Why Dr. Steele Wrote a Book Against Dispensationalism (Rewritten)

It is no secret that I believe in a broad Gospel — one that reaches as far as the present needs of Adam’s fallen children. More than that, I believe that where sin has abounded, grace does here and now much more abound for believers who insist that Christ is a perfect Savior from inbred sin, through the power of His blood, in securing the indwelling Comforter and Sanctifier. 

I openly proclaim and testify to the whole world that Jesus Christ can make the inside clean as well as the outside of His vessels unto honor; that purity of heart is real and inwardly worked, not merely a spotless robe covering unspeakable moral filth and leprosy. I believe with St. John, against the Gnostics, that if anyone claims to have no natural defiling stain of depravity, no bent toward sinful acts, and therefore no need of the blood of atonement, he is deceiving himself, and the truth is not in him. But if he confesses his lost condition, God is faithful and just not only to forgive, but also to cleanse from all sin, "actual and original" (Bengel). 

The Work of the Spirit in the Heart

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." — John 16:7 KJV.

I am quite sure that many of my Christian readers will think that I have too highly colored the pre-eminent superiority of the conscious abiding of the Spirit within [over] the visible presence of Christ instructing, assuring and cheering His disciples. They may assert that they have no such experience, and yet they love Christ. I do not doubt their testimony. The difficulty is easily explained. Their experience of the presence of the Holy Spirit is meager and unsatisfactory, because they so little know and honor Him as a person. A person is sensitive when he is spoken of as it and treated as a thing. There may be a faith in Jesus that attains forgiveness, while a faith that claims the abiding Comforter as the Christian's heritage is lacking. He that believes in Christ for all that He has promised, "out of him shall flow rivers of living water." This promise has not become obsolete. There are many modern witnesses to its fulfillment, though the number is not commensurate with the communion roll of the visible Church. Yet by a candid and patient study of God's Word, the ground of faith, and by a self-surrender and self-effacement which put the soul wholly in the hands of the Great Physician with unwavering trust, the utmost stain of evil may be removed, and the presence of Christ be as real as it was to Mary Magdalene.