NOVEMBER 2011Volume 123 No. 8

FEATURES

A Call To Biblical Fidelity 5by Thomas H. McCall

When Uncle Buddie Came To Dinner 8by Larry D. Smith

DEPARTMENTS

The Editor’s View 2The President’s Page 3Letters To The Editor 7News From The Hilltop 12Revivalist Family 12World Pulse 15Student Focus 15Revivalist Pulpit 17Alumni News 19Thoughts For The Quiet Hour 23

STAFF

Shane Muir, assistant graphic designer Kevin Moser, art director, managing editor

Jon Plank, assistant graphic designer, webmaster

Larry D. Smith, editor

God’s Revivalist and Bible Advocate (ISSN 0745-0788) is published monthly except forcombined issues in January-February and June-July-August for $12.00 per year($28.00, Canada; $45.00, other countries) by the Revivalist Press of God’s BibleSchool, College and Missionary Training Home, 1810 Young Street, Cincinnati, Ohio45202. Periodical postage paid at Cincinnati, Ohio, and at additional mailing offices.POSTMASTER: send address changes to God’s Revivalist and Bible Advocate, 1810Young Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.

God’s Revivalist and Bible Advocate, the official organ of God’s Bible School, is a maga-zine founded by Martin Wells Knapp in July of 1888. We seek to proclaim the good newsof salvation; to stir a revival spirit among Christians; to stimulate Christian growth andresponsible Christian living; to present the happenings and interests of God’s Bible School.

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COVER: Food photo ©2011 iStockphoto. God’s BibleSchool archives photo of Thanksgiving 1922 shows poor,inner-city children being fed a sumptuous turkey feast atGBS. As the normal dining room could not accommodatesuch a large crowd, every available place on campus wasutilized, including unfinished floors of the then newRevivalist Memorial Building (women’s dormitory).

CONTENTS

LARRY D. SMITH

TOUCHSTONE FOR EVERYTHING

It wasn’t incense from heaven that drifted throughBrother Gleason’s old brick church during Sunday wor-ship. Granted, the saints assembled there did sniff an

odor so pungent that for a moment it seemed to take theirbreath away. However, this wasn’t from a censer swung byunseen angels, but from certain of the brothers and sisterswho were in need of soap, deodorant, and shampoo.Their immortal souls may have been cleansed from pollu-tion, as they probably professed; but their mortal bodies—well, that was another matter!

As a faithful pastor, Brother Gleason was determined tolead his odiferous parishioners to repentance and reform,which in this case meant the scrubbing brush and the sudsybath. So he stood up in his pulpit one Sabbath day to wagewar on dirt, which he denounced as one of the foulest ofthe devil’s works. Emphatically he announced his text,“Cleanliness is next to godliness”—a text that he knew wasin the Bible, as he told his congregation, though he couldnot find it anywhere! *

Years have passed, but as I recall, Brother Gleason’shomily produced neither repentance nor reform. His odif-erous parishioners, alas, remained his odiferous parish-ioners. This much is sure—his “sermon” was no sermon atall, for it was based in the instruction of a secular proverb,not in application of Holy Scripture. And that, of course, iswhat a sermon is supposed to be.

What is worse, his mistaken claim to Biblical authorityreflects a serious problem widespread among us—one ofseveral addressed in the “Call to the Conservative HolinessMovement” introduced last month in God’s (p22)�

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theeditor’s

view

* This true anecdote was told to the editor by his father, Rev. DeanSmith, although the pastor’s name has been changed.

When my boys were very small, I would oftengive them their “Saturday night bath.” Thisweekly ritual involved a long warm soak, a

robust scrubbing, and a vigorous shampoo, leavingthem squeaky clean. The boys loved the playful soak,tolerated the scrubbing, but became quite agitatedwhen I would reach for the shampoo. It may have hadsomething to do with the fact that I used such copiousamounts that rinsing it out of their hair became an ex-perience close to drowning.

One Saturday night, all was going well until Ireached for the bottle of shampoo. My older son, whoobviously had had enough, stood up in the front of thetub, pointed his finger at me, and with evangelistic fer-vor shouted, “The Bible says, ‘Thou shalt not wash a lit-tle boy’s hair with shampoo’!” My son had a remark-able grasp of the authority of Scripture; yet at the ten-der age of three, he had not yet acquired an exact un-derstanding of how to use it—or more accurately hownot to use it for his own designs and purposes.

A less-than-careful use of Scripture is a slippery slopefor both men and movements. Most religious traditions, including our own Conservative Holiness Movement, havenot escaped this pitfall. As the Aldersgate Forum’s “Call to Biblical Fidelity” states, “We have often focused on issuesand made demands which we cannot legitimately establish from the Scriptures. As a result, trivial notions and spec-ulations at times have marred our witness.” The CHM has, for the most part, been comprised by a group of peoplewho have placed a very high value on Scripture. Our willingness to live out many unpopular biblical values is a tes-timony to this. However, we have not always had an equally high commitment to the careful exegesis of Scripture,which is crucial to preserving Biblical fidelity.

Webster has defined fidelity as “the quality of being faithful; of accuracy in detail; exactness.” The dictionary addsan interesting modern analogy to explain fidelity: “the degree to which an electronic device (as a record player orradio) accurately reproduces the original sound.” With this in mind we can define Biblical fidelity.

Biblical fidelity then is to reproduce faithfully and accurately the thoughts, meaning, and intent of Scripture inboth our preaching and practice.

Every tradition, including the CHM, works in a subculture of its own. These subcultures gravitate toward certaintheological, cultural, and religious biases that inevitably serve as lenses through which Scripture is viewed and

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thepresident’s

page

“THE BIBLE SAYS”

by Michael R. Avery, President

04GOD’S REVIVALIST and BIBLE ADVOCATE

applied to Christian living. For the most part this ishealthy and normative. It is not, however, without prob-lems, for all Biblical and theological biases must be heldin check by an unyielding commitment to be both hon-est and faithful to the Scriptural text. If this does not hap-pen Biblical fidelity is compromised or even lost.

Are there any particular ways the CHM needs to bemore careful? Yes. Let me offer a few that I believe areespecially applicable to the CHM.

1. The CHM must be careful not to practice eise-gesis instead of exegesis. Eisegesis is an interpretationof Scripture that expresses the interpreter’s own viewsrather than the text’s true meaning (exegesis). When weimpose our own theological, cultural, or personal viewson a text, despite knowing that faithful scholarship willnot support our interpretation, we compromise the truthand fail to honor God’s Word. The CHM must regularlyremind itself that Scripture is the standard by which wetest all other truth claims, not the other way around.

2. The CHM must be careful not to blur the linebetween Biblical principle and religious tradition.Tradition is a valuable part of our Christian life. Traditionsmay certainly be taught in our homes and churches, butthey should be taught as traditions, not as divine revela-tion. Traditions must never be confused with God-givencommands or given the same authority and weight asScripture. When this confusion occurs, the end result canbe a church that has replaced the authority of God’sWord with the deadening weight of traditionalism or,worse, just trivia.

3. The CHM must be careful not to misinterpret“questions” as “questioning” and inadvertently dis-courage honesty! It is impossible to respect God’s Wordtoo highly, but it is possible to respect it wrongly. We mustlet people know that it is not irreverent to see difficultiesin the Biblical text and allow them to think hard and hon-

estly about how these difficulties can be resolved. Youhave not truly studied the Bible until you have asked hardquestions of it. However, in some people’s minds “askinghard questions” is the same as “posing problems,” and wehave been discouraged all our lives from finding problemsin the Bible. Let me assure you, the Bible can handlescrutiny. Honesty is a vital part of Biblical fidelity. Godwould rather have honest disagreement from one com-mitted to His Word than forced affirmation of somethingwe don’t really believe or understand.

4. The CHM must be careful not to allow the exter-nalization of Biblical standards to substitute for theinternalization of Biblical character. The Bible was notwritten to be a curiosity shop from which we pick andchoose certain things to obey in our lives like one mightpick and choose an article of clothing. Rather, it was writ-ten to transform us from the inside out! One can knowand honor the Bible in visible ways (especially those thatmake us look spiritual in our setting), yet fail to demon-strate the character it commands. One can be meticu-lous, even legalistic, about his tithe and yet fail ever todevelop the spirit of generosity. One can dress modestlyand still have a sensuous spirit. Sheer knowledge of theBible doesn’t make one godly. The mere application of afew visible commands doesn’t mean we have cultivatedholy character. One can read the Bible daily, acquire sig-nificant amounts of Biblical knowledge, adopt standardsof dress and behavior, yet have no straight-line corre-spondence between that and real Christlikeness.

It would be helpful for all of us to remember that the“sounds” our lives make on earth reach heaven either as thescratchy, tinny, garbled clanging of carnality, or as harmonic,melodious, pleasant reproductions of Christlikeness. Oursuccess at being like Jesus will be determined not only byknowing with a high degree of accuracy what the Bible says,but also by honestly living it out.

A CALL TO THE CONSERVATIVE HOLINESS MOVEMENT

I. A CALL TO BIBLICAL FIDELITY

As Wesleyans we affirm that the Holy Scriptures, as the inspired and inerrant Word of God, are thebasis of authority in the Church, normative for all our faith and practice. We declare with the EnglishReformers, “Holy Scripture contains everything that is necessary for salvation, so that whatever is not stat-ed in it, or cannot be proved by it, must not be required of any man as an article of belief or be thoughtrequisite or necessary to salvation.”

