This is the ninth installment in a
series on holiness. This has not been a fun article to write. It won't be easy to read. It's heavy and you may not like what you read. Read it anyway. If you've been in American Evangelicalism for very long time, this article will contradict a lot of what you may think you know. But I dare you to try to refute what I've written here biblically. You may try to, but you can't.
Then you'll have to make a choice or two.
THREE REMINDERS
Here are three items by way of review from the first eight installments:
1. Holiness is unknown today. Unlike the day of Spurgeon (1834-1892), most of today's "Christian" religionists know nothing of holiness. Go to a religious book store or website and find more than you can read about a happy marriage, well-adjusted kids, a smooth career, and "Christian" diet tips. Ask the clerk or do a search for the section of books on sanctification and get nothing but a very confused clerk or "no items found". Ask the average pastor about his last four sermons on separation and watch the man (hopefully, a man) stumble, stammer, and make excuses. Or do what I've done. Mention the word "separation" to a pastor and watch him act like he just stuck his tongue in a light socket.
2. God's primary attribute is holiness, not love. From the very beginning, God is depicted in Scripture as unique and apart from all else, as the only uncreated Creator of all else. Genesis 1:1. "Holiness" and all the biblical words around "holiness" like "consecration", "dedication", and "sanctification", whether in Hebrew or Greek, have the central meaning from the very beginning of their usage of "apartness", "separateness", "uniqueness", or "devotedness to a particular use or state of being". And, by logical extention, these words often denote the concept of "purity".
(1) When God introduced Himself in Scripture as the only Creator, He was telling us He is unique, holy, sole, and like no other. This is the historic understanding of the implications of Genesis 1:1 from the time of the Jews.
(2) (3)
3. Because God is holy, we're called to be holy, too. In Leviticus 11:45 God said, "For I am the LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; thus you shall be holy for I am holy." The reality of this plain command is buttressed many times in the New Covenant when the New Testament calls us "saints", a word that means "holy" or "holy one". The early Christians called themselves "saints". Imagine calling each other at church "holy man" or "holy woman". That's what the New Testament saints did.
So just how far are we from the Bible when the primary attribute of God and His people is a forbidden subject?
HOLINESS AS DONE UNDER THE OLD COVENANT
Under the Old Covenant, holiness received a very physical expression. Leviticus has many pages of purity laws. Most involved water immersion of some sort and some involved sacrifice. The purity laws had to do with pollution from all sorts of things. The most polluting thing was a corpse. Death and disease were the opposite of holiness, but it's wrong to conclude the purity laws were simply God's way of enforcing a primitive code of hygiene. They were mnemonic devices to teach the people of God the importance of holiness. The purity laws had only to do with the people of God.
The first symbol of holiness was circumcision. From the time of Abraham God's people were marked as different. Only those who took the mark were God's people and anyone who didn't were not God's people. Genesis 17:14 says, "But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant." Remember that phrase "cut off from his people". It's VERY important and will come up again in later installments.
The mark is personal. The mark is intimate. The mark is permanent.
The congregation was also involved in the purity of the individuals. Individuals involved in sin polluted the congregation, as well. That has been covered in the last
installment.
THE GREATEST MNEMONIC
"Mnemonic" means having to do with memory aids, or something that aids memory. How did God keep His people reminded of His holy standard?
Simple.
You killed someone you love.
With rocks.....up close......with your neighbors and family watching.....even the women and kids.
Under the Old Covenant, the nation was to be purified of false religion by death. Foreigners or native Israelites who taught or encouraged false religion were to be killed. Foreigners were to be warred against until they were either dead or chased off the land. Deuteronomy 11 and 12. Numbers 33:50-52 says, "Then the LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho, saying, 'Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places...'"
Native Israelites who encouraged false religion in any way at all were to be killed as soon as it was proven they were guilty. Deuteronomy 13 and 18. Wars and killings. Deaths by stoning. Blood on your hands. Screams. Wailings. Blood-soaked clothes. Broken bones poking through ripped flesh. Crushed heads with distorted faces. Smashed hands and feet. Dogs licking blood. A child crying as a dying parent screams. A mother wailing as a son dies one broken bone at a time. Begging. Terror. Fear.
Why is the Old Covenant method of practicing holiness important to New Testament saints? All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable. That should be enough, but in this day when so many seem to think that holiness isn't a big deal, or that the New Covenant punishments for unrepentant sin and false-teaching are too harsh it's good to remember how intensely God hates. He hates false religion so much He wants false teachers dead.
And the LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel." Numbers 25:4.
HOLINESS AS DONE UNDER THE NEW COVENANT
So are we to kill false teachers? No.
But we aren't to be squeamish, either. There is no such thing as a godly man who's effeminate or timid.
