WHY I PREACH HOLINESS by Dr. Tom Hermiz

While serving as Executive Director of the Christian Holiness Association a pastor asked me if I felt pressured into preaching holiness messages because of my position.  I assured him that I did not and that thought had never entered my mind. I preach holiness messages because I love God and He has transformed my life.  God is holy and the great passion of His heart is to have a family who will be like Him.  He wants to see His character reproduced in us.  He commands us to be holy as he is holy.  Therefore, if I am in tune with the heart of God it will be my passion to preach Biblically based messages on holiness. I preach holiness messages because it is the only solution for man’s lost condition.  Every preacher wants to deliver messages that speak to the spiritual needs of their listeners.  Biblically based salvation messages, that include the message of Sanctification, are always relevant and effective.  The message of full salvation strikes to the very core of mankind’s deepest need.  Messages on other subjects can be helpful but it is the holiness message that offers the only solution for man’s sin problem.   Man’s deepest problem will never be solved with positive thinking discourses, messages on Church growth, the dynamics of leadership or the end times.  These are important subjects and they have their place in our preaching but never to the neglect of presenting messages that point to the way one can be delivered and set free from all sin. In Dr. Richard S. Taylor’s book, “The Main Issue”, he reminds us that, “In the Bible God’s position concerning sin is zero tolerance, now and forevermore.”  When we make allowance for even a little bit of sin we do not understand what it means to be a Christian. In Romans 6:1&2 Paul writes, “What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  Certainly not!  How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?  He did not say, “We are trying to die to sin, or we hope to die to sin, or we expect to die to sin, but we have died to sin—past tense. Those who say they sin a little every day in word, thought and deed have a false understanding of sin or they have never really repented.  It was sin that sent Christ to the cross and if we persist in it, it will send us to hell.  Until we understand the two fold nature of sin we will never understand the necessity of preaching entire sanctification as a second definite work of grace. At the moment of conception our humanity was infected by sin.  The scriptures refer to this infection as the body of sin or the carnal mind.  We are not responsible for this condition because we inherited it from Adam.  However, because this body of sin has corrupted our humanity we came into this world with an anti-God disposition within us.  At a very early age we began to disobey God and commit willful acts of sin.   Because we have all willfully sinned we must ask the Lord to forgive us.  When we repent we are forgiven of all our acts of sin and we pass from death unto life and become a new person in Christ Jesus. However, even though we are forgiven of the sin’s we have committed the body of sin that we inherited remains within us.  There is an enormous internal warfare taking place in the heart of every born again believer.  It is the conflict between the Spirit of the Lord within you and the inherited body of sin.  The born again believer wrestles with self centeredness, selfish ambitions and desires.  There is still a disposition within that wants to disobey God. In most churches people will never hear that there is a solution for this sinful anti-God disposition.  This is another reason I preach holiness messages.  This truth makes clear that at the cross Jesus shed His blood and laid down His life to provide not only for the forgiveness of our acts of sin but also to provide for the cleansing from our hearts this sinful anti-God disposition.  The salvation message includes both the forgiveness of our acts of sin and for cleansing from the body of sin.   I often hear pastor’s bemoaning the fact that so many of their people are not deeply committed to Christ and the Church.  This is another reason I preach the holiness message.  It challenges people to come to a place of being totally sold out to God.   If there has ever been a time when the message of full salvation was desperately needed it is today.  The shallowness, the lack of commitment, and the self centeredness of our modern society demands that I must preach the holiness message.  John Wesley said, “Where Christian perfection is not strongly and explicitly preached, there is seldom any remarkable blessing from God, and consequently, little addition to the society, and little life in the members of it…..till you press the believers to expect full salvation now, you must look for any revival.”   If I am to be true to my calling and faithful to the souls to whom I preach I must preach the message of full salvation frequently and with great passion.  It is both my responsibility and my privilege.  Furthermore, everyone who attends one of our churches has the right to expect to hear this message on a regular basis.  If we fail to do so we are failing our people and our Lord. This is the only message that adequately deals with man’s sin problem.  This is not the time to back off.   The great need of the hour is to increase our teaching and preaching of scriptural holiness.  I can do no other and my prayer is that all of our ministers will be faithful in doing the same.  It is the message that helps to build solid churches and growing saints. I preach holiness messages because there isn’t any other truth as important as the message of full salvation. It lays the foundation for all other themes and subjects.  It declares the reason why Jesus left heaven and went to the cross.  It was so He could restore us to the image of god. There is a fuzzy uncertain sound coming from many of the pulpits in America.  It might be hip and entertaining but it lacks substance.  The end result is a church that is more secular than spiritual.  Biblically based holiness preaching will bear good fruit and produce deeply committed Christians.  In Richard S. Taylor’s article entitled “What is Wesleyanism” he states, “Recently a young pastor commented to a friend, ‘the doctrine of entire sanctification does not fit this age; it is not the need of the hour.’ What should have concerned him was, ‘Is the doctrine true?’  If it is not true, it is not the need of the hour.’  But if it is true, then it remains the desperate need of the church---now.” Personally, I wouldn’t want to be known as anything other than a holiness preacher.  It is my calling and my passion! 

