George Warnock — Hamartology
b1 — The Feast of Tabernacles
Sin as Leaven
Warnock develops the type of Unleavened Bread (Chapter 3) extensively as an image of cleansing from sin.
“The penetrating and spreading characteristics of leaven make it to be a fitting type of malice and wickedness in a believer or in an assembly.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 3
Biblical basis: Paul to the Corinthians: “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1Cor. 5:6-8)
Warnock extends the type further: the Galatians context (Gal. 5:8-9: the corrupting influence of the Judaizers) and Jesus’s warning (Matt. 16:6: the leaven of Pharisees and Sadducees) are cited to demonstrate that leaven typifies the corrupting work of sin and false teaching in the congregation.
“To observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, therefore is to live a life that is free from the corrupting influences of sin and the flesh.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 3
Sin and Stagnation
Warnock directly connects the presence of leaven/sin with spiritual stagnation:
“When an individual, an assembly, or a group of assemblies settles back in self-complacency, satisfied with their condition, and content with the thought that they have arrived at the Truth—stagnation immediately sets in, the leaven begins to function, and ‘malice and wickedness’ characterize the whole denomination.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 3
“So it is with the child of God. As long as he is pressing on with God, and fleeing from the corrupting influences of the world, the flesh, and the Devil—his life is free from sin.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 3
Interpretation: Warnock connects freedom from sin not primarily with a one-time sanctification experience, but with continuous movement “from glory to glory.” Stagnation is the breeding ground for sin.
Laodicea as Image of Sin in the Church
Warnock quotes Rev. 3:17 as a diagnosis of the church’s condition:
“ecclesiastical success has developed into pride of heart, and with that pride has come that Laodicean spirit so prevalent in all evangelical circles today: ‘I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing…‘” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 1
Interpretation: Ecclesiastical self-satisfaction and pride are characterized by Warnock as a manifestation of sin — the Laodicean syndrome — that prevents the church from possessing the true riches in Christ.
Total Depravity / Impotence of the Flesh
Warnock states unequivocally that no one from Adam’s fallen race can present himself acceptably before God:
“it is not within the power of any man in Adam’s fallen race to present himself acceptably before God. There is none righteous, no not so much as one; and by the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified in God’s sight.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 2 (Passover section)
Biblical basis: Rom. 3:9-31.
“He receives the efficacy of the blood, and eats of the Passover Lamb by faith—and that constitutes his salvation.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 2
Atonement: Accomplished Yet Still to Be Appropriated
Warnock makes a structural distinction between the objective, historical atonement and its experimental appropriation.
“That full and complete Atonement was made for the whole human race by Jesus Christ on the Cross, there is no doubt whatsoever. But it is only too evident, as we consider our own individual lives, as well as that of the historical Church, that we have never really appropriated any real measure of the great atoning work of the Cross.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 7
“The sin and carnality of the Church’s long career must be taken away from her midst before she can enter into the full blessing and power of the Feast of Tabernacles.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 7
Sin in the Church: Historical Failure
Warnock describes church history as “a sad story of defeat”:
“we cannot point with positive assurance to any person in the Church age who has really appropriated this blessed condition of holiness in its fulness… it is a sad story of defeat, and worthy of far more lamentation than the weeping prophet ever expressed over Israel.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 7
“Every conceivable form of sin, carnality, division, schism, and sectarianism has been foisted upon God’s people—largely by men in the pulpit who have been proclaiming a lie for the Truth.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 7
Day of Atonement: Experimental Deliverance from Sin
The typological Day of Atonement depicts for Warnock the future, experimental cleansing of the church. The two goats point to Christ and the Body of Christ:
“The high priest laid his hands upon the head of the scapegoat, confessed over it all the iniquities of Israel, and sent it away into the wilderness.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 7 (citing Lev. 16)
“For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you…” (Lev. 16:30-31)
“Thank God for the Day of Atonement, when God’s people shall be made free, and free indeed, from all their sins.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 7
Victory over Sin: Promised but Not Yet Realized
Warnock cites a series of Scripture passages as proof that complete victory over sin is biblically promised:
- Rom. 6:5-7: “the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin”
- Rom. 6:11: “reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin”
- Rom. 8:2: “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”
- 1John 3:6: “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not”
- 1John 3:9: “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God”
Warnock concludes however:
“real victory over sin and the carnal nature is still ahead for the Church of God. This, then, is the day and hour when God would call us to repentance, that we might receive from His hands that real, genuine victory over sin that the Bible teaches.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 7
New Birth and Sin: Immature Regeneration
Warnock takes 1John 3:9 (“he cannot sin”) seriously as the literal Word, but explains the tension with present reality through the image of the ungrown seed:
“Our new birth, by the Spirit, genuine as it is, has not developed into maturity. We have been reproduced after God’s likeness like the seed which is produced by the flower, or the egg that is produced by the bird… the full glory and the potentialities of that new life lie dormant within the seed or the egg.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 7
“That seed in the hearts of God’s people has scarcely developed beyond the germ state; it has not grown and developed to the place where we can testify, ‘his seed abideth’ in us; and therefore we can and do sin.” — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 7
Interpretation: Warnock employs an eschatologically progressive sanctification doctrine: new birth is real but immature; complete sinlessness is a future result of the maturation of the divine seed in the believer, not a subjective acquisition through volitional effort.
Forgiveness of Sin: Blood as the Only Ground
“there is positively no acceptance for any man before God except by the shedding of the precious blood of Christ. It is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul, and ‘without shedding of blood is no remission.‘” (Heb. 9:22) — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 2
“God hath set forth [Christ] to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past” (Rom. 3:25-26) — quoted in Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Chapter 2
Sin and Creation: Cosmic Scope
In the closing paragraphs the scope of sin is framed cosmically:
“the New Covenant has declared that the earnest expectation of the Creation, and that the groans and travails of a world under the curse of sin and death—shall find glorious release and liberty in ‘the manifestation of the sons of God’” (Rom. 8:19-23) — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Epilogue/Conclusion
“The New Covenant has ordained a place in Christ and a birth by the Spirit, which shall completely banish sin from the heart, and bring to pass a victory which knows no defeat.” (1John 3:7-9) — Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Epilogue/Conclusion