Dancing With Ichabod

"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.
From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?" John 6:63-67
"But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:14

Ministers who faithfully thunder the whole truth are exceedingly rare these days, and without their aggressive Scriptural goading the great majority of the redeemed will remain stuck in the familiar carnal mud they were born into.... The cunning of your fleshly mind subtly works to maintain its status quo, and so it needs to be strongly and skillfully rebuked and convicted of remaining hidden sinfulness that still lurks within despite your faithful spirituality. (George Delo is a travelling Holiness evangelist is one who does this work today. Here is his website and testimonial: George Delo

However it was not always like this, because God planned an easier way to enter His Rest. When those in His Rest engaged in siege-prayer as a group nothing could be refused them. What is siege-prayer? It is aggressively laying heaven under importune siege ("harass with persistent requests") until the request is granted -no matter how long it takes. ( this is also called "prevailing prayer")

Much of the following is taken from: Scriptural Death-Route Holiness by L. W. Boardman- the additional links, of course, are mine.

"When the “death-route” emphasis died in the holiness movement, the intense pattern of fasting and prayer which characterized so many of the early holiness people, tended to die with it. We are told that those early holiness folk, as a systematic pattern, used to fast two days a week until after three o’clock in the afternoon. Then, when revival efforts would fail, they would fast two full days as a group, and then eat for two days. They would follow that pattern, with intense intercessory prayer sometimes for several weeks until the Holy Ghost would begin to move upon sinners all over the area with tremendous Holy Ghost conviction, and revivals of heart-Holiness would break out. Multitudes of the hardest sinners (such as “Bulldog” Charley Wireman) would then get soundly saved and gloriously sanctified in such revivals. Many of those converts became mighty preachers of Holiness, and ardent soul-winners in their turn." Print

When were times when the pure in heart would gather together and pray in whole districts? It happened in the early church -under the apostles who were certainly pure in heart. But sadly their ways were lost since so many were martyred because the Roman Empire was rightfully afraid of their proven empire-shattering faith.

It appeared again in England during the time of Wesley. They held "class meetings" for this purpose. But the Methodist Church was not created with this sole purpose in mind. It was more created to defend the ministers who preached Holiness from the Anglican Church. The majority of clergymen only wanted the status quo. Often there was vigorous persecution -even though it was not Wesley's purpose to start a new church -he only preached to bring souls into heart-purity. But so many entered His Rest, that some organized care for their spiritual well being too became necessary.

And it happened again in the uncivil chaos that followed the Civil War in the wilds of the American Southwest (especially Texas) and spread like wildfire from there.

Pioneer Days of The Holiness Movement in The Southwest By Charles B. Jernigan 16 page PDF (on the History page)

A more recent example involving just two sanctified sisters in prayer is: Revival in the Hebrides (1949) 12 pages by Duncan Campbell (on the "Charismata" page)

But where can you find a larger group of sanctified souls to pray like that today? None that I know of exist any more. It seems that we can only get into His Rest the hard way now. That's what my years of labor on this website are for. In their day, the books on the "Enter" page were rare and precious. And that's what George Delo is preaching for. -and Marc Adams is teaching for. (see their testimonies and contact info on the "Testimonies" page)

Wesley’s Groaning Gospel

Records show that many of Wesley’s preachers, in the early days of the Modern Holiness Movement, followed Mr. Wesley’s injunction to “groan after holiness.”[5] There is evidence that when Wesley’s “groan emphasis” began to die, the depths of true holiness began to shallow out proportionately. For this reason a great deal of the power and purity of true Bible holiness was lost from the holiness movement. It has never been brought back to this original state.