Dr. Tom Hermiz is currently General Superintendent of  The Churches of Christ in Christian Union based in Circleville, Ohio.  From an editorial written for the CCCU blog.

WORDWISE by John Seaman

ONU (Olivet Nazarene University) president John Bowling knows the importance and value of words. He wrote about them in his first book A Way With Words. Words are used to define what we think and deeply believe, they give expression to our deepest emotions as well as provide an outlet for the less significant. Wait ‘til next year, for example, are words laden with hope and emotion for fans of the Chicago Cubs wrestling with angst over another disappointing baseball season. Words can have a profound effect on people. They can hurt, inspire, depress, bring hope, make us cry or giggle or even guffaw (now there’s an old word)! They evoke feelings of love or loathing. Spiritually, words are used to lead us into a transforming relationship with God and guide us in expressing our growth in Him. The words we hear preached or taught influence our deepest convictions, beliefs, and how we intentionally live each day.

Words are important to an understanding of who we are as Nazarenes or people within the Wesleyan holiness tradition, including the influence of the American holiness movement. In this article I wish to speak briefly to fidelity to our theological tradition, especially concerning the doctrine of holiness and, more specifically, concerning the experience of entire sanctification and the ensuing life. Though I think theologically, I do not claim to be a theologian. So, these words are more theological reflections and convictions from my heart. I speak from the practice of theology in my life, much like most of the readers of this website.

What we say and the words we use are enormously important in defining who we are. Our identity as a church denomination is tightly bound to the theme of Christian holiness. Losing that, we lose our raison d’être. In the forward of the current Manual of the Church of the Nazarene, the Board of General Superintendents declares: “The primary objective of the Church of the Nazarene is to advance God’s kingdom by the preservation and propagation of Christian holiness as set forth in the Scriptures.”1(emphasis added) They go on to affirm that among the critical objectives of the Church of the Nazarene are the entire sanctification of believers and their upbuilding in holiness. They add, “Our well-defined commission is to preserve and propagate Christian holiness as set forth in the Scriptures, through the conversion of sinners, the reclamation of backsliders, and the entire sanctification of believers.”2 (emphasis added) That the theology and message of heart holiness and the entire sanctification of believers represent, more or less, the summum bonum of who we are is historic. This has always been “our watchword and song.” M. Kimber Moulton, a leading cleric in the first fifty years of the Church of the Nazarene said many years ago, “If you enter a thatched roof in the jungles of Africa, or an open tent in the steaming forest of Central America, or an ice domed igloo in Alaska, or a store-front church in one part of America, wherever you see the sign ‘Church of the Nazarene’ you will hear the same message of full salvation.”3

After a lifetime of service as a Nazarene missionary, I returned to the U.S. in my present assignment. In the years since my return, and frankly on brief sojourns in the United States during the latter years of my missionary service, I was surprised and disturbed by the reluctance I heard from not a few pastors to use “holiness” language from the pulpit or in teaching moments in their churches. The argument seemed to be that the unchurched, unreached, and new believers would not understand the language. So, as they said, we needed to couch it in more general terminology. To me, that demeans the unchurched, unreached and new believers as if they are intellectually incapable of grasping such “esoteric” language as surrounds holiness. The fact is, that in no generation since the days Jesus walked this earth, did the unchurched, unreached or new believer understand the language of the gospel, much less of holiness. It had to be learned; and learned it was! Every generation of people must be exposed to language they don’t know, but they can learn and master every nuance of it.

