“We have this ministry”
“the temple of the living God.” 2 Corinthians 6:11—7:16
Introduction
Today is the Day of Pentecost in the liturgical the calendar of the Church. The Easter season has come to an end with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the disciples with fresh meaning, that of the incarnate life, death, and resurrection of Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. We read in Acts 2:4 that on that day the first disciples of Jesus “were filled with the Holy Spirit.” As it has come down to us on the American religious scene the Wesleyan Holiness heritage has linked its emphasis on the sanctification of life with those first disciples’ experience of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. For us the traditional language of being “entirely sanctified” is to be “filled with the Holy Spirit.”
In the present day there are differing opinions among us, not to speak of other traditions, as to the precise relation of the happening on the Day of Pentecost with the “holiness experience.” Whatever it meant precisely to the individual experience of any one disciple that unique day, the Day of Pentecost was the inauguration or “send-off” day of the New Testament Church, and carried with it the potential of the full meaning of life in the Spirit, the full significance of the transformation of life as understood in the Wesleyan Holiness heritage. Thus on this day on which we commemorate the original and defining Day of Pentecost, we look at a text that relates directly to who we are as Wesleyan Holiness Church in 21st century America.
An Apostolic Introduction, 1:1-11 The Apostolic Ministry, 1:12—7:16 Paul Reveals His Intentions, 1:12—2:17 Paul Characterizes His Ministry, 3:1—6:10
As we share again from our work on 2 Corinthians, today the “From the Text” section on 6:11—7:16, we attempt to relate to our contemporary practice in the Church in relation to our heritage and to current discussions as reflected in the Global Theology Conference held in Costa Rica in 2002 and the more recent “Conference on Revisioning Holiness” held in February 2007 at Northwest Nazarene College. We have a theological “agenda” at work so if today’s presentation gets a little too theological or technical toward the end, forgive me as I seek to give expression to some concerns about the present state of our Wesleyan Holiness heritage in the life, proclamation, and theological thinking of the “holiness” churches. Now to
The Text An Appeal for Fellowship (6:11-13) 11We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. 12We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. 13As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also. 2. An Exhortation to Holy Living (6:14—7:1)
14Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. 17"Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." 18"I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
7:1Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
Renewed Appeal for Fellowship (7:2-4)
2Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one. 3I do not say this to condemn you; I have said before that you have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die with you. 4I have great confidence in you; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.
The Coming of Titus (7:5-7) 5For when we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within. 6But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7and not only by his coming but also by the comfort you had given him. He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy was greater than ever. 5. The Repentance of the Church (7:8-13a) 8Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— 9yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 11See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. 12So even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong or of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. 13By all this we are encouraged. The Experience of Titus in Corinth (7:13b-16) In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you. 14I had boasted to him about you, and you have not embarrassed me. But just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting about you to Titus has proved to be true as well. 15And his affection for you is all the greater when he remembers that you were all obedient, receiving him with fear and trembling. 16I am glad I can have complete confidence in you. From the Text
Is it appropriate to the use the designations “Father” and “children” for the relationship between pastor and people? The apostle Paul speaks to the Christians in Corinth as “my children” (6:13). The language of personal feeling characterizes 6:11-13 and 7:2-16 with an intensity of affection not seen elsewhere in Paul’s letters. In between the two expressions of affection is a strong exhortation to a separated or holy life (6:14-7:1) in the midst of which Paul employs an Old Testament quotation (2 Sam 7:14) affirming that God relates as a Father to his children (6:18), the people of God, the Church. Yet can we really combine Paul’s seemingly stringent call to holiness with the tender and intimate relationship he desires with the Corinthians? Do these two inherently go together in the ministry of the local church?
What can we learn from Paul about how pastor and people should view each other in the life of the congregation? We suggest at least three primary areas of relevance to the present life of a healthy and effective Church. First, pastor and people are to cultivate an atmosphere of mutual openness and love (6:11-13), second, pastor and people are to maintain a relationship of trust and confidence in each other (7:2-16), and third, pastor and people are to devote themselves as one to holiness of heart and life (6:14-7:1). The first two surround the third, and the third is at the heart of the integrity of the first two. The responsibility of the “are to” rests equally on pastor and people—cultivate, maintain, devote. We will look briefly at the first two and then engage in a more extensive discussion on the third.
