Part of Dr. Russ's brain in demand???

Holiness v. Moral Uprightness (PhD Edit)

Sunday, December 08, 2013 Donald G. Bloesch (PhD Edit)

Wednesday, November 30, 2016 Holy (PhD Edit)

2010 Theodicy and Practical Theology: PhD thesis, the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter

Roman Catholic theologian Alan Schreck (1984) notes that because of God’s holy nature, sin is opposed to God’s purity. Schreck (1984: 195-196). Nothing impure or sinful can enter God’s presence. Schreck (1984: 195-196).  Bloesch mentions that followers are to be holy by being separated by God from the world system, in nearness to God. Bloesch (1987: 211). Bloesch deduces this is not the same as ‘moral uprightness’ but consists of followers living in Christ. Bloesch (1987: 211).

Concerning the idea of God being holy, Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki and Cherith Fee Nordling (1999) write the term holy is a Biblical idea, generally meaning to be set apart. Grenz, Guretzki, and Nordling (1999: 60). It is described of God who is set apart from his creation, pure from any of the evil within it. Grenz, Guretzki, and Nordling (1999: 60).

Mennonite Old Testament scholar Elmer A. Martens (1990) suggests holiness is concerned with the idea of separation, not separation from something, but separation to something. Martens (1990: 94). Biblically this type of holiness has to do with separation of a person to God. Martens (1990: 94).

Augustine writes that God is holy and the sovereign divine governor of the universe who is completely just in punishing evildoers, and God is not the cause of their wrong actions. Augustine (388-395)(1964: 3). God can rightly judge people because each evil person is the cause of his/her rebellion against God. Augustine (388-395)(1964: 3).

May 12, 2020

Christ is the lamb slain from the foundations of the world (Revelation 13: 8). Also...

Ephesians 1:3-4 New American Standard Bible (NASB) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before [a]Him. In love Footnotes: (a) Ephesians 1:4 Or Him, in love

A Protestant, Reformed, evangelical, perspective, views justification as a legal term meaning the sinner is acquitted (69). This justification makes the now regenerated Christian acceptable to the Holy God. This is through justification by grace through faith (69). (Pocket: 69). This is imputed justification and righteousness of Jesus Christ to chosen sinners within the applied atonement.

This does connect to holiness, in a sense, as indeed being justified in the righteousness of Christ separates the regenerate (John 3, Titus 3) from the unregenerate, for holiness.

But more specifically, in the atonement, sanctification equates to holiness. Sanctification is also literally "being set apart" by God. (807). Being sanctified is being made holy (807). This is a process of growth, that is not culminated as immediate, as are some other aspects of the applied atoning and resurrection work of Jesus Christ. The Orthodox Study Bible, New Testament and Psalms, (1993) Saint Athanasius Orthodox Academy, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee.

'Moral uprightness' is not the same as holiness, as holiness equates to sanctification, whereas, being moral and upright is somewhat theologically ambiguous, based on my Bloesch citation. This may or may not connect to divine atonement and justification and righteousness. Both the regenerate and unregenerate could have levels of 'moral uprightness'.

AUGUSTINE (388-395)(1964) On Free Choice of the Will, Translated by Anna S.Benjamin and L.H. Hackstaff, Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice-Hall.

         

AUGUSTINE (398-399)(1992) Confessions, Translated by Henry Chadwick, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

AUGUSTINE (400-416)(1987)(2004) On the Trinity, Translated by Reverend Arthur West Haddan, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series One, Volume 3, Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.

AUGUSTINE (421)(1998) Enchiridion, Translated by J.F. Shaw,  Denver, The Catholic Encyclopedia.

AUGUSTINE (426)(1958) The City of God, Translated by Gerald G. Walsh, Garden City, New York, Image Books.

AUGUSTINE (427)(1997) On Christian Doctrine, Translated by D.W. Robertson Jr., Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice-Hall.

AUGUSTINE (427b)(1997) On Christian Teaching, Translated by R.P.H. Green, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

BLOESCH, DONALD G. (1987) Freedom for Obedience, San Francisco, Harper and Rowe Publishers. 

BLOESCH, DONALD G. (1996) ‘Sin, The Biblical Understanding of Sin’, in Walter A. Elwell (ed.), Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Books. 

GRENZ, STANLEY J. DAVID GURETZKI and CHERITH FEE NORDLING (1999) Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, Downers Grove, Ill., InterVarsity Press.

MARTENS, ELMER A. (1990) God’s Design: A Focus on Old Testament Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

SCHRECK, ALAN (1984) Catholic and Christian, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Servant Books. WHALE, J.S. (1958) Christian Doctrine, Glasgow, Fontana Books.

The Orthodox Study Bible, New Testament and Psalms, (1993) Saint Athanasius Orthodox Academy, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee.