July 11, 2023
Origin stories seem to be all the rage. The landscape of modern cinema is rife with them, from “The Rise of the Planet of the Apes”, to “The Hobbit”, to “Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith”, to “Iron Man”. And almost every large business franchise has its humble beginnings chronicled on their websites. Take Chick-fil-A® for example:
“S. Truett Cathy opened a tiny diner called the Dwarf Grill (now known as The Dwarf House® restaurant) in Hapeville, Georgia. It was in this diner where Truett developed the signature original Chick-fil-A® Chicken Sandwich and the quality service for which the familyowned business is known.”
It certainly appears that people are fascinated with how a person or organization came to be.
Our Discipline wonderfully shares the origin story of the EMC … “The Evangelical Methodist Church came into being to preserve the distinctive doctrines of primitive Methodism, founded upon the inspiration and authenticity of the Bible ... ” (¶11) Those words are rich with meaning! Our founders simply refused to compromise the truth about the unique nature of the Bible as the truly inspired WORD OF THE LORD. They suffered great personal hardship, walking away from pensions and pulpits rather than accept and preach a watered-down version of truth.
It is wonderful that some new organizational offshoots of Methodism are now forming to try to re-capture a firm reliance on conservative theological thought, but Dr. Hamblen, Dr. Vargas, Dr. Haggard, Dr. Vanderwood and many others sacrificially formed the EMC in 1946, and stood firm in a time when it was not so popular, and certainly more costly to do so.
Here’s more of our story … feel free to pass it on: “We share not only an honorable history but also a biblical faith. Point by point our Articles of Religion connect us with the doctrinal teachings of the apostolic church. We are Trinitarians, and we believe in the inspiration, the inerrancy, the authority, and the relevancy of the whole Bible, being persuaded it is the Word of God. We believe in the depravity of the human race and its resultant condemnation. We also believe in a salvation obtainable only through faith in the redemptive death of Jesus the Christ and the regeneration resulting from His bodily resurrection. We believe in and teach the necessity of a second experience of God’s amazing grace, the infilling of God the Holy Spirit, cleansing the heart from self-interest and empowering the believer to live a holy life.” (EMC Discipline ¶131)
Dr. J. H. Hamblen believed and shared that the founding of the Evangelical Methodist Church was a “Divine miracle.” He believed, as we still do, that God brought the EMC into existence in order for us to champion the basic elements of genuine heart-holiness and true Scriptural Christianity.
In a video captured in 1971 at our 25th anniversary celebration, Dr. Hamblen shared his confidence in our founding, and in our future.
Click here for a downloadable 2-minute segment of Dr. J. H. Hamblen's address
