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Justification, Sanctification, and the Holy Spirit: Difference between revisions

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===Justification===
===Justification===
William Branham often dismissed justification as a thing of the past, and that anybody can be justified.  His view was that justification (like salvation) is something that you may lose at some point.  The Lutherans had it hundreds of years ago, so it must not be too important.  This of course makes one a borderline believer (like Judas or those who perished in the wilderness) until you make it to the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.
William Branham often dismissed justification as a thing of the past, and that anybody can be justified.  His view was that justification (like salvation) is something that you may lose at some point.  The Lutherans had it hundreds of years ago, so it must not be too important.  This of course makes one a borderline believer (like Judas or those who perished in the wilderness) until you make it through the next two stages of being born again.


===Sanctification===
===Sanctification===
William Branham used a boxcar analogy to teach that a person wasn't sealed in (filled with the Holy Ghost or truly born again) until all of the loose stuff in the boxcar was packed tightly (sanctification).  Then, when God sees that you mean business and that your prayer life is right - you don't smoke, wear shorts ( ___________ fill in the blank here with your personal weakness) - then, and only then, can you be born again.  
William Branham used a boxcar analogy to teach that a person wasn't sealed in (filled with the Holy Ghost or truly born again) until all of the loose stuff in the boxcar was packed tightly (sanctification).  Then, when God sees that you mean business and that your prayer life is right - you don't smoke, wear shorts ( ___________ fill in the blank here with your personal weakness) - then, and only then, can you be born again.  


The burden was placed on our shoulders instead of Christ, and essentially makes the cross of non effect, and presents a different gospel.
The burden was placed on our shoulders instead of Christ, and essentially makes the cross of non-effect, and presents a different gospel.
 
This "second work of grace" is something that he took from the Holiness movement and which was clearly laid out in Keswick theology.
 
There are two types of Christians in Keswick teaching. The “average” or “carnal” Christian behaves much like an unbeliever. Keswick conventions were “spiritual clinics” designed to turn the average, carnal Christian into a “normal” or “spiritual” Christian, one who is filled with the Holy Spirit. This transformation from the carnal to the spiritual Christian takes place not by a long struggle but by a simple, single act of faith. The secret to the victorious life is for the Christian to make an unconditioned and absolute surrender to God in faith. One must not strive for spiritual victory; rather one must simply ‘Let go, and let God!’ ” H. C. G. Moule, probably Keswick’s best theologian, described this state of victory for the believer as “a blessed and wakeful Quietism.”
It appears that Keswick teaching was the first to describe the second blessing as surrendering to Christ’s Lordship. <ref>William W. Combs, “The Disjunction Between Justification And Sanctification In Contemporary Evangelical Theology,” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal Volume 6 6 (2001): 26.</ref>
 
John Wesley used various terms to describe this second work of grace: Christian perfection, salvation from all [willful] sin, entire sanctification, perfect love (1 John 4:18), holiness, purity of intention, full salvation, second blessing, second rest, and dedicating all the life to God. Its essence is unreserved love for God with one’s whole being and, consequently, love for fellow humans. This complete sanctification occurs instantaneously at a point in time subsequent to one’s justification, but God’s gradual working both precedes and follows it.
 
Wesley’s primary contribution to the doctrine of sanctification is that he is the father of widespread evangelical views that separate justification and sanctification in a way that the Reformed view does not. <ref>Andrew David Naselli, “Keswick Theology: A Survey and Analysis of the Doctrine of Sanctification in the Early Keswick Movement,” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal Volume 13 13 (2008): 19–20.</ref>
 
However, the separation of justification from sanctification is effectively a rejection of Christ’s Lordship in conversion because it is only at the time of the believer’s one-time act of dedication ("sanctification") that he submits to the Lordship of Christ.<ref>William W. Combs, “The Disjunction Between Justification And Sanctification In Contemporary Evangelical Theology,” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal Volume 6 6 (2001): 30.</ref>


===Filled with the Holy Spirit===
===Filled with the Holy Spirit===
I found the concept of "two salvations" in the message interesting: first there is basic salvation and then there is receiving the New Birth/Holy Ghost. It's like a loophole so that there might possibly be salvation for people outside the message, yet Message Believers feel that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is only for those who follow the teachings of William Branham (with his "special revelations".)
 
Many early Pentecostals had first been influenced by the Wesleyan Holiness movement, and these people believed that every Christian’s life should include a second crisis experience after conversion itself in which the tendency to sin would be displaced by love for God. They referred to this as "sanctification", or the second blessing, and when they accepted Pentecostalism, such people regarded the baptism with the Holy Spirit as a third experience in the order of salvation.<ref>Edith L. Blumhofer, Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody’s Sister, ed. Mark A. Noll and Nathan O. Hatch, Library of Religious Biography (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 71.</ref>
 
William Branham simply borrowed this concept from the early pentecostal movement.
 
I found the concept of "three salvations" in the message interesting: first there is basic salvation; then there is sanctification; finally there is receiving the New Birth/Holy Ghost. It's like a loophole so that there might possibly be salvation for people outside the message, yet Message Believers feel that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is only for those who follow the teachings of William Branham (with his "special revelations".) . In fact, the evidence one is filled with the Holy Spirit is that you follow William Branham's teaching.


His analogy was that you are a dirty glass, and that you have to be cleaned and polished without a spot and set aside for service. Then when you're perfect, the Holy Spirit can be poured into you.  What he missed is that it is the Holy Spirit that makes us clean.  
His analogy was that you are a dirty glass, and that you have to be cleaned and polished without a spot and set aside for service. Then when you're perfect, the Holy Spirit can be poured into you.  What he missed is that it is the Holy Spirit that makes us clean.  


The Kicker is....once you finally get good enough to be born again THEN you have faith: which is the bottom platform of the Pyramid (as William Branham taught) of the "stature of the perfect man".  This means you have to start to work your way into the new birth, which is the climb up the "pyramid" by adding to your faith (or new birth) the virtues Peter mentions. Then, after you do that then you can receive the "True Baptism of the Holy Ghost" and God "caps off the pyramid of your life". This is when you can finally use the third pull and speak stuff into existence.
The Kicker is....once you finally get good enough to be born again THEN you have faith: which is the bottom platform of the Pyramid (as William Branham taught) of the "stature of the perfect man".  This means you have to start to work your way into the new birth, which is climbing up the "pyramid" by adding to your faith (or new birth) the virtues Peter mentions. Then, after you do that then you can receive the "True Baptism of the Holy Ghost" and God "caps off the pyramid of your life". This is when you can finally use the third pull and speak stuff into existence.


==Quotes and questions==
==Quotes and questions==
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[[Category:Doctrines]]
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