This is the 10th blog in my series of deconstructing the doctrines of my former church, The Salvation Army. Please refer to the other posts if you haven't read those yet.
Sanctification vs. Holiness
A good friend of mine, who was a missionary to Germany before I was, once told me a story about giving a talk to a congregation about holiness. His German wasn't quite up to snuff yet, so he had a translator assist him. His opening remarks went thusly. (It's not an exact transcript, but you'll get the gist of it.)
"Today we will be talking about holiness." - Officer
"Heute reden wir über Heiligung." - Translator
"Or as it's sometimes also called, 'sanctification.'" - Officer
"Auf Englisch gibt es zwei Wörter für Heiligung." - Translator (If you don't speak German or have a German translation app, "In English there are two words for "holiness.")
English is a wonderful language, but it is really an amalgam of so many different language traditions. Sanctification and Holiness are basically the same term. "Sanctification" has it etymology in Latin and "holiness" is Germanic.
What is holiness? Given at its face value, and by what I was taught growing up in The Salvation Army, holiness is being set apart by God to be used for God's purpose.
Merriam-Webster has an interesting take on it: "emphasizing the doctrine of the second blessing; specifically, of or relating to a perfectionist movement arising in U.S. Protestantism in the late 19th Century."
The Salvation Army comes out of the Holiness Movement. Along with Methodism, Nazarenes, and Wesleyans, these denominations emphasized the power of the Holy Spirit to transform lives, which brings us to the 10th Doctrine of The Salvation Army
We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blamless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What's good about this Doctrine
What I appreciated most about this doctrine was the emphasis that ALL believers may be wholly sanctified. ALL may receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. ALL. Everyone. Whosoever.
From its inception, The Salvation Army has ordained women. That was a radical statement. Hardly any other denomination did. Even today, most prominent Evangelical preachers (John Piper, John MacArthur, etc.) view that having a vulva makes a woman incompatible with preaching.
The Salvation Army never did.
Granted, it took them forever to begin implementing this theology in all of its manifestations. For the longest time, married female officers were not allowed to hold a rank of their own. It was always in their husband's name. That changed in the 1980's. In the 2000's, women were finally allowed to have their own rank in their own name. It is slowly starting, but finally married women officers are being able to be placed in positions of leadership over their husbands.
Unfortunately, there has still never been a female married General of The Salvation Army. That hurdle probably won't be surpassed any time soon. It took the Army nearly 150 years to allow wives to be superior in rank to their husbands. It will probably take just as long for there to be a married female General.
What's not so good about this Doctrine
Do you recall the Merriam-Webster definition of holiness? An emphasis on perfectionism? Therein lies the headache of this doctrine.
I knew many officers who tried to say that holiness is not perfectionism. Yet this doctrine of holiness tends to drive up to that idea. Holiness was emphasized as leading a "sinless" life. This was the Salvationist's key to the pitfall of Arminianism. It is possible to lose your salvation, but if you have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit will help you to avoid sin in your life. This led to many calls for being set apart by God. The Salvation Army began to have two meetings on Sundays: a Holiness Meeting and a Salvation Meeting. The former was geared towards soldiers. The latter was geared to non-members. (That for the most part has gone away. Now for the most part they only have one meeting on Sundays.)
Trying to live a holy life, as defined by what others say "holy" is, made me a nervous wreck as a child. I would pray every night to God to forgive me for doing all the sins I had done in my life. That prayer became my litany. I was scared that there was something I had done that would negate my salvation and send me to be damned for all eternity in the Flames of Hell.
Worse than that, this idea of holiness became a call for officership (ordained ministry). The hierarchy of The Salvation Army, with its soldiers, officers, etc., put an emphasis on being an officer. Then your whole life was dedicated to God and in God's service.
The Salvation Army has a two-tiered level of lay membership: adherent and soldier. Although never stated overtly, adherents are second-class members, who can never be in a position of leadership.
Then there comes officers (clergy) and soldiers (laity). Being an officer often came with this implication that it was a higher calling than "merely" being a soldier.
The guilt trip of this was installed by none other than William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army, who stated,
"Not called! did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face - whose mercy you have professed to obey - and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish mercy to the world."
I understand that William Booth's drive and mission was to save as many people as he could. That passion ignited The Salvation Army and did much good in this world, but it came at a terrible price. Booth disowned 2 of his sons and would not allow them to be at their mother's deathbed because they left The Salvation Army.
God protect us all from such a calling.
What then?
My life with God is now so different. Perhaps it's the terminology that got in the way. I love the idea of being in communion with God. I love the idea of holiness, but I despise the baggage of perfectionism that comes with striving to be holy.
So instead of forcing myself to do all the right things, I turned to contemplation and meditation. The goal of holiness is communion with God. I have found that through meditation. It doesn't make me perfect, but it does make me whole and that is what matters to me. There are many helpful guides to meditation, especially on a Christian basis. Meditation is an ancient rite that many Christians are beginning to reclaim in their daily life. I have found it to be extremely empowering for me.
My own thoughts on meditation: There is no wrong way to do it. Go easy on yourself, realizing that this is also a discipline we need to engage. Sometimes we get distracted when we meditate. When that happens, just realize that this has happened, don't beat yourself up on it, and refocus on God.
It is through meditation with God that I have experienced what holiness means to me.
If you need a starter course, I would highly recommend this article from Gravity: A Center for Contemplative Activism.
https://gravitycenter.com/practice/centering-prayer/
Reworking the Doctrine
If I were to rework this doctrine, I would say:
It is the privilege of all creation to seek out communion with God and with each other.
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