I’ve always believed that God commanded us to rest because he knew that our commitment to him and our love for the lost would drive us to work for him until we drop. I think that an annual holiday falls into the category of legitimate rest.
Of course people like Booth and Railton (who never took holidays) were constantly breaking down. Railton, in particular, was confined to bed as a result of nervous and physical exhaustion on more than one occasion (sometimes for months on end!).
Holidays are good for several reasons; the following are just a few of those reasons.
Like Christ’s frequent sojourns in the desert - holidays provide us with quality time when we can be alone with God – while the children build a sandcastle – we can close our eyes and meditate on God (with no interruption from a phone call or an email).
Holidays afford us time to read – we can chew over some solid stuff whilst sitting in a deckchair (I remember one year on holiday I got through Finney’s systematic theology).
From my experience our demons don’t follow us on holiday but are geographically bound – I have no biblical evidence for this it is an assumption made purely from experience. I’m still involved in spiritual warfare on holiday but the battles are invariably different.
So for the next two weeks I’m legitimately holidaying in Seasalter (just along the south coast from Whitstable). I’m reading Finney’s ‘Lectures to professing Christians’ and (hopefully) the same author’s ‘Revival Lectures’. I’m also expecting a positive time of close communion with God.
My good friend Carol Young told me once that during a time of prayer the number 8 came to her in relation to me – our last day on holiday will be 08-08-08 (rightly or wrongly) I’m expecting great things from this holiday J
Love and prayers
A
Monday, July 28, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The legal status of SA Officers :-)
I found out something recently that struck me as quite refrshing and liberating!In the UK Salvation Army Officers are not ‘employees’ nor are they ‘volunteers’ the correct legal term for our function is ‘office holder’.
When we signed our declaration and our Covenant accepting that we have no legal relationship with the Army we were accepting our role as ‘officer holders’.
'Office holders' do not have a contract of employment and are not protected by employment law including the national minimum wage rules or the working time regulations.
Anglican priests (working as Parish Priests) are also ‘Office Holders’ and this status is something that the CoE recently decided to retain (the following quote is from their official webpage)
“The review of clergy terms of service concluded that the ministry of the Church was best enabled through the retention of the officer holder status of clergy. Whilst there are benefits to the integration of the majority of employee rights into the life of the Church, the classification of parochial clergy as employees would entail too significant an alteration to the basis on which ministry is provided. The key feature of an employer/employee relationship is the ability of the employer to direct the work of the employee. The nature of the parochial ministry of the Church of England makes such a relationship impossible without a radical change in how clergy are deployed.”
The police are also ‘office holders’ and are not entitled to the rights provided by employment law – for example a police officer can have their leave cancelled at the last moment or even be called back from their holiday, they can’t form a union or strike, they are not protected by the working time directive and they can be appointed to any location in their area without consultation. ‘Office Holders’ can take their ‘employers’ to employment tribunals BUT on the grounds of discrimination alone.
Any agreement that an ‘office holder’ enters into with his ‘employer’ is legally binding - in our case this would include adherence to O&R’s for Officers, not accepting a second income without consent and signing over publication rights. The only way we could gain access to the protection and rights afforded by employment law would be to have our status changed from ‘office holder’ to employee and I don’t think that is about to happen.
I relish the idea that I have no legal rights - it throws me onto the mercy of God rather than the mercy of the courts! I am covenanted warrior who has voluntarily surrendered his human rights to the Salvation Army and it feels great!
Love and prayers
A
The Salvation Army in the Body of Christ - Our Distinctives
Part two of my postings from the recently published statement "The Salvation Army in the Body of Chirst" - Issued under the authority of the General and written in full consultation with The Doctrine Council and The International Management Council as 'an eccelsiological statement'...
"5. WE BELIEVE that God raised up The Salvation Army according to his purposes for his glory and for the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel.
WE DO NOT BELIEVE that The Salvation Army's existence as an independent and distinctive Christian church, having no formal, structural ties with other Christian churches, is an affront to the gospel of Jesus Christ or self evidently contrary to God's will for the whole of his Body on earth.
6. WE BELIEVE that the practices of The Salvation Army have much in common with the practices of other churches, but that being raised up by God for a distinctive work, the Army has been led of God to adopt the following combination of characteristics:
a) its emphasis upon personal religion and individual spiritual regeneration through faith in Christ leading in turn to a commitment in mission to seek to win others to Christ;
b) its commitment to the unceasing proclamation of the gospel and its insistence that this gospel is for the whosoever;
c) its teaching concerning sanctification and holy living;
d) its teaching that the receiving of inward spiritual grace is not dependent upon any particular outward observance;
e) its worldwide tradition of service (arising out of the compassionate love of Christ for all persons) without discrimination or preconditions, to the distressed, needy and marginalised, together with appropriate advocacy in the public domain on matters of social justice;
f) its willingness to obey the 'great commission' of Jesus Christ, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, by ongoing expansion of Salvationist witness and service into new countries, with a consequential celebration, with thanksgiving to God, of its internationalism;
g) its preference for non-liturgical and flexible forms of worship, seeking to encourage spontaneity, for example in prayer and in spoken personal witness and testimony;
h) its tradition of inviting public response to the presentation of the gospel message, and its use of the mercy seat for this and other spiritual purposes;
i) its focus, in self-expression, on the biblical military metaphor of living in the world and of serving God as soldiers of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3; Ephesians 6: 11-17);
7
j) its requirement that adults and children wishing to become full members (soldiers and junior soldiers), and thereby wishing to make a commitment to formal membership of the Body of Christ on earth, should publicly confess their faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, the children making a simple statement of faith with promises as to lifestyle and the primary spiritual disciplines (see page 19), and the adults entering into formal doctrinal and ethical commitments, the latter focusing on the sacredness of human relationships, but including also the personal disciplines of abstention from alcohol, tobacco, and non-medical use of addictive drugs (see page 21);
k) its wearing of distinctive uniforms as a witness to belonging to Christ and as a signal of availability to others;
1) its encouragement into Salvation Army fellowship of those who do not wish to enter into the full commitment of soldiership (see j above), but are willing to become adherent members as a step in the journey of faith;
m) its recognition of the equal place within the Body of Christ of men and women in all aspects of Christian service, ministry and leadership including the holding of ecclesiological authority;
n) its readiness to use all forms of musical expression in worship and evangelism, and its encouragement in many cultures of the indigenisation of worship expressions and styles."
End of quote: Love and prayers - A
"5. WE BELIEVE that God raised up The Salvation Army according to his purposes for his glory and for the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel.
WE DO NOT BELIEVE that The Salvation Army's existence as an independent and distinctive Christian church, having no formal, structural ties with other Christian churches, is an affront to the gospel of Jesus Christ or self evidently contrary to God's will for the whole of his Body on earth.
6. WE BELIEVE that the practices of The Salvation Army have much in common with the practices of other churches, but that being raised up by God for a distinctive work, the Army has been led of God to adopt the following combination of characteristics:
a) its emphasis upon personal religion and individual spiritual regeneration through faith in Christ leading in turn to a commitment in mission to seek to win others to Christ;
b) its commitment to the unceasing proclamation of the gospel and its insistence that this gospel is for the whosoever;
c) its teaching concerning sanctification and holy living;
d) its teaching that the receiving of inward spiritual grace is not dependent upon any particular outward observance;
e) its worldwide tradition of service (arising out of the compassionate love of Christ for all persons) without discrimination or preconditions, to the distressed, needy and marginalised, together with appropriate advocacy in the public domain on matters of social justice;
f) its willingness to obey the 'great commission' of Jesus Christ, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, by ongoing expansion of Salvationist witness and service into new countries, with a consequential celebration, with thanksgiving to God, of its internationalism;
g) its preference for non-liturgical and flexible forms of worship, seeking to encourage spontaneity, for example in prayer and in spoken personal witness and testimony;
h) its tradition of inviting public response to the presentation of the gospel message, and its use of the mercy seat for this and other spiritual purposes;
i) its focus, in self-expression, on the biblical military metaphor of living in the world and of serving God as soldiers of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3; Ephesians 6: 11-17);
7
j) its requirement that adults and children wishing to become full members (soldiers and junior soldiers), and thereby wishing to make a commitment to formal membership of the Body of Christ on earth, should publicly confess their faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, the children making a simple statement of faith with promises as to lifestyle and the primary spiritual disciplines (see page 19), and the adults entering into formal doctrinal and ethical commitments, the latter focusing on the sacredness of human relationships, but including also the personal disciplines of abstention from alcohol, tobacco, and non-medical use of addictive drugs (see page 21);
k) its wearing of distinctive uniforms as a witness to belonging to Christ and as a signal of availability to others;
1) its encouragement into Salvation Army fellowship of those who do not wish to enter into the full commitment of soldiership (see j above), but are willing to become adherent members as a step in the journey of faith;
m) its recognition of the equal place within the Body of Christ of men and women in all aspects of Christian service, ministry and leadership including the holding of ecclesiological authority;
n) its readiness to use all forms of musical expression in worship and evangelism, and its encouragement in many cultures of the indigenisation of worship expressions and styles."
End of quote: Love and prayers - A
Monday, July 14, 2008
The Salvation Army in the Body of Christ- Part 1
The recently published statement "The Salvation Army in the Body of Chirst" makes excellent reading. Issued under the authority of the General and written in full consultation with The Doctrine Council and The International Management Council this is 'an eccelsiological statement' and makes some interesting, valid (and from my perspective) very encouraging statements. The document (which only costs £1.99) is too long to discuss in one sitting so I'm going to break it up into manageable sections and post quotes here. I hope it leads to some good debate. The first section deals with TSA's definition of the word 'church' - as we debate, let's remember that this is an official TSA statement and reflects the Army's most up to date official line.
"WE BELIEVE that the Church, the Body of Christ on earth, often referred to in the New Testament as 'the saints' … includes all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, confessing him as Saviour and Lord, and witnessing to that sacred commitment through loving mutual submission and sacrificial service...
WE DO NOT BELIEVE that the Church universal depends for its existence or validity upon any particular ecclesiastical structure, any particular form of worship, or any particular observance of ritual…
WE DO NOT BELIEVE that an adequate definition of the Body of Christ on earth, the Church universal, can be confined in terms of ecclesiastical structure, but must rather be stated in terms of a spiritual relationship of grace that must find expression in all ecclesiastical structures. Members of the Body are those who are incorporate in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1: 1) and therefore reconciled to God through his Son. All such are in a spiritual relationship one with the other, which begins and continues regardless of externals, according to the prayer of Jesus that those who are his may be one (John 17:23). These words of Jesus ask for a oneness as is found in the oneness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This oneness IS spiritual, not organizational.
End of quote - Love and prayers A
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Holiness Part 7
Section IV. — ITS RESULTS
1. THERE ARE CERTAIN FRUITS BY WHICH THE POSSESSOR OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION MAY CONFIRM HIS CONFIDENCE THAT HE HAS IT.
These will be realized in his own inner experience, and will also be evident in his outward life, although in the case of those who have lived devotedly before obtaining the Blessing there may not appear to other people to be a very great difference .
2. AMONG THE GENERAL FRUITS OR RESULTS found in all entirely sanctified people, are —
(a) Perfect inward peace— the natural outcome of all controversy with God having ceased.
