Ichabod
"Then she named the child Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel!" because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband." 1 Samuel 4:21
Most churches are now so besotted with mediocrity that enthusiastic young converts cannot think to devote their lives to heroic service for the Lord. Instead, as time goes on they are disheartened......
Bait and Switch
Some years ago I took my family to attend a large Baptist Church for five years. Not once was the church challenged spiritually. In other ways, perhaps, but not spiritually. The overwhelming theme was designed to keep the people content and contributing.
I have seen this pattern in other churches also. So I might say with with some justification that churches generally tend to serve their people rather than serving God.......
Apparently this is not new. The Catholics have been leaders in this game of "bait and switch" since ancient times. They promise Saints and Angels. They give routine pomp and ceremony.
Other churches also promise a Godly life but only give routine church services. Ho hum. .......
Asbury was Right
After Wesley passed on, the Methodist Church drifted away from Wesley and on to this familiar downward path also. Within a few years they were getting rid of their devout sanctified leaders!!! Others left because they discerned that they were quite out of place in such a worldly church.
They had been baited with Holy Life and then received cold ashes....... 30 pages by Rev. D. Maxey
Following this man-pleasing example, all the other denominations have done likewise. Now they all boast large expensive edifices and spiritually impoverished memberships (to one degree or another).
"You know, people say today. "Oh, I am just a saved sinner."
That is like saying you are a married bachelor. That is like saying
you are an honest thief... You are either saved or you are a sinner."
-Leonard Ravenhill
They continue to conveniently ignore Holiness while their members slip into carnal sleep, one after another. As long as people continue to show up and support the ministry, they assume nothing is wrong and preach the convenient challenge of "Pikes Peak" rather than the arduous challenge of a full-sized mountain.
This just plain cannot work. A church must welcome all, but not all are ready to even hear about the narrow way. Everybody is different.
At one point in my past I was a high school student. But long ago I graduated with honours and went on to University. I transcended those basic lessons. For that reason those in His Rest have a special place. They show the undergraduates in the wide way what glorious rewards are ahead if they are diligent in Him.
But WhyWait? Go to Him!!! Give Him Your all!! Jesus is here ... ----- and there right now!!!
Getting Drunk on God?
What Does Jesus Look Like?
For many many years I have wondered about the Catholic Church. I have asked Catholic friends, but all to no avail. This internet is a wonder! This video gives the answer.
We have various versions of a Bible-based gospel. They have a completely different system!!!! See: the ultimate in Name it and claim it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LbsE5bXjMQ
Just Who does The Pope declare himself to be ?
On earth, the Pope is appointed to be God. This is all blasphemy -or not depending on how he applies these words. We will see. Pope Francis is the first Pope who is also a Jesuit. There are many new YouTube videos on this topic......
The Jesuits: Priesthood of Absolute Evil Exposed
A compilation of blood-curdling Quotations, the oldest first.
The Jesuits were formed expressly to reverse the Reformation and bring back the medieval monopoly of the "one true church". As devoted servants of the Pope they were sent forth to covertly eradicate Protestantism by any means -fair or foul.
Asassination and massacre have always been such effective tools! Remember the "Inquisition"? Remember the murder of millions of devout Huguenots from France and eastern Europe? Remember Abraham Lincoln? Remember President Kennedy? Remember The Thirty Years religious war which wiped out a third of the population of Germany after Luther? (Of course, this helped set the stage for the First World War.) Don't remember? Don't care? You should. They are still busily perverting your "Protestant" church even today.
Napoleon kept the Pope in captivity for six years and banned the Jesuits until 1814. On Wikipedia see: "Napoleon and the Catholic Church". It just goes on and on.
In this sting operation we can see how subtly they work their ancient Machevellian craft today: a salivating Rick Joyner goes for their bait, hook line and sinker. And there are still more in the lineup ready to bend the knee.....
