A powerful voice in the South for the cause of primitive Christianity belonged to James O’Kelly, a Methodist minister who left the Methodists in 1792 over a bitter argument with Francis Asbury over the right of ministers to appeal appointments. 

          O’Kelly (1735-1826), born in Ireland, began preaching for the Methodists in 1775, and was ordained as a Methodist minister December 24, 1784. O’Kelly then served for eight years as the presiding elder of southern Virginia. During this time the Methodists employed the use of circuit riding preachers. Francis Asbury (the superintendent, bishop) assigned preachers to their circuits. This led to an explosive argument between O’Kelly and Asbury.

This argument took place at the General Convention in 1792 in Baltimore.  It lasted for three days of the conference.  At one point in his arguments O’Kelly stood up with a New Testament in his hand and pleaded, “Brethren, hearken unto me, put away all other books, and forms and let this be the only criterion and that will satisfy me.”  One Methodist minister in attendance replied, “The Scripture is by no means a sufficient form of government.”

L.C. Rudolph, who wrote a biography of Asbury in 1966, mentions that 10,000 Methodists had joined the O’Kelly group by the end of 1793.

On December 25, 1793, O’Kelly and his followers formed the Republican Methodist Church. In August 1794, a committee of seven men was formed for the purpose of further organization of the Republican Methodist Church. As they discussed their name, a man named Rice Haggard stated, “Brethren, this is a sufficient rule of faith and practice, and by it we are told that the disciples were called Christians, and I move that henceforth and forever the followers of Christ be known as Christians simply.” The vote was unanimous, as was a second vote to adopt the Bible as their only creed. The group then adopted Six “Cardinal Principles of the Christian Church”: 1) The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Head of the Church; 2) The name Christian should be used to the exclusion of all party and sectarian names; 3) The Holy Bible, or Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is our only creed, and a sufficient rule of faith and practice; 4) Christian character, or vital piety, is the only test of church fellowship and membership; 5) The right of private judgment and the liberty of conscience are the privilege and duty of all; and 6) The union of all followers of Christ to the end that the world may believe.”