‘The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through. Christ Jesus’ (Philippians iv.7).
(b) Usually a great deal of joy, and sometimes periods of heavenly rapture.
‘Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory’ (I Peter i.8).
(c) A simple, constant trust in God; which relies upon Him in all the circumstances of life, and expects from Him great spiritual blessings.
‘He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief ; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God’ (Romans iv.20).
(d) A perfect and hearty agreement with the will of God, as to all we must do or suffer.
’That ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God’ (Colossians iv. 12).
‘I delight to do Thy will, O my God’ (Psalm xl. 8).
‘It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure’ (Philippians ii. 13).
(e) Steadfast love to God and man, manifesting itself in tenderness of heart towards both, with watchful eagerness to serve in every way possible.
‘Whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected’ (I John ii. 5).
‘If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us’ (I John iv. I2).
(f) Progress in spiritual life and in usefulness.
‘That your love may abound yet more and more in know ledge and in all judgment’ (Philippians i. 9).
‘Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians iii. I3, I4).
(g) Devotion to the service of God, such as entirely does away with selfish ambition and love of worldly pleasure.
‘For the love of Christ constraineth us’ (2 Corinthians v. I4).
‘I will very gladly spend and be spent for you’ (2 Corinthians xii. I5).
(h) Readiness to witness for Christ and of Full Salvation, at every opportunity, both in public and private.
‘Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye sha!l be witnesses unto Me’ (Acts i. 8).
‘That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ’ (I John i. 3).
‘We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard’ (Acts iv. 20).
(i) Complete victory over every besetment, passion, or habit which previously was a cause of defeat or condemnation, and usually perfect deliverance from the besetment itself.
‘In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us’ (Romans viii. 37).
3. IN SALVATION ARMY OFFICERS THE FRUITS OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION ARE SPECIALLY MANIFEST IN THE WAY THEY FULFIL THEIR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES; in fact, it is impossible to be a really efficient Officer without this Blessing. In particular:—
(a) Sanctified Officers take an interest in their work in a way that is possible only to those who do what is customary with their whole heart.
(b) They show a careful, earnest love to all their people, without partiality or respect of persons.
(c) They are full of brotherly love to their comrade Officers, esteeming others better than themselves, and willing that others should be honoured equally with, or more than, themselves.
(d) They ever put the interests of God’s Kingdom and The Army before their own ease and advantage, and are, therefore, always to be relied upon to carry out instructions heartily.
(e) They are able calmly to trust God and fight on for victory amidst difficulties of every kind, and humbly to remain childlike amidst the greatest success.
(f) Their private, as well as their public life, proves that they are living for God alone, their spirit and their testimony tending to draw everyone around them nearer to God and to self-sacrifice for Him.
(Taken from the 1922 Doctrine Book complete and unabridged)
1. THERE ARE CERTAIN FRUITS BY WHICH THE POSSESSOR OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION MAY CONFIRM HIS CONFIDENCE THAT HE HAS IT.
These will be realized in his own inner experience, and will also be evident in his outward life, although in the case of those who have lived devotedly before obtaining the Blessing there may not appear to other people to be a very great difference .
2. AMONG THE GENERAL FRUITS OR RESULTS found in all entirely sanctified people, are —
(a) Perfect inward peace— the natural outcome of all controversy with God having ceased.
‘The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through. Christ Jesus’ (Philippians iv.7).
(b) Usually a great deal of joy, and sometimes periods of heavenly rapture.
‘Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory’ (I Peter i.8).
(c) A simple, constant trust in God; which relies upon Him in all the circumstances of life, and expects from Him great spiritual blessings.
‘He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief ; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God’ (Romans iv.20).
(d) A perfect and hearty agreement with the will of God, as to all we must do or suffer.
’That ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God’ (Colossians iv. 12).
‘I delight to do Thy will, O my God’ (Psalm xl. 8).
‘It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure’ (Philippians ii. 13).
(e) Steadfast love to God and man, manifesting itself in tenderness of heart towards both, with watchful eagerness to serve in every way possible.
‘Whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected’ (I John ii. 5).
‘If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us’ (I John iv. I2).
(f) Progress in spiritual life and in usefulness.
‘That your love may abound yet more and more in know ledge and in all judgment’ (Philippians i. 9).
‘Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians iii. I3, I4).
(g) Devotion to the service of God, such as entirely does away with selfish ambition and love of worldly pleasure.
‘For the love of Christ constraineth us’ (2 Corinthians v. I4).
‘I will very gladly spend and be spent for you’ (2 Corinthians xii. I5).
(h) Readiness to witness for Christ and of Full Salvation, at every opportunity, both in public and private.
‘Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye sha!l be witnesses unto Me’ (Acts i. 8).
‘That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ’ (I John i. 3).
‘We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard’ (Acts iv. 20).
(i) Complete victory over every besetment, passion, or habit which previously was a cause of defeat or condemnation, and usually perfect deliverance from the besetment itself.
‘In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us’ (Romans viii. 37).
3. IN SALVATION ARMY OFFICERS THE FRUITS OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION ARE SPECIALLY MANIFEST IN THE WAY THEY FULFIL THEIR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES; in fact, it is impossible to be a really efficient Officer without this Blessing. In particular:—
(a) Sanctified Officers take an interest in their work in a way that is possible only to those who do what is customary with their whole heart.
(b) They show a careful, earnest love to all their people, without partiality or respect of persons.
(c) They are full of brotherly love to their comrade Officers, esteeming others better than themselves, and willing that others should be honoured equally with, or more than, themselves.
(d) They ever put the interests of God’s Kingdom and The Army before their own ease and advantage, and are, therefore, always to be relied upon to carry out instructions heartily.
(e) They are able calmly to trust God and fight on for victory amidst difficulties of every kind, and humbly to remain childlike amidst the greatest success.
(f) Their private, as well as their public life, proves that they are living for God alone, their spirit and their testimony tending to draw everyone around them nearer to God and to self-sacrifice for Him.
(Taken from the 1922 Doctrine Book complete and unabridged)
Monday, July 07, 2008
Sufficient evidence to prove belief?
A short break from holiness... part 4 tomorrow!I decided to cycle to Mile End today from Dartford (and back!) to meet my eldest daughter for dinner – perhaps not the wisest method of transport but at least I did my bit for the environment!
We had an interesting discussion about women Bishops and homosexual priests. As I mulled the discussion over in my mind as I cycled back home I had something of an epiphany!
It's not the first time the challengs set out below have come before me nor the first time I have shared them but they seemed to present themselves more forcefully today.
If we take lifestyle as evidence of belief then we would have to conclude that the impact of belief upon the behaviour of Christians, is substantially limited – indeed one could put up a really strong case that dared to suggest that based on the evidence alone, most Christians don’t believe at all.
Let me provide a few examples.
If a child who lives next to our hall needed £5000 to go to the USA for a life saving operation I am quite sure that if we knew about their circumstances we would help with the fundraising. Yet, children die of diarrhoea by thousands every day in the developing world – the cost of a cure? Just 50p. The evidence seems to suggest that the demarcation of Christian compassion is determined by geography rather than by need and the ability to meet that need.
Another example: If Christians believe – even if they believe only a little bit – that those around them might (without the saving grace of God) go to hell – surely they would be more committed to saving them? If a Christian saw their neighbours in immediate danger they would do all they could to help. The evidence seems to suggest that the majority of Christians don’t really believe this.
One final example, if we believe that Jesus is Lord and longs to hear our prayers and our praises would we not pray and praise more. Again, the evidence seems to suggest a lack of real belief.
I have always felt a strong conviction that the issue of lifestyle would prove to be critical to the success (maybe even the survival) of the Christian church in the 21st century.
As I cycled up towards Shooters Hill (gasp) I found myself once again in one of those tight corners where the Holy Spirit seems to increasingly lead me – there seemed to be no way out but to agree with the logic of the argument being presented before me.
Love and prayers
A
If a child who lives next to our hall needed £5000 to go to the USA for a life saving operation I am quite sure that if we knew about their circumstances we would help with the fundraising. Yet, children die of diarrhoea by thousands every day in the developing world – the cost of a cure? Just 50p. The evidence seems to suggest that the demarcation of Christian compassion is determined by geography rather than by need and the ability to meet that need.
Another example: If Christians believe – even if they believe only a little bit – that those around them might (without the saving grace of God) go to hell – surely they would be more committed to saving them? If a Christian saw their neighbours in immediate danger they would do all they could to help. The evidence seems to suggest that the majority of Christians don’t really believe this.
One final example, if we believe that Jesus is Lord and longs to hear our prayers and our praises would we not pray and praise more. Again, the evidence seems to suggest a lack of real belief.
I have always felt a strong conviction that the issue of lifestyle would prove to be critical to the success (maybe even the survival) of the Christian church in the 21st century.
As I cycled up towards Shooters Hill (gasp) I found myself once again in one of those tight corners where the Holy Spirit seems to increasingly lead me – there seemed to be no way out but to agree with the logic of the argument being presented before me.
Love and prayers
A
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Holiness Part 6
5. THE FOURTH CONDITION OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IS FAITH; that is, the act of simple heart-trust by which the soul commits itself to God and believes that He does now sanctify according to His promises.
‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful [to His own promise] and just [to the suffering and agony of His Son, which purchased the blessing] to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (I John i. 9).
‘Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you’ (Ezekiel xxxvi. 25).
‘He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make inter cession for them’ (Hebrews vii. 25).
(a) Faith for Sanctification, or Sanctifying Faith, is of the same kind as Saving Faith. Neither new nor stronger faith is necessary, but the same faith exercised for a different object.
(b) Sanctifying Faith involves the intellectual belief that God is able, is willing, and has promised, to sanctify. But it goes beyond this to the heart-trust which believes that God does now sanctify. Thus it is present faith.
(c) Faith for deliverance from sin can manifestly only be exercised when the previous conditions are fully complied with, for without conviction of sin deliverance would not be sought, while any holding back in renunciation or consecration would naturally condemn, and
'If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God’(1 John iii. 21).
(d) Sanctifying Faith speaks somewhat as follows: ‘I do here and now commit myself fully to God; I believe that He receives me, that the Blood of Jesus Christ, according to God’s promise, does now cleanse me from all inward sin, making me pure in heart before Him, and I believe that He will keep that which I now commit to Him.’
(e) The foundation or ground of Sanctifying Faith is God’s promises and His faithfulness-not feelings, upon which many try to base it.
‘Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed’ (John xx. 29).
6. ASSURANCE OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IS GIVEN BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.
‘Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God [Sanctification being one of these]’ (I Corinthians ii. 12).
‘Hereby know we that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us’ (I John iii. 24).
‘Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit’ (I John iv. 13).
Usually assurance is given as soon as faith is exercised, but sometimes faith is tested by assurance being withheld for a time. In such a case the person should maintain his consecration and his faith in God’s promises until the assurance comes, like Abraham, who patiently watched and protected his sacrifices until God rewarded his obedient faith by appearing to him in the form of fire (see Genesis xv.)
7. SANCTIFICATION IS THE WORK OF GOD. Man’s consecration and faith do not sanctify; they are simply conditions upon which God’s sanctifying grace is given.
8. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION TAKES PLACE INSTANTANEOUSLY — in the same sense that death takes place instantaneously. A man may be dying for some time, but he does not die until the instant his soul is separated from his body; then he lives the life of eternity. So a person may be some time reaching the point of entire freedom from sin, but he is only dead to sin when sin is separated from his soul, and at that instant he lives the full life of love.
9. THE ENTIRELY SANCTIFIED ARE KEPT ONLY BY GOD, who, by His Spirit, dwells within them and produces ever increasingly in their lives His own blessed ‘fruits’ (see Galatians v. 22, 23). They must, however, do their part by continuing their consecration and trust, and by using God’s appointed means for spiritual growth, such as prayer, Bible-reading, testimony, responding to the Spirit’s voice within, and submitting in all things to God.
‘Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine no more can ye, except ye abide in Me’ (John xv. 4).
‘That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith’ (Ephesians iii. 17).
‘Being filled with all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ’ (Philippians i. II).
‘Kept by the power of God through faith’ (I Peter i. 5).
(Taken from the 1922 Doctrine Book complete and unabridged)
‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful [to His own promise] and just [to the suffering and agony of His Son, which purchased the blessing] to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (I John i. 9).
‘Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you’ (Ezekiel xxxvi. 25).
‘He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make inter cession for them’ (Hebrews vii. 25).
(a) Faith for Sanctification, or Sanctifying Faith, is of the same kind as Saving Faith. Neither new nor stronger faith is necessary, but the same faith exercised for a different object.
(b) Sanctifying Faith involves the intellectual belief that God is able, is willing, and has promised, to sanctify. But it goes beyond this to the heart-trust which believes that God does now sanctify. Thus it is present faith.
(c) Faith for deliverance from sin can manifestly only be exercised when the previous conditions are fully complied with, for without conviction of sin deliverance would not be sought, while any holding back in renunciation or consecration would naturally condemn, and
'If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God’(1 John iii. 21).
(d) Sanctifying Faith speaks somewhat as follows: ‘I do here and now commit myself fully to God; I believe that He receives me, that the Blood of Jesus Christ, according to God’s promise, does now cleanse me from all inward sin, making me pure in heart before Him, and I believe that He will keep that which I now commit to Him.’
(e) The foundation or ground of Sanctifying Faith is God’s promises and His faithfulness-not feelings, upon which many try to base it.
‘Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed’ (John xx. 29).
6. ASSURANCE OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IS GIVEN BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.
‘Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God [Sanctification being one of these]’ (I Corinthians ii. 12).
‘Hereby know we that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us’ (I John iii. 24).
‘Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit’ (I John iv. 13).
Usually assurance is given as soon as faith is exercised, but sometimes faith is tested by assurance being withheld for a time. In such a case the person should maintain his consecration and his faith in God’s promises until the assurance comes, like Abraham, who patiently watched and protected his sacrifices until God rewarded his obedient faith by appearing to him in the form of fire (see Genesis xv.)
7. SANCTIFICATION IS THE WORK OF GOD. Man’s consecration and faith do not sanctify; they are simply conditions upon which God’s sanctifying grace is given.
8. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION TAKES PLACE INSTANTANEOUSLY — in the same sense that death takes place instantaneously. A man may be dying for some time, but he does not die until the instant his soul is separated from his body; then he lives the life of eternity. So a person may be some time reaching the point of entire freedom from sin, but he is only dead to sin when sin is separated from his soul, and at that instant he lives the full life of love.
9. THE ENTIRELY SANCTIFIED ARE KEPT ONLY BY GOD, who, by His Spirit, dwells within them and produces ever increasingly in their lives His own blessed ‘fruits’ (see Galatians v. 22, 23). They must, however, do their part by continuing their consecration and trust, and by using God’s appointed means for spiritual growth, such as prayer, Bible-reading, testimony, responding to the Spirit’s voice within, and submitting in all things to God.
‘Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine no more can ye, except ye abide in Me’ (John xv. 4).
‘That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith’ (Ephesians iii. 17).
‘Being filled with all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ’ (Philippians i. II).
‘Kept by the power of God through faith’ (I Peter i. 5).
(Taken from the 1922 Doctrine Book complete and unabridged)
Holiness Part 5
Section III.-ITS ATTAINMENT
1. THE BESTOWAL OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION, as with every other gift of God’s grace, IS CONDITIONAL — it depends upon the whole-hearted co-operation of the person to be benefited.
Assuming that conversion has already taken place, the necessary conditions are: Conviction, Renunciation, Consecration, Faith.
2. THE FIRST CONDITION OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IS CONVICTION; that is, seeing the need for being made holy.
(a) Conviction for holiness includes: realizing the inward sin that exists; hating it, no matter what form it may assume; believing its removal possible; seeing holiness to be both a duty and a privilege; and earnestly desiring deliverance.
(b) Such conviction is at first brought about by the Holy Spirit, but the soul must voluntarily respond to His promptings by facing its own sinfulness and by wholeheartedly seeking Holiness, if this great blessing is to be obtained.
‘When He is come, He will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment’ (John xvi. 8, R.V.).
(c) Conviction for Holiness leads the soul to realize and to sorrow over-not merely outward acts of sin, but its own inward evils, such as —
iii. Everything, including the exercise of bodily appetites, such as eating and drinking, should be done to the glory of God.
‘Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God’ (I Corinthians x. 3I).
IV. The body is to be honoured and treated as God’s dwelling-place, and hence should not be polluted or injured.
‘What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own? (r Corinthians vi. 19).
‘If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are’ (I Corinthians iii. 17).
(d) It is but reasonable that seekers after Holiness should completely renounce everything wrong or doubtful. God could only rightly bestow so great a blessing upon those who separate themselves from all that is opposed to Him.
4. THE THIRD CONDITION OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IS CONSECRATION; that is, the dedication to God of ourselves and all we possess, to live only to please Him and do His will.
(a) The need for consecration is seen when we remember that, at the Fall, Adam forsook his life of entire consecration to God; he set up, as it were, to be his own master instead of being God’s servant, and started pleasing himself instead of living to please God. All men are, by nature, in the same condition as that to which Adam fell. By consecration a man once again yields himself fully to God to live only to please Him.
(b) Consecration to God must be both entire and real.
i. To be entire it must include the body, with all its members and powers; the mind, with all its faculties; the heart, with all its capacities; also goods, money, family, influence, reputation, time, ability, life, indeed everything.
ii. To be real it must be not in imagination or sentiment merely, but everything must henceforth actually be used as belonging to God and not to ourselves. History has sometimes supplied illustrations of the kind of consecration required. Loyal subjects of a dethroned monarch have placed unreservedly at his disposal themselves, their goods, their families, their lives-in fact, their all-in order to help their sovereign to regain his lost throne. In the same way God’s true-hearted followers now place at His disposal themselves, and all they possess, in order to help Him to regain His rightful throne in the hearts of mankind.
(c) Consecration may, in some respects, be likened both to a sacrifice and to crucifixion.
i. Consecration is like a sacrifice because by it we give ourselves up to God as the animals were given up to Him in olden times, the difference being that ours is a living, not a dead sacrifice.
‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service’ (Romans xii. I).
ii. Consecration is like crucifixion because it involves painful dying to many things very precious to the natural man, such as undue love of self, the admiration of the world, the ownership of goods, inordinate love of kindred and friends, choosing one’s own way.
‘I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me’ (Galatians ii. 20).
‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world’ (Galatians vi. 14).
When once a man’s possessions have been consecrated to God, he will use them, as God directs him, in the way that seems most likely to advance God’s Kingdom, whether this be by selling all that he does not actually need, and devoting the proceeds to God’s cause right away, or by retaining his property and using in God’s service the income which it brings to him.
1. THE BESTOWAL OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION, as with every other gift of God’s grace, IS CONDITIONAL — it depends upon the whole-hearted co-operation of the person to be benefited.
Assuming that conversion has already taken place, the necessary conditions are: Conviction, Renunciation, Consecration, Faith.
2. THE FIRST CONDITION OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IS CONVICTION; that is, seeing the need for being made holy.
(a) Conviction for holiness includes: realizing the inward sin that exists; hating it, no matter what form it may assume; believing its removal possible; seeing holiness to be both a duty and a privilege; and earnestly desiring deliverance.
(b) Such conviction is at first brought about by the Holy Spirit, but the soul must voluntarily respond to His promptings by facing its own sinfulness and by wholeheartedly seeking Holiness, if this great blessing is to be obtained.
‘When He is come, He will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment’ (John xvi. 8, R.V.).
(c) Conviction for Holiness leads the soul to realize and to sorrow over-not merely outward acts of sin, but its own inward evils, such as —
- Pride, or an undue sense of one’s own importance, fostered by the consciousness of some real or fancied superiority.
- Vanity, or love of display.
- Selfish Ambition-the craving for position, power, wealth, or dignity, for its own sake.
- Evil Temper, even though curbed and mastered.
- Malice, together with hatred, bitterness, revenge.
- Covetousness, or undue craving for possessions of any kind.
- Lust, or bondage to bodily appetites.
- Sloth, Love of the World, Selfishness, Envy, and want of thorough truthfulness.
- An experience which reveals such evils, or some of them, in all their hideousness, is necessarily painful, as Isaiah found when he exclaimed:—
‘Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts’ (Isaiah vi. 5).
(d) Various means are used by the Holy Spirit to bring about Conviction for Holiness; for example, a fresh vision of God (as with Isaiah), a sense of unrest in the soul, a holy life, a Holiness testimony, the proclaiming of Holiness, a book or article.
(e) True conviction for Holiness is marked by self abasement and humility, and it leads naturally to compliance with the further conditions of Holiness — renunciation, consecration, and faith.
3. THE SECOND CONDITION OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IS RENUNCIATION; that is, giving up everything opposed to the will of God.
(a) Renunciation must be forever, and it must be entire, including —
i. All that is known to be wrong.
’Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us’ (Hebrews xii. I).
ii. Everything that seems doubtful, for the Bible shows such to be sinful.
‘Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth’ (Romans xiv. 22).
‘He that doubteth is damned [or condemned]’ (Romans xiv. 23).
(b) Renunciation will include many common habits. For example: —
i. Strong Drink, even in moderation, must be given up, because the practice is wasteful, injurious, and productive of misery, wickedness, and damnation; because the influence of a moderate drinker may lead weaker people to drunkenness; and because the whole spirit of the Bible is against it (see (c) of this paragraph), many passages expressly condemning it.
ii. The use of Tobacco must be abandoned, because the practice is wasteful (of both time and money), injurious (nicotine being a poison), dirty, selfish (causing annoyance to others), unnecessary, contrary to the general teaching of the Bible (see (c) of this paragraph), and at best, doubtful.
iii. Fashionable dress and worldly adornment must be put off, because the practice tends to gratify and to encourage pride; it absorbs time, thought, and money which could be better employed; it is, at best, doubtful; and the general teaching of the Bible is against it (see (c) of this paragraph), several passages particularly condemning it.
‘Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, and of putting on of apparel’ (I Peter iii. 3).
‘Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts’ (Isaiah iii. I6, I7).
‘I will therefore … that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works’ (I Timothy ii. 8-I0).
