In 1911 as William Durham denounced the "second blessing" doctrine of sanctification, a young woman attacked him with her hat pin to register her "pointed opposition." She was not alone in her contempt for his "demonic" views. The conflict over sanctification had burst forth a year earlier and had became the first full-blown controversy of the Pentecostal movement.

The early Pentecostal movement arose from the Holiness movement, and like its parent, shared John Wesley's views on sanctification: that it was an instantaneous experience of "entire sanctification" or "Christian perfection" and that it was a separate experience from conversion. Early Pentecostals called it a "second blessing" and regarded it as a necessary preparation for a third experience, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (that is, the new Pentecostal experience).

In 1910, William H. Durham, pastor of the North Avenue Mission in Chicago, began making waves throughout Pentecostal circles when he denounced these views. "I began ...

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