W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
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experimental religion; at the same time bringing burlesque and sarcasm in all possible availability to conserve<br />
the end in view, I. e., to get all the members they could. When they had preached several sermons directly<br />
against all spirituality in every form and phase, till they thought they had convinced the sinners that there was no<br />
such a thing as finding the Lord and receiving conscious experimental salvation, then they would change their<br />
tactics and preach Hell and damnation with all their might, at the same time assuring the people that if they<br />
would quit their sins, join the Church and receive baptism for the remission of their sins, the whole matter<br />
would then be settled forever and they would then have nothing to do but to keep the moral commandments.<br />
When they succeeded in convincing the people that they were correct, then of course they would begin to join,<br />
one moving another and the influence spreading till they would sweep in quite a multitude, as they believed that<br />
they were liable to drop into Hell before they were immersed for the remission of their sins; therefore they<br />
always rushed away to the creek and immersed them. From the simple fact that I know that the whole procedure<br />
is untrue and has deceived millions who are now in eternity, I kindly dictate these pages. If you will reflect a<br />
moment, you will know that this whole system is radically false. You know that if it were true our Savior would<br />
never have come down from Heaven, bled and died on the cross to redeem us from sin, death and Hell. There<br />
was as much water in the world to immerse people before He came as since; they had Noah's flood. If the people<br />
could be saved by obedience, as these people preach, you know they had the law from the beginning. Therefore<br />
you see how they not only minify, but utterly ignore, the work of Christ.<br />
Their whole system consists in a reflection on and vilification of the Holy Ghost, a minification of the<br />
atonement and a practical ignoring of our blessed Savior and <strong>His</strong> mighty works in the salvation of souls. In their<br />
preaching, they boldly claimed to be the only Christian Church in the world, following the Bible as their only<br />
guide, while other churches followed their creeds. Oh, I have so often seen them hold up the Methodist<br />
discipline and denounce it with the bitterest condemnation, drawing the most enviable contrast with the Bible<br />
and telling the people they were the only church that had no creed and followed the Bible alone. Of course we<br />
have no business with any creed, except the New Testament, which ought to be the creed of Christendom. The<br />
Old Testament is all right, true and precious, but we are not living under that dispensation. Therefore, while we<br />
duly appreciate it for the wonderful truth it contains, we adopt the New as our only guide, lest we get sidetracked<br />
away from the glorious Pentecostal Dispensation, which the New Testament launched and perpetuates.<br />
While these people constantly resorted to those strategic vilifications of discipline, and to boastful contrasts with<br />
the Bible, which was utter sophistry, they were the most rigid creedists in the whole country, contending<br />
constantly for their little creed, which contained but one item, “Immersion for the remission of sins.” Creed is<br />
from the Latin word credo, to believe, therefore you may have a creed, written or unwritten. All the preaching I<br />
heard them do during the twenty years I lived with them was on this belligerent, challenging line; incessantly<br />
telling the people that they were ready to meet us face to face and with an open Bible prove the truth of their<br />
doctrine and the falsity of ours, and the very fact at we did not meet them was demonstrative truth that we were<br />
afraid; because we knew that the Bible was against us. My father was an unlearned Methodist preacher,<br />
preaching the true, experimental, Holy Ghost religion with all his might. They were constantly after him,<br />
fighting and challenging him and all others who believed in experimental religion to debate with them. He was<br />
afraid of them; besides, he had conscientious scruples against debates, which he transmitted to me.<br />
Thirty years ago we had two great men in American Methodism – Bishop Simpson in the North and Bishop<br />
Pierce in the South. In the providence of God, the latter came to our Conference. During his abode with us, the<br />
brethren told him about the belligerent policy of the Campbellites, fighting us all the time, denouncing<br />
experimental religion as false and challenging us to meet them, not only in defense of our Holy Ghost religion,<br />
but the doctrine of baptism as we held and practiced it. He asked us why we did not accept the challenge and<br />
meet them according to their incessant bantering, in open controversy, assuring us that we ought to be ready at<br />
all times “to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3.) Hitherto the brethren, like my<br />
father, had had conscientious scruples against public debates, lest they might stir up strife and grieve the Holy<br />
Spirit.<br />
But after this deliverance of the Bishop, the brethren somewhat changed their minds and Drs. Miller and Fitch,<br />
Hiner and your humble servant, and some others, entered the controversial arena and kept the sword unsheathed<br />
until the war was over, and the victory won.