An amalgam is a mixture of different elements that are combined into something new. For example, dentists historically combined elemental mercury with a powdered mixture of silver, copper, tin or zinc to create a hard and durable filling for a tooth. It is the intent of this essay to demonstrate that William Irvine did not found the 2×2 Fellowship in a historical vacuum, nor did he introduce a fundamentally new model of Christianity. Rather, he inherited a diverse body of antecedent theological ideas and ministerial practices, various elements of which he combined into what became the 2×2 Fellowship. This is not a new concept, as Cherie Kropp-Ehrig has already said, “William Irvine adopted elements from a variety of pre-existing movements and sources in formulating his independent belief system” (CKE, 99). The 2×2 movement instead emerged from his appropriation of several interconnected streams of thought that had been developing within 19th Century Protestantism for more than two centuries; for example, Kevin Daniel has pointed out that, from its early inception, “Irvine adopted wholesale much of the peculiar terminology and the initial structure for his new sect from the Faith Mission organization and from Pentecostal and Evangelical movements, such as the Keswick Conventions movement then current.” (KD, 171)

Irvine’s “initial success may have been somewhat due to his being in a fortunate time and place. He raised his voice to protest against the religious beliefs and practice, social conditions and values of the late Victorian Britain” (CKE, 101). It has become my opinion that this is exactly what happened - the development of the 2×2 Fellowship is actually integral to the sociological and religious climate of his time. Ultimately, his particular contribution was not the creation of the “one true church” but rather a borrowed synthesis (or amalgam) of multiple influences, some direct and others indirect. These influences will be reviewed individually below, followed by an attempt to show how Irvine merged them into the 2×2 Fellowship. Most of these connections are clearly identifiable, a few are necessarily more tentative or even speculative.

PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL PRECURSORS

Protestant Reformation (1517 A.D.) - this cataclysmic event shifted the focus from institutional (Roman Catholic) authority to individual, faith-based salvation which diminished the traditional power of the Christian church in everyday life. The Reformation established a pattern of appealing directly to Scripture that provided the theological foundation for William Irvine to conclude that he, of all people, was called to “restore” the New Testament church.

Age of Enlightenment (1685 A.D.) - emerged in Europe as an intellectual movement that emphasized the power of human reason and the ability of individuals to discover truth independent of inherited authority or tradition. The Enlightenment's elevation of individual reason over inherited authority helped validate the notion that a single individual like William Irvine, guided by his own interpretation of Scripture, could found a new movement claiming to restore the original New Testament Church.

Pietism (1675 A.D.) - developed in Germany as a reaction against what was perceived as the Lutheran Church’s overly intellectual dogma. They emphasized the shifting of the focus from intellectual comprehension of correct doctrine to a felt, lived experience. They believed that true faith required a conscious, emotional personal wiedergeburt (“New Birth”) conversion emphasizing a deeply personal relationship with God instead of simply reciting a creed. They promoted using the Bible for personal devotion and practical life application instead of creating more complex ecclesiastical doctrines. Methodist John Wesley (see below) was inspired by his encounters with Moravian Pietists and incorporated many of their themes such as the emphasis on saving grace into his teachings. Wesley also took from the Pietists the practice of building small groups (called classes or bands) for lay participation, which included Wednesday night meetings. Cornelius Jaenen said that in the years prior to the founding of the 2×2 Fellowship “the ground had been tilled, so to speak, by a number of ‘seekers’ for spirituality” (CJ, 518). Through its lasting influence on nineteenth-century evangelicalism and revivalism, Pietism with its emotional emphasis on holy living and skepticism toward institutionalized religion helped prepare the theological soil in which William Irvine's vision of restoring a more simple, apostolic Christianity eventually took root

First Great Awakening (1730-1740s) - a series of Protestant revivals that swept through the American colonies and Britain during the 18th Century. Preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley emphasized a heartfelt faith with the necessity of personal spiritual conversion, and they taught that the authority of Scripture commanded more than mere formal religious observances. Edwards’ famous sermon on the terror of hell entitled Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is an example of their emphasis on having an intense, emotional connection with God. Unlike the second related revival 50 years later, their focus was mainly on reforming existing churches. By popularizing itinerant preaching and more participation by the laity, the First Great Awakening laid important foundations for the revivalist traditions that eventually shaped William Irvine's ministry

Wesleyan Doctrine of Christian Perfection (1739-1760) - John Wesley began his Christian journey within the Church of England. Along with his brother Charles and a small group of students at the University of Oxford, he formed a group that became derisively known as the “Holy Club” which emphasized disciplined spiritual practices, regular Bible study, prayer, fasting, and acts of charity in efforts to secure their salvation. Their methodical, and perhaps Pelagian, approach to Christian living in pursuit of perfection earned them the nickname "Methodists." In 1738 he had his famous Aldersgate Experience in which he experienced a “strange warming of the heart” which gave him a sense of spiritual assurance that God had taken away his sins and saved him. He came to believe that “peace and victory over sin are essential to faith in our Captain of our salvation”. His Methodist revival added momentum to the First Great Awakening’s influence and provided the Holiness Movement with the notion of a “second work of grace” which is a distinct spiritual event occurring after a believer’s initial conversion. These established evangelical patterns of itinerant preaching and practical holiness were transmitted through later 19th Century movements and ultimately contributed to the religious environment from which William Irvine emerged.

