THE LOST DOCTRINE--Part II The Highest Attribute of God and the Death of Western Christianity

IS GOD LOVE?
Being raised in Modern Evangelicalism, I was taught the greatest attribute of God was love. Not much Scripture was given as evidence other than the old see-saw "God is love" and the two passages where these words are found in I John.

But how does Scripture label the trinity? God is love, according to I John, but is that the entire story? Is it the crowning characteristic? Is it even the main charachteristic? Or have we been short-changed? Have we misunderstood? Have we been lied to? I've been reading Pink lately, so here's what he said about the issue:

The unregenerate do not really believe in the holiness of God. Their conception of His character is altogether one-sided. They fondly hope that His mercy will override evertything else.--A. W. Pink. (1)

What is God? Starting with His name as revealed in Exodus, He is "I AM". Does I AM speak of love or of something else primarily?

Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" 14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"--Exodus 3:13-14.

What is the point of such an odd name? I'll list several.

1. God is eternal. "I AM." He can't tell us when He began or when He will complete. He simply is. He is complete, always was complete, and always will be complete. No creature can say this. He is other.

2. God has no possible reference by which to describe Himself. He can't point to a clan, city, nation, or race. I am Philip Perkins of Billings, Montana. By saying this I define myself by things larger than I (city, state, nation, family)--something of which God isn't capable. He isn't from anything or any place. Even in terms of space-time, God is other.

3. God has no substance or essense famaliar to human experience that can describe Him. I am a human, made of human flesh, blood, and soul. This is how I describe what I am. I can refer to other beings, processes, events, substances. God can't do that. He is other.

4. God can't describe Himself as shaped by any experience, since all history is cause by His very decree. I am the fellow who grew up on a farm, was raised by a certain family, went to certain schools, married a certain lady, acquired a BS in psychology and an M. Div. in theology, has owned a small business, designed a number of pieces of equipment, learned welding, machining, and some basics of mechanical engineering on my own, and am self-taught in Latin. God can say no such thing. He isn't the best carpenter in Nazareth--or the worst. He decided and there was wood and hands to shape the wood. He's God and that's about all one can say. He needs no experience because He knows all things. No experience can shape Him, because He is unchangable. He cannot be improved because He is perfect. He can't lose any perfection or have even one tarnished in the slightest degree because He is God. He can't say "I AM" shaped like this and so, and was changed by this experience. All He can say about His growth is "I AM" because He has had no progress to make upward because He is perfect and He can make no downward progress because He is God. No one else and nothing else is like that. He is other.

In God's own personal name, His otherness--His holiness is demonstrated as especially important. No one but God, when asked, "Who are you?" can actually say "I AM". Anyone else would have to identify himself/herself with references. God IS the reference point for everything else. All the other points come from His plan and His creation.

WHAT HOLINESS IS
There is little difference between the Greek and Hebrew words for holiness, so let's just stick to the English words involved for now. Depending on your translation the verbs meaning to make holy will be words like dedicate, consecrate, or sanctify. Other terms that are similar, but not cognates of the root words in Hebrew and Greek for holy will be words like separate or dedicate.

Nouns that indicate the process or act of becoming holy, the process or act of making something or someone holy, or the state or condition of being holy are words like holiness, dedication, consecration, and sanctification.

The actual words that translate directly from the Greek and Hebrew words for holy are holy and saint. These are descriptive terms called adjectives. Consecrated, dedicated, and sanctified are verbs that act like adjectives and are common in Scripture, but holy and saint are the first words to consider. While saint appears as a noun in the English, it's an adjective in the Greek and Hebrew. It means holy man or holy person. It's use is much like the English term the rich. Rich is an adjective and usually occurs in phrases like the rich people. We shorten that phrase, letting the adjective stand in for the noun, saying the rich instead of the rich people. Saint translates the exact Greek adjective for holy. The biblical writers shortened the phrase to just the adjective just as we do in English with the poor, the tall, etc. Saint means holy man. Sanits means holy people.

The root words from the Greek and Hebrew are hagios in the Greek and qdsh, nzr, and hnkh in the Hebrew. The most important and common Hebrew root is qdsh. The denotations have a range that include separateness, separation, differentness, difference, set-apartness, or the quality of being dedicated for a certain role, function, or position, unmixed, apart from, untainted--in a word holiness.


HOLINESS AS A MAJOR THEME OF SCRIPTURE--Gentlemen, start your concordances.
I've already asked if the reader has heard a sermon on holiness lately. It's almost a joke, isn't it? Of course not. Many church goers have never heard a sermon on holiness and I'd be confident that the average church contains members, none of which have ever read even a small book on the subject. Go to your local religious book store and ask where is the section on sanctification. The fellow waiting on you won't even know what you mean.

So isn't holiness just another of the virtues God expects of us, along with about a dozen more? Isn't holiness just somewhere in the group. Certainly love is the crowning virtue of all virtues, right?

What if I told you, "No, holiness is the highest attribute of God and the highest virtue of men. You would reply, I suppose, that the two greatest commandments are to love God and then to love men. That's a good reply and a biblical one, but there is a problem with that thinking as it is practiced. The problem has to do with exactly what love is. I'll handle that in the next installment of this series, God willing.

For now, I'd like us to consider something that may shock many of you. Holiness is a small or non-existent theme in MEism, but it's actually a bigger theme than love in the Scripture. The words I listed as translations of the Hebrew and Greek roots for holy, holiness, and to make or be holy occur more times in the Scripture than similar words for love, loved, beloved, loves, and loving. Using an electronic concordance of the NASB, I found the words concerning love occur 731 times, while the words expressing the theme of holiness occur 830 times.

So what? Those are just numbers. Well, pick up an ME (Modern Evangelical) book and read. Listen to ME radio. Listen to ME sermons. Is the ratio in modern preaching, writing, songs, and church services even close to just one to one? Is it close to two to one? Ten to one?

Nowhere close.

We are out of balance with Scripture.

"But," you may object, "holiness is a major theme of the Old Testament, not the New Testament. These days are days of grace, not holiness and judgment." While that objection is certainly typical ME, it's NOT BIBLICAL. Out of the 611 occurences of holy (including saint), 422 occur in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is 72-73% of the Bible. Now, to be just propostional at 72%, the OT SHOULD have 440 occurences of holy.

That means that you are more likely to find the word holy more quickly reading in the New Testament than in the Old Testament!!!!!! Yet, how many times have we been taught that holiness, righteousness, law, and wrath are the purview of the Old Testament?

We've been lied to.

Be holy,
Phil Perkins

(1)Pink, A. W.; The Attributes of God; Sovereign Grace Publishers; Lafayette, Indiana; copyright 2002 by Jay P. Greene Sr.; ISBN 1-58960-320-6; p. 46.

COMING FRIDAY:
PART III OF THE LOST DOCTRINE--The Names of God.
God is love or God is holy, holy, holy. If God is equally both, why is His Spirit called Holy? Why isn't He called the Loving Spirit?