W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

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