This material was originally provided by Henry_Grew@yahoo.com.

The Herald Of Life And Of The Coming Kingdom, August 12, 1868

IN A DILEMMA.

Br. Storrs:

I am perplexed. Allow me to tell you how I got into this dilemma. You know I have never been able to see the non-resurrection of the wicked, though I have always been kindly disposed toward those who claim to see it. But on April 1, I went to the Conference at Boston; and on Thursday, P. M., listened to a discourse from Br. S. G. Mathewson, of Castleton, Vt., which upset all my philosophy and theology, too; and which, if true, leaves me no alternative, except that of no resurrection for the wicked. Speaking of "LIFE" and of the State or condition in which the just or righteous are raised up from death, or out of their graves, he used the following language:

"Talk about different kinds of life! Why, life is life, is it not? I do not know anything about Adamic and Christ life; about animal life and spiritual life; about temporal and eternal life; about mortal and immortal life, as differing one from the other in kind. There is but one kind of life and that was given to Adam; and if he had been obedient, he would have lived right on forever; and that would have been eternal life, would it not? But he was cut off from life on account of his transgression: and so are the wicked. Not this life is given to the righteous only, on account of their faith in Christ; and Paul says, they are raised INCORRUPTIBLE, does he not? The wicked do not get the gift of life! "For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they, the dead, might be judged according to men in the flesh."

Then leaving the remaining part of the verse {1Pe 4:6} incomplete in his quotation, he said:

"Now let us have the right over again, so that we may fairly understand it."

He then began again with Adam's being cut off from life, etc., ran down to the same point in the quotation of Peter, and there he left it.

On asking him after sermon was through, When he came out on the non-resurrection of the wicked? he denied having done so; and on the query, "Why did you preach it, then?" he denied that also.

But on calling his attention to the declarations as made by himself, and desiring to know how he was going to get the wicked up, if so be there is but one kind of life, and that one kind never given to the wicked, but to the righteous only? "O! (said he) I will preach another sermon and clear that up." Well, I hope you will, for it needs clearing up. But he did not clear it up; and as the discourse was before hundreds, and made the same impression on others as on myself, I do really hope our good brother will "preach another discourse" at Springfield camp-meeting and help me out of the dilemma that he has been the means of getting me into. I never had that doctrine put home to me with such telling power since the question came up as on that occasion. But if it be true, as Br. M. says, that there is but one kind of life and that kind the wicked never get, but the righteous only, I declare my poor weak brain can see no escape from the conclusion that there is no possible chance for any kind of a resurrection for the finally impenitent sinner.

What say you, Br. Storrs? Is or is not such a conclusion legitimate to the premise assumed? Please send me the copy containing your answer and oblige yours in hope of life.

G. W. STETSON

Rutland, VT.,

June 1, 1868.

RESPONSE TO BR. STETSON

Without going in to the argument of the two kinds of life, it is undeniably true that "life is life." And further, Br. Stetson is entirely right in his conclusion from Br. Mathewson's statements; we see not how it is possible to come to any other. We trust Br. M. will yet see that it is impossible to reach life and immortality as the gift of God, without excluding the wicked from any and all life, after they are once dead.

We never went forward to our present stand-point, until forced to do so or abandon our foundation principles. We found we had been preaching the doctrine of no future life out of Christ ever since we abandoned the doctrine of inherent immortality, and had to take special pains to keep those who heard us on the Life theme from thinking we taught that the wicked would not live again. This course we pursued for years, till we were forced in the midst of a sermon we were preaching contrasting the two Adams, 1Co 15, to see that there was, in the nature of the case no life by a resurrection from the dead to any man except in Christ; and that God had given to his "Son power...to give eternal life," and no other, "at the last day." "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life: and this life is in his Son: he that hath the Son hath life: he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John 5:11, 12. This we found agreed with Jesus' own testimony, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood ye have no life in you." Joh 6:53. But they had the present life in them, though they did not partake of Christ. His words, therefore, will bear no other construction than that of a rejection from being "raised up at the last day" into life.

