Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

churches, all counseling together, even different denominations, like Pilate and Herod in the
crucifixion of Christ, waiving their old animosities and uniting their wisdom and power to crush out
the Holiness Movement [which is simply the Holy Ghost religion in contradistinction to the devil’s
counterfeit, i.e., dead churchism]. They all unite their forces, take up every sanctified preacher, carry
him away and set him down in a region of icebergs, sending in his place a theological refrigerator
to freeze out all the holy fire. What is this but the literal fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy,
“When they shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, then shall
the end come.”
The holiness people are doing their best to spread Scriptural holiness throughout the world. But
it is hard to tell which party is actually doing the more to scatter the holy fire — our friends or our
enemies. When the latter, with the malignant rage which rankled in the carnal hearts of the great
preachers who nailed Jesus to the cross, martyred Stephen and did their utmost to crush out the
Nazarenes in blood, now violently interpose, reach forth the strong hand of ecclesiastical tyranny,
pick up the holiness preachers, send them to the north pole and supply their places with the worst
anti-holiness preachers they can command, what is the result? I am an eye-witness to what I write
— have seen it verified repeatedly. They simply give the sanctified preacher a new, fresh field upon
untrodden virgin soil — the very opportunity he needs to do a mighty work for God, preaching entire
sanctification and instrumental in saving and sanctifying multitudes. Meanwhile the fire in his former
field is too hot for the devil’s ice carried in by the plughatted D. D. The accumulated fire of God’s
red-hot cranks melts all of his ice. It is a well-known fact in chemistry that a sufficient intensity of
heat will not only melt ice, but decompose the water into its constituent elements, oxygen and
hydrogen, the latter the most combustible in the world, and the former the great supporter of
combustion. Hence all the ice imported by the new preacher is simply a supply of fuel to augment
the flame. The result is he gets gloriously sanctified; the revival which they sought to freeze out takes
new fire, and sweeps over the land like a cyclone. If you will read the prophecies and open your eyes
to the ecclesiastical phenomena of the present day, you will be astounded at the wonderful
fulfillment of prophecies. As the preachers standing at the head of a church in Jerusalem, blinded
by Satan, rejected and killed the Son of God and did their utmost to exterminate His followers, we
see the same tragedy at the present day going on throughout Christendom. Jesus was simply the
incarnation of holiness. His disciples were nothing but simple-hearted, humble holiness people.
Grace, as well as sin, is uniform and identical in all ages. Hence, at the present day, the proud,
autocratic, carnal clergy in the leadership of popular religion are doing their utmost to antagonize
the Holy Ghost and Spirit-filled people, thus literally fulfilling the prophecies as in the days of
Christ.
PLAN OF SALVATION.
19. “Repent, therefore, and turn unto the blotting out of your sins, in order that times of soulrenewing
may come from the face of the Lord.” In repentance the sinner gives up all of his sins to
the devil, where he got them, and leaves Satan’s kingdom forever. We must become honest before
we can be saved. This honesty extends even to the devil. We must make an honest and final
settlement with him, thus giving him back all we ever got from him, i.e., all of our sins. How very
few people ever do that! They endeavor to carry some of their sins with them along the heavenly