A NEW Christ for a NEW AGE
T. D. Jakes
Billy Graham
The Jesuit Infiltration of the Seventh Day Adventist Church -Behind the Door
The Sons of Issachar - Sound an Alarm
“The sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” 1 Chronicles 12:32 (NKJV)
As part of the church of Jesus Christ, we should have an understanding of the times. Paul said that we would not be in darkness concerning the Day of the Lord that it should overtake us as a thief (1 Thessalonians 5:4). We may not know the day or hour but we should have a general sense of the times. And knowing the times we are in, unlike the sons of Issachar, we have the word of God telling us what the church ought to do. Both in the Old and the New Testaments we have many scriptures warning and exhorting the people of God concerning the Day of the Lord and our response to God as we see the day approaching. For this reason we would do well to heed these warnings and take action according to the urgency of the hour.
Genesis 6:5 (NKJV) Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
The headlines scream at us every day: Hamas versus Israel; ISIS rampaging across the Middle East; Christians being raped, murdered, tortured, beheaded, crucified, and buried alive for their faith; Boko Haram in Nigeria kidnapping, raping, and murdering innocent women, children and men; planes being shot down in Ukraine; riots in Missouri; Ebola spreading through Africa; the southern border of the U.S. being attacked by drug cartels; flooding in city after city; earthquakes; tsunamis; cyclones; volcanoes erupting; crop failures; droughts; famine; pestilence; murder, rape and violence throughout our land; teenagers attacking our schools; drugs taking captive generations of young people; gay rights; abortion rights; suicide, homicide, genocide; no prayer allowed; no God allowed; no Bible allowed; religious rights being eroded daily.
The world is spiraling out of control as rulers and peoples conspire against God and His Anointed seeking to cast off all restraint. (Psalm 2). Wickedness is escalating throughout the earth as the devil knows his time is short. He is working through the sons of disobedience to kill and steal and destroy anything and everything to do with godliness and truth. Meanwhile, the church is fast asleep in a culture of self-consumerism, lust and spiritual lukewarmness.
Romans 13:11-14 (NKJV) And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
These are urgent times that require an urgent response. It can no longer be business as usual. This is a time of war, a spiritual war of the ages. It is time for the true prophets to arise and as the watchmen on the wall to sound an alarm. Judgment begins at the house of God. If His people will not pray and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways, He will not heal our land. If the people of God will not get serious and take up arms against the enemy, they will be overrun.
Joel 2:1 (NKJV) Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the LORD is coming, for it is at hand:
Joel 2:15 (NKJV) Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly;
Hosea 8:1 (NKJV) “Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.
Isaiah 58:1 (NKJV) “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
There is an alarm sounding throughout the earth. It is getting louder and clearer by the day. The church can no longer sit at ease in Zion as though nothing is happening. There is a shaking taking place in the heavens and on the earth. The voice of the Lord is breaking forth. It is time for the church to wake up. It is time for true consecration and separation.
If ever there was a time for Joel 2 to be put into action, this is it:
Joel 2:12-18 (NKJV) “Now, therefore," says the LORD, "Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him-- a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes; let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, "Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?' “Then the LORD will be zealous for His land, and pity His people.”
Urgent times call for urgent action. Not only must the people of God turn to Him with all of their hearts and souls, stand in the gap on behalf of the land, and cry out for mercy, but they must also stand up for truth. There is a line being drawn in the sand. Who is on God’s side? Who will stand against the lies, immorality, and ‘politically correct’ jargon of an out of control culture rushing headlong into Hell? Who will say ‘no’ to ungodly laws and mandates spewing from the immoral lusts of men bent on having their way? Who will be willing to suffer persecution for righteousness?
And most of all, it is time to start doing what the Lord saved us for: Mark 16:15 (NKJV) And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
As long as the people of God remain behind their cozy four walls of comfort, it is not demonstrating a true love for God, a love that obeys what He says. Nor is it demonstrating a true love for others by sharing the truth that will set them free. How can you say you love God but refuse to go and tell others? How can you say you love your neighbors when you don’t care enough for their souls to tell them the Good News of Jesus Christ and save them from a destiny in Hell? There are no excuses. We were chosen by God for this very purpose. John 15:16 (NKJV) You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
As long as the people of God continue to remain quiet, the blood of lost souls will be upon their hands. They are as Jesus declared in Revelation 3:1, “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” Lively programs to entertain the saints won't do it. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Therefore go! A silent Christian is a useless Christian! A fruitless Christian is a dead Christian! Revive us O God! Restore us to our first love and to Your first works that You may be glorified.
“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep!”