From these starting points, we came to see that the general tenor of the Bible, and of the gospel in particular, was, that salvation from death is the grand theme of revelation from Genesis to Revelation; and that those who were only partakers of the Adamic nature inevitably perish in death, and are no more forever; that only by connection with Christ would any man be delivered from death's dominion. "The Wages of sin is death." "The sting of death is sin." That sting must be extracted or death holds un in his eternal dominion: nothing but "the blood of Christ" will destroy sin: that is the only healing or curative balm; so we see how forcible is that saying of Christ, "Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood ye have no life in you."

To a like result we are sure all who reject the doctrine of inherent immortality will sooner or later come, if they do not leave off "contending for the faith once delivered to the saints" of "Christ our life." We can afford to wait patiently till their eyes shall be opened to see this crowning truth of the gospel, viz., "Life future and eternal alone in Christ:" all out of him perish as if He had never come into the world, because they would "not come unto Me that they might have life," as saith Jesus.

This electronic version is fully protected by U.S. Copyright Law, and I would ask that neither you nor your visitors make any copies of this article, without first obtaining the same permission which I received from the copyright holder shown in the Copyright Notice included with the article below.

WORLD'S CRISIS

September 6, 1871

INFANT DAMNATION

G.W. Stetson

About forty-five years ago, when quite a lad, I went one Sunday morning to a Calvinistic meeting, in Chazy, Clinton Co., N.Y., where the pastor of the flock stated in his discourse that "the way to hell was paved with infants not a span long". Now it may seem strange, yet this same old parson B___n was a good, kind-hearted old man; and, aside from his theology, everybody loved and respected him; but from that time forward he never looked so good to me as before. The third finger on his right hand was cut off just below the second join, and as he made the affirmation, he was holding up that hand, which brought the excised member conspicuously into view; and the declaration so horrified me, that the stub-finger was so ineffaceably impressed on my memory, that for nearly half a century I have never thought of him, but what that vocative digit, with his infantile pavement, are as plainly before me as when he uttered the sentiment. It may be more than probably that there and then was laid the foundation for my subsequent adoption of Armenians sentiments, little thinking that the theology held by the latter school involved all the infant race in the same sad destiny, as a result of their definition of terms.

But having said so much, more must be said, or my own affirmation will seem to many like a hard saying, and an untruthful statement. It is also much to be deplored that some of our most excellent and worthy Second Advent Church brethren, by their advocacy of certain theological tenants as Bible doctrine, involve themselves in the same inextricable dilemma, and it is to be hoped they will do one of two things: either get out of their glass houses, or stop throwing stones. In words and profession they say and hold that infants are saved; but in teaching they prove that infants are lost. Let us see how. Well, in Joh 3:3, Jesus said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God". In Joh 3:5, "cannot enter into the kingdom of God". Now the word "man" in the text is a generic term, and not a specific one; that is, Jesus is speaking of all or any one of the race, without regard to age or sex. Some one may say that Nicodemus' inquiry in Joh 3:4 proves otherwise. His answer only proves him to have been very ignorant in relation to the entire subject. Paul makes a like statement with that of Jesus, when he says in 1Co 15:50, that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom". Now, infants are men and woman not matured, and are as much flesh and blood in nature as if fully developed. They are also "corruptible" in their nature, but "corruption cannot inherit incorruption"; therefore, they are included in the term man, as used in the text by the Savior; therefore, must be born again, or remain outside of the kingdom.

N.B. The Savior does not say a man must be born twice more, making three births for the one person, but again, once more, making two births for each individual prior to entering into God's kingdom. The word "again", in Joh 3:3, is just as significant, just as definite in its application there, as when applied to Christ's coming, when he says in Joh 14:3, "I will come again", which means, as Paul shows in Heb 9:28, the second time, once more, in addition to his former and first coming; and I certainly have yet to see the first believer in that coming who is not very tenacious as to the particular expressiveness of that word "again", as applied to our Savior's advent. Very well; let us be just as precise, just as particular, just as tenacious, just as critical in its use in Joh 3:3, and note the result.