Yet we have often focused on issues and made demands which we cannot legitimately establish fromthe Scriptures. As a result, trivial notions and speculations at times have marred our witness. We call,therefore, for renewed submission to the absolute authority of the Bible, not as a revered icon but as thetouchstone for both our personal lives and our public proclamation. For in every age, the Church mustsubmit itself unconditionally to the Word of God, interpreting it in harmony with itself, in keeping withthe best insights of historical and literary study, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and with respectfor the historic understanding of devout Christian scholarship.

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long with a great chorus of witnesses throughout the history of the church, Wesleyan Christians affirm that the Bible is God’s gracious gift to sinful humanity. Written and edited by human

authors who lived and wrote within distinct historical settings, it comes by the inspiration of God—and with His sovereign authority. The Bible, in this historic view, is the product of “dual authorship”;both human agents and God authored the Bible. Written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,Scripture teaches “solidly, faithfully, and without error that truth that God wanted put into sacredwritings” (Dei Verbum, 9). Holy Scripture then is the Word of God, and it carries God’s authority.Thus the “Call to the Conservative Holiness Movement” rightly includes a “Call to Biblical Fidelity:”“As Wesleyans we affirm that the Holy Scriptures, as the inspired and inerrant Word of God, are thebasis of authority in the Church, normative for all our faith and practice. We declare with the EnglishReformers, ‘Holy Scripture contains everything that is necessary for salvation, so that whatever is notstated in it, or cannot be proved by it, must not be required of any man as an article of belief or bethought requisite or necessary to salvation.’”

TWO (OR MORE) CHALLENGESBut today there is widespread erosion of biblical authority in both the academy and the church.

A great deal of this erosion comes from the impact of secular and critical biblical scholarship. Manyprofessional biblical scholars claim that such events as the Exodus and Passover never occurred, thatthe historical records of Israel are untrustworthy pieces of primitive propaganda, and that the gospels

a Call to BiblicalFidelity by Thomas H. McCall

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06GOD’S REVIVALIST and BIBLE ADVOCATE

are largely fiction. Such claims are nothing new, but asthey are becoming more prevalent and more shrill, theyare exercising more influence. It is important for believ-ing Christians to exercise patience and charity in assess-ing such claims, but it is also important for believingChristians to stand firm and to know that there arescholarly responses to such charges.

But there are other causes of the erosion of biblicalauthority in the church, and these causes may be ofmore direct concern to the Conservative HolinessMovement. Confusion causes, or at least exacerbates, aloss of authority. At one level, there is widespread con-fusion in many churches (evangelical and mainline alike)about the very contents of Scripture. At the seminarywhere I teach, we have been forced to institute a reme-dial course in “Biblical Theology and Interpretation” forincoming students just to get them to what was former-ly a starting place. More senior colleagues have notedthe steep decline in basic biblical literacy, and it must besaid that a great deal of the blame for this falls upon thechurches that have opted for entertainment (one col-league calls it “christo-tainment”) over biblically-saturat-ed instruction. This is a place where local churches, aswell as families, can do much good: teaching the basicbiblical narratives to children (making use of olderresources such as the flannelgraph where appropriate),Scripture memory for children and adults, and basicBible reading plans are simple steps that can bring great

gain. And of paramount importance here is the central-ity of exegetically-based and spiritually-anointed biblicalpreaching in the church! The loss of biblical authorityshould be traced in part to simple confusion about thecontents of the Bible, but the good news is that thisproblem may be readily addressed.

Sometimes, however, the confusion that vitiates bib-lical authority goes deeper. Sometimes Christians, espe-cially conservative Christians, tend to read the Bible as akind of “theory of everything.” It is one thing to believe—as I am convinced that Christians should—that theBible is absolutely truthful and finally authoritative in allthat it affirms. It is another thing entirely, however, toinsist that the Bible speaks as the final authority about allthings. In other words, there is an important distinctionbetween saying “everything God says about His world is

true” and “God says everything there is to say about theworld.” As Christians we should submit to divine author-ity on all things that God has made known, and weshould maintain our belief that Scripture “containseverything that is necessary for salvation.” But it simplyis not accurate for us to assume that the Bible was writ-ten to function as, say, a geology or economics textbook,or to satisfy our curiosity about matters it does notaddress. Holy Scripture is not a theory of everything,and we do not respect its authority when we try tostretch its teachings over matters that God did notintend to address in the Bible.

Sometimes there is confusion as well over the inter-pretation and application of Scripture. As such stunts asA.J. Jacobs’s book The Year of Living Biblically have re-minded us, it is neither possible nor desirable (for theChristian who wants to bring glory to God) to live ac-cording to Scripture in any flat-footed, literalistic sense.To admit this is not to give up and say that there is noway to think and live biblically, but it does mean thatthe Bible must be properly interpreted and carefully ap-plied. Fortunately, there are good resources available tohelp us do so, and we can move forward in a prayerfuland committed way. But if we cannot afford, on onehand, to surrender biblical authority in doctrine andlife, then neither, on the other hand, can we simplytrumpet that authority while also choosing to obey onlythose parts of Scripture that support the lifestyles and

practices with which we find ourselvescomfortable or those that support anyparticular subculture.

In addition to the problems causedby confusion, sometimes biblical au-thority is compromised in the church bywhat must simply be called sloth. In his“Address to the Clergy,” John Wesleyasked these questions:

“Have I such a knowledge of Scripture,as becomes him who undertakes so to ex-plain it to others, that it may be a light in

all their paths? Have I a full and clear view of the anal-ogy of faith, which is the clue to guide me through thewhole? Am I acquainted with the several parts ofScripture; with all parts of the Old Testament as well asthe New? Upon the mention of any text, do I know thecontext, and the parallel places? …Do I know thegrammatical construction of the four Gospels; of theActs; of the Epistles; and am I a master of the spiritualsense as well (as the literal) of what I read? Do I under-stand the scope of each book, and how every part of ittends thereto? Have I the skill to draw the natural infer-ences that are reducible from each text? Do I know theobjections raised to them or from them…. Am I readyto give a satisfactory answer to each of these objec-tions? And have I learned to apply every part of the sa-cred writings, as the various states of my hearers re-

fi •del •i •ty | fə ′del ə te- |

noun: The quality of being faithful;

accuracy in details; exactness.

TO THE EDITOR

MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM

While I believe in the importance ofbehavior and clothing that befits a lady ora gentleman, I agree with the authors of[the September] Revivalist that the issuespertaining to gender reach much deeper.I was so intrigued by the article from EricM. Schumacher that I found his websiteand listened to his sermon from which thisarticle was based.

In his sermon, Schumacher said that“God has designed women to be directedtoward family love. When women choosenot to devote themselves to raising their chil-dren, they are forfeiting what may be thegreatest position of world-influence thatthere is.” …I wonder how much more influ-ence the Conservative Holiness Movementwould have if our men took the responsibili-ty to provide to such a degree that ourwomen were encouraged to fulfill their God-given responsibility to oversee the nurtureand education of children without the desireto stoop to following career aspirations.

ANDREW J GRAHAMLicensed Professional Counselor

GOD’S REVIVALIST BY KEROSENE LAMP

I am now 86 years old, and one of mybest childhood memories is of my motherreading the Bible and God’s Revivalist to us inthe evenings by the kerosene lamp. We chil-dren especially enjoyed reading about theThanksgiving dinners. Although we were poorourselves (it was Depression days), our heartswent out to the children who were brought in.

MRS. LENA GOSSLewistown, PA

Letters should be addressed to the Editorial Office,1810 Young Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202, or emailed torevivalist@gbs.edu. Letters reprinted here do not necessar-ily reflect the opinions of the editor of God’s Revivalist northose of the administration of God’s Bible School. Namesand locations of writers will be withheld at their specificrequest or at the discretion of the editor. We reserve theright to edit and condense.

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quire? Do I understand Greek and Hebrew? …If not, howmany years did I spend at school? How many at university?And what was I doing all those years? Ought not shame tocover my face?” (“Address to the Clergy,” pp. 490-91)

I find Wesley to be a bit harsh here, and I am well awarethat not all Christian ministers (much less all Christians!) havethe opportunity or gift ing to undertake such study.Nonetheless, his basic point is still valid, and we cannot ex-pect to recover and embrace biblical authority if we largelyignore it ourselves.

These considerations bring us to another impediment tobiblical f idelity. We acknowledge the importance ofScripture—but sometimes we are happy to replace the Biblewith something “more fun” for children. We readily affirmthat the Bible is God’s Word—God’s Word—but sometimeswe are quick to fill most of a sermon with “practical” teach-ing that could be taken from its biblical “basis” and movedto a civics club to serve as a motivational speech. We saythat we submit to the authority of the Bible—but sometimeswe find it both easy and comforting to fill our sermons withpolitical commentary. Surely there is a problem here—re-gardless of whether the philosophy of, say, Ayn Rand re-places the teachings of Jesus or merely gets confused withthem. When we say that Holy Scripture is the authoritativeWord of God—and then just as quickly move past thatWord or replace it with something more “relevant”or “im-portant” or “meaningful”—the truth is not in us.Traditionally, this is called hypocrisy, and surely hypocrisy isan impediment not only to biblical authority but also to ho-liness. Perhaps we should be reminded (by our holinessforebears) that if we are not challenged by Scripture thenwe are not reading it rightly.

THE WRITTEN WORD AND THE LIVING WORDBut there is good news! God’s Word is still God’s Word,

and He promises to challenge, convict, nourish, strengthen,and sanctify His people by that Word. He calls us—as personsand communities, as individuals, families, and churches—toreceive His Word again with gratitude and gladness of heart.He calls us to see the incredible, grand story of redemptionsplashed across the canvas of His Word: creation, fall,covenant, promise, Messiah, salvation, hope. He calls us tolive in that story, to enter that story, to take our place in hisgrand narrative of salvation.