Mr. David Updegraph, a sainted Friends (Quaker) minister of great spiritual power, in relating his search for a clean heart, says:

They Detested Depravity
"I hated pride, ambition, evil tempers, and vain thoughts, but I had them, for all that, and they were a part of me. Not as acts to be repented of and forgiven, but as dispositions lying behind the acts, and promptings thereto, natural to the “Old Man” and inseparable from his presence in my being. I began to ask God, with a measure of faith, to “cast him out.” Along with this desire there came a great hunger and thirst to be “filled with all the fullness of God.” I longed for a clean heart and constant spirit.[8]

In this same connection, Adam Clarke affirmed: “This, indeed, is the sum and substance of the religion of Jesus Christ. We have partaken of an earthly, sensual, and devilish, nature; the design of God, by Christ, is to remove this, and to make us partaker of the Divine Nature, and save us from all the corruption, in principle and fact, which is in the world.”[9]

            “Break off the yoke of inbred sin,
            And fully set my spirit free!
            I cannot rest till pure within
            Till I am wholly lost in thee.”

The negative dying must precede the positive purity in order for the purity to be valid.

Some poet, unknown to us, who evidently knew from experience what he was talking about said:

            “Oh my life was incomplete;
            Partly bitter, partly sweet;
            Until I let the Old Man die.”

A Regrettable Retreat
One very tragic lost art is the old-time Methodist Class Meeting. It was a layman’s movement, and greatly helped to keep the church spiritually alive and on fire for a century. The class meeting was a wholesome confession and testimonial meeting. ( a "support group" for seekers of His Rest that builds faith)

And then the “band” meeting was humanly and carnally originated to replace it. The band meeting was an accusation meeting. (exposing where each had fallen down in their seeking -it works to build unhelpful guilt and self-righteousness ) The band meeting, like weeds in a garden, killed the class meeting.[2] And as a result, both of them died, leaving very little hope that the class meeting, with its original effectiveness, would ever be resurrected. There have been, in recent years, a few feeble attempts to revive the class meeting, with its original pattern and power, but little has ever come of it (within dead denominational walls) Another lethal blow to the heart of the class meeting was the increasing number of backslidden class leaders who tried to lift others spiritually, when they themselves were down. The pulpits also became cursed with the same malignant malady, and still are!

Time’s Tragic Trend

In recent years, the trend is toward short revival meetings, many of which go from Wednesday night or Friday night through Sunday night. These short meetings differ greatly from the “siege-type” of revivals which were frequently practiced by the holiness people a few years back. The results from these short revival meetings are usually much less far reaching also. Neither the carnal leaders, nor their equally carnal followers are allowed time enough to get under deep enough conviction to adequately search their own hearts, or to get sick enough with Holy Ghost conviction, to die out completely. Only a few individuals can see the awful depths of the corruption of their own carnal hearts clearly enough in a short revival meeting to become willing to face their own crucifixion.

One of the great weaknesses of modern revivals is due to the fact that too many pastors and people alike would prefer to sit back and enjoy the services, and pray for sinners, rather than to search their own hearts, confess their own backslidings, make their own restitutions, dig out their own carnality and become sanctified “Holy” and “wholly.”

When it is considered more important to get new members into the church than it is to get the old ones sanctified, both the ministers and lay members are getting the whole revival pattern in reverse order. Christ wants all born again converts to first tarry until they are endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49), before they go out to be witnesses to the world (Acts 1:4, 8).

When the modern, short, so-called revivals are designed to “happify” rather than convict, entertain rather than expose sin and carnality --then the pastor and people alike will veer off into the ditch and either become worldly on the one hand or legalistic on the other.

The Perilous Problem of the Pampered People
When the time comes in any holiness church where the PEOPLE will not go along with an extended, siege-type, “death-route” revival because of the length of time required as well as the added expense or because they fear getting “snowed under” (overwhelmed with evidence) and “dug out” (exposed) --that church eventually will be filled with uncrucified and unsanctified people. When this tragedy occurs, then the human and carnal handling of the affairs of the church will result. Satan is thus made happy, and God is grieved, while the malignant disease of depravity in the hearts of pastor and people remains unremedied. When the “death-route type” of revival meetings are abandoned, the church becomes like a hollow tree --decaying at the heart, with only a thin exterior remaining, until a carnal storm hits and it goes down.

The Evangelist’s Easygoing Effect

When the EVANGELIST shies away from the ‘’death-route type” of revivals because of fear of their length or his lower average pay or of upsetting people, his meetings will fail to dig carnality out of its pastors or people, and very soon will grieve the Holy Ghost out of his evangelistic ministry.

