Further Insights into Holiness [1 ed.] 9780834126503

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Jurther

INSIGHTS INTO

·HOLINESS

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Jurther

INSIGHTS INTO HOLINESS

KENNETH GEIGER BEACON HILL PRESS Kansas City, Missouri

FIRST PRINTING, 1963 FIFTH PRINTING, COPYRIGHT

LmRARY

1963

1966

BY BEACON

OF CONGRESS

PRINTED IN THE

HILL

PRESS

No. 63-13779

U.S.A.

Foreword In his Preface written for the edition of his Sermons (January 1, 1788) John Wesley, to whom frequent reference is made in this volume, said, "I dare no more write in a 'fine style' than wear a fine coat ... I am still for plain, sound English. I think a preacher, or a writer of sermons, has lost his way, when he imitates any of the French orators; even the most famous of them ... Only let his language be plain, proper and clear, and it is enough. God himself has told us how to speak, both as to the matter and the manner: 'If any man speak,' in the name of God, 'let him speak as the oracles of God.' " It is obvious that Wesley possessed an intense desire to communicate through his sermons to the greatest possible number of people. His message was relevant to their needs, and to do less than write understandingly would violate his sense of mission. In an attempt to present contemporary thought in the field of Wesleyan-Arminian theology the National Holiness Association has sponsored a second series of seminars on holiness doctrine. Seven seminars were held on as many college campuses in the United States and Canada during the fall of 1962. (The first series of six seminars was held during the fall months of 1961, and most of the papers presented at that time are to be found in the book Insights into Holiness, published in April, 1962, by Beacon Hill Press.) The various chapters of this book, Further Insights into Holiness, were presented at the 1962 series of workshops for ministers and ministerial students. It should be recorded here that the 1962 seminars were conducted on the following campuses: Eastern Pilgrim College, Allentown, Pennsylvania; Owosso College, Owosso, Michigan; Vennard College, University

Park, Iowa; Greenville College, Greenville, Illinois; Bethel College, Mishawaka, Indiana; Loroe Park College, Port Credit, Ontario; and Central Wesleyan College, Central, South Carolina. The National Holiness Association is greatly indebted to these institutions, the participating scholars, and the hundreds of ministers and ministerial students who attended. Their keen interest in this "service thrust" of the Association and the many inquiries received from a wide area have led to the publication of this volume. A special word of thanks is due our fine publisher, Beacon Hill Press, of Kansas City, Missouri. With enthusiasm and a deep sense of loyalty to the WesleyanArminian message and emphasis, they have agreed to make these scholarly and scriptural papers available to the reading public. It has been my joy to work with Beacon Hill Press in the work of editing and compilation. The National Holiness Association and Beacon Hill Press are most grateful to the various publishers who have freely given permission to use copyrighted quotations in this volume. We believe that this book logically becomes a companion to the first volume referred to above, Insights into Holiness. This second volume complements the first in the choice of subject matter and in the selection of scholars not only with respect to their individual qualifications but with respect to their denominational, geographic, and professional representation. Attention is called to the fact that these papers deal with an assortment of subjects. Their order as chapters in this book mayor may not appear to be logical. It was impossible for the writers to collaborate with each other, but the discerning reader will note the basic unity within the framework of Wesleyan-Arminian theology. It should also be noted that the last three chapters in this book, by reason of their subject matter, logically fall into a section. These papers relate our message to the increasing frustrations and neuroses with which the

psychologists and psychiatrists of our day are dealing. Christian holiness does have a psychological frame of reference. Holiness, sin, confession, faith, salvation, forgiveness, cleansing, purity, power, love, and a host of other terms can become meaningful to people of our day. It is a fact of history that the vitality and dynamic of a movement can be dissipated over the years. The process of transmission or the handing down of a message or emphasis from generation to generation in a careless manner can result in distortion and confusion. Unless the God-given responsibility of communication is discharged with faithfulness and in the fear of the Lord, future generations will be like the generation after Joshua, who "knew not the Lord" (Judg. 2: 10). Thus the various chapters to be found in this book and the seminars at which they were first presented have been born out of a threefold conviction, viz., (1) Bible knowledge is always a necessity, (2) doctrinal preaching is always effective, and (3) the terminology of the Bible is always relevant. It is my judgment that this book will be an effective instrument in the hands of many who desire to increase their knowledge of the Bible, proclaim its message, and relate full salvation to the needs of our day. To this end we shall continue to pray and labor.

President NATIONAL HOLINESS ASSOCIATION KENNETH GEIGER,

Acknowledgments Every effort has been made to secure permission for quoted materials. Acknowledgment is made to all who have kindly granted this permission. Abingdon Press: Otto J. Baab, Theology of the Old Testament; William R. Cannon, The Theology of John Wesley; Gerald R. Gregg, The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 9; Frederick C. Grant, An Introduction to New Testament Thought; Alford Wilford Nagler, The Church in History; Herbert Welch, ed., Selections from the Writings of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A.; Discipline of the Methodist Church, 1944, p. 3. Appleton-Century-Crofts: Edna Heidbreder, Seven Psychologies. The Asbury Seminarian, Paul S. Rees, "Our Wesleyan Heritage After Two Centuries," II, No.2, (1948) 56.

Beacon Hill Press: T. M. Anderson, After Sanctification; Samuel Chadwick, The Call to Christian Perfection; J. B. Chapman, The Terminology of Holiness; R. S. Foster, Christian Purity; Asbury Lowrey, The Possibilities of Grace; Leslie R. Marston, sermon, "What It Means to Love God Perfectly," from The Holiness Pulpit; W. T. Purkiser, Conflicting Concepts of Holiness; W. T. Purkiser, Exploring Our Christian Faith; H. Orton Wiley and Paul Culbertson, Introduction to Christian Theology; H. Orton Wiley, Christian Theology; Olive M. Winchester, Crisis Experiences in the Greek New Testament; J. A. Wood, Purity and Maturity. Christian Literature Crusade: Oswald Chambers, The Holy Spirit of Promise. James Clark & Co., Ltd., Dr. A. E. Garvie, The Preachers of the Church.

Collier Books: Oscar Wilde, Lady Windemere's Fan. Curtis Brown, Ltd.: April Oursler Armstrong, article, "I Don't Want 'Well-Adjusted' Children." Doubleday & Company, Inc., Sebastian DeGrazie, The Errors of Psychotherapy. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company: Charles Hodge, Systematic TheoLogy; Robert Girdlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament; George Milligan, St. Paul's Epistles to the Thessalonians; J. C. Lambert, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia; W. Robert Nicoll, Expositor's Greek New Testament; Henry C. Thiessen, Introductory Lectures in Systematic TheoLogy. Epworth Press: Thomas Cook, New Testament Holiness; John Wesley, Journal of John Wesley. The Evangelical Press: S. J. Gamertsfelder, Systematic Theology. Free Methodist Publishing Company: Leslie R. Marston, From Age to Age a Living Witness; From Chaos to Character; John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection; George A. Turner, The More Excellent Way. Horizon Press: Esar Even, Esar's Comic Dictionary. God's Bible School: Joseph H. Smith, Holiness Text Book. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., Publishers: George W. Allport's Pattern and Growth in Personality; Gordon Allport, Personality, A PsychoLogical Interpretation; George Croft Cell, The Rediscovery of John Wesley. J. P. Lippincott Company: John B. Watson, Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist. The Lockman Foundation: The Amplified New Testament. The Macmillan Company: Arnold S. Nash, Protestant Thought in the Twentieth Century; Phillips, Letters to Young Churches. Moody Press: Henry Alford, The Greek New Testament.

Oliphants, Ltd.: Exposition Dictionary of New Testament Words. Oxford University Press: R. Newton Flew, The Idea of Perfection in Christian Theology. Fleming H. Revell Company: Stephen Barabas, So Great Salvation; Harold J. Ockenga, The Church of God. Robert Lee Shank, Life in the Son. Salvationist Publishing and Supplies, Ltd.: S. L. Brengle, Heart Talks on Holiness; The Way of Holiness. University of Chicago Press: Arndt and Gingrich, eds., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Vennard College (formerly Chicago Evangelistic Institute): H. E. Jessop, Foundations of Doctrine. Westminster Press: H. H. Rowley, The Unity of the Bible; A. J. Ungersma, A New Approach in Psychotherapy and Pastoral Psychology. Zondervan Publishing House: Martin Luther, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans; John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley.

Contents 1. The Involvement of the Trinity in the Doctrine and Experience of Holiness Dr. Arthur M. Climenhaga

15

2. The Holiness of God Dr. James F. Gregory

31

3. Old Testament Roots of the Wesleyan Message Rev. Dennis F. Kinlaw

41

4. The Biblical Terms Which Set Forth the Wesleyan-Arminian Position Rev. Morton W. Dorsey

55

5. The Greek New Testament and the Message of Holiness Dr. J. Harold Greenlee

73

6. Holiness Truth in the Roman Epistle Dr. Wilbur T. Dayton 7. What the Bible Teaches About the Meaning of Holiness Dr. W. Ralph Thompson

89

107

8. Holiness: Instantaneous and Progressive Rev. Ora D. Lovell

123

9. Areas of Growth After Sanctification Dr. Otho Jennings

141

10. The Relation of Knowledge to the Experience of Holiness Rev. Irwin L. Brown

163

11. The Imperfections of the Perfect Dr. Leo G. Cox

179

12. Temptation and the Sanctified Life Dr. Cornelius P. Haggard

197

13. The Church of the Spirit Dr. Frank Bateman Stanger 14. The Doctrine of Assurance as Held and Taught by J 000 Wesley Rev. Ivan C. Howard

213

231

15. Full Salvation Dr. W. T. Purkiser

249

16. Holiness Preaching That Communicates Dr. Richard S. Taylor

269

17. Christian Holiness: Its Psychological Frame of Reference Dr. Leslie R. Marston

285

18. Psychological Orientation in Spiritual Discernment Dr. Floyd F. McCallum

315

19. Holiness and Nervous Reactions Dr. Lewis T. Corlett

333

Arthur M. Climenhaga President, Messiah College; B.S.L.,Upland College; B.A., Pasadena College; M.A., Taylor University; S.T.D., Los Angeles Baptist Seminary; president, Upland College, 1941-44; district superintendent, Southern Rhodesia, 1945-50; bishop of Brethren in Christ church, the Rhodesias, and general superintendent of Brethren in Christ missions, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, Africa, 195160; coauthor, Draw Nigh unto God, published by Rhodesia Christian Press, 1958; contributor, Missions in Southem Rhodesia, 1959, and The Southern Rhodesia Native Affairs Department: annual, 1958.

1 The Involvement of the Trinity In the Doctrine and Experience of Holiness ARTHUR

M.

CLIMENHAGA

That the biblical record regards God as holy, or holiness as an attribute or part of the essence of the Godhead, is immediately apparent to the reader who scans the Bible. In Exod. 15: 11 we read,"Who is like unto thee, 0 Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praise, doing wonders?" Or again in I Sam. 6: 20 we hear, "And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? and to whom shall he go up from us?" The prophet in Ps. 99: 9 exhorts, "Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy." To the prophet Isaiah came the revelation in chapter 6, verses 1 to 5: In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphirns: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, 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. IS

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And in the Revelation we hear the song of those who had gotten the victory over the beast and his image and his work: And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall fear thee, 0 Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy (15:3-4a).

Again the biblical record is perfectly clear in enjoining on the people of God the necessity of holiness or being holy. In Lev. 11: 45 we read, "For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy." In prophetic utterance Zacharias spoke: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an hom of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, . . . that he would grant unto us, 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 1:68-70, 74-75).

The Apostle Paul enunciates, "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" (II Cor. 7: 1). The writer to the Hebrews in 12: 14 puts it forthrightly, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." The Apostle Peter in his first letter definitively declares, "Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy" (1: 16); and in his second letter specifically warns, "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?" (3: 11) This double review of "holiness" in biblical references points up sharply that the subject is important and

The Involvement 01 the Trinity -

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one not to be passed over lightly. It also delineates the twofold approach set forth in the subject for consideration, the involvement of the Trinity in both the doctrine and the experience of holiness. The theme establishes certain terms of reference: (1) We consider the triune God and holiness as an attribute involved in His tripartite being; (2) We note the experiential involvement of the Trinity in this attribute as it applies to fallen, sinful, depraved humanity; (3) We so confine ourselves to these two considerations mentioned that we do not delve in detail into related areas of concern which, for the most part in our discussion, will have to be regarded either as being axiomatic or as subjects to be treated in detail in other presentations. Let us consider first, then, 1.

THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE TRINITY IN THE DOCTRINE OF HOLINESS

That holiness is one of the attributes of the Godhead is accepted as a self-evident truth. But we must consider what this means, for it has a bearing on the later consideration of experiential involvement. What type of attribute is holiness? There are various classifications of the attributes of God which bring out the distinctive features of the divine nature. Some list these (a) as natural attributes which are essential to God's nature and do not involve the exercise of His will and (b) as moral attributes which are qualities of God's character and involve our exercise of His will. As Wiley and Culbertson observe, "The weakness of this classification is the fact that it gathers in one group the relative attributes of God in His relation to creation and those which apply to Him apart from his relation to the world."l tH. Orton Wiley and Paul T. Culbertson, Introduction to Christian Theology, p. 89.

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Rather then do we take the threefold classification of absolute, relative, and moral attributes-qualities respectively which belong to God in His essence apart from His creative work (absolute), those arising out of the relation existing between the Creator and the created (relative), and those which belong to the relation existing between God and moral beings under His government (moral).2 It is under this last section that holiness falls as a moral attribute as far as our present delineation is concerned. To amplify this a definition of the attribute of holiness in relation to God as given by Dr. William Newton Clark is, "Holiness is the glorious fullness of God's moral excellence, held as the principle of His own action and the standard for His creatures."3 Now the matter of the Trinity involvement in this attribute is the point of particular concern here. We note the threefold affirmation in both Isa. 6: 3, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts," and in Rev. 4: 8, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." According to Dr. H. Orton Wiley, "The Church has always maintained that this threefold ascription refers to the Divine Trinity, and therefore that holiness belongs equally to the Father, the Son and the ever blessed Spirit. The glory which by Isaiah is ascribed to the Lord of Hosts, is by St. John ascribed to the Son (John 12: 41) and by St. Paul to the Holy Spirit (Acts 28: 25, 26) ."4 Basic to this concept is the statement of the Lord Jesus Christ that "God is a Spirit" (John 4: 24). This is further interpreted by the New Testament writers as "life" (John 5: 26), "light" (I John 1: 5), and "love" (I John 4: 8). Apropos of this, then, Wiley states: 'Ibid., pp. 89-90. 'William Newton Clark, An Outline of Christian Theology, p.89. 'H. Orton Wiley, Christian Theology, I, 372.

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In the Trinity, therefore, life is peculiarly the property of the Father, Light of the Son, and Love of the Spirit. But basic and fundamental to each is ascribed a nature characterized as holy, and the threefold ascription of adoration and praise is not on the ground of life or light or love, but of holiness. We may say, then, that holiness in the Father is the mystery of life, separate, distinct and unoriginated; holiness in the Son is Light, which down to the depths of His infinite being, reveals no darkness, nothing undiscovered, nothing unfulfilled, nothing which needs to be brought to perfection; holiness in the Spirit is the disclosure of love which exists between the Father and the Son, and is by St. Paul called the bond of perfectness. In the Father, holiness is original and underived, in the Son holiness is revealed, and in the Spirit holiness is imparted. It is therefore not by mere chance that we find the expression partakers of the divine nature (II Pet. 1: 4), associated with partakers of his holiness (Heb. 12: 10) ; and partaker of the glory (I Pet. 5: 1) with partakers of Christ (Heb. 3: 14) and of the Holy Ghost (Heb. 6: 4)."

These distinctions must be considered as the biblical concept of holiness and the concept of divine love, and in essence form the doctrinal statement of the involvement of the Trinity in the functioning of the attribute of holiness in the plan of redemption. This naturally brings us then to a consideration of

II.

THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE TIuNITY IN THE EXPERIENCE OF HOLINESS

At this point we desire to obtain an insight into the modus operandi of the Trinity in the imparting of an experiential holiness to the life of the believer. As we "Ibid., pp. 372-73. For those who would desire a more detailed and excellent treatment of holiness as it relates to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Dr. Wiley goes into this area in detail in an excellent presentation entitled ''The Biblical Concept of Holiness," ibid., pp. 373-78.

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have seen, the Bible is clear that this type of experiential life is expected of God's people. There are various ways which have been followed by writers, theologians, preachers, and others in developing this theme. Some have resorted to extensive quotations from dictionaries or from the experiences of Christians. Others amass a plethora of supporting scriptures. 6 For my purpose here I plan to concentrate in essence on two scriptures which have illuminated for me in a fresh way the involvement of the Trinity in setting forth experientially the path to holiness and holy living. In the Gospel of John, chapter 20, verses 19 to 23, we read: Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

Here sharply stated is the involvement of the Trinity in words by the Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples following His resurrection and just before His ascension. We are apt to mistake these words for a missionary imperative when in actuality they are the sharpest statement which I know in the Bible of Christian holiness experience and perspective. Note the way it is put: (1) as my Father hath sent me, (2) so send I you, (3) Receive ye the Holy Ghost. 'For an example of all of these approaches the reader is referred to Harry E. Jessop, Foundations of Doctrine.

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Here is the Trinitarian formula involving the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. To achieve an understanding of the dramatic aspect of the words, "As the Father hath sent me," I invite your attention to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, verse 45, "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." Three things stand out in alliterative detail: the Son of Man came--Surrender; to minister-Service; to give His life a ransom for many-Sacrifice. Herein lies the sense of the Father sending the Son to establish the path for disciples back to the holiness of God, this to be accomplished by the breathing on of the Holy Spirit. You see, in the sweep and content and context of that phrase and in the word SURRENDER lies the whole history of redemption and return to holiness. I can only speak anthropomorphically here today; I can only be so brief as to seem to be disjunctive rather than conjunctive in my presentation; I even almost may seem to be distressingly speculative. Against the background of prophetic utterance concerning the fall of Lucifer or the son of the morning and the apocalyptical phrase concerning the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, one sees the creation of man with the power of choice between good and evil, holiness and depravity. Created man did not then create evil as opposite to good by his choice; in actuality we understand that evil was created before that by the fall of Satan. I am convinced that God in His holiness created Lucifer (Satan) with the power of choice which could involve the creation of an actuality out of a potentiality. This is the only way I can understand the phrase in Isa. 45: 7, "I form the light, and create the darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." To understand concepts there must at least be the potentiality of opposites-e.g., light-darkness, black-white, good-evil, holl-

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ness-sinfulness. Lucifer or Satan with his free will created the actuality of evil out of the opposite potential to good. Herein lies the explanation of the possibility of redemption for fallen man but not for fallen Satan and his angels. 7 Man is seduced by sin; Satan and his followers created evil, that formed the path for such seduction. For such creation there never can be redemption. Be that as it may, in the fall of man and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world we see the principle of Surrender in the Logos, the Second Person of the Trinity. Herein lay the subordination of the Son to the Father. If this created man falls and sins, he not only loses his holiness but he also comes under the judgment of a holy God. Then one can almost hear in the council of the Trinity in heaven and in the dialogue of projected creation and such a possibility of a fall the query, "What then?" At this point the Second Person of the Trinity seems to say, "I will give myself to be sent by the Father at His bidding." The Father says, "I will send my only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall have everlasting life." And the Holy Spirit says, "I will be the divine Agent to perform the accomplishment of this redemptive act and bring back man to his estate of holiness." In the fullness of time it was so, blessed be God forever! There is a dual aspect to what follows-the Son becomes flesh, and the Holy Spirit descends on Him at His baptism. This is the mystery of the holiness of God unfolding itself in the incarnation act. There can be no such thing as a vacuum in the experiential fact of the holiness of God. Thus when the Son divested himself of His deity glory (see Phil. 2: 5-10), He in essence was saying what He finally articulated in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Not my will, but thine, be done," or what 7Cf. Ezekiel 28; Luke 10:18; Rev. 13:8.

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He taught the disciples to pray, "Thy will be done." But the very essence of praying such a prayer meant that the seal of God had to be on the act of total consecrative surrender, and this seal was seen in God's visitation of the descending dove-the Holy Spirit. The holiness of God in Christ in Surrender meant the act of abnegation resulting in the filling and anointing of the Holy Spirit. This is a profound and basic fact which we must recognize in the involvement of the Trinity in doctrinal and experiential holiness. The Lord never demands of His followers anything more than that which has been ideally and practically experienced in the Trinity involvement. Expurgation and self-abandonment always demands something in its place. In the economy of God's grace there are no vacuums. A point in illustration here is the Lord Jesus' story in Matt. 12: 43-45 of the man who must have swept out an evil spirit from his house but left it swept, garnished, and empty. The evil spirit went to and fro seeking rest and, finding none, returned to the house still empty. Oh, the pathos of it! For out the evil spirit went and sought seven other evil spirits and entered in to abide, and as Jesus said, "The last state of that man is worse than the first." Thus the Trinity showed the way to a SURRENDER which involved a filling. This produced the definitive act of SERVICE that culminated in SACRIFICE. While surrender in and of itself involves sacrifice, the final sacrifice of the life can never precede either surrender or service. And the surrender which brings the holiness of God into the life is one which says death to self ("Thy will be done") and pleads the ministering dove. ("Be filled with the Spirit.") The involvement of holiness is an act of sanctification in the life of the person who seeks this holiness. That old divine of former days, John Owen, so aptly put

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the fact of holiness and sanctification into the perspective of the Trinity when he said, Sanctification is an immediate work of the Spirit of God in the soul of the believer, purifying and cleansing his nature from the pollution and uncleanness of sin, renewing the spiritual and habitual principle of grace to yield obedience unto God, according to the tenor and terms of the New Covenant, by virtue of the life and death of Christ,"

Thus the holiness of the believer by the act of sanctification may be attributed rightly to the united work of the three Persons of the Trinity. That sanctification originates in the purpose of and is the express will of the Father is seen in Jude, v. 1, "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called," as it stands in context to I Thess. 4: 3, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." Sanctification is also attributed to the Son, in that only through our vital union with Him can the Father's purpose be achieved. Thus I Cor. 1: 30, "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." And Heb. 13: 12, "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." But in a preeminent way sanctifying grace unto holiness is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is through the Spirit's quickening agency that what the Father willed and the Son made possible can become an actuality in the life of the believer. Thus II Thess. 2: 13, "But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." And I Pet. 1: 2, "Elect "Quoted from J. Oswald Sanders, The Holy Spirit of Promise, p.58.

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according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."9 Thus in the experiential involvement of the Trinity in holiness one can say that there is no rivalry within the unity of the Godhead, for in the Scripture each Person is found delighting in glorifying the other to the greater manifestation of the full witness of God to the holiness of His character and work. As J. Oswald Sanders says: The passion of Christ was to glorify or to manifest the hidden excellence of the Father. "I seek not Mine own glory," He affirmed. "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing" (John viii. 54). He viewed His work as having achieved its highest purpose when He could claim, "I have glorified Thee on the earth" (John xvii. 4). The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews adduces the fact that "Christ glorified not Himself" (v. 4) as one of His qualifications for priesthood. Christ also gave glory to the Spirit. Did He not say to His disciples that it was expedient that He should go away or else the Comforter would not come, thus signifying that the Spirit would more than take His place? In His sacerdotal prayer the Son's petition was, "Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son . . . And now, o Father, glorify Me with Thyself." This the Father did, when He raised Him from the dead (Acts xiii. 30) and received Him into glory, saying, "Sit thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool" (Heb. x. 13). Such is the glory given to the Son by the Father. The Spirit in turn, is jealous for the glory of the Son. In speaking to those who had adulterously turned away from Christ to other loves, the Apostle James writes, "Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, The Spirit that dwelleth in us yearneth for us even unto jealous envy?" (iv. 5) He cannot bear to see a cooling of love for Christ. He longs to see the Lamb of God vindicated and adored in the scene of His humiliation and rejection, and directs all His powers to this end!· •Ibid., second paragraph, p. 58. I·Ibid., pp. 97-98.

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One is deeply impressed in this consideration of the Trinity and holiness that in the final analysis we are in truth living in the age of the Holy Ghost. What does this mean then in the consideration of our subject? Some months ago a brother beloved was speaking with me concerning life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Said he, "All is in Jesus. My sense of victory is in Him and Him alone. My witness I receive from Him and Him alone. Jesus only for me." I was constrained to ask him, "But what of the Holy Spirit, my brother? Where does He come in the economy of God's grace in your life?" "Oh," was the reply, "the Spirit and Jesus are one; there is no differentiation." For anyone who studies the Word this is a remarkable lack of understanding of God's Word. Jesus said in John 14: 16-17, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter ... even the Spirit of truth." Our Lord reiterated this in John 16: 7, "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was outpoured and Peter said, "But this is that . . . it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit" (Acts 2: 16-17). The Apostle Paul brings this into full perspective in Rom. 8: 1 when he declares, "There is therefore now no comdernnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." This is the Spirit of whom the Psalmist writes (Ps. 139: 7), "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" The omnipresence of the Spirit identifies Him with the Father and the Son and makes Him one of the Trinity. Then again the writer in Heb. 9: 14 speaks of the "eternal Spirit," identifying Him still further as one of the Trinity, different from, yet one with, the Father and the Son.

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What we are trying to impress upon us is this--the Spirit of God has His place in the work of the Lord in our hearts. What is that place and work? It is the witness of God through the Spirit that the full work of redemption has found a place in our hearts, bringing us from death to life as sinners and from death to life as saints. As Paul says, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8: 5-6) . Rom. 8: 16 brings us to the core of the place and work of the Holy Spirit in God's economy of grace. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." This witness is operative in all areas of the working of the grace of God in my life. I am a sinner, lost and in need of salvation. I hear the word, "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners." I see the provision, "The blood of Jesus Christ . . . c1eanseth." I read the promise, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." And the Holy Spirit witnesses to my heart that He applies Christ's blood and the great saving transaction is accomplished. But this witness of the Holy Spirit goes further than that. In Romans, chapters 7 and 8, I stand first face to face with the fact that in my Christian life there is the wrestling of a dual nature within. There is a necessity for something that will cause me to die to sin, to mortify my body so I will not live after the flesh. I must deal with a spirit of bondage and of fear. Now Romans, chapter 8, gives the promise that the Holy Spirit will do this. In verse 5, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit." In verse 9, the first part, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." Or again in verse 11, "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead

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dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." And lastly in verse 14, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." When we turn to Hebrews, chapters 9 and 10, the fullness of the place of the Holy Spirit in the work within the Christian's heart is seen resulting in a wonderful witness. See the purging of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in 9: 11-14, "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" See it! Through the eternal Spirit, Christ purges our consciences from dead works to serve the living and true God. No wonder the Lord Jesus promised, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (Acts 1: 8) ! Now we go on to Heb. 10: 14 and 15, "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us." This means that the second great witness of the Holy Spirit has to do with the life of full victory and deliverance the brother wanted to find alone in Jesus. We do find it, thank God, in the Lord Jesus Christ, but only by the witness of the Spirit that confirms to our hearts the truth of Heb. 10: 19-23a: Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house

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of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.

Here is the witness of the Holy Spirit that, "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" (I John 1: 7). Has the Spirit of God witnessed to us that we are new creatures in Christ Jesus? Is He witnessing that the Blood cleanses to the point of reckoning and knowing ourselves dead to sin, to the place of mortifying and crucifying the deeds of the body, so that we may live perfectly in Him? Does He witness that He, the Holy Ghost, so fills our hearts that we know His power? He can and will if we will only allow Him to do it. As the Father has sent Jesus, so the Lord Jesus sends us, and breathes on us and says, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." And, praise God, one of these days when we stand before the throne, it will be as glorified, holy beings to look on the holy Father by the grace of His holy Son, the Lord Jesus, through the witness of the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah for the witness of the Holy Spirit and the involvement of the Trinity in the doctrine and experience of holiness!

James F. Gregory

Editor, the Free Methodist; A.B., D.D., Greenville College; B.A., McMaster University; M.A., University of Toronto; B.D., Victoria University; previously: principal, Lome Park College; pastor and district superintendent, Free Methodist church; president, Spring Arbor Junior College; director of teacher training, Roberts Wesleyan College.

PROPEFtTY OF

NAZARENE SISU COLLEGE

2 The Holiness of God JAMES

F.

GREGORY

Divine revelation begins with the concept, "In the beginning God." In this manner we must approach all Christian doctrine. If we would understand the holiness of man, we must learn what the Bible says about the holiness of God. The Bible reveals God as holy. "Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev. 19: 2). With the latter part of this statement, all theists will agree. Can we accept the possibility that man also can be holy as the verse commands? In answer let us seek to understand what is meant when we say that God is holy and that His children can also be holy. THE AWESOMENESS OF GOD

Man's original awareness of God is seen in his reaction to creation itself. He finds nature awe-inspiring. Primitive peoples have built their religious superstitions upon what they have observed of the world around them. In ghostly fear and crude emotion they have sought to find reconciliation with powers they have recognized as higher than themselves. Poets and philosophers have considered the Creator of the universe in sublime contemplation and rapt communion. In his "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above 31

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Tintem Abbey," Wordsworth expresses an emotion known to us:

... And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living ai1', And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things. All of us have had hints of God's holiness in natural settings. As we have walked along the rock-bound coast and heard the thundering strength of the beating surf, our spirits have been subdued. We have sensed the presence of God in a fierce storm, with lashing gale and drenching rain, with flashing lightning and crashing thunder. We have paused in the silent forest and felt its mystery. We have been awed by the sunset on the prairies. We have learned something of God's holiness in the abyss of death and bereavement. We have touched the fringe of holiness when we have looked upon great art or listened to great music. We are not surprised that a man said to Heifetz, the violinist, after a concert, "You make me believe in God." On the higher level of divine inspiration, direct or written, the presence of God produces in us reverence. We see it in the experience of Jacob at Bethel, "And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. 28: 16-17). At the burning bush, "Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God" (Exod. 3: 6). Job prays,

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"Let not thy dread make me afraid" (Job 13: 21). Moved by a sense of God's holiness, the Psalmist exclaims, "Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob" (Ps. 114: 7). Again he says, "0 God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places: the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God" (Ps. 68: 35) . The holiness of God is set forth in Ezekiel's prophecy, "Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord" (Ezek. 38: 23). After crossing the Red Sea, Moses sings, "Who is like unto thee, 0 Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" (Exod. 15: 11) The Psalmist exults, "The Lord is great in Zion; and he is high above all the people. Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for it is holy" (Ps. 99:2-3) .

Oh, how 1 fear Thee, living God, With deepest, tenderest fears, And worship Thee with trembling hope And penitential tears! THE

ETHICAL PERFECTION OF GOD

When considering the holiness of God, we think more often of His moral quality. Commonly we sing, "God is God, God is holy." We are justified in this emphasis. Holiness is manifest in righteousness and purity. The Psalmist asks, "Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?" And the answer is, "He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart" (Ps. 15: 1-2). Again he inquires, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?" And the answer is given, "He that hath

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clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully" (Ps. 24: 3-4). The holiness of God is more than a lofty idea. It is a personal matter for each of us. God, who is holy, is "the Holy One in the midst of thee" (Hos. 11: 9). A holy God is our God, and He has dealings with us. We are encouraged to make this confession because of two words by which Jesus addresses His Father, "Holy Father" (John 17: 11). The holiness of God humbles us, but God's fatherhood stirs us with expectation. Practices which will issue from a holy life are set forth in Leviticus 19. The chapter is introduced by the command, "Ye shall be holy," followed by the reason for the requirement, "For I the Lord your God am holy." Then follow sundry laws which must be observed because God is holy and His children must also be holy. A holy people must not steal, nor swear falsely, defraud a neighbor, nor wrong a stranger. They must use just weights and love their neighbors as themselves. Holiness in ancient Israel was more than a matter of ritual. Personal goodness was required of a holy people. THE IMPARTABILITY OF GOD'S HOLINESS

Because God is holy, He has made provision for the redemption of sinful men. He must, by His very nature, impart His moral excellence to those who live by faith in Him. This precious truth is inherent in the fact that God is love. If God is love, He must share himself with others. We are taught that God is a Father, and who can conceive of a loving father not sharing himself and his bounties with his children? The impartability of holiness is illustrated in the picture language of the Tabernacle ritual. "Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; and it shall be an altar most holy: whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy" (Exod. 29: 37). What-

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ever was dedicated to the service of God was considered holy, and that ritualistic holiness was passed on to whatever touched holy objects. Any food coming in contact with holy food became holy. Ezekiel instructed the priests that when they left their sacred duties they must change their garments. "And when they go forth into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments" (Ezek. 44: 19). By these methods Israel was taught that its people could share God's holiness. We step aside to do a bit of preaching at this point. Observance of a little ritual symbolism might well assist us in obeying God's moral laws. God commands, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Exod. 20: 8). On this day Christians should wear their best clothes, set their tables with their best linen, their best dishes, and their best silver. This should be a day of reading the best books and of listening to the best music. The Lord's day is a day of worship and of good works, but the expression of our inner lives through symbolism is not unimportant. Carrying this idea further, we should regard all our possessions as holy, that is, set apart to honor and glorify God, and to extend His will in the earth. All our assets should be holy-our money, our stocks and bonds, all we possess. Our homes should be holy, our cars should be holy, and the mediums through which we are informed and entertained should be holy. Returning to the subject of the impartation of God's holiness to man, we find that God shares His nature with those of humble heart. "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I will dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit" (Isa. 57: 15).

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This truth that God shares His nature with His people is abundantly set forth in the New Testament. We read of Jesus, "As many as touched him were made whole" (Mark 6: 56) . Peter expresses the same idea when he says, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature" (II Pet. 1: 4). Of the Ephesians it is recorded, "And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them" (Acts

19:6). The gift of the Holy Spirit to the New Testament Christians is the peak of the message of the impartation of God's holiness to His children. The promise is, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (Acts 1: 8). Thank God, this promise has been proved valid in our generation. We have met those with whom God has shared His holiness. The glow of their holy living has lighted the way for us. In the impartation of His holiness with us, God also shares His righteousness. The Old Testament often thinks of righteousness as a legal term, but it is also redemptive. When the Psalmist prays, "Deliver me in thy righteousness" (Ps. 31: 1), he believes that, because God is righteous, He will deliver. In His righteousness God not only punishes the sinner, but saves the penitent. This wonderful truth is central to the prophecy of Isaiah. God through the prophet says, "I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness" (Isa. 41: 10). Again He promises, "I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry" (Isa. 46: 13) . The message of imparted righteousness is familiar truth in the New Testament. Paul writes of it in many glowing sentences. He speaks of his desire "that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of

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God by faith" (Phil. 3: 8-9). He says further, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (II Cor. 5: 21). Through Christ, the Sin Bearer, the righteousness of God is shared with us. Charles Wesley sings,

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress. Paul encourages the Ephesians to believe "that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God" (Eph. 3: 19). Almost too good to be true, but stated as any other fact, are his words to the Colossians, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him" (Col. 2: 9-10). John says of Jesus, "( ... we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1: 14), and then he adds, "Of his fulness have all we received" (John 1: 16). The divine indwelling is a glorious possibility. Jesus himself presupposes the sharing of the divine nature with man when He commands us, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5: 48). Such a high state of grace cannot be attained through man's own efforts. A divine impartation is the only possibility. This precious truth is also inherent in the fact that God is Love. He is not the love of modern fiction nor of romantic lyrics; He is holy Love. Holy love and sin are mutually exclusive. Because this is true, the doctrine of eternal punishment is understandable, as is also the doctrine of man's full redemption from sin. If God is holy Love, He must share himself with those whom He loves. We are taught that God is a Father, and who can conceive of a loving Father not sharing both himself and His bounties with His children?

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GOSPEL FOR OUR AGE

Can we present successfully the gospel of a holy God, sharing himself with His people, to our age? Lip service is commonly paid to faith in the existence of God, but the spell of secularism rules the faith of millions. The scientific outlook has crushed personal religious faith all too often. Official communism has decreed that the very idea of God must be rejected. But man without personal dealings with God is lost and lonely. There is still a strong longing for God in his soul. Recent news reports tell of a great resurgence of faith among the scientists and philosophers of Russia. It is an occasion of concern to the leaders of communism. The drawing power of evangelistic crusades, in countries of both Christian and other cultures, is evidence of the universal longing of man to learn if anything beyond himself can help him in his hapless plight. He is willing to listen if anyone can positively testify that God, who is morally perfect, wishes to share His nature with him. Man today is not so much interested in theories as he is in what God has done for others. This willingness to listen to the story of a vital religious experience is our point of opportunity. A few years ago while speaking at a camp meeting, I became friendly with a boy of about twelve years of age. He was a child of unusual spiritual perception who loved his father fondly. The father came in from work for the evening services only. After a few days the boy asked me, "Have you met my father yet?" When I told him I had not, he insisted I must meet him. Each morning after the first inquiry he pressed the question, "Did you meet my father last night?" At last on Saturday I met his father. He was everything his son said he was. Our fellowship in the Lord was delightful. When the son and I were again alone, his question now was, "Did you like my father?" to

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which 1 answered with enthusiasm, "I did, very much." And the boy rejoined, "I knew you would." That is the way it will be. If we have proof within us of the ability of a holy God to impart His nature to man, we need not hesitate to ask men everywhere, "Have you met my Father?" For when they meet Him, they will discover He is all we have found Him to be. They will learn as we have learned that the awesome God who made the universe shares His holiness with His children.

Dennis F. Kinlaw Graduate student and pastor, Methodist church, Rexford, New York; B.A., Asbury College; B.D., Asbury TheolOgical Seminary; M.A., Brandeis University; graduate work in Princeton Theological Seminary and New College, Edinburgh, Scotland; at present continuing further work at Brandeis University; evangelist; pastor; teacher; itinerant evangelist in Methodist church for three years; taught in Seoul Theological College, Seoul, Korea, for one term.

3 Old Testament Roots of the Wesleyan Message DENNIS

F.

KINLAW

One of the more neglected but more fruitful areas of study in relation to the Wesleyan message today is the Old Testament. That it has been neglected is evident to anyone who is acquainted with the literature in the field. Its promise of reward should not be hidden to any, though, who believe that the Scriptures are a unity, that God spoke in ancient days through the prophets of Israel, and that this is the same God who has revealed himself preeminently now in Jesus Christ and in New Testament text. Wesley in presenting the biblical arguments for his teaching did not draw heavily upon the Old Testament. W. E. Sangster has given us in The Path to Perfection the results of a study of the basic passages on which Wesley relied for supporting his doctrine of perfection. Of the thirty passages commonly cited by Wesley, only one comes from the Old Testament. This is not difficult to understand when we realize that in the heat of battle Wesley looked for the clearest, most unequivocal, most explicit statements for his apologetic. These were naturally to be found in the New Testament rather than in the Old. It does not mean that the Old Testament had no influence upon Wesley nor that he did not feel its truths to be binding upon him. Wesley clearly understood that the climax of God's revelation to man came in the New Testament and aln

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ways argued with this in mind. Often Old Testament passages were cited to refute Wesley's claims. Wesley always replied with a reminder of the vast difference between the privileges and responsibilities of those under the Old Testament dispensation and those who live in the fuller light of the New Testament age. Note the following quotation from the Plain Account. The privileges of Christians are in no wise to be measured by what the Old Testament records concerning those who were under the Jewish dispensation; seeing the fulness of time is now come; the Holy Ghost is now given; the great salvation of God is now brought to men by the revelation of Jesus Christ (Ninth Edition, p. 15).

Some argued with Wesley that Solomon had affirmed that there is no man who does not sin. To this Wesley responded: "Doubtless thus it was in the days of Solomon; yes, and from Solomon to Christ there was then no man that sinneth not." But, he insisted, we do not live in Solomon's day. Our privileges and our re~ sponsibilities are vastly greater. Therefore we cannot measure the privileges of real Christians by those formerly given to the Jews. Their 'ministration', (or dispensation,) we allow 'was glorious', but ours exceeds in glory (from Wesley's sermon on "Christian Perfection").

To illustrate this difference Wesley points out that Jesus said that the least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than John the Baptist, though a greater than he had not been born (Matt. 11: 11). This superiority lies in the availability of the Holy Spirit now "in his sanc~ tifying graces" to the humblest Christian in a manner unknown to the Old Testament believer. Wesley points out that David is one of the giants of the old dispensation. Yet Zechariah tells us (12: 8) that "the feeblest among them at that day shall be as David" (from sermon on "Christian Perfection") .

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Wesley saw the New Testament age as the age of a new covenant, in which the longings of those under the old covenant were realized. Undoubtedly this is why the one passage most commonly cited by him from the Old Testament to support his teaching was that of Ezek. 36: 25-29, the promise of the new age. Let it then be conceded that the Old Testament is not the place to turn for a full, unequivocal teaching on this subject. The question then must be raised as to why we spend this time and space here. First, let it be said that Wesley was influenced far more by the Old Testament than the above discussion might indicate. One of the reasons why Wesley is so strange to much of the modern Church is the fact that the Old Testament was Scripture as much as the New and had to be accepted as such. The fact that he in faith had immersed himself in the entirety of Scripture is one of the marks of difference between Wesley and many of his present-day successors. The New Testament gives the full flowering of his teaching on Christian perfection but the roots are to be in the Old Testament. Some things can be seen more clearly there than anywhere else. Not the least important contribution of the Old Testament is the lexical. Note for a moment some of the things that a casual glance through an exhaustive concordance will show. The basic vocabulary at issue is first given in the Old Testament. Take the verb "sanctify" for instance. This form occurs seventy times in the Bible. Of these sixty-four are in the Old Testament. The past tense of this verb occurs sixteen times in the New Testament. It is found thirteen times in II Chronicles alone. The word "holiness" is listed in Strong's exhaustive concordance as occurring thirteen times in the New Testament. It is found eleven times in the Book of Psalms. The adjective "holy" is found in Paul's Epistle to the Romans thirteen

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times but occurs in Leviticus eighty-nine times and in Isaiah fifty-four. These facts indicate the wealth of material in the Old Testament to help in understanding these terms. No man who has not immersed himself in the Old Testament has a full understanding of the impli cations of these terms. There is more basic material, though, that must be faced. In the Old Testament we see that God is holy and that all holiness has its origin in Him. There is nothing in the created world that is in itself inherently holy. The Old Testament may differentiate between things that are clean and unclean, but it knows nothing that is holy apart from its relation to God. There are holy places in the Old Testament. The ground on which Moses found himself at the burning bush was holy. It was the presence of the Lord, though, that hallowed it. The Temple area and particularly the holy place and the holy of holies were hallowed areas, but it was the Divine Presence that gave them such sanctity. The Old Testament knows a holy city, a holy land, a holy mountain, a holy heaven, but it knows of no place that is holy in itself. God by His presence and activity gives it that character. The Old Testament tells us of many holy objects. The Temple itself, the altars, the Temple vessels, the oil, the oblation are called holy, but theirs is a derived holiness, derived from their relationship to God. Nor is it different with men or times. Israel is a holy people. The Levites, the Nazarites, the priests are holy. There are holy days and seasons. All such sanctity, though, is due to a relationship to the Lord. He alone is the truly Holy One. He alone can sanctify. Is not the preceding basic to the Wesleyan message? Wesley ever insisted that sanctification was a work of God alone. It was no attainment of man. Any holiness that the creature may know will be derived, the result of a relationship to a holy God. It will be His work. That 4

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is why Wesley insisted that it was by faith alone. It is God alone who can sanctify. This leads to a further consideration. It is in the Old Testament that we see most clearly that the peculiarly distinctive thing about the God of Israel is His holiness. It is dramatically pictured for us in Isaiah 6. The prophet hears the cry of the seraphim as they sing out their trishagion and is smitten with a dual consciousness, God's holiness and his sinfulness. This is not unique to this vision, though. In most of the passages where man is confronted by God in the Old Testament there is an atmosphere of unapproachableness, of overwhelming power and majesty, of ethical purity and moral perfection that impresses one with the appropriateness of the distinctive name of Israel's God, the Holy One of Israel. Habakkuk is simply stating a principle everywhere evident in the Old Testament when he reminds us that God is of purer eye than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity (1: 13). It is this element of the "otherness" of God in His holiness to man in his sin that makes the sacrifice of Christ so necessary for any reconciliation of God to man. Is it not because modern Christendom has turned almost exclusively to the New Testament for its conception of God that modern man has lost his sense of need for atonement and spiritual renewal? Has not our preoccupation with portions of the Gospels and our neglect of the rest of Scripture (including the Old Testament's disclosure of God's essential nature) contributed to our superficial understanding of the fact that it is the pure in heart who are promised the sight of God? It is not that this element is totally lacking in the New Testament. It is assumed there, and therefore it is not so labored. Having established the fearful holiness of God with His basic moral demands in the Old Testament dispensation, the New Testament now completes the revelation of God with the seeking, self-giving, gracious

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Redeemer. There will be no deep sense of the need for such a Redeemer if there is no understanding of a holy God who is deeply offended by man's moral lapses. The superficial division of Old Testament and New into law and grace, which sees little of grace in the law and little or no legal demand under grace, usually leads either to legalism or to antinomianism. This is to be lamented but no more so than the modern theological mood which divorces the vision of God in His love in Jesus Christ as seen in the Gospels from that of God in His holiness as seen in the Old Testament. Consider for a moment the element of fire which usually accompanies the revelation of God of himself to men in the Old Testament. Whether in the flaming sword at the entrance to Eden, the smoking furnace of the covenant with Abraham, the burning bush on Mount Horeb, the pillar of fire in the wilderness, the burning mountain of Sinai, the whirlwind of flame in which Ezekiel sees the throne of God, or the seraphim (the "burning ones") who night and day sing of His holiness -wherever God meets man in the old covenant there is that fearful reminder that without atonement for and cleansing from sin and uncleanness there is something dangerous to sinful man in the presence of God. Little wonder that the words "holy" and "holiness" become for all practical purposes proper names for God (Prov. 9: 10; 30: 3; !sa. 40: 25; Job 6: 10; Hab. 3: 3). It is the concept of a God thus holy that is basic to the Wesleyan insistence that men should be holy. Related to the holiness of God is another aspect of His character that is most sharply presented in the Old Testament. Our God is a jealous God. This is again a message not particularly palatable to modem Christendom. Yet it is an important part of the Old Testament message about God. Though it is expressed elsewhere in the Old Testament, it is affirmed most clearly in relation to the covenant, at Sinai, of the Lord with Israel.

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Israel is urged to make no graven images, neither to bow to nor to serve anyone or anything other than the Lord. The reason: "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments" (Exod. 20; 5-6). This is clearly stated again in the repetition of the covenant in Deuteronomy. It seems to be an inevitable corollary of the covenant. It is the jealousy of a Husband over His spouse. J. S. Banks says that it is the "energetic assertion of an exclusive right." That exclusive right is the evidence of the extent of God's holy love. He is content with nothing less than first place in the affections of His creatures. A church that recoils from the concept of the jealousy of God will have little comprehension of Wesley's message of perfect love. This note of jealousy, so difficult for the soft modern, is unique in the ancient world. If anything characterized the religions of most of the ancient East, it was an easy tolerance of other gods and religious claims. Exclusive devotion was a claim no god would dare make. Thus a man could have many gods. Is not our easy tolerance today of false philosophies and false religious claims due to our loss of the revelation of God given in the old covenant, a God intolerant of all idolatry? The extent of God's claims on Israel's devotion and service is seen in the Torah, the five books of Moses. There is hardly an area of life which is not covered. Indeed the devout Jew says there is no area of life which is not in principle covered here. God apparently claimed the right to "meddle" to the point of directing diet and dress as well as worship. All of life was to be lived in terms of the instruction given in the mountain. As far as the claims of the ceremonial law are concerned, the letter has indeed passed, but is there not much to be learned from the principle presented here? Does not

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the Lord demand the right of control as absolutely in a more enlightened age as He did in a primitive one? Apparently Wesley felt so. Listen! Let it [my heartl be continually offered up to God, through Christ in flames of holy love. And let no creature be suffered to share with him: for he is a jealous God. His throne will he not divide with another; he will reign without a rival. Be no design, no desire admitted there, but what has him for its ultimate object (from Plain Account, Ninth Edition, p. 6).

One has the feeling that Wesley had met and bowed before the One whose name is J ealous. Yes! He accepted "the energetic assertion of an exclusive right." He rejoiced in it. The full extent of God's demand upon His people is illustrated in various ways too numerOus for listing here. Let us note a few, though. Consider the word 'USUally translated in the King James Version by our English word "perfect." In the prediluvian world with its sin, God looked for a man who pleased Him. That man was Noah, who was "perfect" in his generation. The basic meaning of the word thus translated is "to be complete." It is used in Gen. 17: 1, where God says to Abraham: "Walk before me, and be thou perfect." The Jewish Version translates this "whole-hearted." It is the same term which is used in the Levitical legislation to describe an animal that is acceptable for sacrifice. It must be whole. Is it too much to see in these early passages of Holy Writ the Spirit of God beginning to spell out the Father's will for His children? God wants a whole man and He wants that man whole. Note who could serve in the courts of the Lord. Not every Israelite was eligible. Only an elect family from a chosen tribe within the people of God could tread the holy place. The individual must be without physical defect, must have atonement made for his sins, and must

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be ordained in a ceremony replete with symbolism. It is possible here to mention only the most evident elements. After he had been clothed in priestly robes symbolical of his separation to God, a consecrating oil having been poured upon his head, and he having been sprinkled with sacrificial blood, some of that blood was specifically placed upon the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the large toe of the young priest. Portions of the sacrifice were then placed in his hands until they were full. These were to be waved before the Lord. When one realizes that the Hebrew phrase which is translated "consecrate" or "institute to priestly office" literally means "to fiII the hand," he does not find it difficult to sense the main thrust of the symbolism here. God looked for men to serve Him who were totally separated to Him, who freely acknowledged the fullness of the divine claim upon them, and whose hands were filled with His business so completely that there was room for nothing that did not relate directly to Him. This is further illustrated in the inheritance of the Levite. While all of the other tribes received a material inheritance in the promised land, Levi was to have none such. God was to be his portion. He needed nothing more. Who can read Wesley and not feel that such portions of Scripture had made their impact felt in his mind and soul? Who today can read these and be satisfied with a gospel that demands less than all there is of a man for all time for God? Up to this point we have tried to see something of the rich light which the Old Testament sheds for us on the nature of God in His holiness and the extent of His demands upon men. With his inherent bent to disobedience, though, can man never expect to please God in this world? Before a holy God, can a mortal man walk righteously? The Old Testament certainly seems to be a story of how Israel failed to do this. Consider the extent of that failure.

