Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

of sins)! This is preaching the Word as the keys that open and close the Kingdom
(Mt. 16:19; John 20:22-23), the “mighty preaching” that is characteristic
of the prevalence of Revival fires. Legitimate “targets” of these admonitions
either will “break” as evidence of their Christian standing and turn from their
error, or prove never to have been touched by God’s grace in the first place
(Acts 8:18ff; 2 Tim. 4:10).
The fact, however, that salvation is spoken of in terms of the past (Lk.
5:8), the present (1 Cor. 15:2) and the future (Rom. 5:9), indicates that the use
of the term is quite apropos vis-à-vis errant Christians in both the present and
the future, even if they are truly saved in the past. In a real sense every Christian
resembles Peter who can cry out, “Depart from me for I am a sinful
man,” even if fully a member of God’s Kingdom through rebirth. To make
myself crystal clear, there are two types of errant folks, erring unregenerate
sinners (John 8:31-32; 2 Tim. 2:17-18) and errant regenerate saints (Gal. 2:
11) (Zodhiates, III, 230; Nystrom, 319). The difference is that God ever pursues
errant saints with tender love in tough pursuit of total holiness. Therefore
they will never lose either the privilege or the ability to communicate or
commune with God. 383 After all, no one shall ever pluck them out of the hand
of either the Father or the Son (John 10:28-29), since a life of faith and holiness,
once begun, can never be revolted against, either totally or finally. This
is an incontrovertible fact (Phil. 1:6). But God uses brothers and sisters to
keep them on “the straight and narrow road” (Mt. 7:13-14). More precisely,
this is an incontrovertible fact for the very reason that God uses instruments,
first and foremost brothers and sisters, to keep them on the straight and narrow.
When they fail to take their God-given duty seriously, he will resort to
providential dealings. However, it should be understood that God’s actions,
fleshed out in directing and molding circumstances, are always more painful
than his words, spoken by fellow believers, whether from the pulpit or in personal
interaction!
In short, in God’s sovereign disposition and blueprint the 100% of his
sanctifying grace makes both intentional and full use of the 100% of man’s
instrumentality to fulfill 100% of his purposes. In biblical Revival mighty
conversions and holiness come about through mighty prayer and preaching.
Similarly mighty holiness or practical godliness en route to perfection persists
through the instrumentality of fellow believers, fully engaged in a mighty
Maintenance ministry and, specifically in this context, poised in a mighty Recovery
mode.
383 Consult Zodhiates, III, 234-259, for an in-depth interpretation of Hebrews 6:1ff in this
context.
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