Perfection is Possible (But not on Earth)

As a kid I went to many Holiness Camp Meetings with my grandmother. They were an entertaining and exciting place to be because the worship was lively, the preaching intense, and the camping experience a lot of fun with friends. As I got older the girls became a special interest as well.

You may read this and have some questions.

• What does Gary mean by Holiness Camp Meetings?
• All the things you seemed to enjoy were fleshly not spiritual. 
• How does God fit in to this picture?

 My grandmother Nannie Taylor was the only daughter of a Free Will Baptist Preacher and Evangelist. Her parents, John Thomas and Martha Arbella Dempsey, left the United Baptist Church in 1895 and started another church. They attended a Holiness Camp Meeting in 1894 and were "Baptized in the Holy Spirit for complete sanctification". According to the Holiness Evangelists of that day, another Spirit Baptism after salvation was necessary to eradicate the sin nature. After such a Baptism the person would be able to "Live above sin and be perfect".

When the twenty or so people returned home form the Camp Meeting and told the Pastor he should be preaching this new doctrine there was a strong "No!" in response.They left and formed New Hope.

Although the new Free Will Church leaders did not agree with the Holiness Pastors the original crew continued to live and breathe in a Holy Spirit Filled manner. That was what drove my Grandmother to take me to those very exciting meetings where my dull Baptist services were tame in comparison.

I understand the drive for holiness. It is constantly preached, and exhorted in one way or another from pulpits around the world.  But, like the weather, everyone talks about it but few do anything about it. In fact, almost no churches teach instant sanctification through a second Baptism of the Spirit any more. Evangelicals do not preach Progressive Sanctification either. In fact, both have been replaced by image management and good works.

Conservatives of all stripes, whether Calvinists or Wesleyan, Pentecostals or Cessationists act as though we should all be holy immediately after being born again. No one is, of course, but the theology of growth is absent leaving most of us to flounder. What do you think about these issues?  Read my book Breaking Free in a pdf. file to discover the secrets of growth and healing.