IV. Any doubtful practice must be left off, whether connected with mind, body, family, business, re creation, dealings with comrades, or anything else.
(c) The Bible clearly sets forth principles which should govern the daily conduct of God’s people, particularly with regard to such renunciations as those just referred to. For example, it teaches that —
i. God’s people should be separate from the world in spirit and conduct.
‘Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty’ (2 Corinthians vi. I7, I8).
ii. Habits which influence others wrongly ought to be given up, even though harmless to those who practise them.
‘But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to them that are weak… And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? ….Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend’ (I Corinthians viii. 9, 11, I3).
‘It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak’ (Romans xiv. 2I).iii. Everything, including the exercise of bodily appetites, such as eating and drinking, should be done to the glory of God.
‘Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God’ (I Corinthians x. 3I).
IV. The body is to be honoured and treated as God’s dwelling-place, and hence should not be polluted or injured.
‘What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own? (r Corinthians vi. 19).
‘If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are’ (I Corinthians iii. 17).
(d) It is but reasonable that seekers after Holiness should completely renounce everything wrong or doubtful. God could only rightly bestow so great a blessing upon those who separate themselves from all that is opposed to Him.
4. THE THIRD CONDITION OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IS CONSECRATION; that is, the dedication to God of ourselves and all we possess, to live only to please Him and do His will.
(a) The need for consecration is seen when we remember that, at the Fall, Adam forsook his life of entire consecration to God; he set up, as it were, to be his own master instead of being God’s servant, and started pleasing himself instead of living to please God. All men are, by nature, in the same condition as that to which Adam fell. By consecration a man once again yields himself fully to God to live only to please Him.
(b) Consecration to God must be both entire and real.
i. To be entire it must include the body, with all its members and powers; the mind, with all its faculties; the heart, with all its capacities; also goods, money, family, influence, reputation, time, ability, life, indeed everything.
ii. To be real it must be not in imagination or sentiment merely, but everything must henceforth actually be used as belonging to God and not to ourselves. History has sometimes supplied illustrations of the kind of consecration required. Loyal subjects of a dethroned monarch have placed unreservedly at his disposal themselves, their goods, their families, their lives-in fact, their all-in order to help their sovereign to regain his lost throne. In the same way God’s true-hearted followers now place at His disposal themselves, and all they possess, in order to help Him to regain His rightful throne in the hearts of mankind.
(c) Consecration may, in some respects, be likened both to a sacrifice and to crucifixion.
i. Consecration is like a sacrifice because by it we give ourselves up to God as the animals were given up to Him in olden times, the difference being that ours is a living, not a dead sacrifice.
‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service’ (Romans xii. I).
ii. Consecration is like crucifixion because it involves painful dying to many things very precious to the natural man, such as undue love of self, the admiration of the world, the ownership of goods, inordinate love of kindred and friends, choosing one’s own way.
‘I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me’ (Galatians ii. 20).
‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world’ (Galatians vi. 14).
When once a man’s possessions have been consecrated to God, he will use them, as God directs him, in the way that seems most likely to advance God’s Kingdom, whether this be by selling all that he does not actually need, and devoting the proceeds to God’s cause right away, or by retaining his property and using in God’s service the income which it brings to him.
(d) Renunciation and Consecration differ from each other in that —
- Renunciation means giving up what is against God.
- Consecration means giving up all we have to be used for God.
(e) Consecration, although a condition of sanctification, must not be mistaken for sanctification itself. Consecration is an act done by man before God sanctifies him; sanctification is a work done by God within man after man has done his part.
(Complete and unabridged from the 1922 edition of the Doctrine Book)
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Holiness Part 4
3. THE IDEA THAT ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION CANNOT ‘TAKE PLACE UNTIL NEAR OR AT THE TIME OF DEATH IS CONTRARY TO THE TEACHING OF THE BIBLE, for—
(a) The Bible nowhere states or suggests that we cannot be entirely cleansed from sin while in health and strength; all its commands and promises about holiness relate to the present, and it plainly says that we ought to be holy in this life.
‘That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life’ (Luke i. 74, 75).
(b) The Bible nowhere states that the soul’s connection with the body is a hindrance to its entire sanctification, but it shows that the body, with all its appetites, powers, and members, is to be sanctified to God.
‘Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s’ (Corinthians vi. 20).
‘That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body’ (2 Corinthians iv. 10).
‘Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God’ (Romans vi. r3).
(c) The Bible teaches that it is the Blood of Christ, and not ‘the last enemy,’ that cleanses from sin.
‘The blood of Jesus Christ … cleanseth us from all sin’ (I John i. 7).
4. UNBELIEF CONCERNING THE POSSIBILITY OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IS DUE TO VARIOUS CAUSES, the chief of which are as follows :—
(a) Some conclude that Holiness is impossible because many earnest Christians neither teach it nor believe in it.
To this we answer that it is true the subject is seldom written or spoken about, and that comparatively few enjoy the experience, while many do not believe in it. At the same time our standard must not be the opinions or attainments of men, but the Word of God, which, in many ways, shows Holiness to be possible.
‘We dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise’ (2 Corinthians x. 12).
‘ To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them’ (Isaiah viii. 20).
(b) It is sometimes claimed that certain Bible passages deny the possibility of Holiness.
To this we answer that the Bible, as a whole, clearly teaches Holiness, and that the passages referred to only seem contrary to such teaching when taken from their context.
Examples of such passages are:—
i. ‘If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’
(1 John i. 8).
This cannot mean that Holiness is impossible, because the previous verse says, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ ... cleanseth us from all sin,’ and the following verse says, ‘He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’
The right interpretation is that those who say they have no sin, when they have, are self-deceived and assert what is untrue, whether they be sinners who say they have never sinned, or professing Christians who continue sinning and yet say they have no sin because their sins are imputed to Christ.
ii. ‘For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again’ (Proverbs xxiv. 16). The correct meaning is shown by the context; it is trouble and not sin, into which a just man falls (see verse 10).
iii. ‘In many things we offend all’ (James iii. 2). The explanation is that the word ‘we’ is frequently used by speakers when referring to people generally with no intent to include themselves as individuals. The context plainly shows that the ‘we’ here used has no reference to James and saved people (see verses 1, 3, and 9).
(c) Some say that if all sin were destroyed the Christian would have no fight, and they quote: ‘The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would’ (Galatians v. 17).
To this we answer that this passage, as the context shows (see verses 7, 16, 24, 25), does not describe the experience proper to saved — not to mention entirely sanctified — people. The sanctified soul has no enemies within, but has a fierce conflict with the Devil outside.
‘Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith’ (I Peter v. 8, 9).
‘Put. on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil’ (Ephesians vi. II).
(d) Others disbelieve in Holiness because they think that some sin is necessary to keep us humble. Our answer is, that this is simply saying we must sin ‘that grace may abound,’ which is condemned by Paul (Romans vi. 1). To say that sin is necessary to keep us humble, is to infer that sin is more powerful than the grace of God.
(e) Some claim that they have never seen a holy person. We reply that possibly they have avoided the company of, and refused association with, holy people, or it may be that when they have met holy people they have failed to recognise them as such because of their own unbelief in holiness. The Scribes and Pharisees said even of Christ, ‘He hath a devil.’
(f) Some say that an entirely sanctified soul would no longer need the Blood of Christ. We answer that the Blood that cleanses is continually needed to keep us clean, and the power that saves from sin is needed to keep from sin. To assert the contrary is like saying that a fruit-bearing branch no longer needs to be united to the vine, or that a perfectly light room no longer needs the sun.
(g) Many consider Holiness impossible because they misunderstand it. Owing to wrong teaching, or lack of teaching, they confuse it with the idea of sinless perfection or with something else which it is not (see Section I, paragraph 5, of this Chapter).
(h) Sometimes unbelief is due to evil in the person’s own heart. At some time in the past he has been brought face to face with the fact that God wants to cleanse him fully, but his unsanctified nature has made him unwilling for all that this would mean, so he has shut his eyes to the light. If he consecrates himself fully to God, he will soon see that holiness is possible.
(From the 1922 Doctrine Book - complete and unabridged)
(a) The Bible nowhere states or suggests that we cannot be entirely cleansed from sin while in health and strength; all its commands and promises about holiness relate to the present, and it plainly says that we ought to be holy in this life.
‘That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life’ (Luke i. 74, 75).
(b) The Bible nowhere states that the soul’s connection with the body is a hindrance to its entire sanctification, but it shows that the body, with all its appetites, powers, and members, is to be sanctified to God.
‘Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s’ (Corinthians vi. 20).
‘That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body’ (2 Corinthians iv. 10).
‘Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God’ (Romans vi. r3).
(c) The Bible teaches that it is the Blood of Christ, and not ‘the last enemy,’ that cleanses from sin.
‘The blood of Jesus Christ … cleanseth us from all sin’ (I John i. 7).
4. UNBELIEF CONCERNING THE POSSIBILITY OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IS DUE TO VARIOUS CAUSES, the chief of which are as follows :—
(a) Some conclude that Holiness is impossible because many earnest Christians neither teach it nor believe in it.
To this we answer that it is true the subject is seldom written or spoken about, and that comparatively few enjoy the experience, while many do not believe in it. At the same time our standard must not be the opinions or attainments of men, but the Word of God, which, in many ways, shows Holiness to be possible.
‘We dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise’ (2 Corinthians x. 12).
‘ To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them’ (Isaiah viii. 20).
(b) It is sometimes claimed that certain Bible passages deny the possibility of Holiness.
To this we answer that the Bible, as a whole, clearly teaches Holiness, and that the passages referred to only seem contrary to such teaching when taken from their context.
Examples of such passages are:—
i. ‘If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’
(1 John i. 8).
This cannot mean that Holiness is impossible, because the previous verse says, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ ... cleanseth us from all sin,’ and the following verse says, ‘He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’
The right interpretation is that those who say they have no sin, when they have, are self-deceived and assert what is untrue, whether they be sinners who say they have never sinned, or professing Christians who continue sinning and yet say they have no sin because their sins are imputed to Christ.
ii. ‘For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again’ (Proverbs xxiv. 16). The correct meaning is shown by the context; it is trouble and not sin, into which a just man falls (see verse 10).
iii. ‘In many things we offend all’ (James iii. 2). The explanation is that the word ‘we’ is frequently used by speakers when referring to people generally with no intent to include themselves as individuals. The context plainly shows that the ‘we’ here used has no reference to James and saved people (see verses 1, 3, and 9).
(c) Some say that if all sin were destroyed the Christian would have no fight, and they quote: ‘The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would’ (Galatians v. 17).
To this we answer that this passage, as the context shows (see verses 7, 16, 24, 25), does not describe the experience proper to saved — not to mention entirely sanctified — people. The sanctified soul has no enemies within, but has a fierce conflict with the Devil outside.
‘Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith’ (I Peter v. 8, 9).
‘Put. on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil’ (Ephesians vi. II).
(d) Others disbelieve in Holiness because they think that some sin is necessary to keep us humble. Our answer is, that this is simply saying we must sin ‘that grace may abound,’ which is condemned by Paul (Romans vi. 1). To say that sin is necessary to keep us humble, is to infer that sin is more powerful than the grace of God.