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The Old Testament story of man is a sad one from beginning to end. The end of the creation story is banishment of man from his original home and relationship to God because of conduct offensive to his Maker. The conclusion of the prediluvian world is judgment that leaves only one family to begin a new race. Before the law has been fully received at Sinai, Israel is violating the first of the commandments in idolatrous worship of the golden calves. When Israel is led into the land of promise, it is to begin a story of repeated cycles of backsliding, judgment, prophetic rebuke, and repentance that culminates in further backsliding. The monarchy which Israel had hoped would save them from many ills ended not only in a division of the people of God but in captivity for both northern and southern kingdoms. Some of the captives returned from Babylon to build again the city, the Temple, and the land, but the glory of Israel was a thing of the past. The history of the people of God in the Old Testament is the story of failure to please a holy God. What has been said of the nation can be largely said also of its leaders. Hardly had the floodwaters receded when Noah was drunk and a curse had begun again among men. Abraham found it convenient for his own security to practice deception about his wife. Moses, Eli, Saul, David, Solomon, all remind us of greatness mingled with disobedience that brought necessary judgment. If the Old Testament reveals something of the holiness of God, it is equally eloquent in its revelation of the failure of man. Is there then any word in the Old Testament about the prospect of victory over sin? The answer is clearly, "Yes!" It is a word that points to the future, but it is all the more exciting because it stands out against a background of such defeat and despair. Three prophecies clearly point out what the hope of Israel was. These are found in Ezek. 36: 22-32; Jer. 31: 31-34; and Joel 2: 28-30. There are many other passages

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in the Old Testament that could be cited here, but these seem to the present writer most important. It is worthy of note that it is men like Jeremiah and Ezekiel who had seen Israel at its worst who spoke with greatest hope. The answer envisioned by these prophets is a new day and a new covenant. The old one had failed. Israel had failed in keeping its part of that covenant. Perhaps the old covenant had not failed in its primary design. Perhaps its original purpose in the mind of God had included just this dramatic demonstration, historically, to all men of all time, of the moral impotence of man. No one need longer be deluded about man's ability to live righteously and to please a holy God. It was now evident that man at his best was a failure before God. Thus the need for a new covenant. And what would be its provisions? They were to be threefold. 1) A NEW LAW. The law received by Moses at Sinai on tables of stone was placed in the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies. There was something external about the law to the people of Israel. They possessed it, but it never possessed them. Temptation often took their attention away, and its demands were forgotten. The best of Israel dreamed of a day when the law would not be in a sacred ark but in the inner heart of every believer, motivating, controlling him. A day was envisioned when the testimony of Israel would not be, "I will do Thy will, 0 God," but rather, "I delight to do Thy will." This was to come with a new day and a new covenant. Perhaps it might need be said that the basic principles of the law in the new covenant would not be different from those of the law of Moses. The change would be in its relation to the inner heart of man, not in the basic moral content of God's demand. 2) A NEW POWER. The radical nature of the coming age was seen in the motivation of the new obedience. Old Testament Israel may have had no Christian under-

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standing of the Trinity, but they knew something of the Spirit of God. They had intimations that there was a divine power that could come upon an ordinary man and make him great, a power that could enable a man to do the works of God. The writings of Moses had indicated that the power of one as great as Moses himself lay not in his own natural resources but in the Spirit which rested upon him (Num. 11: 24). They were even told that God had placed that same Spirit upon others. It was this Spirit of God which made Joshua fit successor to Moses. It was the Spirit of God that came upon men like J ephthah, Othniel, Samson, and others that enabled them to do exploits for God (Judg. 11: 29, et at.). It was the descent of the Spirit upon Saul that indicated to all that there was a king in Israel. When the Spirit departed from Saul and rested upon David, it was evidence to all that Saul's power was gone and that now David was king (I Sam. 16: 13-14). Israel knew that it was the Spirit of God that made a man a true prophet (I Kings 22: 24). The hallmark of the Messiah was to be the abiding anointing of the Spirit of God (Isa. 42: 1; 61: 1). It was in the power of this Spirit of God coming upon all men that the Old Testament envisions a "new Israel," a people after God's own heart. As Ezekiel said, the Spirit within man would cause him to walk in God's ways. 3) A NEW INCLUSIVENESS. From the preceding we can gather some idea of the presence and working of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament. It is obvious that it was only in the lives of a strategic and select few that God's power was really known. Moses' wish that the Spirit of God might rest upon all the people was never realized in the Old Testament. The possibility was not ruled out of such happening in the future of God's people though. In fact, this was seen as one of the marks of that new covenant. It would not simply be the kings and prophets who would know this power. Every be-

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liever would have privileges spiritually in that day once reserved for the leaders of the people. Joel said the Spirit would be poured upon all flesh (2: 28 f.). Nor would He be for men alone. The daughters of Israel were to share with the sons. Nor was He for the higher classes alone. Menservants and maidservants would participate in a joy once known only by a Moses, a David, or an Elijah. As Zechariah foresaw, it would be a day when "the feeblest among them" would be like David (Zech. 12:8). It seems to this writer that Wesley saw more clearly perhaps than most other theologians one of the differences between the prospects for the believer under the old dispensation and those for the humblest person under the new. What was not available for all men before is now made available through the coming of a new and better way. God has not reduced His demands. He has increased through Christ and His Spirit His enablings. The same God who called Israel to be holy because He was holy is holy still. Those who walk with Him must walk in terms of this. Modern man is as important to make himself holy and obedient as ancient Israel. We have a new enabling. And He is available for all. Part of the value of a study like this is to show more clearly the difference between the old covenant and the new. It helps clarify the privileges offered in the New Testament. God's offer is a new heart in which His law is inscribed, a heart sprinkled from all sin and uncleanness, one made free from all idolatry, one in which His Spirit dwells and causes it to walk in His ways, a heart that needs not to have another to say, "Know the Lord," for it knows Him in His fullness. This was what Wesley had seen as the will of God for all. This is what Christ died to give to every believer in the new age. Is not the tragedy of the Church today that so few have passed from the old covenant into the privileges and joys of the new?

Morton W. Dorsey

President, Circleville Bible College, 1959--; third vice-president, N.H.A.; past president, N.H.A.; pastor and evangelist, Churches of Christ in Christian Union; camp meeting and Bible conference speaker; B.S.L., Vennard College; graduate work at Ohio State University.

4 The Biblical Terms Which Set Forth the Wesleyan;Arminian Position MORTON

w.

DORSEY

John Wesley was an ardent and indefatigable searcher after truth. Until the time of his death at age eighty-eight he was continually searching, studying, reevaluating; molding all of his ideas to conform to what were to him the two touchstones of reality-the Holy Scriptures and Christian experience. Much of his search was conducted along the guidelines laid down by James Arminius. In some areas Wesley modified Arminius; in other areas he went beyond him. The resulting theological system is known as "Wesleyan Arminianism." The limits of time will permit consideration of only two points in that system: the security of the believer and Christian holiness. Since the topic assigned to me calls, not for a development of the Wesleyan-Arminian position, but rather a discussion of the scriptures which underlie that position, I shall state but briefly the first and give more careful attention to the second. I

Relative to the believer's security, Wesleyan Arminianism rejoices in a steadfast security for every child of God-but a security that is conditioned upon right choices by that believer. A. In considering scriptures which project this image, let us begin with that most obvious of condition55

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ing words, if. The word if occurs 592 times in the New Testament. In numerous cases it is used to show the conditions upon which our Christian standing is dependent. 1. In St. John 8: 31, Jesus said "to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Later in the same conversation He said (verse 51), "Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." 2. In John 15: 6-7 there is that sobering repetition of the word, "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." And again in verse 10, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love." 3. Next consider the significance of this little word as Paul uses it in writing to the gentile Christians in Rome (11: 17-23), "And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graft them in again."

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4. Consider Col. 1: 21-23. "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked w0rks, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister." 5. Observe Paul's poignant appeal to the ThessaIonian Christians in his first letter, chapter 3 and verse 8, "For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord," which grew out of the concern which he manifested in verse 5, "For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain." If a believer's security were unconditional, then the minister who brought him to faith could never feel that his labor was in vain. 6. There are two striking appearances of this little word in Hebrews 2 in the appeal which grew out of the author's earnest exhortation that "we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." In 3: 6 he shows that Christ is better than Moses, who was a faithful servant in his house, "But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm to the end." Then in verse 12 and following, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end."

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7. The final mention that we will make of this little conditioning word is as used by Peter in the first chapter of his second letter, where, after exhorting his hearers to the development of all the Christian graces, he summarizes by saying in verse 8, "For it these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for it ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

B. Turning now from those scriptures where the word it is used to show the conditional quality of our security, we will consider more fully three passages which relate to the matter at hand. 1. First, consider the familiar parable of the seed and the soil as given by Jesus and recorded in Luke 8: 5-8. A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold.

A few moments later, at the request of His disciples, Jesus gave the interpretation of that parable. He said that the first class of people were those who, when they heard the Word, had it snatched away by the devil, "lest they should believe and be saved." That phrase is important. Jesus uses it to contrast the first class of hearers with those who are described later in the para-

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ble. It is evident that the latter three types of hearers received the Word, believed, and were saved. Observe what happens to them. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a little while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.

The implications here seem clear and undeniable. The word "believe," as Jesus used it in connection with these, must mean the same as when He used it in the verse before. These had found joy in receiving and believing the Word. They were saved. Nevertheless in time of temptation they fell away. Next He speaks of those who, apparently because of greater capacity within themselves, do not fail because of tribulation and temptation, but rather because of the multiplicity of things such as cares, riches, and pleasures of this life. For them the Word is choked until they bring forth no fruit to perfection. Surely, in the light of this parable, it is dangerous to ignore such warnings and trust in the groundless comfort of unconditional security. 2. Next, consider the parable of the vine as related by Jesus in His "heart talks" with the disciples, and recorded by John in the fifteenth chapter of his Gospel. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 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. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

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Surely the idea of unconditional security is incompatible with a fair reading of these verses. Jesus said, "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away." He is not referring to professors of religion or to members in the church. He is speaking of branches in Him. But though in Him, their failure to bear fruit will result in the Father-Husbandman taking them away. In verse four Jesus repeated the phrase "abide in me." In verse five He said, "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." Then in verse six comes the statement, "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." To twist this scripture to obscure its plain teaching would be to buy damnation for one's own soul. The branch must abide in the vine. If it fails to do so, it is cast forth. It is withered. It is gathered and cast into the fire and burned. The implications are as true as they are terrible. An eminent Baptist expositor, Alexander Maclaren, in a treatment of this passage, sounded a warning that all would do well to hear. He said, But oh, dear brethren; be on your guard against the tendency of the thinking of this generation to paste a bit of blank paper over all the threatenings of the Bible, and to blot out from its consciousness the grave issues that it holds forth. One of two things must befall the branch, either it is in the Vine or it gets into the fire. If we would avoid the fire, let us see to it that we are in the Vine!

3. The other scripture passage which I will cite comes from John 10. Beginning in verse 27, Jesus is quoted as saying, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out 1Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy SCTiptuTes, 32 vols.

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of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

Here, from the lips of our blessed Master himself, are plain words of strong assurance for every believer. What comfort they give! The child of God is secure. No man can pluck him out of the Father's hands. It would be as sad for a believer to miss the comfort that is found in this statement as for anyone to read into it any suggestion of unconditional security. The conditions on which this tremendous promise rests are clearly stated in verse 27: "My sheep hear my voice"; "1 know them"; and, "They follow me." To try to claim this promise for one who is not following Him-not hearing His voice-and thereby indicating that he is not one of the Lord's sheep, is as intellectually dishonest as it is spiritually dangerous. Robert Shank in his rather remarkable book Life in the Son has made a fine exposition of this passage. 1 quote at length. We must not overlook verse 27 which is an integral part of the statement and quite essential. It sets forth the specific condition governing our Saviour's promise. Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life . . ." All the verbs thus far are present indicatives. ''The most constant characteristic of the Greek indicative is that it denotes action in progress." While the present indicative does not invariably denote progressive action it generally does.... Montgomery adopts the progressive form "I am giving" for didomi (verse 28) reading: "My sheep listen to my voice and I know them and they follow me. I am giving them eternal life . . ." Her use of the word listen is noteworthy. The English word listen possesses a durative connotation that is lacking in the word hear, and the simple present form listen conveys a progressive sense. It is obvious that Christ's giving of eternal life to His sheep is commensurate with their habitual listening and following, This is an essential truth affirmed many times

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in the New Testament; but a truth, alas, which many somehow have failed to observe. The use in verse 28 of the strong double negative 014 me together with the phrase eis ton aiona (perhaps best rendered "not at all forever") has doubtless led many to ignore the significance of the condition (hear and follow, verse 27) which governs the promise of not perishing forever. But precisely the same words, 014 me eis ton aiona appear in our Lord's promise in John 8: 51, where the condition governing the promise is especially obvious; "Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my word, he shall never see death." The necessity of following Him in order to share His life is vividly declared by our Saviour in John 8: 12, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,'"

One more quotation relative to this passage will have to suffice. B. F. Westcott says: The doctrine of "final perseverance" has been found in this passage. But we must carefully distinguish between the certainty of God's promises and His infinite power on the one hand, and the weakness and variableness of man's will on the other. If a man falls at any stage in his spiritual life, it is not from want of divine grace, nor from the overwhelming power of adversaries, but from his neglect to use that which he mayor may not use. We cannot be protected against ourselves in spite of ourselves.'

So we close the study of the security of the believer. II

We turn now to a consideration of those scriptures which support the Wesleyan-Arminian teaching that it is possible for the believer to be made holy in this life. It is easier to understand the nature of Christian holiness as taught in the New Testament if one has some understanding of the nature of primitive holiness in 'Robert Shank, Life in the Son. ·B. F. Westcott, The Gospel According to St. John.

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which Adam was created, which state was lost to him and his descendants by his fall, but which is made possible to the race again by the merits of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Wiley has a fine statement concerning this in speaking of the EssentiaZ Elements of Primitive HoZiness. In a brief summary, we may say that there are two essential elements in any true doctrine of primitive holiness. First, the moral rectitude of Adam's nature as a subjective state. We have shown that a thorough analysis distinguishes between the error of Pelagianism on the one hand, and that of Augustinianism on the other. . . . Then second, the presence and agency of the Holy Spirit. This is necessary to a full understanding of the truth, and furnishes a basis, also, for discrimination against other forms of error. We have already pointed out the extreme position of the Roman Catholic Church in maintaining that holiness was a superadded gift, and therefore not a part of man's original constitution. We have noted also the extreme position of the Reformers in opposition to this, maintaining that holiness was concreated and therefore limited to a quality of man's primal nature. The truth lies midway between these extreme positions. Arminianism has always objected to the papal doctrine that holiness is a supernatural gift, in that it involves a false position as to the nature of the fall and original sin. It has equally objected to limiting holiness to a mere quality of the Adamic nature. The truth involved is this, that to the holiness of man's nature by creation, must be added the immediate presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Even Augustine admitted that "God had given man an assistance without which he could not have persevered in good if he would. He could persevere if he would, because that aid (OOj1.£toTi1.£m) did not fail by which he could. Without this he could not retain the good which he might wilL" Arminian theologians have always stressed this important aspect of primitive holiness, sometimes regarding the Holy Spirit as in close affiliation with man's estate and sometimes as acting more independently, but always present and operative: Thus Dr. Pope says, "This doctrine is incomplete without the addition of the supernatural gift of the Holy Ghost, if that may be called supernatural which belonged to the union of God with his elect creature. . . . He did

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not add the moral image, but he guided the principles of action of man's soul created in that image. This solves the difficulty sometimes expressed as to the creation of a character which, it is said, must of necessity be formed by him that bears it. Man was led of the Spirit, who was the power of love in his soul, already in his first estate, as now in his last estate.'"

A. Now let us consider those scriptures which show the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Christian holiness.

1. It is significant that one of the few things recorded by all four of the Evangelists is the prophetic statement of John the Baptist that Jesus would baptize His followers with the Holy Ghost. This cardinal principle in the new covenant, which was prophecy with John the Baptist, became promise in the words of Jesus, as in Acts 1: 5 He said, "John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." 2. Then Peter, called to account by his fellow disciples for his action in ministering to gentiles, said that, as he began to speak in the house of Cornelius, "the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 11: 15-16). 3. As the Church progressed and developed its own vocabulary, the word "baptized" seems to have given way to another word, "filled." Thus Luke records in Acts 2: 4, "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost"; and in 4: 8, "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them ..."; and in 4: 31, "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost." Again in 9: 17 he shows Ananias, by divine instruction, saying to Saul, "Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, 'H. Orton Wiley, Christian Theology, 3 vals.

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that appeared unto thee in the way as thou carnest, hast sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." That this experience became real to Saul is evidenced by the fact that Luke describes him (13: 9) as being "filled with the Holy Ghost." What conclusions are to be drawn from these and similar scriptures? Surely it is this: That God, in the fullness of time, has visited the race in the person of His Son, Jesus, and through His meritorious death on the Cross has made provision that man's original heritage, lost by Adam's transgression, can be fully restored in redemption. Once again the human soul can be invested with the Holy Spirit. Once again there is available an adequate, inner dynamic to make one holy in heart and life. At this point let us make one vital distinction. This filling with the Spirit, which makes possible Christian holiness, is not the Christian's first introduction to the Holy Spirit. Neither is it the making available to the Christian of a greater measure of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a Person and cannot be diluted or concentrated. In the full glory of His person, He is active at every point of redemption. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts the sinner of his evil ways, pricking his conscience and making him painfully aware of impending doom. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals the beauty that is in Jesus and points the sinner to Him as the only safe Refuge. It is the Holy Spirit who strengthens the penitent will to forsake sin and accept Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who quickens promises to the seeker to enable him to believe. It is the Holy Spirit who witnesses to his adoption into God's family. It is the Holy Spirit who is with him and guides him and checks him in his initial walk with God. The distinctive of the holiness experience is that the believer enters into a new relationship with the Holy

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Spirit. On the basis of the believer's consecration and faith the Holy Ghost is enabled to fill and possess his personality. He delivers the soul from the bondage of self, thus cleansing it from the carnal mind, which is essentially self-centeredness. While He thus abides in sweet domination of the human soul, He works to bring the believer into conformity to the image of Christ as described by Paul in Rom. 8: 29, and by Jesus in John 16: 14, "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." It seems especially needful, in these times, that we who love the holiness message proclaim clearly, not only that Christian holiness results from a crisis experience, but also that it is maintained only as we live in the abiding fullness of the Holy Spirit. There is a great need among us at this point. It seems that our proper emphasis on entire sanctification has left our people with a weakness in their concept of the divine-human relationship. Perhaps it is more than a weakness. It may be a sickness. I feel that we need revival in spiritual understanding at this point as much as in any other area of our life and thought. Our people must learn to live in the Spirit. They must learn that there is no human holiness apart from the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. He keeps us in holiness as we abide in Him. B. Next we turn to Bible words and phrases which denote our entrance into this life of holiness. 1. The first such word to be considered is "sanctify" in its various forms. Perhaps this word, and the scriptures which contain it, have been more helpful through the years than any other in conveying the message of full salvation to mankind. This is the more remarkable because of the confusion created for some by the twofold meaning given to the word in its Old and New

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Testament usage and also because of the need to distinguish between "sanctification" in its general sense, which is gradual, and "entire sanctification," which is instantaneous. John Wesley was scrupulously careful to maintain that distinction. Perhaps a part of the problem for those who love this truth today is that we have tended to give to the word "sanctification" the meaning which only "entire sanctification" can have, while ignoring the implications of the word in its more general sense. The Wesleyan-Arminian position is that sanctification is a process which begins at regeneration and leads to the crisis of entire sanctification, which, in turn, makes possible the continuation of the process. Without being critical or pessimistic, I think one must admit that the experience of too many who profess this grace today could be described like this. Regeneration lifted them to a plane of joy, peace, and victory, from which, because of neglect and poor teaching, they began soon to decline. When this initial grace was partially or totally lost, they began to feel the need of spiritual help. Hearing the message of a second work of grace, they supposed that this would solve their problem, so they came praying for sanctification. Lacking proper instruction and having insufficient spiritual vitality to discern the mood of the Spirit, they prayed until they felt better and claimed to be sanctified. This profession they have maintained through the ensuing years, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. With no glory nor grace, no blessing nor burden, they stolidly maintain status quo while the passing years wash around them. The evident absence of the fruit of the Spirit makes it painfully obvious that they have never been claimed by the Spirit for His own. Perhaps if they could have been taught, in the Wesleyan tradition, that a normal Christian moves forward and upward in the things of God in the process of sanctification until it leads him to the crisis experi-

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ence of entire sanctification, their spiritual status might be different. However that may be, the biblical word "sanctifica_ tion" carries with it such a strong message of cleansing from sin and being made holy that it cannot be ignored. 2. Next to be considered are two words so closely similar that they might be considered together. They are "purge" and "purify." The word "purge" is used more frequently to translate the Greek word kathaTid~o which means, primarily, to cleanse. "Purify" come; sometimes from that word and other times from hagnos, which conveys more directly the thought of making holy. The uses of the word "purge" are significant. a. John Baptist prophesied that the Holy Spirit would "throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matt. 3: 12). b. Jesus, in speaking of the husbandman's treatment of the fruit-bearing branch, said, "Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." This sets forth the historic Wesleyan teaching of entire sanctification, in which the soul is cleansed from its inward carnal state and thus enabled to better do the will of God and produce the fruit of the Spirit. 3. The word "purify" appears two times in ways that are especially significant to this study. a. In Acts 15: 8-9, Peter, again explaining and evaluating his ministry in the house of Cornelius, reasoned that God had done for those of Cornelius' household exactly the same as was done for the company of disciples on the Day of Pentecost, because "God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." This is a tremendous claim. Did Peter realize what he

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was saying? The Old Testament scriptures, with which he must have been fully acquainted, declare, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17: 9). Jesus had taught that out of the evil heart of man proceeded all the expressions of human wickedness. Now for Peter, the leading spokesman of the Christian company, to claim for Jewish and gentile believers a cleansing of heart if it had not been that, would have been a falsehood completely incompatible with the spirit of the New Testament. b. Next is its use in Titus 2: 14. Jesus "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Paul's concept of Christian holiness embraced the idea of a purifying subsequent to our redemption from iniquity. 4. Finally, please consider the word "destroy" as used by the Apostle Paul in Rom. 6: 6. In describing God's plan for dealing with the problem of "the sin," Paul says, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." The word "destroy" in the New Testament is translated principally from three Greek words. They are apollumi, kataluo, and katargeo. Apollumi refers mainly to the destruction of the soul by damnation in hell. Kataluo is used to speak of the destruction of material things such as the destroying of the Temple. Katargeo is used when speaking of the destruction of metaphysical things such as "death" in I Cor. 15: 26; the spirit of Antichrist in II Thess. 2: 8; "the devil" in Heb. 2: 14; and "sin" in Rom. 6: 6. The word katargeo is an interesting and somewhat difficult word. Perhaps some of the divergence of opinion as to the destruction of sin may stem from the fact that this word is capable of so many different transla-

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tions. It is translated "destroy" in the passages just cited. It is rendered "do away" in I Cor. 3: 10 and II Cor. 3: 11, 14. It appears as "abolish" in II Cor. 3: 13; Eph. 2: 15; and II Tim. 1: 10. It is translated "cumber" in Luke 13: 7. In Rom. 7: 2, Paul used this word to say, "She is loosed from the law of her husband," and a moment later used the same word to say, "We are delivered from the law" (7: 6). It is rendered "cease" in Gal. 5: 11. It is translated "fail" in I Cor. 13: 8. Because the composite image of this word as used throughout the New Testament tends to suggest the idea of annulment, some have felt that it does not teach the actual destruction of sin. Some have suggested that if Paul had meant to convey that idea he would have used another word. It is hard to see the ground for such reasoning. If sin were a corporeal entity, Paul would likely have used kataluo; but since it is a state of being, he used the word which would apply to such metaphysical reality. A state of matrimony which has been destroyed by annulment has ceased to exist. It can have no being unless or until it is contracted again. So with the state of sin in the soul of man. When it is destroyed by virtue of our being crucified with Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit, it ceases to exist and can have no being unless or until we fall from our holiness as Adam fell from his. On the basis of these good promises the believer can confidently pray:

"Now, 0 my Joshua, bring me in. Cast out Thy foes; the inbred sin, The carnal mind remove. The fulness of Thy death divide; Give me with all the sanctified The heritage of love."

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Thus, in sketchy review, we have seen two facets in the theological mosaic of Wesleyan Arminianism. Interwoven, but unseen, is the prayer of the writer that God will make it a means of grace to all who hear or read.

J. Harold Greenlee Professor of New Testament language, Asbury Theological Seminary; A.B., Asbury College; B.D., Asbury Theological Seminary; M.A., University of Kentucky; Ph.D., Harvard University; Senior Fulbright Fellowship, Oxford University; Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of Oklahoma; research associate for a new edition of the Greek New Testament, American Bible Society, 1955--; author, The Gospel Text of Cyril of Jerusalem, 1955, and Concise Exegetical Grammar of New Testament Greek (rev. ed., 1958).

5 The Greek New Testament and the Message of Holiness J.

HAROLD GREENLEE

Since the New Testament is the one basic Textbook of Christianity, anything which can properly be said concerning the Christian faith must find its basis in the Greek New Testament. Furthermore, whatever can be said about the Christian faith can be said about holiness; because the quality of holiness is coextensive with whatever is Christian.

1. Holiness: A Quality Let us examine this latter statement. By "holiness" I do not mean a particular doctrine about holiness; I mean holiness with a small h-holiness as a moral and spiritual quality of life. This quality of holiness permeates everything which is Christian. Holiness is the distinctive quality of whatever is Christian: the Christian's God, the Bible, heaven, conduct-make your own list! Indeed, there is nothing which is truly Christian which is not holy, and there is nothing which is holy which is non-Christian. 1 Therefore, while sincere Christians may feel obliged to reject or even oppose certain doctrines about holiness, for a person to be a Christian and yet oppose holiness as a moral and spiritual quality is a contradiction of terms--it is to claim to be a Christian and yet oppose its distinctive characteristic. '1 presented this theme in "The Heart of Christianity," Herald, (Jan. 23, 1952), pp. 3, 7. 73

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This paper, therefore, while it has a doctrinal purpose--we are concerned with the historic Wesleyan doctrine of holiness-yet is first of all concerned with holiness as a quality and with laying a foundation upon which any doctrine about holiness must rest. I suspect that the superficiality of too much holiness preaching in Wesleyan circles is due to the fact that the preacher fails to ground his message in this basic fact of holiness as a quality, and as the characteristic quality, of Christianity.

2. Holiness: Its Meaning a. Its Basic Idea. Before someone suggests that we are reasoning in a circle, however, or assuming the thing to be proved, we would do well to define the principal term which we are using. What does "holiness" mean, after all? We probably assume that we know what we mean when we say that God is holy, but what about the word as used of a Hindu "holy man" who sits on a bed of spikes? Is it simply a misuse of the term to call such a man "holy"? The English words "holy," "holiness," "sanctify," and other words of these families are translations of the Greek word hagios and its word-family. The LiddellScott lexicon gives as a basic definition of hagios, "devoted to the gods." Hagios is in turn derived from another adjective hagos, "any matter of religious awe." The Greek word "holy" is therefore basically not a word of moral quality. Its emphasis is upon separation. At the same time, it is not ordinary separation, as when two little boys divide a bag of candy, saying, "One for you and one for me." The New Testament knows this kind of separation and expresses it with such words as aphorizo and chorizo. Hagios, on the other hand, means a separation between a lower and a higher, between a common and a special, between objects destined for ordinary use and those destined for the service of a god. It is therefore inadequate to say, as some have said, that

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biblical holiness is merely separation; for to the average English listener "separation" implies no more than the separation of equals. There is a second fallacy involved in saying that holiness is "merely separation." It is true that the Greek word "holy" has no moral quality in itself. It can therefore be predicated of a person or object which is dedicated to the service of any god or religion. The Hindu who spends his days lying on a bed of spikes and accepting money from passers-by is indeed a "holy man," because he is set apart from ordinary occupations and is dedicated to his god or gods. Yet in any given instance the word "holy" takes on a moral connotation, for the reason that an object or person dedicated to a god must have qualities which are appropriate to that god. This is a principle which we take for granted in other areas of life. What, for example, is the basic question which we ask when we want to purchase a gift for someone (other than, "How can I pay for it?")? Is it not the question, "What would be appropriate?" Thus we buy a teething ring for the Smiths' new baby, but not for Johnnie's high school graduation gift; or a party dress for daughter Susan in college, but not for Uncle Henry, who is eighty years old and bedridden. Holiness, then, does have a moral connotation; it always has a moral connotation; for whatever is holy must have qualities which are commensurate with the god to whom it is dedicated. In an immoral religion, whose gods are degraded and debasing, a temple prostitute would appropriately be designated "holy." To a god of war, weapons of violence could be holy. Holiness always has a moral connotation, but what that moral connotation is depends upon the moral character of the god who is being worshipped. Since we are concerned with Christian holiness, we must simply ask what is the moral character of the Christian God. The answer is, of course, that the Christian God is a God of absolute moral

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purity and perfection of character. It follows that anything which is holy in a Christian sense must have qualities which are appropriate for the presence and service of a God of moral purity and perfection of character. This does not mean that anything which is holy must be as perfect as God is. It means that it must partake of qualities which for the thing involved are analogous to the moral perfection of God's person and nature. Over and over in the Old Testament, for example, God pointed the Israelites to His own holiness by such analogies. An animal has no moral qualities, but an animal acceptable for sacrifice to God had to be free from physical blemishes. Priests were likewise required to be free from physical defects. These lessons helped point the people to the greater lesson, which was that they themselves were to be morally pure and without blemish before a God of moral perfection. In summary, holiness always implies qualities appropriate to the god who is being worshiped, and Christian holiness means moral purity. b. Its Levels of Meaning. Yet another problem is often encountered. Granted that holiness in the biblical sense has moral overtones, is not the level of meaning sometimes so low that little emphasis upon it is justified? This is an argument which is fallacious in general, not merely as regards the word "holiness." In many instances-in Greek, in English, and in other languageswords may have different levels of meaning, and the existence of one level of meaning does not preclude the existence of other levels of meaning. English words such as "drink," "mistress," and "desire," for example, are words which may have either a neutral or an undesirable meaning. Let us therefore see what levels of meaning the hagios family of words has in the New Testament. In I Cor. 7: 14, Paul uses the verb of the hagios family, hagiazo, to describe the effect of a Christian

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husband or wife upon an unbelieving spouse: "For the unbelieving husband is made holy in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy in the husband"; and adds that the children of such a mixed marriage are "holy."2 St. Paul is certainly not teaching that an unconverted wife or husband is automatically made spiritually pure simply by being married to a Christian, or that children of such a marriage possess Christian holiness without ever being born again. He apparently means that an unbelieving husband or wife, married to a Christian, is to some extent drawn out of the pagan influence of a city like Corinth and brought under the influences of righteousness and godliness by sharing a home with a believer; and that the children are likewise to some extent separated from pagan influence. Here, then, is a distinctly "lower" level of meaning of hagios. Not only were the Israelites of the Old Testament referred to as a "holy" nation, although many of their deeds could lay no claim to the quality of moral purity; it is also clear that St. Paul uses the term "holy ones" (hagioi, "saints") to designate Christians in general in the churches to whom his letters are written, although the same Epistles reveal that the lives of some of these Christians were not morally pure. Here is a level of meaning higher than that of I Cor. 7: 14, for these Christians were converted, and in a definite sense any such believer was separated from the old life of sin and separated to God in Christ. Yet there is a still higher level of holiness than that which characterizes all born-again Christians; for these Christians, called "holy ones" or "saints," are summoned to become "holy": II Cor. 7: 1, "... let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, bringing holiness to completion ..."; and I Thess. 5: 23, "May the !Note that the author throughout this article paraphrases the scripture quotations.

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God of peace himself make you completely holy "to mention two such passages. We must therefore let each context help us decide which meaning of "holy" is intended; but we should certainly not permit the instances in which "holy" has a lower level of meaning in the New Testament to blind us to the fact of a high level of meaning in other instances. On the other hand, another caution may be appropriate here. Anyone of any theological persuasion should avoid the temptation to assume that such words as "holiness" and "sanctification" always mean specifically his own doctrine of holiness or sanctification. Holiness, then, as a quality of life, is the Christian standard and the Christian distinctive. This is not so, however, merely because certain passages in the Bible can reasonably be interpreted to mean that Christians should be pure and holy-and many such passages can thus be interpreted; nor even because this is an underlying assumption throughout the Bible-and it is. It is not so merely because we are convinced of the correctness of a certain doctrine relative to holiness, nor even because John Wesley taught such a doctrine. There is only one morally adequate basis for the requirement that Christians be pure and holy in heart and life. I believe that too much "holiness preaching" has been superficial because it is not grounded upon this one foundation. This one basis is expressed in God's command, repeated over and over throughout the Bible in various forms, "Be ye holy; for I am holy." Christians are to be holy because, and only because, God is holy. Perhaps, since God is all-powerful, He could require His people to be holy even if He himself were not holy, and we would have no choice but to obey or suffer the consequences. Even so, this would be neither a rational nor a morally adequate basis for such a requirement. On the other hand, since God is holy, and since we are His people, living in His presence in this life and destined to

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live in Ris presence forever, it is unthinkable that we should not be pure and holy, in the very nature of the case and even if such a demand were nowhere mentioned in the Bible. The fact that the holiness of a Christian is at best immeasurably below the perfection of God does not affect the case. The Christian can be pure and holy, as a human being, in a sense which is acceptable to a holy God, as was the sacrificial animal in the Old Testament, which had no moral qualities whatever but which was free from physical blemish.

3. Other Significant Terms a. Words. So much for hagios, which I trust has given us a basic orientation for our concept of Christian holiness. There are other Greek words which are significant in the concept of Christian holiness, and we may note some of these more briefly.s Katharos means "clean." This word and other words of its family occur frequently in the New Testament: in John 15: 2 to mean "pruning" a productive grapevine; in Matt. 23: 25-26 to mean washing leftover particles of food from dishes; in Matt. 8: 2, and indeed in every such New Testament instance, to refer to the healing of leprosy; in Reb. 9: 22 and elsewhere, to refer to making something clean in a ceremonial sense. The common denominator in all of these meanings is the cleansing away or removal of that which would hinder or defile. This sense may then be applied to the instances in which words of the katharos family are used in a spiritual sense: for example, Reb. 9: 14, "Row much more shall the blood of Christ, . . . cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve a living God?"; I John 1: 7, " ... the blood of Jesus ... cleanses us from all sin"; and I John 1: 9, "... he is faithful and righteous . . . to cleanse us 'See also George A. Turner, The More Excellent Way, pp. 81-

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from all unrighteousness." Spiritual cleansing, then, refers to the washing away of sin and whatever would defile or hinder spiritually. The word teleios and its family are translated "perfect," "perfection," and the like, and might seem to be particularly appropriate in a holiness vocabulary. While teleios is to be distinguished from telos, which means merely "an end," yet the teleios family generally emphasizes more the aspect of full growth or maturity rather than flawlessness: for example, I Cor. 2: 6, "But we speak wisdom among the mature ones [teleioi]"; and Heb. 5: 14, "But solid food is for mature people [teleioi]"; although freedom from defect may also be implied: for example, Matt. 5:48, "You shall be perfect [teleioi] , as your Heavenly Father is perfect"; and Col. 1: 28, "That we may present every man mature [teleion] in Christ." We might point out here that, although we should be discriminating in our use of terms, we should not be afraid of using the word "perfect" in contexts where it is appropriate to do so. "Perfect" has several levels of meaning. In one sense, nothing in this human world is perfect. Yet if we accept such terms as "a perfect day," "a perfect baby," and "a car in perfect condition," when sufficiently close inspection would reveal imperfections in all of these, it ought to be reasonable to accept such terms as "perfect love" and "Christian perfection" to mean, not absolute perfection, but Christian character which meets the approval of God. Katartizo and its word-family have the basic meaning of making a thing all that it was intended to be, either by outfitting and equipping or by mending what has fallen into disrepair. The verb is used of mending nets in Matt. 4: 21 and Mark 1: 19, and of a servant "equipped as his teacher" in Matt. 21: 16. Passages of spiritual significance for our study include I Thess. 3: 10, "... praying that we may see your face and supply what is lacking in your faith"; Eph. 4: 12, " ... for the equip-

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ping of the saints ..."; II Cor. 13: 9, "And this we pray for, that you may be completely equipped"; and I Pet. 5: 10 and Heb. 13: 21. Katargeo is a negative word whose etymology gives the meaning "completely not working." It refers to the nullifying of faith (Rom. 3: 3) or a law (Rom. 7: 2), to the abolishing or doing away with knowledge and prophecies (I Cor. 13: 8) or a promise (Gal. 3: 17), to the doing away with the offense to which the Cross gives rise (Gal. 5: 11), and to the destruction of death (I Cor. 15: 26). Its emphasis is upon the doing away with something so as to remove it completely from the picture. The passage which is particularly significant for our study is Rom. 6: 6, "... our old man has been crucified with him, in order that the body of sin might be done away with." In this passage Paul is giving a figure which emphasizes the completeness and finality with which God can deal with the sin problem, to set the Christian free from his enslavement to sin. At the same time, the illustration should not be taken for more than St. Paul intends. The figure of crucifixion might seem to suggest that the spiritually "crucified" person could never sin again. The figure ceases, however, with the emphasis upon death. Paul is here showing how effectively God can deal with the sin problem; he is not saying that sin will thereafter be impossible to the Christian. Indeed the apostle goes on, not to tell these "crucified" Christians that their sin problem is now automatically settled, but rather to urge them to act in accordance with such a crucifixion: Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies" (6: 12), and, "Do not yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness" (6: 13) . b. Suffixes. In addition to specific words, the suffixes on these words are significant, just as they are on English words. There are two suffixes which mean

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"having the quality of," as "-ness" does in English"holiness," "softness," for example. In the hagios family, hagiosyne and hagiotes therefore mean "having the quality of being holy," as in Rom. 1: 4, "according to a spirit of holiness"; and I Thess. 3: 13, "to establish your heart blameless in holiness." Similarly, with the katharos family one of these suffixes produces the word katharotes, "having the quality of being clean," as in Heb. 9: 13, "If the blood of bulls and goats ... makes holy as regards the quality of ceremonial cleanness of the flesh ..." Another suffix has the basic meaning of action or process, like the English "-ing" in "painting" or "-sis" in "catharsis." With the katharos family this suffix gives the word katharismos, "the process of cleansing," as in John 2: 6, "six stone water jars for the Jews' cleansing rites"; and Heb. 1: 3, "having performed the action of cleansing sins away." With the hagios family this suffix gives the meaning, "the action of becoming or of being made holy," as in II Thess. 2: 13, "God has chosen us ... for salvation by the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit." This suffix of action sometimes carries over into the meaning of the state which results from the action, and it is the resulting state of holiness rather than the action of being made or of becoming holy which is dominant in such passages as I Thess. 4: 4, "to possess his own vessel in a condition of holiness"; I Tim. 2: 15, "if they continue in faith and love and holiness"; and perhaps other instances.

4. Significant N.T. Passages There was a time when I was concerned over the fact that I could not honestly use as proof texts for the Wesleyan doctrine of holiness some of the texts which I heard others use in this way. This matter no longer worries me, not because I now have so many more proof texts, but because I have come to see that holiness is not

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a matter of mere proof texts but of the whole message of the Bible. St. Paul does not seem to place major emphasis upon the distinction between the experience of conversion and the experience of heart cleansing. His emphasis is upon the facts and fruit, as well as the necessity, of forgiveness and of holiness rather than upon the mechanics of the experiences. Yet, just as when the ground in a given locality is rich in underlying ore there will often be outcroppings which appear on the surface, so also holiness, which underlies the whole of Scripture, stands in specific clarity in numerous passages. These passages, moreover, reveal various significant facets of this great truth. We may profitably "sample" some of these passages, anticipating that one passage may reveal a facet which another passage does not make clear, and that the consensus of all the passages will give a good representation of the whole underlying stratum of holiness. Thus there are New Testament passages which seem to imply that the divine bestowal of a pure heart is to be distinguished from the bestowal of the forgiveness of sins. Let us examine some of these. I John 1: 9 reads, "... he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The verb "forgive" is in the Greek aorist tense, which describes an action as a completed act. Forgiveness here is described as something which can be done and completed. The verb "cleanse" is likewise in the aorist tense, and therefore the cleansing is also an action which takes place and can be completed. The fact, moreover, that the two verbs are connected by the word "and" prevents us from interpreting "forgive" and "cleanse" as being the same action. In other words, I John 1: 9 conceives of forgiveness and cleansing as being separate acts, both of which God will faithfully complete. The Greek aorist tense, to which we have just referred, deserves a further word. In contrast with the

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Greek tenses which describe an action as continuing,4 the aorist tense describes an action as completed. The action may be instantaneous or it may take a longer or shorter time to occur. The aorist tense is not merely, as some have wanted to say, the "lightning tense." The aorist tense is not concerned with the length of time which is required for an action to occur. What the aorist tense does emphasize is that the action is conceived of as completed. Thus in I John 1: 7, "The blood of Jesus . . . cleanses us from all sin," the verb "cleanses" is a Greek present tense and refers to a continuation of cleansing. In 1: 9, however, the aorist tenses emphasize that God's forgiveness and His cleansing from unrighteousness are acts which God completes in such a way that the believer can say, "The work has been done." We referred earlier to the familiar I Thess. 5: 23. We point out now that the two verbs in this verse are in the aorist tense: "May the God of peace himself make you completely holy; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept . . ." In many passages in his Epistles, St. Paul urges Christians to grow, to abound, and to make spiritual progress. In the verses immediately preceding verse 23 the apostle uses present tenses, urging continuous actions: "Make a habit of not quenching the Spirit, and of not making light of prophecies; make a habit of testing all things, and of holding to what is good, and of abstaining from every form of evil" (verses 19-22). The present passage, however, does not speak of continuation. The tense is aorist, and the emphasis is therefore upon an event, an action which is to take place and become completed. "May God make you completely holy" does not imply that they were not holy at all before, nor does it imply that this action will make them as perfectly holy as God is. It does emphasize that 'The imperfect tense in the indicative mood, and the present tense in the other moods.

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God's action in making them "completely holy" was in Paul's mind an event which could take place and be completed, and was distinct from their previous state of holiness. Likewise, while the "keeping" in the second part of the verse presumably would be continued over a period of time to the coming of the Lord, Paul's use of the aorist tense here puts the emphasis, not upon the continual keeping, but upon the completion of the "keeping" on the day when the Lord returns. In II Cor. 7: 1, on the other hand, we have both a present and an aorist tense. The first verb, "Let us cleanse ourselves," is aorist, emphasizing that the Christian's action in cleansing himself is to be completed and not merely begun or progressed toward. The second verb, "completing holiness in the fear of God," is a present tense, emphasizing the process; but the word "completing" itself obviously means that the holiness referred to is to become complete. The combined meaning is therefore that the quality of holiness is to be brought to completion in these Christians' lives. From the point of view of tenses, Paul's prayer for the Ephesian church (Eph. 3: 14-21) is striking. Much of the significance of the tenses is lost in the common English versions. This passage contains one aorist tense after another, and I cannot avoid the conclusion that the apostle here is praying that an event may take place in the hearts of these Christians, not mere continued progress. The use of present tenses in this passage would properly have referred to a continuing growth and progress-and the apostle often makes just such an emphasis in his letters. Yet in the present passage Paul does not pray that God may "continue to grant" that they may "continue to be strengthened by a power" and that they may "continue to be more and more able to grasp" the dimensions of divine love. Let me give a paraphrase of Eph. 3: 14-21 which I trust will reflect the tenses involved:

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I pray that God may grant to you [as a completed action] that you may receive, through the agency of his Holy Spirit, the strength of a power coming [as a completed event] into your inner being. This power will consist in Christ's taking up a settled dwelling in your hearts in a definite way which has not been the case before now. When this occurs, an accompanying fact will be that you will be found to be firmly rooted with your spiritual foundations solidly established in the divine love." One purpose of all this is that you may receive [as a completed event] the strength to grasp with your mind, along with all of the saints, the full range of the dimensions of Christ's love-or, rather, to comprehend the fact that his love is so great that it is impossible to comprehend itt-so that God may so fill you [as a completed fact], that you will be, so to speak, a vessel which God himself has filled. Does this seem an exaggerated wish? Remember that our God is constantly able to accomplish things which are exceedingly and above measure beyond everything which we ask or even think, and these things he accomplishes according to the divine power which is constantly at work in us.

There is one rather popular holiness text, on the other hand, which I feel should be used only in a qualified sense in preaching entire sanctification. This passage is I Thess. 4: 3, which begins, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification . . ." In the first place, the syntax of the first two clauses is not as clear as some sermons assume it to be; there are several alternative possibilities. In the second place, "holiness" here is related to one specific area of moral conduct, which is sexual purity. There is no doubt, of course, that holiness of life is the standard here (cf. verse 7). At the same time the emphasis in verses 3-6 is not so much, "Be ye holy," but rather, "Holy people will, among other things, be pure in matters of sex and marriage." It therefore seems safer to take this passage as pointing out that holiness includes sexual and marital purity rather than to take it ·"Rooted" and "founded" are perfect tenses, describing a state resulting from a prior action.

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primarily as an exhortation to seek the experience of entire sanctification.

5. A Final Word Let me close, however, with a final word of caution and admonition. First, the message of holiness does not rest solely upon the exegesis of small points or single passages, as though holiness were a biblical secret which must be carefully sought if it is to be detected at all; it is rather the all-pervading quality of the Christian faith, the reflection of God's moral purity in the lives and hearts of His people. In the second place, holiness is not merely something to be spelled with a capital H and equated with the doctrines on this subject which John Wesley taught; it is rather a quality of heart and life, and John Wesley's doctrines are a human effort (in my opinion, a very good effort) to explain certain facts concerning this quality of life. In the third place, let us remember, on the one hand, that all preaching of the Christian message is the preaching of holiness; and let us remember, on the other hand, that while holiness is always implicit in a Christian message we ought also to make it an explicit emphasis in such a way that people will know it not only as the characteristic quality of the Christian message but also as a specific reality in their individual hearts and lives, imparted through asking and accepting by faith in the cleansing power of the blood of Christ.

Wilbur T. Dayton Professor of New Testament Interpretation and Language, Asbury Theological Seminary; A.B. and B.D., Houghton College; M.R.E. and Th.D., Northern Baptist Theological Seminary; A.M., Butler University; participating in Flying Seminar to Holy Land, 1952; doctoral research on the "Integration of Personality"; research emphases in connection with teaching: systematic theology (emphasis on holiness theology) and New Testament; head, Religion Department, Wessington Springs College, 1939-41; professor of Greek and theology, Marion College, 1943-57; dean of Divinity School there, 1949-57; New Testament editor of "Evangelical Bible Commentary" series; author, "Aldersgate Biblical Series," Romans A, Romans B, 1960; Spirit-filled Living, 1960 (Wesley Press) .

6 Holiness Truth in the Roman Epistle WILBUR

T.

DAYTON

It is not hard to find holiness in any book of the Bible---certainly not in the great Epistle where Augustine, Luther, and Wesley found assurance of salvation. Wesley's account of the beginning of Methodism sounds almost like an outline of the Book of Romans: In 1729 two young men in England, reading the Bible, saw that they couId not be saved without holiness, followed after it, and incited others so to do. In 1737 they saw, likewise, that men are justified before they are sanctified; but still holiness was their object. God then thrust them out to raise a holy people (Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1916, p. 17).

It was as J 000 Wesley listened to Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans that the flame was kindled. The Journals say: While he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation: And an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

This, to be sure, was not the crisis of entire sanctification or love made perfect. But the new life was the beginning of holiness for Mr. Wesley. The new man was indeed "created [after the pattern of God] in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4: 24). That which had begun would not stop short of "perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (II Cor. 7: 1), nor indeed of the "prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3: 14). 89

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It is no accident that the Wesleyan revival sprang out of the Book of Romans. Holiness was the great quest of the Wesleys and the chart of the movement. Like Bunyan's Pilgrim, they were fleeing from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. They knew full well that nothing but holiness could enter the heavenly city. Nor could anything less satisfy the cry of the human heart. A holy God demanded holiness of His people. No legal fiction of changing records without transforming character could meet the need. They must be holy in heart and life. The "great discovery" was not the need but the remedy. Theology had generally been aware of the depravity of the human heart. But the Wesleys rediscovered grace sufficient to "circumcise the heart" and make the believer perfect in holiness and love.

HOLINESS, THE THEME OF THE BOOK

This is in keeping with the theme of Romans. The key word is righteousness-the God-kind of righteousness. It is not the achievement of human effort. It is the righteousness that is revealed from heaven in the gospel of Christ. It is by faith from start to finish (1: 17). It is imparted to man, who at his best had "sinned, and come short" of it (3: 23). This righteousness is the standard of rightness by which one can be measured. The standard is God's own integrity and uprightness. So the God-kind of righteousness is basically Godlikeness. This term touches and is almost interchangeable with the other, larger, term by which God is described-holiness. Though this latter word is not constantly used, it is the underlying concept of the Epistle. Holiness includes the balance of all God's perfections. Its expression is love. It is communicable and becomes the standard for redeemed man. We are to be holy as He is holy and because He is holy (I Pet. 1: 15-16).

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Holiness is more than a single attribute of God. The term is large enough to refer to the full nature of God. In God, holiness is original, underived, and infinite. In man it is derived. It is the image of God restored in man. It is "characteristically Godlikeness, and in the Christian system Godlikeness signifies completeness of life." It is not primarily negative-the lack of traits. Nor is it a single trait. Rather it refers to the whole man including his intellect, emotion, will, and his body as far as it is under the control of his will in voluntary actions. The holy man is the whole man, integrated, harmonized within by his supreme, inclusive purpose to realize in himself and others the moral image of God revealed in Christ, God incarnate. Jesus made men whole. The ideal is the athlete, not the ascetic. There is a race to be run, a prize to be gained, a conflict to be won. Triumph and fullness of life are its issue. Now all this is exactly the theme of the Epistle to the Romans. If one looks to the book for the peculiarities of the "holiness people," he may be disappointed. He may find few of his pet cliches. The very distinctions between a first and second work of grace may often be left to inference, analysis, and experience. There may be a disappointing absence of clear-cut description of stages of Christian experience. Even the great teachings and experiences may be mingled in a pattern as complex and bewildering as life itself. Paul may discuss justification and holiness in the sin section and sin in the sanctification section. But the full remedy for sin is the theme of the whole book. A suitable title for the Epistle could be "How to Be Holy in Heart and Life."

THE

EPISTLE'S EMPHASIS ON TOTALS

Romans emphasizes totals. Sin is looked upon as one vast, formidable enemy. It cannot be permitted in any degree or manner. When allowed to enter, it slays, pol-

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lutes, enslaves, and destroys. The only safety is in complete freedom from its clutches. Grace too is a total. It must be adequate for man's total need. Man's severance from sin must be by a power that can go as deep as the stain of sin has gone. Where sin abounded, grace must much more abound. Where one offense caused so great damage, there must be a vastly more powerful act of deliverance. Where flesh dominated and brought death, the dominance of the spirit must bring life and peace. A higher law must make us free from the law of sin and death. We must be conquerors and more than conquerors. Only this is worthy of God. And Paul's message is God's own gospel (1: 1). A second crisis of holiness is in these totals, though the emphasis is often less on the crisis than on the life. As Wesley said, Our main doctrines which include all the rest are three-that of repentance, of faith, and of holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door; the third, religion itself (Works, VITI, 472, Zondervan reprint).