He calls us to focus—as does the Bible itself—upon thecentral figure in the story, and to celebrate the life, death, res-urrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is to Christ,the Living Word, that the Written Word bears witness. It is inChrist that we see humanity fully revealed. It is in Christ thatwe see God Incarnate, the Word-made-flesh, God revealed.And it is in Christ, in the blessed fellowship of His Father andtheir Holy Spirit, that we place our hope.

Dr. Thomas H. McCall is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at TrinityEvangelical Divinity School. He has also served as a pastor, and as a writer,and has contributed to various scholarly journals.

08GOD’S REVIVALIST and BIBLE ADVOCATE

But Listen!” cried Uncle Buddie. “When I hadpreached for ten years, and my mule balked, I got

mad and bit the mule on the ear and got mule hairs allin between my teeth; and the devil laughed at me. But Iwent and got down behind a big haystack and hadprayer and confessed my sins and begged God to forgiveme. And along in the afternoon the Lord forgave me, andsweet peace came back into my heart. Then I wentdown to the barn and begged my mule’s pardon. Thatwas the hardest thing I ever tried to do in my life—to begmy mule’s pardon after biting him on the ears.”

It was November 30, 1922, a sunny ThanksgivingDay in Cincinnati. Uncle Buddie was none other than theRev. Reuben A. Robinson, the stuttering Nazarene cow-boy preacher, who at the age of 62 was then at the heightof his remarkable career. That morning he was speakingto 1700 children squeezed into GBS’srambling wooden tabernacle, which alsohoused the men’s dormitory and theRevivalist Press. Although his congrega-tion did not grasp his views on sanctifica-tion, they did enjoy his mule story.

“I went and looked at him and said,‘Elic, I have come to beg your pardon. I bityou on the ears this morning—I am awful-ly sorry for it!’ But you know that mulewould not forgive me. He looked saucyand mad, and turned his great head to oneside, and turned around, and got his heelstoward me, and looked like he was goingto kick my head off. And said to me in justas plain language as I am talking to you—it was not the English language, but it wasmule talk—‘You are going to have to get more religion thanyou have now, or you will bite me again.’ Just six weeksfrom that time, the Lord sanctified me; and I haven’t bit amule in forty-two years. Ain’t that fine?”

For a long time, Uncle Buddie had loved GBS; and heshared the fervent piety which it promoted. “God is on theHill,” he declared in the Revivalist. “They have salvationhere knee-deep and glory up to their eyebrows. Whenone says, ‘Amen,’ a dozen say, ‘Hallelujah!’ To hear thesefolks sing and shout and testify around the dinner tables isone of the most interesting things that I have ever heard.”

What touched him most deeply, however, was theschool’s massive Thanksgiving Day dinners for hungry

children from the squalid inner-city ghettos. In the samearticle mentioned above, he noted that during the previ-ous twenty years at least 75,000 had been fed on theseholiday occasions. “This is the most remarkable history Ihave ever known,” he added. “It seems there is no wayto make it more beautiful and glorious than it is. To watchBrother Standley, the other trustees, the workers, and thebands of students—especially to see the students start atan early hour to gather these little ones together, and putthem in big auto trucks and bring them to the ‘Mount ofBlessings’—is a sight on earth to see. They are of everycolor and every nationality. They hop and skip, andwhoop and yell, and jump and stand on their hands.”

Begun by the founder, Martin Wells Knapp, in 1900,only weeks after the school’s opening, the dinner was asterling example of the early holiness movement’s com-

passionate social outreach. In addition tohundreds of roasted turkeys, “a seventy-five-gallon wooden barrel of pickles, tonsof potatoes, dressing, vegetables, bread,cranberry sauce, celery, and bottled milkall graced the tables,” according to a laterdescription. Only 300 had come the firstyear, but by 1922 the “guest list” hadgrown to 4500. Attendance was to peakduring the Great Depression—in 1930“nearly 25,000 children marched to thetables”—but the great dinners were tocontinue until the early 1960’s.

Uncle Buddie was a spellbinder inthe pulpit; on that warm ThanksgivingDay in 1922, however, he was compet-ing with fantasies of the feast which his

congregation were about to consume. But as always,preaching must come before eating; for as GBS leadersbelieved, offering grace to empty hearts was moreimportant than offering food to empty stomachs. Theywere determined to do both, nonetheless; and sincethere were far too many children to accommodate atonce, they had been divided into three shifts, each ofwhich was scheduled to arrive at a different time. Uponreaching the Hilltop, they were herded into the taberna-cle, decorated with American flags and “a long line of lit-tle banners of the different nationalities of the world.”

From mid-morning until mid-afternoon, Robinsontook turns with Charles Slater and John Franklin Knapp in

When Uncle Buddie Came To Dinnerby Larry D. Smith

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Thanksgiving Day 1922: Children arrivein buses and trucks and are escorted tothe tabernacle where they participate ina simple Christian service. Afterwardthey are fed a sumptuous turkey feast.

left: Corner of Channing and YoungStreets, looking eastward downChanning Street.

bottom: Looking westward from the eastside of Young Street near the corner ofYoung and Channing Streets. The largemansion in the background wasformerly GBS’s Hope Cottage, a homefor unwed mothers, now replaced by aparking lot.

10GOD’S REVIVALIST and BIBLE ADVOCATE

speaking to the wiggling youngsters. “About the only waythat we could hold their attention at all was to tell theminteresting stories,” he recalled. His encounter with themule, for instance, would fascinate them for a time. “Butas a rule, before I would get through, someone wouldhave to get up and command order and tell this great rol-licking set of boys and girls that if they did not quiet down,they would not get any turkey and dressing.” It is unlikelythat this threat was ever carried out, but the GBS officiarywas present to smile or scowl as occasion required.

Ensconced behind the pulpit were the school’strustees and “special workers”; and at its right, under thedirection of Meredith Standley, Jr., sat the orchestra on aspecially-constructed platform. The orchestra’s “musicaccompanied by two pianos, and the singing led byBrother McNeill and others were specially inspiring,”reported the Revivalist. It was the music with its liltingrhythms and catchy lyrics which seemed to captivate thoseragtag youngsters and prepare them for the preaching,which apparently was more effective than Uncle Buddiefeared. At its conclusion, when he invited them to Christ,hundreds knelt in their seats, as there was no room forthem at the altar. “How beautiful was the scene of littleones bowing before Christ who loved them, claiming Himas their Savior, and finding sweet rest in their little hearts.”

Then came the call to dinner. As the children filedout of the chapel, Uncle Buddie saw one excited lad“throw his cap into the air three different times and catchit while he was a-running, and throw his hands on anoth-er boy’s shoulder and jump over his head.” In the twodining rooms prepared in the Ten Weeks’ Building and inthe unfinished Revivalist Memorial Building, the guestswere seated at long tables, where after the blessing wassaid, they were served from platters of steaming food.

To Uncle Buddie, the “most heart-rending scene”was that of two little boys, one about six and the otherabout eight years old. “The big boy would get a big biteof turkey and throw his right arm around his little broth-er and pull him up to him, and he would hug him untilhis little bones would nearly pop. Then he would fill hismouth again with turkey and reach over and kiss his lit-tle brother on the back of the neck. He did this a num-ber of times until his little brother’s neck was greasy.

Finally, he was so delighted with his dinner that hegrabbed his little brother and shook him and kissed himtwo or three times, but never quit chewing turkey.”

To prepare this regal feast, classes had been dis-missed for the entire week; and the kitchen and the din-ing rooms were turned into “beehives of industry.” “Itwas an exceedingly busy, but very happy time. All notengaged in other regular work that must go forwardentered with a hearty good will into the great prepara-tions. Brother Standley divided and systematized thework, and God gave strength and wisdom. BrotherStandley said that anyone who worked more than twen-ty-four hours a day was to report to him.”

Students were sent into the city, “hunting out theneedy ones and giving them invitations to the dinner,”while others supplied “the large front classroom” inAnnex Two (the old brick mansion which a later genera-tion would know as the music studio) with used hats,coats, dresses, shoes, and stockings to be given away. Atlast, everything was ready by Thursday morning when thefirst “auto trucks” and “motor cars” chugged up Mt.Auburn to unload their eager cargo at the corner of Youngand Channing Streets. One hundred food baskets hadalready been taken to shut-ins unable to make the trip.

Hours later, each child leaving the Hilltop clutched a“goody-bag,” containing an orange, apple, cookie, nuts,and a popcorn ball. As the trucks bounced back toShantytown, their little passengers revelled in the luxuryof that day; and for awhile, at least, its memory wouldmake their lives more bearable. “Many of them are fromhovels, attics, cellars, tenements, etc., where they do notlive, but simply exist; and Thanksgiving Day on the‘Mount of Blessings’ is perhaps the only bright spot in theyear in the lives of some of them.”

It had been forty-two years since Uncle Buddie “hadbit a mule,” as he had said; but presumably he bit intohis share of turkey that Thanksgiving Day on the Hilltop.At its end, he was as enthusiastic as he had been at itsbeginning. “I have often said and still say,” he wrote,“that probably the most beautiful place and the most lov-able place to go, and the greatest band to work with thatthere is in the Nation, if not in the world, is God’s BibleSchool at Cincinnati, Ohio.”

Thanksgiving Day 1922.

As the normal dining roomcould not accommodate such

a large crowd, every avail-able place on campus was

utilized, including this unfin-ished floor of the then new

Revivalist Memorial Building(women’s dormitory).

Thanksgiving Day1922.

left: Inside God’sTabernacle, childrenparticipate in a sim-ple Christian serviceprior to eating theirThanksgiving Dayfeast.

below: Students andstaff prepare for thebig day. The bellringer on the far rightis William Jackson.