George Delo
Power for Today Prophetic Ministries
Most of the material on this website was written in the years between the Civil War and 1910 to help the flood of souls contending for His Rest at that time.
Since those early days the world has changed. It has become a corporate world that does impessive things without even a thought of God. The legal fiction that makes up the modern corporation ( recognizing a corporation as a living person before the Law) was still in it's infancy at that time.
In our present day governments everywhere have stealthily adopted some form of soft politically correct totalitarianism. Even industry is now ruled by endless red tape and Union regulations.
The church world did not want be left out of this progress. Dead denominational politics now rule the majority of believers everywhere. The only religious freedom we have left is to choose which blind denomination to indenture yourself to.
This would be fine except all they have to offer is a tepid faith that is barely suitable for babes. Everybody else starves on such a meatless diet. Starvation means an up and down experience with occasional failures.
They do not preach real Holiness, and so now, real unholiness is devouring them. If you do not take out your garbage, it will eventually bury you........ And all the rest of your world too ....
NOTE: If you want to share this material with your church and Pastor, please be careful. He could get fired. He has vowed to preach only material approved by his blind denomination of the wide way. This is not new. Even John Wesley had to be careful in this regard.
Wesley preached the regular gospel that contained only the occasional hint towards something better. He met privately with anybody who was interested in it. If numbers were interested, a special private meeting was scheduled. Sometimes a special outside preacher was called in for special meetings. The bulk of the material on this website comes from special meetings like that. This website is a great help in this unfortunate situation. Just communicate the web address, and leave it to him peruse quietly in private. It is designed to be self-explanatory.
As an individual at home, he can read anything he likes, but at church he is the official face of the denomination. Respect this reality, if you don't want him to hate you!!
For these reasons, the path to heart purity is trodden by very few today. But keep in mind that this neglect holds true for the elementary gospel as well. It is dieing on the vine for lack of Holiness.
If you do not have a pure heart, by default you can only have an impure heart. That means something dark is still taking up space there. More For this reason you cannot give your whole heart to anything. Your heart is divided so that it cannot be fully HOT or COLD........
The Lord wants to help us with this. The zealous (hot) He can reward. The spiritually cold He can pull away from, but neither is quite appropriate for the lukewarm..........
“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, Rev-3-14" ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. (The Lord, vomits!!!.. and the eternal destiny of these comfortable souls becomes very uncertain.) Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
Rev-3-18" I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. Rev-3-19" As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Rev-3-20" Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. Rev-3-21" To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne."
The Holiness Movement started out zealous and then over a couple of generations, this cooled.
Carl L Howland in his book, "The Story of the Free Methodist Church", said: "The many conversions and careful organizations made Methodism in England and America numerically powerful and influential. Many leading citizens were counted in the membership. The reproach of the Cross, which had been so great in former days, passed away. It was honorable to be a Methodist.... Luke 6: 20
"Fine churches were planned. These were costly. People of means must be in the membership to pay for such buildings. The enforcement of discipline upon those who were necessary to meet financial obligations proved difficult. The second and third generation Methodists had come into the church and they had no convictions as their fathers did." Trade Marks of The Holiness Pioneers
"Christ was a traveling Saviour; He journeyed from city to city, from village to village and from hamlet to hamlet. When He was rejected at one place, He went to another; and He commanded His followers to do the same. He is just the same today. Educational and ecclesiastical seminaries of the world have had their opportunity and in the early part of the last century (the 1800's) great revivals of Bible salvation broke out in many of the colleges and universities of America; and many of the churches enjoyed great outpourings of grace, but having been rejected and often insulted in those places, the blessed Spirit seems to have gone outside of the city walls, under the hedges, through the valleys, and to the grimy lanes of life to seek the fallen, and they seem much more anxious to have Him than those Scribes and Pharisees or doctors of the law."
For this reason, the Holiness Movement now exists only in history. It was never a church, but was made up of hungry hearts within every church. Every time that well-meaning leaders tried to make a denomination out of these honest hearts, (Methodists, Nazarenes, and many others tried) over time they would end up being filled with the carnal leas (the dregs) ---those who continued to resist the cost of heart purity. These still-carnal ministers and people would then gradually make the church over to fit their own carnally religious ways so that time and time again, the gracious words of the pure in heart would end up being unwelcome in the church that was organized by and for them!!!!
