A Presentation of Perfection - Media Sabda Org

formulated by John Wesley stressed the work of Christ in perfecting Christian love through freedom
from sin. Fletcher gave a greater role to the activity of the Holy Spirit in this perfecting. Traditional
Methodist theologians had a tendency to follow Wesley, but within the holiness revival the activity
of the Holy Spirit was emphasized. This focus on the Holy Spirit and accompanying Pentecostal
terminology was so readily accepted by those involved in the revival of holiness teaching that it
became for many in the holiness movement an unofficial orthodoxy. Others, both inside and outside
of the holiness movement, sought to maintain the older Wesleyan understanding or attempted to hold
the Christological and Pentecostal views in dynamic tension. Another area of distinction concerns
the emphasis given to power versus purity. Wesley had stressed purity, while many in the holiness
movement saw power as a significant component in the experience of entire sanctification. It is
interesting to note that the Pentecostal view usually stresses spiritual power and the Christological
approach is commonly associated with an accent on purity.
Recently, some theologians in holiness denominations have begun to use a relational
understanding of sin. Such a change calls for a major re-conceptualization of the whole theological
enterprise, including the doctrine of entire sanctification. Some in the holiness movement have
viewed this philosophical change with alarm, holding that it undermines any satisfactory
understanding of the experience of entire sanctification.
For this review it can be concluded that holiness theology has been and continues to be a dynamic
enterprise. Therefore, there exists the potential for theological variation in the expressions of entire
sanctification appearing in the God's Revivalist. A topology of expression can be developed
containing a series of contrasting concept sets: Christological (purity) versus Pentecostal (power),
and sin as substantive versus sin as relational. These concept sets will be useful in the analysis of
God's Revivalist articles referring to entire sanctification.
1 Peters, 100.
----------------------------------------------------------------
ENDNOTES
2 Charles Edward White, The Beauty of Holiness Phoebe Palmer as Theologian, Revivalist,
Feminist, and Humanitarian (Grand Rapids: Francis Asbury Press, 1986), 161.
3 Harold E. Raser, Phoebe Palmer: Her Life and Thought (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press,
1987), 8.
4 Ibid., 150.
5 Ibid., p 151. Quotations from Phoebe Palmer, Entire Devotion to God: A Present to a Christian
Friend (London: Salvationist Publishing and Supplies, 1853), 13-14. Emphasis added by Raser.
6 See Palmer's treatment of entire sanctification in Phoebe Palmer, The Way of Holiness With
Notes by the Way (New York: Palmer & Hughes, 1867). Also, see Phoebe Palmer, Faith and Its
Effects: Fragments from My Portfolio (New York: Foster & Palmer, 1848), 98-105, for a concise