12GOD’S REVIVALIST and BIBLE ADVOCATE

DEATHS

Warren H. Best, 90, died September 11, 2011. Hewas a student in the GBS Christian Worker’s Course,

1947–48, then enrolled in the college in1950. He will be remembered for hisfaithful service to GBS for many years as amember of its board of trustees, acting asits chairman from 1976–91. Mr. Best wasa veteran and a longtime resident of

Norwood, Ohio. Preceded in death by his wife, RoseFetchak Best, and his son David, he is survived by hischildren, Lorraine, James, Rodney, and Ruth; eightgrandchildren; and one great-grandchild on the way. Amemorial service was held in Cincinnati, Ohio, withinterment in Landmark Cemetery.

Rev. Ernst Cassy, 79, died April 2, 2011, in Haiti,his homeland. As a young man, while listening togospel music from WCKY, a Cincinnati radio station,he heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “One day I

want you to go to a Bible School in Cincinnati.” Fouryears later, he related this incident to a minister whohad asked him about God’s purpose for his life.When his friend told him of God’s Bible School, Ernst

made immediate plans to become a stu-dent and enrolled on the Hilltop in1961. While studying in the library, heasked, “Lord, show me your plan forHaiti” and was directed to spread thegospel through orphanages. Upon gradu-

ating in 1961 he returned to his homeland, where hevigorously pursued God’s call. In 1963 he foundedthe Good Shepherd Orphanage, which he superin-tended until his death. Known as “Papa Cassy,” hewas much loved for his ministry of hope, care, andgrace. He was also honored as one of the inducteesin GBS’s alumni “Wall of Fame.” Funeral serviceswere held at L’Eglise La Saintete in Carrefour. Hisorphanage ministry continues under new directorswhich he had appointed prior to his passing.

Rev. Harold Bertram Monroe, 91, died October 2,2011. In 2002, after 60 years of ministry in Ohio andIowa, he and his wife Jane moved to be near their chil-dren in Tallahassee, Florida. After hearing God’s call in a

On these pages, we feature items about GBS alumni, significantevents scheduled throughout the “Revivalist family,” and brief newsnotes from across the holiness movement.

GBS CHRISTMAS PROGRAMSCHEDULED DECEMBER 9, 10, 11

GBS’s 2011 Christmas program,Condescension, will be staged in theAdcock Chapel, December 9 (7:30PM), December 10 (3:30 PM), andDecember 11 (6:00 PM). A 115-voice choir, a 40-piece orchestra, and

a cast of actors come togetherin this musical production.

Derived from a parableby Soren Kierkegaard,Condescension is written byBen Durr, Jr., and depictsBaruch as a son of privilege, aHellenistic Jew commissionedby Caesar Augustus to coordi-nate the taxation registration

throughout Palestine. To assist himwith this assignment in the Jerusalem-Bethlehem region, Baruch enlistsEzra, an arrogant, dishonest Jewishofficial and businessman who alsosells sheep for the Temple sacrifices.Baruch’s association with Ezra bringshim into contact with simple, unre-fined shepherds, one of whom is abrother to Tamara, a lovely, God-fearing peasant girl. Smitten by her

beauty and grace, but separated bythe vast social and cultural barrierbetween them, Baruch devises aruse to “become a shepherd” andwin her acceptance and affection.

During his adventure as an“incognito shepherd,” Baruch him-self becomes a character in the ulti-mate story of condescension, forBaruch’s condescension parallels theself-humiliation of Jesus.

TICKET INFORMATION: Eachfamily may request up to five freetickets for one night only. After thefifth ticket, the cost is $5.00 per tick-et (please send payment with yourorder). Phone/email orders will notbe accepted. All orders must be sentto the school with a self-addressed,stamped envelope. Include the dateyou prefer and the number of tickets

tent meeting, he enrolled at God’s Bible School, wherehe earned the degrees BA and ThB, both in 1943. AtGBS’s 100th anniversary in 2000, Rev. Monroe was hon-ored among the top 100 alumni acknowledged for theirservice in Christ’s “great harvest field.” From 1977–96,he was a member of his alma mater’s board of trustees.He served for many years as pastor, also working onministry boards and crusade teams, as well as district

superintendent for seven years of the OhioDistrict of The Wesleyan Church.

Rev. Monroe is survived by his wife,Ella Jane Hamilton, with whom he shared68 years of marriage and who now surviveshim, along with their children Gloria, John,

and Barbara; five grandchildren; and two great-grand-children. Funeral services were held at MulberryWesleyan Church, Milford, Ohio, where he pastored for26 years, with interment at the Vevay, Indiana, ceme-tery. The officiating pastor was the Rev. Edward Fisher.

Rev. Joseph Coats “Joe” Shockley, 91, of Stuart,Virginia, passed away Thursday, October 6, 2011. Hehad been in Christian ministry for over 30 years and wasa member of Aiken Summit Wesleyan Church. Precededin death by his wife, Mae Priddy Shockley, and his son,

Bobby. He is survived by his daughter, Glenda Hoyle,seven grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.Funeral services were held in Stuart with burial inMinnie’s Chapel Wesleyan Church Cemetery.

Rev. John Mark Trent, 55, Wetumpka, Alabama,died October 5, 2011. An alumnus of God’s BibleSchool and College (’77 BRE), he was a pastor for 30years, serving churches in Michigan, Kentucky, andAlabama. For the past 15 years he was a marriageand family therapist in the Montgomery area. Hisloves were his God, his wife, his boys, and his largecircle of friends. He held a Masters Degree in Family

Therapy from Southern ChristianUniversity and a PhD in EducationalPsychology from Auburn University. Hewas a senior staff therapist at TheSamaritan Counseling Center, Inc.,focusing his ministry on children and

families. He was also director of the PhD program inFamily Therapy at Amridge University.

He is survived by his wife of 34 years, Faith SadlerTrent; three sons, Nathan Wesley, Benjamin Whitefield,and Andrew Steeley; his sister, Hope Welbaum; andthree “adopted” children, Becky, Josh, and David. �

NOVEMBER 2011

13

needed. Please contact the ticketcoordinator at (513) 721-7944 if youdo not plan to use your tickets.Orders should be addressed as fol-lows: Christmas Program TicketRequest, God’s Bible School and

College, 1810 Young St., Cincinnati,OH 45202.

No seats may besaved at anytime.Late arrivals and re-entries will only beallowed in betweenscenes and with thehelp of an usher.Prelude music willbegin thirty minutesprior to each perfor-mance. Child carewill be provided. A

freewill offering will be taken atthe close of each performance.Persons wishing to place an adver-tisement in the evening’s programshould contact the Music Divisionat (513) 763-6546.

NEW SOUND SYSTEM INSTALLEDIN ADCOCK CHAPEL

GBS’s Adcock Chapel, housedin the historic Knapp MemorialBuilding, has been enhanced by therecent installation of an upgradednew sound system. In a currentissue of ProSoundWeb, published togive “News and Information for theAudio Professional,” it explains that,“Three Danley SM-60F loudspeak-ers flown in a center cluster andtwo TH-MINI subwoofers tuckedinto an enclosure under the stage”now “handle the sound at…the1,000 seat chapel.” According tothe newsheet, the new system wasdesigned by audio consultant andengineer Tim Dentler, who also wasin charge of installation.

Scene from GBS Christmas Program 2010

GBS CAMPUS SADDENED BY THE DEATH OF MICHAEL VOLLMER

Our entire campus family was deeply saddened by the passing of Michael D.Vollmer, a freshman student from Port Clinton, Ohio, who died apparently of nat-ural causes in his GBS dormitory room, Thursday, September 29, 2011. Mike wasa 2011 graduate of Port Clinton High School, where he played football for fouryears; played the saxophone and the trombone; and sang in the choir for fouryears. He participated in the DECA Nationals in 2011 and the Touch of Class, andreceived the 9-to-5 Award and the Firelands Positive People Award. A joyful andfaithful Christian, he was a member of the Port Clinton Bible Methodist Church. Hewas loved by all who knew him and will be keenly missed.

He is survived by his mother, Sheila; his sisters, Kaylee and Samantha; his father,Gary; his grandmother, Jean Yount; his uncle, Bill Yount; his special friend, Becca Gase;other relatives; and a host of friends, including many whom he came to know at GBS.

Funeral services were held at Trinity United Methodist Church, Port Clinton, with hispastor, the Rev. Deron Fourman, officiating, assisted by Rev. Michael Avery, Rev. Richard Miles, and Rev. MarkCravens. A large delegation of Mike’s friends from GBS were present. Burial was in the LaCarpe Cemetery. Later in theweek, GBS students held a candlelight memorial for Mike on the campus, singing, praying, and sharing memories.

� Funeral services were held at Alabama HeritageFuneral Home chapel with Pastors Rick Addison andGlenn Hemrick, officiating.

NEW BOOK AVAILABLE

Don’t miss this opportunity to pur-chase Our People Die Well, a new bookby Dr. Joseph McPherson, describing“Glorious Accounts of Early Methodistsat Death’s Door,” as its subtitle explains.Those interested should contact Dr.McPherson by mail, 878 Lakeside Drive, Marion,Indiana 46953; by email, jmac1236@aol.com; or bycell phone (785) 667-0966. Copies are $17.99 each.

Recommendation by President Avery. “This book isa compilation of ninety-eight testimonies of earlyMethodists as they faced ‘the valley of the shadow ofdeath.’ It also has a section contrasting the deaths ofsome notable unbelievers from the same period of time,such as the French atheist, Voltaire. McPherson arrangesthem chronologically beginning with the death of SamuelWesley, the father of John and Charles Wesley, and con-cludes with that of Adam Clarke. McPherson is a lifelongstudent of the early Methodists and his notes and com-ments joined to several of the testimonies are pertinentand soul-searching. He is the son of well-known authorAnna Talbot McPherson. I highly recommend this bookto all who love Methodist history and to all who knowthey will die and are seeking to do it well.”

