From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson AJTomlinson Headshot.jpg A.J. Tomlinson Born Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson September 22, 1865 Westfield, Indiana Died October 2, 1943 (aged 78) Cleveland, Tennessee Occupation General Overseer Religion Pentecostal Christian Spouse(s) Mary Jane (Taylor) Tomlinson Children Halcy Tomlinson, Homer A. Tomlinson, Iris Tomlinson, Milton A. Tomlinson Ordained Christian Union (Camp Creek, North Carolina), later known as the Church of God of Prophecy Congregations served North Cleveland Church of God, Cleveland, TN Offices held General Overseer, Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) (1903–1923) General Overseer, Church of God of Prophecy (1903–1943) Title Bishop Ambrose Jessup (A.J.) Tomlinson (Sept. 22, 1865–Oct. 2, 1943) a former Quaker, united with the Holiness Church at Camp Creek in 1903. With his drive, vision, and organizational skills, he was elected the first general overseer of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) in 1903. He also served as the first president of the churchs Lee College, later known as Lee University (1918–1922). In 1923, Tomlinson was impeached, causing a division which led to the creation, by followers of Tomlinson, of what would become the Church of God of Prophecy.[1][2][3] Contents [hide] 1 Early life 2 Conversion 3 Influences 4 Early ministry 5 Ministry in the Church of God 6 Legacy 6.1 Children 6.2 Writings 6.3 Biographies 6.4 Religious impact 7 References Early life[edit] A.J. Tomlinson was born to a prominent Quaker family near Westfield, Indiana. His grandparents, Robert and Lydia Tomlinson, left the Society of Friends in 1843 over the issue of abolition, and joined a separatist anti-slavery Society of Friends. A year later, in 1844, A.J. Tomlinsons parents, Milton and Delilah (Hiatt) Tomlinson, were disowned from the Society of Friends for not having their marriage sanctioned by the Friends, and for neglecting church attendance. Milton and Delilah Tomlinson never regularly attended Quaker services after that, hence their children including A.J. Tomlinson were not raised attending church.[4][5] Milton Tomlinson, together with his brother Noah, was a successful businessman in a variety of ventures spanning farming, road-building, saw-mills, and bridge building. Milton Tomlinson was also active in Republican Party politics.[6] A.J. Tomlinson was the only son born to Milton and Delilah Tomlinson. He had eight sisters, three of whom died in childhood,[7] and one half-sister, named Abigail, from his father Miltons first marriage. (Miltons first wife, Hannah, had died giving birth to Abigail). Five of his sisters were older than A.J. Tomlinson, to whom he looked up to as a child.[8][9] A.J. Tomlinson was born significantly under-weight, so small that as an infant he was carried on a pillow.[10] His mother, concerned over his small size and the care he would require is said to have prayed If this child is never going to amount to anything let him die. He is such a care. If Thou hast something special for him to do, heal him up and let him live..[11] A.J. Tomlinson survived but was never as tall or physically robust as his father. In 1880 A.J. Tomlinson suffered a bout with cholera, an illness which claimed the life of his sister Emily one year later. A.J. Tomlinsons own illness was severe enough to cause him to miss a third of a school year. Nevertheless as a child A.J. Tomlinson enjoyed athletics and was particularly successful at footraces. He was also gifted academically and was encouraged to practice writing at home by his father.[12] A.J. Tomlinson graduated grammar school at the age of seventeen and immediately enrolled in the local Quaker academy, Union High School, in Westfield, Indiana, a town known for its religious and racial diversity. His first year at Union, during the winter of 1882-1883, the Quaker evangelist William Wooton held an extended meeting at a local church, during which some 100 of Tomlinsons classmates were converted. Tomlinson, while experiencing deep conviction, was not himself converted.[13][14] As a teenager Tomlinson began engaging in Republican Party politics (although later, at the age of 27 in 1892, Tomlinson ran unsuccessfully for county auditor under the banner of the Populist Party (a political movement closely tied to the ideals of holiness Christianity), after which he quit politics altogether). As a teenager Tomlinson also belonged to a local literary society, and performed briefly in a drama troupe, besides continuing to work on the family farm. At the age of 23, in 1889, A.J. Tomlinson married Mary Jane Taylor, herself an active Quaker and member of the Walnut Ridge Monthly Meeting, where a significant holiness revival (the Great Walnut Ridge Revival) had occurred in 1867.[15] Conversion[edit] At the age of twelve, two years after the death of both his paternal grandparents, Robert and Lydia Tomlinson,[16] A.J. Tomlinson had his first religious experience, as told in his brief autobiography, Answering The Call Of God: One day while father and myself were alone in the field a mile from home, sawing a large log with an old-fashioned Hoosier cross-cut saw, I heard my name called, and thought father spoke to me. It was my familiar, family, pet name, but father said he did not speak it. In a few minutes I heard the same voice and the same name. Again father said he did not say a word. I was in a state of wonder. After a stillness of several minutes the voice spoke again, with that familiarity that is only recognized by the closest family ties. Father still said he did not call me not speak my name. I was mystified, and although I never spoke to a soul about it, and father never said anything about it, it was enough to awaken a nature that had never been touched before, and it was awakened to never sleep again.