Today there are rare churches who use the word "Holiness" in their names - a small minority of them might even see the odd person wholly sanctified, but by and large, the good has displaced the best until it is now almost unheard of.
When the Holiness Movement was popular, it met mostly in summer camps (see the History page -"The Pioneer Days of Holiness) with the same focus as this website: to get the hungry hearts from the many churches sanctified. At other times, a church would invite a fiery Holiness minister to conduct special meetings for the same purpose.
In his traveling ministry, John Wesley was driven near despair:
"In 1766 he related to his brother Charles, "I am at my my wit's end with regard to two things - the Church and Christian Perfection" Then a month later, in a moment of anxiety, he asked Charles, "Shall we go on asserting perfection against all the world? Or shall we quietly let it drop?" (See "John Wesley" on the "testimonies" page.)
The Church he was referring to was the existing state church in England of which he was part. What was wrong? Plenty.
When John spoke to best leaders of the Anglican Church, they agreed whole heartedly with his views, and encouraged him on his course, but when he would preach locally, the local parson would often pay local toughs to upset his meetings. Actual physical injury was inflicted -and again and again only God's direct intervention enabled him to survive the bloodthirsty mob. Stones. Bricks. Fists. Vicious slander. Rotten eggs. Invasions. Meeting-places were demolished. It was endless.
Why? Wesley took the gospel to the people, whatever the cost. He took it to where they were and spoke in their language those things they needed to hear. Truth is always dangerous. Instead of "pie in the sky" he gave them pie on the plate. In so doing, he totally outclassed the lifeless mechanical round of liturgy as expressed in the Anglican "Book of Common Prayer". The people quickly became more informed than the carnal parson!!! Intolerable! Treasonous!!! Threatening to the offering plate!!!
And so it continues today. Local ministries most often refuse to learn anything new (if indeed, they are even allowed to!.) They refuse to approach God any more closely than was taught in their seminary..... New methods? Forget it. New grace? Unthinkable heresy!!!!!!
To Wesley they proved that their Establishment was not to be trifled with:
They used superstition
And they bribed local toughs....
"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.
From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?" John 6:63-67
"But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:14
Much of the following is taken from: Scriptural Death-Route Holiness by L. W. Boardman- the additional links, of course, are mine.
"When the “death-route” emphasis died in the holiness movement, the intense pattern of fasting and prayer which characterized so many of the early holiness people, tended to die with it. We are told that those early holiness folk, as a systematic pattern, used to fast two days a week until after three o’clock in the afternoon. Then, when revival efforts would fail, they would fast two full days as a group, and then eat for two days. They would follow that pattern, with intense intercessory prayer sometimes for several weeks until the Holy Ghost would begin to move upon sinners all over the area with tremendous Holy Ghost conviction, and revivals of heart-Holiness would break out. Multitudes of the hardest sinners (such as “Bulldog” Charley Wireman) would then get soundly saved and gloriously sanctified in such revivals. Many of those converts became mighty preachers of Holiness, and ardent soul-winners in their turn." Print
When were times when the pure in heart would gather together and pray in whole districts?
It happened in the early church -under the apostles who certainly became pure in heart. But sadly their ways were lost since so many were martyred because the Roman Empire was rightfully afraid of their proven empire-shattering faith.
It appeared again in England during the time of Wesley. They held "class meetings" for this purpose. But the Methodist Church was not created with this sole purpose in mind. It was more created to defend his renegade ministers who preached Holiness from being starved out by the Anglican Church.
It was not Wesley's purpose to start a new church -he only preached to bring souls into heart-purity. But so many entered His Rest, that some organized care for their spiritual well being became necessary since the traditional church would not provide it.
And it happened again in the uncivil chaos that followed the Civil War in the wilds of the American Southwest (especially Texas) and spread like wildfire from there.