14GOD’S REVIVALIST and BIBLE ADVOCATE

“A DYNAMIC, POSITIVE, AND HAPPYCHRISTIAN!”

Mike Vollmer was a dynamic, posi-tive, and happy Christian! In his brieftime on our campus, he made a lastingimpact on his fellow students with hisever-present smile, his determination toexcel, and his unashamed testimony ofGod’s grace. He will be missed! —Michael Avery, President, God’s BibleSchool and College

“MIKE VOLLMER BLESSED OURCAMPUS BY BEING MIKE”

Mike Vollmer blessed our campusby being Mike. He loved life, he loved

people, and, most of all, he loved God.He was at his best when he was justbeing Mike, because he put smiles onthe faces that gathered around him,though few smiles were as large andcontagious as his own. He was the kindof guy that “lit up” the world aroundhim. Not only did he light the world withhis smile and his fun-loving ways, but hegenuinely expressed his love for hisfriends and for God. We had him sobriefly, but few men could impact acampus as Mike has done in so short atime. We shall miss him, but we shall notforget him. —Richard Miles, GBS VicePresident for Student Affairs

“I WILL SEE MIKE AGAIN”In my short time of having Mike in

the dorm, I noticed several things abouthim. Mike had a personality that was funand always respectful to authority. Mike’spersonality also allowed him to makefriends very easily. The network of friendshe made in his short time here wasimpacted greatly by his life and testimony.The dorm was blessed to have Mike, andhis impact will not soon be forgotten. Iwill never forget his respectful manners,even when he didn’t understand a policyor rule. Thank God that there is no doubtI will see Mike again! —Brent Lavy, GBSDean of Men

NOVEMBER 2011

15

SHOULD PASTORS WEDCOHABITATING COUPLES?

According to Christianity Today(October 2011), a recent pollfound “that 58% of Protestant pas-tors” were willing to officiate atmarriage ceremonies for couplesliving together before the service. Inthe same issue, clergy were asked,“Should pastors perform marriagesfor cohabitating couples?” Opinionsvaried. “If I believed them to be insin, why shouldn’t I help get themout?” wrote Douglas Wilson, ChristChurch, Moscow, Idaho. He felt it“overly scrupulous” to refuse “toperform a ceremony that getssomeone from a morally question-able situation into an honorable es-tate.” R. Albert Mohler, president,Southern Baptist Seminary, dis-agrees. “Pastors are stewards of abiblical understanding of sexuality.Marrying cohabiters miscommuni-cates the teaching function of mar-riage. I would only marry Christiancouples that were repentant, hadforsaken the sin of cohabiting, andsought the remedy of marriage.”

MORE AMERICANS MAKE UPTHEIR OWN RELIGION

“Religious statistics expert Barnasays…America is headed for ‘310million people with 310 million reli-gions,’” according to Cathy LynnGrossman in USA TODAY. Barna isreferencing his findings about “self-proclaimed believers who claim theChristian label” but who “shed theirties to traditional beliefs and prac-

tices.” They make up their own reli-gion as they go along, freely remov-ing themselves from the constraints oforganized faith groups. “Barna’s newbook…Futurecast tracks changesfrom 1991 to 2011 in annual nation-al surveys…. All the major trend linesof religious belief and behavior hemeasured ran downward—excepttwo. More people claim they haveaccepted Jesus as their savior andexpect to go to heaven.”

MILITARY CHAPLAINS REFUSETO PERFORM GAY WEDDINGS

“An organization representingmore than 2,000 of the nation’s5,000 military chaplains [have] an-nounced…that they would notperform same-sex ceremonies,”according to Paul Standley, writingin The Christian Post. Only daysafter the former “don’t ask, don’ttell” policy regarding homosexual-ity was repealed, the Departmentof Defense issued a memo autho-rizing “military chaplains to con-duct same-sex ceremonies on oroff military bases and make militaryproperty, such as a chapel, avail-able on a ‘neutral-to-sexual-orien-tation’ basis.” While the memo ap-proves a chaplain’s right not to per-form such ceremonies, the fear isthat chaplains refusing to do so willbe regarded as not being coopera-tive “team-players.” “The Catholicchapel at the United States MilitaryAcademy at West Point…will notbe allowing homosexual marriages,according to the archdiocesespokesman Taylor Henry.”

“God wants me to work with trou-bled teens,” says KATIE NEWMAN ofZanesville, Ohio, who has pursuedthis ministry ambition since hersophomore year of high school.

Options stretched out beforeKatie on the path of preparation forher future ministry. As Katie navi-gated, her journey brought her to thehalls of God’s Bible School and Col-lege in 2009. She began studying inChurch and Family Ministries, with acognate in Christian Counseling andYouth Ministry. After a few years, oneparticular meeting with a facultymember prompted Katie to pursueworking with teens from a socialwork aspect. As this concept devel-oped, she enrolled for classes atnearby colleges within the GreaterCincinnati Consortium of Collegesand Universities (GCCCU), whilecontinuing her studies on campus.This enabled her to create a distinctcognate in Christian Counseling andSocial Work—to better suit her min-istry training.

GBSC helped Katie not only todevelop as a person, but also to “de-sire a more intimate walk with God.”She is determined to show this loveof Christ to hurting teens and see thedifference only He can make.

Seventy-five percent of our studentsreceive some form of financial aid whichenables them to attend GBSC. If youwould like to support Katie or a studentlike her, you may send a gift to:

Student FundGod’s Bible School and College1810 Young StreetCincinnati, OH 45202or give online anytime at www.gbsgift.com

GOD’S REVIVALIST and BIBLE ADVOCATE

16

SANCTIFICATION: CONDITIONED ON FAITH

“Do you believe we are sanctified by faith? We knowyou believe that we are justified by faith; but do you

believe, and accordingly teach, that we are sanctified byour works” So it has been roundly and vehemently af-firmed for these five-and-twenty years: but I have con-stantly declared just the contrary; and that in all manner ofways. I have continually testified in private and in public,that we are sanctified as well as justified by faith. And in-deed the one of those great truths does exceedingly illus-trate the other. Exactly as we are justified by faith, so weare sanctified by faith. Faith is the condition, and the onlycondition, of sanctification, exactly as it is of justification. Itis the condition: none is sanctified but he that believes;without faith no man is sanctified. And it is the only condi-tion: this alone is sufficient for sanctification. Everyone thatbelieves is sanctified, whatever else he has or has not. Inother words, no man is sanctified till he believes: everyman when he believes is sanctified.

—From the sermon, “The Scripture Way of Salvation”

SANCTIFICATION: BOTH GRADUAL ANDINSTANTANEOUS

From the moment we are justified, there may be agradual sanctification, a growing in grace, a daily ad-

vance in the knowledge and love of God. And if sincease before death, there must, in the nature of thething, be an instantaneous change; there must be a lastmoment wherein it does exist, and a first momentwherein it does not. “But should we in preaching insistboth on one and the other?” Certainly we must insist onthe gradual change; and earnestly and continually. Andare there not reasons why we should insist on the instan-taneous also? If there be such a blessed change beforedeath, should we not encourage all believers to expectit? and the rather, because constant experience shows,

the more earnestly they expect this, the more swiftly andsteadily does the gradual work of God go on in theirsoul; the more watchful they are against all sin, the morecareful to grow in grace, the more zealous of goodworks, and the more punctual in their attendance on allthe ordinances of God. Whereas, just the contrary effectsare observed whenever this expectation ceases. They are“saved by hope,” by this hope of a total change, with agradually increasing salvation. Destroy this hope, and thesalvation stands still, or, rather, decreases daily. Thereforewhoever would advance the gradual change in believersshould strongly insist on the instantaneous.

—From “Minutes of Several Conversations”

SANCTIFICATION: PROMISE AND COMMAND

“Is there any clear Scripture promise that God will saveus from all sin? There is. “He shall redeem Israel fromall his sins” (Psalm 130:8). This is more largely expressedin the prophecy of Ezekiel: “Then will I sprinkle cleanwater upon you, and ye shall be clean: From all yourfilthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. I willalso save you from all your uncleannesses” (Ez. 36:25,29). No promise can be more clear. And to this theApostle plainly refers in that exhortation: “Having thesepromises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness offlesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (IICor. 7:1). Equally clear and express is that ancientpromise: “The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart,and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God withall thine heart and with all thy soul” (Deut. 30:6).

What command is there to the same effect? (1) “Beye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is per-fect” (Matt. 5:48); (2) “Thou shalt love the Lord thy Godwith all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thymind” (Matt. 22:37). But if the love of God fill all theheart, there can be no sin there.

—From “Minutes of Some Late Conversations”

In this space we use writers both past and present to discuss various aspects of Christian holiness.

ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION

by the Rev. John Wesley

�

KEY

PASS

AGES

THAT

TEA

CH

TH

EC

ON

CEP

T O

FEN

TIRE

SAN

CTI

FIC

ATIO

N

by D

r. Al

lan

P. B

row

n, C

hair

GBS

Div

isio

n of

Min

iste

rial

Edu

catio

n

Whe

n we prea

ch and

tea

ch abo

ut h

oliness, w

e must be

sure to

explain ou

r terms an

d use the co

ntex

tually correct verses to sup

port our

teac

hing

. It is not helpful to ha

ve the

right m

essage

and

use the

wrong

verses to supp

ort it.