As he leaves church after church, they may be fooled into thinking they had a revival, when all they really had was a few sops for the carnal people to enjoy. When an evangelist loses his purity of heart and the human takes over, he then must resort to emotionalism and psychological gimmicks instead of holy unction and utter dependence on genuine Holy Ghost conviction. In his desperation to get seekers and make a showing, he learns that the evangelist that has the most seekers at the altar, and creates the most excitement, will naturally get the most calls for ministry. As a result, “seekers” become more important than “finders.” Oh, the subtle temptations toward a professional ministry!

The Pastor’s Precarious Predicament
When pastors do not want the “death-route type” of revivals, it may be for one of several reasons.

They may have their carnal church running smoothly and realize the danger of their controlling members getting somewhat upset with conviction and failing to “face up” and “die out” and pray through to victory. His congregation could become like a stirred-up nest of hornets, and the pastor might wind up with the whole swarm launching a deadly attack on him.

Some pastors, on the other hand, either know or fear that they don’t have the blessing of a pure, sanctified heart, and are unwilling to run the risk of exposure before their people. Hence, they carefully avoid the evangelists which they fear might zero in on their own heart’s need. This tends to keep the “death-route” evangelist from getting meetings.

As long as the short shallow revival meetings with a splash of sentiment at the mourners’ bench --taking it by faith--without proper groundwork for faith --is the accepted pattern in the holiness ranks, one may expect many more seekers than finders when it comes to genuine holiness of heart and life.

When the “death-route” evangelists are forced out of the evangelistic field, the true “death-route” emphasis soon phases out of their church. This trend is tragic! The next exodus or withdrawal would be the grieved Holy Ghost Himself. This is deadly serious!!! Just as there are some sinners when faced with the need for faith to get saved, just cannot succeed. The price is just too high for them. Sometimes they then become hardened to the gospel and persecute those who before brought conviction to them. This same dynamic can also occur when faced with the need to be sanctified and obtain -or keep a pure heart." The Results of Rejection.

Dead at the Top
I have compiled some shocking authentic historical excerpts that track this deadly degradation from it's source at the very formation of the Methodist Church. Bud Robinson's vision of a dieing apple tree is featured. Earnest Seeker

As Holiness Churches dried up, they left multitudes spiritually stranded who were used to hearing occasional sermons from sanctified ministers carrying old-fashioned saving and sanctifying power. They still wondered about holiness and all the better hopes they had heard about for years.

Some of the best unsanctified preachers of the time devised custom doctrines and approaches to holiness with unsanctified listeners in mind. Their agreeable preaching became wildly popular, and has now been mainstream for many decades. It advocates a healthy consecration and then stops right where you have to start trusting Him to do the saving.

Sterilized Holiness Preaching

This is a sub-page on the unsanctified "Keswick" teaching that is the behind much of the more inspiring teaching even today. It is now a key plank in the "foreshortened gospel". This page contains a number of articles that fill out the above picture of loss.

Associated Articles

How Freud Got Under Our Skin

Much of the the decline in Holiness relates to a general decline in humble faith that followed after Darwin, Freud and "Higher Criticism". A stunning story from the "Observer" newspaper. "In the near future (by 2010), it seems, the Self will enjoy its own unencumbered space. If you run a society based on the satisfaction of desire, then, of course, there should be no surprise when conventions based in part on duty, such as marriage, begin to collapse." And we wonder why sexual crimes are multiplying..... 4 pages

Form Versus Power
An astute experience-based analysis of a subtle danger in normal religious life. Small things indeed lead to large consequences. (3 pages)

Honoring The Truth-Teller
Since today's churches of every stream are usually both led and attended by believers who essentially walk as mere men, you will love this insightful account as I do. It is a profound examination of the experiential interplay between loyalty and truth in human structures including churches; so it relates directly to how we are reacted to as we share His precious Gospel Truths in any organization..... These Christian social psychological research findings have endless applications to social situations around you. It also helps to tell us what our churches have become- and why...... 6 pages by Dr. Roger W. Sapp

http://www.enterhisrest.org