I wanted to follow Edwards sermon on holiness with a contemporary explanation of holiness. This video of R. C. Sproul is probably from the mid 1980s; he talks about the meaning of holiness and gives a lot of easily understandable examples.
Highlight points: [square brackets, emboldening, italics are mine]
- Many believe that holiness is moral purity, righteousness
- Holiness has two biblical meanings: a primary and secondary definition
- Primary: to be separate, other, different: Tod’s transcendance, magnificence, higher, superior state, in reference to His creation
- [Consider the other worldview, that sees God as being made of the same stuff as His creation, the eastern worldview]
- The use of ‘holy’ in the Bible as a adjective: Holy Spirit; Holy One of Israel; holy ground; holy vessels…
- All people have some sense of holy time and space: for example, where did you go as a child when you were troubled, to a secret place, to your room, to the woods…
- The holy / sacred vs the profane, explained via examples
- What makes something holy? The touch of God upon it: when God touched you, you became holy
- The difference between the holy and the profane, is the difference between the common and uncommon
- Various phobias enumerated
- Why people typically fear God
- Book by Rudolph Otto, The Idea of the Holy; what Otto discovered studying the holy in various cultures
- Description of radio shows that used the holy to frighten listeners; why it worked
- The name of God
- Blasphemy; illustrations
- Those called to holiness are called to be different, to point to the God who is holy
The following link is to a 6 part series on holiness from which the above video is part 5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIGAjoqBhhU&list=PL30acyfm60fVpGc7Eo–3S6w1kdhXY9Cb
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