Hedonism

Pastor Martin draws four practical implications from the doctrine of climactic sanctification. First, the Christian should not live in morbid dread or fear of death, since death's penal sting has been removed by Christ — illustrated by Stephen and Peter. Second, the believer should not give the disembodied state more emphasis than Scripture does, since the predominant biblical hope is the resurrection of the body (Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 5). Third, a biblically instructed Christian should neither deify the body (hedonism, humanistic health and birth theories, body worship) nor demean it (asceticism, fasting as more spiritual than feasting, doctrines of demons of 1 Timothy 4). Fourth, the Christian should not live with crippling discouragement over present imperfection, but with the confident refrain: I am not what I should be, not what I desire to be, not what I once was, and not what I shall be.