Who are Nazarenes? (Part 2)

So, who do the Nazarenes come from?  Yes, in my last blog post I said that Phineas Bresee had a key role in starting the church.  But, what beliefs were we previously founded upon?  You may have heard the term Wesleyan/Armenians before, or maybe you have not and this is the first time ever hearing (technically seeing) it. 
Wesleyan's come from a man named John Wesley.  He may be a little bit more familiar with you, but some of his beliefs may not be.  There is a theory called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral which the Nazarenes follow.  The quadrilateral is made up of four parts: scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.  The order goes from the most important to the least important.  They are all, however, very important when it comes to understanding Wesleyan views.  This was not something just created by Wesley out of nothing, this has been based upon tradition and if you read what the early church fathers had to say about these things, that seem to follow the same pattern to which they saw something as truth.
For example, lets look at whether sanctification (which all Nazarenes believe in) is true to the quadrilateral.  We start by looking at the Scripture's where they over and over again emphasis a support of "holy" living (which is what sanctification is).  The most often quoted scripture for this is 1 Thessalonians 5: 23, "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ".
Tradition also backs up sanctification.  The Catholic church as always embraced the ideal of sanctification in their doctrine.  They emphasized it in a different way then we do today, but it has still been talked about.  One of my favorite early church fathers is Ignatius of Antioch who emphasized the "goal" in this life is "union with Christ".  Many others have emphasized some aspect of this, so we now know that Scripture and Tradition support this claim of sanctification.  But, does reason also explain it?
The area has always been hard for me to understand fully so I will try my best to explain it.  Reason means that we have to look at whether the belief is reasonable.  Can a person actually live a sanctified and holy life to God?  A lot of people say yes, and I as well also believe that.  God would not set the people of Israel free from exile in the book of Exodus and telling them that they will become a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex. 19: 6) if they could not do it.  We can also live this way today.
We must lastly experience it to actually know it and believe it.  Experiencing a sanctified life takes difficult discipline and much prayer.  Experience is a crucial step because experiencing God is what brings us to realization that there is a God, experiencing the poor makes us realize there are poor people.  When we experience a sanctified life, our walk with God is drawn closer to Him and we become like him (2 Corn. 3: 18)!   
Armenians are a different group that will have to be on a later blog.  But, I just want to explain this aspect of what the Nazarenes follow and it may be hard to understand.  I tried to explain it as best as I can and if you do not understand something just comment and ask a question and I can explain or point you to another source.