Irvine, an evangelist with the interdenominational Faith Mission, began independently preaching that the itinerant ministry set forth in Matthew 10 remains the only valid method of evangelism.

Publication of several articles and books, increased news coverage, and the appearance of the Internet have since opened the church to wider scrutiny.

Baptism by immersion as performed by one of the church's workers is required for participation in the partaking of the emblems of bread and wine in the fellowship gathering.

Doctrine of the church teaches that salvation is reached by attending the group's home meetings, accepting the preaching of its itinerant, unsalaried ministry workers, and "professing".

Works are considered acts of self-denial such as wearing modest skirts and long hair in a bun, or attending all meetings regardless of how far away they are.

The church does not explicitly publish any doctrinal statements, insisting that such tenets may only be directly imparted orally by its ministers, referred to as "workers".

In 1896, William Irvine was sent from Scotland to southern Ireland as a missionary by John George Govan's Faith Mission, an interdenominational organization with roots in the Holiness movement.

[11] The passage reads in part: These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

[14] Some of these early adherents would become important members of the new church, including John Long,[C] the Carroll family, John Kelly, Edward Cooney—an influential evangelist from the Church of Ireland[15]—and George Walker (an employee of the Cooney family's fabric business[16]), all of whom eventually "sold all" and joined the new movement as itinerant preachers.

[17] Although other movements, such as the Plymouth Brethren and Elim have had strong Irish connections, the church founded by Irvine is the only religion known to have had its origin and early development in Ireland.

Irvine traveled widely during this period, attending conventions and preaching worldwide, and began sending workers from the British Isles to follow up and expand interest in various areas.

W. D. Wilson, an English farmer whose unmarried children had left home and joined the Two by Twos, began publishing articles stating girls were being recruited by the church for immoral purposes.

As his message turned towards indicating a new era, which held no place for the ministry and hierarchy[54] that had rapidly grown up around the "Alpha Gospel," resentment arose on the part of overseers who saw him as a threat to their positions.

[52] Most members continued following the overseers, and few outside the leadership knew the details behind Irvine's disappearance from the scene, as no public mention of the split seems to have been made.

[59][G] Although the threat posed by Irvine to the church's organization had been dealt with, the prominent worker Edward Cooney refused to place his evangelistic efforts under the control of the overseers.

[61] He also preached against the "Living Witness" doctrine (i.e., that salvation entails hearing the gospel preached directly by a worker and seeing the gospel made alive in the sacrificial lives of the ministry), the bank accounts controlled by the overseers, use of halls for meetings, conventions, the hierarchy that had developed, and the ministry and the registrations under official names.

Prior to the schism, onlookers had labeled the entire movement as "Cooneyites" due to Edward Cooney's prominence in the early growth of the church.

[67] The emergence of the Two by Twos caused severe splits within local Protestant churches in Ireland at a time of increasing demands for Irish independence, largely driven by the Catholic majority community.

[81] In New Zealand during World War I, members of the church could not prove their conscientious objector status, and formed the largest segment of those imprisoned for refusal to serve.

[109] In May 2024, the group's Australasian leaders launched a website with information about their response to historical child sexual abuse and a written apology to victims.

[112][109] In June 2024, the American Broadcasting Company television news program Nightline aired a segment on child sexual abuse cases across the United States.

[115] An American former elder of the church, Raymond Zwiefelhofer, was sentenced to 120 years in prison in November, 2024, for 10 counts of possessing child sexual abuse material.

[102] While rules are not strictly 'enforced' and vary between families, the church ultimately values complete and total dedication to the doctrine and encourages members to denounce other aspects of their lives.

[163][159] In Germany, bynames for the church have included "Die Namenlosen" (the Nameless), "Wahre Christen" (True Christians), "Jünger Jesu" (Disciples of Jesus), and "Freunde" (Friends).

[181] Some members have more recently made statements which diverge from that view and hint either at a beginning during the closing years of the 19th century[182] or at a notable resurgence or restoration around that time.

[S] The church holds that faith and salvation may only be obtained by hearing the preaching of its ministers (typically called workers), and by observing their sacrificial lives.

[116][184] The church's ministerial structure is based on Jesus' instructions to his apostles found in Matthew chapter 10, verses 8–16 (with similar passages in Mark and in Luke).

Some members of the group see the internal dissemination of worker letters as continuing the practice of the early Church and the epistolary work of the original apostles.

Under each senior overseer are male head workers who have oversight of a single state, province or similar area, depending on the country.

[193] Hymnals in other languages, such as "Himnos" in Spanish, contain many hymns translated from the English and sung to the same tunes, as well as original non-English compositions.