The claim has been very general that conversion and the second birth are synonymous terms; and herein lies the secret spring which sent forth that other claim, "born of water", in Joh 3:5, was baptism, and then, in the creeds and confessions of faith, made that baptism, regeneration, conversion, new birth. This was done expressly to cover the case of infants, because they saw that the term man comprehended them, and they knew that infants were not converted, as a result of faith and obedience in the gospel, like adults. The Roman Catholic, the Episcopal, and some other churches, still adhere to this doctrine openly, claiming that all infants not so regenerated (by baptism) are lost; hence their custom of rantizing (sprinkling) infants. Now, the question comes to me, "Do I not believe in the damnation of infants?" to which I give in answer, most decidedly and emphatically, No! but, IF conversion is being "born again", I can see no chance for them, for they are not converted; but I do not believe that conversion is the second birth, nor do I believe that baptism is, either. My scriptural evidence must await another issue.

Olena, Ohio

This electronic version is fully protected by U.S. Copyright Law, and I would ask that neither you nor your visitors make any copies of this article, without first obtaining the same permission which I received from the copyright holder shown in the Copyright Notice included with the article below.

WORLD'S CRISIS

September, 13, 1871

INFANT SALVATION

G.W. Stetson

We said in our former article that we could see no way for infants to be saved, if conversion was the new birth, but we did not believe that either conversion or baptism constituted the second birth. In Joh 3:5, "born of the water and of the Spirit" is manifestly synonymous with its equivalent in Joh 3:6 - "That which is born of the flesh [in the aqueous birth] is flesh" [and this is the first or natural birth]; but "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," and this is the second or new birth, or being "born again." Of the first, we have a like form of expression in Nu 24:7, where it is said of Jacob's descendants, "He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters." In Jer 51:13, Re 17:1, 15, "waters" are again employed to represent men in their natural or flesh state. Peter, in his second letter, 2Pe 3:5, refers to the same principle, when he says that water was an agent employed in the primary creation of the material world, and it is equally true of man's perpetuation upon the earth, known as a physiological fact; hence the force and propriety of our Savior in using it in conversing with Nicodemus; thus avoiding tautology.

Of the second, also, we have a most glorious sample, and more than once referred to and specifically pointed out as the second birth, in the case of our Savior. He offers to us in his own person an exemplification of what he taught Nicodemus. In his own person he has been the subject of the first and second births. In the first, he was the word of God made flesh, when in the fulness of the time he was born of a woman, born of the flesh, and "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," and in it he was also put to death. But he was never converted. Do you say, Of course not, he never needed it? Well, we agree. But are you prepared to say, also, that he never was "born again"? Perhaps not. In Col 1:18, Paul says he was, and that he was "the beginning, the first born from the dead." But you may say, That was not the "new birth." I would like to know why; it certainly was not the old birth, of which Nicodemus inquired in Joh 3:4. Most assuredly that was the new birth, for then was Jesus born anew, or again, and was the Son of what, or whomsoever, brought him forth, which Peter and Paul testify was the Spirit of God, or God. Ac 3:15; 4:10; 10:40; 13:30; Ro 4:24; 8:11. Hence he was "born of the Spirit," and was, by being "born again," the Son of God; and "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." In 1Co 15:23, Paul declares that Christ is the (a) first fruit. But of what, and from what? Other scriptures show that he is a first fruit of the Spirit, produced or born from the dead; and then he proceeds to say that the next fruit of the Spirit will be those who are Christ's, who are to be made alive, or born of the Spirit from the dead, at his coming. Now, in order to prove that this is just what Paul is here teaching, and that this constitutes the new birth, and is by the Bible denominated a birth, I will quote from the Bible a parallel passage, bearing upon this point; and allow me to write plainly, just as plainly as it is in the Bible; for this is an important matter that we have under consideration; something more than a theory, more than a theology; it is a Bible fact, a God given declaration.