(e) Some claim that they have never seen a holy person. We reply that possibly they have avoided the company of, and refused association with, holy people, or it may be that when they have met holy people they have failed to recognise them as such because of their own unbelief in holiness. The Scribes and Pharisees said even of Christ, ‘He hath a devil.’
(f) Some say that an entirely sanctified soul would no longer need the Blood of Christ. We answer that the Blood that cleanses is continually needed to keep us clean, and the power that saves from sin is needed to keep from sin. To assert the contrary is like saying that a fruit-bearing branch no longer needs to be united to the vine, or that a perfectly light room no longer needs the sun.
(g) Many consider Holiness impossible because they misunderstand it. Owing to wrong teaching, or lack of teaching, they confuse it with the idea of sinless perfection or with something else which it is not (see Section I, paragraph 5, of this Chapter).
(h) Sometimes unbelief is due to evil in the person’s own heart. At some time in the past he has been brought face to face with the fact that God wants to cleanse him fully, but his unsanctified nature has made him unwilling for all that this would mean, so he has shut his eyes to the light. If he consecrates himself fully to God, he will soon see that holiness is possible.
(From the 1922 Doctrine Book - complete and unabridged)
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Holiness Part 3
5. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION DOES NOT INCLUDE CERTAIN EXPERIENCES WITH WHICH IT IS SOMETIMES CONFUSED.
In particular—
(a) It is not Absolute Perfection, or the perfection which belongs to God only, and which can never be increased or diminished. Jesus referred to this when He said: ‘There is none good but one, that is, God’ (Matthew xix. 17).
(b) It is not Adamic perfection (sometimes called’ sin less perfection’), or the perfection enjoyed by Adam before he fell, when he, having powers uninjured by sin, could perfectly obey God’s perfect law. Such perfection is impossible to us, for the Fall has rendered us imperfect both in mind and body. God does not require what is impossible, but expects us simply to keep His law of love; in other words, to love and serve Him to the best of our knowledge and ability. Our best service is imperfect, but God is pleased provided it is prompted by pure love.
‘Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind .... Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Matthew xxii. 37, 39).
(c) It is ‘/lot infallibility, or freedom from mistakes in judgement. This would require perfect knowledge, which no one but God possesses. Entire Sanctification does, however render people less likely to err in judgment, because they have the guidance of the Holy Spirit; they acknowledge God in all their ways, and He directs their paths.
‘The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you’ (John xiv. 26).
(d) it is not freedom from bodily or mental infirmities.
Many of God’s choicest saints have been great sufferers. The blessing of holiness does, however, lead to a fuller sanctification of the afflictions and infirmities from which God’s people suffer, and often to the exercise of faith for their deliverance.
‘He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me’ (2 Corinthians xii. 9).
(e) 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.
‘Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him’ (James i. 12).
(f) It is not a state of grace from which it is impossible to fall. Satan fell from Heaven, and Adam from Paradise, and they were both perfect in a sense in which we never can be here. Entire Sanctification renders falling less probable, but the Bible reveals no state of grace attainable in this life from which we cannot fall.
‘What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch’ (Mark xiii. 37).
‘Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall’ (I Corinthians x. 12).
(g) It is not a state where further advance is impossible.
On the contrary, Entire Sanctification, by removing all the evils from the heart, makes growth in grace more certain and rapid than it would otherwise be. Clearing a garden of weeds is favourable to the growth of the plants. Curing a child of disease is helpful to his future growth and development. Entire Sanctification is purity — not maturity of Christian experience, but the way to it.
‘Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’
(2 Peter iii. 18).
‘Perfecting holiness in the fear of God’ (2 Corinthians vii. I).
‘The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day’ (Proverbs iv. 18).
6. WHEN IN THE ARMY WE SPEAK OF SANCTIFICATION WE USUALLY MEAN ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION, AND THE EXPERIENCE IS ALSO KNOWN BY OTHER NAMES, such as: Holiness, a Clean Heart, Perfect Love, Christian Perfection, Full Salvation, The Blessing.
Section II. ITS POSSIBILITY
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.
2. THERE ARE MANY REASONS FOR BELIEVING THAT ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IS POSSIBLE IN THIS LIFE :—
(a) Complete deliverance from sin seems probable. Inward sin is always harmful and a serious drawback to God’s people, if only because it often shows itself outwardly in manner, conversation, arid action. Moreover, it brings condemnation and unhappiness; it damages influence; it renders very difficult the reproving of sin in others; it grieves and dishonours God. Hence God’s love would naturally cause Him to seek to remove sin entirely from His people, just as a father’s love would make him want to remove, from his child’s body, the whole — and not only part — of any poison that had entered it.
God does not always deliver His people from trouble, because trouble may often bring them great blessing, where as sin is never anything but harmful
(b) The Bible promises Holiness to those who seek it, and God would never promise what it
was impossible for us to receive.
‘The very God of peace sanctify you wholly .... Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it’ (I Thessalonians v. 23, 24).
‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness ‘ (I John i. 9).
‘Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you’ (Ezekiel xxxvi. 25).
(c) The Bible commands and exhorts God’s people to be holy, and a God of love would never
command what is impossible.
‘Be ye therefore perfect, even’ as your Father which is in heaven is perfect’
(Matthew v. 48).
‘As He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy’
(I Peter i. IS, 16, R.V.).
‘Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord’ (Hebrews xii. 14).
‘Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Romans vi. ii).
(d) The Bible records and encourages prayer for Holiness and we know that Christ and the
inspired writers would not have prayed for what is impossible. For example:—
i. Jesus taught us to pray —
‘Deliver us from evil’ (Matthew vi.13).
ii. Jesus prayed for His disciples —
‘Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth’ (John xvii. 17).
iii. Paul prayed for the Thessalonians —
‘The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (I Thessalonians v. 23).
(e) The Bible declares that to save His people from sin was the purpose of the life and death of Jesus Christ.
‘For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil’ (I John iii. 8).
‘Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins’ (Matthew i. 21).
‘Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works’ (Titus ii. 14).
‘Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it ; that He might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish’ (Ephesians v. 25-27).
(f) Many Bible saints undoubtedly enjoyed the experience. For example:—
Enoch, who ‘walked with God,’ and ‘before his translation ... had this testimony, that he pleased God’ (Genesis v. 24; Hebrews xi. 5).
Moses, with whom God spoke ‘face to face’ (Exodus xxxiii.11).
Job, who was ‘perfect and upright’ (Job i.1).
Stephen, who was ‘full of faith and of the Holy Ghost’ (Acts vi. 5).
Paul, who said ‘Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe’
(1 Thessalonians ii. 10).
(g) Many Christians since Bible days have experienced and testified to the enjoyment of Full Salvation.
Among such may be named Madame Guyon, a Roman Catholic; Charles Finney, a Presbyterian; John Fletcher, of the English Church ; John Wesley, William Bramwell, and other Methodists; The Army Founder, The Army Mother, and thousands of Salvationists.
(h) All truly converted persons desire Holiness, and feel that they ought to be holy. If Holiness were impossible the Holy Spirit would not create such desires, nor would Jesus Christ have promised, as He did, that they should be satisfied.
‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be
filled’ (Matthew v. 6).
In particular—
(a) It is not Absolute Perfection, or the perfection which belongs to God only, and which can never be increased or diminished. Jesus referred to this when He said: ‘There is none good but one, that is, God’ (Matthew xix. 17).
(b) It is not Adamic perfection (sometimes called’ sin less perfection’), or the perfection enjoyed by Adam before he fell, when he, having powers uninjured by sin, could perfectly obey God’s perfect law. Such perfection is impossible to us, for the Fall has rendered us imperfect both in mind and body. God does not require what is impossible, but expects us simply to keep His law of love; in other words, to love and serve Him to the best of our knowledge and ability. Our best service is imperfect, but God is pleased provided it is prompted by pure love.
‘Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind .... Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Matthew xxii. 37, 39).
(c) It is ‘/lot infallibility, or freedom from mistakes in judgement. This would require perfect knowledge, which no one but God possesses. Entire Sanctification does, however render people less likely to err in judgment, because they have the guidance of the Holy Spirit; they acknowledge God in all their ways, and He directs their paths.
‘The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you’ (John xiv. 26).
(d) it is not freedom from bodily or mental infirmities.
Many of God’s choicest saints have been great sufferers. The blessing of holiness does, however, lead to a fuller sanctification of the afflictions and infirmities from which God’s people suffer, and often to the exercise of faith for their deliverance.
‘He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me’ (2 Corinthians xii. 9).
(e) 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.
‘Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him’ (James i. 12).
(f) It is not a state of grace from which it is impossible to fall. Satan fell from Heaven, and Adam from Paradise, and they were both perfect in a sense in which we never can be here. Entire Sanctification renders falling less probable, but the Bible reveals no state of grace attainable in this life from which we cannot fall.
‘What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch’ (Mark xiii. 37).
‘Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall’ (I Corinthians x. 12).
(g) It is not a state where further advance is impossible.
On the contrary, Entire Sanctification, by removing all the evils from the heart, makes growth in grace more certain and rapid than it would otherwise be. Clearing a garden of weeds is favourable to the growth of the plants. Curing a child of disease is helpful to his future growth and development. Entire Sanctification is purity — not maturity of Christian experience, but the way to it.
‘Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’
(2 Peter iii. 18).
‘Perfecting holiness in the fear of God’ (2 Corinthians vii. I).
‘The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day’ (Proverbs iv. 18).
6. WHEN IN THE ARMY WE SPEAK OF SANCTIFICATION WE USUALLY MEAN ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION, AND THE EXPERIENCE IS ALSO KNOWN BY OTHER NAMES, such as: Holiness, a Clean Heart, Perfect Love, Christian Perfection, Full Salvation, The Blessing.
Section II. ITS POSSIBILITY
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.
2. THERE ARE MANY REASONS FOR BELIEVING THAT ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IS POSSIBLE IN THIS LIFE :—
(a) Complete deliverance from sin seems probable. Inward sin is always harmful and a serious drawback to God’s people, if only because it often shows itself outwardly in manner, conversation, arid action. Moreover, it brings condemnation and unhappiness; it damages influence; it renders very difficult the reproving of sin in others; it grieves and dishonours God. Hence God’s love would naturally cause Him to seek to remove sin entirely from His people, just as a father’s love would make him want to remove, from his child’s body, the whole — and not only part — of any poison that had entered it.
God does not always deliver His people from trouble, because trouble may often bring them great blessing, where as sin is never anything but harmful
(b) The Bible promises Holiness to those who seek it, and God would never promise what it
was impossible for us to receive.
‘The very God of peace sanctify you wholly .... Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it’ (I Thessalonians v. 23, 24).
‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness ‘ (I John i. 9).
‘Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you’ (Ezekiel xxxvi. 25).
(c) The Bible commands and exhorts God’s people to be holy, and a God of love would never
command what is impossible.
‘Be ye therefore perfect, even’ as your Father which is in heaven is perfect’
(Matthew v. 48).
‘As He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy’
(I Peter i. IS, 16, R.V.).
‘Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord’ (Hebrews xii. 14).
‘Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Romans vi. ii).
(d) The Bible records and encourages prayer for Holiness and we know that Christ and the
inspired writers would not have prayed for what is impossible. For example:—
i. Jesus taught us to pray —
‘Deliver us from evil’ (Matthew vi.13).
ii. Jesus prayed for His disciples —
‘Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth’ (John xvii. 17).
iii. Paul prayed for the Thessalonians —
‘The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (I Thessalonians v. 23).