Pioneer Days of The Holiness Movement in The Southwest By Charles B. Jernigan 16 page PDF (also on the History page)
A more recent example involving just two sanctified sisters in prayer is: Revival in the Hebrides (1949) 12 pages by Duncan Campbell (on the "Charismata" page)
Wesley’s Groaning GospelRecords show that many of Wesley’s preachers, in the early days of the Holiness Movement, followed Mr. Wesley’s injunction to “groan after holiness.”[5] There is evidence that when Wesley’s “groan emphasis” began to die, the depths of true holiness began to shallow out proportionately. For this reason a great deal of the power and purity of true Bible holiness was lost from the holiness movement. It has never been brought back to it's original state.
http://www.enterhisrest.org/entry_directions/hunger_groaning.pdf
The key is to get to a private place where nobody can hear you, and then let loose. For Bud Robinson this was way out in his wide corn field: http://www.enterhisrest.org/testimonies/b_robinson.pdf
Mr. David Updegraph, a sainted Friends (Quaker) minister of great spiritual power, in relating his search for a clean heart, says:
"I hated pride, ambition, evil tempers, and vain thoughts, but I had them, for all that, and they were a part of me. Not as acts to be repented of and forgiven, but as dispositions lying behind the acts, and promptings thereto, natural to the “Old Man” and inseparable from his presence in my being. I began to ask God, with a measure of faith, to “cast him out.” Along with this desire there came a great hunger and thirst to be “filled with all the fullness of God.” I longed for a clean heart and constant spirit.[8]
In this same way, the great Wesleyan theologian Adam Clarke affirmed: “This, indeed, is the sum and substance of the religion of Jesus Christ. We have partaken of an earthly, sensual, and devilish, nature; the design of God, by Christ, is to remove this, and to make us partaker of the Divine Nature, and save us from all the corruption, in principle and fact, which is in the world.”[9]
“Break off the yoke of inbred sin,
And fully set my spirit free!
I cannot rest till pure within
Till I am wholly lost in thee.”
The negative dying (crucifiction) must precede the positive purity in order for the purity to be actual.
Some poet, unknown to us, who evidently knew from experience what he was talking about said:
“Oh my life was incomplete;
Partly bitter, partly sweet;
Until I let the Old Man die.”
One very tragic lost art is the old-time Methodist Class Meeting. It was a layman’s movement, and greatly helped to keep the church spiritually alive and on fire for a century. The class meeting was a wholesome confession and testimonial meeting. ( a "support group" for seekers of His Rest)
And then the “band” meeting was humanly and carnally originated to replace it. The band meeting was an accusation meeting. (exposing where each had fallen down in their seeking -it built up unhelpful guilt and self-righteousness ) The band meeting, like weeds in a garden, killed the class meeting.[2] And as a result, both of them died, leaving very little hope that the class meeting, with its original effectiveness, would ever be resurrected. There have been, in recent years, a few feeble attempts to revive the class meeting, with its original pattern and power, but little has ever come of it (within dead denominational walls) Another lethal blow to the heart of the class meeting was the increasing number of backslidden class leaders who tried to lift others spiritually, when they themselves were down. Understandably, the pulpits became cursed with the same deadness...
In recent years, the trend is toward short revival meetings, many of which go from Wednesday night or Friday night through Sunday night. These short meetings differ greatly from the “siege-type” of revivals which were frequently practiced by the holiness people years ago. The results from these short revival meetings are usually much less far reaching also. Neither the carnal leaders, nor their equally carnal followers are allowed time enough to get under deep enough conviction to adequately search their own hearts, or to get sick enough with Holy Ghost conviction to die out completely. Only a few individuals can see the awful depths of the corruption of their own carnal hearts clearly enough in a short revival meeting to become willing to face their own crucifixion.
One of the great weaknesses of modern revivals is due to the fact that too many pastors and people alike would prefer to sit back and enjoy the services, and pray for sinners, rather than to search their own hearts, confess their own backslidings, make their own restitutions, dig out their own carnality and become sanctified “Holy” and “wholly.”
When it is considered more important to get new members into the church than it is to get the old ones sanctified, both the ministers and lay members are getting the whole revival pattern in reverse order. Christ wants all born again converts to first tarry until they are endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49), before they go out to be witnesses to the world (Acts 1:4, 8).
When the modern, short, so-called revivals are designed to “happify” rather than convict, entertain rather than expose sin and carnality --then the pastor and people alike will veer off into the ditch and either become worldly on the one hand or legalistic on the other.