Def

initi

on o

f Ter

ms

Hol

ines

shas a

s its most b

asic m

eaning th

e concep

t of “sepa

ratio

n”—be

ing

set ap

art to G

od and

being set apa

rt fro

m that which is sin

ful. Holiness is

requ

ired of all Christians from

the mom

ent o

f the

new

birth un

til we die (1 Pet.

1:13

-16; H

eb. 1

2:14

). Whe

n we are saved, w

e are mad

e ho

ly—sepa

rated to

God

as His po

ssessio

n, sep

arated

from

that w

hich is sinful o

r de

files; and we

begin to und

ergo sep

aration fro

m th

e common

/ordinary as G

od spe

aks to us

abou

t things that w

ill hinde

r our sp

iritual develop

men

t. Jesus is the

prim

e exam

-ple of w

hat a

sep

arated

(holy) life lo

oks like. The

refore w

e can say the fru

it of

holiness is C

hristliken

ess. Whe

n Paul writes to

the Christians at various chu

rch-

es, h

e calls th

em “saints,” which literally m

eans “ho

ly one

s.”

Engl

ish

Syno

nym

sTh

e words “ho

liness” and

“sanc

tification” are syn

onym

s. San

ctificatio

nis the gracious w

orking

of G

od in

usthroug

h the Holy Sp

irit to tra

nsform

us

into h

olype

ople (Christlike pe

ople).

We are sanc

tified

(mad

e ho

ly) the

mom

ent w

e are bo

rn again. N

ote that Pau

l refers to th

e Corinthian be

liev-

ers a

s peo

ple who

are “sanc

tified in Christ Je

sus” (1

Cor. 1

:2; see

also

1 Cor.

6:11

). Yet, the Corinthians believers w

ere no

t yet entire

ly san

ctified

(see

1Corinthians 1:13; 3:1-3).

14

3. R

oman

s 12

:1-2

(Pre

sent

you

r bo

dies

a h

oly,

acc

epta

ble,

livi

ng s

acrific

eto

God

).Th

is pa

ssage em

phasizes th

e ne

ed fo

r Christians to

make a full sur-

rend

er to

God

subseq

uent to

the ne

w birth, based

upo

n the mercies of G

od.

You ha

ve to

be saved (“mad

e ho

ly”) before yo

u can make this surren

der. Just

as G

od did not accep

t an un

clean sacrifice und

er th

e Old Coven

ant, He will

not a

ccep

t the

offe

ring a sin

ner makes of h

imself un

der the New

Coven

ant.

A sin

ner is n

ot holy (Eph

. 2:1-3; Isaiah 64

:6) a

nd can

not o

ffer h

imself to God

as a holy, acceptab

le, a

nd living sacrifice to G

od. A

sinne

r must first “

surren

-de

r” his rebe

llion

, his sin

ful a

ttitude

s an

d activities, a

nd exp

erienc

e the ne

wbirth

. At the

new

birth he

is mad

e ho

ly and

the

process of sanc

tification

begins (the

process of b

eing tran

sform

ed in

to th

e im

age of Christ). Th

at Pau

lco

nsidered

his read

ers a

t Rom

e to be saved is seen

in Rom

ans 1

:8, w

here he

commen

ds the

ir faith

, an

d is also see

n in Rom

ans 16

:19, w

here he co

m-

men

ds th

eir o

bedien

ce. It is on

ly afte

r a person be

comes a Christian that he

is qu

alified

to present his bo

dy to

God

as a ho

ly, accep

table, living sacrifice.

Whe

n a Christian ob

eys Ro

man

s 12

:1 by faith

, he en

ters in

to the

fully sur-

rend

ered

life

. As a fully surrend

ered

Christian, h

e be

comes m

ore keen

lyaw

are of the

nee

d to stop be

ing co

nformed

to this world, b

ut rathe

r to be

transform

ed by the rene

wing of his mind (Rom

ans 12

:2). An

d be

cause the

Bible co

nsiders an

y attitud

e or beh

avior that is not in

harmon

y with

God

’sWord to be worldlin

ess, a fully surrend

ered

Christian prayerfully see

ks to

rid

himself of any

attitude

, spee

ch pattern, or beh

avior that is not fully in

har-

mon

y with

God

’s Word.

4. R

oman

s 6:

11-1

9 (R

ecko

n yo

urse

lves

to

be d

ead

inde

ed u

nto

sin…

.Le

t not

sin

ther

efor

e re

ign

in y

our

mor

tal b

ody…

. Yie

ld y

ours

elve

s un

toG

od a

s th

ose

that

are

aliv

e fr

om t

he d

ead)

.Th

is pa

ssage is

similar in

emph

asis with

Rom

ans 12

:1-2. Th

at the

rea

ders are saved

is emph

asized

by th

e indicativ

e moo

d (fa

ctua

l statemen

ts) in Ro

man

s 6:1-10. Beginning

at

Roman

s 6:11

, Paul shifts into

the im

perativ

e moo

d (th

e moo

d of com

-man

d). P

aul com

man

ds Christians, sub

sequ

ent to be

coming a Christian, to

reckon

them

selves to

be de

ad to

sin (R

oman

s 6:11

). Th

is is do

ne by taking

into accou

nt w

hat is tru

e of the

m due

to their un

ion with

Christ (R

oman

s6:1-10

), an

d ap

prop

riatin

g by

faith

God

’s grace and

pow

erto exp

erienc

e in daily life th

e fre

edom

from

sin th

at Christ

prov

ides. In ad

ditio

n to th

e act o

f faith in

“reckon

ing” one

-self to b

e de

ad ind

eed

to sin, Christians m

ust also yield

them

selves to

God

, an

d use the mem

bers o

f their bo

dyon

ly as instrumen

ts of righteo

usne

ss and

never again to

use

them

as instrumen

ts of sin (R

oman

s 6:12

-13).

—serm

on by DR. ALLAN

P. B

ROWN

“COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE

IN P

REACHIN

G” 

�

23

terminology used in the passage itself rather than alw

ays use the phrase“entire sanctification.”

1. 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24 (entire sanctification). This is the “goldentext” for using “entire” sanctification term

inology. Do not use 1 Thessa-

lonians 4:3 — “this is the w

ill of God even your sanctification that you ab-

stain from fornication,” as a proof text for entire sanctification. As w

e havealready seen in 1 C

orinthians 1:2 and 6:11, sanctification begins at thenew

birth. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 is explaining that the sanctification begunat the new

birth requires separation from everything that is sinful or de-

files. Paul further explains in 1 Thessalonians 4:4-8 that fornication (sexualim

morality outside the bond of m

arriage) is sinful. Since all Christians are

to live sanctified lives and be examples of holiness, no C

hristian is to beim

moral. G

od has called us to holiness of life. If you try to use 1 Thessalo-nians 4:3 as a call to be entirely sanctified, a thinking person m

ay logicallyargue that Paul is teaching that the tim

e to quit fornicating is when you get

entirely sanctified. Therefore, if one does not claim to be entirely sancti-

fied, he is not required to stop fornication. Anyone who has m

ore Scrip-ture available to him

to read than just the first letter to the Thessaloniansknow

s that is not what Paul m

eant. It is in chapter five of 1 Thessalonians(vs. 23-24) that Paul introduces the term

inology of entire sanctification. He

is addressing Christians and is praying that G

od will w

ork in their lives tosanctify them

“wholly,” that is, entirely, or through and through—

spirit,soul, and body.

2. Ephesians 5:18-21 (Be filled with the Spirit). The com

mand to be filled

with the Spirit is a present passive im

perative and should be translated, “bebeing filled” w

ith the Spirit. This passage is addressed to people alreadysaved and therefore already “indw

elt” by the Spirit (see Ephesians 1:1; 2:1-22). If you have not yet learned that the H

oly Spirit comes to reside in the

heart and life of a person at the mom

ent of the new birth as the Agent of

spiritual life, please read the following passages: Rom

ans 8:9-11; Galatians

4:6; 1 Corinthians 2:12; 3:16; 6:19-20; 12:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:8.

In Ephesians 5:18 Paul commands C

hristians to be “being filled with

the Spirit.” There is a difference between being “indw

elt” with the Spirit

and being “filled” with the Spirit. To be filled w

ith the Spirit does not mean

you receive more of the Spirit. Rather, it m

eans you give the Holy Spirit full

control of all of you. To be filled with the Spirit is G

od’s requirement for all

Christians and occurs by faith subsequent to the new

birth. Further, one isto m

aintain daily this fullness (be being filled). Further, this passage, by itsplacem

ent in the book, implies that being filled w

ith the Spirit is essentialto w

hat follows: instructions on developing and m

aintaining proper rela-tionships in m

arriage, family, and w

ork.

The process of sanctification (or developing in holiness = becom

ingmore C

hristlike) continues as we m

aintain a saved relationship with Jesus.