Scottish Common Sense Realism (1750s)- not a religious movement but rather a philosophy developed by Thomas Reid and widely taught throughout the English-speaking Protestant world. Scottish Common Sense Realism argued that ordinary people, using reason and “common sense”, could arrive at objective truth without reliance on overly philosophical pontification by intellectuals like Hume, Locke or Descartes. When applied to religion, Common Sense Realism encouraged the belief that any sincere believer could read Scripture without the interpretive guidance of clergy or a historic ecclesiastical tradition. As a result, this framework helped shape the Second Great Awakening and the Restoration Movement in efforts to strip away historical traditions in an effort to recover the beliefs and practices of the apostolic church. This in turn influenced the Holiness movement, the Faith Mission, and ultimately William Irvine's theological development in the founding of the 2x2 Fellowship with its rejection of creeds and denominational structures in favor of what it regarded as the plain, self-evident teaching of the New Testament.

Second Great Awakening (1790–1840s) - a Protestant revival movement originating in the United States that was much larger than the first. It placed even greater emphasis on free will and personal conversion. In America, at least, it was associated with large camp meetings and interdenominational revival meetings. Unlike the First Great Awakening, this movement led to the formation of many new denominations and Restorationist groups such as the Stone-Campbell Movement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and eventually influenced later Holiness and Adventist movements. The 2×2 Fellowship emphasis on restoring primitive Christianity and rejecting established denominations shows a philosphical connection here. “Irvine’s belief system also shared several characteristics found in other nineteenth century movements during that era’s resurgence in religious interest and vigor, sometimes known as the Second Great Awakening and the Missionary Movement” (CKE, 100)

Restorationism/Christian Primitivism - influenced by the Enlightenment and Scottish Common Sense Realism, Restorationism emerged during the late 18th and 19th centuries in conjunction with the Second Great Awakening with the belief that Christianity had departed from the faith and practices of the apostolic church. Restorationists argued that the New Testament alone provided a sufficient blueprint for the Church and sought to discard “later” traditions and church structures in favor of restoring primitive Christianity. It was during this time period that the Plymouth Brethren emerged in Dublin and then in Plymouth, England in the late 1820s. The Brethren rejected traditional clerical vestments and priestly ordination, and they sought to restore a simple, non-denominational fellowship meetings where any [male] member could speak as moved by the Holy Spirit. Other representative groups include the Glasites/Sandemanians who practiced weekly communion and enforced strict congregational autonomy. Their writings anticipated Alexander Campbell’s attempt to restore the simple patten of a New Testament church in the Stone-Campbell Movement. Other groups include the Haldanites and the Primitive Methodists who embraced believers' baptism and independent congregational governance. William Irvine later transformed this primitivist mindset into a particularly radical form, eventually teaching that the one true church could be re-established only by returning to what he believed were the beliefs and practices of the New Testament church. The resulting 2x2 Fellowship therefore reflected classic Restorationist themes including rejection of denominationalism (“we don’t have a name”), complete reliance on the New Testament (“what we believe is the Bible”), an itinerant ministry (“workers going 2×2”) and house meetings (“meetings in the home”). “Irvine’s experiment to restore the primitive New Testament church and to return to the faith and practices of the Apostolic Age was not a novel or uncommon approach” (CKE, 166). Kevin Daniel wryly notes the opinion of various Workers who claimed that “God allowed the original Two-by-Two group to go dormant at some vague time in the distant past and decided to resurrect it at some vague time in the nearer past” (KD, 180)

Ulster Revival of 1859 - although Irvine was too young to participate directly in the 1859 revival, its influence remained powerful in northern Ireland. Amid the lingering effects of the Great Famine and concern over declining morality, four young men in the city of Kells in Country Antrim began meeting weekly for bible study. The revival “went viral” through newspaper reports and cheaply published books and grew quickly, emphasizing repentance, evangelism, lay participation and missionary work. This shaped the evangelical environment in which Irvine matured. In his book The Apostles’ Doctrine and Fellowship, Cornelius Jaenen refers to the Ulster Revival of 1859 as an immediate religious influence on the development of the 2×2 Fellowship, calling it an “especially spectacular revival” that began among the “rural proletariat and factor workers of Ulster” (CJ, 517). The Ulster Revival of 1859 is considered by some to be the UK version of the American Third Great Awakening that began in the 1850s.

Holiness Movement(1870s) - The Holiness Movement emerged in the mid-nineteenth century from the Methodist tradition, building on the teachings of John Wesley whose doctrine of entire sanctification served as a theological bridge between the revivalism of the Second Great Awakening and the nineteenth-century Holiness Movement by transforming the Awakening's emphasis on spiritual conversion into a broader pursuit of complete sanctification and holy living. Historian Melvin Dieter says that "The holiness movement was 'so closely identified with traditional Methodism and Wesleyan doctrine and life that Methodist opponents of the revival were forced to distance themselves from Wesley and the standard authors of prevailing Methodist theology to re-solve the struggle with the holiness elements within the church”. Based on the influence of the Second Great Awakening, the Holiness movement taught that believers could experience Christian perfection after conversion, in which the Holy Spirit empowered them to live lives of victory over sin through wholehearted devotion to God. It emphasized personal piety, moral purity, evangelism, revival meetings, and practical Christian living. It gave rise to numerous Holiness denominations and strongly influenced later movements such as the Keswick Higher Life movement, the Faith Mission, Pentecostalism, and, indirectly, William Irvine's early ministry and the formation of the 2x2 Fellowship. “Many Faith Mission practices for daily living were applications of the Holiness Movement doctrine” (CKE, 99). Cherie Kropp-Ehrig also documents part of a sermon by Jack Carroll as follows: “If you don’t believe in sanctification, you are not in the Kingdom, are not yet a child in the Kingdom, and if you don’t believe in being wholly sanctified it is doubtful whether you have entered at all” (CKE, 100). Of course, the 2×2 Fellowship took the idea of Christian perfection and linked it directly to its distinctive legalisms as requirements for salvation. According to John Long, William Irvine preached that “every person can be saved and know it” (CKE 94).

