Martin Wells Knapp

Martin Wells Knapp (1853–1901) was an American Methodist minister who founded several institutions including the magazine God’s Revivalist in 1888, the International Holiness Union and Prayer League (which became the Pilgrim Holiness Church) in 1897, and God's Bible School, later known as God's Bible School and College, in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1900. He was a central figure of the more radical wing of the Holiness movement.

Biography Younger years Martin Wells Knapp was born March 27, 1853, in Albion, Michigan, to parents who lived in a log cabin . His father, Jared Knapp, was a Methodist class-leader who had come from New York to Michigan in 1836. Jared was the son of Samuel and Abigail Knapp, of Parma, Monroe County, New York. Martin's mother, Octavia, also a committed Christian, was the daughter of Melzar and Eunice Wells, of Sullivan, Madison County, New York. Martin had two half-sisters, Mrs. Letta J. Conner, who died in 1866, and Mrs. R. V. Buck, wife of Amos Buck, of Stevensville, Montana. Martin also had a brother, L. J. Knapp, who became a lawyer in Missoula, Montana. As his father's health was fragile, the young Martin had to help a lot on the farm.

Studies Although Knapp was a shy young man , at age 17 he began studies at a Methodist college in Albion, Michigan, on the 50 dollars his parents could give him after selling a calf. He continued to work on the family farm in the summer, never stopping his studies which he carried on during the night.

Although he was always a religious boy, he had a defining experience of conversion at age 19, through the fiancée he was corresponding with, Lucy J. Glenn. Martin was converted at 19 through Lucy's prayers and his mother's example. Soon he received his call to preach. When he was 23, he and Lucy were married.

Ministry Right after his marriage, in 1877, he went on to a career in ministry, when the Methodist Michigan Conference assigned him a circuit. He was not as loud a preacher as his father had been and was in fact very shy and unimpressive, being only 5’4" and 120 pounds and his first impression upon strangers was almost always unfavorable . But on that first pastorate, Knapp demonstrated enough qualities to be allowed to stay on board .

A turning point in Knapp’s life came on his second pastorate in November 1882. He had long been wrestling with the inner bent to sinning. Under the ministry of William Taylor, who would later become the great missionary bishop of the Methodist Church, he claimed the blessing "now" in a revival at one of his own churches, entering thereby straight into the holiness movement.

In 1886, Knapp published his first book, "Christ Crowned Within", apparently selling off some of his own furniture to finance this publication. In 1887 the Michigan Conference permitted him to step out of the pastorate so he could follow the calling of an evangelist. The following year, in his mother's kitchen, he started God’s Revivalist, a periodical devoted to the promotion of holiness.

During 1889–1890, Knapp went through a two-year period of adversity when he and his family were hit hard by disease and financial crises. The worst blow of all came on September 5, 1890, when his wife Lucy died after a long illness, leaving him with two small children.