What many of us have called "the church" today in America is deep in sin. And that sin is of the sort that marks it as a group of pagans, not Christians. Today's American "church" is no church at all. Few of the folks in either its pew or in its pulpit are saved people. The OC mark of circumcision was a mark on the body. With it, you're God's people. Without it, you're going to hell. The NC mark is circumcision of the heart. Obedience to God is the mark. Fidelity to God is the mark. Antipathy to falsehoods is the mark.
Without it, you're not God's people and you'll spend eternity without Him.
And the sooner you understand that, the sooner you'll understand why the "church" is such a doctrinal mess.
Hebrews 12:14 names holiness (some translations use "sanctification") as the marker that defines those who will see God. Those without it won't see God. In today's "church" holy separation from false teachers isn't practiced. No holiness, no heaven.
The New Testament teaches us to keep no company with anyone in unrepentant sin. II Corinthians 6:14-18 and I Corinthians 5. Paul tells us,"...not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler-- not even to eat with such a one."
That's plain. We aren't to treat folks in unrepentant sin, including false religion (idolaters), like brothers and sisters in Christ. They are to be put out. And if you read II Corinthians 6, we are to "come out from" those involved in sinful behavior and we are never to "be bound" with them. Then and only then will God fulfill His promise to "dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people." II Corinthians 6:16. Today's "church" isn't God's people because it isn't separate. Therefore, the "church" in America isn't the church of Christ.
A PHENOMENAL CONTRAST
So, I've stated that the "church" in America isn't Christian at all. I've noted that the Bible requires us be holy from sin and sinful teachings. I've also noted that the American "church" doesn't do that.
But what if I'm wrong? What if I've overstated the case? What if I've exaggerated in my own mind and I'm seeing what isn't there? What if you agree and you're wrong, too?
Well, you don't have to take our words for it at all. Harold J. Ockenga (1905-1985) claimed he came up with the term "New Evangelicalism". He listed for us the doctrinal changes that Modern Evangelicalism made from the historical faith they received in three areas:
1. Repudiation of the doctrine of separation.
2. Greater social involvement.
3. Theological dialogue with liberalism.
(4)
Did you get that?
Point 2 replaces the Great Commission with politics. Point 3 tell us not to separate from false teachers in the so-called Christian camp, but to have talks with them. The Bible, though, says not even to offer a word of encouragement to a false teacher. II John 10-11. Point 1 tell us to abandon holiness. The Bible, on the other hand, says that without holiness, no one will see God. All three of these changes are sinful and antibiblical. God says without holiness no one will see God. Modern Evangelicalism forbids the doctrine and practice of holiness. Modern Evangelicalism is a heresy or God is mistaken. Modern Evangelicals are not Christians or the Bible is wrong.
You cannot be a New Evangelical and a Christian. The Bible says so.
And lest you think Ockenga was alone, he also listed four "agencies" to accomplish these changes. They were as follows:
1. National Association of Evangelicals (Ted Haggard's organization).
2. Fuller Theological Seminary.
3. The magazine
Christianity Today.
4. The ecumenical evangelism of Billy Graham.
(5)
AN IMPORTANT FINAL NOTE
Please note one thing. Conservatives have often advocated a type of separation that isn't Scriptural and it's due to a difference between separation as done under the Old Covenant and under the New Covenant. Under the OC Israel was to be physically separate from those who weren't God's people. They were to be put out of the land. Not so in the NC. Under the New Covenant, we are to draw sharp lines separating us from people who call themselves Christians, but remain in unrepentant sin. I Corinthians 5:10-13.
It's unbiblical for Christians to make rules such as "Don't go to a bar", "Don't go to movies", etc. The separation in the New Testament is from those who call themselves Christians and remain in sin. Unlike Israel, we are to go out into the world and share the gospel.
Be holy,
Phil Perkins.
(1) Cohen, Abraham;
Every Man's Talmud; Schocken Books; New York; copyright 1949 by E. P. Dutton; pp. 22-23.
(2) Telushkin, Rabbi Joseph;
Biblical Literacy; HarperCollins; New York; 1997; p. 1.
(3) Jewish sources are given here to demonstrate that these meanings, and this particular understanding of Genesis 1:1 is ancient, not recent. This is not an endorsement of the particular theologies of the authors cited.
(4) Beale, David O.;
In Pursuit of Purity: American Fundamentalism Since 1850; Unusual Publications; Greenville, South Carolina; 1986; pp. 261-262.
(5) ibid. p. 262.
STILL TO COME IN THIS SERIES
PART X--What Do We Do, The Details What do I do about my church? With whom do I worship? Work? Fellowship? To whom do I give? Degrees of separation.
PART XI--The Great Unsin, Tolerance and The Great, Flaming Hypocrisy of the "Tolerant" Ockenga, the New Evangelicals, and repudiating the doctrine of holiness. Beale 262. J. Frank Norris and the University of Des Moines.
PART XII--Who Are You? Three Types of People, or Only Two? The examples of Abraham and Moses.
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