JD: Probably quit a bit of confusion about holiness or actually what it means to be holy. Get into that for us.
DJ: Well I think many tend to think of holiness as following a set of rules and these usually end up being man made. And we tend to see this trend in holiness churches and denominations and some other groups today. They tend to have very strict codes of conduct including dress and personal appearance. But just like the Pharisees these often go beyond the word of God. And this almost inevitably leads to legalism, which is when we judge someone’s spiritually based upon how much they conform to a set of external rules that aren’t necessarily stated explicitly in scripture. So I do think there’s think there’s some confusion. I think it’s good that we’re discussing this.
JD: What is the Biblical definition of holy and also the definition of holiness?
DJ: Either holy or holiness appears 669 times in 598 verses. And in the first mention is in Exodus 3:5 where Moses encounters the Lord on Mt. Sinai and the Lord said don’t draw near to this place, take your sandals off your feet for the place where you stand as holy ground.
And then the last mention of holy or holiness is found in
Revelation 22 the last chapter of the Bible where it talks about let him who is
holy let him be holy still talking about the way it will be in the future. So
the concept of holiness itself has the idea of being set apart to God the most
basic idea is to be set apart for the purpose of being pure and undefiled
before the Lord. Peter actually says in I Peter 1:13 quoting from Leviticus 11
he said he who called you as holy you also be holy in all your conduct, be holy
for I am holy. So the idea is that just as God is set apart from all forms of
wickedness and evil those who are believers are also to be set apart from wickedness
and evil in our daily lives, in our thinking, in our conduct, in the things
that we say, the things that we participate in, that we are to be set apart to
God for the purpose of worshiping him with our lives and doing what he would
have us to do and walking before him and walking before the world and having a
good testimony of what it means to be a child of God.
JD: David James with Bible in hand detailing the Biblical
definition of holiness.
We report this information because it is setting the stage
for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.
It doesn’t matter what you and I think about holiness but
what the Bible says on this subject. For each of us to be in the presence of
God forever we must be holy. In fact, when we arrive at the third heaven one of
the first things that we will see will be four throne room angels shouting
holy, holy, holy, that’s Revelation 4:6-9.