Once the reader of Romans thus enters by faith into holiness, he finds grace greater than all his need. Paul does not hesitate to press those who have entered to seize the fullness. Nor does he fail to urge those whose hearts are fixed on God to work out the implications in Christian living. But, as with Wesley, the holiness emphasis was not a little peculiarity of Paul's viewpoint of theology. It was life itself and fullness of life. It was all or nothing. One is alive or dead. He is holy or unholy. Fullness of life is only for those who have life. So fullness of holiness or fullness of the Spirit is the happy privilege of those who are already new creatures, begotten of God, and thus partakers of His holiness. There are no unholy Christians-much less holinessfighting Christians, properly so called. They may fight

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the faults and peculiarities of professors of holiness, but to fight holiness is to be at enmity with God. HOLINESS IN THE BOOK AS A WHOLE

The introduction to Romans highlights holiness. At three key points in the first seven verses a form of the Greek root appears. Once it refers to the quality of the Scriptures (v. 2) in which the gospel of God is promised. Once it refers to the spirit of holiness (v. 4), by which Paul probably refers to the characteristic quality of the divine nature of the Christ, about whom the gospel is given. Finally it refers to the purpose of the gospel. We are called to be saints, or holy ones (v. 7). As Paul was an apostle by divine call (v. 1), so we are saints by the same kind of call. The holiness that is original and infinite in God is communicable to man. As God's chief attribute is holiness, a favorite New Testament term for believers is "holy ones" or "saints." They bear the family resemblance-are partakers of the divine nature. Also in the introduction to the Epistle is an interesting declaration of purpose. Paul says (see 1: 11-12) , "For I long to see you, in order that I may share with you some spiritual gift of grace [charisma], with the purpose that you may be established, that is, that we might be comforted together." It is worthy of note that this word is spoken to Christians of another grace or gracious gift which they do not have as yet. Might it not be called a "second grace" or a "second blessing"? And Paul's modest explanation uses the verb for "comforted," from which the noun paraclete comes, John's favorite word for the gift of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling presence. We will not press the point, but it certainly is in line with the book. The tone of the whole Epistle sustains the same holiness emphasis. Assumptions, inference, choice of words, the turn of a phrase, the warnings, the rebukes,

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the announcements, the exhortations, the challengesall point to a vital, deep, and adequate remedy for all of man's unlikeness to God and unfitness for God. The word "gospel" (1: 1, 16) is "good news." It is news of One with inherent power to deliver-not just with leverage to juggle accounts in the books of heaven. The deliverance is by a revelation of God's righteousness, which shows both the absolute necessity of deliverance from sin and the purpose and power of God to do just that (1: 17). The revelation is for the sake of appropriation. We see Him in order to be like Him (II Cor. 3: 18). The tragedy of the sin section is that it is all so needless. God didn't plan it that way and He has, indeed, provided a better way. The depth of man's guilt is that he resists God and holiness so desperately. The announcements of faith as the door to justification and sanctification imply a ready God, waiting to make men holy. The yielded life has its fruit unto holiness and life (6: 22). They who fully present themselves to God find their lives a practical demonstration of that which is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God (12: 1-2). This is Christian perfection or scriptural holiness. The whole passion and thrust of the Epistle is that holiness is provided, possible, necessary, and practical. The kingdom of God, in fact, is righteousness, with which inevitably come joy and peace-because one lives in the realm of spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit (14: 17) . Holiness to Paul is simply normal Christian living. More specifically, let us look at the major divisions of the Epistle from the standpoint of the holiness message of the book. Mter the introductions and the announcement of the theme, the main discourse begins at 1: 18. First is the sin section (1: 18-3: 20). Then 3: 215: 21 stresses justification by faith and its benefits. Chapters 6-8 show faith as the only route to sanctification and the normal life in holiness. The next three chapters

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demonstrate that a righteous God makes no racial exceptions to the conditions and methods of salvation. Finally, chapters 12-16 apply the principles of grace in terms of ethical obligation to live a life of holiness with due regard to one's responsibility to God, self, and others. HOLINESS IN THE SIN SECTION

The gospel (1: 16) reveals two things, or at least along with the gospel comes a second revelation. The immediate thrust of the gospel is a revelation of God's righteousness-not simply as God's moral purity and retributive justice, but as something to be bestowed on man (1: 17). It is a righteousness which is communicable both in terms of judicial standing (3: 21-5: 21) and in terms of Christian holiness (cc. 6-8). It is also applicable in practical Christian ethics. But along with this revelation of what God is and of what man must become is another revelation (1: 18). It is a divine diagnosis of sinful man's condition and a display of God's attitude toward such ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. The cure will not be received with due profit until the disease is admitted in all its horror. Each step in the analysis of man's sin is a step in the understanding of its opposite-holiness. The hideous nature of sin is perhaps less in the consciously miserable condition of the sinner than it is in the awful contrast between his moral degradation and the holiness to which he is called and for which he was created. The diagnosis of sin begins with the idea of holiness. When men knew the holy God, they did not respond in a way suited to such a knowledge. They did not glorify Him as God-the Source, Center, and Pattern of living. Nor did they gratefully acknowledge Him as the gracious Giver of all that is worthwhile in their lives. In thus rejecting God they were really rejecting the only state of mind and heart in which there is any security against sin. Only as one leans in simple, trusting faith on God

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and does all to His glory can he escape sin. This is the attitude of holiness-Christlikeness, Godlikeness, fullness of life. In anguished detail Paul describes man's decline from this neglect of God (1: 21) to senseless pride (v. 22) to an utterly perverted concept of God (v. 23) to a surrender to unclean hearts and lives (vv. 24-25) to depraved emotional and sex lives (vv. 26-27) to moral imbecility (v. 28) to the deadly whirlpool that draws to the depths of the bitterness and obstinacy of totally sinful living. It is over against the holiness offered by God that sin's diagnosis stands out. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against such senseless, destructive, and godless living. With good reason the sinner's heart is full of fear, whether in the jungles of Africa, in our great cities, or on the farm. How can the sinner escape? The moral man says that such sinners receive what they deserve, and the religious man rejoices that he is not like them. They call attention to the fact that their insights and attainments have made them teachers of others. But chapter 2 turns the tables on both. The very knowledge but condemns them the more. It does so on the score of consistency. One is not righteous if he steals only occasionally, or moral if he misbehaves only on Saturday night, or spiritual if he avoids only certain sins of the flesh. The issue becomes clear. In the light of the revelation of the God-kind of righteousness and of God's wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, the secret is out. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." We simply haven't worked well enough to produce the kind of righteousness that is revealed as necessary and provided. In God's sunlight the gray vanishes. There is only the white light of godliness or the blackness of sin. Between them there is a great gulf fixed. Paul is preaching holiness in the sin section. It is God's only standard. The sinner is condemned

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because he doesn't have it. And without it, he'll never see God. The "sin section" shows the inescapable need for holiness and the dreadful plight of man, who has rejected it. HOLINESS IN THE JUSTIFICATION SECTION

The remedy reappears in 3: 21. The God-kind of communicative righteousness was announced earlier (1: 17). It does not come by the works of the bankrupt sinner. It is not by law but by grace. The law is broken. Man is guilty, lost, and condemned. The remedy is in the good news of righteousness communicated by faith in Jesus Christ to all who truly put their faith in Him (v. 22). As all have failed and are lost, so all may come by faith and have this righteousness or holiness. Note that this so-called justification section is very broad in its treatment. It is not as though Paul came to fill a bucket at a well scarcely deep enough to supply his need. Rather, he stands before the surging ocean, overwhelmed by the exhaustless supply. There is much debate as to whether the original word for "justify" ever means literally to "make just or righteous." Technically, it may have to be granted that the verb, generally at least, seems to refer more specifically to the forensic act by which God declares righteous those who come through the blood of Christ. If so, it has more to do with one's guilt and condemnation as it relates to one's standing before God and the need of reconciliation and forgiveness. Thus there is an aspect of imputed righteousness in chapter 4 at least. But Paul speaks in totals. At first he doesn't even use the word "justify" until he has spoken in larger terms. The righteousness of God appears (v. 21) and is actually received by faith (v. 22). Paul looks at the ocean before he looks at his own little bucket. He sees the total remedy for all that sin has involved. And it is against this background that he discusses the aspects of

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the remedy such as justification and sanctification. Hence Romans escapes the pitfall of so many commentators and theologians. Justification (3: 21-5: 21) is not discussed in the narrow, minimal terms of how to be saved with the least possible grace. Rather, it is in the context of the totals of the grace of an infinite God and Christ. The overtones are triumphant living, abundant grace, and a sure hope of heaven. lJaving such a deep insight into the gospel, Paul can't preach at all without preaching holiness. Holiness is wherever a holy God is. And man can draw near only as grace in some degree makes him holy. This imparted righteousness of verses 21 and 22 is then treated in the rest of chapter 3 somewhat under the terms of one's standing before God. But one is thinking more narrowly than Paul if the idea of his position or standing before God is only a cold, legal transaction. Witness the rest of the justification sections. It is not the judge dismissing an accused and condemned criminal for whom he has had clemency and with whom he hopes never to be bothered again. Rather, He is our God-the God of Jew and gentile-a term of considerable warmth and intimacy since we've come to know Him as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. All of this is illustrated in the life of Abraham (c. 4). What did Abraham learn? Was he grudgingly released as an ex-convict under suspicion? Is that justification? No! It is a release into a whole new life in which the fundamental yearnings find full supply in the love and grace of God. Abraham's problem of guilt and condemnation was settled. Thank God! Abraham believed God-cast aside his own independent self-reliance and cast himself obediently upon God. And that is exactly what God held as prerequisite to righteousness. So God imputed the righteousness that He imparted. For even God to say that Abraham was righteous without making him so would be to lie or to be mistaken. God will

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no more lie to save us than He will to condemn us. If God declares one to be righteous, one thing is sure: that one is righteous. God is not the master of camouflage. He is the bright Light of truth. Satan conceals; God reveals. It is amazing but true that God can and does actually make sinful man righteous. At the same time that one is justified, he is indeed born anew, admitted into the privileges of sonship, and cleaned up from his old life of sin. Theologically, this is the fourfold initial work of justification, regeneration, adoption, and initial sanctification. There is no need to minimize the first experience of grace to make room for a later fullness. There is adequate room in man's need and in God's grace for both initial and entire sanctification. But let it not be forgotten that holiness, in a very real sense, begins with the beginning of Christian lifenot with its later fullness. There is no halfway house between sinner and Christian. And there are no unholy Christians. One is classified by the attitude toward God that dominates his life. He is a child of God or of Satan. Back to Abraham. What did Abraham find? Not only a solution to the problem of guilt and condemnation (4: 3-5) but the answer to life's broader needs. His became a tremendous inheritance in the grace of God (v. 13). And he became a source of great blessing-the father of the faithful as well as the father of many nations (vv. 11-20). In fact, his whole approach to life was involved in his approach to righteousness. It was a matter of finding the will of God for his life. This is righteousness-to find by grace the life that is well pleasing to God and useful to one's fellow men. The implications of this triumphant life of faith are seen in chapter 5. The benefits for the justified start with peace with God. This brings access to a joyful, victorious, secure experience that even makes constructive use of trials and problems because of the abundance of grace made available. These privileges, of course, include

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a fullness to which we have access. It sometimes becomes difficult to distinguish between the new-comers in holiness and those who are filled. There are no fences within God's pasture. All who are in may appropriate as fast as they can see and can overcome their own reluctance. The promise of fullness of cleansing, perfected love, and abundant life in the Holy Spirit awaits only the act of faith on the part of yielded and dedicated hearts. All of God's children should be reminded of their inheritance among them that are sanctified (Acts 20: 32; 26: 18). The promise is unto all (Acts 2: 38). Reluctance, strange as it may seem, is all on man's part. God delights to give. The five "much more's" in chapter 5 indicate that the most abundant thing in the world is God's disposition to deliver us and to bring us to abundant living and to heaven itself. This is central to the teaching of Romans. And it is fundamental to the holiness message. HOLINESS IN THE

SANCTIFICATION SECTION

The sanctification section (cc. ~) is not exactly what some would expect as a sequel to the previous materials. It is not so much a shift of topics as a deepening of emphasis in the treatment of the totals of divine grace. The point has been made that by grace one can be brought near to God and reconciled. Now how does this work out in life? Is it only an assurance of a better day in the future that gives us a more optimistic view of the wretched failures of here or now? Or is there a way of present purity, victory, and sanctity? Justification, indeed, is by faith. What about sanctification? Paul shouts that this also is by faith. The practical question is raised in 6: 1, "Does this abundant grace apart from law mean that God saves me while I'm sinning?" That is, "Since this is something God does for me, can't He do it without my making any changes in my life?" Paul says, in effect, "Perish the thought! Don't you know that God's act of saving ~·C'.l

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was so drastic as to enable you to stop sinning?" In fact, it made continuance in sin a horrible inconsistency. How can a dead man sin? God's act of saving grace makes us dead to the old life and alive to a new one in Christ Jesus. As Wesley says, we are "freed from the guilt and from the power" of sin (Notes, Rom. 6: 2). One doesn't need an advanced state of grace to stop willful disobedience to God's known will. That is a fundamental mark of the new birth. Riding in on this concept of how we become Christians is a tremendous declaration of holiness truth. The provision for freedom from sin is complete. To be joined with Christ in vital Christian experience has in it the elements of a perfect deliverance. The cross of Christ means that, provisionally, the man I used to be died on the Cross so that sin in its totality, so far as my life and experience are concerned, is abolished. This was provided that it might be appropriated. This is God's will for me (6: 6) . How can I appropriate such grace? Really, says Paul, it boils down to a matter of yielding. We used to yield ourselves piecemeal to unrighteousness and sin (present tense in Greek of continuous action in 6: 13) . Now, he says, yield yourself once for all in a decisive act (aorist tense) unto God as those who are alive from the dead. But didn't I yield when I repented and believed? Yes, of course. But then you were preoccupied with guilt and condemnation and were indeed dead in sin. You were really in no position to grasp the deep implications of grace for heart purity and fullness of the Holy Spirit. Now as live Christians you are in a position to choose God in a new way and with a depth of consecration and devotion before impossible. Paul says, "Do it!" Since this is a crisis in the Christian life, it is a second crisis. And it certainly relates to holiness. Verse 19 says (also in the aorist tense), "Even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness."

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"Make no mistake," Paul says, "the divide is clear. The wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life. Choose with the whole heart and stand by the choice" (remainder of chapter 6) . Chapter 7 raises the old presuppositions of the perverted Judaism of Paul's day. In effect, they would say, "But, Paul, aren't you now teaching salvation, or at least sanctification, by works when you emphasize holy living?" Paul says emphatically, "No, never! I tried sanctification by works and failed miserably. Works always ended the other way with me. When the law came to my consciousness, I sinned and died [vv. 11-13]. The law was good but I wasn't. I was constantly frustrated by my own sinful heart. I could see how wonderful the law was. I wanted to be that way, but I couldn't. I felt like a man condemned to death with no hope of escape. That was all law could do for me. Deliverance and sanctification had to come from some other source. Law couldn't do it." Chapter 8 says, "But there is a deliverance! It is abundant and adequate! Triumphant living is possible through grace-just as possible as the great hope for the future. The human is delivered from condemnation, from the law of sin, from the law of death, and from sin itself [vv. 1-3]. What the law could not do, Christ didcondemned sin to death and left the human nature freed from sin [v. 3]. The carnal is displaced by an opposite pattern, attitude, result, master, and purpose [vv. 3-8]. The set of the mind and heart, through grace, is not on things of the flesh but on the Spirit. This is a whole new life. The spiritual is enthroned by the indwelling Spirit. A new life is imparted and a future hope is secured [vv. 9-11]. All of this is the triumph of grace." The assets of grace are abundant (vv. 12-25). They may be summarized under freedom to live as sons of God (vv. 12-14), the spirit of sonship with the appropriate witness and rights (vv. 15-17), redemption not

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only in the moral and spiritual realm but eventually of environment and bodies (vv. 17-23), and a stabilizing hope that motivates and disciplines us while we await the heavenly order (vv. 24-25). How can all this be? The answer is simple. God's grace is adequate. The whole Trinity bends to my need. The Holy Spirit helps where I'm weak, intercedes, and interprets (vv. 26-27). The Father provides, plans, and carries through effectively (vv. 28-33). And Christ died, rose, ascended, and intercedes. If any would defeat me, he must first defeat the triune God. I am secure as long as my trust is in Him. Sanctification, with all its implications, is certainly as sure by faith as is justification. So ends the main doctrinal section. HOLINESS IN THE REST OF ROMANS

Chapters 9-11 primarily emphasize the fairness of God in the distribution of this grace. It is strictly by faith-not by race or tradition. The treatment but serves to deepen the impression of a salvation that operates above all in the moral and spiritual realm-namely, of holiness. Time forbids to examine gems from this section. Finally, chapters 12-16 deal chiefly with the ethic.$. of holiness. Works do count, but not as the means of salvation. Rather, they are the fruit. Christian ethics is a part of the response to grace, not the cause of it. Man responds first by repentance and faith-then by obedience. And it is obedient Christians who receive the fullness of grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5: 32). Thus the practical section begins with an exhortation to the brethren first of all to present themselves decisively as a total, living sacrifice unto God. This is one's logical obligation in view of God's grace. And this gives form and pattern to the life of holiness. It is that which is well pleasing to God. The world is not the pattern. The Christian has a higher standard and power.

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Instead of conforming to the world, we are transformed so that we may demonstrate in everyday living the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God (12: 1-2). This is then detailed in God's view of man's obligation to God, self, and his fellow men. Thus the principle of holiness is worked out in love. As one final note on the crisis aspect of holiness even here, it should be noted that "present" in 12: 1 is aorist in Greek, indicating decisive action. "Conform" and "transform" are present, indicating continuous action. Fullness in Christian holiness begins in a crisis (the "second blessing"), but it continually unfolds in increasing delights by the perpetual transforming activity of God in the application of His grace to life in its ever-broadening horizons. It is a light that shine more and more unto the perfect day.

W. Ralph Thompson Chairman, Division of Philosophy and Religion, Taylor University; minister, Free Methodist church; A.B., Th.B., Greenville College; B.D., Winona Lake School of Theology; S.T.B., Biblical Seminary in New York; M.A., Ball State Teachers College; Th.M., Th.D. Northern Baptist Theological Seminary; pastor, principal, The Evangelical Institute, Santiago, Dominican Republic, W.I.; principal, The Nogales Bible School, Nogales, Arizona; author, John, Light and Life Press, 1961.

7 What the Bible Teaches About the Meaning of Holiness W.

RALPH THOMPSON

Holiness is emphasized in the Bible more than any other theme. Since the Bible is the revelation of a holy God and of His plan to restore sinful man to a condition of holiness, the doctrine appears, at least by implication, on every page of the Scriptures. Holiness also is the attribute of God which the sacred writers mentioned more than any other. The frequency of its repetition arises because man by contrast is sinful. Drs. Wakefield, Dick, and Wardlaw believe that holiness should not be classed among God's attributes; rather, it is the nature of God which the attributes express. l In this paper, attention will be given to the following: (1) the meanings of basic Hebrew and Greek words for "holiness" as they appear in the Old and New Testaments; (2) the negative aspects of holiness; (3) the positive aspects of holiness; and (4) whether holiness in the Christian relates only to his standing and conduct or is also a quality of his character. Although holiness, strictly speaking, is a quality and sanctification a condition, when they relate to man the two ideas cannot be separated; hence they will be considered as synonymous terms in this paper. 'Cf. H. Orton Wiley and Paul T. Culbertson, Introduction to Christian Theology, p. 102. 107

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I.

THE MEANINGS OF BASIC HEBREW AND GREEK WORDS FOR "HOLINESS"

A. Hebrew words Attention is called first to the words for "holiness" in the Old Testament. 1. Kodesh The Hebrew root KDSH appears in one form or another more than 830 times in the Old Testament. 2 It is used sometimes to describe places, e.g., the camp of Israel (Deut. 23: 14), the hill of Zion (Ps. 2: 6), and the ground surrounding the bush that burned (Exod. 3: 5). Occasionally the word kodesh (kadosh, kadash, et al.) is used to describe times. In Gen. 2: 3 and Exod. 20: 8, 11, e.g., it is used of the Sabbath day; in Lev. 25: 10, of the year of jubilee; and in Joel 1: 14, of a fast day. Occasionally it is applied to persons, as the firstborn (Exod. 13: 2); the priests (Exod. 28: 41); the people (Deut. 7: 6); an assembly (Joel 2: 16); or to individuals dedicated to God (Jer. 1: 5; Dan. 4: 13).8 In every instance where a person or thing is called kodesh, it is done because of a relationship to God. Because God is holy, that which is dedicated to Him is to be separated, sacred, and preserved without ceremonial or moral contamination. 2. Tsaddiq Tsaddiq is related to kodesh in meaning and appears about five hundred times in the Old Testament. Frequently it is used of God as righteous Judge, but it is used also on many occasions to speak of men. This word may be translated "righteous," "upright," "virtuous," "pious," and "good," depending upon the context. 'George A. Turner, The More Excellent Way, pp. 21-22. 'Robert B. Girdlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament, pp.175-78.

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3. Tammim The word tammim appears in the Old Testament about eighty-five times. Of these, it is used forty-four times of sacrificial animals "without blemish," and twenty-three times of man's character, being translated "perfect" (seven times), "upright" (twelve times), or "sincere" (three times).4 4. Kabodh Kabodh is related to the idea of holiness, suggesting "radiance" or "splendor." 5. Shalom Shalom, which appears 224 times in the Old Testament, generally means "peace," though in 14 passages its adjective form (shalem) conveys the idea of perfection (cf., e.g., Isa. 38: 3).5 Throughout the Pentateuch, then, holiness is first of all ceremonial, but it is also spiritual or ethical. Since God is holy, He calls man to be like Him in nature and conduct (Lev. 19: 2). In the Psalms and prophets the emphasis is almost entirely upon this higher concept of holiness. Ethical holiness rests upon a contrite spirit (Isa. 57: 15) and righteousness (Psalms 15).6

B. Greek words 1. Hagios In the New Testament, holiness is expressed primarily by the word hagios and its cognates. These correspond to the Hebrew root KDSH, and are used to translate the latter in the LXX. Hagios may mean: (a) "reverent," or "worthy of veneration," especially when speaking of God (Luke 1: 49). It refers to things 'Turner, op. cit., p. 33. Ibid., p. 34. oJ. C. Lambert, "Holiness," The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. m. 6

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that are connected with God (Acts 6: 13; 7: 33), and to persons whose services God uses (Eph. 3: 5). (b) It may mean "to set apart for God alone" (Mark 1: 24; Luke 2: 23). Sometimes it is used of sacrifices and offerings for God (Rom. 11: 16; 12: 1; I Cor. 7: 14; Eph. 1: 4; 5: 27; Col. 1: 22). In the neuter gender it generally refers to a holy place. 7 When used in a moral sense, it means "pure," "sinless," "upright," and "holy" (Rom. 7: 12; 16: 16; I Cor. 7: 14; 16: 20; I Pet. 1: 16; II Pet. 3: 11).

2. Hagiadzo The Greek verb hagiadzo carries the meaning of both consecration and purification. The idea of consecration is to be seen in John 17:19, where Jesus says, "For their sakes I sanctify myself." The statement in verse 17 of the same chapter ("Sanctify them through thy truth") puts emphasis on both separation and cleansing. The Lord was set apart from the foundation of the world that He might sanctify (set apart, having cleansed) His people. The several uses of hagiadzo in the New Testament are illustrated in the following: (a) to hallow (Matt. 6: 9); (b) to separate from the profane and dedicate to God (Matt. 23:17; II Tim. 2:21; John 10:36; 17:19); (c) to purify externally (Heb. 9: 13; I Tim. 4: 5); (d) to purify by expiation (I Cor. 6: 11; Eph. 5: 26; Heb. 10: 10, 14, 29; 13: 12); and (e) to purify internally (John 17:17, 19; Rom. 15:16; I Cor. 1:2; I Thess. 5:23; Jude 1; Rev. 22: 11).8

3. Hagiasmos Hagiasmos, another related word, is peculiar to biblical and ecclesiastical literature. It comes from the perfect passive form of hagiadzo and is translated sanc7H. Orton Wiley, Christian Theology, II, 464-65. "Ibid., p. 465.

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tification or holiness. Such passages as "This is the will of God, even your sanctification" (I Thess. 4: 3) ; "Follow peace with all men, and holiness" (Heb. 12: 14) ; and, "Ye have your fruit unto holiness" (Rom. 6: 19, 22), illustrate its use. 9

4. Hagiosune Hagiosune has the same meaning as hagiasmos, but is used almost entirely to speak of men. It signifies especially personal cleansing (Rom. 1: 4; II Cor. 7: 1; 1 Thess. 3: 13). Words used for "sanctification" throughout the Bible carry the twofold idea of separation for a sacred use or purpose, and cleansing. Evidence is overwhelming that God graciously separates unto himself and cleanses all who come unto Him by faith. Man thereby is restored to holiness, the image of God which he lost in the Fall (Eph. 4: 24; Col. 3: 10; Rom. 12: 2; Jas. 3: 9). II.

THE NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF HOLINESS

A. HoZiness is a cleansing. The Bible teaches that holiness in man is possible only through a cleansing from sin. That cleansing is begun in regeneration. Jesus said to the eleven, "Now ye are clean through the word which 1 have spoken unto you" (John 15: 3). That the sanctification of which He spoke was only a partial cleansing, however, is evident from Peter's words awhile after Pentecost. He said that God gave certain gentile believers the Holy Spirit just as He had to them at Pentecost, "purifying their hearts by faith" (Acts 15: 8-9). John testifies to the fact of a complete cleansing when he says, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (I John 1: 7). 'Ibid.

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B. Cleansing is preceded by death to the carnal self. St. Paul states that "our old man is crucified [aorist] with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed [aorist]" (Rom. 6: 6). Either there must be a death to self now or there will be the death of the self eternally. "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8: 6). This death to self is not to be thought of as a destruction of the higher self; it is rather the death of the carnal self. By this death the higher self is freed to live the life for which it was created. The death of the carnal self is not the loss of an intrinsic part of the essential man. Otherwise Adam was not a complete man, for he was created holy. Death to the carnal self is a cleansing of the personality, the liberation of the real self. Though Wesley seems not to have used the term himself, many followers of J ohn Wesley speak of the eradication of sin in entire sanctification. "Eradication" is not a biblical term, and for many it has an unfortunate connotation, being understood to mean that the man thereby is made so that he cannot sin. Some derisively call this "sinless perfection," and it is difficult to convince them that something different from absolute perfection is meant by the term. This writer believes that since the word "eradication" is not biblical, and since it is so often misinterpreted, it would be better to substitute for it the biblical term "cleansing." "Death to self" and the "crucifixion of the old man" are terms which really mean complete submission to God. They signify a death to selfishness, that is, to selfcentered living, and letting God be supreme in the entire personality. When the carnal self thus is "dead" and God is on the throne of the life, the reason for such carnal manifestations as jealousy, anger, envy, pride, covetousness, and the like is gone.

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Lest it be thought, however, that a man can, by his own efforts, purify himself of inward sin, it should be observed that God's help is imperatively needed in order for the heart to be cleansed. The carnal self is "not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8: 7). Try as one will, the carnal self refuses to submit to God. It cannot; it must be slain; it must be crucified! Because the carnal self refuses to submit to God, the power to surrender fully must come from God. This power is given if and when the human will is exercised in faith to lay hold on that grace which God proffers through Christ. A poet, anonymous to the writer, expressed a proper synergism when he said, Lord, drive the nails, Nor heed the groans; My flesh may writhe And make its moans, But this I pray, And this alone: Let me die. III.

THE POSITIVE ASPECTS OF HOLINESS

Not only does the Bible emphasize the negative nature of holiness; it teaches that holiness has definite positive aspects. A. Love The principal positive aspect of holiness is love. When John Wesley was asked the question, "What is implied in being a perfect Christian?" he answered by referring to Deut. 6: 5: "The loving God with all your heart, and mind, and sou!." This is what he meant by entire sanctification. 1o Love is the essence of Christianity. It is the expression of the very nature of God himself, for "God is love." l·John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, p. 10.

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When the believer consecrates or surrenders himself entirely to God, God, who is Love, cleanses and fills the believer's heart through the person of the Holy Spirit so that love-pure, divine love-becomes the expression of his life. Important results follow: 1. With love as the dominant factor of the life, the believer keeps God's commandments. In John 14: 21, Jesus said, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." Two verses later He repeats the thought: "If a man love me, he will keep my words." So the person who is wholly surrendered to God and filled with the Spirit obeys God. In fact, one cannot be obedient without surrendering to the one who is obeyed. 2. The love is made perfect. In I John 4: 16-17 it is stated that God's love may be made perfect in us: "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect." 3. The one thus made perfect in love lives according to I Corinthians 13. He suffers long, is kind, does not envy, does not boast of himself, is not proud, is mannerly, is unselfish, is not irritable, does not take account of a suffered wrong, takes no pleasure in injustice, sides happily with the truth, bears all things, believes everything which God tells him, constantly hopes, and endures without limit. 4. He bears the fruit of the Spirit. To live according to the standard of I Corinthians 13 is to have the fruit of the Spirit-love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal. 5: 22-23)as the regular qualities of life.

B. Fellowship A second positive result of the fullness of the Spirit in the life is that the believer comes into a closer fellowship with God. In speaking to His disciples about the

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coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus told them, "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you" (John 16: 7). "If ye love me," He said, "keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever ... ; ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you" (John 14: 15-18). The Son of God himself came down from heaven, pitched His tent among men, and walked with them. In the Pentecostal experience of the fullness of the Spirit, however, He moves into the very heart of the believer, and He so identifies himself with the Holy Spirit that He said, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" (John 14: 18). But He went a step further than that. As though it were not sufficiently wonderful that the Son and the Spirit should dwell with. in us, He revealed that the Father also comes into the obedient heart. "If a man love me," He said, "he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we [the Father and I] will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14: 23). So the person who is filled with the Spirit actually, in some mysterious way, has the whole Trinity living in his heart. The believer thus is brought into the closest union with every Person of the Godhead.

C. Answers to Prayer Closely related to the abiding presence of God in the sanctified heart is the fact that such a believer gets his prayers answered: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you," Jesus said, "ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15: 7). Note the conditions however: (1) if we abide in Christ, and (2) if His words abide in us. The first condition reminds us that this promise is related to its context. Jesus was, by the illustration, referring to himself as the Vine and to believers as the

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branches. In that context He said, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Jesus did not mean necessarily by that statement that the believer could ask God to give him, for example, a new car, or make him president of the United States. It must be remembered that Jesus was speaking in terms of the believer's abiding in Him as a branch abides in the vine. To understand His meaning, one must ask oneself, What is it that an abiding branch asks of the vine? It asks three things: (1) that it may continue to cling closely to the vine, (2) that it may be supported in whatever position the vine sees fit, and (3) that the life-giving sap of the vine may constantly flow through it, enabling it to glorify the vine by bearing the fruit for which it was made. When the believer prays like that, he can be sure of getting anything that he asks! The second condition speaks of Christ's words abiding in us: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you." Christ's words are His commandments and promises. To pursue the meaning of this condition leads to the same destination as that at which the interpreter arrived in pursuing the first condition. When Christ truly sits on the throne of the heart, the believer asks only for those things which the King desires, those things which He commands and promises. Jesus said of such praying, "It shall be done unto you" (John 15: 7).

D. Power A fourth general, positive result of holiness is a new sense of power. In his carnal state, man desires power for selfish reasons, and he is puffed up with pride over whatever power he may obtain. The power which God gives the sanctified, far from puffing him up, makes him feel hum-

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ble, for the center of gravity in his life is no longer himself, but God. The power of the sanctified is the power of a godly life, the power to live victoriously over inward as well as outward sin, the power to bear consistently the fruit of the Spirit. It is a power for everyday, victorious living in the midst of an evil world. St. Paul reminds us that "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Titus 2: 11-12). Zacharias, the priest, said that God swore to Abraham that we who are His people, "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 1: 73-74). This power is given, moreover, for the purpose of enabling us to be effective witnesses. Jesus told His disciples, "Ye are witnesses ... but tarry ... until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24: 48-49). In Acts 1: 8, He said, "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses" (ASV). The baptism with the Holy Spirit is given to the Church for the distinct purpose that the Church may witness effectively, by both life and word. With this power today the Church would turn the world upside down for God as it did in the first century (cf. Acts 17: 6). Thus sanctification is seen to possess distinct negative and positive qualities, and they should be kept in balance by him who preaches the doctrine. To omit to present its negative facets results in a compromising attitude toward the basic evil of man's fallen nature, to fail to stress its positive nature robs the doctrine of much of its appeal.

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IV.

FURTHER INSIGHTS INTO HOLINESS HOLINESS AND CHRISTIAN CHARACTER

Does holiness in the believer relate only to the Goddominated life or does the sin-dominating God also impart His own character of holiness to the soul? At this point, holy men disagree. Evan Hopkins of the Keswick school of theology has stated the case quite clearly for those who affirm that the believer actually remains a sinner at heart while his life is blameless under the control of the Holy Spirit. He uses the following illustration: When a balloon with a car attached to it is ascending from the earth its tendency is upward-it has no tendency at all downwards, it has lost its tendency to fall. So when the Lord cleanses my heart from all evil-gives me a "clean heart"-I have no tendency to sin. I am liable to sin, but I have no tendency to sin. Is this the reasoning of any of our readers? The illustration is a good one, but the inference is fallacious, and most misleading in its spiritual application. First, as to the balloon, we would say it has not lost its tendency downwards, though it continues to rise. We must remember that its movement upwards is but the resultant of opposing forces. Suppose we say the weight of the materials of which it is composed, or, in other words, its tendency downwards, is equal to four, and the lifting power of the gas by which it is filled is equal to six. As these two forces are diametrically opposed, the power by which it actually ascends is only equal to two. Now to say that the balloon has lost all tendency downwards, because it has ceased to move in that direction, but on the contrary is steadily moving upwards, would be to talk after the popular mind, but it would not be an accurate statement of fact. Its tendency to sink, equal to four, remains the same, though it is counteracted by the superior power of six in the opposite direction. The very fact that "the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus" must be ever in force as a continual necessity, is a proof that the tendency to sin is not extinct, but is simply counteracted. On the other hand, this does not imply that I need be conscious of that tendency. If we walk in the Spirit, the strain is borne by the Spirit. The privilege of the believer

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is this, that he may so live in the Spirit, and be filled with the Spirit, that, speaking from his consciousness, he may be tempted to say the flesh no longer exists; that he has now only one nature. But let us not be ignorant of Satan's devices. It is then that we are in danger of being shunted off the rails of soberness and truth on to the line of spiritual delusion, which sooner or later terminates in disaster."

This is a powerful argument, but lacks scriptural substantiation. It is true, teachers of this school of thought refer to certain scriptural passages for support, but they seem to fail to see them in their proper context. I John 1: 8 is a good example: "1£ we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Keswick teachers interpret this verse as applicable to victorious Christians as well as to the unbeliever. But to interpret it thus forces the apostle to contradict himself. John has just stated that if we walk in the light as God is in the light we are cleansed from all sin. He cannot mean, then, in the next verse, that no people are without sin; obviously one cannot be cleansed from all sin and have a sinful nature at the same time. He states his meaning clearly in verse ten: "1£ we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar." In verse eight John is saying, then, that all men are sinners in need of cleansing; but he clearly assumes that some have been, or at least may be, cleansed. To isolate verse eight is to do violence to the sense of the passage. Look now at scriptural passages which teach a cleansing of the very heart and character of the believer. I Thess. 5: 23 is a good example: "And 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." Observe that it is not just the conduct but "you" that is cleansed-all "Stephen Barabas, So Great Salvation, pp. 49-50.

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of you. The word translated "wholly" in this passage is the Greek word holoteleis, which Thayer's lexicon renders "complete in all respects."12 The Berkeley Version of the New Testament translates the verse like this: "And may the God of peace Himself make you holy through and through. May your spirit be without a flaw and your soul and body maintained blameless for the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." In I John 1: 9 it is stated: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Two observations will emphasize the fact that the person himself is cleansed: (1) the "we" that confess are the same as the "us" who are cleansed. (2) Christ's blood cleanses us [us people] "from all unrighteousness." It cannot reasonably be claimed, then, that the human nature itself is not cleansed. Ezek. 36: 25-26 states it thus: ". . . from all your filthiness . . . will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ..." So even the heart or spirit is cleansed. Evan Hopkins' illustration of the balloon has per se an important weakness. Since it is maintained by Keswick teachers that "there would ... be no need to abide in Christ and rely upon Him for victory over temptation if sin were no longer in US."18 consistency places Mr. Hopkins on the horns of a dilemma. Either he must assume that Mother Eve was not in a holy state before she sinned or he must deny that she was tempted. The same consistency would lead to the more serious conclusion either that our Lord's temptations were not real or that He too had a sinful nature. Yet He was tempted "in all points like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4: 15). "Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. v. "Barabaa, op. cit., p. 73.

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So temptation does not require a sinful nature in order to make its appeal. A logical interpretation of the Scriptures, therefore, shows that both the man and his conduct are cleansed in the experience of sanctification. CONCLUSION

This paper has shown that it is God's purpose to set the believer free from sin in both his conduct and his nature and to enable him, through the power of the indwelling Spirit, to bear fruit unto holiness as he walks in fellowship with his Lord. Such a lofty purpose must be proclaimed with all speed to lost men everywhere.

Ora D. Lovell Professor, Malone College; A.B., Kletzing College; B.D., Asbury Seminary; M.A., Western Reserve; M.Ed., University of Pittsburgh; pastor, Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1940-43, 1946-47; Dean, Malone College, 195156; author, Aldersgate Biblical Series, Ephesians; contributor, Asbury Seminarian, "Form Criticism," "The Role of Human Nature in Education."

8 Holiness: Instantaneous and Progressive ORA D.

LOVELL

This is not an either/or but a both/and proposition. If the instantaneous and progressive elements in the holiness experience were held in proper balance, much of the debate between groups would cease. While holiness is a fundamental doctrine of Christianity, and of great importance to the Church, there are few points of doctrine concerning which there is greater difference of opinion. All evangelical Christians present it as a Scripture doctrine. However, they differ as to its nature and the time of its attainment. There are four general positions concerning the doctrine. (1) Some say that holiness is concomitant with regeneration and completed at that time. (2) Others regard it as a growth extending from the time of conversion until death. (3) Others believe and teach that a person is made holy only at the time of death. (4) Others maintain that holiness begins in conversion, but it is completed as an instantaneous work following conversion. It is our purpose to show in this paper that holiness is an instantaneous work, cleansing the heart from all sin. It is also our hope to set forth evidence showing that the person cleansed from all sin is to grow in grace. The overemphasis of one of these points has led to deep differences among scholars. The following outline is given as a guide for our thinking and an aid to our memory. I. The Deliverance from Carnality II. The Development of the Christian III. The Difference Among Creeds 123

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All facts of the sinner's ruin and God's remedy cannot be considred in this paper. We begin with the person who is converted. What is the condition of such a person? Certain theologians, past and present, maintain that the converted man is yet carnal. Holiness deals with the carnal nature in the regenerate. W. T. Purkiser states: The heart and core of the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian holiness is the claim that God can and does actually, in this life, through the gracious gift of His Spirit, render the entirely consecrated believer holy in all manner of conversation by reason of being completely cleansed from every remaining particle of inherited sin. No teaching which denies such a cleansing can properly be called holiness in the sense in which we use the term. The essential point of the doctrine of entire sanctification is this fact of heart purity as an actual purging of the soul.'

Purkiser maintains that the holiness set forth in the New Testament is not a positional holiness wherein the believer, who is in Christ, is said to be accounted holy while actually morally impure. He believes, and with good reason, that the atonement provides cleansing from all sin. Some deny the existence of carnality; others seek to detain or suppress the sinful nature; but the position presented in this paper is deliverance. An explanation of the nature of this deliverance is necessary. Is the deliverance instantaneous or progressive? The terminology employed by the New Testament writers and the Greek tense used in setting forth the experience of sanctification prove that the experience is a crisis. J. B. Chapman wrote a book called The Terminology of Holiness. The importance of terms is set forth in the following quotation. The purpose of the lectures was not to convince anyone of the truth of the Wesleyan interpretation of the 'W. T. Purkiser, Conflicting Concepts of Holiness, p. 15.

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theme of Bible holiness, but rather to offer assistance to those who hold this doctrine in the matter of describing it as accurately and fairly as possible. The plan was to say what we as a people believe in terms that we ourselves use, and by repetition and explanation help ourselves to use these terms more intelligently, and thereby make ourselves better understood by those who do not hold with us on this central thesis of our doctrinal interpretation of the Christian faith.... Nothing that we have said, however, is intended to suggest any change in the concepts of the fathers of the Holiness Movement of the past. They said what they believed and felt in words that were forceful and true. And there is a surprising uniformity of vocabulary among them, even though they came from many and varied historical communions of the Protestant division of the Church. It is ourselves of the present who need to be instructed rather than the fathers who require to be corrected. When it is said that "we need a new holiness vocabulary," if the saying is intelligent, the meaning rather is that we need to have the vocabulary of the fathers revitalized in our own thinking and feeling; for the fathers found their vocabulary a splendid vehicle for the purpose they had in mind.'

Chapman pleads for the old holiness terminology. He does not make such a plea merely to save our shibboleths, but he believes, and with good reason, that the old terminology which is biblical is an excellent vehicle to carry our message. It is my conviction that our present task is not to restate the holiness message in new psychological terms, but our task is to resurrect and revitalize the biblical terms. There are those who desire a new terminology. They think the old terms are unadapted to the present, and their use results in unnecessary misunderstanding. Have the old terms lost their meaning? If so, new terms are needed. However some people do not like holiness terminology because they do not like the idea it bears. J. B. Chapman says: 'J. B. Chapman, The Terminology of Holiness, p. 6.

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It is the idea conveyed that makes or breaks a word on the markets of men. And I think it will usually be noted that the call for a new terminology is a call for less definition, rather than for more definition; for new words cannot possibly be as clear and as rich as those which have been aged by the usage of the generations. Old words are better than new, for the reason that they are better understood, whereas the symbolism of the new words requires much time for maturing and for enrichment.·

The real question is, Do we make our message clear? Terms that are intelligible, even though they be offensive because they are clear, are the terms we desire. It is better to be clear in our statement and disliked than to be misunderstood and appreciated. The New Testament terminology sets forth holiness as an instantaneous work. There is a marked contrast between the terms used in reference to the new birth and the terms used in reference to entire sanctification. The terms employed to describe God's work in the hearts of sinners are "justify," "forgive," and "brought nigh to God." The New Testament writers when presenting the work of holiness used the terms "crucify," "purge" or "cleanse," "sanctify," "perfection," "eradication," "baptism with the Holy Spirit," and "the gift of the Holy Spirit." These terms teach the destruction of the sin principle or nature remaining in the heart of the born-again individual. S. M. Merrill makes the following statement in support of biblical terms. The sacred writers declared the Gospel in words, and in words which the Holy Ghost suggested or approved, and it is fair to assume that the words employed by them should be taken in their most obvious sense, as determined by the scope and design of the writers.'

·Op. cit., p. 12. ·S. M. Merrill, Doctrinal Aspects of Christian Experience, p.181.

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J. B. Chapman quotes A. Paget Wilkes in support of our position. The truth is that in the Word of God, sin (as distinguished from sins and sinning) is spoken of as a spiritual entity, e.g. "the body of sin," "the carnal mind," etc. Sanctification, then, in its principal meaning is the destruction of that entity, a moral cleansing of our nature from its defiling presence and power, a real healing of the soul and a removal of inward depravity.·

It is clear from the above quotation that the carnal mind is not material substance, but is more than, or different from, an attitude, or from voluntary action, or a wrong relationship. Paul's term "the body of sin" gives support to the concept "spiritual entity." The New Testament terminology teaches the removal of this state or condition. Much of this terminology also indicates that the removal is in the nature of a crisis. The verb "sanctify" refers to an act which is most naturally viewed as occurring at a definite point in time. This word has a twofold meaning, "to set apart" and "to make holy." It is possible to think of a progressive "setting apart" or "making holy," but the action depicted is naturally thought of as momentary and immediate. In theological literature we find the term "entire sanctification." This term is supported by I Thess. 5: 23, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly." The adjective "entire" distinguishes this subject from progressive sanctification.

The word translated "cleanse" or "render pure" points to a crisis. Cleansing and purification may be continuous processes, but the natural meaning of these words indicates that there is always an initial moment when the cleansing or purification takes place. Purity may be and is a con·Chapman, op. cit., p. 53.

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dition to be maintained, as in I John 1: 7. But the condition cannot be maintained until it is created, and this suggests an act."

The terms "crucifixion" and "death" most certainly refer to crisis. Crucifixion as a method of execution was sometimes sudden, sometimes slow, but always definite. Dying may be prolonged, but death is instantaneous. Gradual death is a figure of speech referring to a mortal illness. Death itself is sudden. The phrase "the baptism with the Spirit" refers to a crisis. The word "baptism" always refers to action at a given time, and never that continuing over a long period of time. The gradual baptism with the Spirit is as ridiculous as gradual baptism with water. The word "eradicate Ol is a term speaking of definite action. Wiley quotes Dr. Pope's definition of holiness, "Sanctification in its beginnings, processes and final issues is the full eradication of the sin itself, which reigning in the unregenerate, coexists with the new life in the regenerate, is abolished in the wholly sanctified."7 Some tell us the term eradicate is not a Scripture term; this is an error. The term appears in the original text but not in the English translations. It is found in the statement of Christ to His disciples, "Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted [eradicated] up" (Matt. 15: 13). No plea is made for the use of this term in our preaching. In some places it is the waving of a red flag. However it does occur in Scripture and refers to a sudden and complete removal of sin. God's work of sanctifying grace is referred to as a gift to be received. Reference to the Holy Spirit as a gift is mentioned in Acts 2: 38-39; 10: 45; and Luke 11: 13. Purkiser says, "Not only would forcing a gift upon a OW. T. Purkiser, Exploring Our Christian Faith, p. 358. "H. Orton Wiley, Christian Theology, II, 468.

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person be a contradiction in terms, but so would be the 'gradual' giving of a gift."8 Purkiser, to whom the writer is in debt for much of the material above, states: When now we summarize all these verbs, we gain an almost irresistible impression of climax, epoch, or crisis. . . . All these terms describe actions which most naturally take place at a definite time and place, and which do not admit of degrees. They all testify to the fact that complete sanctification is a crisis experience, and not a longdrawn-out and never-completed process of growth.·

If the New Testament writers desired to teach suppression, they had words at their disposal to present such a view. In Rom. 1: 18, Paul refers to men "who hold the truth in unrighteousness." The word "hold" may be translated "hold down" or "detain" or "hinder." In I Cor. 9: 27, Paul states, "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection." Note the words "keep under"; the Greek term might be translated "discipline by hardship, coerce." The word "subjection" may be translated "bring into slavery" or "discipline." In II Cor. 5: 14, Paul said, "For the love of Christ constraineth us." The word "constrain" may be translated "have in custody, hem in." Christ said, as recorded in Matt. 12: 29, "except he first bind the strong man"; the word "bind" also means "hinder" or "confine." These are some of the words in the Greek language which mean suppression but not one of them is ever used in connection with the disposition to be made of inbred sin.... If it were the plan of God that sin should be suppressed or counteracted, is it not reason that the use of the Greek would indicate this purpose? If it were not God's plan to eradicate sin from the hearts of believers, is it not beyond explanatio:'l that a Greek word carrying this ·Purkiser, Exploring Our Christian Faith, p. 359. ·Ibid., pp. 359-60.

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meaning was invariably used in indicating what the disposition was to be?'·

Having considered the importance of terminology, consider now the significance of the Greek tense in support of an instantaneous deliverance from sin. Dr. Daniel Steele is a strong advocate relative to the importance of the Greek language. He contends that the aorist tense so often used in the New Testament, and particularly in connection with Christian experience, points to a crisis. Relative to the aorist tense Winchester and Price quote the following from the book Introduction to Greek Prose Composition) by A. Sidgwick. The learner should get the conception that the only difference between the aorist and present in any "mood except the indicative is the rather fine distinction between the act regarded as a single occurrence, not considering it as protracted (aorist), and the act regarded as extended in time (present)."

In the opinion of this writer the aorist tense intrinsically denotes a momentary act or simple occurrence. The aorist is the equivalent of crisis. J. A. Moulton maintains that the essential nature of the aorist is to denote momentary action. Action at a point can hardly imply anything other than this. According to A. T. Robertson the aorist tense always means point-action. Dr. Daniel Steele in Milestone Papers states the following in support of the aorist tense and its significance relative to a crisis experience. 1. All exhortations to prayer and to spiritual endeavor in resistance of temptation are usually expressed in the present tense, which strongly indicates persistence. 2. The next fact which impresses us in our investigation is the absence of the aorist and the presence of the l·Chapman, op. cit., pp. 70-71. uOlive M. Winchester, Crisis Experiences in the Greek New Testament, ed. by Ross E. Price, p. 17.

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present tense whenever the conditions of final salvation are stated. 3. But when we come to consider the work of purification in the believer's soul, by the power of the Holy Spirit, both in the new birth and in entire sanctification, we find that the aorist is almost uniformly used. This tense, according to the best New Testament grammarians, never indicates a continuous, habitual, or repeated act, but one which is momentary, and done once for all. 4. We have looked in vain to find one of these verbs denoting sanctification and perfection in the imperfect tense when individuals are spoken of. The verb hagiaZO, to sanctify, is always aorist or perfect. . . . The same may be said of the verb kathanzo, to purify."

Let us now note some of the New Testament passages which present a crisis experience. We shall observe some of the main passages which have reference to the experiences of conversion and sanctification. First we will list some references presenting conversion or the new birth. "Except a man be born from above" (John 3: 3). Here we discover the aorist tense used for "be born." Purkiser states: Another figure for the new life in the soul is that of spiritual resurrection. This likewise is a punctiliar or momentary act. Turning to Colossians 3: 1 we read: 'If then ye be raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above.' The first verb is in the aorist and the second 'seek,' is in the present tense. The seeking is linear; that is, it marks the continuous trend of conduct. But the raising was a single act; both the nature of the act and the tense indicate the punctiliar aspect,'"

In Acts 2: 38, Peter declared, "Repent, and be baptized everyone of you." The verbs "repent" and "be baptized" are aorist imperatives. Christ said, "lest they should believe and be saved" (Luke 8: 12). Both verbs are in the aorist tense, showing clearly that the act of "Daniel Steele, Milestone Papers, Doctrinal, Ethical, and Experimental on Christian Progress, pp. 57, 59, 65, 90. "Winchester, p. 30.

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faith and the experience of being saved are both simple and definite in nature. Peter said, "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4: 12). The word "be saved" is in the aorist. Paul states, "But according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3: 5). The word "saved" is aorist and refers definitely to the new birth. In Acts 3: 19 the words "repent ye," "be converted," and "be blotted out" all occur in the aorist. Many other terms used in the New Testament in connection with the experience of conversion Occur in the aorist. Some examples are Rom. 5: 1, "justified"; Rom. 5: 10, "reconciled"; and I John 1: 9, "forgive." For most evangelicals the instantaneous nature of conversion is not questioned. Some do question the teaching of a crisis experience of sanctification. If the Greek language teaches conversion as a crisis, it also teaches cleansing as a crisis. The two stand or fall together. Turn your attention to words used by the New Testament writers when speaking of Christian holiness. Note Rom. 6: 6, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." The words "crucified" and "destroyed" are aorists. Daniel Steele makes the following comment. The aorist here teaches the possibility of an instantaneous death-stroke to inbred sin, and that there is no need of a slow and painful process, lingering till physical death or purgatorial fires end the torment. Men are never crucified limb by limb, after one part is dead finding a hand or arm or finger alive, but the whole life is extinguished all at once."

Note Gal. 5: 24, "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." The "Ibid., pp. 68-69, quoting Steele.

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verb crucified is aorist. Robertson says this refers to a "definite event emphasizing the completeness of the extermination of this evil force and the guarantee of victory over passions and dispositions toward evil."15 Consideration must be given to the use of the verb sanctify. Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth" (John 17: 17). Paul prayed, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly" (I Thess. 5: 23). "Sanctify" is aorist tense. In II Cor. 7: 1 the verb cleanse is in the aorist. In Jas. 4: 8 the words "cleanse" and "purify" are aorists. In Acts 15: 9, Peter said, "And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." Again we have the aorist in the Greek tense. Price writes: Let us note that this giving of the Holy Spirit accomplished purification of their hearts in each instance and let us not overlook the fact that in each case the experience was instantaneous. In Acts 2: 2 Luke expressly states that it came "suddenly.",e

The words "purge," "sealed," "perfect," "fell," "came upon," "receive," and "partakers" all occur in the aorist tense in connection with holiness. 17 If the aorist tense is used to indicate a definite and instantaneous experience of conversion, it must be acknowledged that it just as emphaticall yteaches an instantaneous work of cleansing. A. M. Hills makes the following statement which will serve to close our discussion on the deliverance from carnality. The truth is, we have the most critical and scholarly commentaries and Greek exegetes, the lexicons and grammars, on our side in this matter. If the Greek can teach anything by nouns, adjectives, and verbs, and even ad'"Ibid., p. 69, quoting Robertson. '"Ibid., p. 76. 17Ibid., pp. 65-84.

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verbs and prepositions, about a spiritual experience, our doctrine of sanctification, as a heart-cleansing work, is taught by the Word of God. ' • THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN

Wesleyan theologians sometimes speak of the incompleteness of regeneration, and of the need of entire sanctification in order to bring the redemptive work to completion. Dr. John Miley said: The doctrine of an incompleteness of the work of regeneration underlies entire sanctification, particularly in its Wesleyan form. ' •

Dr. Wiley sounds a note of warning. There is a sense in which this is true, but the form of the statement is unfortunate. Regeneration considered in itself is not an imperfect work. It is the bestowal of divine life, and as an operation of the Spirit, is complete in itself. But regeneration is only a part of the grace embraced in the New Covenant, and in this sense only may be said to be incomplete-incomplete as not in itself representing the totality of New Covenant blessings. Again, regeneration is frequently represented in Wesleyan theology, as the beginning of sanctification-a work which comes to its perfection in entire sanctification. Here, also, discriminating thought is necessary. Regeneration is the beginning of sanctification in this sense only, that the life bestowed in the new birth is a holy life. This new life, being one of "holy love," may be said to be the beginning of holiness. But we are not to infer from this that the expanding of this new life by growth, or the increase and development of this love, will bring the soul to entire sanctification. Failure to discriminate here, leads inevitably to the "growth theory" of sanctification.·o

The failure to discriminate between initial sanctification, the cleansing of acquired depravity, and entire sanctification, the cleansing of inherited depravity, has l·Chapman, op. cit., pp. 71-72, quoting A. M. Hills. l·John Miley, Systematic Theology, II, 357. '·Wiley, op. cit., II, 475-76.

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led to confusion. Inasmuch as New Testament writers refer to men as being sanctified in connection with the first work of grace, some have concluded that growth will care for the spiritual needs of the regenerate. Some theologians writing of initial sanctification have been misunderstood by their readers. These statements taken out of context may be interpreted as teaching the "growth theory." Gamertsfelder writes: We formulate our definition as follows: Sanctification is the progressive work of the Holy Spirit wrought in a believer's heart, whereby the holy disposition and new nature imparted in regeneration are maintained and strengthened, and whereby the Christian life is more fully developed, and the heart more fully cleansed from sin."

Gamertsfelder leaves us cold here; however he has a following chapter on entire sanctification in which he seeks to give stronger stress to cleansing from sin. Two facts concerning the believer in this life are to be clearly noted. The spiritual life is in need of constant strengthening and developing, and there needs to be a continuous application of the blood of Christ for cleansing. It is also true that the highest degree of perfection is not experienced until the believer knows Christ in the power of His resurrection. Some think, because of the need of continued cleansing, it is unwise to speak of sanctification as a completed work. It is the carnal nature that is removed, and the blood of Christ is always necessary to keep the heart clean. No past cleansing will keep us clean. A continuous cleansing, in answer to an abiding faith, is necessary to meet the requirements of our daily lives. The distinction between purity and maturity is very necessary. J. A. Wood writes: 1. In degree, all perfection in creatures must be modified by their capacity, and is susceptible to indefinite increase. "S. J. Gamertsfelder, Systematic Theology, p. 516.

