To Rick:

Rick,

I am posting here in response to your question about sanctification.  In reality, the question is really about holiness.  In order to fully understand the relationship between holiness, sanctification, and entire sanctification, we will need to work with some history and some words from the original language. 

While the concepts that we will be discussing can be explained in a much simpler format, I believe that you are trying to dig a little deeper.  Therefore, I am going to try to explain this belief as fully as I can without loosing myself (and you) in a mass of Hebrew and Greek word studies.

As I shared with my Newville congregation on Thursday evening, I was reminded once again this week of the Apostle Paul's words in Romans 7:7 that the Law has come to show us our sinfulness.  Without the Law, we would not be as aware of our sinfulness.

When we speak of the Law, we are reminded of how God handed down the Law to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai.  First Peter 1:16, in a quote from the Old Testament, reports God's command for us to be holy.  In fact, this command is given in at least 4 different verses in the book of Leviticus alone.

Le 11:44 For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Le 11:45 For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
 Le 19:2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.
Le 20:26 And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.

It is pretty clear that God intended for His people to be holy.  The question is: What does it mean to be holy?

The Israelites had just been delivered from slavery in Egypt.  They had been immersed in the Egyptian culture, including the spiritual culture.  Egypt was a poly-theistic society.  In other words, they worshiped many different gods.  Different gods were supposed to be responsible for different things.  Therefore, a person would try to worship and appease each one.

God delivered them from that culture.  Now He had to train them and teach them about true holiness.

In addition to the negative influence of the Egyptian culture, the land of Canaan was inhabited by several different people groups who spoke the same language as the children of Israel.  These people groups already had a word for "holy".  This word was well defined in their culture.

For the Canaanites, a "holy" woman was a Temple prostitute.  The concept of holiness in Canaan was to commit adultery with the "holy" woman as an act of worship to the fertility god/goddess. 

God needed to help the Israelites learn the proper definition of holiness.  As we continue to study, we will see that God gave His people some specific lessons on what it means to be holy.