Finished Work Doctrine
Many Pentecostals adhere to the belief of what is known in theological circles as "THE FINISHED WORK DOCTRINE."
This doctrine was initiated by Rev William Durham of Chicago, a pastor of a Baptist Church who came into the Pentecost blessing at Azusa Street.
"The Finished Work Doctrine" simply states that a person is never sanctified in this life.
Durham taught that "sanctification initiates in salvation, progresses throughout one's life and then has its ultimate end in glorification or death."
So in essence, "The Finished Word Doctrine" states that when a person receives Jesus Christ and gets saved, sanctification is initiated in one's life and throughout his or her life, a person progresses in the sanctification process by "dying daily" (I Cor 15:31) out to the world.
The Finished Work Doctrine then declares that sanctification can only be obtained when a person dies and is glorified.
This doctrine declares that sanctification can never be obtained in this life, only in the next.
There is only one basic problem with "The Finished Work Doctrine" and that is,
THERE IS NO BIBLE FOR IT.
Search throughout the Holy Scriptures and you will never find a verse in support of "The Finished Work Doctrine."
"The Finished Work Doctrine" is something concocted by man and his own fleshly desire. Just as the Roman Catholic Church devised Purgatory, many Pentecostals have devised "The Finished Work Doctrine."
Back in the 1700s, you would ask someone, "Are you saved?" Many would answer, "I hope I am."
The understanding of that day was no man could know that he was saved. Foolish is it not?
Yet they had their scriptural support, "Only he who endureth unto the end shall be saved."
The Wesley brothers, John & Charles preached a different message. Their songs and sermons were full of the fact that a person could know, beyond any shadow of doubt, that they were saved.
But the Wesleys also preached another message, and that message was SANCTIFICATION.
A great revival exploded in Great Britain and throughout its colonies in the New World, today known as the United States of America.
And since John and Charles seemed to emphasize certain methods or ways of doing things, they soon became known as METHODISTS.
Every great revival that has ever occurred since always points its origin back to John Wesley and his sanctification theology.
American History books fail to write about the significance of religion and how important it was in the history of the United States of America.
Modern-day American History books or classes will never tell you that in what became known as the "Commonwealth of Kentucky" in the late 1700s that three out of four people in the State of Kentucky were sanctified Methodists.
American History books will never inform the reader of the great revival that spread across the Northern United States in the late 1850s just prior to the Civil War.
They will never tell you who that telegrams were without charge to anyone who wished to send a message of Jesus Christ to someone in the country, or a telegram of someone telling they had just accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord & Savior.
No, American History books will never inform you of the great revival that literally shut down the University of Georgia in 1803.
And the list goes on and on; however, time and space do not allow me to speak of every great move of God in this land of ours.
Study Church History for yourself. Don't just take my word for it.
But when you do, you will discover that I am correct.
- Dr. Melvin Harter
Only Hope for America is REVIVAL
But I can and will tell you that there has never been a genuine revival in the land without people believing in the doctrine of Sanctification.
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