First, pastor and people are to cultivate an atmosphere of mutual openness and love (6:11-13). Paul’s language at this point is vivid, for his metaphors are those of an open mouth, an enlarged heart, and a visceral affection: “We discourse unto you on all points with freedom as unto persons beloved, and suppressing nothing, reserving nothing” interprets John Chrysostom (344/354-407 C.E.). Paul’s expressions suggest that open not closed, deep not shallow, spacious not narrow, honest not deceitful, and other rather than self-seeking are the characteristics of the atmosphere within which an effective ministry of pastor and people can thrive. As Oscar Reed put it, “the success of a Christian minister depends, to a large extent, on his love and compassion for his people” (Reed 1976, 237). Freedom of speech and wideness of heart are the ocean in which grace can swim unrestricted.
Second, pastor and people are to maintain a relationship of trust and confidence in each other (7:2-16). The metaphor continues from 6:13 into 7:2, “Make room for us in your hearts.” If this is to be true on the part of the people, then the pastor in no way takes advantage of them, the pastor seeks to wrong, to corrupt, to exploit no one in the congregation. The minister’s care is so genuinely imbedded in the gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus, that Paul’s profession is characteristic, “you are in our hearts to die together and to live together” (v 3; NASB): The minister “is a proclaimer of the gospel, not a motivational speaker” (Hafemann 2000, 317). The ministers’ authority is in their message to the degree they faithfully represent the gospel of Christ. In Paul’s case he had just been “greatly encouraged” and therefore has freely expressed the “confidence” and “pride” in the people and the “joy” that he felt in relation to them (v 4).
It is significant that the implications of discipline appropriate to a father and his children are present in the situation (vv 5-16). Mutual trust and confidence between pastor and people takes careful maintenance. Issues of discord have to be faced. In Corinth Paul had to deal with a problem in his relationship to the church. Some damage control and restoration needed to take place, and Titus had been sent with a disciplinary letter to heal the wounds. Paul speaks prophetically as an apostle and spiritual father, as a true minister. It follows then that as he waits for the return of Titus to him at Ephesus Paul is in deep distress.
But with the return of Titus, Paul is greatly comforted by Titus’ joyful news of the Corinthians’ reception of both Titus and the corrective letter he brought to them. Attitudes and behaviors have changed, “repentance” is the word, and the Corinthians’ true desire to be at one with Paul as their father in the faith is now fully evident. The apostle’s “confidence” in the church is now “complete” along with the love they have for each other. Significant is Paul’s use of the word repentance in the phrase repentance unto salvation indicating that serious issues in the spiritual welfare of both pastor and people are at stake in their relationship, as is also supported by the contrasting phrases godly sorrow and worldly sorrow (v 10). As Denney comments, “want of love and confidence between the minister of the Gospel and those to whom he ministers has great power to frustrate the grace of God” (Denney, 1894, 775). But when pastor and people value and give sincere attention to preserving their trust and confidence in each other, joy will permeate the life of the church and grace will flow freely in their lives inside the church and out.
Third pastor and people are to devote themselves as one to holiness of heart and life (6:14-7:1). It is fascinating, even theologically significant, that placed between passages dealing with the integrity of relationships within the church is a passage about the integrity of the church as “the temple of the living God” (6:16), people in whose individual lives and in whose corporate fellowship the holy God seeks to live:
“I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people” (v 16).
If nothing else this means that the divine call to holiness of life and heart is of utmost and decisive importance for the people of God. Without the reality of what biblical holiness means, the mutual openness, love, trust, and confidence that characterizes the Church as the Church of God becomes impossible.
Human relationships as indeed Christian are constituted by the divine dimension, not by common likes and dislikes or compatible personalities. The church as a true fellowship, a koinōnia, is by biblical definition a horizontal sharing together in a vertical reality: “fellowship (koinōnia) with us . . . our fellowship (koinōnia) is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ” (1 John1:3; see 1 Cor 1:9; 10:16; 2 Cor 6:14; 13:13; Phil 2:1; 3:10; Acts 2:42). Fellowship in the gospel and in the ministry is mutual participation in the redeeming and sanctifying presence and mission of God. Here it is imperative to examine the apostolic presentation of the call to holiness.
