The Modern Era

Spirit-Driven Sanctification

The Modern Era has seen significant advancements in practical pneumatology, which elaborates on who the Holy Spirit is and explains how He strengthens or sanctifies Christians. He is the root and cause of sanctification. Jonathan Edwards explains it well:

Another reason why the saints and their virtues are called spiritual (which is the principal thing), is that the Spirit of God, dwelling as a vital principle in their souls, there produces those effects wherein he exerts and communicates himself in his own proper nature. Holiness is the nature of the Spirit of God, therefore he is called in Scripture the Holy Ghost. Holiness, which is as it were the beauty and sweetness of the divine nature, is as much the proper nature of the Holy Spirit, as heat is the nature of fire…

The Spirit of God so dwells in the hearts of the saints, that he there, as a seed or spring of life, exerts and communicates himself, in this his sweet and divine nature, making the soul a partaker of God’s beauty and Christ’s joy, so that the saint has truly fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, in thus having the communion or participation of the Holy Ghost (WE 2:201).¹

Indeed, believers’ pursuit of holiness is due to the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, empowering them, and communicating holiness through them. At the same time, however, this sanctification involves not only the Spirit communicating through an individual believer but actively transforming them according to Christ’s Image.

This process of sanctification, wrought by the Spirit of God, is biblical. 2 Corinthians 3:18 declares, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”² Not only does Paul demonstrate the divinity and personhood of the Holy Spirit, but he also provides the object or the viewpoint of Spirit-wrought sanctification—Christ. Thus, believers empowered by the Spirit behold Christ and become more like Him.

Furthermore, Spirit-driven sanctification is not passive, but active. Believers actively behold Jesus, “walk by the Spirit [so they] will not gratify the desires of the flesh,” and “put to death the deeds of the body” by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16; Rom. 8:13). Together, these imperatives from these verses demonstrate that Spirit-driven sanctification involves cooperation, yet even this cooperation is empowered by the Spirit, “the giver of life” (2 Cor 3:6; Rom. 8:2, 11; John 6:63). Overall, the Holy Spirit allows believers to “reflect something of the character of God himself through conversion, for the Spirit comes to live in [them].”³

The Doctrine of the Church

As noted in a previous essay, the Reformers viewed ecclesiology in an unprecedented way, determining that proper ecclesiology safeguarded the church from error.⁴ However, the modern era brought about new movements such as the Enlightenment, which emphasized individuality, objective reality, and reason, and Romanticism, which focused on subjectivity and emotions.⁵ Each movement presented unique struggles and complications for ecclesiology in a theological frontier, for the church, and society as a whole—before, during, and after the Reformation—tended to emphasize corporate identity over individual distinction. Thus, with the shifting culture and individualistic emphasis, the doctrine of the church eventually fell into neglect.

The doctrine of the church matters immensely, not only because it is a bulwark against theological error, but because the Bible itself emphasizes its centrality in the Christian life. The Book of Acts, for example, demonstrates the elements of a church gathering in such a way that neglecting to gather constitutes negligence of key imperatives of the Christian faith, such as prayer and the Lord’s Supper:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

How is awe and the worship of God supposed to come upon the church if there is no gathering and no fellowship? Furthermore, the author of Hebrews writes, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Heb. 10:24-25). How are believers supposed “to stir up one another to love and good works” if they are consumed by individualistic culture, refusing to meet?

God wants and even commands Christians to practice the doctrine of the church and gather together as individual members of the Body of Christ. Thus, the church today must prioritize recovering such doctrines and meetings, for if they do not, the consequences are significant.

The Mission of the Church

Furthermore, if the church neglects to gather, it fails to fulfill its primary mission, but what exactly is its mission? Just as Spirit-driven sanctification has resurged in modernity, the mission of the church has also. However, there have been inconclusive discussions and debates on the mission: “Some… want to emphasize the church’s mission as making disciples of Jesus Christ, while also noting these disciples live and work as Christians, doing good deeds… Others… advocate for a fuller-orbed church mission that includes evangelism and discipleship making, as well as caring for creation, social justice, and compassion.”⁶

To understand the church’s mission, one must look to the Sermon on the Mount. For instance, Jesus tells those listening,

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 5:13-16)

According to this, the latter position—that the church’s mission involves evangelism, discipleship, caring for creation, social justice, and compassion—makes more sense. What better way to be salt, light, and a city on a hill than to show the world the power of God through acts of stewardship, servanthood, and compassion? Of course, “the central commission of the church is to make disciples of all nations,” yet doing good for the world is a tangible and lesser goal that contributes to the central commission.⁷ In doing good, the transformative power of God in the Gospel is demonstrated, providing opportunities to preach about it.