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2. Purification is a special work of God, distinct from regeneration on the one side, and from Christian maturity on the other. 3. Growth in grace is the development of the positive in the Christian life,-the graces of the Spirit; but not a process of cleansing or working, refining or purging, mortification or death. 4. All the changes made by growth, or gradual processes are in size or quantity, and not in kind and quality. Purity pertains to quality, growth to size or quantity. 5. Regarding purity and maturity as distinct in nature and process, relieves this subject of difficulties which have perplexed, multitudes of good men."

While it is possible to determine the time of cleansing, that is, the time of its consummation, with accuracy and assurance, it is impossible to determine the time when the fruit of the Spirit reaches maturity. Neither is it certain that all the Christian graces reach maturity at the same time. Dr. Wiley has an excellent section on progressive sanctification. He warns us relative to stressing growth and development, instead of stressing the crisis. Time and space allow only the giving of his outline, but the outline speaks for itself. Sanctification as Partial and Entire Sanctification as Gradual and Instantaneous Sanctification as Instantaneous and Continuous 23 THE

DIFFERENCE AMONG CREEDS

1£ we could only see behind the words of others and know the thoughts they seek to express, we would discover our differences to be less significant. Sometimes concern for favorite expressions leads to misunderstanding and creates impressions of greater problems than really exist. It is true that the nature and fact of holi"J. A. Wood, Purity and Maturity, pp. 219-29. "Wiley, op. cit., pp. 479-86.

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ness remain what they are regardless of the terms used to set forth the doctrine. However it is not always to the terminology, but often to the fact and nature of holiness, that opposition is directed. Attention is called to two books which are significant for their position concerning holiness. The books are An Outline of Christian Theology, by W. N. Clarke, and Christian Theology in Outline, by W. A. Brown. Dr. Walter Marshall Harton refers to these as "the two most influential textbooks of liberal theology."24 These books are often referred to, and their influence upon the holiness message was unfortunate, as the following quotation shows. The work that the New Testament calls sanctification is the carrying on of the divine life toward perfection. It is the maintaining and strengthening of that holy disposition which God imparts in regeneration, and the permeating of the entire person and life with the character that was then brought in. It is to regeneration what growth is to birth. Sanctification, in the New Testament, does not mean perfection reached, but the progress of the divine life toward perfection. Sanctification is the Christianizing of the Christian."

According to Clarke, sanctification is a process pass~ ing through many stages; it consists mainly as a development. The work is too great to be accomplished at once; God will do it as quickly as He can. Sanctification is destined to endless continuance; it is not deliverance from sin. God has abundant time to complete His work, for the development of the Christian life is not limited to this world. Brown raises the question of whether the attainment of individual perfection is possible in this life. He is in"Arnold S. Nash, Protestant Thought in the Twentieth Century, p. 108. "William Newton Clarke, An Outline of Christian Theology, p.409.

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definite in his explanation and treatment of the doctrine of holiness. These two books made available to the public in the period of growing liberalism served to turn men from the concepts of Wesley and Fletcher. Henry C. Thiessen, a mild Calvinist, writes: We have been saved from the guilt and penalty of sin, and are being saved from the power of sin, and will ultimately be saved from the very presence of sin. Our salvation from the presence of sin will take place when we shall see the Lord, either at death or at His coming. t.

The position above is adhered to by some today who have turned from the Bible teaching of complete deliverance from sin. The reason for this may be popularity and prestige. Dr. Chapman deserves to be heard again. There is at the present time a strong sentiment in favor of blotting out any and all lines that separate Christians from one another in order to "present a united front to the non-Christian world." From certain approaches this sentiment has merit, for divisions which are not based on fundamental differences are indefensible. But we must avoid laying emphasis on numbers, since this ignores the principal basis of strength in the Christian movement. Likewise we must beware lest in calling for union we ask those of higher attainments to concede to those of lower possession, and insist that the orthodox compromise with those who hold to mixed creeds."

Deliverance is possible and development is necessary. The differences are deeper than definition. Our task is not to denounce the creeds of others but to declare our own. Paul expressed it, "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus" (Col. 1: 28). ··Henry Clarence Thiessen, Introductory Lectures in Systemlttic Theology, p. 383.

27Chapman, op. cit., p. 57.

Otho Jennings Professor, Asbury College; B.A., Th.B., God's Bible School; M.A., Lehigh University; S.T.B., Temple University; Ed. D., Michigan State University; LL.D., Eastern Pilgrim College; pastor, eight years; educational experience: John Wesley College, one year; Congregational Methodist Bible School, one year; Eastern Pilgrim College, six years (principal of high school, vice-president, dean of the college); Southern Pilgrim College, one year; Owosso College, eight years (vice-president, dean, and president); Asbury College, 1959--; joint author, Unveiling the Missionary World, 1937.

9 Areas of Growth After Sanctification OTHO JENNINGS

1.

INTRODUCTION

Many years ago the sainted Oswald Chambers wrote an excellent little tract entitled After Surrender What? in which he stressed that entire sanctification involves complete surrender of the will to Jesus Christ. After this surrender "the whole of life is an aspiration, the aspiration of an unbroken life of communion with God, and it does not matter whether the life be dark or bright. After this crisis in Peter's experience he never talked of hardships and difficulties; his life showed one distinct characteristic-that of a witness for Jesus Christ." George D. Watson echoes much the same sentiment in his definition of consecration, which, he states, consists of three types of commitment: to be anything the Lord wants us to be, to do anything the Lord wants us to do, and to suffer anything the Lord wants us to suffer. 1 These references to the life of holiness are too well accepted to be questioned. It is, however, both kind and proper to note that they oversimplify the case. It remains to be explained of what this life of complete aspiration consists, and what are the areas in which this aspiration of unbroken communion is to be demonstrated. The realities of life and the challenge of discipleship demand that we know what God wants us to be and do. This problem lies at the heart of the present discussion. Without going into a formal definition of entire 'George D. Watson in article "The Entirety of Consecration," Pilgrim Holiness Advocate, Jan. 16, 1960. 141

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sanctification, it is nevertheless both proper and pertinent to note somewhat the nature and personality structure of a man from sin set free. A basic understanding of human personality is essential to our subject, for it is in this realm that Christian growth occurs. Through acquiring purity man loses nothing of his essential manhood; his only loss is sin. Restoration to purity, however, does not return man to pristine innocence. His state is one of purity but it is also one of marred structure and impaired function. Perhaps an illustration may help to make this point clear. Once when away from home the writer received a distressed long-distance call from his wife. During a rather routine physical checkup with our family physician she was found to have numerous noticeable spots in the lung areas. The tentative diagnosis was possible active tuberculosis, which diagnosis had prompted her call of distress. Further examination and tests showed the spots to be scar tissue completely healed. There was no trace of active disease. It then became clear that evidently during childhood she had been infected either with tuberculosis or histoplasmosis, that the disease had been cured, but that she was destined to bear the scar tissue for the rest of her life. Thus it is with depravity. The disease of sin can be cured, but the marring of structure and impairing of function are destined to be man's lifelong portion and must await the glorious resurrection to be removed from man forever. What does remain in entire sanctification is the complete biological and spiritual nature of man. The personality of man consists both of this dual nature and of all the habits, traits, and patterns which he displays in relation to others. To quote a rather time-worn definition, "Personality includes all of the traits and characteristics which make up a person." To be more specific and detailed, it may be said that the physical nature of man includes: his physical

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and skeletal structure with its muscular, neural, circulatory, respiratory, organic, and glandular systems; and the innate or instinctive reflexes and drives. Examples of these reflexes and drives are those controlled by the autonomic nervous system, for example, pupillary contraction of the eyes, glandular and muscular factors in digestion, speed of heartbeat, regulation of skin pores, the processes of elimination, hunger, and to some extent the sex drive. These examples are very limited, for the biological nature of man is very complex indeed. Equally complex is the spiritual nature of man. The definition given by one writer, that man's spiritual nature consists of the intellect, the emotions, the conscience, and the will, is without question a vast oversimplification, although it is significantly suggestive. The well-known trichotomy of mind, soul, and spirit, likewise, is suggestive; but since these three appear inseparably connected for all time and eternity, it might be well to treat them as a unit, that is, as the spiritual nature of man. Out of man's spiritual nature come the most important factors in personlity. A few of these may be mentioned: his ability and patterns of thinking and learning; his need for social relations with other men; his desire for security, recognition, response, and new experiences; his ability in cognition of knowledge whether it be intuitive, emperical, rational, or supernatural knowledge; his relation to God; his immortality; his faculties of attention, volition, conscience, imagination, memory, sense of humor, and common sense. In other words, man's spiritual structure should be considered to include every element of his nature which is not purely physical or biological. It is within this spiritual nature that growth in grace takes place. This is not to say that the physical nature is not affected by purity of heart. It is well know that spiritual or psychical forces produce noticeable results in the

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human bQdy. In one of his Stranger than Science stories Frank Edwards relates how a group of English doctors removed warts by hopnosis in an effort which demonstrated the power of suggestion; and this experiment in turn suggests that the long considered superstitious folk tales about removing warts by various methods were not so far-fetched after all. A Christian physician friend of mine once expressed his opinion that at least 75 percent of all illness is emotional in origin. And it is well known that good mental health promotes good physical health. This being true, it stands to reason that purity of heart and life may produce very wholesome effects in relation to health and growth in general. Other things being equal, the nature of the Spirit-filled believer should tend to be the best example of both bodily and mental health. We recognize, of course, that other things are often not equal.

II.

THE AREAS LEAST AFFECTED BY SANCTIFICATION

It is important to note that salvation as such does not necessarily promote or hinder bodily structure, function, or growth. Many unsaved people have better health than some Christians. This is true both of bodily health and of mental health. The presence of illness among Christians is eloquent testimony to the fact that there may be little positive correlation between salvation and good health. Religion does not take the place of nature; it does not make the man grow tall nor does it insure him against the necessity of dentures and eyeglasses. On the other hand, in the realm of man's spiritual nature, the impact of purity upon personality is definitely marked and decisive. Any man's personality would be strengthened by the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. At this juncture it may be well to point out there is nothing in the teachings of the Scripture to support the idea that holiness makes one eccentric or abnormally peculiar in personality. Any religious movement may

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have its "oddballs" and fanatics-and in this respect the holiness movement appears to have at least its quotahut it must be emphatically denied that the Spirit of Jesus Christ makes one in any way a less desirable personality than he otherwise might have been. Our blessed Lord in the Incarnation not only partook of the nature of man but adopted also the personality patterns of the Jewish culture of His day. The tendency of some holiness people to shun the social conventions and obligations of our society not only makes for poor citizenship in the general area of community responsibilities but, worse still, it alienates them from many of the very people for whom Christ died and denies to those people the opportunity of observing at close range the influence of the Holy Spirit upon lives wholly committed to Jesus Christ. Whatever else may result from the cleansing blood of Christ fully applied to the sanctified heart, it is certain that the recipient becomes a better person, with more power to demonstrate to others the wholesomeness so perfectly demonstrated by our Lord while here on earth. Through sanctification the believer grows in Christlikeness. .

III. THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES So far as the divine influence in this growing Christlikeness is concerned, there is little that will be dealt with in this present discussion. For the sake of clarity let it be understood that for the present we are concerned primarily with human growth in the total area of personality development and manifestation. This approach is considerably easier today than it would have been fifty or even twenty-five years ago. The development of the behavioral sciences, particularly psychology and sociology, has added much to our understanding of mental health and wholesome integration of personality. Theological education is greatly benefited by these new

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approaches. The work of Anton Boisen and others in promoting both the study of the behavioral sciences in seminaries and direct clinical experiences for ministerial students should be widly recognized and appreciated. The contribution of the social sciences outside of the realm of traditional theological education is valuable also. An example of this in relation to the present discussion may be found in Gordon W. Allport's Pattern and Growth in Personality. Describing the character of the mature person, the author raises the question, What should a normal person be able to do?2 In earlier answers to this question Sigmund Freud had said, "To love and work"; Richard Cabot had replied, "To work, love, play and worship"; and Marie J ahoda had declared, "To master his environment, to show unity of personality, and to perceive himself and the world correctly." Allport himself gives a better answer. First of all, a mature person is one who can make the welfare of others identical with his own. This is splendid, but in reality it sounds much like a modern restatement of the words of Jesus, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." A second mark of maturity, says Allport, requires a warm relating of self to others, examples of which include tolerance, compassion, and proper sexual adjustments. This is completely in harmony with the simple teachings of the New Testament relative to holy living. In a third criterion, a mature person is one who possesses proper emotional security, one who has learned to accept himself as well as the stern facts of life relative to such matters as sex, death, dangers, and deprivation, and who has developed proper self-control in regard to these, as well as a sense of proportion toward such factors as time, tide, taxes, death, and disaster. This is a splendid standard and an accurate description. Furthermore, it appears to parallel a simliar ·New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1961, pp. 275 ff.

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description by Paul, who spoke of a love that beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. As a fourth mark of maturity, a man must possess realistic perceptions, skills, and assignments; that is, he must be in close contact with things as they are-a keen sense of reality. In the fifth place, maturity involves self-objectification, a complete absence of affectation and a keen insight of himself as he really is. Finally, Allport reasons, a mature person is one who has a unifying philosophy of life, a clear comprehension of life's purpose. These descriptions by a well-known present-day psychologist were not written in a theological context and it would hardly be proper to try to make them mean more than their author intended. It is, however, relevant to observe that the damage done to human personality by the fall of man into sin is such that the evidences of that damage are apparent to students of human behavior regardless of whether they conceive it in terms of biblical and theological references. The two approaches may be radically different but the facts of personality are the same regardless of the frame of reference. One could say, for example, that there is much in common between Allport's description of a mature personality and John Wesley's Plain Account of Christian Perfection. In this matter of theological education the holiness movement stands to gain much by the increasing emphasis upon the behavioral sciences. From an empirical viewpoint there remains much to be learned about human nature. The student of God's Word must make his application of supernatural truth almost entirely within the realm of his own personality development and social relationships. It is to be recognized, of course, that one must ever be on his guard against the increasing tendencies toward a naturalistic philosophy of human nature and a relativistic or pragmatist view of

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human behavior. For example, the benefits that may be gained from the contributions of the school of psychoanalytical approach must be separated from Freud's errors in his analysis of human nature. With his spiritual bearings well fixed in the truths of supernatural revelation, the man of God should be better able to understand both original sin and the sanctified life by careful attention to such matters as human growth and development, personality integration, sociology, anthropology, mental health, and pastoral psychology and counseling.

IV. SOME IMPORTANT AREAS OF GROWTH 1. Growth in understanding of human behavior. These foregoing comments suggest the first area of growth after sanctification to which we now direct our attention. The major problem, it seems, is the difficulty of distinguishing between good and evil naturally and good and evil morally. Sometimes that which is in harmony with the laws of nature may be contrary to the moral laws of God; and sometimes that which is a flagrant violation of the laws of nature is morally justifiable. Ideally, of course, nature and morality are in hannony, but the fact of depravity has so upset this ideal that the hannony is greatly disturbed. The following incident will illustrate the problem with which we are now concerned. In my childhood community there lived a blind woman. As a small child with nonnal vision she contracted the common infection known as "sore eyes," or pinkeye. One of the old wives' tales of the community was that a powdered medicine known as calomel would cure pinkeye. Her devoted but ignorant mother in an act of loving care sprinkled calomel into her little girl's eyes, hoping to cure the disease, but instead blinded her child for life. The mother's conduct in this case was contrary to the laws of nature, and the penalty for her disobedience was a severe one; nevertheless, since her

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conduct was motivated entirely by a mother's love for her child, there was no moral guilt incurred. She did wrong, but the wrong she did was not wrong ethically. This is a distinction that needs to be kept in mind in regard to the sanctified life. Holiness people everywhere are conservative in matters of morals. The tendency among us is to feel very keenly and very strongly in regard to matters of right and wrong. This is as it should be. The danger lies in the tendency to confuse nature and grace, culture and Christianity, then apply the same standards to both. To further clarify the problem before us we might ask four simple questions: (1) When is right right? (2) When is right wrong? (3) When is wrong wrong? (4) When is wrong right? Here we have a problem not so much of ethics as of semantics, for the terms "right" and "wrong" as used here have at least three distinct meanings: natural, cultural, and ethical. The two primary elements in this triad are the natural and the ethical; for ideally Christian culture should reflect a harmony of the natural and the moral. The fact that the culture of our times, as of all times since Eden, is a reflection of a depraved society makes it imperative that we understand the basis of behavior before we pass judgment upon it. From a purely human viewpont all behavior is the result of four factors: heredity, natural environment, cultural environment, and volition. Everything a man does is the result of one or more, usually all four, of these factors. The heredity and natural environment are secondary factors in the moral choices of the sanctified life; therefore let us consider the two major ones, the culture and the will. All earthly morality is culturally defined, but there are two levels of this morality, the primary and the secondary. By primary we mean the morality which is essential to salvation, the basics of the peace and holi-

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ness without which no man shall see the Lord. This level of morality is based upon the nature of a holy God and His revealed will as expressed in regard to salvation. Although culturally interpreted by each generation and by each different society of Bible-believing Christians, this morality is the same in all ages and in all places. Fundamentally it is the same in the Old Testament as in the New, as Howard Hanke has so clearly shown in his book From Eden to Eternity.3 The cultural differences among believers account for some shades of differences even here, but the tendency toward oneness in basic Christian morality is far greater than the tendency toward diversity. Perhaps, for example, Christians do differ in the semantics of the sixth commandment, but all Christians everywhere believe it is wrong to kill. We may disagree also as to what constitutes a correct definition of the Sabbath, but all of us agree that the Sabbath should be kept holy even when-we-do-not-und-erstancl-what--'-!Jreenp-------ing it holy" involves. Furthermore, the biblical standard of holy living in this primary sense applies to all Christians everywhere. Outwardly speaking, the sanctified life is the only life taught in God's Word for God's people. We need to understand this. But if basic morality appears to be simple and essentially unchanging, the same cannot be said for secondary morality. This secondary level consists of Christian culture which springs from group concepts more than from the simple language of the Scriptures. Here it is not principles based upon plain "thus saith the Lord," but based rather upon what the denomination believes, what parents and ministers have taught, what the group customs have demanded, and so forth almost ad infinitum. Conformity to the group mores of any Christian society is essential to Christian influence within that society, but 'Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Co., 1960.

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such conformance may not be at all essential to salvation. One of the dangers extant in the holiness movement is the tendency among us to make group or cultural conformity, rather than the Word of God itself, the standard of holy living. To offset this danger requires a clear understanding of why Christians behave as they do. The study of God's Word and a scientific study of human behavior make a good combination for all of us. There is room among us for much growth in this area.

2. Growth in understanding the place of the will in the sanctified life. In this area there is reason to believe that in some respects the modern holiness movement has weakened its emphasis to a point below that practiced by the Wesleys and other early Methodists. With them holiness in action was very much an expression of their will to be God's and His alone. W. E. Sangster put it this way: "They willed to believe."4 And they did believe. By deliberate choice they resisted doubts from the devil and from their own consciences. They affirmed that the work was done. It seems they were fully aware that, while man seeks God, it is man himself who demonstrates God's love to others. Wesley himself led a very strictly disciplined life to great advantage. It hardly needs argument that Wesley's own amazing life and labors would have been impossible had he not by a sheer exercise of his will set himself to a life of disciplined, methodical practice of holiness. The emphasis among these early Methodists was upon the life of holiness far more than upon the crisis experience of obtaining it. The history of the Wesleyan revival is replete with proofs that the emotional element was not lacking; but-and this is significant-it was the life of perfect love, never an emotional experience as such, that was stressed. There is no intent in these 'The Path to Perfection, p. 134.

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remarks to minimize or depreciate the importance of the crisis experience as such. What is desired is to stress the importance of a greater emphasis upon the place of the will. The centrality of the will is vital to growth in grace. Man must will to be holy. This is not to place human volition above faith. No contradiction is possible here, for there must be a deliberate decision to seek holiness before faith for purity is possible. Furthermore, faith itself flows out of a twofold influence, the grace of God and the will of the man himself. That this has been the opinion of many if not all of the scholars of the Wesleyan movement can be shown. A few citations will be adequate for the moment. Samuel Logan Brengle exhorted holiness believers to be quick to obey God. Do not depend upon feelings; just keep everything on the altar. This, he advised, is the way to keep holiness. 5 Carradine's advice on how to keep the blessing follows a similar vein. 6 Among other things is stressed the importance of complete obedience and the desire and effort to do good. R. S. Foster points out that after entire sanctification the believer should acquire a habit of constant watching against sin; that he should refuse to comply with temptation under any circumstance, to any degree; and, further, that he should use all of the ordinary and instituted means of grace such as prayer, meditation, Bible study, the sacraments, Christian communion and fellowship. 7 These instructions put serious claim upon the exercise of free moral agency. That excellent classic of American holiness literature Perfect Love, by J. A. Wood, contains a section entitled "How a State of Entire Sanctification May Be "The Way of Holiness, chapter 9. "Beverly Carradine, The Sanctified Life, chapter 6. 7Christian Purity, pp. 81 ff.

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Retained."8 Of the twelve items of advice contained therein nearly all of them involve the direct and active exercise of the will. And the same is true of another set of instructions entitled "Advice to Those Professing Perfect Love."9 The emphasis upon a definite and consecrated set of the will toward God and holy living is entirely scriptural. This is true especially in relation to bodily appetites, passions, instincts, drives, temperaments, strengths, and weaknesses. Paul expressed his set of will in regard to his body in 1 Cor. 9: 27 in these words (as in ANT), "But like a boxer 1 buffet my body-handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships-and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, 1 myself should become unfit-not stand the test and be unapproved-and rejected as a counterfeit." Without laboring this point it should be sufficient to observe that self-control is emphasized in many specific instructions and throughout the whole tenor of the inspired Word of God. Equally implicit and explicit are the teachings of the Bible concerning the exercise of the will in social relations. The great apostle was very pointed in his advice to the New Testament Christians. They were to avoid those who cause dissension (Rom. 16: 17); to steer clear of profane and vain babblings and pseudo-sciences (1 Tim. 6: 20; II Tim. 2: 16, 23); to shun controversy over nonessential matters (Titus 3: 9); and deliberately to subject all religious teaching to the proofs of Scripture, the leadings of the Holy Spirit, and the test of providential circumstances accepting and holding fast to that, and only that, which stood the tests (1 Thess. 5: 21). The implications of these biblical truths for the sanctified life are clear and unmistakable. "Kansas City, Mo.: Beacon Hill Press, section 18. "Ibid., section 21.

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The function of the will in one's relationship to God is equally clearly expressed. David cried, "My heart is fixed" (Ps. 57: 7;, 108: 1; see also 112: 7), and the emphasis is not upon what God had done for the heart but what the heart had done toward God. The prodigal son willed to arise and go to his father; the 120 Upper Room disciples willed to tarry until Pentecost; and Paul willed to go to Jerusalem, even though he knew it meant arrest and imprisonment (Acts 21: 10-14), and to Rome, where he knew he faced possible death. The function of the will in the sanctified life is thus confirmed both by the scholars of the holiness movement and, more important, by the plain teachings of the Bible, which stresses volition in relation to the body, to social relationships, and to God. Speaking of the pure in heart, Sangster says that none ever arrived at sainthood who was not a master of prayer and mighty in faith, that the saints of all ages and groups are strikingly similar, and that attendance and obedience to God in these matters underlie all Christian sanctity.to God answers prayer, but we must do the praying. God's grace provides the ground for faith, but man must do the believing. God puts His love in our hearts, but He will never love our neighbor for us; we must do the loving. God gives us strength to resist temptation, but we must will to resist. God provides food for our souls but we must do the eating. God has planned for us a life of growth in grace, but we do the growing. In short, God through the death of His Son upon the Cross has made ample provision that we should be holy; but the acceptance by free will of these provisions is the sole responsibility of man. Furthermore, having entered into the fullness of the Spirit-filled life, the believer is obligated to exercise his will consistently and continuously in the practice of perfect love. This is an area of great lOW. E. Sangster, The Pure in Heart, p. 183.

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challenge, one which offers the possibility of increasing maturity through constant growth in grace. 3. Growth in the practice of perfect love. In this third area of growth after sanctification three aspects stand out as particularly significant, namely, the dangers of a misplaced emphasis, the problems of the inadequate personality, and the marks of maturity in love. The term "love" is a most acceptable one and it would seem regrettable that the holiness movement of today has somewhat shifted the emphasis away from it. This, however, is not a part of the discussion of the dangers of a misplaced emphasis, to which now let us move. The history of the Church in general and of the doctrine of holiness in particular reveals at least three major types of misplaced emphases in holy living. The first of these is extreme asceticism. Since the term itself means self-denial, self-discipline, and simplicity in manner of living, it must be recognized that there is an element of asceticism in all true holiness; this we take for granted. It is the extremes with which we are now concerned. The Early Church in its passion to be holy like Jesus saw many examples of misguided zeal. Some of these reasoned that man is so depraved that the best guarantee of purity was to withdraw from the society of sinful humanity. In the fifth century one of these, Simeon Stylites by name, went into the desert east of Antioch where among the ruins of an ancient and deserted building he found a large stone pillar. He climbed to the top of this pillar and made it his permanent home for thirty years, until his death in 459. The whole monastic movement of the Middle Ages is another example of a misplaced emphasis on holy living. The modern Church also has its own examples of extreme asceticism. Perhaps the most outstanding is the Shakers. Near Wilmore, Kentucky, is situated one of the best preserved groups of buildings erected by this now extinct sect. Holding to absolute celibacy for all

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true believers, they gained members only by proselyting; when this method failed, they gradually became extinct. Perhaps the Shakers were holy people; if so, we concede that they found God's will for their hearts, but in any case they most certainly missed God's will for their lives. More common than asceticism is holiness legalism. As in Christianity at large, our movement includes three types: Phariseeism, formalism, and sacerdotalism. The first of these, Phariseeism, emphasizes rules and regulations. Holy living is thought to consist of an elaborate list of do's and don'ts. Great stress is laid upon the externals of behavior in matters of dress, pleasure, work, and worship. Some of the advice of John Wesley to early Methodist class leaders is quoted with almost the same reverence as is shown the Bible. A second type of legalism has to do with religious form-form in worship, form in church government, and even form in informality. Some of these groups, while scoffing at the dead, cold formality of the so-called "old-line" or "formal" churches, have themselves become the victims of a stereotyped informality as definite in method as the Book of Common Prayers prescribed by the English Parliament for the Church of England. There is little sacerdotalism in Protestantism and less or none in the holiness movement. Weare not, however, free from all extreme emphases relative to the sacraments. Among our most pious and devoted brethren may be found many divergences ranging all the way from outright rejection of both baptism and the Lord's Supper to a rigid insistence upon immersion and the practice of foot washing as an essential adjunct to the Lord's Supper. The third danger lies in a misplaced emphasis upon social isolation. The biblical principles of separation from the world have been misunderstood to mean isolation from social responsibility. This is error. What the Stylites and Shakers did to their extinction some later

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holiness groups have done to their hurt and retardation. All over America there are small holiness churches in growing communities whose membership and attendance are little or no larger now than thirty or forty years ago; yet the purity of the lives and sanctity of the hearts of these members are unquestioned. They found God's will for their hearts but missed His will for their part in promoting His kingdom. Separation from the world is one thing, but isolation from social responsibility is something else. The problems of the inadequate personality are closely related to the practice of perfect love. Individuals who are social deviates to the extent that they cannot conform to ordinary standards of behavior present social problems. First are the physical inadequates: the blind, the deformed, the mutes, the crippled or maimed, the paraplegic, the diseased, and all others who are physical misfits. Second are the mentally retarded, the morons, the imbeciles, and the idiots. Then third there are the psychological or emotional deviates, the neurotic and the psychotic. Regardless of why these persons are inadequate, Christ died for them and wills that they should be holy. For the mentally retarded who never achieve a level of moral responsibility there is unconditional atonement and full salvation. It should be noted, however, that none of us knows where the level of moral responsibility begins and ends in such cases. So much remains to be learned in the realm of inadequate personalities. The adjustment of those who possess inadequate personalities to the life of full love is often much different from what it is for those of a normal personality, and sometimes more difficult. Less serious, but no less important, is the problem of the retarded personality. By retarded we mean persons who are normal in their physical, mental, and emotional nature, but who for some reason have not developed normal patterns of behavior. Some people,

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for example, have never learned how to work or to accept the responsibility that goes with work. Some never learn the art of persistence or how to meet hardships successfully. Adjustment to difficult situations has to be learned, and some never learn. All of us, it may be presumed, know people who have never learned to relax properly; they are tense and often rigid in their personality patterns. And for some reason some people just never seem to grow up emotionally; throughout life they retain juvenile, or even infantile, patterns of emotional reaction. Some of these people become Christians; they open their hearts to God's love and are filled with the Holy Spirit. The demands of the sanctified life are joyful demands, it is true; but here are people who were problems to themselves and to their associates before they were saved and who may continue to be problems in the way of holiness as long as they live. Finally, we note the third aspect of importance in connection with growth in the practice of perfect love, namely, the marks of maturity in love. There are some traits that characterize all fully sanctified believers, but there are also some traits that find their fullest development only in those who are mature in the grace of God. The following analysis bears no claim of finality, completeness, or sequence of importance, but it is presented in the hope that at least it may be profitably suggestive. If by providential chance it should stimulate further interest in this subject, the time and effort involved in this presentation will have been well spent. A mature saint is one who has acquired the habit of living moment by moment in complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit. His consecration is consecutive and perpetual. The early Methodists, for example, did not prefer the term "state" in reference to holiness, for the term suggested a static condition; rather, they liked

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to think of God's love as a continuous and constantly increasing force in their lives. Maturity in love suggests that man's natural appetites and instincts are brought fully under the reign of grace, and that henceforth their legitimate gratification is not only innocent but helpful to spiritual life. To quote Sheridan Baker, "These innocent desires which belong to man's original constitution, which grace must not destroy, may lead, as in the case of Adam, to unlawful indulgence; hence these desires must be guarded against gratification in unlawful ways and/or to an unlawful extent in lawful ways." In the parlance of modern psy· chology, maturity in love meets the criteria of a wholesome and well-integrated personality. Unfortunately, it must be admitted, some holiness people never become very mature. One mature in love is one who loves his neighbor as he loves himself. This involves at least two aspects. First, proper self-love, which in the behavioral sciences may be known as self-acceptance; then, having developed a proper love for himself, he uses it as a model or pattern by which to love his neighbor. This is no narcissistic complex but, rather, the highest and purest type of love and devotion to others. By loving others the man of God becomes less dependent upon being loved by others. Whereas the immature loses love by seeking it, the mature person produces love by loving. He who is mature in love knows it is not enough to be right in desire; he must also be right in conduct. Reception of perfect love is by faith alone, but the practice of perfect love requires knowledge and improves with experience. Maturity in love is marked by increasing conformity to the will of God. When increase ends, purity no longer exists. Maturity in love is marked by a proper balance in life. Somewhere between legalism and antinomianism,

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between asceticism and sensuality, between bearing his own and his neighbor's burdens-he has found a happy medium in the center of God's will for his life. Finally, the mature in love find their lives filled with a mighty overflowing of the Holy Spirit and have found ways to channel this overflow into the lives of others.

V.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

These, then, are the areas of growth after sanctification which appeared most relevant for the present discussion. Adopting a frame of reference partially from the scholarship of the holiness movement and partially from the present-day behavioral sciences, three such areas have been discussed: (1) growth in understanding of human behavior; (2) growth in understanding of the place of the will in the sanctified life; and (3) growth in the practice of perfect love.

Irwin L. Brown Dean of Bible, Lorne Park College; B.Rel., Marion College; M.A., Winona Lake School of Theology; one year of Oriental studies, American University, Cairo, Egypt; extra mural studies in Christian Education. Northern Baptist Theological Seminary; previous positions: principal, Brockville Bible College; missionary to Egypt; superintendent, Egyptian Conference; pastor superintendent, New York Conference; general superintendent, Standard Church of America; author, These Three, Standard Publishing House, 1958.

10 The Relation of Knowledge to the ,Experience of Holiness IRWIN

L.

BROWN

CONCERNING KNOWLEDGE

Intelligence implies both knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is said to consist of three parts: reception, retention, and recall. Knowledge is received in two ways, by acquaintance and description. All knowledge is individual and subjective and colored by one's personality. Weare brought to Christ through knowledge by description; then, and then only, can we know Him by acquaintance. Growth in grace and holiness is thus a product of knowledge by both acquaintance and description. We frequently call knowledge by acquaintance experience. The preaching of the gospel is descriptive. Revelation itself is descriptive. The value and force of description varies with the intellectual capacity of each person to whom the Word is communicated. In communication wisdom becomes essential. "Wisdom," says Webster, "is the ability to judge soundly and deal sagaciously with facts, especially as they are related to life and conduct." If wisdom is to function it must have a command of facts or have knowledge. Wisdom in the spiritual life is the ability to apply the facts of revelation and experience to one's own conduct in such a way as to produce the primary aim of redemption, namely, holiness of character. The entire scheme of salvation has but one purpose, 183

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the restoration of sinful men to righteousness and true holiness. Heaven receives none but the holy, and God has said, "Be ye holy; for I am holy" (I Pet. 1: 16). Holiness is the flowering of every Christian quality. "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (II Pet. 1: 4-8). Knowledge, like holiness, is relative; that is it is capable of increase. In the spiritual life knowledge and holiness are correlative. Therefore, with the increase of that form of knowledge related primarily to Christian character there is a corresponding increase in holiness. The ratio of increase in holiness with increase in knowledge depends upon the faith of the individual concerned. One thing is evident, the situation cannot be static. Growth is essential to life. We are therefore commanded to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." All knowledge is not conducive to holiness. Along with the admonition to "study to shew" ourselves "approved unto God," there is also the directive to avoid "foolish and unlearned questions . . . knowing that they do gender strifes." And Paul the philosopher warns "lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world" (d. II Tim. 2: 23; Col. 2: 8). There remains to the believer a great field of knowledge that does contribute to spiritual enlightenment, intellectual development, and increased appreciation of God and His uni-

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verse, and which helps us to discern both good and evil. Science, mathematics, geography, history, languages, art, architecture, philosophy of the right sort, psychology, archaeology, travel, physical education, government, theology, good literature, and of course the Scriptures, all, under the direction of the Spirit, may contribute to that knowledge which deepens and strengthens Christian character and holiness of life. The individuality of knowledge as related to personality permits each Christian to express the Christian life in various forms, so that no two people are identical. Even as no two blades of grass are exactly the same, yet all grass is recognizable as such, so no two people express holiness of life in exactly the same manner, yet holiness is recognizable as such. In our zeal for conformity and uniformity we must not overlook the fact that variety is a basic character of the entire universe. God in His wisdom has endowed His creation with infinite forms and exquisite variations. He who has made seemingly endless forms of life and combinations of colors, who made no two stars or galaxies alike, who made no two human beings exactly the same, has indicated His infinite and inscrutable holiness through the millions of shades of holiness expressed through the lives of millions of believers down through the ages. Put them all together and they still fall short of the holiness of God! Let us not try to crystalize this life of holiness, lest the result be death. Holiness and knowledge form a mystic union within the believer's heart, a union which is both the foundation and the superstructure of Christian character. The Architect is God, the Father; the Engineer is Jesus Christ, the Son; the Superintendent is the Holy Spirit; the blueprint is the Word of God, "In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. 2:

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21-22) . Inscribed on the doorposts is, "Holiness unto the Lord." Just where the naughty idea came from that ignorance is fertile soil in which holiness flourishes more abundantly I do not know, but I do know that this has been and still is advocated in various circles, much to the disadvantage of the cause of holiness everywhere. That ignorance is conducive to holiness is a false and paralyzing assumption. The holiest Man ever to grace the earth with His presence was the wisest Man of all. He also was profound in knowledge beyond measure, even Jesus Christ, our Lord. Nowhere does He give credence to ignorance as a virtue. Church history is replete with spiritual leaders of outstanding intelligence, among whom the Apostle Paul shines as the sun. Nor is it my purpose to try to prove that holiness is restricted to those of superior knowledge and ability. The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong. There are two extremes to be avoided: the pride of ignorance and the pride of intellect. Both are detrimental to true holiness. Let not the man of lesser understanding despise the wise, nor let the man of superior ability lose the common touch. ...--CONCERNING LAW

The way a Christian should live has to do with the question of ethics; why he should live that way is related to the field of law. Ethics has to do with the problem of distinguishing right from wrong; without law there could be no such consideration. In the material world the underlying unity of all things is recognized as issuing out of natural laws. In moral and spiritual matters the underlying unity is based upon moral law. Both are of God and properly do not represent two different things; they are essentially one and the same in origin but govern two aspects of creation, the one spiritual, the other material. In the ma-

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terial world, conformity to law does not originate out of knowledge or reason, and no moral principles are involved. Matter unerringly follows natural law. In the realm of mind and spirit, conformity to law rests upon choice, which indicates freedom of action as well as intelligence. Man is unique in all creation in that he is subject to both natural and moral law. The normal responses of his material body to natural law are outside the domain of moral responsibility. Morally, however, man is capable of transgressing both the laws of nature, and the laws of the mind and spirit. In evangelical Protestant theology there are two distinct schools of thought in regard to man's relationship to moral law; the one is Calvinistic, the other is Arminian. Both schools agree that both men and angels were placed under the universal moral law of God. Man intentionally transgressed this law and as a result humanity has inherited a nature which renders the individual incapable of conforming to universal moral law. At this point the two schools of thought separate and the distinctions become intricate and difficult to follow. The following statement made by Dr. Charles Hodge briefly summarized the Calvinistic viewpoint: The law demands entire conformity to the nature and will of God. It follows: -that there can be no perfection in this life. Every form of perfectionism which has ever prevailed in the Church is founded either on the assumption that the law does not demand entire freedom from moral evil, or upon the denial that anything is of the nature of sin, but acts of the will. But if the law is so extensive in its demands as to pronounce all defect in duty, all coming short in purity, ardour, or constancy of holy affection, sinful, then there is an end to the presumption that any mere man since the fall has ever attained perfection.'

Imbedded in this quotation is the teaching that the universal moral law of God is the only law in force and 'Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, II, 185.

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that all mankind, including regenerated and sanctified believers, are subject to that law. Man's inherited perverted nature in both sinner and saint renders him incapable of keeping that law in all its ramifications; consequently no one, saint or sinner, is capable of satisfying the law's demands. This failure results in continuance in sin. Not even the saints can achieve perfection in obedience. Hence they too sin in thought, word, and deed. This view is further emphasized by the following quotation by Dr. Hodge: There is not a believer on earth who does not feel and acknowledge himself to be personally unrighteous, illdeserving, meriting the wrath of God.'

Failure to keep the law does not rest in acquaintance with it or ignorance of its terms, but rather upon man's limited moral ability due to inbred sin. Knowledge plays no part whatsoever; according to this view, ability is everything. Over against this doctrine is the Methodist-Arminian school of thought. Briefly it runs like this: Insofar as fallen, unregenerated humanity is concerned, the universal moral law is still in effect. Man's inherent incapacity to keep that law in all its sublimely terrible vastness brings upon him the penalty of failure, which is eternal punishment. But out of His unthinkable love for mankind, God has superimposed upon the moral law a new law, the law of love, or the law of liberty, which does not require a perfection of obedience based upon a perfect knowledge of all the law demands. The law of love or liberty requires no impossibilities either intellectual, moral, or spiritual. It is fulfilled, not in the perfection of intelligence, but in the perfection of loving obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ; the desire and effort, born of love, to obey the law in every detail is accepted as fulfilling all that the law of love involves. 'Ibid., p. 195.

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The moral law, as still in force in all areas outside the kingdom of God, brings the sinner under condemnation by its inflexible demands. He is made conscious of his moral inability to keep the law and it becomes to him "the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8: 2). He is made to feel lost and undone and in need of a Saviour. He is thus driven to Christ. The terror of the law becomes the merciful instrument of his salvation. Dr. H. Orton Wiley has this to say on this important subject: The new freedom provided by the death of Christ unto sin is called by St. James the perfect law of liberty (James 1: 25); and again the royal law, which according to the Scriptures is, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (James 2: 8). St. Paul speaks of it as the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which makes us free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8: 2). The external law ceases to be the law of sin and death, for the consciousness of sins is removed in justification [compare this point with our last quotation from Dr. Hodge]; and the inner law of life by the Spirit furnishes the motive and the strength of obedience. This is the foundational fact of the New Covenant, I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts (Heb. 8: 10). While in Christianity, this law is supernatural, it is in some true sense, the law of reason restored, and more than restored. The Divine Spirit in the hearts of regenerate men seeks to work out perfect obedience to the law of righteousness as taking place by the bestowment of a new life in harmony with the external law, it will be seen that the believer unfolds in his spiritual life according to his own nature, and not by means of outward compulsion. This inner law, therefore, amounts to self-government restored. It is the rule of God's Spirit in a renewed self, according to the original idea of the Creator for man.'

The mention of numerous laws may be confusing to some. However, we have already noted two laws: firstly, the universal moral law; and secondly, the law of love. The law of liberty, the royal law, the law of Christ, and ·H. Orton Wiley, Christian Theology, III, 24-29.

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the law of love are but different names for the same law. The universal moral law is also called the law of sin and death for reasons already given. These laws do not include any positive commandments given to Adam, to the patriarchs, or to Moses. Those laws were for given periods in the history of the world and of the Jews. Nevertheless the entire Bible-including history, poetry, prophecy-and all its moral precepts are given for our enlightenment. On this point Mr. Wesley writes: Now, although the believer is "not without law to God, but under law to Christ", yet from the moment he believes, he is not ''under the law", in any of the preceding senses. On the contrary, he is "under grace", under a more benign, gracious dispensation. As he is no longer under the ceremonial law, nor under the Mosaic institution; as he is not obliged to keep even the moral law, as the condition of his acceptance; so he is delivered from wrath and the curse of God, from all sense of guilt and condemnation, and from all that horror and fear of death and hell whereby he was all his life before subject to bondage. And he now performs (which while "under the law" he could not do) a willing and universal obedience. He obeys not from the motive of slavish fear, but on a nobler principle: namely, the grace of God ruling in his heart, and causing all his works to be wrought in love.'

Jesus said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments ... He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him" (John 14: 15-21). If we are unable to keep His commands, by that token we would not love Him. But the law of love that is written upon our minds and hearts responds to and agrees with the Bible as the written Word of God. The Spirit who writes God's laws upon our minds is the same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles to write the Scriptures. 'John Wesley, W01'ks, op. cit., V, 455.

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The ethical principles in the Bible which are clearly applicable to Christian believers are concrete expressions of the will of God and are designed to instruct the mind and inform the intelligence. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (II Tim. 3: 16-17). The Bible supplements and corroborates the law that is written upon the heart. We therefore have a trinity of agreement: the law that is written upon the heart and conscience, the Holy Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit agree, and form a "threefold cord" that is "not quickly broken." The kind of knowledge demanded is evident. It is not philosophy or psychology, science or mathematics, or suchlike, but an eager, clean, keen, loving response to all that we believe and understand to be pure and good. The chief end of all other knowledge should be the development of the intellect, not for pride or fame, nor for mundane riches, not even for the perfectly legitimate secular ends knowledge makes possible, but for a more penetrating perception of the divine will. "Brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honourable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things-fix your mind on them. Practise what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and model your way of living on it, and the God of peace-of untroubled, undisturbed well-being-will be with you" (Phil. 4: 8-9, Amplified New Testament). The law of love does not free us from discipline nor from a conscious, continual, intelligent effort to meet all that this love demands. It is obligatory upon the believer to inform himself regarding all his obligations

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according to time and opportunity. The Christian life is not operated by sentimentalism nor emotionalism. The law written upon the heart must be coordinated with the law revealed in Scripture. Perfection of knowledge and application may not be demanded, but an intelligent and constructive study of the Word is commanded with the intent that the believer may be "approved unto God." Holiness is by no means a byproduct of the life of Christ indwelling the saint, but rather holiness is the direct objective of salvation. The more abundant life is of necessity a holy life. Joy, peace, and blessing are by-products, and are concomitants of holiness. The believer is obligated to conscientiously observe the moral law at whatever point that law is known and understood. That is the limit of his duty. He is under further obligation by the law of love to gain further knowledge of that law. This is implied in the statement of Paul, "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. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12: 1-2). It is not required that anyone should fully understand the Scriptures as a prerequisite to regeneration or entire sanctification. Spiritual understanding is quickened by a personal experience of the Christ-life, and growth in the knowledge of God's Word subsequent to these experiences is the normal procedure. The test of our love for God is evidenced by our willingness to bring our lives into line as we advance in the comprehension of divine truth. The perfection of our knowledge is not the measure of our love for God; the measure of our love is our obedience and devotion, our dedication and consecration to His service. The love of God for us and our

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love for God meet together in full harmony in Christ Jesus, who by His death and resurrection has reconciled us unto God. He loves us, not because we are wise, sophisticated, and clever, nor because we may be dull and slow, but because we are His children by creation, who were made in His image. Dr. Leslie Ray Marston says: Man counts with God! This is the stupendous fact of the Christian drama. Not to save whirling worlds from collision and catastrophe; not to hang a solar system in space; not to scoop out a Grand Canyon nor pile high the Rockies or the Andes; but to bridge with His own person the yawning gulf of separation between Him and man, cleft by man's mighty choice of sin, did God seek out this far-off corner of His universe, and here, by the tragic sacrifice of Himself, He spanned heaven and earth that man might be brought back to God" CONCERNING GROWTH

The problem of knowledge in relation to growth in holiness of life is vividly illustrated in I Cor. 3: 1-4. Paul wrote: "And I brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" These Corinthians were guilty of divisions and strife. The word strife is the same here as in Gal. 5: 20. There it is classed in with "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred," and so forth. Nevertheless the Corinthians are said to be "babes in Christ." How could they be babes in Christ and commit sin? Does not sin separate us from God? However, if we accept the Methodist-Arminian definition for sin-namely, that it is "a wilful transgression "Leslie R. Marston, From Chaos to Character, p. 13.

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of a known law of God"-then these Corinthians were, in the light of this definition, not guilty of sin. They had lived all their lives in paganism and heathen superstition. They had no "old-time saints" to set them an example. Their knowledge of the Old Testament was slight and perhaps totally lacking. They had no New Testament to go by. Paul was not always at hand to counsel and guide them. Regeneration had not given them an infallible discernment between good and evil. Evidently their transgression was due to ignorance; consequently Paul did not condemn them. He did correct and admonish them and they accepted his admonition. My observation of actual conditions in Christian life leaves me persuaded that in theory we make allowances for shortcomings in new converts but in practice we are quick to condemn any such conduct. In theory we accept the idea of growth in grace; in practice we make no allowance for it. Our theology seems to break down at the point of experience. This fact may account for the falling away of many young converts. They not only have to contend with temptations and mistakes but with mistreatment by older Christians. More is demanded of them than they are able to give. Mature Christian conduct is expected of them while they are still infants in Christ. We expect them to digest strong meat whereas they need the milk of the Word. Paul did not make this mistake in dealing with the Corinthians. Regeneration introduces the sinner to a new way of life. From that point growth commences and is promoted by the acquisition of knowledge by both acquaintance and description. The repeated admonition of Scripture is to learn. Learning is a duty as well as an act of devotion. The process goes on throughout the entire life of the believer. God recognizes this fact and the law of love makes allowances for those areas of our understanding which still remain to be enlightened. Even death and the resurrection will not bring us abso-

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lute knowledge. Such knowledge belongs to God alone. It follows that even the glorified saints in the celestial city are liable to mistakes. If a mistake of any kind is a sin, then death itself cannot deliver us from the liability of error. We suggest that our Calvinistic friends take cognizance of this disturbing possibility. The law of love that covers our mistakes in this life must continue to cover the resurrected believers in the life to come. Only God makes no mistakes. Growth in grace is accomplished by the discovery of our errors and their correction. It is not injurious to holiness to repent of our mistakes with a godly sorrow. The believer should maintain the grace of repentance and the spirit of humility and contrition at all times. This spirit is basic to the Lord's Prayer. Jesus taught us to pray, "Forgive us the wrong we have done, as we have forgiven those who have wronged US."6 Almost every day Christians are compelled to make choices which demand distinctions between right and wrong. We need to ask God constantly for wisdom in making such decisions. We need to bring into operation the knowledge we have gained from experience, from the observation and study of the Word. We need to exercise faith that our choices may be acceptable to God. And we need to be motivated by our love for God and the kingdom of God. Let these factors undergird our choices; then we may rest assured that wherein we still come short, the Lord Jesus Christ will make up the difference. Many years ago a dear friend of mine lost his mental health. While he was still in a mental hospital his mother died. I was in charge of the funeral service. Graham was there, accompanied by a hospital attendant. At the close of the service when everyone had left the church except my friend, I went down to him and sat beside "New English Bible.

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him. He remained silent, gazing blankly ahead of him, but tears ran down his cheeks. I put my arm around his shoulders, and as I did so, he took a pad and pencil out of his pocket. He wrote something and handed me the paper. As he did he wept bitterly. I took the paper and this is what it said:

Dear Brownie: I am sorry I am like this, but I can't help it. Will you let Jesus make up the difference? He departed without looking at me or speaking to me. I knew he wanted to be normal and friendly but was unable to reach that goal. Does this not illustrate our own struggles? Graham trusted that our mutual love for Christ would enable us both to find in that love the bonds of unbroken confidence and fellowship. Even so our love for Christ and His love for us enable us to meet before the Father with unbroken fellowship. Our expressions of devotion and efforts at service may fall short of what we desire, but Jesus will make up the difference. All Christians are painfully aware of the gap between what they want to be and what they know they are. This provides the incentive to improve, to grow in grace. Take this away and we have spiritual pride and pharisaism. Growth is not the result of a sense of duty or the love of knowledge; it is the conscious realization that, if we love God as we say we do, we desire above all else to bring our lives more and more into conformity with the perfection of holiness which best exemplifies the ideal Christian life. Christian perfection is wrongly understood if we think that it means the end of spiritual growth. Rev. T. M. Anderson declares: Sanctification perfects one in knowledge of a certain degree and kind. The sanctified know God in this act of cleansing in a manner different from all other persons.

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They have the mind of Christ in a degree unknown to any who are not sanctified. The veil of sin has been taken away from the mind and heart, and they are able to behold the glory of the Lord with open face. But there is an advancing from glory to glory in knowledge which continually lifts them to higher degrees of spiritual life, even as by the Spirit of the Lord:

The Scriptures implicitly teach that our relationship with God gives rise to spiritual comprehension. Paul writes, "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" (I Cor. 2: 12) . But neither regeneration nor entire sanctification works a miracle on the intellect so that moral problems become transparent. The problem of distinguishing between good and evil remains, but not to the same extent as prior to entire sanctification. The spiritual faculties are stimulated by the fullness of the indwelling Spirit. The ability to sense spiritual realities in our grossly materialistic environment is intensified following the cleansing of the personality from indwelling sin. And, in conclusion, the spiritual nature of the one who is sanctified wholly is so graciously motivated by perfect love that the power to translate the Sermon on the Mount into human experience is a glorious possibility. Thus we see that spiritual experience coupled with the conscious acquisition of a spiritually enlightened intelligence provides the most adequate foundation for perfecting holiness.

'T. M. Anderson, After Sanctification, p. 27.

Leo G. Cox Director of ministerial training, Marion College; pastor, Wesleyan Methodist College Church; A.B., B.D., Marion College, thesis, "A Study of Holiness in Relation to the Human Element"; M.A., State University of Iowa, thesis, "John Wesley's Concept of Sin"; Ph.D., dissertation, "John Wesley's Concept of Perfection"; teacher, Miltonvale Wesleyan College; president and teacher, Melbourne (Australia) Wesleyan Bible College; author, John Wesley's Concept of Perfection.

11 The Imperfections of the Perfect LEO

G. Cox

Some people have difficulty in seeing that there are many paradoxes in Christian truth. They want to believe that, if one is perfect, there are no imperfections. They cannot see that one can have a perfect heart and an imperfect mind. They have difficulty grasping the idea of the fullness of the Spirit in a limited humanity. But one cannot think long about Christian doctrine without encountering many paradoxes. There is the Trinity, in whom there is one, and yet three. Christ's nature is fully divine, and also fully human. Jesus in His divine nature is timeless, and yet He was expressed in human form in time. "God is love," and yet He is angry with the sinner every day. Error always arises when one attempts a too simple definition of these revealed truths. Thus one should not be too startled when he discovers some tension in the ideas that are formulated to express Christian experience. The subject of this paper implies that there are perfect Christians. It also suggests that these perfect ones have imperfections still with them. When one lays claim to the high grace of perfect love, he should be keenly aware of the limitations adhering to him. Without this awareness the sanctified person is open to serious dangers to both himself and others. After defining what scriptural perfection is, I will discuss the natural and moral imperfections in the 179

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sanctified, and then conclude with some remarks about whether these imperfections should be viewed as sinful and need the atonement. I.

