W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

people. God's true people have always by their enemies been denominated fanatics, and such we are from their
standpoint. Whereas they call us fanatics, and do not prove it for the good reason that they cannot, we know we
are not fanatics. We believe and preach nothing but the plain Word of God, without twisting or perverting it;
meanwhile we know that they are fanatics because they flatly contradict the Word of God.
The above Scripture, enunciated by Peter on the day of Pentecost, irrefutably contradicts the Campbellite dogma
which restricts our Savior's baptism which He administers with the Holy Ghost and fire to that day and
occasion, because Peter here is so clear and explicit that candor and veracity cannot possibly mistake. Here you
see he positively says that this baptism which Jesus had given him that day is for “all that are afar off, even as
many as the Lord our God may call.” This refers to the Gospel call which is still going on. I have preached in
towns where they said they never had heard this call before. In India the whole country has been stirred,
especially in the last year, with the literal and actual fulfillment of this glorious promise during the three months
of my constant preaching there, this wonderful baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire which constantly attended
our ministry.
It was not at all uncommon for the Spirit to fall on those people, and they would pray through to God, get saved
and sanctified and shout all night. Oh, how gloriously is God this day fulfilling that promise among the
benighted pagans, who have awaited the coming of the Gospel herald for thousands of dreary years.
Those Campbellites during my boyhood spent the most of their pulpit time toiling, sweating and vociferating in
a desperate effort to drive the Holy Ghost from the people. When they had fought and conquered the Holy Ghost
in a community, of course they had things their own way, with nothing to do but to get the people and immerse
them in water. Of course the people had to take their word for it and conclude that their sins were forgiven in the
act of immersion. As the preachers labored persistently to convince the people that there was no such a thing as
a change of heart and a spiritual experience, of course when they got them completely under their influence they
did not look for anything of that kind.
After immersion for remission, they only required converts to live a moral life, abstaining from outward, overt
participation in the vulgar vices; and to be faithful church-goers, obedient to the active duties incumbent on a
church member. The idea of getting to where they did not commit sin daily and hourly they utterly ignored and
ridiculed; their preachers confessing that they sinned daily like other people, and preaching to people that
nobody could live in this world without sin. They are simply strict and rigid legalists from beginning to end.
They preached the law of pardon, confession and immersion for the remission of all their past sins.
They positively deny, and actually in their debates with me affirmed before the vast multitudes that a sinner has
no right to pray, and if he does God does not hear him. They constantly falsify the statement of the man who had
been born blind and whose eyes our Savior had opened (John 9:31), “We know that God does not hear sinners,
but if any one may be a worshipper of God and does the His will, He heareth him.” They always used that as a
proof that a sinner has no right to pray, and if he does God does not hear him nor answer his prayer. You see in
this that they wickedly pervert the Word of God. This man was answering the statement of the Pharisees that
Jesus was a sinner because He did not keep the Sabbath. The meaning of the man is that if Jesus was a sinner
God would not work miracles through His instrumentality; whereas in the same sentence he says if any man is a
worshipper of God He does hear him. Every penitent sinner bows down before God and does worship Him.
Therefore you see this, which is the only passage they have for the fact that a sinner has no right to pray, proves
the very opposite, that it is his glorious privilege to pray, and when he does, with a broken heart and contrite
spirit, God always hears him. That is an illustration of the audaciously wicked perversion to which those dear
people expose God's precious Word. Repeatedly, in their debates with me, their champion exponent (as they
always selected the best they had) affirmed that the sinner had no right to pray; therefore you see they take the
work of salvation entirely out of the hands of God, like the Roman Catholic priest who, when a man joined his
church and asked him what he was to do to be saved, said to him, “Give yourself no concern about that; rest
easy and I will attend to it. You obey me and I will see to your soul.” Their attitude is literally papistical; and
though they claim to be the Christians, in an exclusive sense (they did at that time, but think they have given it
up), they are in fact anti-Christian.
The Pope is the anti-Christ of prophecy. All of his priests are subordinate anti-Christs. I am sorry I have to give