The very mention of holiness can conjure up images of dower saints dressed in black garb, expressionless countenances, and a total lack of joy or fun. Think American Gothic without the pitchfork. The Holy River of God points to a picture of Christian holiness that is living, vibrant, engaged, and filled with joyous expectation. In the opening sentences, the holiness stream of Christian faith is described as “wide and deep,” “full of life and inspires life wherever it goes” (page 3). The book is a collection of chapters written by authors representing a wide variety of Christian denominations. The entire work is edited by Barry Callen faculty member of Anderson University, editor of the Wesleyan Theological Journal, and an editor at Aldersgate Press.

The vision of holiness that is characteristic of those who participate in the river is a work of the Spirit carried out as a “steady stream of purifying love” (page 6). It is “God’s holiness proceeding from love,” which “brings life wherever it goes in the world.” Wherever this holiness stream flows, those who choose to immerse themselves in it are transformed. They become the “reflection of God, … compelled by love, … to the end that lives are restored, systems are redeemed, and all of creation is being made new” (page 6).

The roots for this vision of holiness are found in the theology of John Wesley. However, Wesleyan holiness is by no means monolithic. How Wesleyan holiness is understood and implemented is widely diverse. This diversity is not viewed as an impediment, but is an asset. It deepens the movement to provide a “fuller vision of God’s holiness and love” (page 8).

The biblical basis of this holiness focus is based in God’s command for his people to be holy (1 Peter 1:14-16). “The entire biblical narrative is about holiness granted, lost, and recovered” (page 15). Throughout the Church’s history this holiness tradition has been manifested in Catholicism, both Roman and Orthodox, in the Radical Reformation, especially in Great Britain in the ministries of John and Charles Wesley, in the US in the 19^th century, and in the 20^th century with the rise of Pentecostalism. Each expression was a “fresh search for a credible Christian holiness that truly transforms lives and advances the kingdom of God on earth” (page 18).

After a few short chapters on the prominent characteristics of Wesleyan Holiness and the development of Wesley’s teachings in the US and internationally, the book goes on to describe the formation of the Wesleyan Holiness Connection and those denominations that are part. The Wesleyan Holiness Connection, or WHC, was principally founded by Kevin Mannoia. He describes the connection as an idea that formed over a long period of time through conversations, meetings, and study groups (page 143). The first of those conversations occurred in 2002 at a breakfast attended by Mannoia and a few friends. They realized that churches that possessed a holiness heritage lacked a means of sharing the common mission to spread scriptural holiness across the land (page 145). With the help of additional scholars, Mannoia formed the Wesleyan Holiness Study Project. The Project consisted of about 40 scholars from 13 different historical Wesleyan-Holiness denominations. Their objective was to “commit to a fresh articulation of holiness in the 21^st century” (page 145). The Project produced two significant documents: The Holiness Manifesto, and Fresh Eyes on Holiness: Living Out the Holiness Manifesto. In September of 2006, at the end of the Project, those who participated met to work out their next steps. They agreed that there was a future for the infant movement, and the Wesleyan Holiness Connection was born. The Connection has since grown to consist of several regional networks throughout the US, Brazil, Kenya, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom as well as a collection of associated ministries and a publishing house, Aldersgate Press.

Missionary-scholar Jim Harries discusses the difference between the biblical categories of clean and unclean, holy and common. He argues that neither Africa or the West have a correct understanding of these concepts.

A story about man whose neighbours describe as a good Christian. The man was a passenger on a bus. He went to talk to the driver. Something upset him. He struck out at the driver. As a result, the bus crashed and everyone in it was killed. His neighbours argue, did the man go to heaven or hell?

Abstract

Many African people, as the Rekabites praised by God in Jeremiah 35, keep strictly to ancestral requirements. In parts of Africa, this is done to avoid death. Biblically we find two levels of holiness. Akathartos (unclean) contrasts to katharos (clean), but also bebelos (common) as distinct from hagios (holy). The latter (hagios) presupposes the existence of katharos, whereas something may be katharos without being hagios. These categories are largely forgotten in the West. African languages do not distinguish them clearly. Jesus’ emphasis was on achievement of hagios. This important and very positive orientation can easily be lost in contemporary theological education.

Introduction

The two categories – cleanliness and Godliness – have strong parallels. The distinction between them is often unclear. This article suggests that confusion in distinguishing these categories is exaggerated by Western people’s tendency to presuppose themselves to be hagios (holy instead of being common), while African people’s tendency is to seek to be katharos (clean) while remaining akathartos (unclean) and failing to perceive hagios.

Greek terms are used to represent biblical standards so as to avoid confusion with misunderstanding of translations of those terms on the part of Africa and of the West. The categories of ‘Africa’ and ‘Western’ are used loosely with the understanding that they are generalisations and that there are in both cases exceptions to what is herein stated.