(e) The Bible declares that to save His people from sin was the purpose of the life and death of Jesus Christ.
‘For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil’ (I John iii. 8).
‘Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins’ (Matthew i. 21).
‘Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works’ (Titus ii. 14).
‘Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it ; that He might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish’ (Ephesians v. 25-27).
(f) Many Bible saints undoubtedly enjoyed the experience. For example:—
Enoch, who ‘walked with God,’ and ‘before his translation ... had this testimony, that he pleased God’ (Genesis v. 24; Hebrews xi. 5).
Moses, with whom God spoke ‘face to face’ (Exodus xxxiii.11).
Job, who was ‘perfect and upright’ (Job i.1).
Stephen, who was ‘full of faith and of the Holy Ghost’ (Acts vi. 5).
Paul, who said ‘Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe’
(1 Thessalonians ii. 10).
(g) Many Christians since Bible days have experienced and testified to the enjoyment of Full Salvation.
Among such may be named Madame Guyon, a Roman Catholic; Charles Finney, a Presbyterian; John Fletcher, of the English Church ; John Wesley, William Bramwell, and other Methodists; The Army Founder, The Army Mother, and thousands of Salvationists.
(h) All truly converted persons desire Holiness, and feel that they ought to be holy. If Holiness were impossible the Holy Spirit would not create such desires, nor would Jesus Christ have promised, as He did, that they should be satisfied.
‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be
filled’ (Matthew v. 6).
Friday, June 27, 2008
Holiness Part 2
4. THE BIBLE DESCRIBES THE GREAT BLESSING OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IN OTHER WAYS AND BY DIF FERENT FIGURES, thereby showing it in various aspects. Entire Sanctification is, for example, spoken of as—
(a) A clean heart, or inward purity.
‘Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me’ (Psalm li.10).
‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God’ (Matthew v. 8).
‘Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned’ (I Timothy i.5).
(b) Holiness, or entire freedom from sin. ‘Holiness’ literally means wholeness, or spiritual health.
‘That we might be partakers of His holiness’ (Hebrews xii.10).
‘To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness’ (I Thessalonians iii. 13).
‘God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness’ (I Thessalonians iv. 7).
(c) Perfection, or perfect love. The words ‘perfect’ and ‘perfection’ are frequently used in the Bible in reference to Christian character; they denote being fully fit or quite ready for the purpose appointed, and God’s people are in this condition when filled with love. Christ made it clear that the perfection required is perfection in love, for, after showing that God, in His perfect love, sends sunshine and rain on good and evil alike, He said :—
‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect’ (Matthew v. 48).
That is, if we are fully given up to lives of love and goodness in our sphere, and according to our ability, as our Heavenly Father is in His sphere, we shall be perfect before Him. Other Bible passages similarly urge perfection:—
‘That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works’ (2 Timothy iii. 17).
‘That ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God’ (Colossians iv. 12).
‘There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment. ‘He that feareth is not made perfect in love’ (I John iv. 18).
‘Above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness’ (Colossians iii.I4, R.V.).
(d) Living a blameless life. That is, a life in which God Himself sees nothing to condemn.
‘That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world’ (Philippians ii. I5).
‘Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (I Corinthians i. 8).
(e) Being the dwelling-place of God Himself, or being filled with God’s Spirit.
‘If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him’ (John xiv. 23).
‘Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit’ (Isaiah Ivii.15).
‘To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God’ (Ephesians iii.19).
(f) Fulfilling the law; that is, doing all that God requires. ‘Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law’ (Romans xiii. 10).
(g) Following the Lord fully; that is, like Joshua and Caleb, wholly given up to God and fully trusting Him.
‘Caleb ... and Joshua … have wholly followed the Lord’ (Numbers xxxii. 12).
‘My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land where into he went and his seed shall possess it’ (Numbers xiv, 24).
(h) Being’ dead unto sin’ and’ alive unto God.’ That is, completely severed from sin (as a dead body is severed from all previous surrounding connections), and in living union with God (as a live person is in vital touch with things around him).
‘Reckon ye… yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God’ (Romans vi. ii).
‘He that is dead is freed from sin’ (Romans vi. 7).
‘That we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness’ (I Peter ii. 24).
(i) Having sin, or the sinful nature, ‘crucified,’ ‘destroyed,’ ‘put off;’ that is, done away with.
‘Our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed’ (Romans vi. 6).
‘Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds’ (Colossians iii. 9).
‘They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts’ (Galatians v. 24).
(j) Being made altogether good, and hence having a ‘conscience void of offence.’
‘Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by his fruit’ (Matthew xii. 33).
‘For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to youward’ (2 Corinthians i. 12).
‘Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men’ (Acts xxiv. (6).
(k) Walking with God; that is, enjoying continually the friendship of God and communion with Him.
‘Enoch walked with God; three hundred years’ (Genesis v. 22).
‘If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin’ (1 John i. 7).
‘What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?’ (Micah vi. 8).
(l) Rest of soul; that is; rest from inward conflict and from anxious care.
‘We which have believed do enter into rest’ (Hebrews iv. 3).
‘Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls’ (Matthew xi. 29).
‘Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls’ (Jeremiah vi. 16).
(m) Likeness to God in character.
‘Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son’ (Romans viii. 29).
‘Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world’ (1 John iv. 17).
‘Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness’ (Ephesians iv. 24).
(Complete and unabridged from the 1922 Doctrine Book)
(a) A clean heart, or inward purity.
‘Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me’ (Psalm li.10).
‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God’ (Matthew v. 8).
‘Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned’ (I Timothy i.5).
(b) Holiness, or entire freedom from sin. ‘Holiness’ literally means wholeness, or spiritual health.
‘That we might be partakers of His holiness’ (Hebrews xii.10).
‘To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness’ (I Thessalonians iii. 13).
‘God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness’ (I Thessalonians iv. 7).
(c) Perfection, or perfect love. The words ‘perfect’ and ‘perfection’ are frequently used in the Bible in reference to Christian character; they denote being fully fit or quite ready for the purpose appointed, and God’s people are in this condition when filled with love. Christ made it clear that the perfection required is perfection in love, for, after showing that God, in His perfect love, sends sunshine and rain on good and evil alike, He said :—
‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect’ (Matthew v. 48).
That is, if we are fully given up to lives of love and goodness in our sphere, and according to our ability, as our Heavenly Father is in His sphere, we shall be perfect before Him. Other Bible passages similarly urge perfection:—
‘That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works’ (2 Timothy iii. 17).
‘That ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God’ (Colossians iv. 12).
‘There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment. ‘He that feareth is not made perfect in love’ (I John iv. 18).
‘Above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness’ (Colossians iii.I4, R.V.).
(d) Living a blameless life. That is, a life in which God Himself sees nothing to condemn.
‘That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world’ (Philippians ii. I5).
‘Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (I Corinthians i. 8).
(e) Being the dwelling-place of God Himself, or being filled with God’s Spirit.
‘If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him’ (John xiv. 23).
‘Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit’ (Isaiah Ivii.15).
‘To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God’ (Ephesians iii.19).
(f) Fulfilling the law; that is, doing all that God requires. ‘Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law’ (Romans xiii. 10).
(g) Following the Lord fully; that is, like Joshua and Caleb, wholly given up to God and fully trusting Him.
‘Caleb ... and Joshua … have wholly followed the Lord’ (Numbers xxxii. 12).
‘My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land where into he went and his seed shall possess it’ (Numbers xiv, 24).
(h) Being’ dead unto sin’ and’ alive unto God.’ That is, completely severed from sin (as a dead body is severed from all previous surrounding connections), and in living union with God (as a live person is in vital touch with things around him).
‘Reckon ye… yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God’ (Romans vi. ii).
‘He that is dead is freed from sin’ (Romans vi. 7).
‘That we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness’ (I Peter ii. 24).
(i) Having sin, or the sinful nature, ‘crucified,’ ‘destroyed,’ ‘put off;’ that is, done away with.
‘Our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed’ (Romans vi. 6).
‘Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds’ (Colossians iii. 9).
‘They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts’ (Galatians v. 24).
(j) Being made altogether good, and hence having a ‘conscience void of offence.’
‘Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by his fruit’ (Matthew xii. 33).
‘For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to youward’ (2 Corinthians i. 12).
‘Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men’ (Acts xxiv. (6).
(k) Walking with God; that is, enjoying continually the friendship of God and communion with Him.
‘Enoch walked with God; three hundred years’ (Genesis v. 22).
‘If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin’ (1 John i. 7).
‘What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?’ (Micah vi. 8).
(l) Rest of soul; that is; rest from inward conflict and from anxious care.
‘We which have believed do enter into rest’ (Hebrews iv. 3).
‘Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls’ (Matthew xi. 29).
‘Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls’ (Jeremiah vi. 16).
(m) Likeness to God in character.
‘Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son’ (Romans viii. 29).
‘Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world’ (1 John iv. 17).
‘Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness’ (Ephesians iv. 24).
(Complete and unabridged from the 1922 Doctrine Book)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Holiness Part 1
There seems to be both a hunger for and a confusion about holiness. So over the next few days I'm going to blog Chapter 10 of the old Doctrine Book - enjoy :-)
CHAPTER X
ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION
SEC. I. — ITS NATURE.
SEC. II — ITS POSSIBILITY.
SEC. III —ITS ATTAINMENT.
SEC. IV — ITS RESULTS
Section I. — ITS NATURE.
1. THE SANCTIFICATION OF GOD’S PEOPLE MEANS THEIR SEPARATION FROM SIN AND THEIR DEVOTION TO GOD. The word ‘sanctification’ always includes the two fold idea of separation and dedication (or devotion).
The frequent use of the word in the Bible, with regard to both people and things, illustrates this. For example:— Concerning the Sabbath, we are told that ‘God ... sanctified it’ (Genesis ii. 3); that is, separated it from other days and dedicated it to His service.
With regard to the priests, Moses was commanded to ‘sanctify them’ (Exodus xxviii. 41); that is, they were separated from ordinary toil and dedicated to the work of God’s house.
Concerning the vessels of God’s house, God told Moses to ‘sanctify them, that they may be most holy’ (Exodus 122 xxx.29); that is, they were to be separated from common work and dedicated to Tabernacle service.
In many passages God’s people are said to be ‘sanctified’ (see 1 Corinthians i.. 2, and vi.11), the word including the two ideas of :— Separation from sin, as in the command-
‘Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you’ (2 Corinthians vi. 17).
Dedication or devotion to God; that is, being set apart for Him, as the Psalmist says:—
‘The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for Himself’ (Psalm iv. 3).
2. SANCTIFICATION IS LIKE REGENERATION, in that it is the changing or purifying of man’s nature ‘and is a work done within him (see Chapter VIII, Section III, paragraph 2 (d)).
