Sin & sanctification

Haggard has admitted to sexual sin, although he’s vague on the details. A few further reflections:

1.You notice that these Televangelistic scandals tend to involve Pentecostals (e.g. Bakker, Swaggart, Haggard). Maybe that’s just a coincidence, but there may also be an underlying factor.

Obviously, Pentecostals are no more prone to temptation than anyone else, whether Christian or non-Christian.

However, they do have a different way of handling temptation.

Progressive sanctification is the standard model of sanctification. It stresses the means of grace, broadly defined. The walk of faith involves a lifelong struggle with sin.

But charismatic theology is an extension of the Wesleyan tradition, with its incipient or sometimes explicit perfectionism.

Pentecostalism, especially in its popular forms, is apt to look for a shortcut to sanctification.

You deal with temptation by receiving the baptism of the Spirit, or having an “anointed” preacher pray over you and cast out that demon of alcoholism, drug-addiction, sodomy, pornography, compulsive gambling, &c.

Of course, this doesn’t work. It’s especially ineffective in the case of compulsive-addictive behavior, which is very ingrained, and tends to mask other inadequacies.

In fact, it may even be counterproductive. For it fosters a false expectation of “victory” over sin.

The Christian, having been “delivered” from his besetting sin, let’s his guard down.

2.A related problem is the tendency to focus on the sin rather than the sinner. To single out a particular sin and act as if that can be treated in isolation to the sinner—like a lumpectomy.

But we don’t outgrow a sin. At most, we grow spiritually.

Spiritual growth is holistic. It’s the sinner who is the object of sanctification, and not some particular sin.

To the extent that we overcome a particular sin in our life, that’s a side-effect or secondary consequence of spiritual growth in general.

We progress or regress as whole persons. It’s not as if parts of us are ahead of other parts, which trail behind.

3.Now I’ll make a general observation that has nothing to do with Pentecostalism in particular.

One immediate effect of conversion may be to diminish temptation. It’s like falling in love. When you’re under the spell, everything seems fresh and new and wonderful.

Your ordinary impulses fade from consciousness because you’re filled with the joy of your new experience.

But, of course, that wears off. Once the initial euphoria begins to lose its shrink-wrapped sheen, the old impulses reassert themselves.

4.And this can place the convert in a real bind.

On the one hand, he may have lost all his old friends as a result of his conversion. So he can’t go back.

But if he admits to something like homosexual temptation or pornographic addiction, then he may lose his new friends as well.

Either way, he’s going to lose face. Either way he will end up feeling even worse off than before. Without a friend in the world.

Maybe he won’t lose all his new friends, but he doesn’t know what will happen if he comes clean, and he’s not prepared to take the risk.

Having gone that far in the walk of faith, there’s a strong incentive to cultivate a double life rather than return to his old life by making a clean break with either one or the other.

And this is not necessarily the same thing as sheer hypocrisy. For he may sincerely feel that, if he just gives it more time and effort, he will be able to wean himself away from his besetting sin.

But, of course, by leading a double life, he is dieting and overeating at the same time. Like a man who imbibes salt water to slack his thirst, the more he drinks, the thirstier he becomes.

5.What’s the solution?

There’s nothing that will work with everyone, but a couple of things would help:

i) People need to be taught a correct understanding of conversion and sanctification. It will save them from fostering false expectations—expectations that are bound to be dashed sooner or later.

ii) Churches need to offer ministries in which it’s safe for its members to confess a besetting sin without burning all their bridges in the process.