The Perilous Problem of the Pampered People
When the time comes in any holiness church where the PEOPLE will not go along with an extended, siege-type, “death-route” revival because of the length of time required as well as the added expense or because they fear their carnal ways being “snowed under” (overwhelmed with evidence) and “dug out” (exposed) --that church eventually will be filled with uncrucified and unsanctified people. When this tragedy occurs, then the human and carnal handling of the affairs of the church will result. Satan is thus made happy, and God is grieved, while the malignant disease of depravity in the hearts of pastor and people remains unremedied. When the “death-route type” of revival meetings are abandoned, the church becomes like a hollow tree --decaying at the heart, with only a thin exterior remaining, until a carnal storm hits and it goes down.
The Evangelist’s Easygoing Effect
When the EVANGELIST shies away from the ‘’death-route type” of revivals because of fear of their length or his lower average pay or of upsetting people, his meetings will fail to dig carnality out of its pastors or people, and very soon will grieve the Holy Ghost out of his evangelistic ministry.
As he leaves church after church, they may be fooled into thinking they had a revival, when all they really had was a few sops for the carnal people to enjoy. When an evangelist loses his purity of heart and the human takes over, he then must resort to emotionalism and psychological gimmicks instead of holy unction and utter dependence on genuine Holy Ghost conviction. In his desperation to get seekers and make a showing, he learns that the evangelist that has the most seekers at the altar, and creates the most excitement, will naturally get the most calls for ministry. As a result, “seekers” become more important than “finders.” Oh, the subtle temptations toward a professional ministry!
When pastors do not want the “death-route type” of revivals, it may be for one of several reasons:
They may have their carnal church running smoothly and realize the danger of their controlling members getting somewhat upset with conviction and failing to “face up” and “die out” and pray through to victory. His congregation could become like a stirred-up nest of hornets, and the pastor might wind up with the whole swarm launching a deadly attack on him.
Some pastors, on the other hand, either know or fear that they don’t have the blessing of a pure, sanctified heart, and are unwilling to run the risk of exposure before their people. Hence, they carefully avoid the evangelists which they fear might zero in on their own heart’s need. This tends to keep the “death-route” evangelist from getting meetings.
As long as the short shallow revival meetings with a splash of sentiment at the mourners’ bench --taking it by faith-- without proper groundwork for faith --is the accepted pattern in the holiness ranks, one may expect many more seekers than finders when it comes to genuine holiness of heart and life.
When the “death-route” evangelists are forced out of the evangelistic field, the true “death-route” emphasis soon phases out of their church. This trend is tragic! The next exodus or withdrawal would be the grieved Holy Ghost Himself. This is deadly serious!!! Just as there are some sinners when faced with the need for faith to get saved just fail to succeed. The price is just too high for them. Sometimes they then become hardened to the gospel and persecute those who before brought conviction to them. This same dynamic can also occur when faced with the need to be sanctified and obtain -or keep a pure heart."
Something else to watch out for is what you might call the "Pretzel theology" that was popularized by Phoebe Palmer as a shortcut to genuine sanctification. For good reason people tend to vacillate and put off this deadly heart-stopping commitment to God. It is serious. It is life-changing.
Her formula to minimize this was to have people pray "Jesus does NOW cleanse my heart" Sometimes it worked to break the mental logjam. But when they did not get immediate results from this strategy they would end up praying at cross purposes with themselves and the Lord. They would get all tangled up. For this reason, they are more liable to lose their faith for sanctification and say they had it -when they did not!!!
Understandably, this really damaged the credibility of the movement as whole. They named it and claimed it, but did not have it, and so lacked the gracious fruits of it.
This was preached so often in the late 1800's that it is alluded to by preachers on this website. Still, I do not recomend it. Play straight with yourself -even if it takes longer. When God made time, He made just enough....
Some of the souls on the Testimonies page use it and sometimes they get so they don't know whether they are coming or going..... Personally, I did not use any such approach, and never did get all tangled up.
She had another strategy called "altar theology" where people would just lump their deficiencies of character all together and "put them on the altar". This laziness dishonours the Lord and trivializes of your transaction with Him. If you are going to do it, do it properly. Do it right the first time. Sure it is hard, but it will be worth it ten thousand times over.....
Through ignorance and desperation I did it this way, but I had already been giving over my carnal troubles one at a time as they would come to my attention for many long years.
