25
Wesley understood that there is "growth in grace before and after the event of entire
sanctification," and thus the whole of the Christian life can rightly be viewed as a "post-
justification process-crisis-process continuum,"
43
the central role of this decisive, crisis
experience of entire sanctification is certainly crucial in the Wesleyan understanding.
44
In addition, the non-perfectionistic understanding of spiritual formation of
Demarest and Willard is typically Reformed as opposed to a Wesleyan understanding of
perfect love for God (e.g. entire sanctification) could be experienced ,,instantaneously." ("The
Wesleyan View" in Christian Spirituality, 97.) While both Wesleyans and Keswick adherents
argue for the centrality of a crisis experience to advance sanctification, the two views possess a
significant difference. Wesleyan theology argues that the experience of entire sanctification is
distinct from and subsequent to (logically and usually chronologically) justification. It does
something "new" for a believer. McQuilkin, on the other hand, argues that in the Keswick view,
the crisis experience of surrender takes a believer back to what was spiritually true of him or her
at conversion. ("The Keswick Perspective," in Five Views on Sanctification, 165-166.)
43
Dieter, "The Wesleyan View," in Five Views on Sanctification, 41-42.
44
Dieter argues, "The critical point of this purifying experience need not be
chronologically distinct from justification and the new birth, but logically it is distinct from them
in the continuum of salvation. However, the scriptural exhortation to believers to pursue
perfection in love, as well as the struggles they commonly have with a divided heart, indicates
that believers typically purity of love in a distinct crisis of faith sometime subsequent to
justification." (Ibid., 18.)