(a) Man’s sinful heart, nature, or disposition (sometimes called ‘inborn’ or ‘inbred sin,’ or ‘the principle of sin ‘) may be compared to the root of a tree, his sinful acts (or ‘actual sin’) being like the fruit. Hence, man has a double need—his sinful acts need pardon; his sinful nature needs cleansing, changing, purifying. When a man is saved, by Justification he receives forgiveness for his sinful acts, and by Regeneration a change of nature. But, as already explained, the change effected in Regeneration is incomplete (see Chapter VIII, Section III, paragraph 2 (f))
(b) Sanctification begins at Regeneration; in fact, Regeneration is partial Sanctification, or holiness begun. The Bible, as well as the experience of Christians generally, shows that Regeneration, although a very great change, is not the complete purifying of man’s nature; thus Paul writes to some of his converts :—
‘And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ’ (I Corinthians iii. I).
When a man is converted or regenerated (see Chapter VIII, Section III, paragraph 2) he receives from the Holy Spirit power to conquer outward sin, yet sinful feelings and desires may still be present; the love of God is shed abroad in his heart, but love, mingled with lingering love of self, is not yet perfect; his chief purpose is to please God, but sometimes self-pleasing is uppermost. He enjoys the presence and help of the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit has not always full control, and consequently cannot fill the soul. He becomes a partaker of God’s nature, but ungodlike inclinations and tendencies may still remain,
(c) The inbred sin, or inclination to evil and selfishness, which still exists in converted people, is apt, unless over powered by divine grace, to rise up and produce actual sin. Such sin needs forgiveness, for no one can continue in the favour of God who allows sin to remain unforgiven or who goes on committing sin (1 John iii. 8). But the forgiveness which God grants to His people for failures of this kind does not deal with the sinful nature from which the wrong acts spring; that nature needs fully cleansing or purifying-in other words, it needs entire sanctification.
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.’
‘God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect’ (I John iv. 16, 17).
‘The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be pre served blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (I Thessalonians v. 23).
‘Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all, filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God’ (2 Corinthians vii. I).
(a) The chief difference between Partial and Entire Sanctification is that— i. Partial Sanctification takes place at conversion and is deliverance from outward sin and the love of it. ii. Entire Sanctification usually takes place after con version, and is deliverance from both inward and out ward sin-from sin in disposition as well as in deed.
(b) Entire, Sanctification does not usually take place at conversion because few then see their need for it. God gives light gradually as people are able to bear it, and most seekers after Salvation are absorbed with the gaining of pardon. Later on, when they discover the true nature of inward sin and earnestly seek deliverance, God sanctifies them entirely.
(c) Unconverted, Converted, and Entirely Sanctified people thus differ from each other as regards their relationship to sin.
i. An unconverted person is under sin. He may see sin to be evil, hate it, and struggle against it; but still he is under its power, and forced to obey it. This explains why unsaved people make resolutions and break them directly. ‘I am carnal, sold under sin’ (Romans vii. 14).
ii. A converted or partially sanctified person is over sin. He is delivered from the power of sin; by the power of God he is able to conquer sin. But sin still exists as a principle or disposition in the soul; it is there, though it does not reign. ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you’ (Romans vi. 14).
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).
(Reproduced from the 1923 Salvation Army Doctrine Book complete and unabridged)
CHAPTER X
ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION
SEC. I. — ITS NATURE.
SEC. II — ITS POSSIBILITY.
SEC. III —ITS ATTAINMENT.
SEC. IV — ITS RESULTS
Section I. — ITS NATURE.
1. THE SANCTIFICATION OF GOD’S PEOPLE MEANS THEIR SEPARATION FROM SIN AND THEIR DEVOTION TO GOD. The word ‘sanctification’ always includes the two fold idea of separation and dedication (or devotion).
The frequent use of the word in the Bible, with regard to both people and things, illustrates this. For example:— Concerning the Sabbath, we are told that ‘God ... sanctified it’ (Genesis ii. 3); that is, separated it from other days and dedicated it to His service.
With regard to the priests, Moses was commanded to ‘sanctify them’ (Exodus xxviii. 41); that is, they were separated from ordinary toil and dedicated to the work of God’s house.
Concerning the vessels of God’s house, God told Moses to ‘sanctify them, that they may be most holy’ (Exodus 122 xxx.29); that is, they were to be separated from common work and dedicated to Tabernacle service.
In many passages God’s people are said to be ‘sanctified’ (see 1 Corinthians i.. 2, and vi.11), the word including the two ideas of :— Separation from sin, as in the command-
‘Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you’ (2 Corinthians vi. 17).
Dedication or devotion to God; that is, being set apart for Him, as the Psalmist says:—
‘The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for Himself’ (Psalm iv. 3).
2. SANCTIFICATION IS LIKE REGENERATION, in that it is the changing or purifying of man’s nature ‘and is a work done within him (see Chapter VIII, Section III, paragraph 2 (d)).
(a) Man’s sinful heart, nature, or disposition (sometimes called ‘inborn’ or ‘inbred sin,’ or ‘the principle of sin ‘) may be compared to the root of a tree, his sinful acts (or ‘actual sin’) being like the fruit. Hence, man has a double need—his sinful acts need pardon; his sinful nature needs cleansing, changing, purifying. When a man is saved, by Justification he receives forgiveness for his sinful acts, and by Regeneration a change of nature. But, as already explained, the change effected in Regeneration is incomplete (see Chapter VIII, Section III, paragraph 2 (f))
(b) Sanctification begins at Regeneration; in fact, Regeneration is partial Sanctification, or holiness begun. The Bible, as well as the experience of Christians generally, shows that Regeneration, although a very great change, is not the complete purifying of man’s nature; thus Paul writes to some of his converts :—
‘And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ’ (I Corinthians iii. I).
When a man is converted or regenerated (see Chapter VIII, Section III, paragraph 2) he receives from the Holy Spirit power to conquer outward sin, yet sinful feelings and desires may still be present; the love of God is shed abroad in his heart, but love, mingled with lingering love of self, is not yet perfect; his chief purpose is to please God, but sometimes self-pleasing is uppermost. He enjoys the presence and help of the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit has not always full control, and consequently cannot fill the soul. He becomes a partaker of God’s nature, but ungodlike inclinations and tendencies may still remain,
(c) The inbred sin, or inclination to evil and selfishness, which still exists in converted people, is apt, unless over powered by divine grace, to rise up and produce actual sin. Such sin needs forgiveness, for no one can continue in the favour of God who allows sin to remain unforgiven or who goes on committing sin (1 John iii. 8). But the forgiveness which God grants to His people for failures of this kind does not deal with the sinful nature from which the wrong acts spring; that nature needs fully cleansing or purifying-in other words, it needs entire sanctification.
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.’
‘God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect’ (I John iv. 16, 17).
‘The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be pre served blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (I Thessalonians v. 23).
‘Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all, filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God’ (2 Corinthians vii. I).
(a) The chief difference between Partial and Entire Sanctification is that— i. Partial Sanctification takes place at conversion and is deliverance from outward sin and the love of it. ii. Entire Sanctification usually takes place after con version, and is deliverance from both inward and out ward sin-from sin in disposition as well as in deed.
(b) Entire, Sanctification does not usually take place at conversion because few then see their need for it. God gives light gradually as people are able to bear it, and most seekers after Salvation are absorbed with the gaining of pardon. Later on, when they discover the true nature of inward sin and earnestly seek deliverance, God sanctifies them entirely.
(c) Unconverted, Converted, and Entirely Sanctified people thus differ from each other as regards their relationship to sin.
i. An unconverted person is under sin. He may see sin to be evil, hate it, and struggle against it; but still he is under its power, and forced to obey it. This explains why unsaved people make resolutions and break them directly. ‘I am carnal, sold under sin’ (Romans vii. 14).
ii. A converted or partially sanctified person is over sin. He is delivered from the power of sin; by the power of God he is able to conquer sin. But sin still exists as a principle or disposition in the soul; it is there, though it does not reign. ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you’ (Romans vi. 14).
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).
(Reproduced from the 1923 Salvation Army Doctrine Book complete and unabridged)
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Holiness IS conditional
I've been involved in a lively debate recently on an internet forum recently.In the end I had to withdraw because I've was being accused of arrogance and even rudeness by some of my potractors.
It is very difficult to debate when you possess the truth and it is impossible to sound anything other than arrogant when that is the case!
However, on this occasion I was right and everyone else was wrong!
The debate was whether holiness is conditional or not. I stated that it was. Others argued that it was all the work of grace and that no contribution from us was required. Although I chose my words very carefully I was accused of saying that consecration is holiness whereas what I actualluy said was that holiness is conditional upon consecration.
The 1923 Doctrine Book (the whole chapter on sanctification can be found at bloodandfire.org.uk) says the following:
CHAPTER X
ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION
Section III.-ITS ATTAINMENT
1. THE BESTOWAL OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION, as with every other gift of God’s grace, IS CONDITIONAL — it depends upon the whole-hearted co-operation of the person to be benefited.
Assuming that conversion has already taken place, the necessary conditions are: Conviction, Renunciation, Consecration, Faith.
ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION
Section III.-ITS ATTAINMENT
1. THE BESTOWAL OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION, as with every other gift of God’s grace, IS CONDITIONAL — it depends upon the whole-hearted co-operation of the person to be benefited.
Assuming that conversion has already taken place, the necessary conditions are: Conviction, Renunciation, Consecration, Faith.
7. SANCTIFICATION IS THE WORK OF GOD. Man’s consecration and faith do not sanctify; they are simply conditions upon which God’s sanctifying grace is given.
I think the phrase is QED!
I am deeply worried that covenanted Officers in The Salvation Army do not understand this most basic of doctrines!
Love and prayers
A
Monday, June 23, 2008
The Wisdom of Solomon
This is Solomon and I in the London Offices of his church in Canmberwell. Solomon founded his church in 2000 with nothing and now has a congregation of over 300.Solomon's church rescues prostituted people from the red light district in Abidjan in Cote'D'Ivoire. Solomon was introduced to me by my good friend Carol Young (http://rehoboth-old-wells.blogspot.com/) who recently visited his church there.
Solomon already provides security and a loving home to prostituted people - guess what he wants to do next? He wants to open up a feeding station - his philosophy is simple 'I can't preach the gospel to hungry people' (Sound familiar?) Then he's going to open up a training college to send out church planters.
Solomon asked Carol and I what he needed to do to merge his church with the global Salvation Army - we gave him the email address of the under-secretary for Africa.
Thank God for people with the wisdom of Solomon!
Love and prayers - A
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Courage brother it is still God's will to save our nation!
It’s 2:27am and I’m in Dartford Salvation Army Hall in the middle of an all night of prayer. The Computer’s been left on and logged onto the internet so that people can send emails, look up quotes, search the bible, play midi files or whatever they feel led to do.I’ve just stuck pins in a map of the world a pin in Melbourne (prayers for Steve, Danielle and Xander) a pin in Sydney (Prayers for Andrew Stringer and his clan) a pin in Vancouver for Jonathan and Olivia – I’ve prayed for all you guys!
We’ve just prayer walked Dartford High Street, picking our way through the drunks (who all look too young to be out at 1am let alone out drinking.) I knelt down outside a busy pub, on the very spot where 100 years ago this year 3 Salvationists were arrested and sent to prison for preaching the gospel. Together with my friends we reclaimed Dartford for Jesus and spoke out against the strongholds of alcohol, gambling and prostitution which so obviously hold the town. Jesus was with us and we sensed the heavenly hosts twitch with excitement, swords at the ready and eager for battle!
