CHANGING CHURCH - PART II

Published 10 years ago, Wagner suggest the changes we have seen of late qualify as "The New Reformation". That may be a bit of an overstatement but, be that as it may, Wagner has been a rather astute observer of the growing Apostolic nature of ministry in the 21st century.

One of the changes that Wagner observes is a theological shift among evangelicals away from a reformed doctrine of sanctification to Wesleyan holiness. I think the following observations may interest, even encourage, Wesleyan Holiness people.

"One of my first mentors was Cindy Jacobs of Generals of Intercession. I will not soon forget one of her early admonitions. She said that when we go into spiritual warfare we need to put on the full armor of God." 

"Even after we put on the whole armor of God, if we do not have under that armor a pure heart, we will have holes in our armor." 

This was enough to put the fear of God in me.

"To be honest, until that time, I had not been overly concerned about having a pure heart, because my Reformed doctrine of sanctification had informed me that I could never have one in this life. So, taking what Cindy had said at face value, I had two choices: 1. Keep away from spiritual warfare because without a pure heart, I would have holes in my armor and therefore be vulnerable to the fiery darts of Satan, or 2. change my view of sanctification to Wesleyan holiness, which would point me in a direction of attaining a pure heart. Since my involvement in spiritual warfare was an assignment from God, I knew that I needed to make the second choice and to explore the biblical and theological validity of the kind of sanctification that could end up with a pure heart." 

In my next post, we will see that the holiness about which John Wesley spoke was not optional, but absolutely essential. Stay tuned!