Verses 14-18 tell us that it is a call from something and a call to something—from unethical and immoral living to ethical and moral living, from a clouded vision to an enlightened vision, from the domination of Satan to the lordship of God in Christ, from unbelief and doubting to belief and trust—all summed up as from the worship of false gods to all of life found in the very sanctuary of God. Simply put, as Christians we are to be done with all forms of idolatry that appear in so many guises, those aspects of our lives that take the rightful place of God and contradict the “clean” or holy character of God: “touch no unclean thing.” William Barclay points out that “in first century Corinthian culture to be a Christian could mean that a person gave up their trade, or social life, or even family ties”(Barclay 1956, 248) as is tragically so true in some areas of the world today. Profoundly put, we are privileged to live in the assurance that we are God’s people, his sons and daughters, with whom he lives and walks as our Father. The motivation to respond to such a call is double, “from” and “to”—a deliverance and a gift!
In 7:1 Paul gives us criteria by which to judge what the “unclean thing” is for us in our walk with God. The apostle states it clearly, “everything that contaminates body and spirit” or “all defilement of flesh and spirit” (NASB). Two things are obvious; holiness is a matter of both the inner and the outer life, what we do with and to our too human bodies, and what we allow to fester in our thought, motive, and feeling lives. Our whole persons and the wholeness of our living are involved—flesh and spirit are both to be kept holy! Equally obvious is the test we apply throughout the day. As I seek to live moment by moment in the presence of God, does this action or thought defile or contaminate me, does it harm me physically, does it darken my mind and heart? Biblically put, does our heart condemn us (1 John 3:20)? Am I left feeling small, dirty, or estranged? If so, then it is a thing, a thought, an attitude, an action, an emotion not to be touched, not to be given admission, rather to be denied any continuing access, no longer allowed to influence our living. This kind of living Paul expresses as perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. As Bengel (1687-1752 C.E.) put it long ago, “It is not enough to begin; it is the end that crowns the work.”
This implies that the call to holiness is a decisive call to life-long transformation of life as was anticipated in 3:18: “we . . . are being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory.” The Benedictines speak here of a continuing “conversion of life”. Holiness is obviously then ethically progressive, but is it not also relationally definitive as the use above of the term “decisive” suggests? The Wesleyan heritage speaks of a divine act of entire sanctification that takes place “subsequent to regeneration,” popularly conceived in the holiness tradition as a distinct second work of grace. Much of this language and its accompanying emphasis has disappeared from the proclamation of the Wesleyan churches in lieu of a renewed attention on the spiritual disciplines, that is, “process” has for the most part overwhelmed “crisis” in the ecclesiastical life of the heritage. The word “subsequent” appears to be still alive in the minds of some but is it defined biblically or even theologically in any unique or definitive sense, or just as one among several moments in the process of “perfecting holiness” in the Christian life?
The holiness movement as it emerged from the 19th century, having assimilated the influence of the teaching and ministry of Phoebe Palmer (1807-1874), narrowed the Wesleyan emphasis on Christian perfection down to a “faith formula” experience—follow the formula and get the experience to which an assuring witness is borne by the Holy Spirit! It became less a “an experienced theology” than it was a “theologized experience” or a theology of experience as holiness theologians and preachers attempted to ground the camp meeting experience of a “second work” in precise theological categories and specific biblical texts, that is, to define a normative structure of religious experience. Spiritual life and conduct was now expected to vindicate the somewhat crystallized formula of what had taken place in the believer’s heart. But these expectations did not always fully materialize or endure both in the inner lives of those who professed the experience and in the minds of those who observed their outer lives. Contributing to the rethinking and reformulation of the Wesleyan heritage in the 20th century were many factors including (1) the advance of the discipline of psychology, (2) the emphasis on the more dynamic and relational nature of Scripture, and (3) the renewed study of the writings of John Wesley in the light of 20th century theology. The traditional formula was found wanting by many psychologically, biblically, theologically, and even historically!
