{"id":2883,"date":"2019-02-05T13:03:36","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T18:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realbiblestudy.com\/?p=2883"},"modified":"2019-02-05T13:03:36","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T18:03:36","slug":"holiness-part-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/?p=2883","title":{"rendered":"Holiness:  Part 6"},"content":{"rendered":"<fb:like href='https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/?p=2883' send='true' layout='button_count' show_faces='true' width='450' height='65' action='like' colorscheme='light' font='lucida grande'><\/fb:like><p><strong>HOLINESS IN HISTORY: HOW DID THE CHURCHES UNDERSTAND HOLINESS? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>by Vijay Chandra<\/p>\n<p>So rich is the theme of \u2018holiness\u2019 which has yielded a variety of emphasis in the church\u2019s history. For the early apostolic church, the nature of holiness was conformity to Christ. Christlike purity was the main goal. In the patristic church [that is, early church Fathers], holiness was largely viewed as withdrawal from the contaminations of the society.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ascetic: In this tradition, holiness was pursued by forsaking the world literally, that is by leaving secular jobs, marriage, worldly goods and by engaging extensively in prayer, fasting, \u2018living in the caves\u2019, self-mortifications. Only those who reached this \u2018high level\u2019 were regarded worthy to be reckoned as saints. \u2018Sainthood\u2019 was not normative among Christians, but reserved largely for ascetics. Hence, a double standard evolved. \u2018Saintliness\u2019 came to be applied to the \u2018religious\u2019 person [that is priests, monks, nuns] whereas a \u2018lower attainment\u2019 of holiness necessitated by remaining in the world was tolerated in the ordinary secular or \u2018lay Christian\u2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mystical: According to the medieval mystics, holiness was not to be attained so much by leaving the world as by rising above it. Holiness could be viewed as a ladder with various stages of spiritual absorption into God, such as purgation, illumination, and contemplation [all these are Hindu concepts].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The danger of this view is twofold. Mysticism tends to lose sight of the Scripture as the touchstone for all faith and practice and is prone to forget the calling of the Christian to be salt in the earth and light on the hill.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sacramental: This form of holiness was available to all, since sanctification was automatically regarded as being imparted when the mass\u2019 wafer was lifted by the priest. Regardless of personal lifestyle, anyone who witnessed this event received, according to Roman Catholicism, an \u2018objective fusion of holiness\u2019 without any of the struggle involved in the ascetic and mystical views of holiness. The danger here is obvious. The sacrament is prone to replace the need for the personal subjective work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a sinner.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<fb:like href='https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/?p=2883' send='true' layout='button_count' show_faces='true' width='450' height='65' action='like' colorscheme='light' font='lucida grande'><\/fb:like><span class=\"fb_share\"><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/?p=2883\" layout=\"box_count\"><\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HOLINESS IN HISTORY: HOW DID THE CHURCHES UNDERSTAND HOLINESS? by Vijay Chandra So rich is the theme of \u2018holiness\u2019 which has yielded a variety of emphasis in the church\u2019s history. For the early apostolic church, the nature of holiness was &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/?p=2883\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4036,160,4038,4257],"tags":[4545,4483],"class_list":["post-2883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","category-doctrinal-discussions","category-principles-of-christian-living","category-vijay-chandra-articles","tag-holiness-in-history","tag-vijay-chandra-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}