When I was sent as a missionary by the Church of the Nazarene more than 30 years ago, I went with the very latest in technological equipment, an IBM Selectric typewriter. It actually had a correction ribbon that removed what I mistyped on a manuscript or letter. It was amazing! That technology is, of course, obsolete now in this mind-dizzying info tech world. I am told that my car has more extensive computer technology than did the Freedom 7 spacecraft that took Alan Shepherd into space nearly 50 years ago. The information age has ushered in a whole new language. Elementary school children use words that cause me to furrow my brow as I search for their meaning! Yet, they use the words. Words like mouse, crash, virus, cookies, excel, web, and outlook have taken on whole new meanings. New words have invaded our language lexicon: DOS, HTML, e-mail, IMing, ISP, ethernet, megabytes, gigabytes, and a dictionary full of others. No one tries to create new words because computer language is just too difficult. Instead, fun yellow books “for Dummies” are published that render the “esoteric” words so simple that even a child can understand. 

Even something as common as American football has abstruse language. My son-in-law played quarterback for Olivet Nazarene University, and while watching him play and listening to him talk, I discovered a bewildering array of technological language. Terms like “forearm shiver,” “Tampa two,” and “nickel” defenses as well as plays like “trips left, Z short, 125 y shake” were explained to me in simple ways. So now, when John Madden speaks, I understand what he is saying!

From the front of the Book to the back, God calls His people to be holy. Descriptive language is used throughout the Bible. Across the centuries, words have been used to explain and describe God’s sanctifying work. We must not abandon those words today. The words are important, laden with intrinsic meaning. We need to use the words, explain them clearly, flesh them out. People will understand them; they are not difficult to comprehend! 

The words that define us as Nazarenes revolve around one thing—the message we were birthed to preach: heart holiness. This message and experience have always been understood as a second definite work of grace that in a moment purifies the heart of inbred sin and empowers us for life and holy service giving us an impetus for growth that continues throughout life, chipping away the rough edges, informing and shaping us to be more Christlike until that day we see Him face-to-face. What a victorious, hope-filled message for a hopeless world!

It seems we are approaching an era of an ever increasing hunger for holiness by believers of every stripe. Richard Foster has suggested that we are at the beginning of a “third reformation,” and that it will come about as the church focuses on sanctification. I know there are different schools of thought, but as a denomination we Nazarenes have always been clear and firmly rooted in our biblical understanding.

Despite rumblings I hear from time to time, an occasional troubling article I might read, rumors about what some might be teaching, provocative musings, or even fuzziness of experience coming from the lips of some, the last I noticed, nothing has changed in the Manual statement about who we are or what we believe about holiness. In the historical statement in the Nazarene Manual, we are reminded that the Church of the Nazarene has a special calling to proclaim the doctrine and experience of entire sanctification. 

One cannot even take a cursory glance at our history without seeing the holiness focus about everything we are. The unifying issue, that which makes us “Nazarene” from the disparate languages, cultures, ethne and countries where we are found is the message of holiness. We have never preached holiness as some esoteric theory or hard-to-understand theological tenet, but rather we have always “preached the reality of entire sanctification.”5 It is upon that theological foundation, conviction and life experience that the Church of the Nazarene exists. Holiness is our raison d'être. Should we lose that focus, we die.

If what Foster says is true, that holiness is not passé but a coming hunger, then that means it is true for “those who come behind us” as well. It is our task as pastors, theologians, and leaders to point the way and maintain the focus on holiness before the leaders of the church where we serve and before those under our charge. The next generation, our children, both spiritual and physical, are counting on us.