SCRIPTURAL PERFECTION

That the word perfect is a scriptural term should be obvious to all Bible students. The original words translated by our English word perfect are strong in meaning, and can hardly be translated with a lesser word and retain the meaning. In the Old and New Testaments a goal of perfection is held out for God's people, as well as the witness that certain people reached this goal. God told Abraham, "Walk before me, and be thou perfect" (Gen. 17: 1). Or to Israel it was said, "Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord, faithfully, and with a perfect heart" (II Chron. 19: 9). In the New Testament, Jesus required of His disciples, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5: 48). Or the writer to the Hebrews urged, "Let us go on unto perfection" (Heb. 6: 1) . But this perfection was more than a visionary goal; it was a reality for some. God himself testified to the perfect heart of men such as David (I Kings 11: 4), Asa (I Kings 15:14), Job (Job 1:1), and Noah (Gen. 6:9), and even of His people Israel (I Chron. 29: 9). In the New Testament, Zacharias and Elisabeth are recognized as blameless (Luke 1: 6), and Paul saw a certain group as perfect (Phil. 3: 15). It is true that this perfection is a goal toward which Christians are urged in the New Testament; but it is obvious that Jesus, Paul, and John expected folk to arrive at the goal. When Jesus said to His disciplies, "Be ye therefore perfect," it is clear that He expected them to arrive. This is not a foolish command. Jesus knew the size and ability of His followers, and yet expected this perfection of them.

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This perfection was not that of angels, whose ceaseless praise and perfect service are beyond man's weak powers. Nor was it the perfection of Adam before the Fall, who possessed an unweakened mind and an unfallen nature. Jesus also knew that Christians could not attain the perfections of resurrection glory while here below. Yet He said, "Be ye perfect." Jesus said we are to be as perfect as our Heavenly Father. I think it significant that He used the term "Father." He knew we could not be as God is in His absolute attributes. God knows all things, and never errs in judgment. He can do all things, so never fails in accomplishment. Jesus was not meaning this kind of perfection. But He said, "as your Father." The fatherhood of God means He is forgiving, kind, loving, and forbearing. He turns the other cheek, goes the second mile, is good to evil men as to the good ones. It is clear from the context of this verse that Jesus is talking about love, especially love for those who wrong us. In this aspect we are to be as perfect as our Father. Is it possible for God to supply us with a love for himself and for others that is just like His great love? Is this kind of love possible in the midst of our faulty humanity and imperfect environment? If this standard were expected of our human love, then, of course, we would disclaim any perfection. No natural love is capable of a perfection as the Heavenly Father's. But God gives us His love! His love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5: 5). God puts His love into our hearts when we are born anew. It is His love. It is in us a love for God, for our brethren (I John 3: 14), and for our enemies. No one can believe in perfection unless he recognizes God's miracle in us. After regeneration there are still in our hearts hindrances to this new love. As long as wrong desires re-

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main in us, our love is not perfect. "He that feareth is not made perfect in love" (I John 4: 18). That love in our hearts remains imperfect until such time as God speaks again and the heart is made pure. When this occurs, the heart is perfect and the love is perfect. This we call entire sanctification or holiness of heart. John Wesley expressed this perfect love in a number of ways. For him it was a "will steadily and uniformly devoted to God" or "a heart and life entirely devoted to God." The perfect "feel nothing but love," and they feel no temper "contrary to pure love." He said that outward works are consecrated to God "by a pure and holy intention." This perfection is "simplicity of intention, and purity of affection." It is "one design in all we speak and do, and one desire ruling our tempers." It is an "habitual disposition of soul" and a "pure intention of heart, a steadfast regard to his glory in all your actions."i Such a love as this can be known. Surely one can know when he loves God perfectly and has no ill will toward his neighbor. This kind of love can grow. Purity or perfection of love frees love from hindrances to growth. This love in the heart is of the same quality as God's love, though in quantity it may be small. Perfection of love does not mean necessarily a perfection in performance. The love that inspires an act does not insure the success of the action. A husband's love is not necessarily questioned when he fails to perform with perfect memory. The husband does not deny his bride's pure love because she burns the biscuits. Neither should we permit imperfect actions to reject the possibility of pure motivation. Perfect love is possible along with imperfect performance. 'The Works of John Wesley, authorized edition published by the Wesleyan Conference, London, 1872, V., 328; XI, 367-69; XII, 257, 398-400; >UrV, 270-71.

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But pure love does perform. It seeks to do things to please the Heavenly Father. One with perfect love wants to know better how to do God's will. He is in search of knowledge and ability. Though he has arrived at pure love, he is far short of perfect action. He is perfect at heart, but is still encumbered with many imperfections.

II.

NATURAL IMPERFECTIONS

There are many imperfections that grow out of our being human creatures. Though made in the image of God, men do not possess the absolute attributes. Man is finite or limited. There are limits to his powers and knowledge. Before the Fall, Adam was finite. Finiteness should never be seen as a hindrance to either perfect love or even perfection in performance. The angels are finite; so was Jesus in His human form. So will we be throughout eternity. Though like God, we will never be Deity. The fact of growth indicates imperfection. When one is in process of learning, there are some things he does not know. Whenever there is a lack of knowledge, mistakes can be made in the natural realm. A baby learning to walk may fall; a child learning to write makes mistakes. A grownup makes a wrong decision because he lacks sufficient knowledge. Even the perfect Jesus had to learn by increasing in wisdom. This limitation in our humanity is a form of imperfection. Since man's body is earthly, and made up of material substance, there are imperfections. One can be in only one place at a time. Direct vision has limitations. There are problems of communication. The body has certain instincts and passions that need control and satisfaction. While man is on probation, there are temptations which attack at weak points. All of these reveal human imperfections.

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No one person is a perfectly endowed personality. Each one has strong points and weak points. Where one is strong, another is weak. This limitation of nature is a weakness that reveals our imperfections. These differences in persons may result in part from God's creative act; they also result in part from the fall of man. In either case they are with us in life as reminders of our human existence. Man by his fall into sin has increased the imperfections in his nature. All live today under the consequences of the Fall. Adamic, ancestral, and personal sins have weakened human nature. The intellect, feelings, and will, as well as the bodily faculties, are much less now than they were in Adam. Regeneration and sanctification by changing the inner man have some effect on our humanity, but there is no full healing of these scars of sin. The sinfulness of the heart may be gone, but the marks of those sins still remain. The Apostle Paul wrote, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels" (II Cor. 4: 7). The treasure is the light of God shining into the heart. To man is restored the moral image of God, which is holiness or perfect love. But this love is in "earthen vessels." These vessels press down the soul, hinder the performance of love's desires, and are with us until death. Wesley described such vessels as "mortal and corruptible" and "brittle" with organs "debased and depraved." The brain is "disordered" and will lead to innumerable mistakes. There are death, "sickness, weakness, and pain, and a thousand infirmities." All men are born with this natural or physical corruption. It is to be distinguished from moral depravity. H. A. Baldwin writes: While we live in this world we will never be wholly free from physical desires and appetites. In themselves these desires and appetites are legitimate and are not a

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sign of depravity, but when men fell, their natural appetites became depraved, and will never, in this life, reach such a state that their possessors will not be forced to deny themselves daily-to keep their bodies under. In other words, while, in the article of holiness, moral depravity is removed, yet physical depravity remains, and a man must deny his inordinate appetites, tastes, desires and preferences....'

One must use the words "depravity" and "inordinate" with caution. Yet when used in relation to the physical nature, they do express an imperfection that must be recognized. These are present in the entirely sanctified while yet the heart, or moral nature, is pure and holy. This physical depravity is an "impairment of the substance of the mind or body, resulting from the fall."3 It is a weakness from which proceed many errors of judgment and blunders in the outer life. It is clearly possible to distinguish this kind of corruption from the bias toward evil called carnality. Another area of natural imperfection is the involvment in social injustice all about us. There is a racial unity, and we suffer with and are socially involved in many wrongs of society. Also Christians have to do things they would not do if we were in a totally Christian environment. Most of these involvements we cannot help, but it does underline the imperfection of our social order. Even Jesus lived in an imperfect world, and had to do things He would not have done in a perfect world. Yet He had a perfect love and performed a perfect service. These are the natural imperfections common to all Christians. There is very little that can be done about them. Doctors can improve our health, training can sharpen our minds, and discipline may lessen our mistakes. But the older we get, the more infirm we become. tH. A. Baldwin, Holiness and the Human Element, pp. 88-89. "John R. Brooks, Scriptural Sanctification, p. 15.

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These weaknesses are with us until death do us part. The Apostle Paul arrived at the place where he could say, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (II Cor. 12: 9). III.

MORAL IMPERFECTIONS

When one speaks of a moral imperfection, he could mean the evil nature inherited from Adam which remains in all believers, and needs the full cleansing of the Blood. This certainly would be an imperfection of the heart, and would not be consistent with the wholly sanctified life. This inner nature of sin is destroyed by God's Holy Spirit when the love is perfected by the creation of a pure heart. This kind of moral imperfection is gone. However, between the area of innocent and necessary infirmities and limitations found in all Christians and the area of carnal sinfulness found in those not entirely sanctified is another area where one may see moral imperfections. To draw a sharp and clear line between innocent mistakes and carnal sins may aid in the simplicity of expression, but it fails to account for a troublesome area in the lives of sanctified people. It is to this area I now call your attention. Some of the strongest criticisms of the doctrine of Christian perfection have been made by men who have attacked the Wesleyan definition of sin. R. Newton Flew disagreed with Wesley's definition of voluntary sin because "our worst sins are often those of which we are unconscious."4 Wesley did teach that known, willful sin was the only thing that would send a person to hell. However, as his sermon "On Sin in Believers" reveals, 'R. Newton Flew, The Idea of Perfection in Christian Theology, p.333.

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Wesley knew there was serious, unconscious sin in the Christian. 5 In fact it is necessary to distinguish two kinds of unconscious sin. There is that which is the carnal bias to evil in the heart of the believer that needs revealing and destruction by the Holy Spirit. Also there is that wrong thought or act which is found in the sanctified Christian who is completely unaware of the wrong. In the first instance, the evil desire springs from a corrupted heart; in the second, the wrong desire occurs because of infirmity or ignorance. It may be true that these unconscious wrongs, whether carnal or human, may be worse than known, willful sin in the social outcome or in the effects upon personalities. But it can hardly be said they are "worst" since they cannot in themselves separate a soul from God. How serious can these wrongs which grow out of ignorance or infirmity become? They can be harmful to others. Wrong attitudes and actions on the part of sanctified parents can bring disgust to children and drive them from the Kingdom. Prejudiced ideas can hurt the testimony of a group and hinder God's work. False reports may cause sanctified people to react wrongly toward a brother or sister. Because of false economy, a church may fail to launch forward and become a greater soul-saving group. One could add to this list. One might say that these are innocent and harmless mistakes. That they are not harmless is very evident. Any flaw that hinders the salvation of the lost is hardly harmless. Are they innocent? If one could not have done any differently, maybe so. In most cases, however, more care, investigation, or faith might have changed the situation. Could one not "Leo G. Cox, John Wesley's Concept of Perfection, pp. 30-36.

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have been more slow in believing the false report? Might not further investigation have avoided the wrong decision? Need we be so slow in discarding our prejudices? Can we not develop a greater alertness to the needs of others? Why need I be so insensitive to the situations around me? To insist that a person is not entirely sanctified who has these kinds of failures sets the standard of perfect love too high. To call these imperfections innocent mistakes closes the door for correction. These are failures in the area of moral action, and need to be recognized as such. Let us examine the area of temptation. Freedom from carnal sin does not free us from temptation. We must not err by making temptation to sin to be sin. Luther made this error when he wrote: Thus impurity by its attack renders the soul all the more chaste. Pride makes it all the more humble. Indolence makes it all the more industrious. Avarice makes it all the more generous. Anger makes it all the more gentle. Gluttony makes it all the more obedient. In this way temptation turns out to be a great blessing."

One need not hold that a temptation to pride is pride or a temptation to impurity is impurity. William Sangster claims that he has never met anyone claiming entire cleansing who "never experiences a stab of jealousy, or a mood of irritation, or a sense of pride, or a lustful thought." When anyone of these evils appear, "it is already me in the moment of my first awareness." There is no chance to say, "Yes," or, "No." "It stabs in me; I, for that moment, am vain. In the first split second of awareness, it is possession. Repudiation is eviction, for it is already in."7 "Martin Luther, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, pp.88-89. 'William E. Sangster, The Path to Perfection, pp. 136-37.

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Must it be conceded that the "lust" or desire made attractive in temptation is really sin? Should one conclude that a "stab of jealousy" or "a sense of pride" is sin in the carnal sense? Cannot a person distinguish between a "sense of pride" and a consent to pride? Might there be a jealousy in which the will participates, at least partially, as over against a "stab of jealousy" occasioned by temptation? In the moment one is aware of the passion awakened in temptation is he the possessor of "evil" because the passion is not good? The answer to these is not simple. Yet it must be admitted that Christ in His temptation felt a pull on His human nature. Yet this natural desire that Satan allured was not sinful. With fallen man, even for the entirely sanctified, discernment is slow and knowledge of self is very limited. In the moment of temptation satanic influence may not be readily detected and, consequently, the attracted desire or awakened passion may continue a period of time. However, there must be a moment in temptation when the wrong impulse is resisted, or yielded to, by the will. No matter how long or attractive the enticing desire may be, even though it is my desire, it need not gain any approval from the heart. One's heart can remain perfect in love. When for the entirely sanctified does this enticed desire become sin in the carnal sense? In Jas. 1: 14-15 (RSV) we read, "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is fullgrown brings forth death." In these verses are clearly three categories. First, in temptation one's own desire allures him. This is true in the sanctified life. Second, this allured desire can conceive and bring forth sin. Here it becomes a polluted, heart desire as found in the believer not entirely sanctified, or who has lost the blessing. Third, when this desire that has become sinful becomes full-grown-gains full consent of the will-it

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quenches all spiritual life. Here is the picture of the backslidden, or the sinner who willfully transgresses. It is at the point in temptation before there is conception of sin where one experiences moral imperfection. His heart is stayed on God, and he has perfect love. But because of heaviness through many temptations, or because of weakness in his own discipline, or because of neglect in Bible reading or prayer, or because of ignorance of Satan's methods, the sanctified person experiences feelings, passions, thoughts, and desires that seem wrong. How can he know that his heart has not given birth to sin? Mainly by the voice of God's Holy Spirit to his heart, and the resultant assurance that his love is still pure. These imperfections show up with us. Some have said, when one is entirely sanctified, any further battle is always outside. This is not true. Our conflicts are usually within us. They are in our minds, our wills, our desires and attitudes. When the old man is destroyed, the heart love is pure, and the deep springs of motivation are cleansed. But with faulty minds and bodies, we still experience conflict and tension, and these are in us. Paul Rees wrote, "Any battle in life that is a battle to me is on the inside."8 John Wesley wrote: One may start, tremble, change colour, or be otherwise disordered in body, while the soul is calmly stayed on God, and remains in perfect peace. Nay the mind itself may be deeply distressed, may be exceeding sorrowful, may be perplexed and pressed down by heaviness and anguish, even to agony, while the heart cleaves to God by perfect love, and the will is wholly resigned to him.'

Possibly these tensions show up most in our relations to people. It is difficult to understand one another. Differences of personalities account for much tense re"Paul S. Rees, "Our Wesleyan Heritage After Two Centuries," the Asbury Seminarian, II, No.2 (1948), 56. ·works, XI, 399.

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action. Entirely sanctified people have their grace tried to the limit as they try to live in harmony. What doe,s holiness do for them? It enables them to love when they cannot understand. It gives grace to endure the tension. It gives us a desire to learn better how to get along. Perfect love heals the hearts, and shines out in beauty in the midst of tensions. When wrongs are committed, it both forgives and seeks forgiveness. IV.

IMPERFECTIONS NEED THE ATONEMENT

One has no difficulty seeing that willful, known transgressions of God's law need the atonement of Jesus Christ. These sins before regeneration brought condemnation, but God freely forgives us all our sins. Even when believers fall back into these willful sins, God is ready to forgive when there are repentance and faith. Also the sin principle with which all are born, and which remains in the believer until sanctified wholly, needs the atonement. Whenever the believer realizes he has pride, selfishness, jealousy, etc., he not only seeks forgiveness, but also cries out for cleansing. It is only through the blood of Christ that full purity can be attained. What about these imperfections of the perfect? Are they deviations from God's perfect standard and need the atoning Blood? Do the entirely sanctified ever need forgiveness from God and their fellow men? Do our ways ever become a grief to God? The Psalmist prayed, "Search me, 0 God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me." A wicked man would not pray a prayer like this. The more righteous a person is, the more he will pray this prayer. When one loves God with all his heart, he wants no "wicked way" or "way of grief" in himself, and seeks always to be free from such.

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Is there a possibility in our holiness profession to overlook this truth? W. E. Sangster writes: If a man is convinced that he is free from all sin: if, moreover, by some freak of faith he is convinced also that to doubt his freedom from sin is dishonouring to God and tantamount to disbelieving the Bible, he will necessarily be less likely to recognize the presence of sin when it rises in his soul. With his own hands he has built a wall between himself and self-knowledge. He puts a bandage around his own eyes whenever he looks inward, though, when he looks outwards on others, it often appears that his eyes are not only unbandaged, but sharp with censoriousness. 'O

Though we cannot agree with Sangster in all that he implies, we must honestly admit the force of his argument. How often do professing holiness people look inward to see if all is clean? Do many of us spend more time attempting to correct the outward actions, especially of others, rather than searching the hidden springs of our own doings? Does an assurance of freedom from sin blind our eyes to any wrong that might show up within us? I believe it could if we have a faulty concept of sin. The sin God removes in full holiness is that in our hearts which is contrary to perfect love. When one loves God perfectly, there is no temper in the heart contrary to that love. However, as already shown in this paper, the entirely sanctified may still have faulty attitudes, wrong emotions, inner conflicts, and wrong judgments. If one includes in his concept of the sin from which he is freed the above factors, he will lose faith in his cleansing, provided he is honest, or else he will put a bandage on his own eyes. I believe the latter is the most serious. Here is a significant quotation from Wesley: IOSangster, op. cit., p. 165.

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The best of men need Christ as their Priest, their Atonement, their Advocate with the Father; not only as the continuance of their every blessing depends on his death and intercession, but on account of their coming short of the law of love, for every man living does so. You who feel all love, compare yourselves with the preceding description. Weigh yourselves in this balance, and see if you are not wanting in many particulars. But if all this be consistent with Christian Perfection, that perfection is not freedom from all sin: seeing sin is the transgression of the law: and the perfect transgress the very law they are under. Besides, they need the atonement of Christ; and he is the atonement of nothing but sin."

Wesley is not here repudiating heart holiness, he is honestly recognizing the imperfections of the perfect. He knew that the only sin that would send a person to hell was known, willful transgression of the law. He also knew that sinfulness of heart in the believer, which he also called sin, could be cleansed. But Wesley also knew there remained in the entirely sanctified certain imperfections which caused transgressions, and which needed the atonement. D. A. Manker writes: But the continuing walk of the Christian also requires an intermediary. So imperfect is our service, so faulty our judgment, and so weak our will that the standard of "absolute perfection" is claimed only by fanatics whose very boasting is an imperfection and a sin against God. The kind of perfection where God is, the kind we shall also have when we "awake in his likeness," is wanting in this world. Presumptuous indeed would be he who dared claim that never in thought or word or deed has he lent offense to man or tried the patience of the Master."

When one realizes that Christ died in order to atone for all that which sin has caused, and that He took on Him our infirmities as well as our sins, it is easier to see the need for the daily merit of Christ's blood. If this "Works, XI, 417-18. uD. A. Manker, "Intercession," the Wesleyan Methodist, 120, No. 26 (July 18, 1962),6.

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atoning mercy were withdrawn for a moment, we would be of all men most miserable. Wesley wrote that the holiest of men still need Christ "to make atonement for their holy things. Even perfect holiness is acceptable to God only through Jesus ChriSt."13 It is possible to admit that the imperfections of the entirely sanctified need the atonement, that they fall short of God's perfect law for us, and that they may bring offence and harm to others, and yet question whether they should be called sins. John Wesley used the terms "sins of ignorance" and "sins of infirmity" but added that they were sins improperly so called. He hesitated to call these defects "sins" because he feared that few would maintain the correct distinction, and would soon be excusing sin of the other kind. 14 However, as noted above, Wesley does call them "sins" since they are transgressions and need the atonement. He also wrote: I still say, and without any self-contradiction, I know no persons living who are so deeply conscious of their needing Christ both as prophet, priest and king, as those who believe themselves, and who I believe, to be cleansed from all sin; I mean, from all pride, anger, evil desire, idolatry, and unbelief. These very persons feel more than ever their own ignorance, littleness of grace, coming short of the full mind that was in Christ, and walking less accurately than they might have done after their Divine Pattern; are more convinced of the insufficiency of all they are, have, or do, to bear the eye of God without a Mediator; are more penetrated with the sense of the want of him than ever they were before. Here are persons exceeding holy and happy; rejoicing evermore, praying always, and in everything giving thanks; feeling the love of God and man every moment; feeling no pride, or other evil temper. . . . "But are they not sinners?" Explain the term one way, and I say, "yes;" another, and I say, "no"."

"Works, XI, 417. "Ibid., pp. 396-97. "Ibid., XII, 366.

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Whether these should be called sins cannot be settled by logic or references to human authorities. We must seek the light from God's Word. I realize the dangers when they are called innocent mistakes. We know God arranged for sacrifices to be given in the Old Testament for "unwitting sins" (Lev. 4: 2-3; 5: 16). There was the seeking of forgiveness for innocent errors (Deut. 21: 7-9). God's anger is revealed in causing death to men who ignorantly trespassed His law (I Sam. 6: 19; II Sam. 6: 7). That these sins displeased God is very evident; that they grew out of ignorance and infirmity is also clear. What about the New Testament? Christ taught His disciples to pray, "Forgive us our debts." This word "debts" is reported as "trespasses" in Matt. 6: 14 and as "sins" in Luke 11: 4. Jesus asked us to forgive a brother who "sins" against us (Matt. 18: 21). In I John 2: 1-2 it is clear that the believer may sin and needs an Advocate, while in I John 3: 9 the truly born again "cannot sin." Apparently John is talking about two kinds of sin in these two verses. The one a believer may do; the other, he cannot. In Jas. 5: 16 we are exhorted to confess our "faults one to another." This word "faults" comes from an original reading which can be rendered "sins." By no means is this discussion exhaustive, but I believe it makes us aware that we need careful study and some heart searching as to the nature of these imperfections. I believe we can maintain the N.T. truth of cleansing from all sin as perfect love in the heart, and at the same time have an honest attitude toward the imperfections of the sanctified. We do not want to set a standard of holiness so low as to allow for sinful actions in the lives of Christians. Nor do we want to be so unrealistic in our statements that Christians fail to see the need for confession and forgiveness for their failures. As perfect Christians we need the daily merits of Christ's atonement for our many imperfections.

Cornelius P. Haggard President, Azusa College; assistant general superintendent, Evangelical Methodist church; diploma, Azusa College; B.A., M.A., University of California; Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary, 1943; special research in religious education; former pastor and instructor; president, Community Church Association; regional vice-president, N.H.A.; board member: N.A.E. (national and southwest region), Evangelical Released Time Education, Inc.; president, Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges; president, World Gospel Mission, 1961.

12 Temptation and the Sanctified Life CORNELIUS

P.

HAGGARD

Temptation has been jokingly defined as "something that, if resisted, may never come again"; or, "a power which is best overcome by succumbing to it"; or, "something that, when resisted, gives happiness and when yielded to gives greater happiness."l Oscar Wilde said, "I can resist everything but temptation."2 And on another occasion, "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it." Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd after many long lonesome months in Antarctica was speaking to the National Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution. As he told them of the problems, hardships, sufferings, and privations of the men, one of the ladies interrupted him to ask, "What did the men miss most?" He replied in one word, "Temptation." HISTORY OF TEMPTATION

But temptation is not a joke, nor is it something unique to this age. The history of temptation antedates the creation of man. Before the foundations of the world were laid, temptation came to the inner circle of God's elect and many succumbed and fell-with possibly the catastrophic results to our world recorded in Genesis one. 'Esar Evan, EsaT's Comic DictionaTy. 'Oscar Wilde, Lady WindeTmeTe's Fan. 197

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Later God intervened and by divine fiat in ordered step after ordered step brought beauty and harmony out of the chaos that had been visited upon the earth. As the highest act of His creative will, God made man-out of the dust of the earth but in the image of God-and He "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Then our first parents were tempted-and fell. From that time, man has been subject to this unhappy experience. DEFINITION OF TEMPTATION

Numerous attempts to define temptation have been made. Several are worthy of note. Dr. Chadwick points out that: The ambiguity which attaches to the English word "temptation" has led to some confusion. Originally it meant just "to try." Hence the noun, attempt . . . It has hardened, however, into a use that indicates trial with an evil purpose.·

Daniel Steele writes: Temptation is an appeal, not to any desire to do wrong, but to our wish for immediate happiness, and for the avoidance of present sufferings, as hunger in the case of Jesus in the wilderness.'

Dr. Upham is even more explicit: Temptation, or tempting objects, are those objects which are presented by the intellect to the will and the sensibilities; and are of such nature that they have a tendency to induce or cause, in the sensitive part of our nature, viz., in the appetites, propensities, and affections, and also in the will, a strong action.· 'Samuel Chadwick, The Call to Christian Perfection, p. 62. 'Daniel Steele, Steele's Answers, p. 82. "T. C. Upham, Principles of the Interior or Hidden Life, p. 167.

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Perhaps the most simple and practical statement is given by Beverly Carradine: Temptation is moral test or trial. It is a movement made upon the soul in the direction of evil. It may come from a person or thing. Through an appeal to the higher or lower powers of our nature the affections, passions, or appetites, the will is assailed that it may be overcome and the soul brought into the slavery of sin. The movement may be very violent, or it may be realized as a sapping, deadening influence. Again it may be felt for only a moment, or it may be prolonged with more or less intensity for hours and days."

The term "temptation" is commonly used today for every motive that incites man, especially the Christian, to sin. It is "an incitement to sin whether by persuasion or by the offer of some good or pleasure." It may take the form of the external, as was the case of Christ's encounter in the desert after the forty days' fast; or it may be exclusively internal, inasmuch as there is a real assault upon a person's will power. In the unsanctified it may arise from the propensity to evil inherent in us as a result of original sin. Or it may result from the direct attack of Satan, who furnishes the imagination with its sinful subject matter and stirs up the lower powers of the soul. UNIVERSALITY OF TEMPTATION

One thing is certain, regardless of definition: All individuals are tempted. Steele asserts: It is a great mistake to suppose that any state of grace this side of glory is entirely exempt from temptation. So long as the soul is in probation it will be tested by solicitations to sin:

"Beverly Carradine, Golden Sheaves, p. 163. 7Daniel Steele, The Advocate of Christian Holiness, p. 121..

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Numerous reasons have been given for the necessity of temptation. 1. Lowrey declares: So far as we know, all free and responsible intelligences have been tried and tested by temptation. And this fact may involve the real motive in the Divine Mind in permitting such exposure-Virtues to be virtues, must be proven! Moral excellence becomes more conspicuous, bright and beautiful when it comes out from temptation untainted."

2. It is also true that God's main thought for man is not immediate happiness. He is much more concerned in the building of character within us. If the permission of temptation aids in this object, He will permit it. Zepp suggests this when he says: God loves to see the counterpart of His absolute goodness and grandeur in men, and these, too, up to the point of highest finite possibility . . . Accordingly He has constituted man free, that he may be responsible. He has gifted him with the power of choice, that his good or evil may be the product of his own act. He has exposed him to temptation, that his integrity may not turn out to be accidental for the want of tests, much less necessitated by compulsory circumstances.·

3. It is certain that temptation helps one to know himself better. The probings, motions, and assaults of temptation reveal as little else can the little suspected evils in our lives, and the vulnerable places in our natures and characters. In the lives of Saul, David, and Peter the reader of the Bible will find recorded incidents in which temptations revealed moral and spiritual blemishes that perhaps none of the men recognized prior to the revelation by temptation. "To be thoroughly "Asbury Lowrey, Possibilities of Grace, p. 412. •Arthur C. Zepp, Progress After Entire Sanctification, p. 141.

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tempted," Watson points out, "is the pathway to a thorough knowledge of ourselves and of the malignity of sin."lO 4. In addition, temptation also makes us see our true nothingness and weakness. "It withers our cleverness, cauterizes our smartness, teaches us true humility and self abasement" says Watson. l l 5. It may be that the physical law that disuse issues in atrophy may have a spiritual counterpart. Moral qualities, like physical members, are invigorated by exercise, but weakened and finally destroyed by disuse. 6. It is certain that humility is developed by temptation. One cannot be long tempted without becoming acutely aware that but for the grace of God he would have been overwhelmed a thousand times. 7. Temptation is often necessary to drive us to increased prayer and watchfulness. The daily prayer, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," signifies an utter dependence on God. Temptation's revelation of the weakness of our human nature and the power of satanic influence drives the Christian to even more earnest watchfulness and prayer. 8. Temptation also develops sympathy for those who are tempted, and enables one who has been tempted to aid others. Even of our Lord it is said, "For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." 9. Again, there is benefit in temptation in that resistance to any given evil to which the soul is submitted will induce an increased hatred for that sin. As Watson reminds us: The persistent fight against some old ruling passion, some old besetting sin, arouses in the soul a universal re'"George Watson, Soul Food, p. 68. "Ibid.

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venge, not only against the old sin itself, but against all its family relatives and a jealous hatred to all the insidious steps that lead to that sin."

But temptation endured, resisted, and overcome results in constantly increased spiritual strength. In the defeat of one temptation, we strengthen ourselves against the whole area of related temptations. Carradine suggests this when he says: We read that David first killed a bear, after that a lion, and still later a giant. So it is still; we begin with small victories, but grow mightier with every triumph." SOURCES OF TEMPTATION

There are certain general sources of temptation. In an extremely interesting exposition of temptation John Wesley takes the position that while we are in this body, if pain only implies temptation, the temptations will be numberless. How many are the evils which it is every day, every hour, liable to! Weakness, sickness, and disorders of a thousand kinds are its natural attendants. But this is not all. Consider, secondly, the present state of the soul, as long as it inhabits the house of clay. I do not mean in its unregenerate state . . . See those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Yet still how weak is their understanding! How limited its extent! How confused, how inaccurate, are our apprehensions of even the things that are round about us! How liable are the wisest of men to mistake! To form false judgments!-to take falsehood for truth, and truth for falsehood; evil for good and good for evil! What starts, what wanderings of imagination, are we continually subject to! And how many are the temptations which we have to expect even from these innocent infirmities? Consider, thirdly, what is the present situation of even those that fear God. They dwell in the ruins "Op. cit., p. 68. '"Beverly Carradine, Soul Help, p. 73.

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of a disordered world, among men that know not God, that care not for him, and whose heart is fully set in them to do evil."

But temptation and opposition come not alone from evil men. If anything, the good create even more problems. "But besides evil men, do not evil spirits also continually surround us on every side? Do not Satan and his angels continually go about seeking whom they may devour?"15 In light of all the above, temptation cannot be other than "common," and such as every man may reasonably expect, if he considers the nature of his body and his soul, and his situation in the present world. For the sanctified, the experience of holiness ends some temptations, moderates many, and also opens the way for others which may have never been experienced before. This is illustrated in the life of our Lord, who undoubtedly was subject to the usual temptations of youth and young manhood (yet without sin) but never, until after the Holy Ghost had descended upon Him, had He encountered such a siege as that of the temptation for forty days in the wilderness. Thomas Cook says: It is true, when the heart is cleansed from all evil, the warfare within ceases. The struggle with the flesh, or inbred sin, or depravity, by whatever name it may be called, comes to an end when all antagonisms to God are expelled from the soul, and Christ reigns without a rival. But there are other enemies than those which exist within, against whom we shall have to fight strenuously to the end. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness (wicked spirits) in high places."" l~.rohn Wesley, Wesley's Sermons, ill, 338 ff. "Ibid. "Thomas Cook, New Testament Holiness,-p. 12

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H. E. Jessop says: The experience of sanctification has its peculiar dangers . . . It is the main business of satanic powers, often using human means as their instruments, to wreck the sanctified life. If the temptation to sin does not avail, an attempt is frequently made along the line of religion by forcing the soul to unreasonable extremes, seeking to turn faith into presumption and faithfulness into fanaticism."

Joseph H. Smith says: Many of the temptations of the sanctified soul may now come through the sneers, the jeers, the frowns, the cautions, the friendships, or the enmities of unsanctified Christians; often even through ministers and through one's own kindred in the church. Moreover, there are temptations of suggestion to presumption, to fanaticism, to antinomianism, ecclesiastical bolshevikism, etc., which never may have accosted one in the average Christian life; and also, at times, to deep depression or even to despair. 18

Danger arises for the sanctified in that many no longer expect to be tempted as such after having been cleansed and filled. When they are found to have human desires and find Satan coming to them through their human appetites, they become confused and doubt their experience of sanctification. Others, after sanctification, tend to become overconfident and grow careless about the natural desires of the body, and, through lack of watchfullness and control, sin. This would explain the many fatalities in the realm of sex. PROCESS OF TEMPTATION

But how would one analyze the temptation experience? What is the process of temptation? How does the enemy use the excitants of temptation, and how does he secure their entrance into the soul? What are 17H, E. Jessop, Foundations of Doctrine, pp. 135-36.

'"Joseph H. Smith, Holiness Text Book, p. 100.

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the avenues of approach whereby the tempting 9bjects are insinuated into the soul? It is important to note that the particular object used in the tempting process need not be wicked or evil any more than the fruit of the garden. To the contrary, Satan is adept in the use of innocent and lawful objects in tempting to disobedience and sin. Nor must the tempted be placed in some unusual circumstance rendering him particularly susceptible to attack. Satan comes (as in Job's case) with the children of men in the ordinary course of events. As to the process, however, temptation (i.e., the tempting object) is first presented to the intellectual and perceptive faculties. The old illustration of birds flying over the head as opposed to making nests in the hair is inaccurate. In its first stage, temptation comes much closer. It must be perceived (Le., be in the mind), for one cannot be tempted by something he knows nothing about. From this point it is transmitted to the sensibilities, in which region it operates upon the senses, appetites, passions, or emotions. At this stage one may not even be consciously aware of the temptation but the sensibilities will be automatically (and legitimately) excited with the tendency to gratification. Without this there can be no temptation, for one cannot be tempted by something he doesn't want. Now the will is challenged. At this time the individual becomes fully conscious of temptation as such. In such a situation a sinner "wants" the object of temptation and takes it, not considering the will of God. The converted person "wants" the object of temptation, but recognizing it to be out of the will of God for him, argues the point, attempts to rationalize it, and in many instances ultimately yields. The sanctified person also "wants" the object of temptation (since appetites when aroused tend to gratification and since one could not be tempted by something he did not want), but immediately the sanctified person is conscious of the object as one of tempt~tion and that

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this particular object is not God's will for him, he by an act of the will renounces it and puts it from him. Sangster expresses this idea when he says: The high distinctiveness of the saint in his mastery of self is here: that, as his yeasting life rises out of the subconscious, he assesses every desire and aspiration instantly in the pure presence of God and identifies himself for or against it, according to that swift assessment made in the light of heaven. What God approves, he pursues. What God condemns, he spurns."

It is also important to note that the object of temptation need not be physical; it can be intellectual and, in the broad sense, spiritual. The various levels on which temptation may come, and the secret to victory, are beautifully illustrated in our Lord's temptation in the wilderness. After forty days of fasting, every "fiber" of His being cried out for food. He wanted food, on the physical level. But He did not want food out of the will of God-or in a manner out of the will of God. On the pinnacle of the Temple, Jesus no doubt evaluated the situation at a glance. He knew intellectually that were He to jump, and be borne up by angels (as He would be), it would be a culminating miracle that would result in everyone's following Him-and He wanted people to follow Him. It was really a most desirable technique-from a purely intellectual standpoint. And it was not sinful as such, any more than eating bread would have been. But it was not God's plan or God's will. Hence, He renounced it. Thus the sanctified individual may very much want something on the physical level, or intellectual level; but if it is out of the will of God, he (the real he) does not want it and wills not to have it, and his response is intuitive, automatic, and instantaneous as though it were a snake. It is a beautiful thought that temptation thus resisted leaves no "spot or l·W. E. Sangster, The Pure in Heart, p. 157.

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blame" behind, any more than by the shadow of a cloud flying over a beautiful landscape. VICTORY OVER POSSIBLE

TEMPTATION

Is it possible, then, to be constantly victorious over temptation? It is! There are two secrets to victory over temptation: one must distinguish between things that are different, and one must resist temptation. It is as simple as that. Let me speak first of the distinguishing between things that are different. It is imperative that we distinguish between temptation and sin. Temptation is not sin. Joseph F. Delaney says: No matter how vivid the unholy image may be, no matter how strong the inclination to transgress the law, no matter how vehement the sensation of unlawful satisfaction, as long as there is no consent of the will, there is no sin. The very essence of sin in any grade is that it should be a deliberate act of the human will. Attack is not synonymous with surrender.'o

Carradine says: It is a blessed thought to us that temptation is not sin. It is yielding which brings defilement and condemnation. Neither is prolonged temptation an indication of iniquity in the heart, or any moral weakening. The Saviour was engirdled with evil spirits, and had to hear their whispered suggestions for forty days."

It is equally as important to distinguish between temptation and trials, temptations and cares, annoyances and worries, and temptation and infirmities. "Trials proceed from God, appeal to some innocent principle within us, and are tests of some precious quality of the moral character." The cares of everyday life, the trivial annoyances, the little worries that attack us from day to day .oJoseph F. Delaney, The Catholic Encyclopedia, XIV, 504. "Carradine, op. cit., p. 163.

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cannot properly be called temptations, nor need they be diabolical in character, but they tend to divert, perturb, and cloud the mind; they have a tendency to fret the spirit, and can become serious. Infirmities will cling to the believer as long as he is in the world-but they also clung to Christ. He knew the pains of hunger and thirst, and the consequent failing of human strength. He was wearied to suffering, and slept. He could not go into the city. He slept in the boat. He did not accomplish all the good He wished. He was tempted, tried, and buffeted by Satan, so that His soul was in exceeding heaviness, and He was sorrowful unto death. But He sinned not. To be able to distinguish between temptation and sin, trials, cares, annoyances, worries, and even infirmities, one must also distinguish between the voice of Satan and the voice of God. It is true that God leads through impressions, but John says to try the spirits to see whether they be of God. Therefore we must learn to know the voice of God as opposed to the voice of Satan. The following are some of the distinguishing characteristics of the two voices: The Voice of Satan loud, clamorous, feverish, strong Deals in generalities Is driving Demands immediate decision Perplexes, roils, creates turmoil, mixes up Accompanies a lack of restful spirit Draws back from light Is

Brings depression and discouragement Appeals to the lower instincts; Satan suggests, "I want" Disappears if no heed is given to it

The Voice of God Is quiet, persuasive Speaks in specifics Is leading

Gives time for decision, Isa. 1: 18 Is clear, distinct, gives calm assurance Accompanies a rest of certainty Is open, willing to counsel, and

to be questioned Brings encouragement Appeals to higher instincts; God suggests, "I ought" Ripens and grows stronger to victory

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But it is also necessary to resist temptation to the maximum extent of one's ability. Some simple suggestions are: 1. Keep out of temptation's way; that is, avoid presumption. Some persons put themselves into such relations with companions, places, and events as to provoke temptation. "They eat tainted food and breathe a malarious atmosphere, and then pray for health."22 2. Depend on divine grace. The Scriptures lead us to believe that God will intervene in various ways to deliver from temptation, or to increase our strength to bear it. 3. Call upon God for specific help. Recourse to prayer is always advisable. 4. Foster a spirit of humble distrust of one's own powers and of unbounded confidence in God. 5. Sometimes, particularly when there is question of reiterated, evil, interior suggestions, it may be wise to ignore them but quietly divert the attention into another channel. A disciplined mind is imperative to victory. 6. Flee slothfulness. Keep the mind actively employed. The Bible is very definite at this point. Peter says, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."23 Hear James: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from yoU."24 Listen to Paul: "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked."25 Dr. Adam Clarke, an early Methodist theologian, gives the following advice: "Asbury Lowrey, op. cit., pp. 422-31. "I Pet. 5:8. "Jas.4:7. '6Eph.6:16.

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Do not yield to temptation. It is 110 sin to be tempted; the sin lies in yielding. While the sin exists only in Satan's solicitation, it is the devil's sin not ours; when we yield, we make the devil's sin our own: then we enter into temptation"·

Dr. S. L. Brengle of the Salvation Army tells us: This is a world of trial, and conflict with principalities and powers, darknesses and terrible evils, and the holy soul who is in fore-front of the conflict may expect the direst assaults of the devil, and the heaviest and most perplexing and prolonged temptations. 27

Fortunately we can be encouraged in the midst of temptation. God has promised that we will not be tempted above that we are able, but with every temptation a way of escape will be provided that we may be able to bear it-and the whole is guaranteed by the faithfulness of God. Since, as our loving Heavenly Father, He knows our capabilities (and that we are dust), He will permit only such temptations in quality and extent as will be proportioned to our strength. His justice, His mercy, His faithfulness require this. And not only this; He is also committed to providing a way of escape from the temptation, either by removing the occasion of the temptation or in the midst of the temptation by increasing our reserves or by causing it to cease to be a temptation. And when we have been tried, the promise is that we shall come forth as gold. Nay, more, after being more than conquerors over every temptation that Satan can present to us we shall ultimately come to be like Him whose we are and whom we serve, and who "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."

!·Adam Clarke, Christian Theology, p. 349. uS. L. Brengle, Heart Talks on Holiness, p. 7.

Frank Bateman Stanger President, Asbury Theological Seminary; A.B. (magna cum laude), Asbury College; Th.B., Princeton Theological Seminary; S.T.M., S.T.D., Temple University; Methodist pastor in New Jersey; executive vice-president, Asbury Theological Seminary, 1959-62; presidentelect, 1961-62; professor of pastoral work and preaching, Asbury Theological Seminary, 1959-; author, A Workman That Needeth Not to Be Ashamed, The Herald Press, 1958; editor, The Methodist Trail in New Jersey, 1961; contributor, Dictionary of World Methodism; assistant editor, the Herald.

13 The Church of the Spirit FRANK BATEMAN STANGER

In his volume The Church of the Spirit, l Francis G. Peabody, late professor of Christian morals in Harvard University, draws a clear and decisive line between what he terms "the church of authority" and "the church of the Spirit." "The church of authority" is adhered to by those who are primarily concerned with a dogmatic expression of Christianity in an institution. "The church of authority" is a visible Church, characterized by stability, continuity, and legality. "The church of authority" proposes the way of conformity as the test of Christian loyalty, and insists upon the acceptance of the Christian religion as a governmental scheme. In contrast to "the church of authority" there has coexisted with it through all the years of Christian history another type of faith and fellowship which may be spoken of as "the church of the Spirit." The "church of the Spirit" offers a form of discipleship less easily defined because it is progressive, expanding, and spiritual. To "the church of the Spirit," the most precious incidents of Christian history may not be those of theological or ecclesiastical transition, but those of religious revival-the testimony of saints and seers, the experience of holy souls, the convincing evidence of the life of God in the souls of men. "The church of the Spirit" has been described as an inflowing, refreshing, penetrating tide. "The church of the Spirit," in subordinating opinions to obedience and 'Francis G. Peabody, The Church of the Spirit. 213

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dogmatics to loyalty, makes the audacious assertion that often "the church of authority," in its institutional procedure, has been tempted to take the wrong road; making central what was incidental, setting logic before life, speculation before inspiration, the letter before the Spirit. Peabody contrasts "the church of authority" with "the church of the Spirit" in these significant, descriptive words: Here, then, are two ways of Christian loyalty-the way of conformity and the way of consecration; the acceptance of the Christian religion as a governmental scheme, and the recognition of the Christian religion as a spiritual experience. . .. The fundamental difference is not so much in the desire for discipleship as in the way of approach to discipleship. One way is through intellectual consent; the other is through volitional consecration. To the one the chief agent of faith is the mind; to the other it is the will. The one teaching begins: He that knoweth the doctrine shall do the will; the other begins: Whosoever willeth to do the will shall know of the doctrine.'

To the student of the New Testament it is evident that Jesus Christ came, not primarily to found an institution, but to redeem and inspire personal and social life. Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. All about Him were the demands for conformity; but before Him was the vision of a spiritual Kingdom. His temporal fate was determined by "the church of authority" of His day; but His eternal messiahship was indissolubly linked to "the church of the Spirit." Jesus came not to destroy but to fulfill; not to contend with "the church of authority," but to convert it into a "church of the Spirit." The New Testament ideal of the Church is intensely spiritual. Even though the Church was instituted by Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry, it was con'Ibid., pp. 37, 39.

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stituted by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. The Early Church was a Spirit-filled, a Spirit-empowered, a Spirit-guided, a Spirit-used body of Christian believers. The Early Church grew as the Spirit of God was active in His operations upon individuals and society. The New Testament doctrine of the Church is centered in its spirituality. Paul's concept of the Church is that of a social organism in which the Spirit of Christ prevails. He speaks of the Church as the body of Christ. 3 To Paul the Church is also the bride of Christ. 4 The present relationship of Christ to the Church is one of spiritual betrothal. But God's redemptive purposes are cosmically focused on the marriage supper of the Lamb. 5 Admission into the Church of Jesus Christ is a spiritual transaction. Paul declares: "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."6 The invitation to membership in the Church is always sounded in spiritual overtones: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."7 Just as truly the objective of the Church's activity is spiritual in its emphasis. Paul speaks of this spiritual objective in his words to the Christians in Ephesus and vicinity: There is one body, and one Spirit . . . And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; ·Rom. 12: 5; I Cor. 12: 27; Eph. 1: 23; 4: 12; Col. 1: 24, 2: 19. 4Eph. 5: 23, 25; II Cor. 11: 2. "Rev. 19: 7. "I Cor. 12: 13. 7Rev. 22: 17.

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and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.·

The New Testament ideal of the Church as "the church of the Spirit" may be summarized in these words of A. E. Garvie: "The church is not any ecclesiastical organization or social institution of man's devising and founding. It is an ever-continued divine creation; it is the society of all who believe in Christ as Saviour and Lord, and possess the Spirit of God."9 The spiritually-minded historian immediately recognizes those periods and personages in Christian history when "the church of the Spirit" manifested itself in outbursts of spiritual revival and in tides of creative spiritual activity. Only the briefest mention of but a few of the outstanding appearances of "the church of the Spirit" after the age of the apostles must suffice for this message. George Matheson called Montanism "the Methodism of the second century." Tertullian, the most vigorous mind among Christians of the third century, found himself repelled by the moral laxity of "the church of authority," and committed himself to that which reaffirmed the life of "the church of the Spirit." St. Augustine is a spiritual paradox. "There were two men in this Doctor of the Church," wrote Sabatier, "the son of Monica and the orthodox bishop, the man of the Spirit and the man of authority."lo The subtle discriminations of Augustine's ecclesiastical imperialism strengthened the foundations of "the church of authority"; but his humble confessions of penitence and pardon ·Eph. 4: 4, 11-13. •Alfred E. Garvie, The Preachers of the Church, p. 13. lOA. Sabatier, "Essay on the Over-Soul," p. 315 (edited 1875), quoted in Peabody, op. cit.

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have given him a more universal and permanent leadership in "the church of the Spirit." None can read the moving stories of Peter Waldo, the prosperous merchant of Lyons who literally gave up all for Christ, and of St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of a new order to bring back the apostolic spirit, without being convinced of their true membership in "the church of the Spirit." The Dominican monk Eckhart applied himself to revive the "divine spark" within a man which links him with God. The sermons of Tauler, the Imitation of Christ of Thomas a Kempis, and the Theologia Germanica still speak to the spiritual experience of lives for whom the dictates of the hierarchy have become meaningless or silent. During the Reformation and post-Reformation periods it was the "heretics" who kept aflame the light of the Spirit. Wyclif in England, Huss in Bohemia, the Anabaptists in Switzerland, the Puritans and the Society of Friends in England and later in the New World-all proclaimed a religion of the Spirit and made their direct appeals to the individual conscience and the experience of the soul. All of this has been intended as a historical background against which to declare the truth that the Wesleyan revival in eighteenth-century England marked a dramatic and decisive appearance of "the church of the Spirit." A study both of the religious experiences of the leaders of the Wesleyan Revival and of the activities inspired and sustained by that revival clearly stamps Methodism as "a movement of the Spirit." In the words of Peabody: "The teaching of John Wesley ... though it has become perpetuated in a great organization, was essentially, not so much an achievement of statesmanship, as a call to spiritual experience,"l1 In reality, neither the life of Wesley himself nor the Methodist i.·.•

I,

"peabody, ap. cit., p. 80.

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revival, of which he was the prime human mover, can be understood apart from the relationship of each to the Holy Spirit. John Wesley's religious quest was a search for "a religion of the Spirit." It is impossible to understand the first thirty-five years of his life without viewing those years as a personal and passionate quest for spiritual experience and satisfaction. He wanted above all else "a religion of the Spirit." He was greatly impelled in his quest by the writings of Thomas a Kempis, who emphasized the inwardness of religion; of Jeremy Taylor, who accentuated purity of intention; and of William Law, who insisted upon the wholeheartedness of religion. Wesley's fruitless years as a missionary in the New world revealed dramatically the spiritual barrenness of his soul and his hunger for inner spiritual reality. Some of his conversations with the Moravian Peter Bohler, in the weeks just prior to his Aldersgate experience, are expressive of this intensive quest for personal spiritual certitude. Wesley writes, May 12, 1738: When I met Peter BoWer again, he consented to put the dispute upon the issue which I desired, namely, Scripture and experience. I first consulted the Scripture. But when I set aside the glosses of men, and simply considered the words of God, comparing them together, endeavouring to illustrate the obscure by the plainer passages; I found they all made against me, and was forced to retreat to my last hold, "that experience would never agree with the literal interpretation of those scriptures. Nor could I therefore allow it to be true, till I found some living witnesses of it." He replied, he could show me such any time; if I desired it, the next day. And accordingly, the next day he came again with three others, all of whom testified, of their own personal experience, that a true, living faith in Christ is inseparable from a sense of pardon for all past, and freedom from all present, sins. They added with one mouth, that this faith was the gift, the free gift, of God; and that He would surely bestow it upon every soul who earnestly and perseveringly sought it. I was now thorougWy convinced; and by the grace of

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God, I resolved to seek it unto the end: 1. By absolutely renouncing all dependence, in whole or in part, upon my own works or righteousness; on which I had really grounded my hope of salvation, though I knew it not, from my youth up. 2. By adding to the constant use of all the other means of grace, continual prayer for this very thing, justifying, saving faith, a full reliance on the blood of Christ shed for me; a trust in Him as my Christ, as my sole justification, sanctification, and redemption."

Wesley's spiritual quest was abundantly satisfied in a profound religious experience which took place on May 24, 1738, and which is known as his "Aldersgate experience." With an inspiration that is both abiding and illuminating his own words are vibrant with a sens~ of inner spiritual satisfaction: In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation: and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."

The spiritual content of Wesley's "Aldersgate experience" was the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. He was truly a man "born of the Spirit." And this spiritual rebirth had been made possible through faith. "What is faith?" asked Wesley. "Not an opinion, neither any number of opinions put together, be they ever so true. It is the vision of the soul, the power by which spiritual things are apprehended, just as material things are ascertained by the physical senses."u As an immediate result of this inner experience of regeneration there began to be realized in Wesley's mind "John Wesley, JOtLTnal, May 12,1738. "Ibid., May 24, 1738. "Exact source not yet identified.

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and heart the scripture truth of the "witness of the Spirit." "The Spirit ... beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."15 Before Aldersgate, Wesley did not really know; but at Aldersgate "an assurance was given" him. Soon Wesley formulated his doctrine of "the witness of the Spirit." To Wesley "the witness of the Spirit" did not consist primarily of rationalization or emotion or imagination. Rather it is, to use his own words: an inward impression on the soul, whereby the Spirit of God immediately and directly witnesses to my spirit, that I am a child of God; that Jesus Christ hath loved me, and given Himself for me; that all my sins are blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to God. tO

In all his preaching and writing Wesley emphasized personal, spiritual living. The Christian walks "not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." In his sermon on "The Holy Spirit" he discusses the primary work of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Christian believer: What is most necessary, is to be sure, as to ourselves, that we are "passed from death unto life;" to keep our bodies pure and undefiled, and let them reap that health which flows from a magnanimous patience, and the serene joys of devotion . . . but the light that most necessarily attends it is a light to discern the fallacies of flesh and blood, to reject the irreligious maxims of the world, and to practise those degrees of trust in God, and love to men. . . . The object which this light brings us most immediately to know, is ourselves; and by virtue of this, one that is born of God, and has a lively hope, may indeed see far into the ways of providence, and farther yet into the Holy Scriptures...." "Rom. 8: 16. lOJohn Wesley, sermon on "The Witness of the Spirit," The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, A.M., Vol. I, John Emory, ed. (3rd American edition, New York: Methodist Book Concern, n.d.), p.87. "Sermon on "The Holy Spirit," ibid., IT, 535.

