If you're not familiar with the term "holiness" you may be familiar with "legalistic" or "extremist". They are a small and shrinking group of Pentecostals that still preach the Word of God with power, authority, and fire to all whether people like it or not. They believe in HOLINESS - without which no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14) They believe salvation is obtained freely, not by works, however true salvation will undoubtedly bring forth good works and obedience to the Lord, and that true repentance is a necessary part of genuinely accepting Jesus and making Him the Lord of your life. They believe God HATES sin, so much that He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for it, so much that He sent His son to clean us of it, and so much that nothing unclean will enter into Heaven. They believe through prayer and fasting God will hear us and day by day sanctify us more and more, to the point where we are no longer voluntarily sinning (and that doesn't come forth from 10 or 15 minutes prayers, either.) No we are not perfect, however God has a commandment for all His people: Be Holy as I am Holy.
I find it sad and quite frankly disgusting that the majority of liberal Pentecostals these days despise Holiness Pentecostals so much. In case you didn't know, each and every original Pentecostal denomination (Church of God, Assemblies of God, etc) was at some point HOLINESS. Yes, one of those legalistic bunch of folk. Almost all major Pentecostal denominations are now liberal, and have forgotten about holiness. They are preaching a lukewarm message to lukewarm believers. They are people who go to church on Sunday, maybe another day during the week, and sin in days between as if it is no big deal.
I see many people write on these forums about how cold the church is. There's no more fire. Things are changing so much, what's going on. I have the answer - it is because SIN is running RAMPANT throughout the church and the people in the altars are doing NOTHING at all about it. Worldliness has entered and made itself quite comfortable WITHIN THE HOLY CHURCH OF THE LORD. The Holy Spirit does not dwell in DIRTY vessels. You want to know why the tounges are ceasing? You want to know why church attendance is down? You want to know why there's no more shouting, dancing, no more true manifestations of the Spirit except for a silly "revival" meeting once every 10 years? It is because the church has abandoned HOLINESS. Pastors have ABANDONED the true message of the Bible - yes Jesus is the only way to salvation, yes it is obtained freely, yes there are wonderful promises for His followers, but they are only talking about the God of love and have forgotten His other half . . . He is also a CONSUMING FIRE. He HATES sin. He sent Jesus, He sent the Holy Spirit so we could finally live according to His will without following the law. He does not want us sinning, and yes, when we as BELIEVERS sin it is a VERY big deal.
I would just like to take the opportunity to salute all the holiness pastors, evangelists, preachers, etc out there that have not coward down to the people. That have not covered up some parts of the Bible and emphasized others, that have not changed the message just to please the people.
I am making an urgent plea here . . . please, church, let us return to holiness. Let us stop making the BIBLE conform to the people, and let the PEOPLE CONFORM TO THE PERFECT, INFALLIBLE WORD OF GOD!
I find it sad and quite frankly disgusting that the majority of liberal Pentecostals these days despise Holiness Pentecostals so much. In case you didn't know, each and every original Pentecostal denomination (Church of God, Assemblies of God, etc) was at some point HOLINESS. Yes, one of those legalistic bunch of folk. Almost all major Pentecostal denominations are now liberal, and have forgotten about holiness. They are preaching a lukewarm message to lukewarm believers. They are people who go to church on Sunday, maybe another day during the week, and sin in days between as if it is no big deal.
I see many people write on these forums about how cold the church is. There's no more fire. Things are changing so much, what's going on. I have the answer - it is because SIN is running RAMPANT throughout the church and the people in the altars are doing NOTHING at all about it. Worldliness has entered and made itself quite comfortable WITHIN THE HOLY CHURCH OF THE LORD. The Holy Spirit does not dwell in DIRTY vessels. You want to know why the tounges are ceasing? You want to know why church attendance is down? You want to know why there's no more shouting, dancing, no more true manifestations of the Spirit except for a silly "revival" meeting once every 10 years? It is because the church has abandoned HOLINESS. Pastors have ABANDONED the true message of the Bible - yes Jesus is the only way to salvation, yes it is obtained freely, yes there are wonderful promises for His followers, but they are only talking about the God of love and have forgotten His other half . . . He is also a CONSUMING FIRE. He HATES sin. He sent Jesus, He sent the Holy Spirit so we could finally live according to His will without following the law. He does not want us sinning, and yes, when we as BELIEVERS sin it is a VERY big deal.
I would just like to take the opportunity to salute all the holiness pastors, evangelists, preachers, etc out there that have not coward down to the people. That have not covered up some parts of the Bible and emphasized others, that have not changed the message just to please the people.
I am making an urgent plea here . . . please, church, let us return to holiness. Let us stop making the BIBLE conform to the people, and let the PEOPLE CONFORM TO THE PERFECT, INFALLIBLE WORD OF GOD!