Interestingly, Phoebe Palmer, who certainly contributed to the formulaic expression of the Wesleyan emphasis on “entire sanctification” and is easy for some of us to blame for the naïve simplicity of the formula as it entered the 20th century, may still help us in our concerns. Elaine A. Heath in her “The Via Negativa in the Life and Writing of Phoebe Palmer” attempts to show how apophatic mysticism impacted her theology and experience. Phoebe Palmer’s own path to spiritual satisfaction was a long and difficult struggle, with the solution coming with the exercise of faith in continuity with the apophatic tradition of spirituality. Thus the foundation of her spirituality and her most effective ministry was based in an informed and definitive exercise of faith, not primarily in an emotional experience.
Heath writes that Phoebe Palmer “entered into quietness of soul by means of the via negativa, rather than through kataphatic experiences of having her heart ‘strangely warmed’ as John Wesley did, or some other affective experience.” The point is that there is something about our 19th century holiness heritage, a baby that we dare not throw out with the bath, that is, a decisive, all-influencing, and uniquely defined moment, a stake driven down if you please, that determines the direction and straightness of the furrows we plow in the field of our subsequent Christian stewardship. Our heritage includes both the Wesleyan revival and the American Holiness Movement and any credible “revisioning” for our day must take in the authentic elements of both traditions.
Then how do we define this biblical and relationally definitive faith-moment that sets the course for the progressive transformation of the Christian into the likeness of Christ? The context (6:14-18) indicates that Paul is speaking decisively in 7:1 with the aorist tense, let us cleanse ourselves in a faith commitment to a life of perfecting holiness in the fear of God. We are aided in our definition by taking a clue from John Wesley with a “holiness hermeneutic” that works from “the privilege of grace to the crisis of faith.”
The biblical presentation of holiness or the sanctification of life as applied to persons is essentially a quality of life flowing from the grace of God in Jesus Christ. The Scriptures are concerned in hierarchical order first, with sanctification as a grace relationship to God in Jesus Christ, second, with sanctification as an ethic or response in life enabled by the Holy spirit consistent with the nature of that relationship, and third with sanctification as a faith-decision through which one enters into a perfected, or thorough-going grace relationship to the Christ of the cross and the resurrection. The biblical materials are to be interpreted and applied from the nature and privilege of the life in grace to the experiential need of some kind of a decisive “faith-crisis” for its full realization in day-to-day discipleship. The primary necessity for the “crisis” flows from the gospel’s presentation and call to the life of grace, the holy life. As we have seen, this approach is fully applicable to the Pauline text at hand: “Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (7:1).
As a fruitful holiness hermeneutic, “the privilege of grace to the crisis of faith” can be applied throughout the biblical record from the great commandment (Deut 6:4-5; Mark 12:28-31) to the Johannine presentation of “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16) as they give biblical integrity to John Wesley’s crucial definition, “love excluding sin.” We will, however, confine ourselves here to two illustrations from Paul’s writings, the first being somewhat grammatical, and the second more theological. First, The Pauline use of the indicative and imperative moods has been pressed by some interpreters to depict distinctly the two traditional crises. A careful study of the classic passage, Romans 6:1-14, suggests that it too falls better under the above hermeneutic.
First the argument of the passage is primarily expositional in its intention rather than an exhortation to a specific situation in the Church. Second the positive imperative in 6:13, “present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life” (NRSV; see 12:1), appears to be essentially one of ethical response to a privilege of grace already experienced (vv 3-11). So basic to the full working out of the imperative in ethical life is a quality of relationship fully realized in a second definite decision of faith. The experiential reality of this second crisis is potentially included in the call of verse 11 that summarizes the previous indicatives and brings them to a decisive conclusion: “In the same way count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” A conscious faith-identification with Christ in his death and resurrection (vv 3-10) in a full or decisive sense is one biblical way of defining the crisis of entire sanctification.
