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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Is Entire Sanctification Scriptural? | Bible general Archive 1 | charis | 7374 | ||
Dear Tim, I appreciate your openness and honesty in explaining your circumstance and subsequent desire for undestanding this issue. To be perfectly frank (on my side :-), I have no formal training which would (might?) give me an 'authoritative' answer. I am just a student of the Bible, and always prefer a simpler answer over a complicated one, if one is available in the Bible. After studying a bit about Entire Sanctification and it's various manifestations, I can only conclude that it is too complicated. It makes too many human assumptions about the individual's outward righteousness. For instance, if a person accepts Christ (whatever term you prefer) and is walking in the Lord just fine, has he *achieved* this status? Then, after years of faithful service to God, he stumbles. Did he lose the 'entire' status and return to justification? Or maybe, as some good Calvinists would demand, was he never saved to begin with? Could he be reinstated, as many good Charismatics would insist? As you stated about your belief (I think), it is much simpler to believe that 1) a person is justified by faith, 2) pursues sanctification through the working of the Holy Spirit, and 3) is made complete in resurrection. The details of this process are vague, regardless of some notions of *enlightenment.* Especially, the exact timing of resurrection. I leave these things to Christians that have already perfected all the other aspects of life in Christ :-) Out of curiosity, which denomination believes which? (I was under the impression that many Brethren churches leaned toward Wesleyan thinking) The only support I can think of for Entire Sanctification is that the ones that insist on it are convinced that they have *achieved* it! I know that they may string lots of Bible passages together to 'prove' it, but common sense and two honest eyeballs would show that man cannot *achieve* complete earthly sanctification. I was once a Buddhist, and the concept is familiar, and clearly mystical in nature. Only Jesus was perfect on earth, and He did not *achieve* it, He WAS perfect! One man's humble opinion. Blessings to you, and prayers for your path. In Jesus' name, charis |
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2 | Is Entire Sanctification Scriptural? | Bible general Archive 1 | Morant61 | 7382 | ||
Greetings Charis! Thanks for the help! United Brethren in Christ is a group that is distantly related to Methodist. The boring history is that our denomination split in about 1889 into the United Brethren Old Constitution and United Brethren New Constitution (Please, no jokes about United Brethren splitting - :-) ) I belong to the Old Constitution group. The new constitution group joined with the Evangelical Brethren to form the Evangelical United Brethren. Later, the EUB's joined with the Methodist to form the United Methodist. Our denomination is definitely Wesleyan/Arminian in theology, but entire sanctification was never embraced by our denomination. I agree with you that simpler is better. I haven't ruled out the doctrine yet, but I have found a few verses that seem to indicate that there might be something to it. For instance, a number of times Paul prays for Christians to be fully sanctified (aorist tense signifying one time action.) I have ordered a book entitled "Five Views on Sanctification", which is published by Zondervan. I hope it will allow me to examine all sides of the issue and come to a conclusion. Thanks! Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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