Editorial

In anticipation of the Keswick Convention the Golden Candlestick team thought it appropriate to say a few things in connection with the theme of this year’s convention, resurrection. Surprisingly, resurrection is not a favourite topic in the Church’s Sunday preaching, while it was the main subject of the apostles after the outpouring of the Spirit on that great Pentecost day. In fact the outpouring of the Spirit was the direct result of the resurrection of Jesus. Christians are ‘resurrection people’ and because of that they are ‘Spirit people’. The Holy Spirit is the seal, the Guarantor of a believer’s salvation, spirit, soul and body. Every generation of Christians is living in expectation of ‘the day of redemption’ and is already experiencing a foretaste of the glory to come. Jesus is the way of direct access into the holy presence of God, every hour of the day, individually but — not to be overlooked — corporately, as local communities of believers as well.

Objective and Subjective Sanctification

The second half of the Golden Candlestick No. 227 is the edited transcription of the first message of a conference held in July 1933. The theme was the Holy Spirit and sanctification. There is some confusion about the terminology of sanctification doctrine. In most English translations the word sanctification is both used for conversion and holiness. In this article T. Austin-Sparks deals with the first matter, what he calls objective sanctification. He points out that the importance of having a correct understanding of sanctification goes beyond terminology issues. The more a believer comprehends objective sanctification effected by Christ by His death and resurrection the more he benefits from it in his pursuit of holy living, as a grateful response to that work accomplished by the Saviour.

May the Lord bless you through these articles and especially through the Scriptures that are mentioned in them.

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June 2024
On behalf of The Golden Candlestick team,
Hugo de Jong