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Wesley's sermons reveal his thoughts concerning the spiritual nature of the life of the believer. The Christian has "crucified the flesh." The Christian manifests "the fruit of the Spirit." The Christian is characterized by "holiness of conversation." The Christian is careful to avoid "grieving the Holy Spirit." And the Christian is "sealed by the Holy Spirit." Wesley is careful to explain what he means by this "seal of the Holy Spirit": We are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God, by our receiving his real stamp upon our souls: being made the partakers of the divine nature.... We are sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption, as a sign of God's property in us, and as a mark that we belong to Christ. The Holy Spirit within us, is the security of our salvation; he is likewise an earnest of it, and assures our spirits that we have a title to eternal happiness.'·

Wesley's entrance into this "religion of the Spirit" through his "Aldersgate experience" and his resulting "life in and through the Spirit" led him to his distinctive emphasis upon sanctification, holiness, Christian perfection. Time and time again he affirmed that the distinctive note of Methodism was to be found in its insistence upon holiness of heart and life. Wesley wrote: "Christian Perfection is the grand depositum which God has lodged with the people called Methodist; and for the sake of propagating this chiefly He appeared to have raised us Up."ID Wesley is clear in his analysis of the content of Christian perfection. It is neither divine perfection, nor angelic perfection, nor Adamic perfection. It is neither freedom from ignorance, nor from mistakes, nor from 18Sermon on "Grieving the Holy Spirit," ibid., II, 518-19. "Wesley, ''Thoughts upon Methodism," 1768, The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, A.M., Vol. XIII, Thomas Jackson, ed. (3rd) edition, London: Wesleyan Methodist Book Room, 1831), p. 9.

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infirmities, nor from temptation. It is not exemption from the necessity of Christian discipline nor from the obligation of doing good. Rather it is purity of intention, dedicating all the life to God. It is the giving God all our heart; it is one desire and design ruling all our tempers. It is the devoting, not a part, but all, our soul, body, and substance to God.... It is all the mind which was in Christ, enabling us to walk as Christ walked. It is the circumcision of the heart from all filthiness, all inward as well as outward pollution. It is a renewal of the heart in the whole image of God, the full likeness of Him that created it.... It is the loving God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves."'

And from the very nature of the case such a realization of Christian perfection is an inner experience, made possible through the activity of the Holy Spirit within the human personality. In this regard, Wesley described Christian perfection as that habitual disposition of the soul which, in sacred writings, is termed holiness; and which directly implies, the being cleansed from sin, "from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit"; and by consequence, the being endued with those virtues which were also in Christ Jesus; the being so "renewed in the spirit of our mind" as to be "perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.""

Certainly it is evident, on the basis of what has been said about traditional Methodism as "a movement of the Spirit," that the general emphasis upon holiness in contemporary evangelical theology and the particular emphasis of the American holiness movement have grown out of the Wesleyan revival of the eighteenth century. It would be historically authenticating and personally illuminating if we had the time to trace the exact steps in the growth of such an organization as the "John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, pp.171-72. "Ibid., p. 6.

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National Holiness Association from its foundational beginnings in the Wesleyan revival. But such a definite and documented study is not permitted in a paper circumscribed by the limits of this assignment. Suffice it to say that we in the holiness tradition in this contemporary period belong to that grand succession of those who through the centuries have kept alive "the church of the Spirit," in distinction from "the church of authority." This is our spiritual genius. This is the true norm for the understanding of all our relationships. Because of this I have an ever-deepening concern. This is the question that haunts me, and I must share it with you: Is the contemporary holiness movement being true to its genius as "a movement of the Spirit"? Are we a true expression of "the church of the Spirit" in our age? Self-examination, sincerely motivated and judiciously conducted, is always beneficial for an individual. Biologically, self-examination is a law of life. We know that the moment a pain strikes the body it is time for self-examination. In the realm of ideas, self-examination is, likewise, essential in order that a proper synthesis may be made out of an initial thesis and any antitheses. Little wonder is it that in the area of spiritual experience the New Testament scriptures repeatedly call individuals to reasonable self-examination. I dare to suggest that it is just as pertinent for religious groups and institutions to be called to serious self-examination. Because of this I would call the holiness movement today to such a period of self-examination. Not only do we need it for our own spiritual health, but also in order to offer a satisfying apologetic in our day, and to help meet the crucial challenges in the contemporary religious situation. I do not have to tell you that our foes are legion. The very climate of our day is against us. Secularism

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and holiness have never been congenial. Moreover, we are often misunderstood and misjudged in the "very house of our ecclesiastical friends." How tragic when holiness, which is at the center of evangelical Christianity, is made to appear as though it were only peripheral! There is a further reason for my concern. There are those who are sincere advocates of holiness, some of them are members of the National Holiness Association, who are wondering if we are succeeding in making holiness relevant in our day. They ask: "Is holiness relating itself to the discovered knowledge of the twentieth century? Is holiness being made applicable to personal and social living in this age?" Only as we fulfill our genius as a "movement of the Spirit" will we be able to take full advantage of our tremendous contemporary opportunity to help meet the crucial spiritual needs of the world. We sincerely believe that holiness is the great need of our times: holinessthat unifies the human personality in its supreme love for God; holiness-in its motivation of the social relationships of love, righteousness, and justice; holiness -as the inspiration of the Church's life and as the allconsuming impetus to its program of world evangelization. Some months ago I received an impassioned letter from a missionary friend. So urgent was his concern that nearly one-half of his letter was devoted to his development of the thesis that unless world evangelization recovers the presence and power of the Holy Spirit we have no chance at all to win the battle against paganism on a world front. Here are some of his piercing words: Frankly, without the power of the Holy Spirit we're up against an impossible fight out here. Finances and planning can carry just so far; even finances and planning that are founded on prayer and biblical bases. But we

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must have the innovating, energizing and inspiring power of the Holy Spirit upon our pastors or we will go under. From my viewpoint out here, it's the matter of life or death to the missionary enterprise and as I write I can't help the tears coming to my eyes, for this is a fight the dimensions of which are hard to explain. Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Theology, Historical Thought, History of Missions, all come either to a place of relativity as they bump into the powerful eastern sense of identity of all reality or else they come to a ghetto of unintelligible thought in an ivory tower of a church, which can't communicate to the people. The answer is the Holy Spirit and only the Holy Spirit.

Certainly we must be true to our genius as "a movement of the Spirit." Let us examine ourselves in this day of unprecedented opportunity, on the one hand, and of unrelenting crises on the other. I refer again to Peabody, who, in his discussion of "the church of the Spirit," reminds us that, whereas the greatest internal danger to "a church of authority" is that of nonconformity, the sins of "a church of the Spirit" are to be sought in spiritual defections and moral delinquencies. To "the church of the Spirit" the unpardonable sin is the apostasy of spiritual life. Peabody mentions four sins peculiar to "the church of the Spirit": spiritual illiteracy, spiritual complacency, spiritual indolence, spiritual intolerance. We shall use the identification of these "sins" as the basis of our self-examination. First, is there any evidence of ct spiritual illiteracy" in the holiness movement? Spiritual illiteracy does not refer primarily to academic ignorance. Rather it has reference to a lack of spiritual-mindedness. The spiritually illiterate person lacks susceptibility to spiritual influences and insight for spiritual realities. To quote from Peabody: He may contend for the faith once delivered to the saints without appropriating the faith which made them saints. He may know much about religion without having

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much religion of His own. He may be learned in the letter and illiterate in the Spirit. He may be so preoccupied as a theologian with the proofs of God that he overlooks the evidence of his own religious life. 22

Is there any lack of spiritual-mindedness among those who profess holiness? Is there self-centeredness? Is there self-will? Are there unchristian attitudes? Is there any worldliness, any conformity to the spirit of our secularistic age? There is an antidote to "spiritual illiteracy." There is a cure for the lack of spiritual-mindedness. It is "the gift of the Holy Spirit." It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit upon the believer. Paul tells us that it is possible. for us not to be "conformed to the world" but to be "transformed" by the renewing of our minds through the Holy Spirit. 23 What about the sin of "spiritual complacency"? This refers to inactivity because of self-satisfaction. A person becomes so pleased with past blessings and accomplishments that he permits himself to be isolated from any demands for increased spiritual activity. Is there any evidence of this among us? Are we satisfied just to look back?-back to the early days of the Wesleyan revival?-back to the early days of the holiness movement?-back to the early days of a local church or of one's own spiritual experience? Here again we discover an antidote to "the sin which doth so easily beset us." The antidote to spiritual complacency is found in a valid and practical use of "the gifts of the Spirit." Paul mentions nine gifts of the Spirit: tongues, the interpretation of tongues, prophecy, discerning the Spirit, the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, faith, miracles, healing. 24 "Peabody, op. cit., p. 108. "Rom. 12:2. "I Cor. 12:4, 7-11.

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Three gifts of the Spirit appeared to be for purposes of worship: tongues, the interpretation of tongues, prophecy. Three gifts have to do with divine revelation: discerning the Spirit, the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom. The other three are "power gifts": faith, miracles, healing. Have "the gifts of the Spirit" been annulled? Even if you should think that one or more of them has been annulled, what about all the others? Is not the Spiritfilled individual, possessing a "gift of the Spirit," called to renewed spiritual activity? Should not our movement be characterized by flaming, dedicated spiritual activity? The third sin is that of "spiritual indolence." Are there mistaken notions among us that the work of the Holy Spirit within us is mechanical and inevitable? Do any of us assume that once we have received "the fullness of the Spirit" all manifestations of normal, maturing goodness are guaranteed forever? Could it be that there are those who would rather "go back to perfection" or remain "static in perfection" than to "go on to perfection"? Here again the Word of God prescribes an antidote. The antidote to "spiritual indolence" is to be found in "the fruit of the Spirit." Remember the words of Paul: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."25 John Wesley, in the spiritual tradition of St. Paul, is emphatic in his insistence that the Spirit-filled individual will manifest "the fruit of the Spirit." There is fruit for God to feed upon-love, goodness, faith. There is fruit for others to feed upon-joy, gentleness, meekness. There is fruit for one's self to feed upon-peace, long-suffering, self-control. "Gal. 5: 22-23.

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The harvest of "the fruit of the Spirit" in one's life is consistent with the principle of the seed. The seed must be planted if the fruit is ever to manifest itself. Most assuredly it is the divine seed that is planted. But it is our responsibility not only to plant it, but to cultivate it, and to harvest it. The last sin of "the church of the Spirit" is "spiritual intolerance." This has been described as "the sin of small minds in their dealings with great themes." How eruptive is the tendency for our small minds, in dealing with such great themes as spiritual experience, the Church, the Christian mission, to make us divisive in our attitudes and in our conduct! But let us be quick to acknowledge that Christian history clearly teaches that, where the Holy Spirit is, there is unity; and where there is disunity, there the Holy Spirit is not. There is an antidote to the sin of "spiritual intolerance." It is to be found in the commission of the Spirit. The Spirit calls us to world evangelization. "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."20 Will not the faithful stewardship of the Spirit's commission inevitably create a bond of spiritual unity? Is not the evangelization of the world too mighty a task to try to do it alone? Certainly we must examine ourselves as "holiness people." If, under the inspired influence of the Spirit of God, we become convinced and convicted that our movement is committing any or all of the sins of "the church of the Spirit," we must immediately acknowledge it and then seek to discover and utilize the spiritual antidotes. Truly, it is profitable for us in our movement to be warned concerning the abuse of spiritual principles as were early Methodists by Mr. Wesley: ··Rev.22:17.

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I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the fonn of religion without the power. IT

Is there not a relevant paraphrase? Listen to any of the greathearts of our movement as he declares: I am not afraid that there will ever be a time when there is no one in the world who believes in Christian holiness. I do not even fear that there will come a day when there is no holiness movement. But I am afraid lest personal belief in holiness will become only a lifeless test of orthodoxy or that the holiness movement shall exist only as a properly organized and adequately financed society, having the form of the religion of the Holy Spirit without the power.

In closing, I return to the thesis of this message. We are a part of "the church of the Spirit." What a heritage-"the church of the Spirit" through the centuries! To have our contemporary genius in "the church of the Spirit"-what a privilege! But to be true to "the church of the Spirit"-what a stewardship! Ours is the responsibility to manifest in our day the genius of "the church of the Spirit" and to perform its ministry. Thank God for the Gift of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, the commission of the Spirit!

"Wesley, "Thoughts upon Methodism," Selections from the Writings of the Reverend John Wesley, M.A., Herbert Welch, ed. p.205.

Ivan C. Howard Professor in theology and philosophy, Vennard College; B.A., Kletzing College; Garrett Biblical Institute; Asbury Theological Seminary; State University of Iowa, 1959-62; graduate work completed except research and writing of doctoral thesis; pastor, 1945-50; evangelist, 1952-54; author of numerous articles in religious journals.

14 The Doctrine of Assurance as Held and Taught by John Wesley IVAN

I.

C.

HOWARD

INTRODUCTION

The doctrine of assurance, the teaching that a person may know he is a Christian by a direct witness of the Holy Spirit to his own consciousness, has had varying degrees of acceptance during the Christian era. In the Middle Ages it was quite forgotten. Luther brought it out of hiding with his "justification by faith alone," but the Reformation gave it a subordinate emphasis, and the Council of Trent condemned it. 1 England in the eighteenth century had virtually banished the doctrine. At this time the Methodists suddenly emerged giving it primary importance. They held it to be not only a possible accompaniment of salvation but a certain accompaniment; hence, if one did not know by conscious revelation that he was saved, Methodism asserted that he was not. The holiness movement today, spawned as it was by the early Methodists, often takes the doctrine of assurance for granted, fails to appreciate its importance, and certainly fails to appreciate the price early Methodism paid to bequeath it to us. Moreover the emphasis given to assurance by any group can be said to be generally proportional to the total emphasis given to the Holy Spirit. Hence the holiness movement has the greatest obligation to emphasize the doctrine of lH. J. Schroeader, a.p., Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, 6th Session, Chap. IX, p. 35. 231

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assurance, not only because of its Wesleyan heritage, but also because of its emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit. II.

IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE TO WESLEY SHOWN

By

THE PERSECUTION ENDURED

One can realize the importance of the doctrine to Wesley only as one sees what he endured for the sake of it. Methodism caused a mighty upheaval, and this brought persecution; but the upheaval was caused quite largely by the preaching of assurance. Such teaching condemned everyone who did not have a definite, clear awareness of salvation. Under preaching like Wesley's or Whitefield's this doctrine precipitated the wildest kind of demonstration; and the Methodists were immediately charged with being but a repetition of the licentious, bellowing harranguers of the century preceding. It needs to be pointed out that the dislike of demonstration in religion stemmed not only from personal disapproval, but also from fear. A primary concern among the leaders of government was to avoid anything that would move the poor to revolt or panic. This feeling of fear stemmed from the seventeenth century, which had had two revolutions, and was looked back upon as the high-water mark in error in English history.2 Mid-eighteenth century England faced the danger of war with France, and the danger of Roman Catholicism, coupled with the Pretender's claims to the English throne. Besides these, the corrupt rule of Walpole naturally feared anything that might expose its quiet rule by bribery. Since the Anglican church was under the government, its leaders shared to a degree all of the current fears. Church services were therefore styled to preserve ·Umphrey Lee, Historical Backgrounds of Early Methodist Enthusiasm, p. 115.

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the quiet of the times, and the preaching of the day corresponded. "In England a sermon is a solid but sometimes dry dissertation which a man reads to the people without gesture and without any particular exaltation of the voice."3 Wesley and his preachers were as different from this as daylight is from darkness. They preached "usually with a complete disregard of the conventionalities of their professions."· And the Methodists were very soon accused of almost any crime mentionable. Joseph Trapp, D.D., said, in 1739: "Methodism was nothing but a revival of that old fanaticism of the last century; when all manner of madness was practiced, and all manner of villainy committed in the name of Christ. 5 When one recalls that some of the sects of the seventeenth century supposedly practiced community of women, and gloried in the vilest of cursing and profanity as actually fulfilling the obligations of religion, the accusation becomes libel of the worst sort. As early as 1740 over one hundred publications had attacked the Methodists; by the close of the century they were without number. Some of the titles are revealing: Trick upon Trick, or Methodism Displayed, 1743; The Jesuit Detected, 1769; The Serpent and the Fox, 1777, with a subtitle, An Interview Between Old Nick and Old John. Wesley was called "that mystery of iniquity" and "emissary of Satan."6 In his Journal, August 27, 1739, Wesley says: "Indeed the report is now current in Bristol that I was a Papist, if not a Jesuit. Some added that I was born and bred in Rome."7 And in 1744 when 'William E. H. Lecky, History of England in the 18th Century, p. 579 (hereafter referred to as Lecky). 'Ibid., p. 610.

°L. Tyerman. Life and Times of Wesley, I, 242 (hereafter referred to as Tyerman). 'Wesley Bready, England Before and After Wesley, pp. 178-79. 'The Journal of John Wesley, ed. by Nehemiah Curnock, n, 262 (hereafter referred to as Journal).

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all Catholics were ordered to leave London, Wesley thought it advisable to delay his departure lest it arouse suspicion. 8 In July, 1745, a warrant was out for his arrest on these grounds. 9 But besides the charge that Wesley was a Papist, the Methodists were also accused of egotism, ignorance, and immorality. The following appeared in the weekly church paper of the Established Church, the Weekly Miscellany, July 21, 1739: The Methodist preacher stands on the eminence with admiring and subscribing crowds about him. He is young, which is good; looks innocent, which is better; and has no human learning, which is best of all. He spreads his hands and opens his lips as far as possible.... They are buffoons in religion and mountebanks in theology; creatures who disclaim sense and are below argument, visionary antics in gowns and cassocks to the whole island; composing sermons as fast as they can write and speaking faster than they can think; and forming societies of females, who are to confess their love affairs one to another, and to take care that there shall be a supply of new Methodists for future generations. 'O

Persecution, however, was not limited to verbal attacks. The laws did not permit legal action against the Methodists but mobs were incited and smiled upon while they broke up houses, carried off personal property, and maltreated the occupants. In one or two instances death resulted from violence.H The preaching of assurance of salvation provoked persecution for several reasons. It made the preacher appear egotistical, regardless of how humble he might be. Wesley was accused of this very fault. Rowland Hill, in a pamphlet, says: "The sum and substance of John's "Ibid., p. 632. J oumal, III, 191. lOTyerman, op. cit., I, 247-48. "Lecky, op. cit., II, 628. gg

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whole preaching is I, I, I, and my brother, my brother and I have done all the work of God that has been done in these nations."12 A striking illustration of the resentment toward one who said he knew he was saved is that of Edward Greenfield, a Methodist with a family of seven children, who was arrested at one of Wesley's preaching services. Wesley inquired concerning the cause and received the following answer: I asked a little gentleman at St. Just what objection there was to Edward Greenfield. He said, "Why the man is well enough in other things; but his impudence the gentleman cannot bear. Why sir, he says he knows his sins are forgiven!''''

Beside the odiousness of egotism, the preaching of assurance also caused uncontrolled emotional demonstrations. It swept away any hope of salvation one might have apart from the witness of the Spirit. Such an indictment could not fail to bring condemnation to the listeners, and the condemnation brought scenes of crying, groaning, and shouting which further antagonized those outside of Methodist sympathy. Such scenes suggested mob action and also insulted the decorum of the day. Wesley admits these emotional outbreaks; in his Journal for Tuesday, May 1, 1739, he writes: Many were offended again, and indeed, much more than before. For at Baldwin Street my voice could scarce be heard amidst the groanings of some and the cries of others, calling aloud to Him that is "mighty to save." I desired all that were sincere of heart to beseech with me the Prince exalted for us, that He would "proclaim deliverance to the captives." And He soon showed that He heard our voice. Many of those who had been long in darkness saw the dawn of a great light." 12Ibid., p. 651. "Journal, III, 185-86. "Journal, II, 186-87.

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Besides the charges of egotism and of emotional outbreaks, in preaching assurance the Methodists provoked further enmity; in defending their own position, they charged the Anglican clergy of being ignorant of a primary doctrine, thus making more odious their seeming egotism. The eraction of the Anglican clergy is seen in the fact that John and Charles Wesley called on the Bishop of London in the autumn of 1738 to answer to a specific complaint for preaching the doctrine of assurance. 15 It is to be admitted that the Methodist preaching against the morals of the day antagonized many; but even this was aggravated by the doctrine of assurance, since it made more vivid the separation between Methodists and those outside the movement. William Ragsdale Cannon in his The Theology of John Wesley says this concerning the general attitude toward Wesley's doctrine of assurance: Such a doctrine as the direct testimony of the Holy Spirit to the individual believer did not commend itself to the theologians of the eighteenth century . . .[they] reacted to the Wesleyan statement of it with open antagonism [italics added]."

Lecky says of the Methodist preachers: They taught in language of the most vehement emphasis, as the cardinal tenet of Christianity the doctrine of the new birth in a form which was altogether novel to their hearers. They were never weary of urging that all men are in a condition of damnation who have not experienced a sudden, violent, and supernatural change, or inveighing against the clergy for their ignorance of the very essence of Christianity [italics added]." '"Journal, I, 93. "William Ragsdale Cannon, The Theology of John Wesley, pp. 215-16 (hereafter referred to as Cannon). "Lecky, op. cit., II, 609.

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George Croft Cell in his Rediscovery says:

of John

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Wesley

The main point to note is that Wesley, in the final statement of his doctrine, refused to budge from his position that assurance is a common privilege of the children of God and should be so preached. And this was the real issue between Wesley and his age. All else is beside the point [italics added]."

The surrender of this point of absolute assurance could have undoubtedly saved Wesley and the early Methodists much persecution. The fact that they so boldly and tenaciously clung to it is evidence of its importance in Wesley's thinking and in that of his followers. III. How

WESLEY CAME TO ENDORSE THE DOCTRINE OF ASSURANCE

Where did Wesley get the idea of assurance of salvation? Certainly he did not get it from the temper of the times. The majority of the professing Christians regarded religion in such a fashion that if you seek it you won't find it; if you find it, you won't know it; if you know it, you haven't got it; if you got it, you can't lose it; if you lose it, you never had it."

It has been said that he got the idea from his mother. Wesley denies this; in his Journal, September 3, 1739, he says that his mother told him: . . . till a short time since, she had scarce heard such a thing mentioned as having the forgiveness of sins now, or God's Spirit bearing witness with our spirit; much less did she imagine that this was the common privilege of all true believers. 2 ' "George Croft Cell, The Rediscovery of John Wesley, p. 55. "Quoted in Arthur W. Nagler, The Church in History, p. 183. "Journal, II, 267.

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Nor is it probable that he got the idea from the Church of England. In its Thirty-nine Articles of Religion one finds no statement of personal assurance. Moreover, many of the Church leaders seem directly opposed to such a doctrine. Bishop William Warburton attacked Wesley in 1750 on this doctrine, declaring that it was neither scriptural nor historica1.2 1 Bishop Butler also denied the idea of direct assurance, and is reported to have told Wesley, "Sir, the pretending to extraordinary revelations and gifts of the Holy Ghost is a horrid thing, a very horrid thing. "22 The doctrine of direct assurance was only fully endorsed by Wesley after a long, thirteen-year period of struggle, a struggle in which he went from rejecting the idea of direct assurance, through the Spirit, to heartily endorsing it. One finds Wesley, from 1735 to 1738, with one confession after another on his lips of his own sinful state. His confidence was gone, and his heart was filled with fear and unbelief. In 1735 he embarked for Georgia, and on his way across he was frightened by a storm, and acknowledged his unfitness for death. 23 During one of these storms Wesley was deeply impressed with the calm behavior of the Moravians. He was so impressed that he had scarcely landed until he interviewed Spangenberg, a leader of the Moravians. The conversation between them has been often quoted but is so relevant to the subject that it is given below. Sun. 8, (Feb. 1736) I asked Mr. Spangenberg's advice with regard to myself-to my own conduct. He told me he could say nothing till he had asked me two or three questions. "Do you know yourself? Have you the witness within yourself? Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God?" I was surprised "Cannon, op. cit., p. 216. "Ibid., p. 216. "Journal, I, 123.

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and knew not what to answer. He observed it and asked, "Do you know Jesus Christ?" I paused and said, "I know He is the Saviour of the world." "True," replied he: "but do you know He has saved you?" I answered, "I hope He has died to save me." He only added, "Do you know yourself?" I said, "I do." But I fear they were vain words'"

The same uncertainty marks his total time in America. Several times in his Journal this feeling shows itself. He summarizes it as follows: All the time I was at Savannah I was thus beating the air. Being ignorant of the righteousness of Christ, which, by a living faith in Him, bringeth salvation "to everyone that believeth," I sought to establish my own righteousness; and so labored on in the fire all my days ... Every day was I constrained to cry out, "What I do, I allow not: for what I would, I do not; but what I hate, that I do...." In this vile abject state of bondage to sin I was indeed fighting continually, but not conquering. Before I had willingly served sin: now it was unwillingly; but I still served it'"

On his way back to England, as he neared the shores, he took inventory of his bankrupt spiritual condition and stated it as follows in his Journal, January 24,1738. I went to America to convert the Indians; but, oh, who shall convert me? Who, what is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of unbelief? I have a fair summer religion. I can talk well; nay and believe myself, while no danger is near. But let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled. Nor can I say "to die is gain"! I have a sin of fear, that when I've spun My last thread, I shall perish on the shore!"

Soon after his arrival in England, Wesley became acquainted with Peter Bohler, another Moravian whose "Ibid., 1,151. ••Ibid., I, 470. "Ibid., I, 418.

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assurance increased his conviction for his own spiritual condition. The intensity of the mental struggle at this time is revealed by his Journal entries during the winter and spring of 1738. In his Journal, January 8, he writes: In the fullness of my heart, I wrote the following words: By the most infallible of proofs, inward feeling, I am convinced 1. Of unbelief; having no such faith in Christ as will prevent my heart being troubled which it could not be, if I believed in God, and rightly believed in Him."

In his Journal entry of February 28 he writes: With regard to my own behaviour, I now renewed and wrote down my resolutions: 1.

2. To labour after continual seriousness, not willingly indulging myself in any levity of behaviour, or in laughter,-no not for a moment. 3. To speak no word which does not tend to the glory of God; in particular, not to talk of worldly things. Others may, nay must. But what is that to thee?'·

Such entries certainly show how desperate Wesley was at this time, and also how he had virtually come to the state of mind where feeling was the index of his relation with God. On March 23, Wesley apparently disputed with Bohler the fact that faith was such as would bring lasting inward peace and deliverance from sin, but on March 22 he visited a condemned man burdened down with sins, and of course facing execution. He preached Bohler's "faith alone" to him, and undoubtedly to Wesley's surprise, the man found perfect peace in a moment, a peace which was maintained when carried to the gallows. This must have strongly impressed Wesley, for he recorded it in his Journal, giving special emphasis to the J7Jo'Urnal, I, 145.

!lIbid., I, 441.

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composure of the man. 29 On Sunday, April 2, he wrote in his Journal, "I see the promise; but it is afar

Off."30

In conversation with Bohler on April 22 and 23, Wesley completely surrendered to Bohler's contention of instantaneous faith bringing abiding peace and holiness, and made himself a seeker. He encountered his brother Charles and a Mr. Broughton in an argument over the idea of instantaneous conversion and says, "My brother was very angry, and told me I did not know what mischief I had done by talking thus. 31 Charles, however, in his Journal says of this incident: We sang and fell into a dispute whether conversion was gradual or instantaneous. . . . I insisted a man need not know when first he had faith. His obstinacy in favoring the contrary opinion drove me at last out of the room. S '

In the days between the last of April and May 24, John and Charles Wesley both had a conference with Peter Bohler, and Charles was also convinced of instantaneous conversion; and he was actually converted three days before John. Wesley's Aldersgate experience was the climax to the period of thirteen years of search for inner assurance. Some have tried to minimize its importance. 33 -34 A better appraisal of Aldersgate can be made after reading Wesley's own description of the experience. In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine,

••Ibid., I, 448. ,oIbid., I, 449. •,Ibid., I, 456. "Ibid., I, 456 (quoted from Charles Wesley's Journal, Apr. 25, 1738). "Umphrey Lee, John Wesley and Modern Religion, p. 100. "Maximim Piette, John Wesley and the Evolution of PTotestantism, pp. 305-12.

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while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt that I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. I began to pray with all my might for those who had in a more especial manner despitefully used me and persecuted me. I then testified openly to all there what I now first felt in my heart [italics added].'·

Certainly this kind of testimony is new to Wesley. Across a thirteen-year struggle of seeking soul rest Wesley had come all the way from trying to rationalize away his doubt to that of perfect assurance. From Aldersgate on, not withstanding deficiencies and failures at times, Wesley was a different man. This certainty, this absolute assurance from Aldersgate was a crucial factor in his untiring zeal and accomplishment.

IV.

WESLEY'S FINAL POSITION ON ASSURANCE

From 1738 to 1744 Wesley seems to have held that without exception anyone who lacked the witness of the Spirit lacked salvation. This view is confirmed as official by the conversation of a small inner circle at the Foundry, June 25,1744. . . . faith [is that] by which he is justified, or pardoned, the moment he received it. Immediately the Spirit bears witness, "Thou art pardoned; thou hast redemption in his blood".... "Q.5 Have all Christians this faith? May not a man be justified and not know it? A. That all Christians have such a faith as implies an assurance of God's love, appears from Romans viii. 15; Ephes. iv. 32; 2 Cor. 13: 5 . . . And that no man can be justified and not know it, appears further from the nature of the thing; ...'. "Journal, I, 465-76. '·John Wesley, The Worsks of John Wesley, VIII, 275-76 (hereafter referred to as Works).

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n spite of the positive declaration in 1744 that assurance always acc~mpanies salvation, by August, 1745, with a similar group of clergymen present the decision was changed to assurance almost always accompanies salvation. The conversation follows: Q. Is an assurance of God's pardoning love absolutely necessary to our being in his favor? Or may there be possibly some exempt cases? A. We dare not positively say there are not."

The perplexing thing about Wesley's stand on assurance from this time forward as an accompaniment of salvation . is that he never clarifies his position. In correspondence with a Richard Thompson in February, 1756, Wesley quotes both the conversation of 1744 and also of 1745, apparently not sensing any contradiction. 38 Again in 1767 in his sermon "The Witness of the Spirit," Wesley holds that the Spirit always brings assurance of salvation;39 but in 1768 in correspondence with a Dr. Rutherford he allows cases where assurance is lacking. 40 The best evaluation which the writer can make is that Wesley expected assurance to accompany conversion; but when he found someone who showed all sincerity in seeking Christ and lived righteously, he allowed they were Christians. It certainly would be a false appraisal of Wesley to hold that he gladly accepted people as saved who lacked the witness of the Spirit; he did it hesitatingly, but he did it. A further index to Wesley's belief in his later years is the teaching and preaching of the preachers associated with him. John Fletcher was a close associate of Wesley, '7The Letters of John Wesley, ed. by John Telford, III, 160 (hereafter referred to as Letters) . ••Ibid., III, 161. ··Wesley's Standard Sermons, ed. by Edward H. Sugden, II, 351-52 (hereafter referred to as Sermons). 'OLetters, V, 358-59.

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a man whom Wesley chose to be his successor, had he lived, and Fletcher wrote on May 24, 1774: "Nobody ... can truly believe according to this dispensation, without being immediately conscious both of the forgiveness of sins, and of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost."41 Adam Clarke (c. 1760-1832) was appointed by Wesley to preach as a young man and was associated with Methodism throughout his life. His Christian Theology, compiled and edited after his death, leaves no doubt as to his beliefs on assurance. He says: Wherever I went among deeply religious people I found this blessing.... I met with it among the most simple and illiterate as well as among these who had every advantage which high cultivation and deep learning could bestow. Perhaps I might with the strictest truth say that during the forty years I have been in the ministry I have met at least forty thousand who have had a clear full evidence that God for Christ's sake had forgiven their sins, the Spirit himself bearing witness with their spirit that they were sons and daughters of God."

This last statement of Clarke is significant since a very high percentage of the forty thousand mentioned must have been Methodists. In summary it is not an exaggeration to say that Wesley and his preachers expected the witness of the Spirit to accompany salvation in every case; but if it was lacking and all other evidences pointed to the person as being saved, they were reluctantly willing to allow it, or at least withhold judgment. After his Aldersgate experience Wesley at two different times expressed doubts concerning his own experience. In his Journal, January 4, 1739, he complained of not being a Christian. 43 Again in 1766, Wesley, due to sickness, "John Fletcher, The Works of the Rev. John Fletcher, I, 429. "Adam Clarke, Christian Theology, ed. by Samuel Dunn, pp.150-54. "Journal, II, 125-26.

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accident, and difficult preaching, found himself discouraged and he wrote to his brother Charles: I do not love God. I never did. Therefore I never believed in the Christian sense of the word ... If I ever have had that faith it would not be so strange. But I never had any other EAE"YXO$ (evidence or test) of the eternal or invisible world than I have now . . . I have no direct witness."

These two instances which undoubtedly have been used against his belief in the doctrine of assurance, based upon the witness of the Spirit, are in fact excellent evidence for his belief in it. In both instances his lament was that right at the time he did not feel the witness of the Spirit. The instances are separated by twenty-seven years and hence indicate that these were the only times when he did not feel the witness of the Spirit. That the above quote does not represent Wesley's deliberate judgment is conclusive; two isolated instances of discouragement cannot be taken as an index to a man's belief when the total expression of his life is in the exact opposite direction. It would seem that while he was grudgingly willing to allow the absence of the witness of the Spirit to others he was scarce able to endure it for a moment himself.

V.

WESLEY'S DOCTRINE OF ASSURANCE OF ENTffiE SANCTIFICATION

Although the question of assurance for entire sanctification did not occupy center-stage in Wesley's clash with the Church of his day, Wesley leaves us in no doubt concerning his position. He made due allowance for variations in people, but he always returned to his affirmation that we know of our entire sanctification by the witness of the Spirit. In what appears to be an "Letters, V, 16.

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answer to a personal inquiry on the Spirit's witness to entire sanctification he says: When you were justified, you had a direct witness that your sins were forgiven: afterward, this witness was frequently intermitted; and yet you did not doubt of it. In like manner, you have had a direct witness that you were saved from sin, and this witness is frequently intermitted; and yet even then you do not doubt it. But I doubt if God withdraws either the one witness or the other without some occasion given on our part [italics added]'"

Wesley shows the importance he attached to the witness of the Spirit of one's sanctification in a letter to one of his preachers in 1768. "If any deny the witness of sanctification, and occasion disputing in the select society, let him or her meet therein no more."46 It may be well to note that in mid-nineteenth century in America a serious controversy developed between Phoebe Palmer and some of the Methodists. 47 Mrs. Palmer emphasized the thought that when one has consecrated all to Christ he has a right to believe and expect the witness of the Spirit to follow. 48 Confusion still exists over this method of "take it by faith" or wait for the "witness of the Spirit." Wesley's final test was the witness of the Spirit. He says: . . . None therefore, ought to believe the work is done, till there is added the testimony of the Spirit, witnessing his entire sanctification, as clearly as his justification""

"Works, Vlli, 48. "Ibid., VII, 452. "Timothy Smith, Revivalism and Social Reform, pp. 125-28. "Phoebe Palmer, Faith and Its Effects, pp. 285-86. '"John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, pp. 5051.

W. T. Purkiser Editor, Herald of Holiness; part-time professor, Nazarene Theological Seminary; A.B., Pasadena College; M.A., University of Southern California; D.D., Pasadena College; Ph.D., University of Southern California; pastor, Church of the Nazarene, 1930-37; professor, Pasadena ColI e g e, 1937-49, Nazarene Theological Seminary, 1957-; president, Pasadena College, 1949-57; author: Know Your Old Testament, 1947; Conflicting Concepts of Holiness, 1953 (Spanish edition, 1954); Exploring the Old Testament (editor), 1955; Security: The False and the True, 1956; Beliefs That Matter Most, 1959; Exploring Our Christian Faith (editor), 1960 Adventures in Truth, 1960; Sanctification and Its Synonyms, 1961.

15 Full Salvation W. T.

PURKISER

"Full salvation" is one of several terms used to describe entire sanctification which, while not drawn directly from the Bible, still express thoroughly biblical ideas. No study of God's total redemptive work in human lives can be complete that does not give proper weight to the truths set forth in terms such as these. Both the noun and its modifier in "full salvation" are eloquent with scriptural meaning. We shall look first at the term "salvation" itself; second at the adjective "full"; third at key biblical passages which join these two ideas; and finally at some of the stated or implied limits to the scope of full salvation in this life. I

PERHAPS NO single word better expresses the message and purpose of the whole Bible than the word "salvation." It has become almost trite to state that the Bible is "the history of salvation." Sometimes the emphasis has been more on the history than on the salvation. At times it has been obscure what kind of salvation is meant. But there is enough truth in the phrase to highlight the importance of the idea of salvation in Scripture in all its varied dimensions. As Dr. J. B. Chapman has said: "Salvation is the great word of the gospel, being, in a sense, a summing up of all the acts and processes involved in that glorious message of good news."l 'The Terminology of Holiness (Kansas City, Mo.: Beacon Hill Press, 1947), p. 57. 249

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1. Salvation in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is a book of salvation as well as is the New Testament. It is true that salvation in the Old Testament is a very broad term. Otto J. Baab has listed the several "goals of salvation" as including political deliverance by military might, long life, prosperity, and material blessings; but above all, the personal renunciation of self-will, pride, and sin. 2 The Hebrew term yasha' (to save) is used over three hundred times in the Old Testament, and the form of salvation or deliverance was suited to the particular need, whether deliverance from the pursuing armies of Egypt (Exod. 14: 13), from a premature death (Ps. 91: 16), or from the stain and pollution of sin (Ps. 51: 10-2). As H. H. Rowley summarizes: God is not alone a God of compassion. He is a saving God. His salvation manifests itself in a form appropriate to the need. Here again, therefore, while the thought of God as a saving God is constant through the Old Testament and lives on in the New, there is really a considerable development in the thought. At the Exodus He delivered Israel from the Egyptian bondage; at the other end of the development He is seen to deliver men from the corruption of sin. For with the perception that His compassion reached down beyond man's physical estate to his spiritual condition it was seen that His salvation reached as far as His compassion. Nowhere is He a helpless God. His resources are ever equal to His purposes.'

All of the great redemptive terms of the Old Testament witness to this deepening concept of salvation. God's love and grace are seen in the Old Testament as 'Theology of the Old Testament Cokesbury Press, 1949), pp. 115-20.

(New York: Abingdon-

'The Unity of the Bible (Philadelphia: The Westminister Press, 1953), pp. 67-68.

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well as the New. "It was not left for the New Testament to declare that God loves sinners. Its distinction is that it shows how much He loves them."4 There are forgiveness and ransom and redemption in the Old Testament. God is "the everlasting God of justice, creative power, and holiness as he seeks to save men from their sins and to help them live a new life."5 It is unfortunate that our concepts of Old Testament piety have been colored by the legalism and externalism of the Judaism of New Testament times. This has led us to overlook the very deep and sincere devotion found in the Old Testament. The fact that the Psalms so adequately express the highest reaches of Christian devotion is an eloquent testimony to the spiritual stature possible in Old Testament times. When all this has been said, we still see that there was a forward look to salvation in the Old Testament. To put it in the technical language of the scholars, salvation takes on an eschatological aspect. It relates to the "last days" and to "the day of the Lord." The later prophets stress this constantly. God will make a new covenant with the house of Israel (Jer. 31: 31-34). A new Figure begins to fill the horizons of prophetic vision. As Hermann Schultz so eloquently put it: Now, just as the outward forms of sacrifice begin to fade away into shadows, the age is lighted up with the pregnant thought of a nobler sacrifice about to come. The Servant of God who represents Israel's calling, and who, uniting the sinful people with its God, becomes Himself an atonement for Israel, suffers and dies in His vocation in order to secure this reconciliation. His death, freely endured for the people, is a means of reconciliation of a new kind, an offering for sin unlike the victims slain of old. ·C. Ryder Smith, The Bible Doctrine of Sin (London: The Epworth Press, 1953), p. 56. 'Baab, op. cit., p. 121.

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Thus, as the shadows disappear, prophecy grasps the substance.·

So in the Messianic hope, the Old Testament doctrine of salvation reaches full flower (cf. Isa. 35: 3-10). 2. Salvation in the New Testament. The Bible doctrine of salvation comes to full expression in the New Testament in the constant use of the verb "to save" and the noun "salvation." Out of a total of 150 occurrences, the verb form is used over 100 times. Salvation itself is as broad as the human need to which it relates. It takes in the total person, body as well as soul, so that Frederick C. Grant is fully justified in defining salvation as "the whole state of welfare or well-being of the people in right relations to God."7 Particularly in the Synoptics, "save" is frequently used in relation to physical healing (Mark 5: 34; 10: 52; Luke 17:19; Matt. 8:34; 14:30). Of note also is the close connection between faith for healing and for the forgiveness of sins (Mark 2: 5-11) . It is of course particularly with salvation from sin that we are concerned here. W. E. Vine gives as one of the meanings of soteria (salvation) in the New Testament: "the present experience of God's power to deliver from the bondage of sin . . . this present experience on the part of believers is virtually equivalent to sanctification."s In the same vein, but working from the opposite direction, C. Ryder Smith claims: "It goes without saying that Paul's exposition of such terms as 'justify' and 'sanctify' is an exposition of salvation."9 ·Old Testament Theology. Translated by J. A. Paterson (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1909), II, 96. 'Introduction to New Testament Thought (New York: The Abingdon Press, 1950), p. 247. ·Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (London: Oliphants, Ltd., 1940), ill, 316. "The Bible Doctrine of Grace (London: The Epworth Press, 1956), p. 74.

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It is important to recall that salvation in the New Testament is a much broader term than conversion or justification. Paul makes this plain in II Thess. 2: 13 when he says, "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." Another point closely related to this is that salvation is spoken of in all three verb tenses: we have been saved (Eph. 2: 5, 8; II Tim. 1: 9; Titus 3: 5); we are being saved (1 Cor. 1: 18; II Cor. 2: 15, Greek); and we shall be saved (Matt. 10: 22; Acts 15: 11; Rom. 13: 11; I Pet. 1:5,9). Now it is against this background that the fathers were fully justified in distinguishing between the free salvation of justification, the full salvation of entire sanctification, and the final salvation of glorification. 1o Salvation in the New Testament sense includes all that is necessary to redeem man from sin and to qualify him for residence in a holy heaven. That salvation in its unqualified sense includes sanctification is clearly seen in two passages to which reference has already been made. The first is II Thess. 2: 13-14. Here salvation is said to be "through sanctification of the Spirit," not "to" or "as a preparation for" sanctifi. cation. It is also related to the gospel call, and to the final glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The same truth is also seen in Titus 2: 11-14: "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and wordlly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed l·The use of the expression goes back to John Wesley. Cf. J. B. Chapman, op. cit., p. 64. Note also the many times in the New Testament where the term salvation is used in an absolute sense, without qualification, as in Acts 4: 12; 13: 26; 16: 17; Rom. 1: 16; 10: 1,10; II Cor. 1: 6; 7: 10; Eph, 1: 13; Phil. 1: 28; 2: 12; Heb. 2: 3.

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hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Here it is seen that the salvation which comes by the grace of God includes both redemption from all iniquity and the purification unto Christ of a people for His own, marked by their zeal for good works. That this is not something to be achieved in a future life but that full salvation is for this world is seen in the apostle's insistence that we live soberly, righteously, and godly "in this present world." II

JUST AS SALVATION is a basic term throughout the whole of Scripture, so the idea of the fullness or completeness of God's provision for all our needs is also often expressed. Space will not permit a study of all of the relevant terms. They occur in both Old and New Testaments. There is, for example, the Hebrew term male, "full, complete," used to describe Bezaleel as being "filled with the spirit of God ['Spirit of God,' RSV] , in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship" (Exod. 31: 3; 35: 31). The same term is used in Deut. 1: 36 of the manner in which Caleb "wholly followed the Lord" (d. also Josh. 14: 8-9, 15); in Deut. 33: 23 of Naphtali, "satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord"; in Deut. 34: 9 of Joshua, "full of the spirit of wisdom"; in Ps. 107: 9 of the action of the Lord in satisfying the longing soul and filling the hungry soul with goodness; and in Mic. 3: 8, "But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin." It should be remembered also that the idea of fullness or wholeness is an important part of the meaning

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of the Hebrew shalom. This term is frequently used of the heart in relation to God. In such cases the usual English translation is "perfect," as in I Kings 8: 61, "Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day"; in I Kings 15: 14, "Nevertheless Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his days"; and many more. The most significant New Testament words are mestos and the derivatives of pleroo, particularly pleroma. Mestos is believed to come from a root meaning "to measrue," and so carries the idea of "full measure." It is used, for example, in Rom. 15: 14, "And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another"; and in Jas. 3: 17, where "the wisdom that is from above" and which is "first pure" is also said to be "full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." Pleroma, on the other hand, is described by W. E. Vine as standing: For the result of the action expressed in pleroo, to fill. It is used to signify (a) that which has been completed, the complement, fulness, e.g., John 1: 16; Eph. 1: 23. . . . that of which a thing is full.... used of God, in the completeness of His being, Eph. 3: 19; Col. 1: 19; 2: 9; the Church as the complement of Christ, Eph. 1: 23."

It is interesting to note that this is the word most characteristically used of the action of the Holy Spirit in filling the men of the Early Church, as in the oft repeated phrase "full of" or "filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 6: 3; 7: 55; 11: 24). The same word is used when believers are said to be full of wisdom (Acts 6: 3); faith and power (Acts 6: 8; good works (Acts 9: 36); and joy (John 16: 24; I John 1: 4; II John 12). It is the term ]lOp. cit., III, 136-37.

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translated "complete" in Col. 2: 10 and 4: 12: "And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power"; and "Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God." It is well to remember that this is also the word used in Paul's great expression of confidence in Rom. 15: 29, "And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ," or as the better texts read, "in the fulness of the blessing of Christ." Gerald Cragg has aptly described these words as follows: The fullness of the blessing of Christ is a singularly happy phrase. It suggests, for one thing, the many-sided completeness of the gift that Christ brings to men. What area of our life does he not touch into richer vitality? Is there any region where he disappoints our hopes? Only when men bring us a thin and attenuated gospel is there any inconsistency between Paul's words and our actual experience. Again, the phrase points to the distinctive quality as well as the comprehensive sufficiency of what Christ does for us. To enrich, but with satisfaction that passes into triumphant joy, is the characteristic work of the gospel. Moreover, this kind of experience has its sole source in Christ. To the N.T. writers Christ was not one among a number of alternative sources of such a blessing; there was "none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4: 12) ."

III WE HAVE ALREADY noted that the great expression "full salvation" does not occur in the Bible, although both members of the term are full of biblical meaning. In addition to II Thess. 2: 13; Titus 2: 11-14; and Rom. '"The Interpreter's Bible (New York: The Abingdon Press, 1952), IX, 652.

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15: 29, there are two important passages in which the ideas contained in the phrase are brought together in vital synthesis. To these we now turn our attention. One of the most compelling full-salvation texts in the Bible is I Thess. 5: 23, "And 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." It is clear beyond controversy that these words were addressed to sincere and soundly converted believers. The antecedent of "you" is a group of whom Paul had just written, "We give thanks to God always for you all ... remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance ... And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing. For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come" (I Thess. 1: 2-10) . To earnest Christians such as these Paul speaks of praying night and day that he might see them and "perfect [to make complete, to supply what is deficient, to make fit] that which is lacking" in their faith, to the end that their hearts may be established unblamable in holiness before our God and Father "in the presence of

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the Lord," as the literal translation of Alfred Marshall renders the Greek here (3: 10-13). The apostle continues: "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification"-and this no positional "setting apart," but a deeply ethical experience wherein the believer will keep himself from fornication, disciplining his body against lust, not taking advantage of his brother in any matter. And this for the reason that "God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit" (4: 3-8). All this is gathered up in the exhortations of 5: 14-22, culminating in the great prayer of verse 23 for the entire sanctification of these believers. There are two crucial words in this verse for the matter of full salvation, similar both in their Greek original and in their English translation. The first is holoteleis, from holoteles, translated by the adverb "wholly" or "entirely." Holoteleis itself is an adjective modifying humas, "you," the object of the sanctifying act of God. It means "quite complete," "wholly," as Charles J. Ellicott says, "in your collective powers and parts; holot, marking more emphatically than holous that thoroughness and pervasive nature of holiness."13 W. E. Vine says of holoteleis that it includes the idea of "whole," "through and through," extending to every part of the being. a The second important modifier in I Thess. 5: 23 is holokleron, which the KJV translates with the adjective "whole"-your "whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless." Arndt and Gingrich define this term as meaning undamaged, intact, whole, complete, blameless, sound. It is thus similar in meaning to l3Commentary on the Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians, 1,83-84. HOp. cit., IV, 213-14.

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holoteleis. 15 Vine suggests as the major distinction that it draws attention to the person as a whole, whereas holoteleis has more in view the several parts which constitute him. 16 Thayer defines holokleros as "ethically free from sin," even as he defines "to sanctify" as "to purify internally by reformation of the soul."17 Ellicott says, "In the N.T. (here and James 1:4) ... (holokleros) serves to mark that which is 'entire in all its parts' ... differing from teleios as rather defining what is complete) while the latter marks what has reached its proper end and maturity."18 A parallel use is found in James 1: 4, "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." The English versions of I Thess. 5: 23 translate holokleros in a variety of ways. The ASV uses "entire"; the RSV and NEB prefer "sound." Moffatt translates "without break"; Weymouth, "complete"; Phillips combines the idea of blamelessness with it in "spotless integrity"; and The Amplified New Testament gives "sound and complete." George Milligan comments on and paraphrases this verse: From these several injunctions the Apostles turn in characteristic fashion to the divine power in which alone they can be fulfilled ... 23, 24. "As however without God all your strivings must be in vain we pray that the God of peace Himself will sanctify you through and through, that the whole man may become God's, each part preserved entire and

'"Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago, illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1956), lac. cit. "Lac. cit. lTGreek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (New York: American Book Company, 1886), lac. cit. 18Loc. cit.

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without blame, and found so at the Parousia of the Lord Jesus. Nor need you have any fear regarding this. The very fact that it is God Who is calling is to you the pledge that He will not suffer His calling to become null and void."

hagiasai not being limited to the initial act of consecration, but (as in Rom. xv.16, Eph. v.26) pointing to the actual inward sanctification of the Thessalonians "in their whole persons"."

In similar vein, Leon Morris writes: The conjunction de really has an adversative force, "but". Paul has been exhorting the Thessalonians to a course of conduct which is impossible in man's own strength, and he utters a prayer which reminds them of the source of the power which alone would enable them to live in this way.... The prayer is that God may sanctify you wholly. There is a manward aspect of sanctification in that we are called upon to yield up our wills for the doing of God's will. But the power manifest in the sanctified life is not human, but divine, and Paul's prayer is phrased in the light of this. In the deepest sense our sanctification is the work of God within us. This work of sanctification may be ascribed to the Son (Eph. v. 26) or to the Spirit (Rom. xv.16), but in any case it is divine. The word wholly is an unusual one (holoteleis), being found only here in the New Testament. It is a combination of the ideas of wholeness and completion, and Lightfoot suggests that the meaning may be given here as "may He sanctify you so that ye be entire"!·

The second definitive full-salvation passage is found in Reb. 7: 19, 22, 25: "For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which lOSt. Paul's Epistles to the Thessalonians (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1953), pp. 77-78. ··The Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians, "Tyndale New Testament Commentaries" (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1957), p. 107.

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we draw nigh unto God. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." It is true, much controversy has centered around the phrase "to the uttermost." Some commentators, both ancient and modern, understand this to be a purely temporal expression, "He is able to save for all time them that come ..." The RSV follows this interpretation and at this point is thoroughly objectionable: "Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him." The weight of scholarly opinion, on the contrary, is that the phrase indicates degree, not duration; and that what is in view here is not the length of time for which Christ saves, but the extent of His salvation. Henry Alford notes that some take the phrase "to the uttermost" (Greek, eis to panteles) to refer to time, and says, "But this is not the usage of the word. Bleek has shown by very many instances, that completeness, not duration, is its idea: as indeed its etymology would lead us to suspect."21 The Expositor's Greek Testament likewise states: "The phrase uniformly means 'completely', 'thoroughly', as in Luke xiii.ll."22 Dr. A. M. Hills also defines it as "completely, entirely, perfectly," and combines both the temporal and the qualitative ideas in a happy phrase, "clear to the end of every possible need of the soul."2S Among recent translations of the verse, none is better than J. B. Phillips' rendering, "This means that "The Greek Testament (Chicago: The Moody Press, reprint 1958), IV, 143. "W. Robertson Nicoll, ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing,Co., reprint), IV, 316. "The Uttermost Salvation (Kansas City, Mo.: Nazarene Publishing House, 1927), p. 7.

