The Holiness Doctrine

Introduction

Modern Theologians have been split over many great issues in the 400 years since the Reformation. Much has been said in the fields of soteriology, eschatology, and dogmatic theology. Arminianists, Charismatics, Calvinists, Catholics,  and Fundamentalists all shout out that they hold the ‘true’ doctrine of Christ, some going so far as to claim that all the others are damned heretics. So what is a believer to do? Go with the one who accepts all of the others so as not to offend them? Or do we go with the ones who condemn the rest, just in case those groups are condemned? Not every lay member of the Church can understand the complex issues, and even more complex implications, that these groups are dividing over. Many people in these arguments are very learned men, having studied and defended their beliefs for several decades. To understand these issues let us go back to the Reformation itself. Martin Luther, a German priest of the Catholic Church (just THE CHURCH at that time) stated that the Church was overstepping it’s bounds. Therefore he wrote the 95 Theses, a paper that stated the specific errors of the Church. These errors included selling forgiveness (in the form of indulgences), abuse of power, and the power of the Pope overruling the power of God (specifically His Holy Word, the Bible). This lead to what we call the Protestant Reformation; where it was decided that God, not the Church or the Pope, was the Ultimate Authority, and the only One Who could condemn or pardon.  After this first rift with the Church, there were several others who redefined what the Catholic Church had taught the people. One such man was John Calvin, who is falsely credited with the Five Points of Calvinism. Please note, though the five points are derived from his ideas, Calvin did not draft the five points, nor did he even write them as such in any writings we have of him. Calvin’s belief that God was the Sovereign and not the Pope, let him to believe; due to God’s Will being immutable and God being omnipotent, God must not truly will all people to be saved. Calvin has been patronized by the “Reformed” movement since his time, and is often quoted, and his beliefs have been construed so as to fit whatever modern need there has been since. Calvin’s well meaning but appalling assumptions were soon countered by Joseph Arminius,  who is also the unintentional founder of Arminianism or the “Remonstrants”. He believed that man was indeed fallen, but his freewill and choice were what could condemn him, and this was not God’s doing, but man’s own. Arminius was mainly concerned with stopping the spread of “Reformed” doctrines and is usually seen as the only other option in what some view as a two sided coin of “Calvinism/Arminianism”. However many modern Theologians who are not “Reformed” do not follow Arminius, nor call themselves Arminians, due to the fact that they do not believe that the label is relevant. In the time since the Reformation, we have seen other groups come on the scene as well. Charismatics (from the Greek charis/grace) believe that God’s grace covers all things regardless of our true loyalty to God. They view God as One Who is just waiting to pour out the blessings if we are just smart enough to ask for them. Many of the group are convinced that God wants them to be blessed and have a wonderful life just because He loves them so very much. Fundamentalists are those hard-lined theologians that believe every doctrine they hold, Biblical or not, is non-negotiable. These theologians have many good beliefs, strong convictions, and a firm conscience; however, they find themselves at odds with almost everyone, including other Fundamentalists. They are plagued with frequent splits, tiny churches, and many excommunicated members that challenged the rigidity of their structure. There are many other theological camps that have arisen over the past 400 years since the Reformation, but this covers the major groups that have arisen who claim they are indeed the ‘right’ ones. Please note that although I have elected not to quote the passages that these groups use (out of concern about misconstruing Scripture), does not mean that they do not believe that they each have Scripture on their side.

God’s Attributes

Modern Theologians of all these groups agree on some basic principles. God’s Omniscience, Omnipresence, Omnipotence, Sovereignty, and Holiness are things these groups will all unite on. The issue between these groups become clearer when we try to define what all these words mean when they are used. For example, John Wesley said that God’s Holiness would never allow God to create people who were in essence forced to sin due to the fact that those people could not defy God’s will. But people do sin, therefore, they either defy God’s Will or God Himself wills them to sin.  Reformed Theology says that God’s main attribute is Sovereignty, therefore nothing can ever happen that God does not will. By extension, they believe that God does not will all men to be saved, but only a few. This means they believe God wills some people to go through life unsaved and He has no compassion on them nor desires to save them. In fact, they teach that since these people die unsaved, it was God’s will for this to happen. They go as far as to say God wills people into Hell and into Heaven, and there is nothing we can do about it. So in essence they believe that God’s Sovereignty overrules His Holiness. This doctrine makes God the author of both life and death, salvation and ultimate sin, true good and complete evil. As such, it is a great blasphemy in our time. God’s Holiness can never be compromised. If it could be, then He could allow anyone into Heaven and His Only Son would not have had to come and die for us. Not only this, but God Himself states that He is Holy on numerous occasions in the Bible, if it is not true, then we make the grave accusation the God lied. If we diminish His Holiness then God would not be God. If He would ever be anything but Holy, He could not be Himself, as God is the definition of Holy. That said, we cannot decrease God’s Sovereignty either. To do so would create the same problem as doing so to His Holiness. But we have already shown that there are things God cannot do, not because they are too difficult, but because they would go against His Nature. This does not limit God’s Sovereignty, but in fact it defines it completely. Many people assume that to be able to do something is the same as doing it. This is a flawed bit of logic. It was God’s Sovereignty that allowed Him to create beings with Freewill, who can love God by choice, not by force. True worship is not worship if it is forced, and the only way to have choice is to grant it both ways. If every bad choice we made was eliminated by God before we even could think of it or carry it out, we would not have choice, because we would not even know what the opposite of God and obedience was. If God used His Sovereignty every time we sinned in order to correct the sin before it even happened (which God could easily do, being both omnipotent and omnipresent) then we would only be able to  make the most holy choice, and in so doing we would not be choosing anything at all. The freewill mankind has does not limit God’s Sovereignty; in fact, free will could not exist if God was anything less than Sovereign. God Himself knew beforehand that some of the people He created would most likely chose to serve themselves, but He also knew that such a sacrifice, however painful, would be worth the cost, as it would also bring about some who would truly, by choice, love and worship Him.

Our Choice

To clarify, yes, God does indeed have the power to force all people to live holy lives. But to do so would defy and destroy the very reason He created Earth and put  us upon it. He already has unquestioning angels who no longer have choice, we are those He made who have the awesome gift to freely chose to follow Him into eternity and worship Him by choice and in true love. This great gift and misunderstood treasure of being human is what makes us so that we will one day be heirs with Christ, even though we are for now a little lower than the angels. May God bless you as you read, and remember that you have the amazing and awe inspiring gift from God to truly choose to be His Child and worship the only One Who is Worthy.