“The Credibility Gap”

Quanstrom writes that at the 1985 General Assembly a commission appointed by the General Superintendents recommended “additional changes to the church’s Articles of Faith.” Quanstrom adds later, “While this proposed Article of Faith was entirely consistent with the church’s understanding of sin, there was a crucial omission. In the new Article of Faith, there was no mention of the remedy for this original sin, save for the undefined acknowledgement that there was a remedy.” The delegates were essentially up in arms over the prospect of replacing an entire Article of Faith, and General Superintendent Eugene Stowe “immediately made a motion to delete the proposed amendment and keep the original statement.” The commission argued that the original Article’s emphasis was so much upon the need for eradicating original sin that “it diminished the significance of the first work of grace.” Later, “Ponder Gilliland recommended adding to the original paragraph, concerning original sin continuing to exist in the life of the regenerate, the phrase ‘though these results are mitigated by the Holy Spirit in the life of the regenerate.’ This was defeated.” Later still, Lyle Pointer moved that the word “eradicated” be replaced with “cleansed” and that “baptism with the Holy Spirit” be replaced with “fullness with the Holy Spirit.” The delegates were also against this, and eventually it was decided that the recommended changes be added as new paragraphs for the Article without removing what was already there. Wynkoop wrote of a credibility gap between “Christian, particularly Wesleyan, doctrine and everyday life.” Quanstrom writes that “According to Wynkoop, there were three major conceptual adjustments that needed to be made. The first concerned an understanding of the nature of persons….The second…concerned the Nazarene’s understanding of the nature of sin….The third…concerned the definition of salvation.” The essence of sin according to Wynkoop was an estranged relationship between God and man. Her idea of the essence of holiness was a completely restored relationship between God and man. Quanstrom says that there are three ways that Wynkoop’s understanding of Entire sanctification affected the traditional understanding. She wrote that “Sin was not a thing that could be eradicated by a second work of grace. It was descriptive of an estranged relationship.” Also, “If there was no such thing as inbred sin that needed eradicating by a second work of grace, then there was no essential need for two works of grace.” Wynkoop also denied “any essential distinction between the first crisis of justification and the second crisis of entire sanctification. Both crises were sanctifying and the difference between the two was simply a difference between degrees of commitment.” According to Quanstrom, the single issue of considerable conflict in the denomination in the late 70’s and 80’s was over the concept of “the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” In 1984, the board of General Superintendents sent a letter to Dr. Paul Cunningham, then chairman of the Board of Trustees of Nazarene Theological Seminary, to inform him of their official ruling concerning the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. They wrote, “The Board of General Superintendents rules that Article X of the Nazarene “Articles of Faith” is an adequate articulation of the biblical doctrine of entire sanctification as understood by historic Methodism and the modern holiness movement, recognizing as it does ‘various terms representing its different phases, such as ‘Christian perfection,’ ‘perfect love,’ ‘heart purity,’ ‘the baptism with the Holy Spirit,’ ‘the fullness of the blessing’ and ‘Christian holiness.’” They went on to say, “We affirm the historic position of the Church of the Nazarene that the apostles, previously converted, were entirely sanctified by the baptism with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and remain for us models of Christian holiness.” Quanstrom then speaks of Dunning and how he wrote of his own views on all of this. Quanstrom says that Dunning “made five unequivocal theological pronouncements concerning sanctification, all of which, while fairly representing a ‘Wesleyan’ understanding of the doctrine, did not fully represent the American-Holiness Movement’s formulation.” He said that sanctification is subsequent to justification, all believers are sanctified, justification and sanctification while distinct were chronologically simultaneous, all believers are sanctified by the Holy Spirit and are recipients of that same Spirit, and, the goal of sanctification was Christlikeness. Quanstrom’s conclusion at the end of this chapter is that the debate of the church in last decades of the 20th century was over "whether or not the Church of the Nazarene had a coherent and cogent doctrine of holiness at all.”