Turn if you please to Isa 66:7. The prophet has just been telling us, in Isa 65, what God is about to do to Jerusalem; that one which Paul in Gal 4:26 says "is the mother of us all"; i.e., God's children. Now in Isa 65:7, Isaiah says: "Before she [Jerusalem above, the free-woman] travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a MAN CHILD." All concede that this refers to Christ, and he (in Joh 16:19-22) applies this figure to himself. Passing over the inquiry in Isa 66:8, let us find the solution in Isa 66:9, filling out the ellipsis in fully expressed words, thus: "Shall I bring to the birth [Christ, "the man child," the "first fruit," the "first born," the "head of the body"], and not cause to bring forth [the body of Christ, the Church]? saith the Lord; shall I cause to bring forth [Christ from the dead], and shut the womb [and not bring forth afterwards those children that are Christ's at his coming]? Saith thy God." We have studiously employed those sentences or words only, which Paul, by the same Spirit that moved the prophet, used in relation to the implied portions of the prophecy, lest some one should say we had done violence to the text, in which the resurrection of Christ and the Church is called a birth, as David also said in the second Psalm, and Pal also in Ac 13:33. But inasmuch as all of these persons had been previously born once of the flesh, this birth spoken of must necessarily have been when they were "born again" of the Spirit, for there are no more than these two births spoken of in Scripture -birth of the flesh, and birth of the Spirit, or (1) born of flesh, and (2) born of Spirit.

Three things are necessarily involved in order to a birth, whether natural or spiritual: 1st, the begetting; 2nd, the quickening; 3rd, the bringing forth. In the spiritual production, adults are subjected to the first, when they are begotten by "the word of truth" (Jas 1:18), the incorruptible seed, the word of God (1Pe 1:23), commonly termed "conviction." This transpires when any one "heareth the word, and understandeth it" (Mt 13:23), producing the first "the blade." Mr 4:28. The second occurs when the Spirit is conferred upon the obedient believer, by which they are quickened from being "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph 2:1), for "it is the Spirit that quickeneth" (Joh 6:63), by which they cry, Abba, Father. Ro 8:15. This is the work of the Father, by the Son (Joh 5:21), and constitutes the guaranty, or earnest, of our ultimate adoption into the kingdom, when we shall finally come to the birth. Ro 8:23; Eph 1:13-14. This period in Christian experience is usually called "conversion," and answers to fruit-bearing of the word (Mt 13:23), or the "earing" (Mr 4:28), or the "fruiting" of the Spirit -joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. In this quickened state we are called (prophetically) the sons of God; that is, sons by faith, in anticipation, and not yet in fact, not yet having Spirit-life of our own, but Christ living in us; and the (Spirit) life which we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God. Ga 2:20. For Christ is our Spirit-life, and this Spirit, or eternal life, is in Christ (1Jo 5:11), not in us, and ""is hid with Christ in God;" and "when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory" (Col 3:4), at which time we shall be subjects of the third and final condition, the spiritual birth, being brought forth by the Spirit FROM the dead (not of the dead), (Ro 8:11); and for this manifestation of the sons of God, the earnest expectation of the creature is waiting, "because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Ro 8:19-21); at which time we shall answer to the "wheat" (Mt 13:30), or the "full corn in the ear" (Mr 4:28), the resurrection state, the fruiting perfected, after which there will no longer be a liability of "falling away," or "from grace," or sinning, or being abortives; because God's seed (incorruption) will remain in us; giving to, or causing deathless natures in us; being (having been) the children of God (by faith), and being in fact the children of the resurrection by birth of the Spirit, or being "born again," made like the angels, going and coming like the wind, and none able to tell whence we came or whither we went. So is every one (person) that is born of the Spirit.

G.W. Stetson

Olena, Ohio.

This electronic version is fully protected by U.S. Copyright Law, and I would ask that neither you nor your visitors make any copies of this article, without first obtaining the same permission which I received from the copyright holder shown in the Copyright Notice included with the article below.

