"So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of my people. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul." (Ezekiel 33:7-9)
Hi everyone!
I was originally turned on to this forum through an old
friend, blogger, and fellow Nazarene. I clicked on to this site; which is to
say, the idea of a blog sounded interesting, and I was equally interested to
"hear" what other people think. Please read what are my fallible
thoughts on the idea of Entire Sanctification within the Nazarene Church. Warning: I tend to back up my
thoughts with Scripture (if you have a alternate point of view, please do the
same for me & I can grow)- so bear with
me:
I (at one time) have been in front of a District Church Board,
and had to answer 2 questions, “What is Entire Sanctification”, and “What
does it mean to be a Nazarene?” Thank God I did not have to answer the question
"Ron, are YOU entirely sanctified?", because in truth, I do not
believe that anyone can really answer that question for his or herself. The
Holy Spirit is the one who confirms; and therefore, also denies this work of
grace through confirmation by God, and the fellow saints in our Church. This is
the turn off by people who misunderstand what the Nazarene elect is trying to
teach. It isn't saying that God's call to "Holiness Unto The Lord"
(why don't we sing this hymn anymore?) is saying that WE are more holy than
you- it's saying that God calls us to reject the world, die to ourselves, and
embrace Jesus Christ.
Our Lord Jesus has a measuring rod that is held up to us.
Like the Rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-27), we hold up our checklist & tell
Jesus "Well I have done everything that you are telling me, so now I'm a
Christian, right?", but then the Christ throws that curve ball in the verse I just referenced. Or maybe
it's more like the 7 Churches in Revelation (chapters 2 & 3), where He says
to most of them "But I have this against you", and proceeds to break
the Church down, because they think their christianity is enough to get by.
Unfortunately, I believe there are a great many so-called christians and
churches being attended that are this way- too many Laodiceans (Rev 3:15-22),
where our Lord pleads with them to be either one way or the other, but because
they refuse to make a decision they get spat out. That's
an interesting analogy by our Lord, isn't it? Conversely, a very different word
picture is used for the true Christian, or The Remnant, in our Bible (sweet
aroma, salt with flavor, etc).
I think this is where "Anonymous" forum responders on the subject are trying to go with, and maybe warn against our religious perception by using the label "Emergent". The Nazarene Church manual says that we
Nazarene's should abstain from smoking, drinking & so on, and so forth,
because true Christians are "Not to be conformed to the this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of our minds..." (Romans 12:2a). We tend to
focus on the word "Emergent", without realizing what the term actually signifies, which is this "new age" christian movement. The act
of making the Gospel of Christ attractive to everyone, and focusing on how
richly blessed with wealth & prosperity you can be with God if you turn to
Him. In reality I believe it is the watered down version of the Gospel. The filtering of Christianity. I believe our brother Keith Green was prophetic in his song "To Obey
Is Better Than Sacrifice" when he penned "You pray to prosper and
succeed, but your flesh is something I just can’t feed".
I am more along the lines of the Rev. Billy Graham... The
cross of Christ is NOT attractive, and I can't get past it unless I agree with
everything that it represents (my paraphrase). My pastor used to tell me that he some times thought that christians would rather have the posturepedic Cross- you know, the comfy cross. No one really wants to take up that Old Rugged Cross, because it's uncomfortable & it hurts too much.
That's funny. See, many don't give the real truth of the cost of following Christ to the unbeliever. The new age christianity must be made attractive. Don't take the Bible so literally. You don't need to quote Scripture or even know the Bible to give your testimony. As if the holy Apostles would ever agree with that or do this thing. I know of at least one preacher
out there that has a church of filled with thousands of followers, because in
the beginning him & his group went door to door asking people in their
neighborhoods why they didn't like "church". Then in his words his group went back and then proceeded to build their
ministry around the responses. Well, it's an attractive church alright, and it
boasts a congregations of thousands filled with new age pastor/teachers rooted
in Buddhism & Carl Jung philosophy, and openly gay parishioners coming to
church for years, but never changing anything or allow a change to commence. They call it "seeker sensitive", touching lightly on the cost of following Christ- while they focus more on "I don't want to be in heaven without you", rather than saying that there is a place of torment reserved for the devil, his angels, and the person who does not confess their sins & accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. They don't even call it accepting Jesus Christ as their savior anymore; instead, it's now being called "I've trusted Christ". They grab a hold of this new age doctrine & reject what John Wesley, and Phineas F. Bresee believed & preached. And why should they? Kool-aid tastes good enough. That is until you taste the cup that Jesus Christ was passing around. People need to drink real wine from the vine - not the fermented kind either - and definitely not the imitation grape juice... just ask the followers who attended The People's Temple back in 1978.