Most people choose to remain saddled with the carnality they were born with. If they only knew what freedom they were missing out on!! As they grow spiritually, they will find that their stubborn carnality quietly grows and matures right along with everything else....... See.. /wisdomminister/holiness_or_hell.pdf
Dead at the Top
I have compiled some shocking authentic historical excerpts that track this deadly degradation from it's source at the very formation of the Methodist Church. Bud Robinson's vision of a dieing apple tree is featured. Earnest Seeker
There is nothing new in all this. The carnal man has always looked for every loophole to escape the Cross. Here are a few of his past strategies to worm out of his own overdue crucifixion: Objections to Holiness
38 "But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. 39 "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 "But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. 41 "I do not receive honor from men. John 5:38-41
The Church of the Nazarene was originally created to be a haven for the sanctified since they were sometimes persecuted in other churches. Here is what they say about the Holiness Movement now....
The Nazarenes
Salvation Army
Long ago the Army was born in the Holiness Movement. What is it now?
Today's Superficial gospel
Milton Green passed away in 1987, but he specialized in nailing the modern superficial church to the Word. He was very good at this.
He talks about sanctification, but not our entire sanctification. He has a lot of sermons on YouTube for you to find. But Church affairs are not the topic of this website.
Almost Holy......
In 1875 preachers who did not succeed in entering His Rest organized so they could preach to each other and be appreciated. They consecrated much of their carnality, but did not finish the job. Even so, they are among the best to be found today. They far outnumber those who preach a completed Holiness. You can identify them by their endless theology and lofty preaching. It is called Keswick theology and is packaged in many lofty guises, but it is fool's gold. It glitters brightly, but the heavenly appraisers will only weep at your gullibility.
Almost is, after all, not quite.
At this point there is nothing more to be said about the Holiness Movement except as an artifact of history. However, the marvelous work of grace is still fully available to individuals on the same terms as ever. It is simply the palpable complete fulfillment of salvation. Not half-full-ment.
We can be saved not only from our sins, but from the carnality we were born with. The fact that most choose to ignore it, does not change it. The fashions of men may change, His promise of redemption does not.
It now seems to me that what people call Christianity is in fact a troubled transition state. As it is, I have not had a speck of spiritual trouble for many years. I do not need to pray for my own spiriual trouble since I no longer have any....
Faux Holiness Preaching
Wesleyan Holiness was wildly successful. It's simple faith appealed to the masses. However there was a better class of people that were much more intellectual. Some canny ministers came along and formulated a version of Wesley's message that more suited these sophisticated souls.
This message is now well known in certain quarters today, while Wesley's way of simple faith has been conveniently forgotten. Forgotten also are the myriads of souls who obtained His Rest using Wesley's way in those days.
How Freud Got Under Our Skin
Much of the the decline in Holiness relates to a general decline in humble faith that followed after Darwin, Freud and "Higher Criticism". A stunning story from the "Observer" newspaper. "In the near future (by 2010), it seems, the Self will enjoy its own unencumbered space. If you run a society based on the satisfaction of desire, then, of course, there should be no surprise when conventions based in part on duty, such as marriage, begin to collapse." And then we wonder why sexual sins are multiplying..... 4 pagesForm Versus Power
An astute experience-based analysis of a subtle danger in normal religious life. Small things indeed lead to large consequences. (3 pages)
Honoring The Truth-Teller
Since today's churches of every stream are usually both led and attended by believers who essentially walk as mere men, you will love this insightful account as I do. It is a profound examination of the experiential interplay between loyalty and truth in human structures including churches; so it relates directly to how we are reacted to as we share His precious Gospel Truths in any organization..... These Christian social psychological research findings have endless applications to social situations around you. It also helps to tell us what our churches have become- and why...... 6 pages by Dr. Roger W. Sapp
HIGHLIGHTS:
At a time when you could not openly call yourself "saved" (since it was said that only the Lord could do this after he was finished judging you at the Great White Throne) John Wesley ( 1703-1791) came to understand a repeatable path to a pure heart (entire sanctification).
Many forerunners had uncovered parts of this path, but Wesley put them together in a way that worked, and then spread it across England. He dispatched agents to do the same in the wilderness and turmoil of the New World.
Wesley interviewed thousands who followed that path to verify the success of those practical principles he was preaching. He interviewed them carefully to validate their individual experience.
