When you hear the Nazarene, what comes to mind? What do you know about the Nazarene denomination?

When I first started going to a Nazarene church in Fargo, ND, some people thought it was a cult. They didn’t understand or really knew much about the Nazarene. Think about it: in North Dakota and Minnesota, more people belongs to the either the Catholic or Lutheran churches. In some area, the Nazarene denomination is small and people doesn’t know much about them.

Hopefully, this blog will give you enough information on the Nazarenes to show that they are not a cult.

Let’s go back to the time of Jesus and even before. Back then there was the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews weren’t suppose to mingle with the Gentiles for any reasons. The Gentiles were considered to be uncleaned. They weren’t suppose to married outside their Jewish faith.

During Jesus time on earth, He was accused by the Pharisees of associating with the uncleaned. You have to remember, Jesus came down to earth for all not just the Jews.

Even after Jesus’s death on the cross, the Apostles; such Peter and Paul not only ministered to the Jewish community, they ministered to the Gentiles as well.

Eventually, the Roman Catholic Church was founded. In the way, the Catholic had the same belief as the Jews. The Catholic wasn’t suppose to marry someone who wasn’t Catholic. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church expelled Martin Luther; thus he created the Lutheran Church because of it.

Mother Theresa was famous for ministering to the Leper colony in Calcutta, India; like Jesus have associated with when He was on the earth.

Now there are many different denomination out there. Yet we are all a member of the family of God. It doesn’t matter what church you may belong to.

The Nazarene, as in the New Testament applied to Jesus and later to those who followed his teachings. A Nazarene is a Protestant denomination deriving from the merging of 3 holiness groups, stressing sanctification, and following Methodist polity.

The Nazarene denomination was founded in the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s by an evangelist by the name of Phineas Bresee. He was a Methodist before forming the Nazarenes.

The Nazarenes came about because of a revival that led to the break of from the Methodist church. The Methodist was founded by John Wesley.

When it comes to baptism, they usually wait until someone comes to accept the Lord and choose to be baptized on their own. They believe that when a person is baptized, they are submerge in water; and not sprinkled like the Catholic and Lutheran.

The Nazarene doesn’t practice speaking in tongues but do not deny that gift that some may have. They are a Holiness church that believed in sanctification.

In some part of the country, the Nazarene Churches are more prominent and known. For example, if you go to Indianapolis, you will find more Nazarene churches; since that was where they first started.

I was first baptized as a baby in the Catholic Church. Later on, when I became a teenager, I was confirmed Lutheran. So I was raised with the old time religion. In a way, you say the Nazarene was in my blood; because my grandmother was a Methodist before marrying my grandfather, who was a Catholic.

Today there are many Nazarenes churches around the world; not just the United States. They preached the Bible and teach it’s values.

I remembered years ago after going to revival service in the Nazarene church and went home to visit the Rollag Lutheran church the weekend afterward. It was like being high on the mountain because of the revival and being thrown off the mountain after being in the Lutheran church. The church felt spiritually dead to me. I don’t know if anyone else experience anything like that.

Now days churches are dropping their denomination name from their names to attract more people. So a person may wonder what they believe or practice. They may wonder if they are a cult or what.

The Nazarene is not a cult as some may think. They are a Protestant church, a Holiness church. They are a Bible preaching/teaching church.

It doesn’t matter what church you belong to. All that matter is that they preached the Bible and follow it teachings. We all are God’s children. There is no Jews or Gentiles. There is no Catholic or Protestant. We are all one body, the body of Christ. We are all brothers and sisters in the Lord; no matter what church or denomination you may belong to.

My mother thinks that denomination and churches are the same thing. They’re different!

If we’re Christians, we would love as Jesus Christ first loved us. Let us not be like the Jews in the Old Testament and when Jesus was on this earth. Let us not be like the Catholic Church as well. Let us love one another despite of our religious belief.

That is what the Nazarenes believes and practiced. Sure there are people who may comes across as self-righteous hypocrite. Not everybody is like that though.