Eventually, the Holy Spirit m

akes us aware of our need to be entirely sanc-

tified(1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24). After w

e are entirely sanctified, we con-

tinue to progress further in sanctification (Christlikeness). Therefore the

word “entire” in the phrase “entire sanctification” does not m

ean “inca-pable of im

provement.” The w

ord “entire” refers to every part of us, ourspirit, our soul, and our body. Every part of the C

hristian is to experiencesanctification. For the person w

ho is entirely sanctified, there is no con-scious, w

illful self-centeredness in our lives. Nor is there retreat from

any-thing G

od says in His W

ord, nor any reservations about following w

here He

leads, and no rivals for our love and loyalty. We are totally devoted to G

od.Entire sanctification is entered into by faith. W

e must unreservedly sur-

render ourselves to God’s com

plete control and ask Him

to cleanse ourborn-again hearts from

the self-centeredness (inherited depravity) thatrem

ains in us (Rom. 12:1; 6:13,19; Psa. 51:7, 10; Acts 15:9). W

e exercisefaith to believe that H

e does cleanse us and fill us with H

is Spirit, and thenwe rest by faith in H

is promises (H

eb 11:1, 6). After we are entirely sancti-

fied, we daily m

aintain a fully surrendered life and continue to develop insanctification (holiness—

see 2 Corinthians 7:1. After w

e have cleansed our-selves as C

hristians of all defilement of flesh and spirit, w

e are to continu-ally “perfect holiness in the fear of G

od”).John W

esley observed in his Methodist Societies that w

herever entiresanctification

was

not regularly

preached and

strongly urged

uponChristians, believers grew

cold and dead. In 1776, when he w

as 73 yearsof age, he w

rote this to a friend:“W

here Christian perfection [entire sanctification] is not strongly and

explicitly preached, there is seldom any rem

arkable blessing from G

od;and consequently little addition to the society, and little life in the m

em-

bers of it. Speak and spare not. Let not regard for any man induce you to

betray the truth of God. Till you press the believers to expect full salva-

tion [entire sanctification] now, you m

ust not look for any revival.”(W

orks, Vol. 6, p.761).

Establish from the C

ontext that the Readers Are Already Saved.In order to use a passage of Scripture to establish the nature of entire

sanctification following salvation, one m

ust be able to establish from the

preceding context that the people being written to are already C

hristians. Ihave listed below

some passages that teach the concept of entire sanctifi-

cation. Only one of the passages uses the phrase, “sanctified w

holly,” butall of these passages em

phasize the need for people who are already saved

to appropriate by faith a further working of G

od in their hearts and lives. Itis probably best, w

hen seeking to teach these truths to others, to use the

NOVEMBER 2011

19

Revisiting theThanksgiving Dinners“IT WAS AN EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME!”

by Raymond Shreve (GBS HS ’59)Spartanburg, South Carolina

For as long as I could rememberI had heard my parents tell of thegreat Thanksgiving Dinners at God’sBible School where they fed twenty-five to thirty thousand. Those werethe days of the “Great Depression,”and most of the desperately poor ofCincinnati would have had noThanksgiving without it.

In the fall of 1956 I enrolled inthe tenth grade in theGBS High School.What fond memories Ihave of everyone! MissRice, Miss Wood, MissBrock, Mr. Grossman,Miss Elliott, and MissBair. They more thanput up with this tri-cul-tural MK (missionarykid), for they actuallyloved me. It was a mir-acle of grace! Thencame Thanksgiving!

How long beforeThanksgiving we start-ed soliciting donationsI do not know. BecauseI had access to a carand knew somethingabout the town,

Brother Grossman put me in chargeof a door-to-door team. We workedPrice Hill, Westwood, Cheviot,Clifton, Avondale, St. Bernard,Norwood, Indian Hills, Reading,Blue Ash, and Montgomery.

I did this all three years. InIndian Hills we were working ablock of quadruplexes with insideentrances. Two people alwaysworked each building. One of thegirls called me to come. In one ofthe apartments they were having aparty. The woman who came tothe door was “three sheets to thewind” and was trying to pull ourgirl inside. I stepped in and toldthe girl to go to the car, and thengave my “spiel” for the GBSThanksgiving Dinner. One of themen who seemed less inebriatedthan the others overheard, andwhen I mentioned GBS he cameover and told the woman to “layoff; these are Bible School kids.”He took my canister and passed itaround. Later we found two twen-ty-dollar bills (very unusual in thatday) that we thought came fromthat place.

In 1957, as I think it was, Iwas asked to take a group of fel-lows to Newport, Kentucky, to

work the riverfront businesses.They did not go into the bars, butat more than one, someone wouldshout back into the bar, “TheBible School kids are here forThanksgiving!” Many would comeout and stuff a bill into the can.Some would even take the canfrom us and take it inside and“shake them down” for a contri-bution. More than one told howthat when he was a “young’un,”he had had Thanksgiving dinner“at that there Bible School.”

On Thanksgiving Day I rode thebuses to help keep order, thenshepherded our group to the taber-nacle for the service, and then tothe meal. I never rode the returntrip, which was fine, because laterin the day the crowds seemed to getrowdier. In some of the later groupsthere were some pretty big fellowswhom I would estimate to be intheir 20’s even.

The younger ones, however,were spellbound in the services. Itwas evident that the majority hadnever been in a church service.We had been praying in chapeland student prayer meetings forweeks that these children wouldreceive the Gospel. I do not

20GOD’S REVIVALIST and BIBLE ADVOCATE

remember how the follow-up wascarried out, though I believe therewas some way for our Thanks -giving Day guests to get in touchwith GBS if they had wanted. Themore adventurous moments standout, but the most important partwas the moment of invitation inthe chapel and of those whoresponded. It is sure that an eter-nal difference was effected in theirbenighted little hearts. I wouldlove to hear from some of the oth-ers who were assigned to the ser-vices and about their experiencesaround the altar.

All in all, it was an experienceof a lifetime—the raising money,the preparation, the handling thecrowds, and the cleanup. I wouldnot have missed it for the world.My dad and I several times wouldswap “GBS Thanksgiving Day” sto-ries, he from 1927-28 through1929-30, and me, from 1956through 1959. I wish I had writtenhis down as they were more excit-ing and the numbers far greater, butI would not take anything for myexperiences of Thanksgiving Dinnerat God’s Bible School.______________________________

PREPARING THE FOOD FORTHANKSGIVING DAY

by Jeanette Gray (BA ’51)faculty member 1963–66Cincinnati, Ohio

Only those who personallyexperienced seeing the prepara-tion of the food duringThanksgiving week can appreciatethe extensive job that went intofeeding the thousands of children.Beginning in 1951, my husband,Arlen Gray, the school cook,supervised the preparation withRev. Edsel Trouten assisting himseveral years.

It all began on Tuesday aftersupper when the turkey was pre-pared for cooking. Steaming and

roasting took all night. OnWednesday, after it had cooled, itwas taken from the bone, packed indry ice, and set aside. While thiswas being done, bushels of potatoeswere eyed; boxes full of bread werebroken for dressing; pickles, celery,and onions were readied. Itappeared to be mountains of food,but would it be enough? Wouldeverything go smoothly?

On Thursday, all the studentshad an early breakfast and thenwent to their assigned posts.Immediately after the meal, thecooking was started. Eachstudent/helper in the kitchen hadhis task. One boy’s job was to cookthe potatoes, and four boys mashedthem. Two students made the gravy;two people made dressing; twopeople kept the pans washed; andone girl was assigned clean-up duty.All of this had to be done in compli-ance with Mr. Major, the supervisorof the Cincinnati HealthDepartment, who was very compli-mentary with the preparation.

After finishing the cooking forthe “guests,” everything wascleaned up, and the kitchen wasmade ready to serve supper to thestudents and workers. Yes, memo-ries linger, and we reminisce ofthe exhilarating joy of having beena part of that great undertaking—God’s Bible School’s ThanksgivingDay feast!

______________________________

A REAL INDIAN CHIEF WAS THE SPEAKER

by Opal Adams Forrester(’47 Christian Worker’s Certificate)Grove City, Ohio

The biggest event of my firstyear at GBS was going out into thecity in groups to enlist children tocome to Thanksgiving Dinner. Iloved that…. It was so exciting! Iguess the whole city was aware ofwhat GBS did at Thanksgiving.Even businessmen said, “Oh, yes,when I was a kid I used to go tothose dinners.” The day was anevent you would never forget.

Preparing spuds, 1936. L to R: Virginia (Milam) Vernon (Pres. Michael Avery’s mother-in-law), Lavina Westhafer, unidentified person, Ethel Scharr, and Uncle Pat Murphy (kitchen boss).

NOVEMBER 2011

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When the buses arrived with chil-dren from the city, they were takento the tabernacle for a service. Areal Indian chief, Chief Pamp-to-Pee, would be the speaker. Singingand music would be part of theprogram. Of course, the childrenloved that! Then we would take tothe old dining hall to eat. That wassome feast! Students had workedall day and all night before inpreparation. What dedication eachstudent had to make it a specialday for these children! The pictureswe have now show how very grate-ful they all were. One year it wasso cold, and one group was caughtoutside going from the tabernacleto the dining hall. I was with thatgroup. The group was so large thatyear that it totaled in the thou-sands. We had to wait for the din-ing hall group to finish eatingbefore we could take our childrenin. I felt so sorry for some in mygroup who were not dressedwarmly enough. When you feedthat many children and have a plansuch as GBS had, there’s bound tobe some difficulties. Since theThanksgiving Day feast is long past,the students of today have misseda very rewarding experience.______________________________

COLLECTING DIMES FOR THE FEAST

by Helena M. Gommel a subscriber to God’s RevivalistColumbus, Indiana

My Daddy, Samuel R. Riddle,subscribed to the God’s Revivalistand The Sparkling Waters [GBS’schildren’s magazine]. This was in the1930’s, the Depression era. Daddyread every article which gave himstrength to carry on during thosedifficult times. Reading SparklingWaters was a delight to me. WhenThanksgiving time came, GBSwould mail coin-folders to sub-scribers, to be filled with dimes for

the Thanksgiving dinner. Daddygave what he could.

The nearest church was abouttwo miles away. Daddy would askpermission for me to walk up anddown the aisle receiving dimes frompeople for this great cause. Whenthe folder was filled, I didn’t takeanymore dimes.

It was a privilege tohelp provide a meal forthose less fortunate thanwe were. We were verypoor, but we neverwent hungry. God’sRevivalist was aninspiration to our family.