WORLD'S CRISIS

September, 26, 1871

INFANT REDEMPTION

G.W. Stetson

Our next legitimate inquire, therefore, must be, how are infants redeemed so as to be heirs of salvation, and will they be in the next band or company that are to be made alive at Christ's coming? Our first proof text is in Joh 1:29. -"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Our second is Joh 3:17 -"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world: but that the world through him might be saved." But saved from what, and how? In the light of Scripture, shining unto me in the face of Jesus Christ, my answer would be, saved from sin and its effects. By Ro 5:12 we learn that "by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all [for in him -Adam] have sinned"; all are reckoned as sinful, "but not as the fall, so is the gracious gift. For if by the fall of the one [man -Adam], the many died [the all men of Ro 5:13], much more the favor of God, even that gracious gift by the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to the many."

Paul then proceeds to show that the free gift is unlike the effects of the one (Adam) having sinned, in a very essential particular, "For indeed the sentence was from one [sin or offense] to condemnation; but the gracious gift is [justification] from many offenses to [unto] righteousness." "Therefore, as through one offense sentence came on all men to condemnation [of death], so also through one righteous act, sentence came on all men to [unto] justification of life. For as through the disobedience of one man the man [the all men of Ro 5:12 again] were constituted sinners [or sinful], so even through the obedience of the one the man [the same many] will be constituted righteous." Diaglott Trans.

The words man and men here in Romans are generic terms, like "a man," in Joh 3:3, and not specific; hence in 1Co 15:21-22 it is written -"since through a man there is death, through a man also there is a resurrection of the dead; for as by Adam all die, so by the Anointed also will all be restored to life." Now, according to Paul, infants die in consequence of the death sentence pronounced upon Adam for his one sin, and the entire race being at that time yet comprehended in Adam, the appointment unto many through him is, once to die, and after this once (dying), the judgment; and the judgment written is, that these same many who die through (in consequence of) Adam's one sin, shall live again through Christ's one righteousness, and then the children's teeth shall no longer be set on edge in consequence of the sour grape eaten by the sire. But the soul (person) that sinneth (the sinning one) shall die. I know very well that there are not wanting those who will affirm that Paul was writing of those who are adults, consequently are justified by faith in the gospel, and say he does not speak of infants at all. To such it is sufficient to say that Paul affirms that he was writing to all called saints, and many of these, according to Ac 28:17-29, were Jews with whom Paul labored diligently to prove that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ was not the God of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also, and he "expounded to them, and testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus out of the law and out of the prophets." But what proves too much, proves nothing; and Ro 5:16 proves that the claim of or to adult-ship only, is certainly erroneous; for in that verse the apostle is very careful to particularly specify the sins of adult persons, in addition to the sin of the world, which he introduced and set before us in Ro 5:12; and the personal sins of adults he terms, in Ro 5:16, "many offenses." Now I not only concede, but contend, that we can only be justified from these through faith, repentance, and obedience toward God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by the gospel. But "the sin of the world" came upon us all through the curse pronounced for Adam's disobedience, without our agency; and it will be taken away from us all when the curse is taken off, through the obedience of Jesus Christ independent also of our agency. In other words, the first Adam by transgression runs the train down the track to the depot of death, but the second Adam begins just where the first Adam failed, and by his obedience reverses the engine and brings the train back again to the depot of life eternal; and when he gets it there, all who will receive the gift who have not forfeited that gift, as Adam did, by personal sins (Ro 2:6-11, 16); and among these returned exiles will be found infants, who have never committed personal sin in transgression, and for whom also there is no law. And Paul says, in Ro 5:13, that sin is not accounted or imputed, where there is no law; hence the typical promise in De 1:39 -"Your little ones, which ye said should be a prey; and your children, which in that day [on account of their youth] had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither [into the land of promise], and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it." Isa 7:16; Ro 9:11.

