Pastor John:
What you wrote about sanctification is incorrect.
An unbelieving man can be sanctified by his believing wife and also an unbelieving woman can be sanctified by her believing husband…along with their children too.
NIV Corinthians 7:14 New International Version
“For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.”
https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/7-14.htm
What you wrote was, and I quote ….
“But there is not one example in the New Testament of anyone sanctifying anything by the use of earthly matter. This is because sanctification in Christ is a matter of spiritual holiness, and no man can touch another person’s spirit. Man is flesh, and he cannot reach another person’s spirit. Only God can do that. Sanctification is now accomplished only by the touch of God’s holy Spirit, access to which Spirit Jesus purchased by his sacrificial death. Jesus is the last person who is said in the Bible to have sanctified himself (Jn.17:19). Everyone else now is sanctified by the Spirit of God. And how much holier it must be in this New Covenant to be sanctified by the touch of God’s own Spirit than to have been sanctified by the sprinkling of animal blood, ashes of a red heifer, or olive oil! Carnal men could not appreciate what God was doing with those Old Covenant ceremonies; how much less are carnal men now able to understand this wonderful, sanctifying holy Ghost!”
I just want you to teach the correct word as it is written, Brother.
Pastor HG
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Hi, Pastor HG.
It is difficult to understand how you are looking at this subject. Are you saying that there is a way in this covenant for people to be sanctified other than by God’s holy Spirit? I hope not.
The NIV’s translation of the past perfect form of the verb (ἡγίασται) in 1Corinthians 7:14 misses Paul’s point completely. That translation suggests that because one spouse is sanctified, the other one automatically is. If that were true, there would be no such thing as a sanctified person married to an unsanctified person because an unbeliever would be automatically sanctified by marriage to a believer. And in that case, Paul was wasting his time talking about a sanctified person married to an unsanctified person – because there is no such thing.
No, my friend, God, through the Spirit that His Son Jesus purchased with his blood, is the only source of sanctification in this covenant and forever. He hates it when believers marry unbelievers, and He does not sanctify what He hates.
If you are among those Christian teachers who compel believing women to stay perpetually with wicked unbelievers, even in horrid conditions, I beg you to reconsider your position.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor John