Keswick redefines reformed terminology
The modern Keswick teacher, Zane Hodges defines faith as “the conviction that something is true.” Wiki
In other words, Hodges says that faith is the simple belief in the fact of salvation. It is the simple belief in the fact that Christ fully saves. It is the simple belief about the biblical history of the cross. But according to the reformers, this is the equivalent of ‘historical faith’.
According to Hodges, faith is simply “received and need not necessarily result in repentance or good works.”
The Heidelberg Catechism, LD 7 defines faith as two essential things. First, we hold for truth all that God revealed in the scriptures (certain knowledge, summarized in the Apostle’s Creed). Secondly, we believe that salvation is ours (assured confidence).
The Belgic Confession, article 22 states that true faith “embraces Jesus Christ, with all his merits. Faith also appropriates (lays claim to, possesses) him, and seeks nothing more besides him”. In this definition, faith is not performing good works, yet it is truly alive. Embracing and appropriating show faith’s liveliness.
The gift of faith is a living faith because Christ, the Giver, lives.
Is there a ‘second faith’ or a ‘second act of passive faith’ as the Keswicks teach?
As we learned last time, Keswick ideology says the key to sanctification is ‘total surrender’. This surrender allows the believer to meet the Spirit and be filled by Him. Hannah W. Smith says this surrender places one under absolute control of the Spirit, for Him to do with us as He pleases. What follows this total surrender is the ‘second act of faith’. This second faith is a gift with which one passively receives the filling of the Spirit.
But scripture does not teach a ‘second faith’, but one faith, Eph. 4:5 “one Lord, one faith, one baptism”.
Hoeksema also shows there is only one faith. “He who through faith prays for forgiveness, through that same faith also prays for deliverance from the power of sin. He who through faith embraces the adoption unto children, longs through that same faith for the complete spiritual, ethical realization of that sonship”. ~ Reformed Dogmatics, 1966, pg. 521.
Keswick/Higher Life sanctification creates two categories of Christians.
Keswick teaches that some Christians are justified but not sanctified. These are carnal, and, not Spirit-filled. Meanwhile others are spiritual, and Spirit-filled, and thus, sanctified. In other words, some Christians do not abide in Christ, while others do.
Their key text for this is 1 Corinthians 2:6-3:4.
While all Christians have areas in their lives where they slip into carnal thoughts and life practices. Some backslide into very carnal lives for a time. This passage warns about such living. But this passage does not support a permanent category called ‘carnal Christians’. It does not teach that professing believers can stay fruitless and fleshly all their lives.
In this passage, Paul is not laying out different spiritual categories for Christians. He is teaching them to stop thinking and acting like the world exactly because now they have the Spirit. These believers claimed salvation, but they still lived like they did before their conversion. Paul wants them to stop living according to the spirit of the world and live differently.
He wants them to grow up in, and live according to God’s wisdom instead of man’s carnal, worldly wisdom. He wants them to mature in their faith, and then also in the godliness of their life.
Pietism
Scripture shows that Jesus and the apostles considered all Christians as sanctified. Jesus did not teach that just a few believers had a special faith or experience, Acts 26:18. Jesus called Paul to preach faith in God through the gospel that results in profound changes in all believers.
The Keswick/Higher Life theology of ‘second blessing’ doctrines are pietistic by nature. The ‘second blessing’ doctrines create an elite category of Christians who have a special experience that ordinary Christians lack. The Keswick/Higher Life movement is part of the Holiness Movement. This Movement redefines holiness. Thus, Keswicks also redefine holiness just as they redefine faith.
“The Holiness movement in general is a pietistic movement that claims a special experience that creates a higher order of Christians.” ~Bob De Waay CIC
According to Hoeksema in his Reformed Dogmatics, 1966, pg. 444, the Body of Christ is one body. The blessings bestowed on the Head are also bestowed on the Body. “We do not receive these blessings piece-meal, but by faith we embrace Christ and all his benefits”. Christ pours His Spirit out to all the church.
Sanctification: declared or progressing?
Keswick theology teaches a ‘declared’ sanctification only. This is a biblical truth. It is Christ’s declaration over believers because He unites them to Himself. But it is not Christ’s definition of the moral, ethical change that He works in believers in progressive sanctification.
By teaching ‘declared sanctification’ only, Keswicks end up denying progressive sanctification as the reformers taught it. They deny the transforming work of the Spirit of Christ in the believer.
Instead, the Keswicks believe that Christ is holiness for believers, and Christ’s holiness does not progress. This holiness is transferred into believers when they are filled with the Spirit. This is why Christ obeys for the Keswick believers.
Separated chronologically
Keswick theology separates justification from sanctification in time, and in a believers’ experience. They unbiblically divorce the two and insert the ‘crisis’ in between. But not every believer has a ‘crisis of consecration’. In fact, they do not need to seek one. The sanctification that would follow it is optional.
For the ‘carnal Christian’, Jesus can be a Savior who justifies them and will bring them to heaven. Or, for the ‘spiritual Christian’, He can also be the Lord who sanctifies them to enjoy Him more fully now.
Yet, such an absolute separation of these two blessings of salvation divides Christ. The reformers taught that while they are distinct, they are inseparable. Also, serving the Lord as the reformers teach is not in the Keswick’s vocabulary.
No progression for you
For Keswicks, what progresses in their understanding of sanctification is not their personal holiness. Rather, it is an increase in the filling of the Spirit and the perfection of Christ. Because of this, they are often accused of teaching perfectionism.
Keswick theology teaches “The victorious life … is not a gradual gift. There is no such thing as a gradual gift. And victory is a gift. It is not growth. …” ~Trumbull, Victory in Christ pgs. 36, 38-39.
Keswick sanctification is a more advanced stage of christian living where the believer experiences greater intimacy with God. This way they can realize their full potential for holiness. Gratitude is the key feature of the Keswick experience of ‘Spirit-filling’. Gratitude flows from this ‘more intimate’ relationship experience. Keswick ideology says that gratitude is the foundation from which good works spring. According to them, good works and obedience spring unsummoned through the second passive faith.
Thus, they say that believers are sanctified by faith alone in the same manner that they are justified.
More later
