Bishop Charles Harrison Mason | |
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Successor | O. T. Jones Sr. |
Personal details | |
Born | |
Died | November 17, 1961 Detroit, Michigan, US | (aged 95)
Spouse | Alice Saxton 1890–1892 (divorce) Lelia Washington 1905–1936 (her death) Elsie Washington 1943–1961 (his death) |
Occupation | Senior Bishop, Church of God in Christ, Chief Apostle, Pastor and Evangelist |
Bishop Charles Harrison Mason Sr. (September 8, 1866 – November 17, 1961) was an American Holiness–Pentecostal pastor and minister.[1][2] He was the founder and first Senior Bishop of the Church of God in Christ, based in Memphis, Tennessee. It developed into what is today the largest Holiness Pentecostal church denomination and one of the largest predominantly African-American Christian denominations in the United States.[1][3]
Charles Harrison Mason was the charismatic holiness preacher, prophet, and founding father of the largest Holiness-Pentecostal body in the United States—the Church of God in Christ.
Those who resisted Durham's teaching and remained in the 'three-stage' camp were Seymour, Crawford and Parham, and Bishops Charles H. Mason, A.J. Tomlinson and J.H. King, respectively leaders of the Church of God in Christ, the Church of God (Cleveland) and the Pentecostal Holiness Church. Tomlinson and King each issued tirades against the 'finished work' doctrine in their periodicals, but by 1914 some 60 percent of all North American Pentecostals had embraced Durham's position. ... The 'Finished Work' controversy was only the first of many subsequent divisions in North American Pentecostalism. Not only did Pentecostal churches split over the question of sanctification as a distinct experience, but a more fundamental and acrimonious split erupted in 1916 over the doctrine of the Trinity. ... The 'New Issue' was a schism in the ranks of the 'Finished Work' Pentecostals that began as a teaching that the correct formula for baptism is 'in the name of Jesus' and developed into a dispute about the Trinity. It confirmed for Holiness Pentecostals that they should have no further fellowship with the 'Finished Work' Pentecostals, who were in 'heresy'.
The controversy led to the emergence of three-step Holiness Pentecostal denominations (the Church of God, Cleveland, TN; the Pentecostal Holiness Church and the Church of God in Christ) and two-step, Finished Work denominations (the Assemblies of God and the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada).