Emphasis on personal purity in Protestantism
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In the book "Rock and Sand" by Josiah Trenham he criticises Evangelicals for their emphasis on personal purity. I didn't understand this and, to the best of my ability, I don't remember him elaborating what he meant by this.
There was an Orthodox apologist in the early days of Youtube who used to talk about religion while smoking. For me, coming from a Protestant background, this was quite shocking.
Even as I write this, there is another (in)famous Orthodox man on Youtube from North America who also smokes.
Could someone explain what Orthodoxy and possibly Roman Catholicism mean when they criticise us Protestants for our emphasis on personal purity.
PS:
1. While I use cigarette smoking as an example, this question isn't specifically about smoking.
2. In the Protestant sect I grew up in, tobacco, betel nut and many other drugs were strictly off limits even in the privacy of our homes. We would be told that the body is God's temple and warned against stumbling others(Romans 14:13-23).
3. The quote from Trenham's book is as follows:
> In the Protestant world today the majority of evangelicals are from
> Holiness, Pentecostal or Charismatic congregations. They are the
> fastest growing segment of Evangelicalism. The most influential
> Pentecostal denomination is the Assemblies of God with a membership in
> the millions. The Great Awakenings defined the Evangelicalism of the
> 18th and 19th centuries. But the 20th century has been the century of
> the Holiness, Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.
>
> On the first day of the new century, in Topeka Kansas, Agnes Osmond, a
> student at Charles Parham’s Bethel bible college began speaking in
> tongues. News spread and an African-American hotel waiter, William J.
> Seymour carried this Pentecostal gospel with him to Los Angeles in
> early 1906 and speaking in tongues erupted on April 9th at a house on
> Bonnie Brae Street where Parham was staying in Azusa California. The
> bible college moved to a warehouse at 312 Azusa Street, where for the
> next several years, the Azusa Street mission promoted divine healings,
> Pentecostal enthusiasm and missionaries to promote the Pentecostal
> movement throughout the world. This Pentecostal movement not only
> replicated Pentecostal churches throughout the world, but deeply
> influenced both established denominations and even the Roman-Catholic
> church.
>
> These movements share in common a quest for a higher spiritual life
> sometimes called a second blessing. Leaders of this movement have
> placed tremendous emphasis on moral purity and have given the
> Protestant churches a moral uplift. At the same time many of these
> movements have established an externalized ethos in which dancing,
> drinking and smoking rather than pride, vainglory and self-love are
> the great taboos to be avoided and abstinence from these external
> vices is seen as the defining characteristic of holiness. Such
> erroneous visions of holiness have led evangelicals to the promotion
> of such things as teetotalism which is seen as the demonisation of
> recreation.
Asked by user1801060
(121 rep)
Aug 31, 2025, 09:33 AM
Last activity: Sep 1, 2025, 04:47 PM
Last activity: Sep 1, 2025, 04:47 PM