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Justification, Sanctification, and the Holy Spirit: Difference between revisions
Justification, Sanctification, and the Holy Spirit (view source)
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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 | 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 " | |||
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 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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=More quotes of William Branham= | =More quotes of William Branham= | ||
''The first thing, there's a glass laying out in the hog pen, chicken yard, whatever it is. You want to use it. The first thing, you pick it up. That's justification. You've got it in your hand. You can't use it yet; it needs to be cleansed. Then you take it in; you wash it, sterilize it, boil it, and takes all the germs and the--out of it. That's what God does through sanctification: takes all the desire of sin out of your heart, cleans you up. And then you are a candidate for the filling of the Holy Spirit. See? Then the word "sanctify" means "to be cleansed and set aside for service." That's the Old Testament: the altar sanctified the vessels. And cleansed and set aside for service is not "in service." It's "set aside for service." And when it's "in service," "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled." The Holy Spirit comes in and fills up that vessel till running over, bubbling over, and then you're "in" the service of the Lord.<ref>54-0404M EARNESTLY.CONTENDING.FOR.THE.FAITH LOUISVILLE.KY</ref> | |||
'''''You are not converted until you've received the Holy Ghost...''' And in John 17:17, Jesus sanctified them through the Word,… He said, "Father (speaking to the Spirit in Him), I sanctify them through the Word."… He said, "Don't rejoice because the devils is subject unto you, but rejoice because your name's in the Book." And Judas was with them. '''See how close he can come, right on up through justification, move right on into sanctification,''' but where did he show his light? Where did he show hisself? Before Pentecost he showed his colors… | |||
'''''Peter had been saved'''; he believed on the Lord, followed Him. Jesus told him who he was, had him to follow Him. He gave him power against unclean spirits and sanctified him. But after all of that... And become the chief spokesman of the group, as the Catholics would want to call it, the bishop of the church, or the pope, or whatever it was, the head man of the church. Yet Jesus said the night of His betrayal..."Before the cock has crowed three times, you'll--before the cock crows, you'll have denied Me three times." | |||
''He said, "But, Peter, I've prayed for you." Listen. That's not all of it. "I have prayed for you, and after you are converted, then strengthen your brethren." '''After you are converted... He had shouted; he had probably danced in the Spirit; he--he had done all kinds of things, but he hadn't received the Holy Ghost yet.''' "After you are converted, then strengthen your brethren." That's true. Carry out His plan.<ref>What was the Holy Ghost given for? Jeffersonville, IN, Dec 17, 1959</ref> | |||
''And so is it in the spiritual realm. It's water; justification by faith, believing on God, receiving Him as your personal Saviour, and being baptized. Second, is sanctification of the spirit, that God cleanses the spirit from all elements of the world, and the desire of the world. And then the Holy Spirit comes in and gives new Birth and fills up that sanctified vessel. | |||
''For instance, like this. Now, that, I told you. What you don't believe, lay aside, then take the pie. Notice. Now, a--a glass is laying out in the chicken yard. You don't just pick that up and put on your table and fill it up with water or milk. No. By picking it up, is justification. Cleansing it, is sanctification, 'cause the Greek word sanctify is a compound word, which means "cleansed, and set aside for service." Not in service; for service. Then when you fill it, it is put in service.<ref>65-0124 BIRTH.PAINS_ PHOENIX.AZ</ref> | |||
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