But some theorizing, theological hair-splitter will say -"These children were God's by covenant, they having received circumcision, and the promise has no relation to the children of Gentile unbelievers at all." In Ga 5:2, Paul says "I say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing." Ga 6:15 "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." Herein lies the foundation of infant sprinkling, called regeneration. Assuming that baptism under the gospel took the place of circumcision under the law, professed ministers of Christ undertook to do what Christ had already done for the infants. But the priest under the law, circumcising the child when eight days old, was not a type of a gospel preacher sprinkling infants down here. That was a type of the true circumcision, not made with hands, which Christ hath wrought for them in the reconciliation, by the putting away of the body of the sins of the flesh, by the Spirit. Hence under the gospel we have both circumcision (the true) and baptism. The first is a gift conferred, a work done for us by our Savior, which we neither could or can do for ourselves. The second, unlike the first, includes not "all men," but adults only, and is a duty to be performed as a result of our having heard, understood and believed the gospel; hence faith and baptism are inseparable. All men (mankind) receive the benefits of Christ's death; whereas those who hear, believe, and obey the gospel, alone receive benefit from his rising again to act as our mediator and advocate. For if we (all men) were reconciled by his death, how much more shall we who believe be justified by his life. "Thy children shall come again from the land of the enemy" is an affirmation made by Deity, not because they (whose death caused bitter lamentation in Ramah) were martyrs to or for the truth, for they were not, being victims only of Herod's jealous ambition and rapacious cruelty; but because God desire to lay a foundation for our faith to rest upon, in Christ's work of atonement for our race, and that we through the comfort and consolation of the Scriptures might have hope.

In this coming again from the land of the enemy these infants will experience the new birth, or be born again, and then God will put his Spirit in them, and they shall live and go in and inherit the land.*

*NOTE: In Dr. Wordsworth's Greek Testament, we find the subjoined reading of Mt 19:28 -"Verily I say unto you, who have followed me, In the new birth of the saints, at the resurrection, in the New Jerusalem, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones."

But what position they will there and then occupy, I know not. But Paul says as "one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead"; and I am quite content to heave them thus in the hands of Him who hath done all things well.

This electronic version is fully protected by U.S. Copyright Law, and I would ask that neither you nor your visitors make any copies of this article, without first obtaining the same permission which I received from the copyright holder shown in the Copyright Notice included with the article below.

WORLD'S CRISIS

September, 26, 1871

STRIVE NOT ABOUT WORDS

G.W. Stetson

2Ti 2:14 How often do we see brethren engaged in disputations, in which the entire controversy is a result of misapprehending the terms used by each other, and such, perhaps, to a very great extent, may be the case in regard to the subject of the "new birth." Therefore, I would say, let us reason together, and not to separation. Differences among brethren, however small, even in opinions, not to say in faith, are not desirable, nor agreeable; but where they do unavoidably exist, in consequence of our imperfections in the knowledge of the truth, it is well for the differing ones to be very kindly disposed to each other, and bear and forbear until we all come to know the way of the Lord more perfectly. Even in those cases where brethren have a zeal, but not according to truth, and may be decidedly in error, but think they are right, their exhortations to amendment, in those whom they judge to be wrong, even though right, should be kindly and thankfully received; because the motive was good, and intended to confer, or be the means of conferring, a blessing. To all such, my grateful acknowledgements are tendered for their kind sympathy in behalf of my spiritual well being; but dear brethren, it does not follow that because we deny the new birth as taking place here, that there fore we also deny spiritual regeneration, or a moral renewing here.

That there is a mighty, wondrous work of grace wrought upon, in, and for, every true believer by the eternal Spirit, through the word of truth, by faith in Christ, in this present life-time, as a means of fitting men for the kingdom of righteousness and everlasting glory, in blessed immortality, I think can never be called in question by any who have ever experienced "the love of God our Savior," and have come to a saving "knowledge of his mercy by the washing of regeneration, and a renewing of the Holy Spirit, being justified by his grace, that we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life, ... which God (who cannot lie) promised before the world began, ... and hath made his Son the depositary of this life for us, in consequence of which all long to see Jesus as he is, that they may be made like him; and whomsoever hath such hope in him will purify himself from all iniquity, even as he is pure, by obeying the truth, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, in consequence of having been begotten again [anna-gennemenoi], not from corruptible, but from incorruptible seed, through the living and enduring word of God."-Diaglott.