Keswick Convention (1875) - began in Keswick, England as a distinct evangelical movement influenced by the American Holiness Movement. “The Impartial Reporter [newspaper] mentioned that Edward Cooney attended the Keswick Conventions held in July 1907, 1908, and 1909. Fred Wood and others claimed the early 2×2 Conventions were patterned after the Keswick Convention” (CKE, 67). While retaining the Holiness emphasis on sanctification, Keswick rejected the Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification and instead promoted the idea of the Higher Life, where the sinful nature is not completely eradicated but is controlled through daily surrender to the Holy Spirit, where the Holy Spirit counteracts the sinful nature. The slogan "Let go and let God" is probably a twentieth-century popularization rather than an original Keswick motto, but it accurately summarizes their emphasis on complete surrender to Christ and reliance upon the Holy Spirit for Christian living. Kevin Daniel writes, “Irvine adopted wholesale much of the peculiar terminology and the initial structure for his new sect from…evangelical movements such as the Keswick Convention movement then current” (KD, 169). Kropp-Ehrig echoes this, writing “there are many similarities in the conventions held by the Workers, Faith Mission and Keswick.” (CKE, 68)

Faith Mission (1886) - founded by John Govan as an interdenominational missionary group, William Irvine joined them in 1895. “Many Faith Mission practices for daily living were applications of the Holiness Movement doctrine” (CKE, 99). Govan was deeply inspired by the reports of his friends and brothers who had attended the 1884 Keswick Convention. According to his Familypedia entry, “He was inspired on hearing accounts of the Holiness movement from friends who had attended the Keswick Convention of 1884. With the goal of leading a life wholly devoted to God, he then set about removing all personal and worldly ambition from his psyche. After several months of this, one night he came to a point where he knew that his life had been changed forever.” Kevin Daniel writes that “Irvine borrowed freely from other mainstream groups in structuring his sect, lifting most of the terminology, structure and concepts (though not his heretical doctrines) verbatim from the mainline Faith Mission organization in Scotland” (KD, 77). So close were the similarities that when Irvine left the Faith Mission he appropriated so many of their practices that people were confusing Faith Mission Pilgrims with 2×2 Workers so often that Govan had to issue several statements to “set the record straight” (CKE, 65). One such statement from Govan implies that there was intentional deception on the part of the Workers to disguise themselves as being still affiliated with the Faith Mission, “we hear…some of these irresponsible workers have misrepresented and spoken against the Faith Mission, while taking personal advantage of it by…seeking the support of our Prayer Unions” (CKE, 66).

GENERAL INFLUENCES

Presbyterian Church - William Irvine was raised by Presbyterian parents and attended the Burns Free Church of Scotland in Kylsith. (CKE, 20). In 1843 there was a massive schism when 450 Presbyterian ministers broke away from the state-controlled Church of Scotland to form the independent Free Church of Scotland in what came to be called the Great Disruption. The new Free Church of Scotland was known for its conservative practices such as strict Sabbatarianism and the exclusive use of unaccompanied psalm-singing in worship. The avoidance of work and certain leisure activities on Sunday as well as a cappella singing of hymns persists in the 2×2 Fellowship to this day. The Free Church of Scotland is characterized, among other things, by its revivalist emphasis on Biblicism (belief in the sole and supreme authority of scripture), Conversionism (need for spiritual rebirth) and Activism (gospel proclamation and mission). It does not stretch the imagination to accept that Irvine’s formative encounters with religion contributed to his foundation of belief in the importance of spiritual rebirth through a personal conversion of heart and the necessity of true faith being actively expressed through missionary work, especially when it is remembered that his spiritual conversion occurred at the hands of Presbyterian evangelist John McNeill.

Glasgow Bible Training Institute (1893-1895) - after his abrupt spiritual conversion, William Irvine spent 2 years there from 1893-1895 (CKE, 18), The Bible Training Institute was founded in 1892 as an outgrowth of the evangelical campaigns of Dwight L. Moody and his musical partner Ira D. Sankey. Its focus was on training men and women for evangelistic and missionary service, emphasizing a more practical ministry rather than academic theology, and sought to reach the working classes with the gospel. Irvine’s education there exposed him to evangelical theology, Bible-centered preaching, missionary ideals, and practical ministry methods that shaped his work. As he wrote in a letter in 1920, “I benefited in the Bible Institute by getting to know the Book according to the teachings of the best and most holy and evangelical missionary people in the world” (quoted in CKE, 28).

Bible - the English-speaking 2×2 Fellowship uses the Cambridge edition of the King James Version (KD, 10) of the Bible almost exclusively (TTT). The KJV was produced in 1611 under the authority of the Church of England by a committee of scholars. its translators also drew on earlier English Protestant translations (especially those of William Tyndale, the Geneva Bible, and the Bishops' Bible). Therefore, Irvine's dependence on “worldly” religion was not only on a broader Protestant intellectual tradition but also on this single Bible translation.

Language - the Faith Mission “terminology was very similar to that of the 2×2s” (CKE, 68). William Irvine directly borrowed terms/phrases from Faith Mission books and publications such as “profess”, “made their choice”, “testimony”, “take part”, “fields”, “friends”, “laborers”, “workers”, “companions”, “entered and/or offered for the Work”, “conventions”, “meetings”, “test the meetings”, “special meetings”, “gospel meetings”, etc as Kropp-Ehrig notes that “the terminology Irvine employed for his movement were not unique” (CKE, 85).

