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a. Entirely sanctified

This idea was hugely important for the early Church of God reformers. They believed that this was one of the primary beliefs that made them as Church of God people distinctive. They believed and called people to be entirely sanctified meaning that God would sanctify his people completely—totally. This meant that the redeemed people of God would give God complete control of their lives—all of it! Every area!!

Basically, they believed that a person could live in such a way that they were set apart for the use of God or sanctified completely. This meant that it just might be possible to continue to make choices that were honoring to God and would be in line with God’s will.

Now here is where it gets a little sticky. Anything that is not God’s will is defined basically as sin. However, in the bible there are three words that are often translated as sin and they have different connotations. These early reformers honed in on one of these words and narrowly defined it as a “willful transgression.” This meant that sin was only when you did something opposed to God’s will and ways on purpose. Not only that but they then created a code of conduct that then was culturally specific to determine what this sanctified saint could but usually could not do. Unfortunately in the process, this narrow definition of entirely or completely left out huge areas and therefore ended up ironically being incomplete.

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