To every true believer, no argument is needed to convince him of the fundamental doctrine in the Christian religion, that the begetting always precedes the quickening. This follows the former, but is antecedent to the birth. So teaches the word, and I claim this order for the word. To the writer, it does seem strange that any one, professing faith in the holy religion of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, can for a moment entertain the idea that anything short of an entire consecration, and sanctification of soul, body and spirit to God, and by him, so that we live pure and sinless lives before him, will be acceptable to him. Holiness of life, holiness of heart, cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the mind, is what the Spirit that raised up our Lord from the dead demands of us; and if we come short of this, by the grace of God assisting us, through the intercession of the eternal Spirit in our behalf, I can find no assurance of our ever reaching a spiritual birth. Like begets like, and the one grand object of divine grace in us, is so to fit, fashion, and develop us, by molding us into the divine likeness, as at last to produce the divine result, of a divine begetting, divine quickening, and divine nourishing, and development, in divine manifestation as sons of God in a divine birth. But now we are called (proleptically) the sons of God, and by the same metaphor we are spoken of as having been already born of God.

Let us now make an examination of the terms used, and try to get their true signification, so as to understand them as well as one another. Birth is the act of coming into life, that which is produced. In a theological sense, regeneration is called the new birth; but Scott says regeneration is to renew the heart by a change of affections; to change the heart and affections from natural enmity to the love of God; to implant holy affections in the heart. Robinson's Calmet says: "Regeneration is used in two senses by the sacred authors of the New Testament: (1) For that spiritual birth received from grace; (2) for that new life we expect at the resurrection. Properly speaking, there are but two places where the term occurs; Mt 19:28; Tit 3:5. The first refers to a change of state (or condition); the second to a change of profession. The term is compounded of palin, again, and genesia, generation, or origin"; (i.e., to originate again). Schleusner applies it to "a renovation of the minds and characters of the Jews and Gentiles by means of the gospel." Others refer these words in Matthew to "the grand renovation of all things at Christ's second coming (compare Ac 3:21), and particularly to God's children being born again, as it were, from their graves; that is, resurrection is regeneration (compare Ac 13:33). Either way, the passage is metaphorical." "The second place (Tit 3:5) alludes, beyond all question, to the rite of baptism" -R.C. (EDITOR: Probably Robinson's Calmet mentioned earlier in the paragraph), page 781. "But in Joh 3:4-5, the term is very different from that in Matthew and Titus, being gennetheanothen (Joh 3:3) and gennethenai, born again, or, as some prefer, born from above -Same. The term used in 1Pe 1:3, where he thanks God for his abundant mercy, by which he regenerates us (anagennesas), in a lively or life giving hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, seems to come very near to the import of palingenesia, regeneration; but in either of these cases, Joh 3:5 excepted, so far from any of the reproducing us, which is necessary to our being "born again," or anew, the idea in all of them seems to be that something is reproduced in us, which is in perfect harmony with both Old and New Testament teaching, concerning the regeneration of the Holy Spirit of God in us, through faith and obedience to God's word under the gospel. Hence to speak of the Spirit being born anew, or of a new birth of the Spirit in us, would be entirely proper and correct; but to apply that work of God's Spirit wrought upon us, in our reproduction, by which the Spirit brings us forth the second time, to the work of God's grace which is now going on in the heart of every true follower of Christ, seems to me like an utter confusion of terms, that carries us into an inextricable labyrinth of difficulties, as connected with our teaching that man is a unity, instead of duality or triplet. Of the passage in Joh 1:13, Griesbach notes a different reading. Instead of "who were," he reads "who was," making the entire connection thus -"He came to his own domain, and yet his own people received him not; but to as many as received him, he gave authority to become children of God, to those believing into His name, who was begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God"; thus referring it directly to the physical generation of the Messiah by the Spirit of God, rather than to the moral regeneration of believers -Diaglott.