I see this too often with christians that I encounter. They
want to be more Christ-like, but the thought of it is too hard, so why try? So
they continue to drink alcohol, smoke, cuss, get tattoos (christian ones- now that is
funny), and sleep around. Yes, the term Entire Sanctification is not found in the Bible, but I say the term is alive in Scripture (see Isaiah 52:10-11). By the way, neither is the word "Rapture", but boy are we willing to grasp that concept, because "everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die".
This thinking is not intelligent, and it's definitely not
Christianity. Let me say this clearly: To call ourselves Christians, but still allowing yourselves to be yoked to the World from which we were freed from is not intelligent. I am not trying to give a scathing report here; rather, I am only
giving you a love response. In truth I can't invite my lost, gangbanger brother
to a church like this, because he would say "You mean I can drink, smoke,
cuss, sleep around, AND GET TATTOOS TOO? Hey I'm with this christian
thing!"
The bottom line is I agree that we do need to reach out to the
lost & unclean. In truth, the Shepherd will direct us to His lost
sheep, but that doesn't mean that we sacrifice or compromise our belief system
to take hold of those sheep either (2 Corinthians 5:10 to 7:1... yes, ALL of it). For
Christ did heal & forgive who ever He encountered / was brought to Him, but
Jesus also warned afterwards "Now go and sin no more". Funny, I never read that
the healed person every responded back, "Thank you Master for healing
me... but ARE YOU SERIOUS? SIN NO MORE??? C'mon Jesus, that's too hard for
me". I say it again, this would not be intelligent response.
It's no wonder the Muslim world rejects our Christian belief system.
Let me tell you, if you were a pastor/teacher at your Church... your church members, your big dollar
tithers, and most everyone else who's passing through your doors would walk out
if you started preaching "Go and sin no more", one Sunday a month. HA, your Church board members would think twice about allowing you to preach at their pulpit for the next term limit. you would be rejected by most... just like alot of Jesus' disciples did to Him in John 6:66.
You want to know what Entire
Sanctification is? It's when your neighbors bring the sick near you so your
shadow will heal them (Acts 5:15). It's when the handkerchief you use to
wipe your brow is passed around your neighborhood to cast out demons (Acts
19:12). It's when you have enough faith to understand that you don't need to
actually come and lay your hands on a sick person (Matt. 8:5-11) in order for them to be healed. Those are the most prominent examples, but even Christ says this alone will not get you in to heaven:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." (Matt. 7:21-23).
The rejected are the goats (Matt 25:31-46) - "less than" - because they are not rooted in the Spirit. Not rooted in love. Please, we must all continue to give our testimony, back it up with Scripture, preach the Gospel, and have it
come out of us as pure water. If doing this is through Bible tracts, using the "Roman Road", or a simple thing like driving a fellow Christian to church, then so be it, but please do it... DO SOMETHING! And don't worry if you don't think of yourself as a major preacher type person, because the Word of God will accomplish everything that He pleases (Isaiah 55:11) through you. The greatest testimonies recorded in the Bible are more than 100 words, because the Living Word came out of the person speaking without practice or reservation. It flowed like water, because there was no cause for regret, and it changed lives because it was not contaminated by nuclear fallout (something invented & placed together by human hands), but rather, it was set in the foundation of God's heart.
In closing, let us always remember the writings of the
Apostle John...
"And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when
He appears we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His
coming." (1 John 2:28)
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me,
to repay everyone for what he has done." (Rev. 22:12)
I believe that the 1st verse I quoted (up at the very top) before I started this blog/rant is largely ignored, because it's Old Testament thinking, and it doesn't apply anymore... or does it? I invite your thoughts & comments feel. God is older than
denominations, religions, and dogma. Peace be with you all.
:)