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he can save fully and completely those who approach God through him."24 The Amplified New Testament gives "completely, perfectly, finally and for all time and eternity" as its amplification of the phrase "to the uttermost."25 Dr. H. Orton Wiley, in his masterful exposition of Hebrews, states concerning this passage: The writer has shown that perfection does not come by the Levitical priesthood, but he does say in effect, if not in words, that perfection does come through Christ. He does not use the term perfection, teleiosis, but the more general term sozein, "to save"; to which is added the phrase eis to panteles, which means "completely," "perfectly," and "to the uttermost," as indicated above. This is a strong expression ascribing to Christ a salvation which includes all possible perfections, all beneficient ends, pardon of sins, sanctification, our "fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life" (Rom. 6: 22). This verse justifies the reference to Jesus as the Sanctifier as given in 2: 11, and this sanctification in its wider meaning includes the cleansing from all sin and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit""

In a very important application, Dr. Wiley points out Luke 13: 11 as the only other place in the New Testament where the Greek phrase in question is used. Here it is spoken concerning the woman crippled by disease for eighteen years: She could not lift up herself "wholly" or "to the uttermost." As through the miraculous healing she was enabled to lift up herself to her full height physically, so

"'Letters to Young Churches (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1950) or The New Testament in Modern English (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1958), in loco. 2·Cf. also the discussion in Charles Ewing Brown, The Meaning of Sanctification (Anderson, Indiana: The Warner Press, 1945), pp.192-94. '"The Epistle to the Hebrews (Kansas City, Mo.: Beacon Hill Press, 1959), p. 254. The entire Book of Hebrews is an eloquent presentation of the nature and necessity of full salvation.

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the writer of this Epistle tells that Jesus also enables men to lift themselves up to their full height spiritually. God never destroys in man any faculty which He has created, nor does He add any; but He does so cleanse from all sin and unrighteousness that a man may stretch himself up to his full height. To what heights the Spirit of holiness may raise and sustain the soul that is fully committed to Him we cannot know; but we do know that whatever heights are attained are due to the new humanity, perfected in Christ by obedience and suffering, and now imparted to His people by the power of the Holy Spirit. 27

IV WE COME NOW to a final topic in the consideration of full salvation. It is apparent from what we have seen of the biblical use of the term salvation that its fullness in this life does not exclude a final step in redemption which shall attend our crossing from time into eternity whether it be by death or at the Parousia, the coming of the Lord. Modern New Testament scholars have been impressed anew with the eschatological note in the gospel, the tension between the "already" of experience and the "not yet" of Christian hope, between the Kingdom which has come in "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 14: 17) and the Kingdom for which we pray (Matt. 6: 9-10). This is reflected in a great many ways. Paul declares in Rom. 8: 11,23-24: "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by [really, in or to] hope: but "Ibid., pp. 254-55.

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hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" There is a perfection which lies not only beyond our reach in this life, but even beyond our understanding. Paul, exhorting as many as "be perfect" to "be thus minded," says, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3: 12, 15). And John says, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (I John 3: 2-3). It is therefore both proper and necessary to inquire about the extent of the fullness of salvation in the course of this life. That we are not saved from our humanity is not only axiomatic, but emphatically asserted by all responsible holiness theologians. Where there is not quite so much agreement or clarity is at the point of distinction between the human and the sinful. Wesleyans have, however, been rather unanimous in their view that sin is no inherent part of human nature. It is an intrusion, a corruption, a perversion of what for all its weakness and limitations in finitude is yet such that God could look upon it with pleasure and pronounce it "good" (Gen. 1: 31). Recognizing both the breadth and the ambiguities of the biblical terms for "flesh," the fact of the Incarnation-that the Word which was with God and which was God "was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1: 1, 14)-forever absolves a normal humanity of essential evil. Much of the confusion that exists in evangelical Christianity today over the scope of redemption within the sphere of this earthly life is caused by lack of precision right at this point. Harold John Ockenga has put it pointedly and well: "Whether one can live sinlessly

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or not depends upon one's definition of sin. If sin is a voluntary transgression of the law, we may be faultless. If sin involves ignorant transgression or involuntary lack of conformity, then we cannot live without sin."28 1 have elsewhere argued29 that the Bible quite clearly favors the definition of acts of sin as voluntary transgressions of a known law. Scripture is always on the side of the ethical concept of sin. It only compounds confusion to class all infirmities, weaknesses, shortcomings, and failures of whatever sort or source as sins. On the other hand, the precise distinction between the propensities, drives, urges, instincts, needs, and tendencies of a human nature and those which spring from a sin-tainted carnal nature is not at any time easy to make. The most important clue we have is in Rom. 8: 7: "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Whatever in us and in our lives has an expression in harmony with the law of God is human, and is subject to discipline and control but not deliverance. On the other hand, whatever within us cannot find legitimate expression in harmony with God's law is carnal. From it, we may and must be delivered in full salvation. Without elaborating here, be it said simply that all our human propensities and drives-sex, hunger, the herd instinct, curiosity, the acquisitive drive-have legitimate expression within the law of God. But carnal propensities and drives-envy, malice, animosity, retaliation, bitterness, selfish temper, pride, and the likecan never find expression in harmony with God's will. God's program for the carnal is destruction (Rom. 6: 6); His program for the human is discipline (I Cor. "The Church in God (Westwood, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1956), p. 226. "Conflicting Concepts of Holiness (Kansas City, Mo.: Beacon Hill Press, 1953), Chapter III.

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9: 27). The destruction of the carnal is the crISIS of full salvation. The discipline of the human includes all the processes of growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ-a lifetime program for us all. Perhaps it should be said in closing that there are two practical dangers in regard to full salvation. One is that we shall expect for ourselves or from others the reach of redemption which comes only in final salvation. To hold an impossible ideal of holiness is the most effective way to destroy it. The other is that we shall lightly excuse in ourselves failures, faults, and infirmities which we should attack with vigor in that discipline so essential to a holy life. The cause of holiness has suffered as much from the undisciplined lives of its adherents as it has from the misguided attacks of its opponents. The best possible argument for full salvation is a holy life and a Christlike Spirit.

Saviour, to Thee my soul looks up, My present Saviour Thou! In all the confidence of hope, I claim the blessing now. 'Tis done! Thou dost this moment save, With full salvation bless; Redemption through Thy blood I have, And spotless love and peace. -CHARLES WESLEY

Richard S. Taylor Th.B., A.B., M.A., Th.D.; minister, Church of the Nazarene; Associate professor of theology and missions, Nazarene Theological Seminary, Kansas City; pastor; college professor; president, Nazarene Bible College, Sydney, Australia, for eight years; camp meeting and Bible conference speaker; author of several books, including A Right Conception of Sin, Talks by the Way, and The Disciplined Life.

16 Holiness Preaching That Communicates RICHARD S. TAYLOR Somewhere I recall reading that when Samuel Brengle as a young minister, was wondering how to preach holiness, the Lord seemed to say to him, "Just load and fire-load and fire." Thereafter he loaded, then fired enthusiastically, and trusted God for game. But this business of "loading and firing" is not as simple as it sounds. Its success depends on three things: 1. The load itself 2. The firepower 3. The accuracy of the aim The more poetic and traditional concept is that of a bow and arrow, with the arrow as the truth which we drive into men's hearts. But let us come up to date and think of the sermon as a gun. What happens when we trigger that sermon on Sunday morning or night depends on what truth the sermon is loaded with, what means of power the truth is shot with, and what skill the gunner has in getting a bead on the target. A preacher may meet one or two of these requirements but fail in the second or third. But if he fails in one, he in the end fails in all. If his holiness preaching is to communicate, he must make sure that he has the right truth, delivered with the right kind and degree of power, in such a manner that it finds the hearts of the right people. HOLINESS TRUTH

First, then, preaching which communicates the message of holiness must be loaded with holiness truth. 269

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The essential truth is that holiness of heart and life is required by the law of God, provided by the blood of Jesus, accomplished by the Holy Spirit, experientially involves two crisis experiences called regeneration and entire sanctification, followed by subsequent growth and obedience. The preaching of this truth, if it is to be communicated, requires two qualities, doctrinal definiteness and Scripture basis.

1. Doctrinal definiteness. The preacher himself must understand the doctrine. He must perceive shades of meaning as well as solid colors. He must distinguish between ideas that differ and those that only seem to. There must be precision in his definitions and common sense in his discriminations. It has been said, "When in a mental fog, look to your definitions." Fuzzy thinking in the pulpit will produce fuzzy concepts in the pew. There is no greater impediment to effective holiness preaching than doctrinal indefiniteness. Indefinite preaching will produce indefinite Christians. Their seeking will be indefinite; their faith will be indecisive; their testimonies will be vague; their terminology will be confused; their doctrinal loyalties, vacillating and feeble; and their Christian experience itself, wobbly and unsatisfactory when it ought to be virile and stable. And we gravely underestimate the intelligence of our people if we suppose they cannot understand those doctrinal concepts and distinctions so necessary for their growth. The problem is not in the pew but in the pulpit. It is not a question of their ability to understand, but our ability to explain. We grant that this is not always easy, and sometimes we are tempted to exclaim, "Who is sufficient for these things?" But if we keep studying, thinking, praying, and trying, God will help us. But God won't help the lazy man. May God save us from that unmanly evasion of our duty that would rather work up an emotional furor on Sunday morning

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than to work up a mental sweat during the week. May we never try to compensate for the paucity of our thought by the power of our lungs, or hide the feebleness of our sermon by the fury of its delivery.

2. Secondly, our sermons must not only be doctrinally definite but biblically based. The cause of holiness preachers to become Bible preachers. We may be doctrinally clear but not sufficiently convincing if what we say is not closely supported by what the Bible says; and obviously, holiness preaching must be convincing if it is going to communicate. It is not enough for our sermons to be biblical in essential content, in a general way. Their biblical base must be apparent to our listeners. Our truth must be the obvious, clearly seen exposition of a specific scripture, or of a series of related scriptures. It is not enough for us to see meanings in passages; it is our job so to preach that our people see them too. A mere poetic or suggestive connection between our text and our sermon will not do. That kind of preaching will in the end cause our people to wonder if after all this doctrine is the word of God or the word of men. How are we going to improve the biblical content of our preaching? There is only one answer. We must deliberately set ourselves to cultivate the exegetical and expository approach to sermon building, in which the scripture passage is selected first and the topic is suggested by it. The reverse order, in which the topic comes first, then the search is made for a passage to fit it, may be legitimate occasionally. But to follow this procedure habitually is to drift from solid biblical preaching to lifesituation preaching, which is apt to be chaffy and superficial. Particularly will our scripture passage degenerate into a mere pretext if our meditation develops the outline out of the topic before we even start looking for a text to pin on it. Holiness preachers need to cultivate

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the lost art of developing a sennon out of a text instead of a clever idea. In a recent editorial in the Herald of Holiness, Dr. W. T. Purkiser made this timely observation: "Many devout people are surprisingly ignorant of the Word of God. They have been fed a diet of topical preaching wherein the text acts only as the starter until the engine of the preacher's own thought takes over. As a result, all the Bible many people know is a collection of isolated texts, many quite out of context, which are the favorite sermon-starters of the preachers they have heard." FACTORS IN FORCEFULNESS

Let us look now at the firepower which is necessary if our holiness preaching, no matter how correct in content, is going to have sufficient thrust to reach the heart. Four elements are necessary for adequate firepower: earnestness, involvement, freshness, and anointing.

1. Earnestness. Some authorities have listed the four fundamentals of public speaking as earnestness, a sense of communication, voice, and action. For our purpose at the moment we are combining the first two. True earnestness is impossible without a sense of communication. That is, the speaker must have something to say which he feels ought to be said, and he must be fired with the urge to say it. He must be gripped by a sense of sharing, of imparting. More than this, he must feel an ardent desire to "get it across." He cannot be content simply to "speak his piece," or to say words. His auditors must get it. Now it is from this kind of earnestness that all effective speaking originates. It is this that will impel a man to use his imagination, to figure out ways of making his ideas clear, convincing, and interesting, to use action, to raise or lower his voice, and do whatever else

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it takes to command attention and be persuasive and convincing. Maybe this explains why some holiness preaching doesn't communicate. The preacher isn't sufficiently determined that it shall. He is not excited about his message. He has no desperate burden to see his people sanctified. He is not thrilled by the good news that they may be. He has no all-consuming passion to help them into the experience, and to become established in it. But when he is sufficiently aroused that a deep note of earnestness creeps into his preaching, which his people cannot but feel, he begins to communicate the message. May God give to us a deep passion for preaching holiness!

2. Involvement. Our earnestness will be not quite perfect in its contagion if it lacks the element of personal witnessing. Our people can soon sense whether or not we are talking about an abstract doctrine or a doctrine which we feel and know by personal experience. If we can say, "This is what God has done for me! I know it works because it works for me!"-and then if this claim is backed up by a sweet spirit in board meeting plus poise and triumph in adversity, our words will double in weightiness. 3. Freshness. If there is going to be firepower, there must be not only earnestness and involvement, but freshness. We must get out of our rut. Too many holiness sermons are stale. Timeworn outlines, a few standard texts, threadbare illustrations, in a narrow sheaf of venerable, dog-eared sermons, constitute the whole of our resources, too often. We must set our plow a little deeper and turn SOme new soil. How are we going to achieve freshness? I shall make only two brief suggestions:

a. We must read more holiness books, both the old ones and the new ones. It is inevitable that our minds

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will think along the line of our reading. If we have a spell of reading everything we can get hold of on divine healing, it is very probable that our people will get a heavy diet of healing-slanted preaching. It is just as true that up-to-date holiness reading will stimulate upto-date holiness preaching. It is my opinion that every man who would be a successful holiness preacher needs to read at least one new holiness book every month. b. We must not only read more, but meditate more. We must balance our reading with quiet listening to the Holy Spirit as He opens the Word to us. For though we cannot be fresh if we do not read, neither can we be fresh if we rely too much on other men's brains. While reading is essential, original, personal insight is essential too. Though we should begin by getting at the original meaning of the passage as closely as possible by means of the Greek (if one can use it) and modern versions, it is not always wise to rely on commentaries too exclusively. Let God speak to us in the text directly. We should meditate on it until we begin to see truths and relations and applications we never saw before. Let us keep working with it until we have found its heart. Let us continue meditating until we see how it relates to the needs of our people. We can next decide on the major emphasis; then seek to penetrate the secrets of the text even a little further, until two or three divisions take shape in our minds, which are definitely in the text or suggested by it, which are instantly comprehensible and gripping, which are logically interrelated to our main emphasis, and which we can arrange so as to reveal progress in the unfolding of that emphasis. Let's not search for alliteration or euphony yet-maybe never. Let's seek for insights. Our desire is to break open the text to extract the heart. By this time we will be blessed and excited in our own souls. Whatever sermon finally emerges will be ours. It will not be a dull echo of other men's thoughts.

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It may not be as good as a Maclaren outline, but it will be vital because conceived in the womb of our own minds, and strong because forged in our own fires and on our own anvils. After we have done this, it is time to get down our commentaries and dictionaries and homiletical helps, mainly to spot-check to make sure our insights are sound (for we wish to distill truth, not error) , and then for enrichment and expansion. 4. Anointing. One's communication will surely produce eternal results if added to the earnestness, involvement, and freshness is that divine anointing which combines the natural with the supernatural. The people not only will feel the fervor of a man, but will feel a peculiar divine authority in his message that they dare not despise. A sense of divine encounter will grip them. They will know they are dealing, not just with the messenger, but with the One who sent him. They will know they are hearing truth for which they will be held accountable, and on which they must act. Spiritual perceptions will be sharpened, light break through, conscience stirred, hunger awakened. This is that unction which makes preaching preaching, and "every word weigh a pound." This anointing will be given only to the earnest man, whose every act in and out of the pulpit is in keeping with his high calling. God won't anoint the flirt, the flippant, the frivolous. He won't anoint the ambitious, the hireling, or the timeserver. Earnestness God looks for in the man He seeks. But the second requisite is prayer. If we would have the dynamite of the Spirit give power to our truth-loaded sermons, we must be familiar with the prayer closet, where we wait often and long. For this there is no substitute. If prayer is neglected, no amount of cleverness or pyrotechnics will produce an effective holiness ministry. Spiritedness is no substitute for spirituality, and animation is no substitute for anointing.

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It is time to consider now the third factor in the trilogy of communication. To get back to our original analogy we must think of this factor as the aim of the sermonic gun. Somehow this load of truth, fired with such power and vigor, must find its mark, and that mark is the heart and mind of the listener right out there in front of us. If he goes to sleep, if his mind wanders, if he doesn't understand what we are saying, if he is confused and misled, if he is unmoved, or worst of all, if he thinks we are talking about someone else, all our labor is in vain.

Unquestionably this third requirement taxes the preacher's skill to the utmost. Naturally the problem here is not confined to holiness preaching but any form of public speaking. And that is the place some of us need to begin; we need to become more interesting and effective public speakers, period. This any man can do, if he is truly called to preach at all. The holiness message in the hands of a poor speaker, who is dull and uninteresting, whose voice is flat and monotonous, or maybe strident and raspy, whose words are halting, ill chosen, then mouthed and chewed, whose ideas are stale and prosaic, whose illustrations don't illustrate anything clearly focused, whose sermon is so poorly designed that no one knows quite where he is going, or what he has said after he gets through, and whose manner is listless and perfunctory, or possibly loud and odious-the message in the hands of such a man has very little appeal or power in it. He sells it short. He sells it in reverse; his bored listeners revolt against holiness, not knowing that their real revolt is against the shameful and shabby way it has been presented. So let us begin by becoming better speakers. This we can do by reading and practicing books on the subject. It can also be done by disciplining ourselves to

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double the hours at our desks, until our minds are loosened up, we learn to think straight, perceive insights, and frame words. Then let us practice reading and speaking aloud, before our wives, or even the mirror, until we learn to stand up and speak like a man, articulating clearly and expressing expressively. But the improvement of our general skill as public speakers will not be sufficient to achieve the communication of the holiness message unless we pay particular attention to the art of aiming. Two emphases are absolutely essential here. 1. We must aim at our auditor's understanding. He is an ordinary man, with ordinary education and ordinary opportunities and the usual twentieth-century thought concepts. We must make the truth transparently clear to him. This means we must speak his language. The complaint that the preaching is over the heads of the people should never be heard in holiness churches. For if the sermon is over their heads, how can it get into their heads? And it is certain that if it fails to get into their heads it will not get into their hearts. Our language therefore must move out of the nineteenth century into the twentieth. Men today are thinking about space, sputniks, fallout, communism, social security, insurance, new cars, television programs and stars, football, FHA loans, installment plans, Telestar, race tensions, iron and bamboo curtains, Cuba, the Congo, the United Nations. This is modern life; can we make the holiness message relevant to it? Can we bring our sermons into the living room of our listeners? If we can't, they will cease to be listeners. Can we lay hold of today's gadgets for our illustrative material, or are we still depending on horse-and-buggy illustrations? Can we go into the modern shop, the garage, the supermarket and see analogies and relationships that will light up Bible truth, and which in the telling will also light up

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the eyes of our people, who handled and saw and experienced these very things during the week just past? . Please do not interpret this as a plea for currentevent sermons, or as implying that we should no longer draw illustrative material from the Bible. But we must take Bible characters and situations and problems and make them live again in today's setting. Our youth must see the connection between Joseph in Potiphar's house and their own subtle but powerful temptations. Neither should we conclude that we should avoid standard holiness terminology in our preaching. There is no substitute for the biblical terms, such as "holiness," "sanctification," "heart purity," "perfect love," yes, and even "perfection"; but we must reinterpret them in today's language, and relate them to today's needs. It is true, of course, that the underlying problems are the same in every age, love versus lust, unselfishness versus greed, God versus self; but these issues will come alive to our listeners in their starkly personal thrust, and the Holy Spirit will be able to strike conviction to their hearts when the sermon describes the vortex of moral currents that they find themselves in right now, in their office, or in their school, or home. At the National Holiness Convention in St. Louis, in April, 1962, Dr. Roy S. Nicholson read a paper in the holiness preaching seminar on the subject "The Possibilities and Perils of Clothing Holiness Truth in New Terms." He confided to us that the paper represented the conclusions of twenty-five years of thought and research. In spite of the predilections that he had in the beginning of that quest, he was finally forced to see that the perils far outweighed the possibilities. "Those who teach and preach need to know the meaning of modern terms," he concludes, "but the most effective holiness message is that which adheres most closely to the Scriptures in expression and in definition." This then is the mandate for the holiness preacher who would

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communicate: he must lay hold of sohd biblical doctrine and truths with one homiletical hand, and modern hfe with the other, and bring them together in a synthesis of mighty preaching which is at once loyal to divine revelation and relevant to the twentieth century. 2. Not only must we aim at our auditor's understanding, but in the second place we must aim at his need. Recently Dr. Hardy C. Powers said to a roomful of young preachers: "Every sermon should be beamed at a need." Furthermore he added, "There will always be a market for preaching that meets a need." The holiness preacher who would communicate, therefore, must know what his people are thinking. He must know their doctrinal queries. He must know their longings. He must know their weaknesses and defeats. His preaching must be designed to help them, right where they are, just as they are, in order that they may become what they should be. In our attempts to meet needs, some system is in order as well as intuition. The wise pastor should plan to build sermons specifically designed to do the four major things that are almost always needed in every congregation: (1) Sermons are needed which are designed to convince and convict the unsanctified. (2) Sermons also are needed which are specifically designed to aid the seekers after hohness into the blessing. (3) Then sermons should be preached which are planned deliberately to aid the newly sanctified in becoming established and leading him on to maturity. (4) Finally, much pulpit help is needed in developing sound Christian ethics. This is a comprehensive and many-sided program which is not hkely to be achieved by the pastor who

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preaches without a plan. But the very attempt to deal specifically and designedly with these four areas, each in its place, will be broadening and enriching both for the preacher and the people. It is necessary now in conclusion to remind ourselves that no matter how seriously the suggestions of this paper are taken, or how skillfully they are practiced, there is an element in the communication of holiness truth which is and must be supernatural. The Holy Spirit must in His own mysterious providences, and by His hidden movings deep in the heart, bring such purposeful preaching and such personal need into sweet conjunction. Otherwise sermons will be preached which do not awaken, and auditors will listen but receive no light. But we may be sure the Holy Spirit will be faithful; and though at times we may be tempted to feel we are "beating the air," at other times we will be humbled and amazed at unexpected evidences of His quiet but powerful workings. Recently in a cottage prayer meeting the hostess asked us to pray for her. She had been wonderfully saved, but had hedged and balked later concerning sanctification. God then allowed her to suffer shameful defeat by yielding to the temptation to drink when among her old worldly friends. Twice this happened. Each time she sought the pastor, confessed in deep contrition, and prayed back to God. But it left her ashamed and humiliated and unsure of herself. Her self-confidence was shattered. In this state, of course, is always the peril of giving way permanently to despair-which is just what Satan wants. But fortunately she was willing to try to analyze herself and confess her pride, as we talked in this prayer meeting. She herself called it pride; that in itself was a great step forward. Then she said: "I go along for a while thinking I want to be a Christian; then I find myself saying,

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'They're too narrow down at that church; I think I had better go back to myoid friends.' When I am in church I'm all right; I like the way and want to follow it; yet when I am with my worldly friends, I want to be like them too. Yet I'm miserable when I try to be like them. What is the matter with me?" I answered: "You are double-minded." (Previously I could have told her that and the word would have been meaningless. Now she knew exactly what it meant.) I continued: "You have an affinity for God and His people, and respond when under that influence. You aso still have an affinity for the worldly crowd. You are caught in the tug and pull of two opposite affinities. At times one seems stronger, and at other times the other seems the stronger. As long as this condition exists you cannot be happy and victorious as a Christian. To be sanctified is to have this doublemindedness corrected. Sometimes we stumble over the big word, but now you know what it means." She replied: "Yes, I do." Then she added, "When the altar call is given, my heart beats hard, telling me I ought to go, but I won't do it. I'm not willing to yield everything completely." I explained, "That's the fermentation of the carnal nature within. But if you tell God you are willing to be made willing, if you call on Him for deliverance, you will be delivered. And you must beware lest your unsurrendered will crystallize into positive opposition and final rejection. In this crisis you must 'go one way or the other." This conversation illustrates the correlation that must occur between our preached words and the Spirit's private, behind-the-scenes ministry. He must force the Christian at bay; then our words and terms will begin to be understood. It is our duty to preach the terms; but we must also rely heavily on the Holy Spirit to open the heart to the spiritual meaning of those terms. This

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is that communication on the deeper level which must occur. Without it our hearers may get the bare ideas and even accept them; they may adopt the terms as shibboleths, and become glib in the language of Canaan; but they will not experience the inner upheavals and dynamic transformations of which these terms are merely the symbols and signs.

Leslie R. Marston Senior bishop of the Free Methodist church; A.B., Greenville College; M.A., University of lllinois; Ph.D., State University of Iowa; LL.D., Houghton College; D.D., Greenville College; college positions: professor, registrar, dean, president; research intelligence: executive secretary of the National Research Council's Committee on Child Development, Washington, D.C.; summer instructional positions: University of Illinois, University of Michigan, State University of Iowa, Winona Lake School of Theology; World War I: psychological testing; author, The Emotions of Young Children, 1925; From Chaos to Character, 1935; Youth Speaks! 1939; From Age to Age a Living Witness, 1960.

17 Christian Holiness: Its Psychological Frame of Reference LESLIE

R.

MARSTON

When the speaker of this hour first saw the light of day in the closing decade of the last century, psychology was a battlefield. The opposing camps were the classic "Soul Psychology," based on observation, reason, and common sense, and the then "New Psychology," which relied on the method of rigid scientific experimentation. Reason was the foundation of the former, empiricism of the latter. Of course your speaker then knew nothing of the conflict, but the fact of his birth in the midst of it is mentioned because he was to live through various phases of psychology's ensuing wars, and would observe at close range some of its hard-fought battles. Therefore he speaks not alone from the records of history, but also from direct observation. SCIENCE AND PIULOSOPHY

For better orientation we first undertake to draw distinctions between philosophy, of which the "Soul Psychology" of the nineteenth century was a subdivision, and science, which claimed psychology as its field and began its attack upon "Soul Psychology" near the century's close, although its conquest was not completed until early in the present century. Science is empirical, dealing with observable and measurable facts and their appearance in a chain of 285

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antecedent and subsequent events according to a formula called a law of nature. Thus science is descriptive rather than interpretative. It seeks to be objective and unbiased in its judgments, and therefore in what it observes and describes it is not concerned with values such as right and wrong, good and bad. It is indifferent also to assumptions concerning the ultimate source or cause of what it measures, satisfying itself with the immediate, traceable sequence of events. It ignores as well the look ahead for an ultimate purpose in some all-embracing pattern of reality to which its facts seem to point. On the other hand, philosophy is rational and speculative. Therefore it is not satisfied, as is science, with the passing succession of observable events, but it seeks an ultimate cause by which to explain their origin, and an ultimate end by which to explain their purpose. Moreover, unlike science, philosophy is much involved in values of truth, beauty, and goodness, and in the norms by which these values are to be judged. In its pursuit of purpose, meaning, and values, philosophy formulates postulates that go beyond the reach of empirical demonstration in the laboratory of science, but have their basis in reason or in ultimate preference. Hence philosophy's quest includes more than knowledge; it seeks for wisdom which transcends knowledge. In fact, the word science means "knowledge," but the word philosophy means "lover of wisdom." Philosophy once embraced all areas of knowledge, but as scientific principles and experimental methods developed in one field, the concept of causality and naturalistic determinism spread to related fields. Thus was born one science after another and each, after developing for a time in close relationship to philosophy, came at last to assert its independence and left the parental nest. Causal principles and experimental methods first were developed in astronomy, physics, and chemistry-

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fields of inanimate nature, and then were applied successively to biology-the region of vital data, and to psychology-the mental area. But when the methods of the physical sciences are applied in areas in which a nonmaterial quality (be it vital, mental, or spiritual) is inextricably associated with material data, there is the serious hazard that the experimenter will be led to deny the separate existence of the associated nonmaterial quality and will contend for thoroughgoing materialism and mechanism. But when the scientist concludes that, because the methods of the physical sciences disclose nothing but physical data when applied in biological or psychological fields, therefore nothing exists but the physical, he has gone beyond science and invaded the field of philosophy to postulate that the nature of ultimate reality is material only. Perhaps I can best make clear the problem by an example from biology. Biology is the science of life, but there are biologists who maintain that no life principle, clearly distinguishable from matter, is necessary to explain what we call living organisms. A professor of biochemistry in a state college once objected to my ministry in terms of spiritual concepts and values on his campus during its annual religious emphasis series. He assured me that science can find no essential difference between living and non-living matter, except perhaps in matter's sub-microscopic organization. But this possible exception leaves open a door large enough for life to enter as an ultimate principle distinct from matter; and if life can enter, may not a spiritual element slip in also? To this scientist, matter was the only reality, leaving no place for a transcendental life principle, much less a spiritual principle. Thus a scientist who could discover no isolated and observable bit of life or spirit in the test tube or under the microscope had concluded, therefore, that matter is

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the ultimate reality. Scientist had turned philosopher! And now we are to observe a similar development in psychology. PSYCHOLOGY LOSES

ITs

SOUL

Psychology, one of the youngest of the sciences, has been one of the last to leave the parental nest of philosophy, and has found the adjustment to independence difficult. So eager was the fledgling to try its own wings that it refused first one postulate of philosophy and then another, impatiently refusing as unnecessary to its flight any support that maternal fussiness would press upon it. The beginning of the new empirical psychology is commonly fixed arbitrarily in 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt established at Leipzig, Germany, what reputedly was the world's first psychological laboratory. Many young American scholars traveled to Europe to study under Wundt, and returned to introduce and to establish the new psychology in this country. But the disciple of Wundt who made the greatest impact on America was not an American, but an Englishman who took charge of Cornell University's psychological laboratory in 1892. His name was E. B. Titchener. Up to the time of Wundt, Titchener and their fellows in the bold new venture to establish psychology as a science, the subject matter of psychology had been the "self" or "soul" and its functions, based on metaphysical concepts and common-sense observations that were not verifiable in the laboratory. Titchener, for example, rejected all such assumptions, and restricted the field of scientific psychology to "consciousness" and "mind," defining the former as the sum total of mental processes at anyone moment, and the latter as the sum total of mental events in the lifetime of the individual. Following the pattern of scientific investigation in the natural sciences, which we have previously noted, psy-

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chology thus became the study of mental events in their observable sequence and combinations, with no assumption of an underlying unity of being, such as the "self" or "soul." One historian of psychology has said: To Titchener, science has nothing to do with values. For science, the struggling human self conceived as common sense conceives it, with its appeal to human interest and human sympathies, simply does not exist. In the same impersonal and detached manner in which a physicist studies a block sliding down an incline plane, the psychologist studies mental processes.'

The study of consciousness and its succession of mental states, with no reference to the earlier postulate of an underlying and continuing unity called the "self" or "soul," satisfied the empirical independence of the young science of psychology for a time. But within a few years there appeared a group of psychologists with morbidly sensitive scientific conscience who saw in "consciousness" and its "mental states" the perpetuation or survival of the old "Soul Psychology" in an aggravated form. Were not "consciousness" and "mental states" also metaphysical postulates, and therefore to be renounced on scientific grounds? Confusion worse confounded! This latter state of psychology was worse than the first, for the evil spirit of "Soul Psychology" had become legion. And so the behaviorists promptly set about reform by throwing consciousness and mental states out of the psychological nest, to retain as psychology's proper subject matter only sense stimuli and the organism's motor responses thereto, with no assumption of correlated mental states or consciousness. In 1919 the leader of American behaviorism, J. B. Watson, brought out a textbook on psychology in which 'Edna Heidbreder, Seven Psychologies Century Co., 1933), p. 125.

(New York:

The

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the preface declared that in the book "the reader will find no discussion of consciousness and no reference to such terms as sensation, perception, attention, will, image and the like." Then he added, "I frankly do not know what they [these terms] mean, nor do I believe that anyone else can use them consistently."2 Elsewhere Watson has declared that man is a machine, fitted for a certain kind of work even as an automobile is a machine fitted for another kind of work. Here is sheer mechanism, sounding the knell of morality and spiritual aspiration. Again scientist has turned philosopher. All of these developments in science have prompted some wag to write this bit of doggerel:

First, psychology lost its soul; Then it lost its mind. Next it lost consciousnessIt still has behavior~f a kind. THE SUBCONSCIOUS REPLACES THE SOUL

But while the empirical psychologists were casting the soul of classical psychology from the upstairs balcony, the doctors of mental illness were prying open the sewer grating in the cellar to admit a successor to the evicted tenant. As early as 1893 the book Studies in Hysteria introduced the postulate of the subconscious mind, that limbo of fearsome memories which, forgotten by the conscious mind, erupt in the distressing physical symptoms of hysteria. One of the two authors of this book was Sigmund Freud of Vienna. Upon this primary postulate of the 'John B. Watson, Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist (Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1919), Preface, p. 12.

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subconscious mind, Freud proceeded to build an elaborate and even fantastic system of psychology by the aid of such secondary postulates as the id, the ego, and the super-ego, along with many other lesser postulates. Through decades empirical psychologists fought this newcomer, the subconscious, which had entered their castle by way of the cellar. In fact they attacked him with even more violence than they had exercised against that former resident, the soul of rational psychology. Notwithstanding such vigorous opposition at the hands of empirical psychology, Freudian psychology made a strong appeal to the popular mind by its emphasis on sex as the pat answer to the dynamics of life. Moreover, to those who lamented the vacuum left by empirical psychology's rejection of the soul, the Freudian subconscious supplied in its place a psychic continuum or abiding core of the self. The clergy especially exploited the subconscious, and books aplenty flowed from the presses to apply the newest "New Psychology" to religious experience. And finally the Freudian influence gradually seeped into the main stream of empirical psychology itself, diluting its boasted objectivity with a polluting saturation of sex dynamics. "Orthodox" Freudians are few today, and yet Freud's influence pervades in ever-widening circles the fields of psychology, education, morals, literature, art, criminology, and religion. This must be kept in mind, that whereas both the soul and the subconscious were postulated as a psychic continuum or abiding reality by which to explain the operation of the forces of personality, they cannot be equated in character. The soul is a spiritual concept, but the subconscious is a thoroughly mechanistic and naturalistic concept, some facets of which reflect the degraded opposites of those qualities ascribed to the soul by the prevailing psychology of the last century. Here is repeated the important lesson of history, that a

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truth, neglected or rejected in one generation, is followed in a later generation by that same truth, now perverted in gross caricature and deceptive error. We grant that psychologists may draw from Freud's teachings some helpful insights into depth psychology and certain valuable approaches to counseling, while escaping his distorted perspectives on the primacy of the sex instinct, his rejection of religion, and his light regard for morals. But it is our conviction that much of the depth psychology that is being applied to Christian counseling today compromises the biblical standard of Christian morals and Christian holiness by its Freudian bias. Let it be clearly understood that we heartily accept depth psychology in its extensive biblical context and deep spiritual meanings, and therefore need not "go down to Egypt for help" in the form of postulates of man's essential nature which connote philosophic determinism, scientific naturalism, and sex dominance in control of man's inner life and outward behavior. Having attempted in the preceding sections to provide at least a sketchy orientation in the methods by which some of the major psychologies of the hundred years just closing have approached the study of man, we seek now to approach human personality as its pattern is suggested in the Scriptures. THE BIBLE'S PORTRAIT OF MAN

One does not find in the Bible a systematic treatment of the psychology of personality and of Christian experience, but nevertheless the Bible is unsurpassed in its dramatic portrayals of human personality and character. Quite apart from scientific explanation and the techniques of the clinic, the Scriptures plumb the depths of human character to dissipate aU sham and selfdeception, even as we read in Heb. 4: 12:

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For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Bible's interpretation of human personality and behavior is not set forth in academic system and encyclopedic detail, the reader now and again may catch from it a hint of diverse streams, each carrying distinguishable features of human experience, and each flowing from the same central source or primary spring. After all, then, the Scriptures do reflect a psychology which, although not explicitly developed as a system, is coherent and not haphazard and contradictory. To indicate the psychological coherence of the Scriptures, we call attention to certain passages.

If it were not too late to announce a biblical text for this article, I should choose the exhortation of Prov. 4: 23, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life"; and then I should tum to a portion of Luke 10: 27 for a brief but comprehensive sketch of the Bible's interpretation of man in terms of the heart and the streams that issue therefrom. This is the outline: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind. Here appear four key words dealing with the essential nature of man: heart, soul, strength, mind. For what does each of these terms stand?3 In biblical usage, the heart represents the inmost, utmost being of man, the essential self, the "I" which "In the following biblical sketch of human personality we follow somewhat closely our sermon "What It Means to Love God Perfectly" (published 1957, The Holiness Pulpit, ed. by James McGraw).

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is the seat of conscience, and the central source of moral and spiritual capacity and activity. Terms translated heart in our English Bible appear a thousand times, and this concept underlies the entire structure of biblical psychology. Terms translated soul also appear frequently in the Bible, sometimes with a meaning almost synonomous with heart but generally carrying a connotation which points to the moving, striving, and feeling aspects of man's nature. In his Notes, John Wesley interprets the words "with all thy soul" by the phrase, "with the warmest affection." This same meaning is conveyed in popular usage today by the adjective "soulful," the dictionary definition of which is "full of feeling; deeply emotional." We may say that soul stands for man's affectional, emotional, and temperamental capacities and characteristics. 4 Strength represents energy available for action. When the direction of this energy is toward an end having moral significance, we call such behavior good or bad, moral or immoral. The meaning of mind is clear, embracing man's intellectual capacities and processes. In his footnote to Luke 10: 27, Weymouth has pointed out the interesting fact that in the original Greek the preposition changes from "out of" in connection with heart, to "in" with soul, strength, and mind Quoting Weymouth: With Lit. 'out of,' the heart standing for the centre of the whole mental life in all its varied range; then the 'It is important to bear in mind that by the soul of the rational psychology of the nineteenth century was understood the total nonmaterial being of man, organized in terms of a central unity or core of being. It is not to be identified with the soul of biblical psychology as defined in this section, but is nearer the biblical conception of heart.

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preposition changes to a thrice repeated 'in.' The love flows out from its central source into three channels, manifesting itself in the several spheres of feeling [soul], will [strength], and intellect [mind].

Thus the first commandment makes it man's first duty to love God from his inmost, utmost being, out of that deepest spring of all his energies, the heart; and then to yield every area of his redeemed personality to the outrush of love: all the soul in pure affections and holy desires; the entire strength in righteous conduct and obedient service; the whole mind in pure thoughts and disciplined judgment. If the issues of life are to be holy, their source must be guarded carefully against pollution. Therefore, "Keep your heart with all vigilance; for from it flow the springs of life" (Prov. 4: 23, RSV). Developing this same concept of a central spring of man's being from which £low life's issues are these words of Jesus: For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies (Matt. 15: 19); thefts, covetousness, wickedness, ... an evil eye, ... foolishness (Mark 7: 22) .

It requires no psychologist or psychiatrist to discern in this shameful list the pollutions of the soul by foul desires, of the strength by wicked deeds, of the mind by evil thoughts-all are there: the out-£1owings of an unclean heart. In sharp contrast to such corruptions of human nature, Jesus described in brief words the issues of a good man's heart: "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things" (Matt. 12:35). And elsewhere in the Scriptures are found sketchy but legible brush-strokes that represent some of the features of the portrait of man suggested by Luke 10: 27. Time does not permit their citation here.

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THE RELIGIOUS IMPLICATIONS OF EMPIRICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Having reviewed the Bible's interpretation of human personality, and having traced modem developments in the psychological development of man, we next consider the bearing of contemporary psychological concepts and methods on religious experience. The close kinship of scriptural teaching with the "Soul Psychology" of the nineteenth century has been made clear in our expositions of each. Their friendly relationships, therefore, seem to need no further statement. But the religious implications of later psychologies we have found to be quite different, and so these will be considered, first and briefly, in the bearing of empirical psychology on Christian faith and experience; next and more extensively, in the influence thereon of depth psychology and psychoanalytic principles stemming from the teachings of Freud. The displacement of "Soul Psychology" by empirical psychology near the turn of the century has meant advances in psychological knowledge, it is true. However, as you will recall, empirical psychology from the first demanded that consciousness and mental processes be studied as though there existed no continuing substratum to tie these processes to a unifying self or soul. The effect of this empirical emphasis frequently has led the scientist to the conclusion that what he cannot observe by the employment of the scientific method does not in reality exist. You have heard or read recently the assertion of the Russian astronaut that he found no evidence of God in outer spac~videntIy assuming therefore that he had confirmed the materialistic atheism of communism. We remind you at this point of our earlier comment that when the scientist, because his methods of physical science disclose only physical facts, concludes that only physical facts exist, he has abandoned the field of science to invade the domain of philosophy with his postulate that matter is the only reality of the universe.

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We have seen that certain empirical psychologists took a long step beyond the pioneer empiricists, and rejected all assumptions of mind, consciousness, and mental states as quite unnecessary to the science of psychology. These turned to the study of behavior only, on the assumption that there are no mental concomitants of behavior whatever; that there is nothing about man to be designated "mind" or "consciousness," much less "self" or "soul." Such assumptions of empirical psychology as we have noted, whether of a mentalist or a behaviorist variety, have permeated much of higher education, for decades, with tragic consequences to society, to morals, and to education. Permit an illustration out of life: A college associate of mine fifty years ago was a ministerial candidate, and his first year after graduation he served a pastorate. Five years later again we were associates, now in a state university where both of us were teaching psychology. During this five-year interval my friend had been subjected to intensive indoctrination in Titchenerian psychology with its rejection of the soul. And now this former ministerial candidate and graduate of a holiness college could calmly tell me that man's belief in the immortality of the soul is but the assertion of his will to live forever; that the transformation of countenance and the radiant hope of a dying saint (an instance of which I had related to him) may be but the effects of certain glandular changes that can occur with the approaching crisis of death, and have no spiritual meaning whatever. There should be no need to enlarge further on the devastating influences of such teaching on a young person's religious faith and experience, whether he rep· resents a conservative holiness church or one of the larger denominations of more moderate confessional character and pietistic fervor. Many young people proceed from our holiness colleges to university study

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under intellectual influences that tend to lead them far from that position of evangelical faith and Christian experience in holiness which they have known as the Christian standard on the campuses from which they come. It is true that a vigorous Christian experience will provide courage to battle for the faith, but more than experience is needed. Many a young person of vital Christian experience, exposed to the assaults of a university campus with no firm fortifications behind which to stand has withered under fire. What is needed beyond an experience in Christian holiness is the fortification of sound biblical and doctrinal instruction, brought into the perspective of a world-view that orients the student in all his college training and life experiences under a mature teacher in Christian philosophy. THE RELIGIOUS IMPLICATIONS OF CURRENT DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY

We turn now to consider some of the dangers and limitations of Freudian concepts and principles, with special attention to their bearing on Christian holiness. Much of the depth psychology encountered in counseling and therapy releases the individual from responsibility for his present troubles by tracing their origin to the distant past of his childhood, and by ascribing blame for any wrong involved to someone else, frequently a parent. It is claimed that one carries his troubled past in the subconscious, which is loaded with festering, forgotten memories that in strange ways obtrude in consciousness as distortions. The task of the counselor is to help the sufferer to "unmask" the hidden complex and bring it to the full light of day, perhaps revealing it as a persisting psychic wound sustained in a sex episode in early childhood. And usually, it is assumed, this relieves the mental conflict. A serious limitation of the psychoanalytic principle and method is weak logic. Human experience is so

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varied and intricate, and the major areas of dominant drives are so universal, that association methods if pursued far enough will lead to what the counselor concludes is a plausible terminus to the search-too often plausible because the counselor has found what at the outset and all along he had expected to find! For who of us has a personality quirk or minor maladjustment that a zealous counselor could not trace to a suspected hidden lair by association techniques? In the days when birthmarks were thought to be caused by some shocking experience sustained by the mother during the child's prenatal life, the mother of a marked child always was able to recall some fright-a snake in her path, a spider dropping on her face, the sight of a bloody accident-by which to explain to the curious her unfortunate child's blemish or deformity. Assuming as fact that birthmarks are due to shocking experiences of the mother, it is surprising, not that there are so many children with birthmarks and deformities, but so few! And likewise, according to the explanation of mental disturbance on the basis of childhood emotional shock, the marvel is not that there are so many of us, but so few, who need mental therapy or the assistance of a counselor. Follow the association road over anyone's past and it leads to sex, for who in childhood did not meet with inadequate, sub rosa, and shocking misinformation concerning sex-if not indeed an unfortunate sex encounter? The children who escape are fortunate exceptions. Follow the same road farther and it leads to overbearing parental discipline, for what youngster never has thought his parents too harsh and authoritarian? In time, the association road will lead to a brooding sense of not being loved, of lack of acceptance--not at all an unusual childhood experience. Perhaps at the end of the road will be uncovered childhood resentment and inferiority feelings because the child was

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denied the pleasures and the possessions other children of school and neighborhood enjoyed. We grant that relief frequently follows the efforts of the therapist or the counselor, but it is also true that a new symptom may shortly replace the one that led the sufferer to seek help; and the claim of complete cures is difficult to substantiate. Much of such relief as does result from psychoanalytic counseling undoubtedly comes from the catharsis effect that normally accompanies confession. I am inclined to agree with those who maintain that the system of healing is not so important as the healer, and that the measure of success that any system may offer as proof of its effectiveness is due largely to the sufferer's full acceptance of the healer's authority. The medicine man of Africa, the Christian Science practitioner, the psychoanalyst, the family doctor-all have their successes and all have their failures in resolving mental conflicts. But this is not to say that the system doesn't matter, and that we are free to follow one as well as another. Weare never free to narcotize our sense of pain and the hurt of sin by denying the reality of matter under the persuasion of the Christian Science practitioner; nor to submit to the medicine man's devilish incantations of wizardry; nor to lower our moral ideals to escape the conflict of temptation and the remorse that follows yielding, although nudged in that direction by the psychoanalyst. After all, release from the inner conflict may not be the right outcome. It certainly is the entirely wrong one if release has been gained by the sacrifice of truth. And right at this point arises the serious hazard that comes from placing such full confidence in a counselor that his approval or disapproval, implicit or expressed, becomes the standard by which one guides his life. Freud frankly confessed that when his treatment led his patients to compromise in sexual conduct, his con-

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science was. clear, whatever the outcome! Therefore we are not surprised to read deGrazia's estimate of the moral intent of much of psychoanalysis. He says that "psychoanalysis has been a serious effort to turn much of the existing ethics upside down can scarcely be doubted by anyone conversant with its facts and theories."6 For decades American education has been dominated by the dogma that no restraints should be imposed on children and youth lest violence to the developing personality result. Educators have sought as major goals the integration of personality and its adjustment to society. To reach these goals they have maintained that inner conflicts must be avoided. Even the Church's educational program has tended to focalize the child's immediate experience and present interest, molding him to conformity to the world rather than seeking the transformation of his nature by divine grace, the cleansing of his nature by the infilling and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the shaping of his character through sturdy Christian nurture. What has been the outcome of an education directed toward outward adjustment and the avoidance of inward conflicts? Young people today, generally, are neither adjusted to society nor free from conflicts within. The Apostle Paul had a different philosophy from that of adjustment. He wrote the Romans as follows: And be not conformed to this world ["don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold"Phillips]; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Rom. 12: 2) .

A year ago there appeared in Saturday Evening Post (November 11, 1961) an article by April Oursler "Sebastian deGrazia, The Errors of Psychoanalysis (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubday & Co., 1952), p. 94.

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Armstrong with the title "I Don't Want 'Well-adjusted' Children." She said-and I quote fragments only of an article that should be read in full: Reading the serious psychological and sociological literature, I conclude that being "well-adjusted" means conforming to the current and often phony pattern of the world. . . . Who believes this world is worthy of being adjusted to? ... Our family is old-fashioned. We have an ideal--one shared by millions-though it is considered inappropriate and corny to mention it publicly, except on week-ends in the church of your choice. Our ideal happens to be Jesus Christ. We take the gospel as a serious working plan of life."

A

NEW DIRECTION IN DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY

The failure of the cult of adjustment is becoming more and more apparent. Some years ago I ran across a report of the views of Dr. Hobart Mowrer, then a psychologist at Harvard University, now at the University of Illinois. In 1948 at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago, Mowrer turned Freud upside down with the claim that anxiety neuroses, so common in our world today, come not from the repression of natural impulses and especially from the sex instinct, as Freud taught, but from unchecked expression of those impulses and instincts. Mowrer declared that psychiatrists will never succeed with their patients, harassed with anxiety, until they confront these neurotics with their wrong-doings, and lead them to connect clearly their anxiety with their violations of conscience. A few years later I came upon the account of the work of Dr. Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist of Vienna, whose views were heralded as something new but which to me seemed to echo Mowrer. Frankl claims that "the sup"Reprinted by special permission of the Saturday Evening

Post. © 1961, The Curtis Publishing Company.

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pression of the spiritual [rather than the natural, as Freud maintained] is the real pathology of our times," and "suppression of our need for religion creates much of the frustration and tension in this atom-endangered world."7 Frankl's effort to correct the fatalism of our generation which has resulted from its atheistic philosophy is reflected by the following portion of a review by Dr. O. S. Walters of a recent book8 on Frankl's approach to psychotherapy and counseling: . . . Frankl takes sharp issue with "unmasking psychology" because back of the unmasking process is the hidden tendency to depreciate spiritual values. There are many crises of personality that are not traceable to unconscious processes. Since man is always deciding what he will become, the realization of his latent capacity is at least as important as the probing of the past. Depth psychology must be complemented by "height" psychology that relates the future to the present. Psychoanalysis has helped us to "understand backward," but religion helps men to "live forward."

It is clear that there is now the beginning of a trend away from frank Freudianism, some psychiatrists and psychologists holding expressionism as harmful rather than healthful; moral standards as not hazards but helps to mental health; man's highest pleasure, not the pleasure of instinct, but the pleasure of conscience; frustration and anxiety neuroses as due not so much to self-control or even the repression of natural instincts as to self-indulgence and giving nature free rein. This revision and at least partial reversal of Freud, led by a 7These quotations are taken from an article by Dr. Arthur M. Kline concerning this new school of psychiatric thought, printed in the April, 1954, issue of Woman's Home Companion. 8A. J. Ungersma, The Search for Meaning: A New Approach in Psychotherapy and Pastoral Psychology (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1961). The Walters review appeared in the autumn, 1961, issue of Recent Books.

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few frontiersmen, will require years to reach and change rank-and-file psychotherapists and counselors. In the meantime the counseling minister, the university instructor, the psychoanalyst, the public school teacher, and the parent will continue to sow to the wind, and society will continue to reap the whirlwind. In line with what promises to be the beginning of a reaction from psychoanalytic dominance in the fields of counseling and therapy, we now may expect counselors with a spiritual concern who are working in these fields to reflect a like reaction from the former dominant emphasis upon what has happened in past human experience to a growing regard for what, by God's grace, even a disturbed personality may become. This means a reaction from the compulsive determinism of an earlier conditioning environment or emotional episode, to the propulsive purposiveness of a divinely inspired goal. Christian holiness lives not in brooding retrospection on past failures, for the sins of the past are forgiven; nor in anxious introspection on the present conflict of the "mind to sin" with the "mind to righteousness," for that conflict has been resolved by the cleansing of the very springs of being. And now, with the moral and spiritual energies of the entire being released for joyful and effective service, Christian holiness, "forgetting those things which are behind," looks forward to the prospect, "pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." I would not overdraw the picture of what God's grace in forgiveness and cleansing can do for the human mind and personality. Some in mental distress are frankly psychopathic or mentally sick, needing a physician even as does the person suffering from typhoid fever. Nor would I claim perfection of adjustment, even of the sane, against psychoneurotic deviations from the norm or the ideal. There is need for growth toward emotional maturity even after the complete cleansing

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of the heart from sin. I am simply declaring that the grace of God can forgive every sin of the believing penitent, and deliver him from the drag of the past-his burden of guilt for sins committed; and further, that the grace of God can so cleanse the believer's heart of the corruption of the principle of sin that his energies no longer are dissipated by the inner conflict of sin and holiness, but are made available by the power of the Holy Spirit for positive righteousness in joyful service. PSYCHOANALYSIS CALLS CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE IN QUESTION

But why should there be objections to these Christian goals and the spiritual means to their attainment? Psychoanalysis promises their naturalistic equivalents, albeit with moral and spiritual values in eclipse-or more accurately stated, in reverse. Psychoanalysis, too, offers deliverance from the burden of past sins. Its deliverance, however, is not accomplished by divine forgiveness but by a compromising adjustment downward of ideals, or it may be, by the full surrender of these ideals. Psychoanalysis, too, promises deliverance from inner conflict. Its resolution of conflicts, however, is not accomplished by divine cleansing but by "unmasking the past"; and complete deliverance will come only after exhaustive analysis to locate and bring to surface-consciousness all the disturbances a lifetime has deposited in the subconscious. The process requires years of time and thousands of dollars-and few are the seekers who claim that a complete work has been wrought. We have now arrived at a critical point in our presentation. What we have just said concerning the long and gradual process to complete adjustment by the method of psychoanalysis disturbingly parallels the teaching that the cleansing of the heart by one act of divine grace, in response to a righteous man's exercise

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of one moment's appropriating faith, is incomplete and must be repeated perhaps many times; and further, that full cleansing may never be consummated in this life unless it be at the time of death. Weare led to ask, Can it be that from the psychoanalytic reservoir called the subconscious there has developed a murky seepage into the stream of holiness teaching beclouding it with alien concepts? One strain of discoloration in the stream appears to be the late Dr. Sangster's claim that a man can never know what pollution may lurk deep in his subconscious to push past his guard and trip him into sin; and therefore he can have no solid basis for an assurance of complete cleansing, and should not testify thereto. 9 Here Dr. Sangster parted company with John Wesley, who firmly held that assurance accompanies entire sanctification as truly as it accompanies forgiveness; and although Wesley offered words of caution concerning manner and circumstances of witnessing to a clean heart, he did advocate that possessors profess it. If Sangster's position could be correct, that a person cannot have a valid assurance of entire cleansing because he cannot know himself "in depth," then what Sangster does accept is called in question, namely, the assurance of forgiven sins. If assurance depends upon full knowledge in consciousness of all the details covered by grace, who then can have assurance of full forgiveness when he is not able at the time of repentance to recall, one by one, all the sins of his past life? Assurance is a unique fact of Christian experience, and when it attests in consciousness the forgiveness of sins committed, it includes all sins; and likewise when the unique experience of assurance attests in consciousness a cleansing from sin, it bespeaks a cleansing from all sin-not a piecemeal ·W. E. Sangster, The Path to Perfection. (New York & Nashville: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1943).

