BISHOP Judge King (Presided 1910 – 1945) Founder, Archbishop; “Preacher & Singer Extraordinaire”
As young converts into sanctification and holiness, Judge and his wife, Sarah, were up and coming leaders in the “Christ’s Sanctified Holy Church.” Sarah was first to be baptized in the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues. Later, Judge King was baptized in the Holy Ghost as he was working in the saw mill. As this “very mean person” prayed over his lunch pail while at work, God met him and told him to, “Pull off your gun.” As a result of his obedience to the voice of God, the Holy Ghost met him, as he was block setting on the carriage. His demonstration of joy, clapping of hands, and shouting caused the mill to be shut down, as they thought he would endanger his life and the lives of others. This moment was the beginning of a colorful life in Pentecostalism.
During the early years of Judge and Sarah King’s ministry, they did not know how to defend the various ordinances found in the Bible; therefore, these young converts did not baptize, bother about music, or bother with communion and foot-washing. Yet God, in His wisdom and miraculous power, had picked up unlearned people and shared with them His grace and the mysteries of the Holy Ghost. The church sent Judge and Sarah King out into the farming areas, lumber camps, and along the Mississippi River, preaching the doctrine of the earlier leaders. However, because of Judge King’s aggressiveness and enlightening sermons on water baptism and other ordinances of the Bible, he was counseled and reprimanded. Unfortunately, their teachings on these important New Testament ordinances would later cost Judge and Sarah King their membership in Christ’s Sanctified Holy Church.
While out on an evangelism crusade, Judge King and 20 men and women went to incorporate the church in Mansfield, Louisiana. Before incorporating, however, Judge and Sarah King discovered they had been dropped from the roll of the early church because of the differences in views and because of their youth and inexperience. They did not know what to do. Some white saints, S.A. York and T.D. McAllister, came and counseled them and advised them to set up their own group and to name it, “Christ Holy Sanctified Church.” At that particular time, all they knew and taught were sanctification and abstinence from worldly pleasures. As the years went by, hundreds of converts (sawmill people, farmers, school teachers, rich and poor, black and white) all heard the Word of God and became sanctified, baptized with the Holy Ghost, and spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. This small band of people, in a small town called Keatchie, Louisiana, became the fountainhead of what would later become a large, growing holiness movement. Judge King began to baptize in water in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. He had Communion using cooked grape juice – not fermented. Foot washing was one of the sacraments and this brought about a firm breach between Christ’s Sanctified Holy Church and Christ Holy Sanctified Church.
Arch Bishop Judge King served as senior bishop and president of Christ Holy Sanctified Church for over 35 years, until his death in 1945.
