THE LOST DOCTRINE--Part I The Attribute That Defines God

UNHEARD OF.
You've seen the word in Scripture if you read the Bible. It's a doctrine/practice that is neither taught nor practiced in the Modern Evangelical church. This Lost Doctrine is so essential that the biblical concept of God's people isn't possible without it. When God brought the people out of Egypt this doctrine/practice was the reason for it. Even the concept of the biblical God isn't possible without this Lost Doctrine. A. W. Pink said this doctrine is the premier attribute of God and all other attributes of God are governed by it. (1)

Almost certainly, you've never heard a sermon on this doctrine. In fact, if you're a pastor, you'll be ridiculed roundly in the ME movement if you preach this Lost Doctrine. You will be avoided and black balled in many circles of "Christians". Your congregation is likely to be much smaller than if you ignore it and you will be hated very deeply by others in your chosen profession.

This doctrine is so pervasive in biblical thought that if one were to cut out all verses which refer to it, many biblical stories would be unintelligible. The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy would be destroyed. They would be much shorter, too. This doctrine and its practice is essential to salvation and without it, no one will ever know God and the Bible uses just that sort of language about it. This practice is the very mark that shows who belongs to God and who doesn't.

This doctrine is huge in both Old and New Covenants, but its practice was changed from the OC to the NC.

I've called this the "Lost Doctrine" because it has been forgotten by many older lay people and many younger ones have never heard of it, but it might be better called the Ignored Doctrine. Beginning with the emergence of the ME movement, the practice of this doctrine has been systematically opposed by many clergy and religious leaders.

If you think I'm starting to sound like Joseph Smith, bringing in new doctrines that I SAY were forgotten but I really made up out of thin air, ask yourself this question: When was the last time you heard a sermon on holiness? Can you articulate the New Covenant practice of holiness? I don't ask questions like this to make you feel bad or stupid or inferior. I ask to make you worry and to motivate you to study the Scripture for yourselves to see if I'm right and if all you've heard and been taught is right. And I ask questions like this to make you distrust all teachers, including me, and check the Bible. Paul liked that sort of thing. Remember the Bereans?

THE ATTRIBUTE THAT DEFINES GOD.
It isn't love. It's holiness. Sound familiar? Not if you've spent a lot of time in MEism. MEism says it's the other way round. God is love. Legalism is the summum baddum of all of life. Soft is good. Harsh is bad.

The definition of holiness is pretty much the same, Old Testament or New Testament. At root, it's separateness, otherness, different-ness. By both logical and natural consequence it is also purity. (2) (3)

In all of reality nothing and no one is more other than God. Only God is non-contingent, self-existent, and uncreated. Only God is without limit. All creatures know by conforming their thoughts to reality. Only God knows by creating reality that is absolutely conformed to His thoughts. Creatures are righteous when they conform to a moral law outside themselves. Only God is independent of all laws. Only God has righteousness because He is righteous. All creatures have righteousness by imitating God's character or by imputation. That is to say, God has no need to conform His character to a moral law. Moral law is moral because it conforms to His character. Righteousness is described when one describes His nature and righteousness is righteous because it is how God is. A common misconception that is easily made is the confusion of righteousness with holiness. This is natural because to be holy to a righteous God, will cause the holy creatures to be much more righteous than those creatures not holy to this righteous God.

God's omnipotence is part of His otherness. His omniscience is part of His otherness. His otherness is Him. He can be nothing but other because everything else is created by Him, dependent upon Him, judged by Him, and has no purpose other than the purpose He gives it. Any creature that seeks its own glory is evil. God seeks His own glory because He is worthy of glory just because He is God.

If you have a copy of A. W. Pink's The Attributes of God, take a few minutes this evening to read the chapter on holiness. It will be a good reminder for us older folks, an introduction for you younger folks.

Part II will deal with holiness as the attribute of all the other attributes of God. This will be a very long series, with other posts in between. Patience will be needed, but this doctrine is key to understanding God properly as He revealed Himself to us. It is also key to the restoration of the gospel in the West. Why don't we fear God? Because we forgot His holiness.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.

(1) Pink, A. W.; The Attributes of God; Sovereign Grace Publishers; Lafayette, Indiana; copyright 2002 by Jay P. Green, Sr.; ISBN 1-58960-320-6; p. 44.
(2) Erickson, Millard J.; Christian Theology, vol. 1; Baker Book House; Grand Rapids, Michigan; 1983; ISBN 0-8010-3391-8; pp. 284-285.
(3) Grudem, Wayne; Systematic Theology; Zondervan; Grand Rapids, Michigan; copyright 1994 by Wayne Grudem; ISBN 0-310-28670-0; pp. 201-202.