Second is Paul’s theology of law and flesh in contrast to grace and Spirit. These four Pauline categories open up a way of understanding a second crisis theologically as well as some possibilities for articulating it psychologically. A helpful way to see this is to apply these categories to a text in Acts informed by the law and grace struggles of the Early Church and directly related to the disciples’ experience of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In the context of the Jerusalem council Peter speaks in Acts 15:8-9 about the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Roman centurion Cornelius (10:34-48):
“And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith” (NASB).
There were those in the Church who wanted to compromise the freedom of the gospel of grace by a return to circumcision and the Law of Moses (15:1, 5). The Church met at Jerusalem to solve the issue and Peter brings the experience of his ministry to Cornelius to bear on the problem.
In its literary context Peter’s speech functions as a miracle-authenticated call to discipleship in terms of the understanding of the gospel as experienced and understood in the Gentile mission. Peter saw in the miracle of the gift of the Holy Spirit to his Gentile friends the evidence that the nature of everyone’s relationship to God is one of unadulterated grace: “We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we [Jews] are saved, just as they [Gentiles] are” (15:11). From this perspective the cleansing of the heart by faith is understood theologically as that operation of the Holy Spirit in our Christian lives that cleanses our hearts all the way to grace, a cleansing of the will from all trust in the flesh before God, from all confidence in any spiritual self-sufficiency.
The cleansing action of the Holy Spirit in the heart, to interpret in Pauline language, has primary reference to the issues of law and grace in salvation (see vv. 1, 5, 11). The “cleansing” of the heart is from all reliance on any human legalism to an utter dependence upon divine grace in salvation, from any confidence in the power of the flesh to a single trust in the presence of the Spirit for spiritual adequacy. Potentially to be “filled with the Holy Spirit” (2:4) can be understood as having been brought by the cleansing presence of the Spirit all the way to grace in one’s relation to God and fellow-persons as a Christian.
To speak psychologically or experientially out of this theologically defined context, the second crisis of entire sanctification can then be defined as that moment in one’s Christian pilgrimage when the Holy Spirit leads one all the way to grace, when in a moment of conscious faith-commitment one decisively and once for all shifts from all reliance on human strength and wisdom in “Christian” living to a sole dependence on the Spirit of Christ for a holy life, from a confused and partially flesh-based spiritual life to a full commitment to a Spirit-grounded existence. Again this may take place almost without awareness in an obedient walk with Christ, as well as in a moment of deep struggle of soul.
Thus if it is properly qualified, biblically, theologically and psychologically, there can be a point in our Christian walk that can reasonably be called “second,” perhaps one even more definite than the adjective “subsequent” implies. This is a decisive and faith moment or decision when the foundation for all subsequent Christian life is clearly and decisively laid that determines once for all the direction, motivation and source of our spiritual living. This is a stake driven down in heart, mind, and will as our final appeal. As to how the Holy Spirit leads us to and through this point is an open question, but we will know its reality when we have arrived. To this quality of relation and life the apostolic ambassador of Christ called the Corinthians, and to this the true minister of the gospel, the spiritual father of a people, will faithfully call his children. This is the apostolic, indeed the divine, call to holiness that is at the heart of the Wesleyan heritage.
Conclusion [From “Life of Holiness” class notes]
Holiness is biblically
A religious reality—a relation of exclusive allegiance to God:
An ethical reality—a response in life that seeks to exclude all that is contrary to the above allegiance, exclusive of all that is contrary to the moral character of the God to whom one exclusively belongs.
Thus the holy life is the life lived in obedient response to the life of Christ within. And this response is consistent with the ethical character of him to whom we are responding, for our response is dependent on and effected by the power of his life.