Music - 117 of the 130 hymns in the first Go Preacher’s Hymn Book printed in 1909 were taken from outside the 2×2 Fellowship (TTT). This means that 90% of the 2×2 hymns came from “worldly” religions - this is the very essence of borrowing from external sources rather than having your own beliefs and infrastructure. Over half of this first hymn book relied on Methodist gospel composer Ira D. Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos and a collection from Redemption Songs: 1000 Hymns and Choruses which were written for “worldly” churches like the Plymouth Brethren and various other evangelical Protestant groups. By the time that the 1951 Hymns Old & New edition was published, the amount of hymns written by outsiders decreased to 33% (TTT). In general, over the course of their short history, the 2×2 Fellowship has acquired hymns from a wide variety of “daughters of Babylon” (as Worker Jack Carroll called them) including the Methodist/Wesleyan churches, Anglican Church, Presbyterian Church, Faith Mission, Baptist Church and even the Roman Catholic Church.

Holidays - most Restorationist Protestant movements of Irvine’s time rejected holy days (holidays) as divinely mandated based on the regulative authority of the New Testament, known as the Regulative Principle of Worship. Many leaders argued that the Apostles never commanded an annual observance of Easter or Christmas, for example. This view was especially common among the Plymouth Brethren, the Churches of Christ and other independent groups. Although customs vary world-wide within the 2×2 Fellowship, in general according the Telling the Truth website, Easter and Christmas “are not celebrated religiously”. Kevin Daniel gained possession of a “Dictionary of Dates” written by an unnamed 2×2 which contains the typical fundamentalist Protestant accusations of pagan influence on the creation of the Easter and Christmas holidays (KD, 274). National holidays are observed, however (KD, 17). This viewpoint and practice is consistent with my 2×2 upbringing, and it provides another example of how Protestant Restorationism would have had an influence on William Irvine.

Women in ministry - in the same year as the famous Ulster Revival of 1859, Methodist evangelist Phoebe Palmer wrote her bookThe Promise of the Father in which she presented a scriptural argument in favor God’s call for women to preach and teach in the church. Considered one of the key founders of the Holiness movement, her book was highly influential, arguing against the “relics of popery” in her exhortation directed toward the latest iterations of the Protestant church to do more to accept women in ministry. The Salvation Army, founded in 1854, “made notable inroads for women to become ministers” (CKE, 97) and one of its founders (Rev. William Booth) was a “godly example” to John G. Govan who later formed the Faith Mission (CKE, 32). Additionally, “women were vital to the China Inland Mission” (CKE, 97) which was founded in 1878, indicating that this influence extended well beyond Methodism into the Holiness and Higher Life movements from which organizations such as the Faith Mission and William Irvine emerged. “Accustomed to working with female preachers in Faith Mission, Irvine also accepted them” (CKE, 97) . Kevin Daniel noted that the majority of Workers are women, but also points out that they are “not allowed to rise to positions of authority in the hierarchy” (KD, 11)

Homeless/Itinerant ministry - itinerant ministry was not an innovation unique to the 2×2 Fellowship or even the 19th Century Restorationist movements. Even Cornelius Jaenen acknowledges this, saying “Itinerancy was not uncommon in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century British Isles” (CJ, 512). He mentions Anglican George Whitefield along with John and Charles Wesley through the Holy Club at Oxford University and adds that “the Methodists followed the pattern set by the Wesleys and Francis Asbury for several decades” before they “abandoned” it later(CJ, 512). The Plymouth Brethren were founded in the late 1820s, and Jaenen references Brethren men Anthony Groves and George Müller as two preachers who followed a path of a homeless ministry “in the early stages of the movement” (CJ, 512). John George Govan founded the Faith Mission in 1886 specifically to evangelize rural areas of Scotland and Ireland. The trained evangelists traveling in pairs, called Pilgrims, were intentionally kept mobile in order to move from village to village. Also, John Long was an independent evangelist bicycling from town to town “before Irvine, Cooney, Walker or any other worker” (CKE, 55).

It must be pointed out that the Catholic Church has been transferring parish priests under episcopal authority for over 1,000 years - they do not own homes, they stay in a house called a rectory where they live until they are moved to another parish, usually every 5-6 years. There are obvious limits to comparison to the 2×2 Fellowship of course, since the routine transfer of Catholic priests reflects pastoral administration, whereas Irvine's itinerant ministry was presented as a restoration of Matthew Chapter 10 of what he believed to be the missionary pattern of the New Testament. Also, for centuries the Catholic Church has founded numerous religious orders that were homeless (see below).

There is an interesting peripheral influence to consider here. When I first visited Ireland in 2001, I learned about a distinct cultural group of people known as Travellers (Mincéirs) who are a nomadic minority that diverged from the settled Irish population over 300 years ago. It is tempting to consider them as “gypsies”; however, they have no genetic connection to those Romani people. Their culture is characterized by isolated, close-knit family connections as they move around the country working as metalworkers, livestock and horse traders and providers of seasonal agricultural labor. There is no evidence that the Irish Travellers directly influenced the itinerant ministry of the Faith Mission or 2×2 Fellowship, as the Workers were patterned after Matthew Chapter 10, but their presence in the Irish countryside could have contributed to the broader cultural environment where using a ministry that was highly mobile appeared both practical and socially acceptable. Again, any correlation here is strictly speculation at best.

