Finished Work

The Finished Work is a doctrine associated with Pentecostals of the Finished Work Pentecostal tradition, that locates sanctification at the time of conversion; afterward the converted Christian progressively grows in grace. This is contrary to the Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification that locates complete sanctification in a definite second work of grace which Holiness Pentecostals (Methodistic Pentecostals) teach is a necessary prerequisite to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The term finished work arises from the aphorism "It's a Finished Work at Calvary", referring to both salvation and sanctification. Though the term is used within Pentecostal Christianity, it is not exclusively a Pentecostal doctrine. The doctrine arose as one of the "new issues" in the early Pentecostal revivals in the United States. The dispute surrounding it was called the Finished Work Controversy which split the Pentecostal movement into Wesleyan and non-Wesleyan doctrinal orientations, known respectively as Holiness Pentecostals and Finished Work Pentecostals. When Holiness Pentecostalism, the earliest form of Pentecostalism, emerged as a distinct movement, it was through ministers with a Wesleyan-Holiness (Methodistic) background such as Charles Parham and William J. Seymour. The father of Methodism John Wesley advocated Christian perfection that held that entire sanctification was indeed a definite work that was to follow conversion (the New Birth). Wesley drew on the idea of theosis to suggest that sanctification would cause a change in motivation that if nurtured would lead to a gradual perfecting of the believer. Thus while it was physically possible for a sanctified believer to sin, he or she would be empowered to choose to avoid sin. Wesley's teachings and Methodism gave birth to the holiness movement, which sought to propagate the Methodistic doctrine of entire sanctification (Christian perfection). Most advocates within the holiness movement, in accordance with Methodist theology, taught that sanctification had both instantaneous and progressive dimensions.