Holiness Standards

• Messages sorted by:[ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]

On Wed, 2 Sep 1998 09:19:19 -0500 lyohnk@juno.com (Lynne A. Yohnk)
writes:

>What grieves me is that we *cannot* do away with holiness standards and
be 
>pleasing to God. 

Actually, that is not correct if you are lumping EVERY standard in EVERY
Pentecostal Church, then you would be saying that unless we ALL follow
EVERY such standard that we aren't pleasing God.

>I'm not debating that things can't be changed from time to time but we 
>can *never* be like the world and be pleasing to God.  Holiness is the 
>very heartbeat of God.  I have learned that as a person, I will never be

>perfect, the church will never be perfect.  So do I give up trying to
make 
>things better?  Not on your life.  What do I do?  I try to know God.  I
try to 
>be pleasing to Him.  No one has perfect understanding of the scriptures.
 

EXACTLY!!! And THAT is why it is dangerous to place so many
stumblingblocks in the way of people and declare it as doctrinal or "if
you don't do it, unpleasing to God".  Especially, new converts will do
what is asked of them, and this can lead to unnecessary stumblingblocks
to these new converts.

We need to be able to identify local standards as just that; local
standards, and NOT as conditions of salvation.

If it is in the Bible, it is DOCTRINE.  God said it, that settles it.  If
it is not, it is a local preference and is open for debate.

>What I see as a major flaw in thinking is that people equate no 
>standards with all the wonderful things you stated above.  Why?  
>Because often standards are our main point of contention and pride.  

Why?  Because usually, such standards that are non-Biblical are not on
the same foundation as those that are (no pants for women, men with short
hair, things that are clearly Biblical) and therefore, attempting to
place non-Biblical standards at the SAME LEVEL as the BIBLE is wrong.  

It would be making a tradition of men at the same level as the Word of
God.

>What I am saying is that if we as a people would pray, fast and seek 
>the face of God instead of trying to remedy these things in the flesh 
>we would succeed.  We could be more like the church you want.

Amen.  But we shouldn't have to shut down our minds and blindly obey,
especially since Hebrews 13:7 doesn't mean to blindly obey.  

>Holiness is close to my heart.  I wouldn't want to give it up at all.  
>Where does all the contention come from?  Standards?  NO!!  They come 
>from the flesh.  Am I saying that if we " Walked in the Spirit and not 
>in the flesh" that we should be unthinking idiots?  A thousand times, 
>no!  What grieves me to no end is the thought that if we were rid of 
>standards that we would be free of contention and more Godly.  It's 
>just not true.

I don't know of anyone who has said to get rid of all standards.  I
personally have merely said that we should be able to identify BIBLICAL
DOCTRINE (What saith the Lord) from LOCAL STANDARD (What saith the
Pastor).

One is the undisputed Word of God.  The other is not, and you can't place
it on the same level as the Word of God.

Jerry Welch

www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/2810/

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]