There are other Bible reasons for being called sons of God, than those of birthright. There may be, and I understand there is, such a thing as an adoption of sonship, on the conditions of faith. Dr. James Macknight, who was for forty years President of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, says in his comment on the epistles -and Dr. Adam Clarke endorses his declaration -that "there is not in the whole Bible, strictly, such a phrase as born of God; but in every instance it should have been translated, begotten of God." I may not have given a verbatim quotation, as I write from memory, not now having the work before me, but such is the substance of his stricture.

This electronic version is fully protected by U.S. Copyright Law, and I would ask that neither you nor your visitors make any copies of this article, without first obtaining the same permission which I received from the copyright holder shown in the Copyright Notice included with the article below.

WORLD'S CRISIS

February 28, 1872

A NEW CREATURE

G.W. Stetson

Christ the hope of glory formed in us is one thing, but to create us anew in Christ Jesus is quite another thing. Paul says in 2Co 5:17 -"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [a new creation, Diaglott] old things are passed away; ... all things are become new." Still it is evident, from the context and all his writings on this point, that he neither understood nor desired us to believe that this creative work was completed in either himself or us (see Php 3:12-14), but everywhere speaks of it as having been commenced, and to be continued unto completion in the day of our Lord Jesus. In Heb 8:6-13; Gal 5:16-25, he shows "the old" as those things which pertain to the former covenant, the law, or the flesh, and particularizes them; but "the new" are the things comprehended in the second covenant -grace, or the Spirit; and he also specifies them -love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; nine in all. Now the possession and exercise of these, with the crucifixion of the old, is what constitutes us new creatures, so far as a moral regeneration or spiritual renewal is concerned according to Paul's gospel. But every one of these are internal, mental endowments, or qualifications, externally manifested, and now one of them a product of the brain; for neither it or any other part of the body has been at all changed in its physical structure by this regeneration.

So far as the material man proper is concerned he is still the same flesh man that was born of the flesh, and all the nine new things combined do not satisfactorily show to me a new birth of the man, or that the man has been born again, unless we at once yield the point and submit that there is inside of the material structure another "immaterial man," "the man proper," as claimed by others, and that it is this "inner man" that has undergone the change involved by being "born again." But to yield this point is to yield the entire ground in controversy between the so designated materialists and immaterialists. But if these nine are not products of the brain (organ of flesh), what are they, and whence do they come? The apostle comes to our rescue, and at once relives us of the difficulty into which our theorizing theological notions would drive us, by saying that these are a fruit (i.e. product) of the Spirit of Christ, which God hath sent forth into our hearts, that we might receive (in order to our reception of) the adoption of sons.-Gal 4:5-6. In Ro 8:15 he calls this the adopting spirit (i.e., the spirit which is ultimately to adopt us as sons, as is proved by Ro 8:23), in which he says we have not yet received the adoption itself, but we are groaning and waiting for it. And in Eph 1:13, he informs us that the bestowment of this spirit secures to us this adoption as sons (or to sonship), which is the redemption of our body at the time set; when, according to Php 3:21, these vile bodies will be fashioned like unto Christ's glorious (glorified) body. Then the substantial man proper will produce these graces of the Spirit, in and of himself, by virtue of the man himself having been born of the Spririt, the result of a work of grace wrought upon and in him; but now he has this treasure in an earthen vessel, and they are produced by virtue of the Spirit of Christ, begotten or born in him.

To my apprehension, such are the results of a work done for and in us through grace by the spirit of God (or mind of Christ), bestowed upon us in consequence of an intense desire for truth having been begotten in us by the incorruptible seed (implanted), the word of God, that liveth and abideth forever; and thus creates a hungering and thirsting after righteousness, which leads us to feed, and feast too, upon that true bread that came down from heaven, of which if a man eat he shall live forever; for man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

These processes of developing us in a new creation, as delineated by Christ and the apostles, is in complete and perfect harmony with everything in nature. