The Church of the Nazarene on Entire Sanctification (Part 1 - Foundations)

Want to learn what the Nazarene Church teaches on Entire Sanctification? Join me as I unpack this subject!

This video explores the two theological pillars of the Church of the Nazarene’s teaching on Entire Sanctification: John Wesley and the American Holiness Movement. We look at their respective views of Sanctification, Sin, and Repentance; where they agree and where they differ.

Outline:
0:00 - Intro
0:39 - Why do this series?
5:52 - Outline of this series
7:28 - John Wesley’s background
9:55 - Wesley’s views of Sanctification
20:37 - Wesley’s view of Sin
39:52 - Wesley’s view of Repentance
45:40 - Summary of Wesley
46:35 - American Holiness background
50:37 - American Holiness view of Sanctification
56:05 - American Holiness view of Sin
1:01:53 - Summary of American Holiness
1:02:29 - Differences between Wesley and American Holiness
1:15:35 - Outro

[BrianBorsos]

Thanks for another informative video. As a former Nazarene who is in the process of becoming Catholic, all of this information continues to enrich my understanding.

[youngbloodk]

Interesting. I can't finish listening live, but will finish listening later.

[BETH..._...]

Happy New Year to you and your family!

Hope you're feeling better!

Looking forward to new uploads!

God bless!

[paulsmallwood]

Protestant response. A very interesting topic. Just to be clear the idea of Christian perfection ism was not new to John Wesley. The roots of the doctrine of Christian perfection lie in the writings of some early Christian theologians considered Church Fathers: Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and later Macarius of Egypt and Gregory of Nyssa. Irenaeus wrote about the spiritual transformation that occurred in the believer as the Holy Spirit is to "fit us for God." In antiquity, baptism was commonly referred to as the perfecting of the Christian. This view was expressed by Clement of Alexandria in his work Paedagogus: "Being baptized, we are illuminated; illuminated we become children [lit. ‘sons’]; being made children, we are made perfect; being made perfect, we are immortal." In another work, the Stromata, Clement discussed three stages in Christian life that led to a more mature perfection. The first stage was marked by the change from heathenism to faith and initiation into the Christian religion. The second stage was marked by a deeper knowledge of God that resulted in continuing repentance from sin and mastery over the passions (apatheia). The third stage led to contemplation and agape love. Origen also proposed his own stages of spiritual ascent beginning with conversion and ending with perfect union with God in love. Gregory of Nyssa defined human perfection as "constant growth in the good". For Gregory, this was brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit and the self-discipline of the Christian. Macarius of Egypt taught that all sin could be washed away and that a person could be made perfect in the "span of an hour" while stressing the fact that entire sanctification had a two-fold nature, as "an act and a process".[13] Pseudo-Macarius taught that inner sin was rooted out of the pure in heart, but he also warned against the hidden potential for sin in everyone so that no one should ever say, "Because I am in grace, I am thoroughly freed from sin." By the 4th century, the pursuit of the life of perfection was identified with asceticism, especially monasticism and withdrawal from the world. In the 12th century, Bernard of Clairvaux developed the idea of the ladder of love in his treatise, On the Love of God. This ladder had four rungs or degrees. The first and lowest degree was love of self for self. The second degree was love of God for what he gives. The third degree was love of God for his own sake; it would not be difficult, according to Bernard, for those who truly loved God to keep his commandments. The fourth degree was love of self only for God's sake; it was believed that this degree of perfection in love was only rarely achieved before death. Thomas Aquinas wrote of three possible levels of perfection. The first, absolute perfection, is where God is loved as much as he can be loved; only God himself can be this perfect. The second level, where love for God fills a person constantly, is possible after death but not in life. The lowest level of perfection was thought to be possible to achieve while living.

[joanncbastien]

I'm interested in your understanding of entire sanctification. I'm struggling with the right now

[joshuas]

Would you say that, among all the Protestant groups, wesleyan's have the sotereology that is most similar to Catholics? Thank you for the video, it answered a lot of my questions.