[17] Shortly after his marriage in 1889, Tomlinson experienced salvation after a bolt of lightning struck his home during a severe thunderstorm. Again Tomlinson recounts the episode in his autobiography, Answering The Call Of God: The first year of my married life I was one day engaged in hauling hay from one of those large Indiana meadows. A storm came up, and the men and myself hurried in to the barn with what hay we had on the wagons. I ran on to the house so Mary would not be by herself during the storm. It was a very severe storm, with much lightning and heavy thunder. Suddenly a heavier peal of thunder than usual sounded so as to almost deafen us. Wife suggested that the lightning had struck the barn, but I said, No, dear, its the house. I saw the flash of lightning as it crashed down the chimney, out through the cook stove, and burst out through the ceiling and weatherboarding of the house only a few feet from where I was sitting. No serious damage was done, but it had an effect on me. That evening after supper I said to Wife, Its time for us to pray, so I got the Bible someone had given her (up to that time I did not care anything about the Bible) and read a few verses, and down we went to prayer. No doubt I was very awkward, but I was sincere. I meant everything I said. Wife had been a Christian for some time, and could pray, but it was my first experience in that way. Nothing much was accomplished that night, but I never let up until I got a real experience of salvation.[18] Influences[edit] After his conversion A.J. Tomlinson became active in the local Quaker church, the Chester Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends, that had been founded by his grandfather Robert. The area was frequented by many prominent holiness Quaker evangelists (such as Seth Cook Rees) and biblical scholars (such as Dougan Clark, Jr.). The area also welcomed fiery revivalists (such as Charles Stalker), and Quakers in Chester Preparative openly associated with Methodists (such as Nathan and Esther Frame). As such, A.J. Tomlinsons earliest religious influences followed the evangelical Quaker holiness teachings of Joseph John Gurney. In particular, holiness Quakers embraced emotional preaching, religious ecstasy, entire sanctification, aggressive evangelism, and the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian Perfection. Holiness Quakers also adopted the Methodists use of tent meetings and extended revivals, techniques which A.J. Tomlinson himself would employ later in ministry.[19] However, in the late nineteenth century, holiness Quakers did not practice water baptism, in contrast to most other holiness sects of the time.[20] Nearby Indianapolis, Indiana was home to several other noted holiness evangelists at the time, most importantly Thomas Nelson before he moved to Pennsylvania and came out of the Free Methodist Church. Later in ministry Tomlinson interacted directly with Nelson, but he may have begun to be influenced by Nelson in the early 1890s.[21] Tomlinsons next major influence came from the Methodist colporteur J.B. Mitchell. A convert of the Presbyterian revivalist Charles Finney, Mitchell tutored Tomlinson and took him on trips to distribute religious literature (provided by the American Bible Society) to impoverished areas of southern Appalachia beginning in the summer of 1894. The areas they visited included Culberson, North Carolina, (where Tomlinson and Mitchell established a Christian school and orphanage in 1899), and Camp Creek, North Carolina (where Tomlinson first met R.G. Spurling and W.F. Bryant, the founders of the Holiness Church at Camp Creek with whom he would unite in 1903).[22] On December 3, 1896, Tomlinson received official authorization from the Quaker Westfield Monthly Meeting to engage in an extended missionary trip. During the summer and fall of 1897, he visited a variety of missionary and biblical training grounds across eighteen different states. Most importantly, he visited Frank Sandfords Holy Ghost and Us Bible School in Durham, Maine, where he was baptized in the Androscoggin River on October 30, 1897—a significant departure from Quaker teachings.[23] During this period many prominent Quaker evangelists, including Martin Wells Knapp and Frank Rees, began to leave the Quaker denomination in favor of independent ministries. Frank Sandfords Shiloh movement typified such independent holiness churches, and Sandford forcefully encouraged his followers to leave their old denominations, as Sandford himself had left the Free Will Baptist denomination under which he was ordained and had pastored. Sandfords admonitions had a direct effect on A.J. Tomlinsons decision to formally remove himself from the Society of Friends in May 1898 (just weeks after his wife Mary Jane had removed herself, citing the issue of water baptism) and briefly consider Sandfords movement as his spiritual home. Sandfords Bible school would at first serve unofficially as an umbrella organization to Tomlinson and Mitchells Christian school and orphanage in Culberson, North Carolina, but moreover it served as its model, in terms of holiness teachings, communal living arrangements, unquestioned top-down hierarchical leadership, and reliance on faith for finances, material provisions, and healing.[24][25] Early ministry[edit] As early as 1891 Tomlinson took an interest in home missions (a term referring to the intended evangelism of people within the borders of the USA, as opposed to foreign missions which intended to evangelize people oversees). Holiness Quakers actively supported both home missions and foreign missions. [26] Following a series of holiness revivals in and around Westfield, Indiana between 1891 and 1892, in which the doctrine of entire sanctification was preached by evangelists including Jacob Baker, John Pennington, Emma Coffin, and Nathan and Esther Frame, A.J. Tomlinson prayed through to his own sanctification experience,[27] which he relayed in his autobiography Answering The Call Of God about twenty years after the experience: It was about twelve oclock in the day. I cried out in the bitterness of my soul: Now! Now! Youve got to give it up now! Now! I felt him begin to weaken and quiver. I kept the Sword right in him and never let go. That sharp two-edged Sword was doing its deadly work. I did not pity him. I showed him no quarters. There we were at that altitude when all of a sudden there came from above, like a thunderbolt from the skies, a sensational power that ended the conflict, and there lay the old
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