Spiritual Counterfeits Don't Disprove the Real Thing

It is natural that the proclamation that both the body and soul of every believer may through simple faith become the habitation of God through the Spirit, should awaken the hostility of the great adversary of all goodness, and that he should endeavor to discredit this glorious privilege of the indwelling Paraclete by inspiring counterfeits grossly defective in moral character or greatly unbalanced in mental equipoise. This he has done in every revival of genuine spirituality since the first effusion of the Spirit of promise, as in the days of Luther and also in Wesley's times.

But as men of common sense still continue to put gold in their purses despite the spurious coin occasionally uttered, so wise men and women will by the prayer of faith receive, as the greatest boon possible to mortals, the Holy Spirit as a distinct and permanently abiding blessing. Such wise people, if asked how the divine can thus dwell in the human, the infinite in the finite, and both personalities be preserved, will no more attempt to explain this mystery than they will the enigma of electricity filling a mass of iron while both remain unchanged, and that of the immaterial spirit inhabiting the material body while both retain their identity.

The rays of the sun after passing through a double convex lens of ice will kindle a fire. So the Holy Spirit has kindled an inextinguishable fire in many an icy heart. The facts in both the natural and the spiritual realm, must stand, though our poor philosophy is baffled in accounting for the manner of the facts. It is enough for us to know the conditions by which the facts are produced, where the fact itself is of transcendent value, as that man may be indwelt by God. This honor and blessedness, unknown to the patriarchs, to the Israelites, the chosen people of God, and even to the twelve apostles before Pentecost, is now offered to the most illiterate and obscure believer in Jesus Christ who will comply with the conditions by which a personal Pentecost may be experienced.

— The Gospel of the Comforter, Chapter 12.

Fulfill the Conditions and the Spirit Will Fall

God can do His perfect work in a soul only when the will is in the attitude of complete, trustful submission. Only when the will thus bows to God's will does faith in His promises mount up to its climax. For this Paul prayed, "that ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of his Power to us-ward who believe." Then he adds the measure of that power which stands ready to transfigure believers, "according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead." The greatest miracle in the universe, the miracle attested by men, by angels and by God, is the resurrection of His Son. Even the creation of the world was not so striking an exhibition of omnipotence. Yet Paul assures us that the same resurrection power in "its exceeding greatness" stands ready to work its wonders in "us who believe" with that faith which appropriates the largest promises of God. This highest up-reaching of faith is possible only to the deepest submission of the human will. To this point of entire self-surrender every believer has the gracious ability to descend without the incentive of outward adversities, losses, bereavements, disappointments, persecutions and bodily afflictions. These, as in the case of Job, are necessary to the revelation to the world of our perfect trust, loyalty and submission to God, but not to the production of these virtues. Many have had the spirit of the martyrs who were never led to the stake. The axe and block were once deemed necessary to Christian perfection. But this is a mistake. God takes the will for the deed. We 'can climb to as high spiritual altitudes in the sunshine as In the storm; yes, to higher. There is such a thing as an equation of spiritual advantages. Those who are on the verge of the twentieth century may achieve as lofty Christian excellencies as the believers who listened to the preaching of Peter at Pentecost. The gift of the Holy Spirit has suffered no diminution because of the intervening centuries. Like Christ, the giver of the Paraclete, He is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. Fulfill the conditions, and the humblest modern believer may receive Him in the perfect performance of His offices as graciously and as effectively as did the company in the upper room. The externals of sound and tongues of fire were no part of the essential and inward grace bestowed in the Comforter.

Why Some are Not Filled With the Spirit

By entire consecration make your heart vacant of all love of the world, and the Holy Spirit will come in Pentecostal power and fill the vacuum.

The reasons why so few are thus filled are various.

Many do not know that this fullness of the Spirit is the privilege of all Christians. They think it is an exceptional experience of a favored few, "the elect of the elect." They think it is not modest to assume that they belong to this small company. This narrow view of the gift of the abiding Paraclete weakens faith. They dare not appropriate the gift which may not belong to them, and so they fail to realize their full heritage in Christ.

Others imagine that they must always have a propensity to sin, and that they must sin a little to keep them humble. As the fulness of the Spirit would not be consistent with depravity and occasional sins, they deem it not a normal experience, and abstain from effort to receive it.

The Law of the Spirit of Life

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death." — Romans 8:2 RV

In the Epistle to the Romans Paul speaks of the two laws or uniform and controlling forces — the law of sin producing spiritual death, and the law of the Spirit inspiring spiritual life which becomes eternal on the condition of persevering faith.

Tainted Money?

QUESTION: Is  it a sin to let or sell a residence to a brewer or a cigar manufacturer or to one of their employees?

ANSWER:  It would be a good opportunity to show your disapproval by letting or selling your house at a sacrifice to some other person. But for me to say it is a sin to do otherwise, I am not prepared; for some one might raise the question whether the grocer would not sin in taking "tainted money" from the landlord, who has let or sold his house to a brewer or cigar-maker; and then whether it would not be wrong for the physician or minister to receive such money from the grocer, etc. etc., like "the house that Jack built." Human interests are so interlaced that there is no end to a boycott when once begun.

— Steele's Answers p. 221.

On Hebrews 12:14

QUESTION: I have difficulties with Heb. 12:14, "Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord." (1) If I insist that holiness is a definite second work, then it follows that only those in whom it has been wrought will see the Lord. (2) If I say that we received a degree of holiness when we were regenerated, then the text loses its emphasis as to the necessity of a second work. (3) Does the text make peace with all men and holiness equally necessary to seeing the Lord?

