Baptistic Theologies, 2009

as something that can eradicate the sinful nature, but it is a power to overcome the sinful nature. It is offered to all believers if they come humbly as a child and drink of the Spirit of Christ. In fact, for Kargel, a Christian can lead a moral life and be respected for their piety and yet ‘much of the activity and work which he calls “fruit” are not really that because it was not accomplished by Christ in him’. 60 If the fruit of one’s life is not rooted in abiding in Christ, it is false and not from God. It is from a carnal strength. Good intentions are not enough. He [GN the Holy Spirit] never will take hold by force that which is not subordinated to Him or that which is kept from Him. He will never be revealed in our personal lifestyle, or our private path, or our wills, even if they are directed to the best intentions: they are flesh, they are not His sphere or an element. He cannot put on them a seal of the Anointment. 61 The reason that human effort was not appropriate for the sanctification process rests, in Kargel’s view, that sin is a constant force which will conquer the carnal believer and the revived Christian which is not abiding in Christ. The believer can be blinded by the thoughts that ‘he can fulfill God’s will if only he will correctly understand it, or just desire it’. 62 Human effort will never accomplish the process of sanctification, only an abiding in Christ, connected to His death, destroys all authority of sin in all its forms. The power of the death of Christ, working in us, destroys the power of our old life, just as His death on the cross finished His life on earth. 63 Full salvation is to abide in Christ The sanctification process begins at salvation when the Holy Spirit raises Jesus Christ as the perfect answer to the sin issue. When speaking of being 59 Ibid., in Christ our Sanctification, p. 63. 60 Ibid., p. 72. 61 Ibid., in What is your Relationship to the Holy Spirit, p. 146. 62 Ibid., in Sin, the Evil of All Evils, p. 33. 63 Ibid., p. 34. Ivan Kargel and the Fulfilment of Revival 35 filled with the Holy Spirit, Kargel uses Jesus’ baptism as proof that He was unlike anyone else in all creation. The dove at Jesus’ baptism rested on Him because the Holy Spirit had finally found a resting place on earth which was ‘truly pure and holy.’ 64 Jesus was the access point into creation for God’s spirit. To abide in Christ was to be filled with the Holy Spirit which was to be in the correct way of sanctification. The abiding with Christ was something that took effort, day by day effort. Kargel raises Enoch as an example of consistently abiding in Christ for one’s entire life. But this witness [GN, Enoch] is God’s witness about whom nothing is told which is superfluous and nothing which is diminished. Think about it, three hundred long years, never hiding from God, never leaving His eyes, to live a continuous life with Him and in Him! It cannot be anything o