To be 'holy' means that we belong once for all and utterly to God by redemptive grace. The ethical or moral content of this relationship is determined by our conception of God and by the extent of our dependence upon Him moment-by-moment in our daily lives before him in human society. 2 Corinthians 6:16. It is instructive to read the Scriptures assigned to this day in the Revised Common Lectionary: Genesis 11:1-9; Psalm 104:25-35, 37; Acts 2:1-11; Romans 8:14-17; and John 14:8-17, 25-27. The Book of Common Prayer uses John 20:19-23 for the gospel reading. The traditional interpretive alternatives in our heritage have been either the “conversion” of the disciples in the full New Testament sense or their “sanctification” as disciples as already converted during the incarnate ministry of Jesus. These limiting alternatives, I believe, miss the point of a primary “dispensational” or “as an inauguration” event of a new era in the history of salvation. The outline of 2 Corinthians as followed in the Commentary. An Apostolic Introduction, 1:1-11 A. Paul Greets the Church, 1:1-2 B. Paul Praises God for His Comfort, 1:3-11 The Apostolic Ministry, 1:12—7:16 A, Paul Reveals His Intentions, 1:12—2:17 Paul Characterizes His Ministry, 3:1—6:10 C. Paul Has Confidence in the Church, 6:11-7:16 The Grace of Christian Giving, 8:1—9:15 A. Paul Collects an Offering, 8:1-15 B. Paul Chooses Messengers, 8:16—9:15 Vindication of Paul’s Authority, 10:1—13:14 Paul Answers His Opponents, 10:1-18 Paul Boasts in His Foolishness, 11:1—12:13 C. Paul Plans for a Third Visit, 12:14—13:10 D. Paul Concludes the Letter, 13:11-14
7:2-16 will be treated as one unit in this presentation for it deals generally with a single subject. I did not attend either conference, but have read the papers presented. 7:2-16 will be treated as one unit in this presentation for it deals generally with a single subject. Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians, 11.2 (NPNF 1 12:342). Bengel, Gnomon, 391. Manual, Church of the Nazarene (Kansas City, Missouri: Nazarene Publishing House, 2005), 34. See H. Ray Dunning, “Introduction,” in H. Ray Dunning and Neil B. Wiseman, eds., Biblical Resources for Holiness Preaching: From Text to Sermon (Kansas City, Missouri: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1990), 17-18. See also Rob L. Staples, “Sanctification and Selfhood: A Phenomenological Analysis of the Wesleyan Message,” Wesleyan Theological Journal, Volume 7 (Spring, 1972), 4-8. Simply put, apophatic is “the negative way” in contrast to kataphatic, “the positive way,” that is, the absence or presence of feeling and/or intellectual perception in the progress of spiritual life. In theology the constrast is between describing God in negative terms or in positive language, that is, “what God is not” over against “what God is.” Elaine A. Heath, “The Via Negativa in the Life and Writing of Phoebe Palmer,” Wesleyan Theological Journal Volume 411, Number 2 (Fall, 2006), 87-111. See also Harold E. Raser, Phoebe Palmer: Her Life and Thought (Lewiston, New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987), 227-287. Ibid, 88-91, 97-98, 106. See Raser, Phoebe Palmer, 44-48. For the primary sources see Thomas C. Oden, ed., Phoebe Palmer: Selected Writings, Sources of American Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1988), 107-130. Heath concludes: “Rather than ‘distorting’ John Wesley’s hallowed theology of sanctification, Palmer provided a much needed corrective with her experience and articulation of a distinctly Wesleyan apophatic spirituality.” 111. Ironic is that for the most part, the holiness movement as it moved into the 20th century took on more of the characteristics of the kataphatic rather than the apophatic. By “hermeneutic” we mean an interpretive principle, or interpretive approach. See Frank G. Carver, “Biblical Foundations for the ‘Secondness’ of Entire Sanctification,“ Wesleyan Theological Journal 22.2 (Fall 1987), 7-23. Much of what follows is “accommodated” from this essay. On John Wesley see Staples, “Sanctification and Selfhood: A Phenomenological Analysis of the Wesleyan Message,” 4-8. Albert E. Outler, ed., The Works of John Wesley, Volume 2: Sermons II, 34-70 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1985), 160.
Staples, 12-12a, in dependence on the work of Richard E. Howard, “The Epistle to the Galatians,’ Beacon Bible Commentary (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1965), 23, 90, 93, 111. But see Howard’s “Some Modern Interpretations of the Pauline Indicative and Imperative,” Wesleyan Theological Journal, Volume 11 (Spring 1976), 34-48, where he interprets Paul’s indicative and imperative, as best as I can read him, in a way that appears consistent with the approach taken here.
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