The Cross of Christ Alone Can Save

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by pelathais

You have to keep in mind however, that the teachings of Wesley laid the foundation for the entire Holiness Movement. What we are today is a large part due to the "forum debates" that Wesley had with others; such as George Whitefield.

Wesley, with his teaching of "Entire Sanctification" founded the Holiness Movement. Debates then raged for over 100 years about "How do you know that you've been sanctified?" As people continued to pray and seek God, such things as Charles G. Finney's "anxiety bench" were introduced (he didn't call it that but the name stuck anyhow).

Finney used to bring out an old bench and place it at the front of the church and exhort members of his audience to come forward to kneel in front of the bench and to pray until "conviction fell." This is generally considered the origin of today's altar calls.

But folks were still casting about trying to find a final answer to Wesley's quest as outline here: http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com...Perfectio.html

Read the numbered points in the article. They are an excellent outline that trace Wesley's thoughts over the course of the development of the idea of "Sinless Perfection." This was the "Holy Grail" of the Holiness Movement.

But human nature being what it is, few people found a way to accomplish this state for an extended period of time - especially in their youths. So ministers were anxious to find some sort of "mark" or a sign" that their converts and parishioners had finally "arrived."

Folks experienced things they called "The Baptism of Fire" and "The Baptism of the Holy Ghost" - but experiences varied across the country and it was difficult to get the Holiness Movement as a whole behind any one phenomena.

Enter Charles Fox Parham. He became convinced that the state of "sinless perfection" could be achieved by the experience of the "infilling of the Holy Spirit." But again, how would you know objectively that someone had received the "infilling" or the baptism of the Spirit? This is where his idea of "speaking in other tongues" became the "evidence" of the Spirit's baptism.

All of that is very interesting - men trying to define and categorize what God is doing and make that work with their experiences.

I remember Bro. Billy Cole being called in as a Charismatic. He would explain the Gospel, sometimes put a chair out, have the person repent, become baptized and then he simply wanted them to believe they would receive the Holy Ghost and they would. He was being tagged as a charismatic for his simple teaching of faith. LOL!