Unpaid ministers - the concept of unpaid preachers “was not a novel idea” (CKE, 53) and it “did not originate with Irvine’s ministers; many across the centuries have and continue to practice faith lines” (CKE, 105). The Faith Mission also incorporated the practice of “living by faith”. William Irvine spent five years as a Faith Mission Pilgrim and later he adopted this financial model with the formation of the 2×2 Fellowship, having the Workers rely strictly on the spontaneous hospitality and financial gifts of local followers as they traveled. 2×2 Workers have even scornfully referred to the ministers of worldly churches as “hirelings”. 30 years prior to the 2×2 Fellowship, the China Inland Mission founded in 1865 required that “its missionaries would have no guaranteed salaries, nor could they appeal for funds” (CKE, 53) and there is some speculation that Irvine may have interviewed them when he was initially deciding which group to affiliate himself with (CKE, 53).

Of course Roman Catholic Church mendicant preaching orders precede the 2×2 Workers by over 500 years. The friars of the Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelite and Augustinian orders own no property and survive by traveling to preach and serve the poor in towns. A particularly relevant example is seen in the 13th Century Franciscan order, which is named after Saint Francis of Assisi who abandoned his family’s wealthy textile fortune to live in rags and preach to the poor. In 1208 he had heard a homily preached during a Mass on February 24 at the Chapel of St. Mary of the Angels in Assisi, Italy. The sermon that so greatly changed his life was, oddly enough, preached about Matthew chapter 10. In Thomas of Celano’s bookThe First and Second Lives of Saint Francis written in 1229, Saint Francis is reported to have exclaimed, “This is what I want! This is what I'm looking for! This is what I want to do from the bottom of my heart!". One year later he traveled to Rome and received verbal approval for his new way of life from Pope Innocent III. Eventually all of these clerical orders were later formally recognized Second Council of Lyon in 1274 AD.

Cornelius Jaenen admits that among the Plymouth Brethren, founded some 70 years before the 2×2 Fellowship, “in the early stages of the movement indicate some awareness of the scriptural texts concerning evangelical poverty” (CJ, 512). Despite taking a vow of poverty, the Workers are supported financially in all aspects of daily living, “donations of which can be quite substantial in many fields” (KD, 12).

Celibate ministers - “The 2×2 policy regarding marriage of Workers shares similarities with that of Faith Mission. When a FM Pilgrim became engaged or married, s/he could not remain in the ministry” (CKE, 130). The vow that the workers took “resembled the three-fold vow taken by the Franciscan Friars of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience” (CKE, 120). There are many practical advantages to a celibate clergy. Unmarried ministers can relocate quickly as pastoral needs change. They can devote their whole attention to their ministry including greater time for prayer and study while avoiding what Paul called the “divided interests” (1 Cor 7:32-34) between family obligations and pastoral responsibilities. Of course, a celibate clergy has been a doctrinal discipline in the Western Rite of the Catholic Church for many centuries prior to the 2×2 Fellowship’s inception.

Untrained ministry - “Workers pride themselves in not attending seminaries, religious schools or receiving any formal theological training” (CKE, 98). The Glasgow Bible Training Institute was founded in 1892 as an inter-denominational, evangelical training center. Its core mission was to equip working-class converts with practical theological education to serve in international missions and local urban evangelism, and it explicitly rejected elitist theological education. It focused instead on equipping ordinary working-class individuals such as miners and shopkeepers with practical preaching skills; Rather than focusing on highly academic or intellectual theology, the institute trained ordinary working people (miners, shipyard workers, shopkeepers) in how to read the Bible and share their faith practically in their daily lives. In the early days of the 2×2 Fellowship it appears that one of the purposes of Convention was “to educate the ‘young workers’ many of whom may be diamonds, but they are diamonds in the rough state” (CKE, 77). From their core principles, Irvine adopted their evangelical faith with heavy emphasis on the authority of the Bible, personal conversion, practical discipleship and missionary zeal . To this day there is no formal theological training for Workers entering the ministry. Instead they rely on the “Spirit of God” to aid their pastoral efforts, “doctrine and practice being transmitted through observation of older Workers” (KD, 11).

Workers going out 2×2 - “Irvine grouped his Workers in same-sex pairs, as did Faith Mission” (CK pg 93). This practice is examined in more detail elsewhere on this site, see the essay “Matthew 10: The Commission to the Twelve”.

Military Service - the combination of Restorationism, primitivism, and radical discipleship led many earlier Protestant movements such as the Cristadelphians and some Plymouth Brethren groups to support the idea of “conscientious objector” status. Similarly, early Workers generally discouraged military service. This comparative example shows that a tendency toward pacifism was already a well-established conclusion reached by antecedent Restorationist movements before the 2x2 Fellowship emerged. Apparently there was a difference of American opinion during World War 2 regarding military service. In the West Jack Carroll left it up to the male Friends to decide, in the East George Walker “instructed 2×2 men to register as conscientious objectors, and most did so” (CKE, 261).

Dress/hair style - the 2×2 Fellowship originated in the United Kingdom, and Workers adopted with stern determination the same Victorian Era dress and hair styles. The women in the Faith Mission wore long dark skirts over dark stockings and the men wore coats with lapels (CKE, 34). Women who cut their hair “are denounced in sermons as having ‘lost out’ and are the subject of gossip among the members” (KD, 16). It should be said that choosing the common attire of their time is neither right nor wrong, but it does reflect again the tendency of a natural gravitation toward the cultural norms of the period. The slightly odd thing is how 2×2s continued their strict dress code even into the 20th and 21st centuries, especially in the hair styles of many women who continued to wear their hair up in bun (at least in my region in the United States). Of course, the practical advantage of maintaining the same general style of dress for decades is that you don’t have to try to keep up with the ever-changing fashions of the day. For example, imagine my sartorial dismay when I learned that jean shorts were no longer considered fashionable.

