Gentry on the Holiness of God

Josh Hayes provides a summary of Peter Gentry's presentation on the meaning of holiness.

At the Sept. 29 faculty address, Peter Gentry, professor of Old Testament interpretation at Southern Seminary, said that the common understanding of God’s holiness is mistaken. Instead of defining it as transcendence and moral purity, he argues, theologians and biblical scholars should define the term according to the context of its occurrences in the biblical text.

In his address, Gentry argued that the biblical contexts indicate that holiness refers to a state of consecration or devotion. “

Unfortunately, the church of Jesus Christ, at least in the Western world, has not understood very well the meaning of the word ‘holy’ nor what it means to worship a holy God,” Gentry said.

Gentry illustrated this notion by examining the biblical texts of Exodus 3, Exodus 19 and Isaiah 6 in order to expound upon the meaning of holiness.

You can listen to Gentry's faculty address, "No One Holy, Like the Lord" by clicking on the link here.