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cleansing of distinguishable strains of depravity such as pride, anger, and lust, one by one. It is true that men have been misled to claim a false assurance of cleansing, it may have been by wrong instruction or willful self-deception; but even so have others been mistaken about the forgiveness of their sins. Christians generally who profess the assurance of either grace under discussion embrace it as covering the claim of their faith for total forgiveness or total cleansing, as the case may be. Our discussion of a possible infiltration of psychoanalytic concepts into holiness teaching that cripples our capacity to receive full assurance involves a related problem: the claim that sanctification is according to knowledge. Even as early as 1896, and presumably quite apart from psychoanalytic concepts, which only then were coming to birth in Freud's mind, this teaching invaded Methodist circles through Mudge's book, Growth in Holiness Toward Perfection. 1 0 Mudge's arguments were pretty well answered by Dr. Steele's Defence of Christian Perfection, using scripture, logic, and Methodism's historic teachings. We need not review that conflict, other than to note Dr. Steele's phrasing of Dr. Mudge's position in terms of a depth psychology that could well represent the later corruption of Methodist principles by psychoanalysis. According to Steele, Mudge's book taught the following doctrine: . . . [T]here is always, after every sanctification, a residue of depravity left hidden away from consciousness to be purged out at some future time when discovered, so that there is "less and less of self," but never complete extinction of the self life." lOJames Mudge, Growth in Holiness Toward Perfection, or Progressive Sanctification (New York: Hunt & Eaton, 1895). "Daniel Steele, A Defence of Christian Perfection (New York: Hunt & Eaton, 1896), p. 36 et seq.

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Dr. Sangster in his book, published nearly a halfcentury after Mudge's book, frankly utilized psychoanalytic concepts, which by that time had become current. Although Sangster did not emphasize seriatim cleansings, he clearly implied them. He granted that God could have dealings with man reaching below the conscious level of mind, but seemed to suggest that these dealings were through the influence of the operations of the Holy Spirit at the conscious level, more largely than through direct action upon the elements of pollution buried in the subconscious. Something of his thought may be gathered from the following paragraph from The Path to Perfection: Whatever lies in the sub-conscious capable of rising to consciousness and inciting the will to evil, can rise also to consciousness to be defeated by the willingly received grace of God. So-if a mechanical metaphor may not seem too absurd in this connection-one can imagine a rotary movement of the mind in which desires and impulses clamour to consciousness only to meet the cooling, cleansing Breath of God and sink away again to carry health and purity to whatever level of our mental life becomes their home."

After all, Sangster's interpretation seems to limit cleansing as the direct work of the Holy Spirit to those corrupted elements that rise in the consciousness. Then those now cleansed elements sink again into the depths to dilute with their purity the saturated pollution of the subconscious, which, if we are to believe the Freudian picture, is a seething, writhing witch's caldron of corruption. As well might one expect to sweeten a pigsty with rose water! PSYCHOANALYTIC HAzARDS IN PASTORAL COUNSELING

In the role of counselor, the minister finds it easier to resolve a parishioner's conflicts through psycho'"Sangster, op. cit., p. 123.

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logical adjustment than to share with him the whole counsel of God. Recall Paul's stern charge to Timothy, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine" (II Tim. 4: 2). The minister who announces himself as a counselor needs to guard against neglecting his high office as prophet for the priestly office of confessor. Nor should the minister, who sets certain hours of his day for counseling in his office or study, mistakenly conclude that thereby he has discharged his responsibilities in pastoral visitation. Although each complements the other, pastoral counseling and pastoral visitation are not the same. A first principle of counseling holds that the counselee seek the counselor, but those who most need pastoral help often are those who will seek to avoid the pastor in face-to-face encounter. The shepherd must search out his foot-sore, bruised, and wandering sheep where they are. Notwithstanding the values that wise counseling offers, it can prove more harmful than helpful in Christian circles if misguided counselors think that after nineteen centuries of gross darkness and ignorance within the Christian Church concerning the true nature of man and the deep and subtle operations of human personality, at last God said, "Let there be light," and there was Freud! Scriptures already cited in this paper indicate that through the centuries the Bible has probed man's being to bring into the light the depths of man's wretchedness apart from grace, and to apply the cleansing, healing remedy of the blood of Jesus Christ. Should anyone doubt that the Scriptures adequately deal with man's predicament, let him ponder a passage previously quoted, repeated here as rendered in RSV, Heb. 4: 12, to which we now add verse 13: For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and

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spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Now let him turn to Ps. 19: 12-14: Who can understand ["discern," RSV] his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults [those I cannot discern]. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins [willful, intentional]; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright ["blameless," RSV] , and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, 0 Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

These three verses cover the sins of which a man may not be aware, his willful and deliberate sins, and even his deep thought-life and his words. A further example of the Old Testament's depth psychology is Psalms 139. Let the skeptic read it entire, and ponder especially verses 1-4, 6, 23, and 24. Here are the selected passages:

o Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest ["searchest out," RSV] my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue ["even before a word is on my tongue," RSV] , but, 10, 0 Lord, thou knowest Jt altogether. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Search me, 0 God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Turning to the New Testament again, we find many passages that exhibit depth psychology most clearly, but depth psychology of another order than Freudian psy-

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choanalysis. In Mark 7: 15-23, Jesus has explained that the source of a man's corruption is neither environmental conditioning nor seductive temptation, but the condition of his own heart. We quote verses 21 to 23: For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

Thus the corruption within man's heart responds to the evil of his environment, and incites him to sin. The limits of this article prohibit our developing further the remarkable disclosures of depth psychology the Bible presents, but may I suggest that deviations from holiness teaching that borrow from psychoanalytic concepts need careful testing by the Scriptures to discover the validity of their foundations and any misapplication of the Scriptures proposed as their support. I have but one further comment concerning the discoloration of holiness teaching by the seepage of psychoanalytic concepts into its stream, and the danger thereof to Christian counseling. I point to the distortion of doctrine to accommodate it to the inadequate personal experience of too many Christians. Our very emphasis on experience makes our counseling the more likely to entangle our doctrine with psychoanalytic subjectivism. When those professing Christian holiness find sin still lurking in their nature by its manifestations in consciousness, they may draw the conclusion, not that they were mistaken and never were entirely sanctified, or that they have lapsed from a grace once possessed, but that after all there is no consummation of cleansing in cleanliness, but only piecemeal or seriatim cleansings, each dealing only with the corruption revealed in consciousness at the time of seeking.

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But if the Scriptures are clear concerning any aspect of religious experience, they are clear that the cleansing grace of God deals with the depths of man's being, and not merely with the corruption that floats on the surface of his stream of consciousness. When experience becomes the basis of doctrine, the danger is very real that counseling will encourage rationalization and self-deception on the part of the superficial and more suggestible, making them satisfied with an unholy state. Perhaps the hazard is equally serious that even the cautiously honest and sincere, who would come to their full deliverance from sin if wisely instructed in biblical truths, may by misdirected counseling be shunted into the attempt by gradual growth or repeated cleansing to find full deliverance from what can be handled alone by the cleansing act of God's grace. Sin is absolute, not relative. It is not the low or minus end of a distribution range, with holiness at the high or plus end. Either sin exists or it doesn't. If it does exist, it is rebellion beyond man's power to subdue. But God's response to his need is adequate. God does not forgive or cleanse a part, and leave the completion of the task to man. A

CONCLUDING WORD

Our arguments against the psychoanalytic invasion of the Wesleyan interpretation of entire sanctification are not to be taken as pointing to the operation of Christian holiness on a high elevation reached by a crisis beyond which there no longer is temptation. The entirely sanctified Christian has impulses, not carnal or sinful but morally entirely legitimate, which, without a steadily maintained faith and a complete obedience in commitment to holiness, will certainly lead into concupiscence and may lead into overt sin. To claim otherwise denies the reality of temptation in the entirely sanctified, and the possibility of his backsliding.

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Nor does the message hold that beyond the crisis of entire cleansing there is no further spiritual growth. Elsewhere we have written concerning Wesley's view as follows: ... Wesley would not reduce Christian experience to two plateaus, one elevated above the other by a perpendicular cliff separating sharply the two levels. A figure more accurately representing his view employs a lifelong incline, rising from the crisis of the new birth and extending to life's close, with the crisis of entire sanctification marking an intermediate point at which the angle of ascent sharply accelerates.l I

Too many regard Christian holiness as something static, to be wrapped in a napkin and tucked away somewhere for safekeeping, when in fact it is an ongoing expeirence of full devotion to God, unhindered by rebellious resistance to His full will. When a person accepts cleansing grace as something given intact, to be possessed as a guarantee of sanctity, rather than receiving it as a personal relationship with God which depends for its maintenance on continuous response on man's part, he will find one day that the relationship has vanished. A critical need in the holiness movement is careful investigation of Christian growth, not as the means of cleansing from sin, but as the development of mature Christian character and an ever-increasing saintliness.

"Leslie Ray Marston, From Age to Age a Uving Witness (Winona Lake: Light & Life Press, 1960), p. 101.

Floyd F. McCallum Professor of psychology, Owosso College; senior extension lecturer, Michigan State University; A.B., Greenville College; Th.B., Owosso College; M.A., Michigan State University; Ed.D., Michigan State University; ordained minister, evangelist, and youth worker, Pilgrim Holiness church; business experience; instructor and professor, high school, college, and university extension services; director of public relations, principal, registrar, dean, executive assistant, administrative consultant.

18 Psychological Orientation in Spiritual Discernment FLOYD F. MCCALLUM

I.

INTRODUCTION

An essential belief of the doctrine of holiness, as practiced in the life of the believer, is that he is thus enabled to live a life that is directed by the Holy Spirit. This personal relationship involves a clear understanding of the place and practice of spiritual discernment. Human beings are subject to the laws governing human behavior, which is the province of psychology. To come to a greater understanding of spiritual discernment, it would seem appropriate to correlate the findings of psychology with the essential insights of theology in this vital area so necessary to the Spirit-directed life. Though the writer has had considerable experience in the teaching and study of psychology, along with hundreds of hours in counseling, many of which were concerned with spiritual discernment, he fully recognizes that he is circumscribed by his own experience and background. Therefore these insights are offered tentatively in the hope that they will assist in this area of investigation. One should use guideposts to clarify his thinking and to keep him from wandering too far afield. In this study three criteria have been adopted. Briefly, the materials included should be psychologically sound, theologically correct, and eminently practical. 315

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The major assumptions of this study are: 1. Whether the source be God, Satan, or another human being, all communications to man must make use of psychological laws. 2. Man communicates with himself in the same manner. Complexity arises at this point because of the subconscious influences resident in every person. 3. In the life of holiness the believer will have the direct assistance of the Holy Spirit, who will guide him into all truth according to John 16: 13, and he will be enabled to "know of the doctrine, whether it be of God," as promised in John 7:17. Thus the Spirit-filled Christian is enabled to "try the spirits whether they are of God," as directed in I John 4: 1-3. In addition to these privileges belonging to all living the life of holiness is the special gift of the Spirit for "discerning of spirits" as recorded in I Cor. 12: 10, which is given to certain individuals. 4. It is assumed that spiritual discernment is to be exercised by Christians who are in the "normal" range of human behavior. Such would include all believers except psychotics or those with psychotic symptoms. Even though this definition of normality includes Christians with slight emotional disturbances through those with severe neuroses, it is felt that such are capable of spiritual discernment for practical purposes. It is fully recognized, however, that emotional disturbances in the personality can and often do interfere with spiritual discernment, usually in direct proportion to the degree of disturbance. 5. It is further assumed that persons desirous of exercising spiritual discernment approach this task depending directly on the assistance of the Holy Spirit with open-minded willingness to do God's will, which is sought prayerfully in faith.

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SOURCES OF COMMUNICATION AVAILABLE TO

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MAN

There are at least five sources of the impressions, leadings, and insights that may come to the individual, namely: 1. God and the forces of righteousness including angels, hereinafter referred to as God 2. Satan and the forces of evil including demons, hereinafter referred to as Satan 3. Other human beings 4. Self 5. The environment exclusive of the above four sources The task of spiritual discernment is to provide guideposts that will enable the Christian to discern which source is communicating with him. This assignment is by no means simple. Inasmuch as all five sources must use similar psychological means in communicating, it is not surprising that conside~able confusion exists at times as to the source of a particular leading, impression, and/or insight. It is hoped that by careful analysis this task may be reduced to one that can be understood and practiced by the Spirit-filled Christian.

III.

METHODS OF COMMUNICATION AND DISTINGUISHING

CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH SOURCE OF COMMUNICATION

Revelations of a spiritual nature of whatever source have much in common. They have a peculiar authoritative impact that seems frequently to be almost overwhelming. Such communications may not be tested in the laboratory. Therefore it is necessary to discover the various methods of communication used by the five sources, and to attempt to give their distinguishing characteristics. The majority of spiritual communications come through the interaction of such media as an impression,

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feeling, insight, urge, voice, vision, use of reason, revelation, interpretation of the Word of God as applied personally, circumstances, etc., regardless of the source. Thus one cannot determine the source by the method of communication used. The attempt herein is to give such characteristics of the various sources as will be distinguishingof each.

1. Communications from God Communications from God will agree with the tenor of the teachings of the Word of God. It is particularly important to note that the communication is in line with the totality of the Bible. Other sources will bring suggestions that are in line with a particular verse or recorded incident, but which will not stand up under comparison with the full-orbed truth of the Word. God speaks in quietness usually with ample time for careful consideration of the message. A hurry spirit with emphasis that something must be done immediately is almost invariably not of God. Even when it is imperative that one act soon, one should never be driven into premature decision that the message is of God. Human beings are prone to feel that decisions must be made before they actually need to be. As one contemporary saint has said, "God is never late and seldom early." God speaks in the absence of pressure. It is a safe rule that no message shall be received as of God when the human personality is troubled, pressured, oppressed, and confused. "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength ..." (Isa. 30: 15). One should insist that any message purporting to be of God shall be given again when the spirit is calm and quiet before the Lord. A wooing spirit is a mark of God's voice. He encourages one to consider and follow a particular line of action. He never denounces and condemns the honest

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seeker of His will. Even when one has missed God's will, He will draw the person with loving encouragement, if there is openness and willingness to respond. Following what one understands to be the voice of the Lord will be accompanied by increasing peace, rest, and assurance. In the event that the message has come from some other source, endeavoring to obey will lead to unrest, lack of peace, being troubled, and increasing confusion and pressure. Communications from the Lord will stand examination by deeply spiritual persons who have had many years of experience in discernment. If the source of the message doesn't wish to have the message carefully and prayerfully examined by spiritually mature persons in the light of the Word and attendant circumstances, one can indeed be wary. It is true that sometimes this type of sharing is not wise, but there should be no hesitancy for such an examination. If the message is from God and is to be implemented, invariably when the time for action comes, circumstances will confirm the will of the Lord.! There will be no need to force open any door. Rigging the circumstances so that one may carry out what one thinks to be God's will has placed more than one honest soul in deep trouble and near-border fanaticism. Communications from the Lord are often attended with much of the divine presence. Other sources lack this seal. Though this distinguishing mark is quite subjective, the Christian soon learns what the essence of the presence of the Lord is. The messages of the Lord are accompanied by a humble, teachable spirit so that the recipient, though believing very strongly that he has a sure word from the Lord, is still able to acknowledge that as a finite human he could be mistaken. Also in the event that adequate 'Please note Section IV-"Test of Actuality."

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criteria finally indicate that he must have been mistaken, he will accept the truth and profit by his error. To insist in the fact of contradictory, irrefutable facts that one's message is of God is to border on fanaticism. When rightly understood, the messages of the Lord are usually in line with what is reasonable. Reasonableness, however, must be carefully interpreted in the light of what God may ask a Spirit-filled man to do. For instance, it is not reasonable to assume that God would ask the mother of six children to leave them and her dear husband to fulfill a missionary call to Africa. On the other hand, it was not reasonable for C. T. Studd, broken in health, to leave his wife in England for years and to pioneer in African missions. Nevertheless God was in Mr. Studd's venture and He enabled him to establish a great faith mission. This is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a message from God that must be very carefully interpreted. Messages from God are never accompanied by the checks of the Holy Spirit. God speaks by checks as well as leadings. Sometimes the checks of the Spirit are very slight, but they are one of the common ways God speaks. If one senses a check, no matter how slight, he should insist on its removal before proceeding. Pleading the blood of Jesus to cover the source and its message and the recipient often is honored by God to reveal when the source is other than the Lord. Satan cannot stand the blood of Jesus and faith in His name. Finally, one should not take a single one of these characteristics by itself in assessing the source of a communication. The safest and sanest method is to correlate as many of them as possible. If the direction accords with the Word of God, allows sufficient time for consideration, comes in the absence of pressure, has the mark of a wooing spirit, is accompanied by increasing peace, rest, and assurance, is open for evaluation by other deeply spiritual persons, is confirmed on time by

I.

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unrigged circumstances, is attended with the divine presence, is accompanied by a humble, teachable spirit, is in accord with reason rightly understood, and contains no checks of the Holy Spirit, one can be quite sure that the message is of God.

2. Communications from Satan Messages from Satan vary from the thunderous attack of the "roaring lion" to the almost indistinguishable "angel of light" approach. Inasmuch as our task calls only for discerning what the source of the message is, we need not spend time on the "roaring lion" attack, nor on temptations which are easily recognizable. It is necessary only to deal with that class of communications in which there is real doubt that the message is of Satan, which usually involves some degree of the "angel of light" method. In large part one can give the distinguishing characteristics of the source as Satan by giving the converse to the marks of a message from God. When Satan quotes scripture, he uses isolated texts or passages that do not correspond with the full teaching of the Word of God. This is ably illustrated in the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. Often to follow what Satan quotes would lead to presumption, which is one mark of a satanic message. Satan frequently uses a hurry, driving spirit. The message comes suddenly with a peculiar intensity demanding immediate action. One must act now or all will be lost. There is no time for careful consideration. Commonly satanic messages are accompanied by pressure, oppression, and confusion leading to a troubled spirit. To attempt to follow the message leads only to increasing pressure, confusion, lack of peace, and being troubled. Many times communications from Satan are of the accusing variety. Repeated and severe denunciations of

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the recipient are common, often causing one to throw away his confidence. Messages from Satan resist examination. There often is the insistence on secretiveness. There is likely to be pressure that the individual is being led differently from ordinary Christians. Even deeply spiritual persons wouldn't understand. Directions from Satan often are accompanied by "providential circumstances." Satan is very adept at providing circumstances that are conducive to his designs, supporting his directions thereby. He is also adriot at suggesting measures for arranging the circumstances to agree with leadings. Invariably, rigging the circumstances results in unusual difficulty in the days ahead. Such managing of the circumstances, incidentally, could be inspired by one's subconscious leadings. Communications from Satan, though never attended with the presence of the Lord, may have a special "lightness," pleasurable, and pleasing quality that can be too easily mistaken for the presence of the Lord. Nowhere is the designation "angel of light" more apparent than when Satan appears with this pseudo "lightness." The messages of Satan are often accompanied by an imperious "couldn't-be-mistaken" spirit that insists the communication is of God. Often the revelation of "new light" traps the person into spiritual pride and the subtle feeling that somehow these new ways and means are marks of a deeper spiritual life than others possess. Spiritual pride is probably the most subtle and damaging of all the "spiritual" vices and often accompanies messages that are satanically inspired. Satan makes much of the "reasonablenes~" of his messages. He is always ready to point out the sound reasons for the path suggested. God gave intellect with which to reason. There is very little emphasis on faith (unless the attempt is to get one to be presumptuous in action). This particular characteristic is so often used by

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Satan that it is difficult to apply it when God is speaking, as heretofore discussed. Finally if one takes a combination of the traits suggested and finds most or all of them applying to the communication in question, one can be quite sure that the message is of Satan. If one should make an honest mistake in discernment, God will overrule.

3. Communications from Other Human Beings Usually, there isn't too much difficulty ascertaining when a message comes from other human beings. There are two types, however, that can cause concern. The first is when another insists that what he is telling an individual is the will of the Lord for that person. There is only one safe rule to follow. Take the matter to the Lord in prayer and insist on direct confinnation from the Lord in a manner compatible with the distinguishing marks of a message from God. Any other approach leaves the individual open to domination by another personality and the usually resulting confusion and darkness in spiritual matters. The other type of human communication that causes difficulty is where wittingly or unwittingly the messenger subtly sows suggestions at the preconscious or subconscious level as to what one should do. These can reappear later in the person's consciousness with such force that one may feel they are of the Lord. 4. Communications from Self Communication from oneself often has the eannarks of the invasion of the personality by an outside agency. Many things may be carried in the subconscious even for years and then they may thrust themselves into consciousness with such force that one feels they must be of God. One distinguishing characteristic of communications from self is that they tend to be egocentric, advancing one's own interests and satisfying one's own desires.

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Sometimes the selfishness is very subtle, as when one is inspired by his subconscious feehngs and wishes to help another person financially, thinking that the direction is of God. Invariably, when the leadings are of the self, the person to be helped is special in some way to the individual. This doesn't imply that the Lord might not at times lead one to help a person who is close to the individual, but it does mean that all such leadings need special scrutiny. Special caution in interpretation must be used when one or more of the "inner senses" is in operation. The imagination can easily lead one astray. Kinesthetic and visceral sensations are the sources of misleadings at times. The traditional example is the situation where an individual interprets a rapidly beating heart as the sign that the Lord wants him to testify. It could be true, but this sensation may come simply from the fear generated by the thoughts of having to speak before a group.

5. Communications from Environment Exclusive of Above Finally, communications from the environment exclusive of the other sources mentioned are usually not too much trouble for the average Spirit-filled person. At times, however, there are perplexities. Strange phenomena in the sky, weather, or atmosphere have been interpreted by some as directions of God. Seeing "G.P." in the clouds could be interpreted as, "Go Preach!" But as one wit has suggested, it could mean, "Go Plow!" No matter how striking or strange or impressive, such phenomena must not be taken by themselves as messages from God.

IV.

PRACTICAL PROBLEMS IN SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT

In the interest of clarification certain practical problems of spiritual discernment are offered for considera-

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tion. The first four deal with general problems and the last four with perplexities arising when the source is God.

1. "My Case Is an Exception" A common problem in spiritual discernment is the person who agrees that his action or belief is contrary to the accepted teaching of the Word and ethical values, but who insists that his personal situation is an exception to the rule. This is usually supported because of the person's peculiar circumstances, or his unusual relationship to God, or the special direction of the Lord. In Matt. 12: 1-8, Jesus definitely supports the position that there are exceptions approved by God under certain circumstances. In this passage Christ cites the incident where David and his young men ate bread that was lawful only for the priests. Also there is direct reference to the priests profaning the Sabbath by their ministrations in the Temple and being held blameless. However the practice of claiming that one's case is an exception is exceedingly dangerous. Such insistence is a common escape mechanism of normal individuals and is found prevailing among psychotics. In every case the burden of proof rests on the person claiming exception.

2. "I Know It's Wrong but It Feels Right" One of the peculiar phenomena that the counselor in spiritual discernment faces from time to time is the client who acknowledges wrong moral behavior but who insists that he is not condemned. In fact, he "feels" that the action is "right." On the surface this particular problem seems quite insoluble. Why should one who knows the truth from childhood perhaps, who is a praying Christian when he or she becomes involved, one with an active conscience in other areas-why is such a one able to say about cer-: tain actions, "I feel this is right but I know it is wrong"?

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Sometimes the client is one who is merely rationalizing in order that he may continue the desired behavior. In some cases, however, we find another fundamental law of human behavior operating. When a person's psychological and physiological needs are of great intensity because of deprivation, extreme emotion, unusual tension, etc., he may find himself "feeling right" about behavior that satisfies these needs, even though the manner of satisfaction is contrary to his own moral and ethical code and the Bible itself. This insight has special force in the area of subconscious drives, wishes, feelings, etc. The subconscious is unreflective, unthinking, and amoral. It drives ahead to have the psychological and physiological needs of the individual met, regardless of whether the source of satisfaction is morally permissible or not. This law provides a psychological explanation for many puzzling cases involving aggression and sexual satisfaction outside the moral laws of God. These particular misbehaviors have the added difficulty of providing such emotional and physical release as often to overrule the participant's ethical evaluations, giving the "feeling of rightness," though the intellect agrees the acts must be wrong. The sex drive and the desire for aggression are of such intensity that the subconsicous may urge the individual into unlawful thoughts and actions with the accompanying "feeling that it is right."

3. Overcoming Satanic Oppression (Pressure) There is difficulty in ascertaining the will of the Lord when a person is under extreme satanic oppression or pressure. This is a device to confuse the individual and to keep him from finding the mind of the Lord. The psychological and theological means of meeting this situation are compatible and involve three steps. First, one should, by pleading the blood of Jesus against satanic pressure and believing prayer and faith,

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discover the obedience to the Lord that Satan is trying to block out. When discovered, one should submit himself to God's will by immediate acceptance and action. This discovery and obedience usually causes Satan to flee. If not, one should continue to resist the devil on the world through mental telepathy and/or clairvoyance God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." In extreme cases the assistance of other prayer warriors may be needed.

4. Extra-sensory Perception Awareness of what is going on somewhere else in the world through mental telepathy and/or clairvoyance is not necessarily proof that one is in touch with God. Even foretelling the future doesn't guarantee that the speaker is inspired by God. Such have been done by those who do not claim the special aid of Divinity. The same caution applies to those who are able through one method or another to perform miracles, cast out devils, and raise the dead. The Scriptures seem to indicate that such may be done by personalities totally out of touch with the divine. 2 Perhaps in some cases they may inspire faith in their patients. Possibly Satan himself will assist his own in the performance of extraordinary works. There is no attempt to cover extra-sensory perception adequately in this study but to alert the reader that the phenomena cited do not authenticate the person or his message. 5. Misinterpreting God's Leadings A common difficulty in spiritual discernment is misinterpreting what the Lord has given. One may be pray'''For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect" (Matt. 24: 24).

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ing desperately and in faith for a loved one to be healed. Suddenly the Lord brings blessing, victory, and glory. Immediately the prayer warrior interprets this to mean healing. Subsequently the beloved dies. Perhaps a cloud settles down over the intercessor. Why didn't God do as He promised? Sometimes there is an extremely difficult battle as the individual labors through such disillusionment. Usually these incidents are cases of misinterpretation. The Lord was merely reassuring the person that prayer had been heard and God's will would be done. The assurance was great but the healing was assumed. When God speaks, one should proceed cautiously, letting Him make His own interpretation clear, especially in those cases when various interpretations are possible.

6. When God's Leadings Change May we suggest two or three ways in which God may change His leadings? First, God may do so when an individual has so involved himself circumstantially that God's first will cannot be accomplished. Second, God may change His leadings when others involved refuse or cannot accept the Lord's will. For instance, if the Lord sent a brother to carry a message to a particular church and its pastor refused to let him minister, the Lord undoubtedly would give the first brother other directions. Finally, there are times when the Lord has to lead step by step, because He cannot reveal His final will all at once.

7. Test or Actuality There is another interesting situation wherein one is led right up to the final point of action and then the Lord directs otherwise or releases the person. The classic example from the Word is Abraham's offering Isaac. Psychologically, Abraham couldn't have sacrificed Isaac

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unless he really felt that was what he was going to do. God, desiring the incident as a test, stopped the actuality and provided a substitute. Incidentally, this is a biblical case where God changed His leadings. As with Abraham, so with Spirit-filled persons today. A realistic "yes" to God cannot always be gained without going all the way to the final step before God reveals it as a test.

8. When Spirit-led Persons Disagree on God's Will One of the most confusing aspects of spiritual discernment is found when two or more Spirit-led individuals, after very careful seeking of God's will, disagree on that will for a specific situation. Satan has often used such disagreements to confuse and pressure honest souls. The famous dispute of Paul and Barnabas over the taking of Mark is apropos. Surely these men were both full of faith and the Holy Ghost and had God's mind. Why did they disagree and even sharply? May one or two possible explanations be suggested for this kind of phenomena? God in His dealings with men finds himself bound to declare His will for them in the light of their readiness spiritually and psychologically. Thus there is a great deal of variation in the dealings of God with different individuals on the very same point of issue because of difference in spiritual maturity. Another possibility is that God indeed is giving two different leadings to teach each to rely on his relationship to God rather than on another's confirmation. One can become too dependent on the spiritual discernment of another. It is true that when such disagreement arises it calls for Christian tolerance and waiting upon the Lord. Often such will bring about a final unified direction. If not, the different leadings should be followed separately.

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V.

CONCLUSION

It is abundantly clear by now that this paper is merely an orientation in a very difficult subject, meaning a study which provides familiarization with the basic areas involved, so that one may use the same as a foundation for practical application and continuing study and research. It is sincerely hoped that qualified personnel will continue the necessary research and study in order further to clarify and correlate the truths of psychology with those of theology in spiritual discernment.

Lewis T. Corlett President, Nazarene Theological Seminary; A.B., Peniel University; student, Dallas Theological Seminary; D.D., Bethany Nazarene College; pastor, Church of the Nazarene, fourteen years; president, Arkansas Holiness College; teacher, Peniel College, Pasadena College; dean of religion, Bethany Nazarene College; president, Northwest Nazarene College; author, The Dawning Light, missionary study book, 1938; Holiness in Practical Living, 1948; Holiness, the Harmonizing Experience, 1951.

19 Holiness and Nervous Reactions LEWIS

T.

CORLETT

Many persons in the holiness groups are puzzled and confused in disappointment of what the Holy Spirit has done in their hearts and lives. They had anticipated that in the work of the Holy Spirit in experiences of grace certain problems would be removed from their lives, only to discover, after the exhilaration of newfound emotions subsided, that the old problems remained. The conflicts seem to center primarily in what is known today as the psychosomatic areas of disease, and many times in the problems incident to and related to nervousness. Much has been written in the general area of psychosomatic diseases and remedies but very little in the reactions of Christian living to these. Consequently the viewpoints to be presented have grown out of personal experience, study, and observation. Nervousness is a term descriptive of types of diseases embracing both the mental and physical areas of man's being. Some doctors reject the idea of nervousness as such, stating that it is the symptom of a diseased condition rather than the disease itself. While this is generally true, yet for common understanding the word nervousness is generally accepted as descriptive of a condition which many times cannot be classified under any disease. Extreme nervousness is generally described under two categories, nervous exhaustion and nervous breakdown. Organic diseases have definite reactions in both of these categories in causes and continuations. But the descriptions will be in the effects on human personality more than in physical causes. 333

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Nervous exhaustion is a condition due mostly to overwork without proper regard to a consistent pattern of rejuvenating the muscular tone of the body which supplies strength and resiliency to the nervous system. This condition is generally accompanied by weakness, occasional listlessness, and involuntary reactions. Usually the actions and reactions are not as problematic as in nervous breakdown, especially in conflicts in Christian living. Nervous breakdown is a condition of debilitation both mentally and physically, caused by mental conflicts, such as boredom, self-pity, frustration, resentments, sense of guilt, unwillingness to face reality, and many other causes. Not all of these are present in any one person's conflict. Generally people professing a personal relation to God do not battle with a sense of guilt for sins but may, if possessed of a supersensitiveness in conscience, generate a sense of guilt from coming short of God's perfect law. Anyone or more of these conditions may cause the person to be disorganized in thought, weakened physically, depressed emotionally, and often sick organically. Many of the reactions of people in this condition are either subnormal or abnormal, so much so that the individual does not understand himself and thinks no one else does either. The conditions in both of these states affect the physical and mental actions and reactions. The feeling of depletion physically may not be due to organic disease but it is a reality to the one involved. Since no two persons are alike, no specific description of nervousness applies fully to all persons. The number of people becoming involved in extreme nervousness, as well as many others bordering on this state, demand that these problems be studied and discussed from a holiness frame of reference. Help and guidance should be given to our people both in an endeavor to help those in the extreme

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condition and in offering direction to all to forestall the circumstances and attitudes which produce much of it. The discussion in this paper will be confined almost entirely to the practical observation and operation of the child of God in these experiences, and of God's methods and reactions to such. The subject will be presented under five divisions: 1. Man's operation as a finite, relative creation, and the effects of sin on the areas of operation in his personality. 2. The working of the Holy Spirit in the individual in the process of spiritual restoration in the plan of salvation. 3. The effects of nervousness on the actions and reactions of the person who was enjoying a vital Christian experience with God before coming into extreme nervousness. 4. God's attitude to His children who are in the conflicts arising from this state. 5. The Christian's responsibility to nervous reactions, both in the extreme state and as preventative methods to escape the abnormalities of conflicts of the extreme condition. MAN'S OPERATION AS A FINITE CREATURE

First, man must be recognized by the act of God's creation to be a limited person. While each individual is a being of such powers that it is impossible for man to fully comprehend his abilities, yet God retained unto himself the state of "all knowledge" and "all power." Man was created a limited being in these areas and capable of only relative knowledge and power. Thus without the effects of sin and the Fall, man was a limited being. In this relationship man possesses intelligence and, to a lesser or greater degree, always performs as an

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intelligent person. Also he is a unity as a person, and whatever he says or does he carries out in his total personality. Psychologists and others, in an attempt to understand man, have analyzed him as possessing certain organs, drives, urges, capacities, and as operating in various ways. But it must always be recognized that the total being of man is involved in his actions, and that his actions and reactions affect his total personality in some manner. For our discussion it may be helpful to consider man, as a total person, in the operational areas of personality. There is wide variance among authorities as to the terms to use in describing these areas, so not any classification of these can be said to be the best division. But the following will be used in this discussion. Man, as an intelligent person, operates in the following areas: ideals, motives, temperament, moods, attitudes, personal style. The last four-temperament, moods, attitudes, and personal style-are designated as the reactionary area of operation. When God created man and placed him in the Garden of Eden, all of these operational areas functioned in the harmony of holiness, in spirit, action, and reaction. In the fall and sin of the race all of these areas were definitely affected until today they, without the power of the Holy Spirit, do not operate in a harmonious manner. The basic cause of sin was in these operational areas -the ability of man to express himself and his desire to do so as a free moral agent. This power of self-assertion was confronted with the fact of the divine limitation of "Thou shalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." In this confrontation the self asserted its God-given powers and chose the part of self-direction and self-indulgence in opposition to divine direction and complete loyalty and obedience to the divine plan and purpose. In other words, man chose self-centeredness

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as against God-centeredness. This state of rebellion separated man from God and thus deprived him of the source of power from the Holy Spirit through which he had been able to operate in harmony, inwardly and toward God. This caused a corruption of the self-life. Since man as a limited, relative creature never was able to create goodness or holiness, he was always dependent on the holy God for these; and when he was deprived of this source, his total personality became affected in an adverse manner. This corruption of the self-life was passed on to every descendant of Adam and became known as "inherited sin" or "the sin of the race." Both the deprivation, by the absence of the Holy Spirit in personality, and the resultant corruption of human nature affected the total personality of man and is observed in all areas of the operation of personality. This will be discussed briefly in relation to the different areas. In the areas of ideals, Charles Newman Curtis, in An Epoch in the Spiritual Life, p. 115, gives a good description: There is a darkening of the mind due to sin, a blinding of the spiritual sight and a deadening of the conscience ... The love of truth and right has been weakened or removed and a love of evil pervades until the selecttion of ideals is bent toward deeds of evil and wrong relations with God and man. A dullness of sensitivity to moral truth prevails.... The sin of the race gives the individual the tendency to make ideals to please himself, to conform to the status-quo situation and to formulate prejudices on what he dislikes, and toward those he dislikes. There is an inclination to accept such goals as to enable the person to live at ease on the lower levels of life.'

The protection of the depraved ego is prominent in the forming of the ideals. 'Charles Newman Curtis, An Epoch in the Spiritual Life, p. U5.

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The area of motives has been perverted by the corruption of the self-life, making the ego self-centered, self-indulgent, and opposed to the will and purpose of God. Dr. Olin Curtis in Christian Faith, p. 198, states: Man's self-assertion to the God-head was his fall. Personal sin is the supreme egotism of a moral person. It is getting one's way over against duty . . . It is selfishness ... A state of depravity exists.'

This causes the unredeemed individual to operate always on a plane of centering his plans and actions on either self-gratification, or to lesser good which is derived from God but is separated from Him in its ultimate goal. In the reactionary areas-temperament, moods, attitudes, and personal style-sin caused a disorganization of their operational ability. Charles Newman Curtis describes it in these words: Inbred sin may be described in the terms of enlargement of the self; of the disarrangement of the faculties by the loss of the proper balance between spiritual and fleshly powers; in terms of the higher self losing control of the lower self; of the animal ruling the spirit. It is a reign of passion and unbridled license instead of reason.'

Olin Curtis states: The fall rendered man unable to organize his individual life under the demands of conscience and the moral ideal. The natural moral life is one of fear, and fear is not an organizing motive; the man needs to have for organization the motive of moral love. In a simple word, no man can be complete unless he actually loves the holy God.'

This disorganized condition or disarrangement of powers affects each of the reactionary areas. Temperament is undisciplined and often uncontrolled. Man becomes the victim of whatever mood may be predominant 'Olin A. Curtis, The Christian Faith, p. 198. ·C. N. Curtis, op. cit. '0. A. Curtis, op. cit.

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at the moment. The self-bias in man's nature causes him to lose his proper perspective to persons and things and he forms viewpoints of either or both according to his selfish inclination at the time of contact. Naturally this disorganized operation colors his personal manner of speaking, doing, and reacting in the daily contacts of life. Also, since these areas of operation are under more or less direct control of man's will, and man is a creature of limited knowledge and power and influenced by the effects of racial depravity on the intellect, he will never be able to have these "reactionary areas" function perfectly. Some individuals, because of development of a life of self-discipline higher than the average person, will be able to make a quicker response to bringing these powers into better harmony of operation but yet will come short of what man enjoyed before sin entered into human personality. GOD'S OPERATION IN THE RESTORATION OF MAN

Through the Holy Spirit, God always works in and through the redemptive process which was provided through Christ's atoning death and resurrection. The work of the Spirit in man is always an inner operation. In general, it is the providing of ideals and motivation for man to approximate God's requirement of holy living. Let us look at the process in the terms familiar to all holiness people, the first and second works of grace. In the first work of grace the Holy Spirit provides both ideals and motivation. Through the process of conviction the individual is made aware of right ideals which reveal the error of those which have been regulating the life. In repentance man accepts the ideals the Holy Spirit has given to him and begins the process of obeying God. The first step is that he recognizes that in order to receive God's benefits he must take the same

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attitude to self, others, and things that God takes and that these must become the controlling objectives of his life. As he does, it may be necessary to carry out some designated restitution in order to clear himself of the sense of guilt to his fellow man. Also, it means a perfect penitent attitude to God and man in which he presents himself as a seeker before God in order to receive the necessary motivation which enables him to carry out the ideals accepted. The Holy Spirit forgives the penitent seeker and in taking up His abode in the heart makes the individual a partaker "of the divine nature" and "a new creature in Christ." The love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit, who is given to him. Also the Holy Spirit witnesses to his consciousness of the transforming work which has been done. All of this gives proper motivation so that the new Christian can obey God. In the second work of grace the believer is brought to a crisis period through a number of incentives, such as a hunger for God's best, an awareness of something inward which limits or hinders him in his desire to fully obey God. It is primarily a conflict in the mind of the child of God related to his assets. Who shall have ultimate control and guidance over the good in personalityself or God? Shall there be any reservations in the motive life pertaining to sacrifice or service to God and His cause? As the believer faces these phases of conflict or similar ones, the Holy Spirit directs him to a full commitment to his God, to face his own inner self with its potential and assets and place all control of everything under the direction of the Holy Spirit. When this is done the Holy Spirit cleanses the motive life of every hindering disposition to divine love and fills the believer to the full with love. Also He witnesses to this work so that the child of God is certain that God has accepted his sacrifice and made him holy in love. Then and only then is the friction of conflicting desires and ambitions of the

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self-life solved as they are brought under the complete direction of the Holy Spirit. God desires that His children grow in grace and the knowledge of His will, that they be rooted and grounded in love. This is accomplished through personal obedience and reliance on the abiding Holy Spirit. He provides grace and strength for every conflict, light for every step of the way, courage for the conquests of life, and a hope that reaches beyond the scope of time. Let us look into the way God performs His work in the operational areas which were mentioned in the earlier discussion in this paper. God works directly in the areas of the ideals and motives. Ideals are lifted, desires are quickened for knowing God's highest concepts for man. The sensitivity to right is alerted and directed in the consideration of proper goals and objectives. Through the possession of divine love in the personality of the Holy Spirit, the individual has the power of motivation to obey God. As the motives are purified and harmonized in the will of God, the believer is enabled to have a life of victory at all times. In the reactionary areas God works indirectly. He is dependent upon man taking the initiative in desire and purpose to bring these areas into harmony with divine love in the heart. The disorganized condition of temperament, moods, attitudes, and personal style will always cause the manifestation of high ideals and pure motives to seem to be imperfect. In fact, the disclosure of the actions arising out of these reactionary areas will come short of both God's and man's ideals. But God judges by the motive instead of the imperfect deed. Many of the conflicts in spiritual living center in the disappointment of the Christian regarding God's work in these areas. Rightly or wrongly, some persons have interpreted statements which ministers have made to mean, or at least to imply, that the transformation wrought by the Holy Spirit would change them basically

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in these areas. When it became apparent that they were the same as before, they were tempted to doubt all of God's actions. Let us note a few points regarding these reactionary areas. An individual's temperament remains basically the same from birth to death. Gordon W. Allport in Personality, p. 53, states: Temperament, like intelligence and physique, might be said to designate a certain class of raw material from which personality is fashioned. Strictly speaking, there is no temperament apart from personality, nor any personality devoid of temperament. It is merely convenient to employ the terms in speaking of dispositions that are almost unchangeable from infancy throughout life (dispositions saturated with a constant emotional quality, with a peculiar pattern of mood, alertness, intensity, or tones). The more anchored a disposition is in a native constitutional soil, the more likely it is to be spoken of as temperment."

It may seem that temperament is changed in the individual's reaction to the newfound emotions of love and joy in regeneration and sanctification. But in time the child of God is brought face to face with the same basic temperament and mood as he recognized before. . Baldwin in Holiness and the Human Element, p. 89, says: Holiness people differ temperamentally just as much as they do in other ways. Some are quick, others slow; some are impulsive, others always look before they leap; some are open-hearted, while others are more reserved; some are precise, while others are more inclined to be careless; some are very particular about their appearance, while others may care very little for such useless details (as they call them), and so on to the end.·

Since in the Fall, and as an effect of the sin of the race, temperament became disorganized, then under grace there must be a reorientation in organization under "Gordon W. Allport, Personality, p. 53. "H. A. Baldwin, Holiness and the Human Element, p. 89.

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the motive of divine love, for that is the only motive around which human personality can be integrated. Similar conditions exist in moods, attitudes, and personal style, so the reorientation through divine love must be applied to them. THE EFFECT OF NERVOUSNESS ON THE PERSON

A nervous condition in a person will affect the actions and reactions in every area of personality. The balance of response and reaction on mind and body is upset because of conditions produced by the nervous state. The more extreme the condition of nervousness, the more unbalanced the person will be. The areas of ideals and motives are affected less than those classified as in the reactionary areas. Yet no two persons will react similarly under the strain of nervousness, so it is practically impossible to set a fixed pattern for even the children of God when afflicted by nervousness. It will help to look at some characteristics which accompany or are produced by extreme nervousness. While each person is an individual and is different from any other person, yet certain conditions usually are found in cases of extreme nervousness. There are always varying degrees of a depressive mood. Sometimes the depression settles down on the person quickly and seemingly without any cause, and in time will leave just as quickly as it came. In other individuals the depression continues and often becomes heavier as it remains. Often in this depressive mood a keener sensitivity of awareness arises, and usually it has an effect on the imagination until it becomes more disorganized than ever. Some refer to it as a "wild imagination," but more properly it should be called "an uncontrolled imagination." In this state the nervous person analyzes every symptom he has and everyone he hears about anyone else having and thinks that he has a certain disease; but

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a new symptom starts the uncontrolled imagination, and the individual has another disease. The uncontrolled imagination in this highly disorganized state of mind and body may take many turns of reaction. The individual may develop a suspicious attitude toward everyone and more acutely toward those closest to him and even to the ones he loves the best. In another person it produces a sense of guilt. The ideal remains clear in his thinking and is often raised to impossible levels, and he condemns himself because he is conscious that he comes so far short of the ideal God has for him. He prays, but very often the more the person prays, the worse he becomes, as it is generally a prayer of petition and he begs God to deliver him from his condition. When seemingly there is no response from God, the uncontrolled imagination jumps at the conclusion that God has withdrawn himself. This develops a sense of isolation from God, which in some extreme cases causes the person to conclude that he has committed the unpardonable sin. Naturally these things produce a sense of frustration in prayer and also cause severe doubts regarding the character of God. All of these symptoms, and many others which could be given, have a definite effect upon the physical. Physical weakness becomes severe in some cases. Often it creates a stiffness of muscles in which all are brought under some degree of strain which may even produce immobility in extreme cases. This tenseness and strain is carried over into the operations of the intellect. The thoughts, deeds, and responses are not voluntary, meditative actions, but involuntary, nervous actions. The memory is affected by this condition and what is said or done is not recorded in the memory. Under these effects of both disorganization of the reactionary areas caused by sin of the race, and the intensity of this disarrangement brought about in these areas by the extreme nervousness, Christians become

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an enigma to themselves. They may speak sharply and act strangely for persons professing heart holiness. They may not be aware of what they are doing, due to the strained condition of the memory. The loved ones closest to them will be greatly distressed unless they realize that the persons are sick. It will appear to them that their loved ones or friends have broken with God. They will talk to them and try to admonish them, only to end up in more perplexity. For when they ask the nervous person about certain statements or actions, the sick one will deny that he ever said or did such, and then be grieved over the accusation of his loved ones or friends. Thus the sense of isolation is enlarged in the mind of the sick person and in many cases is increased in his relationship to God. Again it must be remembered that in most cases prayer seems to avail very little, since the individual is so tense it is impossible for him to respond to either God or man.

Explanation Regardless of how high a person's ideals are, and how pure the motives become, the child of God will always have a problem in adjusting ideals and motives to actual life. The ideals and motives can be manifested only through human limitations, warped judgment, and disorganized reactionary areas. Consequently what others see will be imperfect and below what the Christian desires to reflect in his own life. The more restricted and disorganized temperament, moods, etc., become, the greater differential there will be between the ideals and the actions. But this is very difficult, if not impossible, to explain to the person who is in the depths of a state of extreme nervousness. Psychosomatic studies have clarified some points: First, a person can have a mental-emotional disturbance without being "mentally unbalanced" in the general connotation of the term.

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Second, the nervous person must be recognized as being sick, even if he refuses to admit it, and that his actions and reactions are not from a voluntary, volitional basis, but an emotional, nervous, involuntary reaction. Third, generally actions are impulsive instead of meditative. Fourth, it is possible for most people afflicted with nervous disorders to get relief and for the larger number to recover fully. Holiness people should recognize that certain conditions may prevail, and plan to adjust and give all the help possible. First, experiences of grace and an obedient walk of fellowship with God do not give any assurance that the children of God will be kept from these extreme nervous conditions. Both nervous exhaustion and nervous breakdowns are occurring in lives of good people. Second, under extreme nervousness the same laws of action and reaction apply to believers as to nonbelievers. Third, loved ones and friends must be patient, kind, and loving, and praying earnestly for the sick person. Generally it is better that the nervous person does not try to pray, since it usually makes him worse unless he has learned, before becoming sick, to pray a prayer of praise. Fourth, generally when the sick person recovers, he does not remember much of what he said or did, but finds himself in a similar spiritual life of victory which he enjoyed before he came into the condition of extreme nervousness. GOD'S ATTITUDE AND REACTIONS

Does God care and can He help in situations such as are produced by extreme nervousness? It is well to

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refresh our minds regarding the character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. The writer in Hebrews declares: "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4: 15-16). God is sympathetic and the only Person in the world who really understands another person. Christ revealed God as a tender, kind Heavenly Father, interested in each and every person in the world, with a special care for those who are obeying Him, with extra good attention to those who cannot look after themselves properly. Do true earthly parents cast off their children who are sick? The very question is repulsive. Heathen parents may, but Christian parents never do. Does the Heavenly Father have as much concern and consideration as an earthly parent? More so. It would be a reflection on His character if He should forsake one of His children who was sick from any type of disease over which he did not have control. Since I started preaching this truth almost a quarter of a century ago, I have asked the listeners if they knew of any persons who were doing their reasonable best to obey God before they took sick who backslid while they were in that condition. I have not heard of a bona fide case. It would reflect upon both the wisdom and the power of God. But I know of thousands who can testify that God sustained them even when they were not conscious of His doing so. HUMAN REsPONSmILITY

Since most of the major problems in nervous re~ actions in holy living fall within the areas that man has responsibility for, then each child of God should plan to fortify himself in the reactionary areas. The best attitude

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to build is one of positive optimism which develops out of a growing faith and confidence in God and man. One writer suggested that "much of the depression we struggle with could have been prevented upstream if we had been wise. Great convictions to live by, great resources to live from, great purposes to live for, the love of nature, the companionship of books, the nurture of friendships, the fine use of play, the satisfaction of an unashamed conscience-such factors enter into a life that keeps its savor, and furnish an immunity to despondency which makes cure needless." This is helpful; but to it I would add, learn to practice the presence of God moment by moment, work and live in the sense of being a partner with God, and this will give a sound basis for resting in the Lord even in the hours of nervousness and other ills. It is not possible for any person to keep himself pure, but a Christian can keep himself in the love of God at all times. This enables the Holy Spirit to keep the believer in a state of purity and approval before God. Every child of God should learn to pray a prayer of praise and gratitude while he has control of his mental processes. These are the basic elements of true worship to God and also they are the fundamental attitudes to help a person combat low moods and poor attitudes. Also this is the only type of prayer which will be helpful if an individual becomes afflicted with extreme nervousness. Most of the daily problems or difficulties between people arise from the manner and spirit in which the words are said or the deeds are done. The Christian should analyze his personal style, manner, and method of doing, and discipline and refine himself until he can rightly "adorn the doctrine of God" in all relationships. Another helpful suggestion to forearm the child of God against the day of possible extreme nervousness, and also to increase his usefulness for God and the

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church, is to adopt an attitude of charity to all people. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Do not expect them to talk and act as you do. As long as men differ in temperament, education, occupation, and whatever else goes on to shape a man's mode of reacting to the accidents and incidents of life, there will be different types of religious experience. This produces a refreshing variety in spiritual living, and each Christian should adjust to receive the greatest blessing from the largest number of people. Many other suggestions could be given with regard to accepting the responsibility as a child of God, but I mention only one more. The Christian must learn to walk by faith. God is the Object of the believer's faith. He is the Source of grace, guidance, and strength; so the more the child of God learns to depend upon Him, the stronger and more useful he becomes for God. God never changes-He is constant in command, promise, and provision. He has said that He will never leave nor forsake His own, so the walk of faith is the acceptance of all this and a faithful continuation of duty regardless of moods, feelings of any kind, and seeming isolation from God. In due time He will make himself known and the Christian will discover that He has been by his side all the time. All Christians should plan to develop in positive actions and reactions while in reasonable control of the reactionary areas of life, and there will be less likelihood of extremes in life and of detrimental reactions should they come. God is anxious to help His children prepare for every possible situation of life.