W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
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and reared in Kentucky and never preached anywhere else except during the war period when I was over in<br />
Indiana, where I did not come in contact with them, therefore I knew very little about them. Consequently I<br />
went down to Cincinnati and hunted up their books, of which they had a very few as their denomination had so<br />
recently been launched. Having availed myself of their books, I studied up their doctrines and thus prepared to<br />
meet the champion who had already spread terror and dismay in that country, so very boldly and eloquently<br />
preaching a new doctrine and vociferously challenging all the preachers to refute him. He was constantly<br />
proposing to give them half of the time, whenever they would come and avail themselves of the opportunity to<br />
refute what they regarded as dangerous error. On arrival I took him aside into the grove and proposed that we<br />
draw up propositions, setting his doctrines dearly before the people and at the same time taking positions in the<br />
affirmative and the negative, so as to bring the whole matter intelligently and instructively before the people. He<br />
was very reluctant to do it and never consented till I told him I had read his books and knew his doctrines and<br />
was going to expose them in the time allotted, whether he would consent to defend them or not. When he found<br />
that he really was in a dilemma and had but one way out, and that was to fight his way out, he acquiesced and<br />
we drew up propositions occupying the whole week. It so happened that he had divided both the Methodist and<br />
Campbellite Churches and had taken in, as best I could learn, the big end of both organizations.<br />
When we proceeded to organize for the debate I chose an old Methodist preacher to serve as my moderator.<br />
Among his accessions from the Methodist church he had taken in the class-leader with whom I was well<br />
acquainted, because I had once been pastor of that church. The Seventh Day Adventist cause was perfectly new<br />
in that country, therefore he had no preacher of his denomination, consequently he selected the class-leader to<br />
serve as his moderator; the two moderators selected an umpire, an intelligent and influential gentleman.<br />
Then we proceeded to open the debate and the umpire, having called the house to order and engaged in prayer<br />
as was usual, proceeded to read the first proposition in which your humble servant affirmed the immortality of<br />
the human soul and Rev. Skeel denied it. This was quite a surprise and shock to the people. He had been<br />
preaching the coming of the Lord, the renewal of the earth, and <strong>His</strong> reign on it, and other items of a similar<br />
character, which were new and striking, and so managed to captivate the ear of the people. As I was in the<br />
affirmative, of course I had the first speech in which we were limited to an hour apiece. I spent my time proving<br />
from the Bible the soul's immortality, which of course is easily done. In the proposition we used the word spirit,<br />
synonymously with soul; simply meaning that invisible entity of humanity which survives the body and lives on<br />
through all eternity. Of course all the people believed everything I said, because they all endorsed the soul's<br />
immortality. But when Mr. Skeel followed me and spoke an hour in the negative, denying with all his might the<br />
soul's immortality, they were much surprised, as he had not hitherto delivered himself on that subject, hence it<br />
produced quite a stir and commotion in the mind, all listening spellbound and soliloquizing, “What can this be?”<br />
We spent two days arguing on the soul's immortality; myself affirming and he denying.<br />
Our next proposition, which we took up the third day, was the subject of spiritual regeneration.<br />
He affirmed that “The new birth of which Jesus speaks in John 3 will take place on the resurrection morn. As the<br />
Adventists utterly repudiate the existence of the soul, separate from the body, they therefore ignore all<br />
spirituality utterly and unconditionally, until the body is raised from the dead.<br />
This resurrection life is man's immortality. This will only be given to those who are in Christ, leaving the wicked<br />
for utter cremation and annihilation when the world shall be wrapped in her final crematory fires. This<br />
resurrected body my opponent construed to be the new birth, which our Savior preached to Nicodemus. The<br />
man repudiated the soul's immortality, and utterly abnegated the great and vital doctrine of regeneration wrought<br />
in the heart by the Holy Ghost, a new heart, a new spirit, and a new creation obtainable and realizable in the<br />
present life. <strong>His</strong> doctrine of conversion is much like that of the Campbellites, consisting simply of church<br />
joining and immersion, claiming that in this way we become Christians, and will have a right to the immortality<br />
which supervenes with the new birth, which our Savior preached to Nicodemus.<br />
When the people saw that he actually not only denied the soul's immortality, but repudiated regeneration and all<br />
spirituality, I just proceeded to show that the man was an infidel. I was well acquainted with infidels, as they had<br />
preached all over that country in former years. Therefore the Lord gave me great boldness, so I proceeded to<br />
read in the Second Epistle of John, “If any one comes to you and brings not this doctrine, receive him not in