While the church participates in the betterment of society as a whole, “they should do [good] especially for the ‘household of faith’ (Gal. 6:10).⁸ One such instance of Christians doing so is “9Marks Ministries, [f]ounded by Mark Dever (1960-), pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church,… a ministry dedicated to helping pastors and church members understand the components needed to become a healthy, biblical church.”⁹ In caring for the people of God, 9Marks contributes to the church’s mission, for they equip various local churches to faithfully minister to their communities. This effectively contributes to the church’s mission, placing resources where they carry the most weight, so that they can multiply the wisdom and knowledge derived from such resources to a broken and sinful world.

The Importance of Healthy Eschatology

Due to various reasons, such as Catholicism’s doctrine of purgatory and Anabaptists’ millennial theology, Reformation “[e]schatology was, therefore, fundamentally confined to four subjects: death, judgment, heaven, and hell.”¹⁰ However, the modern church has seen a resurgence in futurist eschatology, even early on in contemporary history, in individuals such as John Gill (1697-1771) and Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758).¹¹ However, the resurgence in eschatology was also embraced by more liberal theologians, who, because of their weak theology, began to deny essential elements of eschatology, and vice versa (i.e., they allowed their weak eschatology to influence other aspects of theology further).¹² Therefore, eschatology is essential not only because the hope of Christians, the resurrection of the dead, and the bodily return of Jesus to establish His eternal kingdom are contained in it, but also because it can have profound implications for other areas of Christian doctrine.

One such error is demonstrated through dispensationalism. Accordingly, “Dispensationalism identifies each dispensation in the divine economy with particular sections of Scripture. God is said to deal with people in different ways within each dispensation.”¹³ It is hazardous because it implies that God changes over time, when in theology proper, it is known that God is immutable, or “without change.” Furthermore, it gives individuals false hope in a rapture event that is biblically unsound, although this is far less hazardous than abandoning principles of theology proper.

Overall, eschatology is a crucial study in the Christian life, and, as demonstrated, believers around the world would be wise to study essential elements of it, such as Christ’s bodily return, the everlasting kingdom of God, and the final judgment, without overwhelming themselves in details that are beyond the comprehension of most individuals. Ultimately, Christians know that Jesus is returning and there will be an everlasting kingdom, but the intricacies of such an event have yet to happen. Therefore, focusing on the big picture of eschatology is a necessity.

Bibliography

Duesing, Jason G., and Nathan A. Finn, eds. Historical Theology for the Church. Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2021.

Footnotes

1. Jonathan Edwards, The Readers Guide to the Major Writings of Jonathan Edwards, 2:201, qtd. in Owen Strachan, “The Holy Spirit and Salvation” in Historical Theology for the Church, eds. Jason G. Duesing and Nathan A. Finn (Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2021), 317-318. ↩

2. Unless otherwise specified, all Scripture references are to the English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016). ↩

3. Strachan, 318. ↩

4. Logan Lancour, “The Reformation Era,” a paper submitted for HT 3232 Survey of Historical Theology, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, April 2025. ↩

5. Jeremy M. Kimble, “The Church” in Historical Theology for the Church, eds. Jason G. Duesing and Nathan A. Finn (Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2021), 340. ↩

6. Kimble, 354-355. ↩

7. Ibid., 355. ↩

8. Ibid. ↩

9. Ibid., 350. ↩

10. Malcolm B. Yarnell III, “Eschatology” in Historical Theology for the Church, eds. Jason G. Duesing and Nathan A. Finn (Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2021), 364-365. ↩

11. Ibid., 365-366. ↩

12. Ibid., 367-371. ↩

13. Ibid., 377. ↩