holiness
Definition
Holiness is the biblical attribute denoting God’s absolute purity, perfection, and separation from evil. As a divine attribute — distinct from sanctification as a human process — holiness encompasses both God’s absolute ontological purity and his active readiness to purify what draws near to him. In this corpus, holiness is distinguished from punishment: God’s holy fire cleanses; it does not destroy.
Uses per Author
George Warnock
Warnock uses holiness as God’s essential name, drawn from Isa. 57:15:
“The high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy.” (Isa. 57:15a)
(The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop2b.html)
In Who Are You? Warnock connects God’s holiness to his sanctifying purpose for his people through Mal. 3:1-3:
“And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple… But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, that they may bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.” (Mal. 3:1-3)
(Who Are You?, ch. 2, section “The Day of the LORD, a Day of Cleansing”)
E.W. Bullinger
Bullinger cites Ps. 145:17 as the expression of God’s holiness in all his works:
“The LORD is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.” (Ps. 145:17)
(Number in Scripture, Part I, Chapter I)
God’s holiness for Bullinger is one aspect of his absolute perfection:
“God’s way is perfect (Ps. 18:30). They are perfect in power, perfect in holiness and righteousness, perfect in design, perfect in execution.”
(ibid.)
Stephen Jones
Jones treats God’s holiness through the image of purifying fire — a cleansing, not destroying, attribute:
“God’s judgments arise with healing in His wings, not to roast us to death, but to heal us of all ills, the greatest of which is the sin-sick soul. Until we know this side of God’s nature, we do not really know Him very well at all.”
(Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 2)
Jones connects holiness to the Alexandrian tradition through Clement of Alexandria:
“We call it ‘wise’ fire, as we say that the fire purifies the sinful soul, not the flesh — not an all-devouring vulgar fire, but the ‘wise fire’ as we call it, the fire that ‘pierceth the soul’ which passes through it.”
(Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 2 — citing Clement of Alexandria, Stromata VII, 2:5-12)