The Army's under threat...

Why do people get so hung up on holiness?

Until we negotiate this ‘stumbling block’ called holiness we will not progress as individuals and we will not progress as an Army.

People argue that the eradication of the sinful nature cannot take place because they do not see evidence of it in others or in themselves. They are happy with Christ being able to keep the flesh and the devil at bay on a daily basis but cannot accept his ability to slay it once and for all.

It reminds me of a tutor I had at the Training College who said that the demonically possessed in the gospels were suffering from what we would call epilepsy! I couldn’t understand then why it was easier to accept that Jesus could heal epilepsy than to accept that he could cast out demons?

Doctrine Book, Chapter 10, Section 1, subsection 3

“Entire sanctification is complete deliverance from sin, and the devotion of the whole being, with all its gifts and capacities, to the love and will of God.”

What is so difficult with this definition?

Doctrine Book, Chapter 10, Section 1, subsection 3 paragraph C (iii)

"An entirely sanctified person is without sin— ‘freed from sin’ (Romans vi. 7). He is delivered from all sin; his disposition is entirely purified; inward sin is done away with or destroyed. ‘Being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life’ (Romans vi.
22).”

Doctrine Book, Chapter 10, Section 5, paragraph A, B and E

“Entire sanctification is not Absolute Perfection or the perfection which belongs to God only, and which can never be increased or diminished… It is not Adamic perfection (sometimes called’ sinless perfection’)… Such perfection is impossible to us, for the Fall has rendered us imperfect both in mind and body…It is not freedom from temptation. Jesus, although ‘without sin,’ was sorely tempted, and our First Parents were tempted when holy. The more advanced a man becomes in the life of holiness, the more likely it is that Satan will attack him. Entire Sanctification does not bring freedom from temptation, but victory over it.”

Doctrine Book, Chapter 10, Section 2, subsection 1

“We believe that God’s people may be delivered from all sin and enabled to do god’s will continually in this life. Many people do not agree with this, but maintain that they must go on sinning and repenting until death, although all admit that they must be made holy before they can enter Heaven.”

Holiness really is very, very easy.

The reason that holiness is rare in Christians is because Christians are rarely prepared to meet the conditions.

I am sometimes accused of arrogance, being bigoted, claiming to have a monopoly on the truth – difficult to debate with etc. It is true that I could probably do with a bit more tact when promoting religion, however I believe that Mrs Booth’s methods for promoting salvation should be ours for promoting holiness – because without it the Army is a dead duck!

“Oh! people say, you must be very careful, very judicious. You must not thrust religion down people's throats. Then, I say, you will never get it down. What! Am I to wait till an unconverted, godless man wants to be saved before I try to save him? He will never want to be saved till the death-rattle is in his throat. What! Am I to let my unconverted friends and acquaintances drift down quietly to damnation, and never tell them about their souls, until they say, 'If you please, I want you to preach to me'? Is this anything like the spirit of early Christianity? No. Verily we must make them look--tear the bandages off, open their eyes, make them bear it, and if they run away from you in one place, meet them in another, and let them have no peace until they submit to God and get their souls saved. This is what Christianity ought to be doing in this land, and there are plenty of Christians to do it. Why, we might give the world such a time of it that they would get saved in very self-defence, if we were only up and doing, and determined that they should have no peace in their sins.”

Yours set apart by Christ, for the lost, in the Army!

A