Christ's Sanctified Holy Church is an association of churches established primarily on the principle that salvation is accomplished by two separate works of the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The first work of grace is repentance toward God, or asking for forgiveness of the sins that we have committed. The second work is the baptism of the Holy Ghost, or sanctification
, which is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, eradicating the nature of sin. Christ's Sanctified Holy Church has roots in Methodism and in the Holiness Movement in the last half of the nineteenth century. In 1887, on Chincoteague Island, Virginia, a group of people were convinced that they, though living in a state of forgiveness before God, could not be saved without sanctification. Through reading the Bible and through prayer, they sought and obtained this second blessing of sanctification. They started to proclaim this message to others in their church and community. In 1892, they organized themselves into Christ's Sanctified Holy Church. Through their evangelistic efforts, their message immediately spread to neighboring communities on the eastern shore of Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland. Others believed and were sanctified. In 1895, a group of people from Christ's Sanctified Holy Church left the eastern shore of Virginia and Delaware to begin an evangelistic effort to spread the message of sanctification. Their initial travels extended from Maryland to North Carolina and by the end of the decade, to South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Others were sanctified and joined in the evangelistic efforts. By 1905, meetings were held in cities of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and the western states of Colorado and California. As the church grew, other groups formed and carried on the evangelistic efforts to many other places in the United States. These travels continued on a broad scale for the first half of the twentieth century. After that time, permanent churches were established by the believers in all of the states of the southeastern United States.