ANSWER: The "shall" should be "will" as the translation of the Greek denoting simple certainty rather than  a prohibition or a threat. Without purity no man will or can see God, who is perceived only by the pure in heart. The psychologists have not found out that the heart is a more important organ of knowledge than the head. Hence "he who loveth not knoweth not God." In this kind of knowledge there must be a similarity of feeling between the subject and the object, loving what God loves and hating what he hates. No degree of holiness is indicated in the text. Wesley calls attention to the fact "that the term 'sanctified' is continually applied by Paul to all that were justified; that by this term alone he rarely, if ever, means, 'saved from all sin,' and that it is not proper to use it in that sense without adding the word 'wholly,' 'entirely' or the like." The same criticism applies to the adjective "holy" — in the plural "saints," holy ones, and to the noun "holiness," since we have the phrase "perfecting holiness." Hence there is no warrant for quoting this text as teaching that without the second distinctive work no man will see the Lord. Wesley insists that this grace should be preached "always by way of promise; always drawing, rather than driving." This level-headed man gives further advice which is a safeguard against fanaticism: "I would be far from quenching the smoking fax — from discouraging those who serve God in a low degree. * * * I would encourage them to come up higher, without thundering hell and damnation in their ears." This style of promoting Christian perfection was a stumbling block to the writer for more than a quarter of a century. When Moses stood on Mt. Pisgah he didn't throw stones at his brethren on the plain below to get them to climb to those sunny heights. Yet "the not following after holiness," says Wesley, "is the direct way to fall into sin of every kind. The "peace with all men," which we are to follow after, is that which is thus limited by Paul: "If it be possible, as much as in you lieth." It takes two parties to make peace; you are responsible for only one of them.

— Steele's Answers pp. 219-221.

Two Kinds of Wine?

QUESTION: Our pastor in prayer meeting said there are two kinds of wine mentioned in the Scriptures, one intoxicating and the other not, and that the wine our Savior made was intoxicating, and that Bible scholars admit this. Is it true?

ANSWER: The discussion is too long and prolix for the Question Box. See some Bible dictionary, where Dr. Lees argues against your pastor, so far as the O.T. is concerned, while other writers in the same article take your pastor's view. But it is not true that a non-intoxicating wine is mentioned in the New Testament, where the common name for wine is οῖνος (oinos), and the other word, only once used, is γλεῦκος (gleukos), sweet wine. Peter on the day of Pentecost heard the mockers say, "They are filled with γλεῦκος," and he replied, "These are not drunken as ye suppose, seeing it is only 9 o'clock in the morning." This implies that γλεῦκος was intoxicating, if a man should pour it down his throat all day. Hence if John had used this term in describing the miracle, he would not have avoided the charge which modern tipplers hurl against Christ. When John B. Gough was lecturing in Oxford the students challenged. him to debate. They quoted Christ's first miracle as justifying the drinking of fermented wine. Gough's admirable reply was this, "All the wine that is made out of nothing but water is perfectly harmless, and you may drink it as much as you please." That satisfies the Question Box.

— Steele's Answers pp. 218, 219.

The Gift of Ministerial Power

QUESTION: What is the gift in I Tim. 4:14, "Neglect not the gift, that is in thee," etc.? (2) Also II Tim. 1:14, "That good thing * * * committed to thee"?

ANSWER: The ability to read the Scriptures publicly, to exhort and to teach, which ability had been solemnly recognized by Paul and the elders in his public ordination in which the unction of the Spirit necessary to success is invoked and received by the candidate through faith. (2) This is that spoken of in verse 6, "Stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands." This gift of ministerial power could slumber, like embers beneath the ashes, unless Timothy should enkindle and quicken it into a flame. A pulpit on fire is a great attraction. If the fire has gone out or is smothered, the pews will soon become empty.

— Steele's Answers pp. 217, 218.

Inheriting the Carnal Mind

QUESTION: If a child's ancestors are all free from carnality for three generations back, how can he inherit the carnal mind?

ANSWER: He is sure to inherit racial rather than personal qualities and tendencies, even after a hundred generations of holy people. The fall of our first parents corrupted the race so that every child, however well born, is more inclined to do wrong than to do right. "Sin is entailed upon me," says Wesley, "not by immediate generation, but by my first parent. 'In Adam all died; by the disobedience of one, all men were made sinners;' all men, without exception, who were in his loins when he ate the forbidden fruit." There are mysteries in heredity which no one can explain. Parents may transmit what they do not possess. By the Salic law a woman destitute of sovereignty can, if her father is a king, transmit sovereignty to her son. It is often the case that two parents whose hair is black have a red-headed child, the color being transmitted from an ancestor a half dozen generations back. "We have," says Wesley, "a remarkable case of this in gardening; grafts on a crab  stalk bear excellent fruit; but sow the kernels of this fruit, and they produce as mere crabs (crab-­apples) as ever were seen." Another view of this subject is the impossibility of transmitting personal moral qualities of an acquired character, such as holiness which is obtained or imparted and inwrought in answer to the person's faith.

— Steele's Answers pp. 216, 217.

The Elders

QUESTION: Who are the elders in James 5:14, "Is any sick among you? Let him send for the elders of the church," etc.

ANSWER: Gospel ministers ordained by the laying on of hands as in Acts 13:3, and especially 14:23, "And when they had ordained elders in every church," etc. A class of exegetes teach that the elders spoken of by James are elderly Christians, and not necessarily ecclesiastical officials. This is not the teaching of the best expositors.

— Steele's Answers p. 216.