W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

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