05/26/2026
The Church of the Nazarene confesses itself to be a branch of Christ's "one, holy, universal*, and apostolic" church, embracing as its own the history of God's people recorded in the Old and New Testaments and God's people through the ages, in all expressions of Christ's church. Our denomination receives the creeds of the first five Christian centuries as expressions of its own faith. We identify with the historic church in preaching the Word, administering the sacraments, maintaining a ministry of apostolic faith and practice, and inculcating the disciplines of Christlike living and service. Our denomination heeds the Biblical call to holy living and entire devotion to God, which we proclaim through the theology of entire sanctification.
Our Christian heritage was mediated through the 16th-cnetury English** Reformation and 18th-centurgy Wesleyan revival. . . . The Wesleyan revivals theological landmarks were: justification by grace through faith; sanctification, or Christian perfection, likewise by grace through faith; and the witness of the Spirit to the assurance of grace. John Wesley's distinctive contributions included an emphasis on entire sanctification as God's gracious provision for the Christian life. . . . In North America, the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1784 "to reform the Continent, and to spread scriptural Holiness over these Lands."
A renewed emphasis on Christian holiness developed in the mid-19th century. . . The Church of the Nazarene was born from the impulse to unite many of these [new holiness churches, urban missions, and missionary associations] into one holiness church.
- from the Historical Statement in the Manual*** of the Church of the Nazarene.
*The traditional rendering is "catholic." "Universal" is used in order clarify the meaning of "catholic" and to alleviate any confusion with the Roman Catholic Church.
**Also known as the Anglican Reformation.
***Our version of what, in Methodist/Wesleyan circles, is often called the Book of Discipline
