W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

The Campbellite dogma of confession and baptism actually takes away the convictions by rendering the sinner
independent of Christ. No one ever does get pardoned till he has given up everything else, finding his own good
works all “filthy rags in the sight of God.” With this universal surrender he must also give up that dogma of
remission by immersion, otherwise he will never be able to reach that utter desperation of all earthly resources
which must inevitably antedate his total, unreserved and eternal abandonment at the feet of Jesus, and the final
ejectment of his hopeless soul on the mercy of God in Christ; which is absolutely necessary to bring him into a
position to receive the free pardon of all his sin. Therefore these false prophets with their legalism actually head
off the sinner from Christ and put him on this greased plank of legalism, on which he slides down to Hell.
In my world-wide travels, when seeing the millions of idolaters, and preaching in the midst of their temples and
shrines and amid millions thronging the holy rivers to wash away their sins in those sacred waters, or, a matter
of convenience to the people living far away from those holy rivers, washing in the holy tanks, that they might
be saved, thus actually worshipping those holy waters; I often thought about the myriads in Christian lands who
are wedded to idolatry in different forms and phases. Hydrolatry, I. e., water worship, is very prevalent. Rest
assured that every person who believes in baptism in order to the remission of sins, or in any way regards it as a
saving ordinance, is a hydrolater, I. e., a water worshipper, which is a form of idolatry exceedingly prominent in
heathen lands, and has been developed more or less in the Church in every age.
With the Roman and Greek Catholics, Maryolatry, I. e., the worship of the Virgin Mary, which is none other
than a species of idolatry, has actually captured three hundred and fifty millions of people who wear the
Christian name.
Eucharolatry, I. e., the worship of the sacramental elements, has not only swept Catholicism in all lands, but the
thirty millions of Lutherans throughout the world, I am sorry to say, are by no means free from it. Luther found
the Church, just having passed through the Dark Ages (a thousand years, during which not one man in a
thousand could read or write), full of idolatry. The Church remained pure till the conversion of the Emperor
Constantine, A. D. 321. He did his best to stop pagan worship throughout his world-wide empire, but he could
not do it. Under his potent influence millions of heathen were brought into the Church without a knowledge of
God in personal experience. Therefore while they gave up their pagan worship, they soon idolized the
sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper. They magnified them, as they imputed salvation to them. Soon the
triune immersion, in a state of entire nudity and with a lot of ceremonies invented by the priests, universally
prevailed. Luther found the Church wrapped in the dismal night of the Dark Ages and had so much to do that he
did not get rid of all of the dogmata of priestcraft, which had found their way into the Church.
The Roman Catholics hold the doctrine of transubstantiation, pursuant to which they claim that when the priest
consecrates the bread, it is actually turned into the literal body of Christ, which the people eat, and the wine into
the literal body of Christ, which they drink. While Luther tried to get rid of that heresy, he hung on a
modification of it, which he called consubstantiation. In this he discards the popish dogma that the elements are
turned into our Lord's literal body and blood; meanwhile he maintains the real presence of the body and blood.
Therefore the people under his reformation still held on to the papistical dogma of sins forgiven in the
sacrament.
I remember an illustrative case. A profane, drunken German had married a very bright and spiritual Methodist
woman. He was learned and intellectual, but really a wicked man. Though born a Lutheran, when I invited the
Christians to the sacraments on the Sunday morning of the quarterly meeting, he came from the rear of the
congregation and took his place among the communicants.
Afterward some of them asked him why he did it, as he was a notorious sinner. He told them he did it because
he wanted his sins forgiven. He was no Christian, but an eucharolater, I. e., an idolater, worshipping the Lord's
sacrament; just like the man who receives baptism in order for the remission of his sins.
Another form of idolatry common in Christian lands is eccelesiolatry, I. e., church worship. It is very extensive
and growing rapidly and is awfully detrimental to spirituality. I have often known a congregation to backslide
while building a fine edifice, after the occupancy of which they never more had the Holy Ghost and the old-time
power. God was grieved away because they worshipped the fine edifice. Oh, how pertinent for us to constantly
pray, like the Apostle John, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”