He preached this throughout the U.K. with the approval of the highest church of England authorities. Local authorities consistently stirred up persecution -while the people loved him.
When the Methodist Church in America began to get larger, ambitious young Church officials began to ignore advice that was designed for the long term good of the church, so they could get more money NOW.
New ministers were admitted with only their promise to go on to perfection. When they did not, there was no follow up. In time, promotion ended up being by merit, without regard to purity. This allowed the unsanctified men to advance into positions of great responsibility within the Church -and expel sanctified members who spoke out.... After all, these "sanctified" trouble makers made no sense.
The Baptists before them had this problem with salvation. New arrivals would duly say all the right things and be baptized. Some would even go through seminary -only to find they were not yet saved in the eyes of the Lord.
Many evangelical churches found that the majority of their members were yet unsaved......
At the same time, The Great Awakening brought many thousands into His Rest.
Unleashed from the iron grip of the Pope, many experimental doctrines were competing for loyalty, and funds. They vigorously competed with the Methodists also -with many beguiling and fanciful doctrines. It took a lot of time and energy to fend these off.
By 1850, many sanctified ministers were no longer tolerated in the Methodist Church. Some bishops did not even allow Holiness to be preached. This forced the splintering of the Church. A few became traveling ministers and authors. (such as the undaunted souls found on this website)
The Nazarene Church was conceived as a place where they could feel at home. A sort of rest home for the sanctified where they could fad away with dignity.
A large Baptist population stampeded into Asuza Street and to embrace this easier way to the "pinnacles of glory".
Now this actual History is so forgotten that I often hear the Great Awakening revivals being mentioned as Pentecostal achievements-- when the Pentecostal Movement had not yet even been formed yet!!! Tsk Tsk. !!!!
All the above was written to bring understanding of the Old Man and how he hinders our faith. This understanding is needed so that God's true remedy may be applied. Carnality is not limited to Christians, but is a problem to all who draw breathe......
Hindus are afraid to be re-incarnated as a worm, so they try to keep it down. Moslems lash thmselves until the blood flows. Buddhists burn their joss sticks. Catholics chant their "Hail Marys" and call on their pantheon of dead "Saints' to help them.
What do regular Christians do? They continue to fail from time to time....... All these are inadequate responses to a serious problem......
Enclosed are some famous articles on sin and sinfulness -of concern to all:
http://www.enterhisrest.org/entry_directions/two_views.html
I have come accross some church doctrines that would choke a horse -especially when dealing with this topic. Why? Because the majority of the church lives in the wide way and force truth to fit their own venerable but manufactured realities. And then you go and get interested in the narrow way!?!! Crazy!!!!
There is a miniscus between the two that will confuse anybody. Both can be seen to be "right" in their own sphere.
Stay away from Charles Finney, Watchman Nee and Andrew Murray. They are good, but good at something other than guiding people into His Rest (Keswick) . They define terms to fit their own obscure and lofty doctrines.
The best guidance I have seen recognizes that His Rest implies that we are cleansed by faith from anything that steals our peace. This means, your anger, your lust, your dishonesty your impatience --and the list goes on. Tackle each trouble individually.
His Rest is a miracle that gives you a heart able to comply with the ten commandments.....
And finally, to tie it all together, you give over your very own self to be cleansed..... But when you pray for this a while, it is normal to discover yet another little fox to take care of first.
Each cleansing is a battle to the death.. How long does it all take? Read the testimonials. It all depends on what you have to be cleansed from, and how stubbornly you hang on to your favorite trash.
Do not seek short cuts. Do it right, and then keep it.. This world already has no shortage of trash.
“You will know them by their fruits.” Mt. 7:16
Yours in His Service;
Tom Plumb
Edson, Alberta
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We have been walking in this rare state of grace for over twenty years now. We have stood the test and are seasoned in guiding others into His Rest -each in his own way. But we can only answer questions that make sense. For that reason you must do a fair amount of reading on the website before asking for help. Please be aware that our time is valuable. Tom Plumb: website owner and librarian.
Most of your questions are already answered on the FAQ, "Introduction" and "Central Idea" pages. Also see the prepared question lists in "Pure Love" and "Objections Answered" on the "Entry" page.
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Sorry, I am now just too old to be any more help.
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