Pierre Banza of West Africa, a product of the ministry of the Church of the Nazarene in the Côte d'Ivoire, is pursuing a PhD in Wesley studies at NTC-Manchester. He pinpointed the importance of holiness. Banza writes: “Our Wesleyan heritage is a precious thing that needs to be shared with our Africa, an Africa that is burdened by the heavy weight of many evils, especially the problem of sin. Entire sanctification is certainly the message that our continent needs.”6 

It was my privilege to work most of my adult life with first generation Christians in West Africa. They understood the need to be sanctified. Before returning to the U.S. to assume my present assignment, an African DS took my wife and me to dinner. During the meal, he expressed appreciation for the Church of the Nazarene bringing them the message of holiness. He then recounted how in their culture, their equivalent of a witchdoctor would go out in the wilderness for a period of time and stay there until he “died” and was filled with evil spirits. Then he would return to his village to do their work. The DS said, “No other church took us far enough. Nobody else told us that we, too, needed to ‘die’ and be filled with the Holy Spirit. We Nazarenes understand and embrace this message and promise to continue to proclaim it in West Africa.”

I will never forget my son’s experience as he sought to “go deeper” with God and began a year long pursuit of holiness. Before he was sanctified wholly, this recent ONU grad wrote: “I think God is leading me to move into the direction of getting sanctified . . . I mean, I don’t know how it all works . . . but I don’t have to KNOW . . . because God knows . . . and He will work it out . . . since it IS His will that I be sanctified (Eph. 4:3). So, I am just praying that He will open up my mind and heart . . . to hear and know.”

Some time later while visiting his grandparents, with his grand-father kneeling at his side, he prayed through to a definite and clear experience of second blessing holiness. He wrote: “It sure has been an unbelievable experience in my life!! It is just amazing to see how God works. Things are just so much more wonderful now, I can’t even explain it in words. This last year really has been an awesome journey in my walk with God. And getting sanctified this weekend was a great way to top it off . . . but it’s not like it is really ‘topped off’ either because this is just the beginning . . . I mean . . . I have been obedient to Him and what He has said to me . . . and that is where it all starts. Each step of the way matters . . . and God will work His will in me, not at the end, but right now . . . and every day.”

A few weeks following, he wrote, “I will never be able to explain it; just that God has done something awesome in me, in my mind, in my heart. I think one of the biggest things I've learned about the whole thing is that when that sanctifying moment occurred, it wasn't like I reached a peak or anything, but it was part of God’s continual process in my life. Now, it just seems like a deeper sense of His being revealed all the time. It’s awesome.” 

Lauren is not unusual. He is just a typical young man of today’s generation anywhere in the world. He has experienced a work, a second, definite work of grace promised by God ages ago. The language doesn’t have to be hidden or set aside or changed. It just needs to be explained and experienced. 

The Lord has given to us that responsibility; may we never betray His trust.

Footnotes

1 2005-2009 Manual Church of the Nazarene (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 2005), 7
2 Ibid.
3 Quoted in Donald S. Metz, Some Crucial Issues in the Church of the Nazarene (Olathe, KS: Wesleyan Heritage, 1994), 138.
4 2005-2009 Manual church of the Nazarene, 16
5 Ibid., 20
6 Personal letter, June 6, 2003

Author Profile:  The McPhail family and the Seaman family became good friends more than fifty years ago where we first met at the Emerald Avenue Church of the Nazarene where both our families worshiped.  John Seaman is now the district superintendent of the Michigan District, Church of the Nazarene and a member of the Olivet Nazarene University board of trustees. A graduate of Olivet, Seaman (’69) served for 27 years as a missionary in the French Caribbean and West Africa. He is married to Linda (‘70) and has three grown children, all graduates of Olivet.  "Wordwise" was written 2/01/09 for the Epworth Pulpit and can be accessed at www.epworthpulpit.com.

NAZARENE IDENTITY: Past and Present

Student understanding of the doctrine of entire sanctification and their own religious experiences indicate the effectiveness of the Church of the Nazarene in passing on its identity and mission to the next generation.  This essay compares the formal statements of the Church from early Manuals and quadrennial addresses of the General Assembly with student opinions expressed in 150 final and pretest exams that asked students to identify their denomination’s identity.  

The early formal statements of the Church link entire sanctification with its identity.  The 1907 Manual of the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene connects the missional vision of the 1895 Nazarenes with entire sanctification: “These persons were convinced that they were called of God unto holiness, to teach others the doctrine, and to lead them into the experience of entire sanctification.”  Included in the PCN mission statement are the words “the entire sanctification of believers.”  In the qualification for ministry section, one requirement is that ministers would be “sanctified wholly by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.”  The current Manual contains similar claims and requirements.