When Daddy passedaway almost 50 yearsago, I knew theRevivalist had to be inmy home. I don’t wantto miss a single issue.Daddy always wanted tovisit the college andmeet Brother M.G.Standley. But that wasn’tto be. We did visit andattend many services atthe Letts’ Campsite nearWestport, Indiana.

I share God’sRevivalist with others sothat they get a blessingtoo. I pray that therewill always be a God’sBible School andCollege. May the Lordcontinue to bless you inthe good work you are doing.______________________________

“I COULDN’T EAT TURKEY FOR YEARS”

by Gloria Kehrwecker Wilson Higdon (’53 ThB; ’56 BA)West Chester, Ohio

Most of us were expected to goout and collect money for theThanksgiving dinner for the poor.Some of us went downtown andstood on street corners, and some

went from home to home. One ofmy memories is going into a bar. Ihad never been in one before.There were two boys with me plusanother girl. I don’t know howmuch we collected there, but it wasin our assigned neighborhood.

The poor were brought to GBSon buses. In my junior year I served

in the dining room. I had neverseen so many turkey dinners! I was-n’t feeling my best; and believe me,I couldn’t eat turkey for years afterthat experience. We could go homeafter our work was done, and forme that was later the same day. Mymother and father came to take mehome for Thanksgiving. My secondyear I played the organ for the ser-vices. Such a sight to see all of thosepeople coming in to worship beforethey had a meal. I’m not sure howmany times they filled the auditori-um. What a ministry!

M.G. Standley and his granddaughter, Pat (Standley)Sears, pose with the guest of honor (1940’s).

GOD’S REVIVALIST and BIBLE ADVOCATE

22

EDITORIAL continued

�(p2) Revivalist. In addition to its introduction, thisdocument consists of ten sections—ten specific “calls”to recovery and reform.

Its first section, published in this issue, is a “Call toBiblical Fidelity.” This is basic to all our faith and practice,for it is an earnest appeal to be ruthlessly honest andutterly faithful to what the Bible really says. It’s true thatwe’ve always lifted up the Holy Writ with profound honorand respect. But this is not enough, for we must also shapeour purpose to its teaching, not shape its teaching to ourpurpose. This is why the first “Call” summons us to“renewed submission to the absolute authority of theBible, not as a revered icon, but as the touchstone forboth our personal lives and our public proclamation.”

Remember that church history is punctuated by many“calls” such as this, all pleading for course correction inthe life and witness of the Church. They have differed inboth attitude and motivation. We mean ours to be hum-ble and respectful, issued in sincere hope that our dearbrothers and sisters throughout the movement will givecareful consideration to the proposals that we submit. Welove the Wesleyan/Holiness Movement, especially its con-servative wing, labeled the CHM, for this is our tiny plotwithin the Universal Church and our spiritual home inwhich we gladly live out our lives. This is why we areimpelled to “speak the truth in love,” convinced as weare, that the CHM stands at an historic crossroads.

In each of our ten specific “calls” we follow a simplepattern, often used in such appeals. This pattern is as fol-lows: (1) Principle Declared; (2) Failure Acknowledged;and (3) Correction Offered. With this in mind, we turnnow for a closer look at the “Call to Biblical Authority.”

I. PRINCIPLE DECLARED: Holy Scripture—InspiredGuide for Salvation

“As Wesleyans we affirm that the Holy Scriptures asthe inspired and inerrant Word of God, are the basis ofauthority in the Church, normative for all our faith andpractice.” In these words, the “Call” affirms what we allconfess—the divine inspiration, absolute truthfulness,and binding authority of the Bible, “God’s Word writ-ten,” as a familiar phrase describes it. Like John Wesley,who declared himself “a man of one book,” we love theBible and pay homage to its message.

But the “Call to Biblical Fidelity” also focuses onwhat is the real issue among us—the actual applicationof Holy Scripture both to doctrine and discipline as theyare enforced in the Church. This is why it quotes the sixthof the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, issued during the16th-century Reformation by Anglican divines and laterincluded in American Methodism’s unalterable standardsof belief, which of course are the legacy of all theHoliness Movement. “Holy Scripture contains everything

that is necessary for salvation,” as a slightly updated ver-sion of the statement declares, adding that no one can berequired to believe or do anything “as necessary to sal-vation” unless it can be proved by the Bible.

II. FAILURE ACKNOWLEDGED: Holy Scripture—Misapplication of Its Content

As Methodists, we were formed specifically “to raiseup a holy people,” acting as a vigorous reform move-ment within the broader Church. This is still our mission,and if ever we forget it, we will have no reason even toexist as a distinctive movement. So it is devastatingwhen “holiness” churches—whether Nazarene, PilgrimHoliness, or Bible Methodist—are no different in pietyor purpose from other evangelical congregations scat-tered across our communities. Yet reform movementstend to become lopsided in emphasis and read intoScripture what it does not really say.

Thus, as the “Call” acknowledges, “we have oftenfocused on issues and made demands which we cannotlegitimately establish from the Holy Scriptures.” As weknow, the CHM was established largely in protestagainst “worldliness” and “drift” in the larger Movement.Many aspects of that protest were legitimate, and sub-sequent history in great measure has justified it. ThankGod for the sane, balanced leaders who voiced thatprotest in clear, positive, and winsome tones.

Yet too many of us were carried into extremes,sometimes misapplying Scripture, giving it applicationwhich legitimate exegesis did not suggest nor validate.From our pulpits and publications came “trivial notionsand speculations,” as the “Call” describes them, andsometimes these became the expected lifestyle “stan-dards” in our churches. There are pockets in the CHMwhere this still is true.

Some of the polarization in our movement todaycan be traced to understandable reaction to theseexcesses. Granted, we are now facing our own crisiswith “worldliness and drift,” fueled too often by affluentlifestyles and rebellion against legitimate interpretationsof the Bible’s call to separated living. But this is not theonly reason for our problems. To some extent, we arereaping a bitter harvest from earlier misapplications ofHoly Scripture and consequent extremes.

III. CORRECTION OFFERED: Holy Scripture—Touchstone for Faith and Practice

“Stand humbly and quietly before the Book,” advisedDr. William Sangster. “Let its great truths soak in. Throughthe operation of the Holy Spirit it will search your soul,expose the shams and deceits, reveal the truth of God toyou, and bring you to the Cross.” This is what the “Callto Biblical Fidelity” is saying in its appeal for submission

to “the absolute authority of the Bible, not as a reveredicon but as the touchstone for both our personal livesand our public proclamation.” An icon is a sacred imageor symbol, highly honored but quickly forgotten. In con-trast, a touchstone is ”a siliceous stone used to test thepurity of gold and silver,” as the dictionary informs us.This is why the term now is used for a criterion or stan-dard of judgment to determine genuineness or authen-ticity. That’s what the Bible must be to us—”a touch-stone” that determines the genuineness of everything.

If this really is to happen, let me suggest that we dothe following:

• Center our preaching in the Word of God. This mustbe more than a brief text initially quoted but soonforgotten in a rambling discussion of pious opinionsand scattered proof texts. Our pulpits must exegeteand apply the Bible.

• Restore Scripture lessons to public worship. Thisancient practice continues in many denomina-tions, but among us, the Bible is seldom read inchurch except for the preacher’s text. If we’re seri-ous about the Bible, we should read it publicly asan act of worship.

• Catechize our people, and especially our youth. Thismeans systematic, Bible-based instruction in whatwe are to believe and how we are to live. Many ofour churches have no other means of spiritual for-mation except trips to the public altar.

• Center traditional lifestyle standards firmly and fairlyin the Scriptures. In reaction to past excesses, toomany of our pastors and teachers are failing to giveinstruction from the Word on how to live a holy,separated life. We must drop those issues that wecannot prove by Scripture, at least as “necessary tosalvation,” and preach those that we can. Otherwisewe will lose them.

No, it wasn’t incense from heaven that driftedthrough Brother Gleason’s old brick church duringSunday worship. That was neither to be expected nordesired. But the Word of God should have echoed fromits walls, carefully explained and faithfully enforced.Whether that would have moved his odiferous saints tothe scrubbing brush and the sudsy bath I do not know.But this much is sure. They should have been chal-lenged—as we should all be challenged—by somethingmore than the instruction of a secular proverb. We mustall be confronted by the authority of the Bible—“thetouchstone for all our faith and practice.”

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by Sonja Vernon

SELF-PORTRAIT

“The merciful man does himself good, but thecruel man does himself harm.”

—Prov. 11:17 NASB

It started as a careless wish by a vain young man inthe studio of his portrait painter. If only his likeness

would age instead of him! And with these thought-less words, Dorian Gray embarked on a life steepedin selfishness, debauchery, and crime. Slowly butsurely the marks of his sin began to appear on thevisage of the painting. At first it was just a line of cru-elty about the mouth, but as the years passed andhis transgressions multiplied, the changes becamemore and more obvious. The portrait became athing of shame, even hatred. Dorian, the man,remained young and handsome, but his paintedlikeness revealed the hideous monster he hadbecome. Finally, in desperation, he tried to destroythe testament to his evil, but in doing so, destroyedhimself instead.

While The Picture of Dorian Gray is a work offiction, it seems to grasp the concept thatSolomon recorded so many years ago. Ouractions affect us as much or more than those theytarget. Every harsh word, unkind act, or selfishdeed we do inflicts its damage upon our body,mind, and spirit. Conversely, every compassionateendeavor, encouraging word, or loving actiongrows a harvest of healing, blessing, and peace.How beautiful is the face of an elderly saint andhow marred the countenance of an ancient sin-ner. The portrait of our lives will reflect ouractions. What image will we see?

Sonja Vernon is Dean of Women at God’s Bible School and College.

©2011 Jupiter Im

ages