I have such an overwhelming sense tonight that God is so ready to act. Already in Dartford we have felt those big heavy splashes of rain that precede a storm – revival is on its way – I feel it in every spiritual cell of soul.
You know we have some Officers in the UK who think we’re living in the last days, a time when the bible predicts decline and apostasy – so they’ve given up on evangelism! They tell me that we are the church of Laodicea. I disagree – I violently disagree! We are the church of Sardis and God (hallelujah) has not completed his work in us yet!
God can do immeasurably more than all we could ask or even imagine – how? by the power that’s at work in us. I was reading the Soldier’s covenant earlier and the Officer’s covenant – you know if every soldier and every Officer got up tomorrow morning and kept their promises it would transform our Army overnight – in fact I reckon that if only a tenth did that we could conquer the world for Christ within a year.
Friends, we must pray, fast, repent, fight for social justice, become a voice for the silent and make the invisible visible. We must once more make Isaiah 58 our benchmark then we could again rise like the sun and rebuild the broken places.
Comrades – let’s do it!
No more compromise or excuses no more measuring ourselves against each other. Let’s measure ourselves against God’s word and then when we realise how poor we are let’s allow God to make us rich, when we realise how weak we are let’s allow God to make us strong and then let’s conquer the world for Jesus.
The Salvation war still rages, reinforcements are needed, give everything you have , surrender all and do or die for Jesus.
“Courage my brother it is still the will of God to save our nation” (GSR)
Thursday, June 19, 2008
prisoners asking for prayer like pigeons after seed!
A few years ago, before we were Officers, Tracey came home from the Salvation meeting one evening with Ricky in tow. Ricky was a drug addict with nowhere to sleep and so Tracey had invited him to stay with us! Ricky was with us for 5 days until we were able to find him more suitable accommodation.A couple of years later Ricky rang me from prison and I arranged to go and visit him. During the visit (with the able support of Neil Webb) I prayed for Ricky had a really powerful encounter with God the Holy Spirit.
Once again we lost contact with Ricky and the last I heard was that he had settled down, come of the drugs and linked up with a local church… that was until last week when I had a call from Haris, TSA’s chaplain at Brixton Prison in South London. Ricky was back inside and was asking after me and Tracey – so this morning I went to pay him a visit. He was looking well and I accepted his story that things had been going well for him, he was still off the drugs and voluntarily reducing his dosage of methadone. I also accepted that this short stay in prison was the results of one of the many muddles that Ricky seems to get himself into – ignoring letters, missing appointments, being in the wrong place at the wrong time etc.
We had a good chat and I prayed with Ricky and you could see that lovely Holy Spirit glow come across his face once more. I’m going back to see him again in two weeks.
But that is only a bit of what I want to blog about.
What was absolutely amazing and completely took me by surprise was how many of the men on his wing saw my uniform and immediately wanted me to pray with them. They were hovering like anxious soldiers at the end of the Sunday morning meeting desperate to catch the Officer’s ear. In addition to Ricky I prayed for two other men – including a Muslim who wanted to know if Jesus could rescue him from heroin.
The only experience I can liken what happened to, was standing in Trafalgar Square as a young boy with bird seed in both hands and suddenly finding myself swamped by pigeons! This was the same experience, the uniform seemed to convince these men that I had the seed and they flocked around hoping to get some.
It was a tremendously humbling, moving and empowering experience and one that I will never forget.
The fields are still very much white unto harvest we just have to visit the right ones!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
World's leading atheist changes his mind!
World's leading atheist changes his mind: there is a God!The photo is upside down - that's how it appears on the cover of a recent book by the most influential atheist over the past fifty years. So-called 'new' atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have stood on his shoulders in debunking the existence of God. But Professor Antony Flew's thinking has recently been turned upside down - or maybe right side up! He now believes in a Creator.The book's title declares: THERE IS NO GOD - but the 'NO' is scribbled out and replaced by an 'A'. And the subtitle adds, How the world's most notorious atheist changed his mind.
Antony Flew engaged in debate with C.S. Lewis at the Oxford University Socratic Club in 1950, when he presented a paper called Theology and Falsification. This became the most widely reprinted philosophical publication of the last century. The Socratic principle emphasised by this club - of following the evidence wherever it may lead - became a guiding principle throughout Flew's career.It was that principle, he explains, which led him to change his mind about God after more than sixty years of atheism and a distinguished career as a philosopher. In a chapter entitled Atheism calmly considered (following John Wesley's sermon, Predestination calmly considered), Flew describes his various debates with theists over the decades. Some were attended by thousands. The professor found himself confronted in debate with increasing evidence of an intelligent designer behind the universe.
Big Bang cosmology, implying that the universe had not always existed, had pulled the rug out from under some of his key arguments. Other developments in modern science too seemed to point to a higher Intelligence."In one report it was said that of all the great discoveries of modern science, the greatest was God!"
In May 2004, Flew was invited to participate in a symposium at New York University, to debate with Israeli scientist Gerald Schroeder and Scottish philosopher John Haldane. All were greatly astonished when he announced at the start that he now accepted the existence of a God. The scheduled debate thus became a joint exploration of the implications of recent scientific discoveries. In one report of the event, it was said that of all the great discoveries of modern science, the greatest was God!Asked that evening if recent work on the origin of life indicated creative Intelligence, Flew answered: 'Yes, I now think it does... DNA (investigations have shown)... that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements to work together.'
Atheists, he explained, were fond of appealling to the idea that given enough time, chance could produce anything, even life. But Schroeder impressed Flew by debunking the so-called 'monkey theorem': that enough monkeys banging away on enough keyboards could eventually produce a Shakespearean sonnet. Or, by analogy, that life could emerge by chance.Schroeder referred to an experiement conducted by the British National Arts Council, in which six monkeys were put in a cage with a computer. One month and fifty typed pages later, not a single word had been produced by the monkeys. Not even the single-letter words of 'a' or 'I'. Actually, argued Schroeder, the likelihood of getting a one-letter word was one in 27,000. What chance then was there of getting a fourteen-line Shakespearean sonnet by chance? Schroeder did the maths and came up with 10 to the 690th.
To get that in perspective, the number of particles in the whole universe-protons, electrons, and neutrons-is a mere 10 to the 80th! For Flew, this was a convincing display that the monkey theorem he and others had often used to discount any intelligent Creator was simply 'rubbish'."Look and follow the evidence wherever it may lead."Flew calls his discovery of the Divine a pilgrimage of reason, not of faith.
He claims no personal experience of God or any experience of the supernatural or miraculous. Yet he includes as an appendix in his book an article by Bishop Tom Wright arguing the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Introducing the article - 'by far the best case for accepting Christian belief that I have ever seen' - Flew states: 'I think that the Christian religion is the one religion that most clearly deserves to be honoured and respected whether or not its claim to be a divine revelation is true... If you're wanting Omnipotence to set up a religion, this is the one to beat.'
The book's other remarkable appendix, by Flew's collaborator Roy Abraham Varghese (The Wonder of the World), is a critique of the 'New Atheism', represented by Dawkins (The God Delusion), Sam Harris (The End of Faith), Lewis Wolpert (Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast), and others. Varghese accuses these 'atheist evangelists' of ignoring the very phenomena relevant to the question of God's existence. These are: rationality, implicit in all our experience of the physical world; life, the capacity to act autonomously; consciousness, the ability to be aware; conceptual thought, the power of articulating and understanding language; and the human self, the 'centre' of consciousness and action. All the evidence we need is in our immediate experience, argues Varghese; only a deliberate refusal to 'look' is responsible for atheism of any variety.
Flew's book is a powerful challenge to all to 'look' and follow the evidence wherever it may lead.
Love and prayers
A
Sunday, June 15, 2008
The Matrix (no not that one!)
In the UK Territory we have something called a ‘Qualitative Questionnaire’ that is used to produce a ‘qualitative matrix’ (nothing to do with the film!) This matrix is supposed to show you whether a Corps is static, in decline or growing. On the whole the questionnaire is a good document because it forces you to sit down and statistically analyse the performance and spiritual health of the Corps.
The period covered by the questionnaire I have just completed covers the six month period before we arrived and the 10 months that we have been here and the results are really quite encouraging.
You’ll have to forgive me if the following sounds a bit like I’m reading from a ‘bank balance sheet’ but that is the way the questionnaire is designed to work. It certainly isn’t meant to be self praise either – there is a lot of room for improvement and in terms of evangelism we haven’t really started yet.
During 2007/08
More than 25 people have attended worship for the first time and 7 have subsequently attended worship more than 6 times (and they are still attending)
In the last 10 months we have seen 21 new people (or lapsed attendees) start to attend the family worship service on a Sunday morning.
During this time 4 people have come to faith.
30 plus people have shown a noticeable increase in there passion for the Lord in the last 12 months.
The Mercy Seat (which hadn’t been used since 2001) has been used 31 times in the last 10 months.
In the same period 9 people have become friends, 2 adherents, 1 a soldier, and there are 3 recruits about to start recruits classes. In the same time we have seen 5 Junior Soldiers enrolled and have 2 JS recruits currently going through classes. In addition 9 Junior Musicians have been enrolled. We have seen the band resurrected and a Singing Company formed.
On the financial front, fund raising has gone up by about £1000 per month.
During the same time over 20 people have started to use their gifts or engaged in new areas of service within the Corps.
Now this is hardly revival! But maybe it is those first few heavy splashes of rain that fall just before a storm breaks. It's not just happening at Dartford either, I’ve also heard of other Corps where similar ‘splashes’ are being felt.
Will it become revival?
That will all depend on the holiness of the participants, if holiness is pursued, obtained and maintained then revival will be the natural outcome.
As I have always said, holiness will prove to be the Salvation of the Salvation Army!
Hallelujah!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Prince Caspian
Prince Caspian is one of my favourite books in The Chronicles of Narnia.I like it because it is about apostasy and revival!
In the story, the Pevensie Kids, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are transported from a country railway station to an island in Narnia. It is 1000 years since they were last there, talking beasts are just myths, Aslan is almost forgotten and the castle where they reigned when last in Narnia (Cair Paravel) is in ruins. The real heir to the Narnian Throne Prince Caspian is at risk from his wicked Uncle King Miraz, a tyrant who murdered Caspian's father.
What I love about this story is that no one believes in the old days anymore, the old magic and the old ways are rejected and almost forgotten. But there is a remnant, a band of ‘primitive Narnians’ Glenstorm the Centaur, Trufflehunter (a loyal badger) and Reepicheep (a wonderful almost Railtonian mouse!) who help the true King reclaim his throne.
The story is such a good metaphor for the church of today - in an early battle, the Narnians make strategic mistakes, many animals die, and they are forced to retreat…. But of course later on Aslan appears and renews the land. He calls forth the dryads (tree spirits) to dance again; he awakens the river god, who then destroys a massive man-made wooden bridge over the Fjords of Beruna.
It’s released in the UK from June 27th and there are some great suggestions as to how the film can be used to generate opportunities for mission here http://www.damaris.org/narnia (Thanks to Matt C for pointing this out!)
Revival comes when the remnant starts believing and obeying, hallelujah – let’s do it!
Love and prayers
A
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