Prophecy.
How the Church Began at Barney Creek
The church's present-day history and that of the church that left it in 1923.
The church dates its beginning to 19 August 1886, in Monroe County, Tennessee, near the North Carolina border. Richard Green Spurling, a former Baptist, preached in a millhouse along Barney Creek.
Eight persons formed a Christian Union there, the church's history says, “for the purpose of following the New Testament as their rule for faith and practice.”
Ten years later, by the church's count, a revival at the Shearer Schoolhouse in Camp Creek, North Carolina, brought the teaching of sanctification. It met severe persecution, and the church's history says its Holiness believers then knew an outpouring that “included speaking in tongues and divine healing.”
The church's history gives no year for that outpouring. Both church histories date the name Church of God to 1907, the year the General Assembly adopted it.
The account of the Church of God of Prophecy3 paragraphs
The Church of God of Prophecy tells the early years as its own. It says R. G. Spurling and W. F. Bryant organized the Holiness Church at Camp Creek on 15 May 1902, and that A. J. Tomlinson, a Quaker minister, visited the congregation on 13 June 1903.
It says that at the third General Assembly, in January 1908, G. B. Cashwell, a preacher from Azusa Street, preached on Spirit baptism. Tomlinson and others then received the baptism with speaking in tongues, by that account.
The two accounts leave open when the church's people first spoke in tongues. The Church of God's history places it after the revival of 1896, and the Church of God of Prophecy's places it with Tomlinson in January 1908.
The Truth They Keep: Holiness, Then the Spirit
Holiness before the Spirit's coming.
The church keeps the Holiness teaching its first believers learned at the Shearer Schoolhouse, and its Declaration of Faith sets that teaching in order.
The Declaration of Faith
Five of the Declaration's articles, in its own words.
The Declaration confesses the Trinity, two works of grace and tongues as the first evidence of the Spirit's baptism.
| The article | Its words | Its place in the order |
|---|---|---|
| God | One God “eternally existing in three persons” | The God the church confesses |
| Sanctification | “subsequent to the new birth” | The second work of grace |
| The baptism with the Holy Ghost | “subsequent to a clean heart” | After sanctification |
| Tongues | “In speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance and that it is the initial evidence of the baptism in the Holy Ghost.” | The sign of the baptism |
| The ordinances | the Lord's Supper and the “washing of the saints’ feet” | Kept by the gathered church |
The Church's Government and Its Two Bodies
The General Assembly of 1906 and the two churches after 1923.
Under A. J. Tomlinson, its first General Overseer, the church adopted a central government with an International General Assembly in 1906. It began schooling its ministers and members in 1918.
Since 1923 the Church of God of Prophecy has kept the early history as its own.
Where the Church Went
Cleveland by 1910 and the Bahamas from 1909.
The church's paper was printed at Cleveland, Tennessee, by 1910.
The church dates its world evangelization to the Bahamas in 1909. The Church of God of Prophecy says Edmund S. Barr, a Bahamian baptized in the Spirit in Florida, went there in November 1909.
The Schism of 1923
A. J. Tomlinson and his followers left the church he had led.
The history of the Church of God of Prophecy records “a significant schism” within the Church of God in 1923. It led to the separation of A. J. Tomlinson and his followers, who became the Church of God of Prophecy.
Neither church's history gives the cause of the schism. The Church of God's General Assembly minutes of those years are the record that would tell it.
After the division Tomlinson's followers founded the White Wing Publishing House and printed the White Wing Messenger.
Books to Read Next
The Evening Light and Church of God Evangel, volume 1, number 1
A. J. Tomlinson, editor · 1910
Tomlinson edited it as the voice of the church.
Free at the Internet ArchiveDeclaration of Faith
The Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) · read 2026
The church's own statement of what it believes.
Free at the Church of GodWhat the Church Handed On
The Church of God handed on the Holiness teaching of a clean heart before the Spirit's coming. Since 1923 it and the Church of God of Prophecy each tell its first years as their own.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible (read 2026)
- The Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), Declaration of Faith (read 2026)
- The Evening Light and Church of God Evangel, volume 1, number 1 (Cleveland, Tennessee, 1 March 1910), A. J. Tomlinson, editor.
- The Church of God of Prophecy, Our History (read 2026)
Keep Studying
People and groups1
Doctrines6
Subjects1
Church history2
Values1