The quadrennial addresses also associate the Church’s identity with entire sanctification.  Phineas Bresee remarked in the 1907 address in Chicago that the merger occurred because the groups had put aside their differences so that they could more effectively proclaim the holiness message.  In his last Quadrennial Address in 1915, Bresee recalled that those who “went out under the stars to preach holiness and gather together a holy people” had laid the foundations “of all of our people declaring in unmistakable terms their belief in entire sanctification and all of our preachers confessing their experience of the blessing, and the constant insistence that all men seek and obtain it.”   In 1956, the Church claimed to still be loyal to its original purpose, “the entire sanctification of our nature.”  It also said the “Church of the Nazarene stands for second-blessing holiness.” 

In the 2001 Quadrennial Address, the General Superintendents identified the Church’s “Core Values” as being a Christian church, a holiness church and a missional church.  Moreover, it spoke of the need to maintain the Church’s formal position on entire sanctification:  “The mission of the Church of the Nazarene is to respond to the Great Commission to ‘go and make disciples of all nations’ with a distinctive emphasis upon entire sanctification and Christian holiness.”   From the earliest statements of the 1907 merger until the recent General Assembly, the Church in formal statements has linked its identity and mission to the doctrine of entire sanctification.

What is the understanding and religious experiences of current Nazarene university students?  Do they recognize entire sanctification as central to the identity and mission of the Church?   Do they understand what the doctrine means?  Can they explain what it means to someone else?  Do their religious experiences conform to the formal teaching of the doctrine?  Do they embrace the mission of a holy lifestyle and the experience of entire sanctification?  And, would they proclaim this message? 

When asked either what the doctrine was that gave the Church of the Nazarene its identity or the belief that most distinguished the Church from other denominations, 19 of 45 students on the pretest failed to make any reference to holiness or entire sanctification.  Twenty-three students did list holiness or sanctification, but only 4 students referred to entire sanctification either by name or general concept.

Can the students explain the doctrine?   Most have some understanding of spiritual formation, but students have more questions regarding entire sanctification than adequate explanations of the experience.  One student remarked, “The idea of entire sanctification is seldom explained clearly to those existing members who have grown up in the church.”  A student from a pastor’s home, on his final exam, shared his opinion as to why the Church had raised questions about entire sanctification for his generation: “Interestingly, while we tout this doctrine as being radically distinctive, and fundamental to our denominational unity, we can’t seem to agree upon a definition of what exactly sanctification is.  I have seen myself and others wrestle with doubt, fear, legalism, and confusion—in part because of Nazarene leaders’ teachings concerning sanctification.  In addition, I have noticed that the off-paper, real life application of the Nazarene definition of holy sanctification does not Nlook very different from that of other denominations who simply preach growth in holiness.”

What can be learned from these students’ religious experiences?  In the life of students, entire sanctification often appears to be viewed like an item in a museum.  The concept has name recognition, but personal experience is lacking.  Few, if any, students in 100 final exams refer to any personal religious experience of entire sanctification.  Here are the only testimonies from the pretest:  “I did give him control over every thought, feeling and decision,”  “I was filled with the Spirit,” “I grabbed on to Jesus with everything I had in me,” and  “Just recently I became sanctified.”  Ironically, two other students who had a good intellectual understanding of entire sanctification claimed that their own religious experiences contradicted the Church’s teaching.  Their experiences confirmed spiritual growth, but rejected entire sanctification as a crisis experience.

Do they embrace the mission of the Church of the Nazarene?  Seven students did not know the Church’s mission.  Six connected it to some aspect of holiness. Sixteen associated it with evangelism.  Many students view the Church much more in terms of an Evangelical church than a Holiness one, and see holiness as, at best, one among many equally important doctrines. 

In conclusion, how do today’s Church leaders help the next generation sort out the issues and discover the core values of what it means to be a Holiness denomination?  If entire sanctification is at the heart of the Church’s identity and mission, what must be done to increase lay understanding of it and for all of us to experience the reality of the blessing?

~ Robert Doyle Smith, Professor: History of Christianity; Olivet Nazarene University; Bourbonnais, Illinois USA