Meeting in the home - this is one of the clearest practical continuities between the broader Restorationist movement and the 2×2 Fellowship, who view church buildings as “conclusive evidence of false churches” (KD, 13). For example, with their goal “recovering” the simplicity of the New Testament church and avoiding dependence on established ecclesiastical structures the Plymouth Brethren who were formed in the 1820s met in homes according to Cornelius Jaenen (CJ, 509) who goes further to mention that “there were already home assemblies in the British Isles, and apparently also on the European continent, some of which were eventually contacted by the Dublinites [Brethren]” (CJ, 508). Other groups using home meetings prior to the 2×2 Fellowship include the Cristadelphians, Stone-Campbellites, and of course the Faith Mission.

Wednesday night meetings - During the Second Great Awakening which peaked in the early-to-mid 19th century (c. 1800–1850) revival leaders like Charles Grandison Finney and Dwight L. Moody promoted regular prayer meetings for the purpose of continued spiritual renewal. The more modern mid-week service developed primarily from these weekly prayer meetings. By the end of the 19th Century mid-week prayer meetings had become a standard feature in many Protestant churches including Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists who began holding regular meetings for prayer, scripture reading, testimony and mutual encouragement. There was nothing particularly sacred (or scriptural) about a Wednesday night church meeting, it just happened to be the day that was midway between Sundays. “At the turn of the twentieth century, Protestant church members customarily met for social activities on Wednesday night, i.e. barn dances, bridge, etc. Reportedly, Workers decided to add a competing Meeting on the same night to keep the Friends occupied and prevent them from backsliding to their former church activities” (CKE, 124) Because the 2×2 Fellowship often appeals to the New Testament as the model for its practices, its longstanding custom of holding Wednesday night meetings is not something that can be traced back to the apostolic church. Rather, it reflects a borrowed tradition of men that developed centuries later through the Protestant revival environment. In that respect, the Wednesday meeting is better understood as an inheritance from the wider evangelical culture than as a uniquely restored New Testament practice.

Tent meetings/conventions - Reverend John McNeill, Faith Mission and “Fred Wood and others claimed the early 2×2 Conventions were patterned after Keswick Convention” (CKE, 67-68). The Faith Mission utilized gospel tent meetings and temporary meeting halls. Other earlier analogue groups include Baptists, Holiness churches, Methodists, Faith Mission, Keswick evangelists, Plymouth Brethren and Stone-Campbell churches. “There are many similarities in the conventions held by the Workers, Faith Mission and Keswick. Both Keswick and Faith Mission held their annual conventions on Saturday through Tuesday; likewise, Irvine’s large-scale Conventions also convened on those days and still do in the UK and Ireland” (CKE, 68). To this day attendance to at least one annual convention is “mandatory” (KD, 13).

PERSONAL INFLUENCES

Family - “as a young boy [Irvine’s father] was greatly influenced by the great revival meetings of that period” (CKE, 20). The death of his favorite sister Margaret contributed greatly to his spiritual conversion. Later he would write that her death “broke my infidelity and rebellion against God” (CKE, 28). His upbringing was undoubtedly harsh due to the difficult work environment and lack of reliable medical care, as “births and deaths occurred within the confines of miners’ row homes. Mining was dangerous work and tragedies were not uncommon” (CKE, 22), making death not just an abstract theological concept but a frequent feature of daily life. Although it is impossible to determine precisely how Irvine's childhood shaped his theology, growing up in a Scottish mining community where industrial accidents, illness, and premature death were common likely reinforced the harsh reality of the fragility of earthly life and the urgency of securing eternal salvation. Such an environment would have made revivalist preaching about heaven, judgment, and conversion especially resonant. In other words, if death could come suddenly, the urgency of immediate conversion and detachment from worldly success would have seemed self-evident. This emphasis was already central to 19th Century evangelical revivalism, but Irvine's personal experiences may have reinforced its existential force. His later ministry's intense focus on repentance and salvation rather than social reform could also possibly reflect this perspective.

Labor - this is a general observation only, but I can’t help but admire William Irvine’s individual work ethic. At his time, “opportunities were severely limited for the younger generation in the small towns and rural villages of Ireland” (CKE, 117). Even before he worked in the coal mines at age 10, he first worked as a grocery message boy at age 8. In contrast, although I did grow up working with my father on his rental properties, my main preoccupation as an 8 year old boy was playing baseball and hunting for adventure in the woods near our 40 acre home. Irvine’s second job was at the Gray Dunn Biscuit Factory where he worked 72 hours a week. His third job was with Nelson’s Foundry making cores and little kettles. He held “various mining jobs, working his way to the top though very hard work” (CKE, 23) - work that was “grueling and hazardous” (CKE, 17). He had dropped out of school in 4th grade in order to start working, so from age 20-30 he made up for his lack of education by “attending night school after a long, hard day at work, twelve miles from home” (CKE, 23). He would have had to move by foot, bicycle or horse. This work ethic undoubtedly served him well in his evangelical efforts as a Faith Mission Pilgrim and later as a 2×2 Worker. And, in fact, “in the early days, some Workers suffered appalling hardships” (CKE, 167). Beginning work at eight years of age and spending a decade as a coal miner almost certainly exposed him to physically demanding labor with little opportunity for social advancement. This means he came of age during “a particularly ripe environment for the new sect to take root in its first decade” (CKE, 117). In addition to learning to ignore the many physical discomforts from such a life, his experiences could have contributed to his later suspicion of wealth and worldly ambition, making the sacrifices required of itinerant Workers appear both spiritually desirable and even personally familiar.

