Church of The Nazarene - Denominational Name

Denominational Name

The current name of the denomination is inherited from the one of its primary antecedent groups, the Los Angeles, California based Church of the Nazarene founded in October 1895 by Dr. Phineas F. Bresee and Dr. Joseph Pomeroy Widney. The name of the denomination comes from the biblical description of Jesus Christ, who had been raised in the village of Nazareth (and was regarded consequently as "a Nazarene"). In the New American Standard Bible translation, Jesus is called the Nazarene in Matthew 2:23; Mark 10:47; Mark 14:67; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:19; John 18:5; John 18:7; John 19:19; Acts 2:22; Acts 3:6; Acts 4:10; Acts 6:14; Acts 22:8. Consequently, the denominational name focuses on Jesus who was "The Nazarene". Additionally, the followers of Jesus were initially called "Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5), a term perhaps used by Jesus himself. According to Church of the Nazarene archivist Dr. Stan Ingersol:

The Hebrew name for 'Jesus,' derived from 'Joshua,' was common in first-century Palestinian Judaism, so 'Jesus of Nazareth' specified which Jesus, and Acts references the early Palestinian Christians as followers 'of the Nazarene' and 'the sect of the Nazarenes.' The term 'Christian' developed outside Palestine, in Syria according to Acts, in conjunction with the mission to the Gentiles. It is derived from 'Christos,' a Greek translation of the Hebrew 'messiah' or 'anointed one.' As Gentile Christianity spread through the Mediterranean basin, Jesus became known as Christ and references to 'the Nazarene' diminished. Nineteenth and early 20th century European writers produced numerous biographies of Jesus, re-popularizing the term 'Nazarene' and setting the stage for how the Church of the Nazarene received its name.”

In 1895 the name of the denomination was first recommended by Dr. Joseph Pomeroy Widney, a former president of the University of Southern California and an influential figure in the early days of the Church of the Nazarene on the West Coast, where with Bresee, he was elected as a general superintendent for life. Ingersol indicates: "Other proposed names included various uses of 'Methodist'". Widney explained that the name had come to him one morning after spending the whole night in prayer. He said that the word "Nazarene" symbolized "the toiling, lowly mission of Christ. It was the name that Christ used of Himself, the name which was used in derision of Him by His enemies, the name which above all others linked Him to the great toiling, struggling, sorrowing heart of the world. It is Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth to whom the world in its misery and despair turns, that it may have hope" The denomination started as a church that ministered to the homeless and poor, and wanted to keep that attitude of ministering to "lower classes" of society.

At the First General Assembly that united Bresee's denomination with the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America in October 1907, the denominational name that emerged was the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene, reflecting the ancestry of both denominational tributaries. At the subsequent General Assembly (held in October 1908 at Pilot Point, Texas), which saw the merger with the Holiness Church of Christ, which was subsequently regarded as the natal date of the denomination, the 1907 decision was upheld.

The term "Pentecostal" in the church's original name soon proved to be increasingly problematic. In the Wesleyan-holiness movement, the word was used widely as a synonym simply for "holiness". However, since the rise of 20th century Pentecostalism, especially after 1906, there were new meanings and associations to the term — meanings that the Pentecostal Nazarenes rejected. Ingersol indicates: "he word was increasingly understood in reference to charismatic gifts like speaking in tongues, which Nazarenes never practiced or approved." At the fifth General Assembly held in Nashville in 1919, in response to resolutions from thirty-five district assemblies, the General Assembly voted to remove the word "Pentecostal" from the church name, leaving it simply "Church of the Nazarene." Consequently, since 1919 "the denominational name has been identical to that of its western parent-body — a name that originated because J. P. Widney read 'lives of Jesus' books, and his imagination had been captured by a strong personal vision of 'the Nazarene'."