Clean and unclean in African Churches

A group of KIST students [Kima International School of Theology in Maseno, Kenya] joined me a few years ago on a visit to an indigenous (African founded and African led) church near Yala. Many things struck them as interesting. One was to find that even while the service was going on and although the church was not full, some members sat listening to the service sitting outside the church building. When the students asked the pastor later, he told them that those people sitting outside were ‘unclean’. There were various reasons for them to have been unclean; some ladies were having their period, other people had been to funerals and handled a dead body, and so on. According to this church, such unclean people should not be in the holy place, i.e. the church building. I have in recent months asked a number of congregations in Luoland about a particular traditional law, and their take on its importance. Luo tradition states that a son should build his house in front of and below the parental house, with the door at right angles to the door of the main house, facing into the middle of the homestead. If you travel around Luo areas in Kenya, you will find that this pattern is almost invariably followed. On visiting church congregations, I have asked them whether they would be ready to contravene this ‘law’ and allow their sons to build their houses behind the parental house, if paid to compensate them for doing so. I have asked, would they be ready to allow their son to build behind their house, if given KSh100,000 [about $1,000]? Everyone in the church congregation expressed clear refusal. Then I asked if they would be ready to allow their son to build behind their house if offered KSh1,000,000 [almost $10,000]? Still everyone has refused. On a few occasions someone has taken the trouble to explain the justification for their refusal; having their son build behind the parental house would very likely result in his death, and no way would these people take any amount of money that would result in the death of their children.

Falling Under the Power of the Spirit

The phenomenon of falling under the power of the Spirit occurred in the revivals of Jonathan Edwards. His assessment was that a person may “fail bodily strength” due to fear of hell and the conviction by the Holy Spirit or due to a “foretaste of heaven.”[1] John Wesley recognized falling to the ground as a manifestation from God, and records many such instances in his ministry. In fact, George Whitefield criticized Wesley for permitting the phenomena until it began happening in his own meetings.[2] The Kentucky revivals of 1800-1801, which involved Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians, was replete with similar demonstrations.[3] In the early 1800s, the revivals led by Methodist circuit riding preacher Peter Cartwright (who was converted in the Kentucky revivals) were often accompanied by people falling under God’s power, including some Baptists.[4] Finney’s ministry also frequently manifested fainting or swooning, what he called “falling under the power of God.”[5] The Welsh revival of 1859 was accompanied by swooning as “waves of power often overwhelmed” people.[6] In the 1860s, Andrew Murray’s church started to speak out against people who began to shout and cry and swoon in a revival in his church, until a visitor from America told him about similar manifestations in American revivals.[7] Decades before holiness evangelist Maria Woodworth-Etter’s involvement in the Pentecostal revival, many people in her meetings fell under the power of the Spirit, including Carrie Judd (Montgomery), an early leader in the C&MA.[8] Moody’s associate R.A. Torrey testified of people falling under the power of God due to conviction of sin.[9] Torrey himself fell under power of the Spirit when baptized with the Holy Spirit.[10] Presbyterian missionary Jonathan Goforth makes reference in his book By My Spirit to the phenomenon occurring in his revivals.[11]

Instances of falling under the power of the Spirit also occurred periodically at C&MA meetings for two decades before Azusa Street. In 1885 A.B. Simpson, the founder of the C&MA, received what we would call today a “word of knowledge” that someone was resisting the Lord. A woman responded, saying it was her. She came forward, and as Simpson anointed her for healing, she was overcome, falling under the power of the Spirit seemingly unconscious for about half an hour, and she received a healing.[12] In 1897 at a joint C&MA/Mennonite camp meeting in Allentown, Pennsylvania, C&MA General Field Supt. Dean Peck preached six services in three days and described: “At service after service . . . I saw people fall as dead under the power of God.” He said it was a genuine revival from God and talked about such things happening among the Methodists 50-60 years ago, but are not frequent now because many revivals are of human manufacture.[13] Manifestations of falling also occurred during the 1907 revival at Simpson’s Gospel Tabernacle, apparently with his approval.[14] Presbyterian Greek professor T. J. McCrossan, who joined C&MA in 1923, while serving as interim president of Simpson Bible Institute, wrote in his book Bodily Healing and the Atonement: “Hundreds are healed, who do not fall under this power, because they simply trust God’s promises; and it is the prayer of faith that heals. Going under this power seems, however, to bring an extra spiritual blessing. . . . This power is not hypnotism. . . . This is not devil power.^”[15] McCrossan spoke out of the experience of his own life, for not only did he frequently assist Charles Price in laying hands on the sick with people falling, but he himself fell under God’s power and was enraptured with visions when he was baptized in the Spirit in 1921 through Price’s ministry.[16]

“The first word of the gospel is not ‘love.’ It is not even ‘grace.’ The first word of the gospel is ‘repent.’ From Matthew through Revelation, repentance is an urgent and indispensable theme that is kept at the very forefront of the gospel message.” —Richard Owen Roberts (quoted in Intercessors for America Newsletter, Apr 2003, page 3)

“Man sees your actions, but God your motives.” —Thomas a Kempis

“Holiness is goodness on fire.” —Walter Rauschenbusch

“We know religion, but we don’t understand holiness.” —John Tisdale

“We are taught in an especial manner to pray that God would give his Holy Spirit unto us, that through his aid and assistance we may live unto God in that holy obedience which he requires at our hands.” —John Owen (1664)

“We like to talk about syndromes instead of sin. It’s not the same thing. So I think you just have to talk about human weakness, human failure, human transgressions, and there’s a word for that, and it’s the word ‘sin.'” —Jean Bethke Elshtain (quoted in Homiletics, Jul/Aug 2003, page 10)