Freemasonry - as documented in Kropp-Ehrig’s book Preserving the Truth, William Irvine admitted in a letter to being a Master Mason (CKE, 24). He became a lifetime member at age 21, but said the last time he attended the Lodge was when he was 31 years old. In that same letter he said “I don’t take any stock in it”. Within Freemasonry, becoming a Master Mason is significant because it grants all membership with eligibility to participate fully in its activities. Although a regular Freemason who completes the first three degrees becomes a Master Mason, it is not a particularly high rank in the sense of an advanced order. I deduce this from online research, since I myself am not a Mason. From the perspective of possible sociological influence, “Freemasonry was well represented by other Irvine family members including his father, Uncle Walter, several cousins, his brother-in-law, John Freebairn, and likely more” (CKE, 24). Development of insider terminology and maintenance of secretive boundaries between insiders and outsiders are common features of many high-commitment organizations, so it cannot be stated with any certainly that Irvine “borrowed” these concepts directly from Freemasony, but such lines of demarcation between insiders and outsiders at least would have been quite familiar to him. Nonetheless, these parallels should be considered as possibilities rather than conclusions.

Reverend John McNeill - William Irvine was converted by the Reverend John McNeill on January 8th, 1893, during a revival mission at the Motherwell Town Hall in Scotland. McNeill was a wildly popular traveling Free Presbyterian evangelist who had to start using circus tents for his revival meetings to accommodate the large crowds that came to hear him (TTT). He was known for his powerful, plain-spoken preaching style using anecdotes and relatable stories instead of the often-inaccessible and dry, academic sermons of the institutional churches. Irvine’s passion for soul-winning had a similar intense sincerity, but he incorporated a much more combative tone by launching scathing attacks on other denominations and spiritual laxity.

Henry Drummond - the Living Witness Doctrine was a concept derived from Henry Drummond’s 1883 book Natural Law in the Spiritual World. See the 2TP article “The ‘Way’ is the Only Way” for an analysis of the Living Witness Doctrine.

Madam Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon - 17th Century French Catholic mystic whose books were fashionable among Victorian Era Protestants. Following what he believed to be her example he opened the Bible randomly and placed his finger on the verse Isaiah 41:15. This event convinced him that he was meant to protest the corruption of Christendom. He “took his Call to Service very seriously and believed God intended for this verse to be his life’s mission” (CKE, 29). See the related essay “The Accidental Restorer” on this web site.

D.L. Moody - a prominent 19th Century American evangelist whose evangelistic campaigns in Britain during the 1870s and 1880s had a profound impact on evangelicalism in Scotland and Ireland. He maintained close relationships with leaders of the emerging Higher Life movement, sharing their emphasis on the believer’s empowered life through the Holy Spirit. He spoke at early Keswick Conventions and supported many Higher Life speakers. Moody’s emphasis on mass evangelism, conversion, lay participation, and interdenominational cooperation helped create the revivalist culture in which later organizations such as the Faith Mission flourished. He founded the Moody Bible Institute in 1889 which is still active today training men and women for Christian ministry and global mission work. Irvine joined the Faith Mission less than two decades after Moody's influential British campaigns and shared his preference for lay evangelists and practical Bible teaching. The Reverend John McNeill, who baptized Irvine, was affiliated with D.L. Moody’s evangelistic campaign from 1892 - 1907. “D.L. Moody and Rev. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, with their holiness message” were a significant impact on John Govan’s Christian upbringing (CKE, 32)

William Booth - co-founder (along with his wife Catherine) of the Salvation Army in 1865 with its Holiness message, he was an early influence on John Govan, founder of the Faith Mission (CKE, 32). Both Booth and Irvine believed that evangelism should take place outside traditional church buildings; Both movements emphasized traveling evangelists. Neither movement depended upon a traditionally ordained clergy. Both emphasized evangelistic urgency, simple living and willingness to suffer hardship.

John Nelson Darby - by the time William Irvine began preaching in the 1890s, John Nelson Darby's dispensational theology had become deeply embedded in evangelical circles throughout Britain and Ireland including those associated with the Faith Mission and the broader Keswick movement. As co-founder of the Plymouth Brethren, his preaching included an intense interest in literal interpretation of biblical prophecy in the apocalyptic Bible books of Daniel and Revelation, and it emphasized a heightened expectation of Christ's imminent return and belief that the visible church was in widespread apostasy. From his expectation that God was restoring biblical truth in the last days, Darby is credited with originating and systematizing the modern pre tribulation doctrine of the “Rapture” as it is known in Evangelical Christianity today. Even toward the end of his ministry William Irvine was still “borrowing” from late 19th Century evangelicalism if not Darby specifically, as his later preaching reflects the broader dispensational atmosphere of the era. In the early twentieth century, he made a number of apocalyptic prophetic claims that ultimately failed. His apocalyptic urgency and emphasis on the nearness of the end was manifested in his prediction that the Second Coming of Christ would happen in 1914, although it should be pointed out that his predictions tended to be restorationist and charismatic rather than systematically dispensational. These appear to have been personal developments rather than applications of Darby's dispensational scheme. Unlike Darby, Irvine increasingly portrayed himself as occupying a unique place in God's unfolding purposes, culminating in his later claims about the "Omega Message."

CONCLUSION

FORM LINKS IN A CHAIN

It is well-known that ideas diffuse and develop over time. The best way to understand William Irvine is not as a religious innovator but as a synthesizer, standing at the convergence of multiple 19th Century Protestant currents. Accordingly, the people and events outlined above show how the nascent 2×2 concepts flowed from one movement to another until they reached Irvine. In fact, it is easier to identify a link between all the themes listed than it is to establish a uninterrupted historical link from the apostolic New Testament Church to the 2×2 Fellowship today.

William Irvine’s originality lay less in finally restoring the “true” New Testament church than in recasting familiar 19th Century evangelical ideas and practices into a new exclusive sect. Although he presented his beliefs as the authentic restoration of apostolic Christianity, he did little more than assemble pre-existing principles into yet another Protestant permutation, and in the process disproved his own exclusivist dogma. For example, his reliance on a translation of sacred scripture (the KJV) raises an obvious historical question: on what basis could sacred Scripture be accepted as the infallible witness to God's Word if it came from a corrupt “worldly” church? How did an allegedly apostate Church faithfully preserve and transmit the very Scriptures upon which Irvine made his claims? Or, from a broader perspective, as Cherie Kropp-Ehrig asks, “what made Irvine’s self-proclaimed revelation or experiment more accurate or superior to that of the other founders’ self-proclaimed revelations?” (CKE, 106). In the case of the choice of Bible as well as the use of hymns Irvine did not merely assimilate, he directly confiscated the very elements from the very “worldly” churches that he soundly denounced. This is particularly ironic considering that his spiritual conversion occurred at the hands of “worldly” Presbyterian John McNeill.

The assortment of people and events collectively show that the 2×2 Fellowship developed within an existing matrix of 19th Century Protestant ideas and practices. Even if one isolated connection such as Madame Guyon or D.L. Moody is open to debate, the formation of the 2×2 Fellowship exemplifies the cumulative historic influence of 19th Century Protestantism. In his comment to Alfred Magowan in 1938 that the 2×2 Fellowship “was a great experiment” (CKE, 102), William Irvine actually provides additional support for the argument that the 2×2 Fellowship was not the original, divinely inspired church.

Scientific progress, for example, rarely begins in isolation. It is built on the efforts of those who came before, and experimentation is essential to this process. Before formulating a new experiment to refine or modify established concepts, researchers review the existing knowledge. So, in the context of "experimenting” to form the 2×2 Fellowship, a question is raised - why would an omnipotent, all-loving and merciful God wait until 1897 AD before allowing William Irvine to create the “one, true” church? To accept the exclusivity of the 2×2 Fellowship, which did not exist until the very late 19th Century, would be to accept the idea that total apostasy occurred in the early apostolic church that Jesus promised would never happen (Mt 16:18, Jn 14:16, Eph 3:21).

In her book Preserving the Truth, Cherie Kropp-Ehrig has a letter written by William Irvine in which he said he was “put out of the Faith Mission for not being willing to conform to their piccadilly discipline” (CKE, 58). I am not entirely sure what he meant by the phrase “piccadilly discipline”, but it is possible to offer conjecture. In late Victorian England, Piccadilly Street was famous for its opportunities for shopping, hotels, entertainment and social life. Therefore, it was associated with glamorous respectability, possibly excessively concerned with appearances over substance. It is known that Irvine had become disillusioned with the organization of the Faith Mission and its cooperation with existing churches. Based on his own interpretation of Scripture, he advocated for even stricter ordinances including increasingly detailed expectations for behavior and centralized oversight of (and obedience to) Workers and Overseers. His eventual emphasis on separation from other churches deteriorated further into the Living Witness Doctrine.

The term “piccadilly discipline” is an unusual phrase, but it drew my attention because, as a child, I would go with my parents after Sunday morning meeting to the nearby Piccadilly Cafeteria for lunch. I looked forward to sliding my tray along in front of all the food choices, and I usually selected my favorite meal of fried white fish, green beans, corn and strawberry shortcake. I believe the concept of a cafeteria is particularly germane to William Irvine’s approach to founding the 2×2 Fellowship.

I have made a point of quoting extensively from other authors to emphasize that this essay does not present new historical research. Instead, I am seeking to unify the available evidence and "connect the dots" in tracing the intellectual genealogy of the 2×2 Fellowship. The people and events of the Protestant landscape of the 18th and 19th Century functioned much like a cafeteria from which William Irvine, consciously or not, selected an assortment of theological ideas, ministerial practices, and philosophical assumptions to combine them into an amalgam that became the 2×2 Fellowship. Unlike a true, divinely-inspired church, most of the features of the 2×2 Fellowship were merely a regurgitation of the 19th Century Protestant smorgasbord surrounding William Irvine. I realize that the visual image of “regurgitation” is perhaps unnecessarily graphic, but to be honest, it fits too easily into the imagery of overeating at a cafeteria. In other words, instead of the 2×2 Fellowship being a restoration of a pristine New Testament Church, William Irvine took a “cafeteria approach” in creating an amalgam of existing influences.

Cherie Kropp-Ehrig, Preserving the Truth: The Church without a Name and its Founder, William Irvine (Dallas, TX: Clarion Call Publishing, 2022)

Kevin Daniel, Reinventing the Truth: Historical Claims of One of the World’s Largest Nameless Sects (Bend, OR: Research and Information Services, 1993)

Melvin E. Dieter, The Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Century, 2nd ed. (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996), 256.

Cornelius Jaenen, The Apostles’ Doctrine and Fellowship (Toronto, Ontario: Legas Publishing, 2003)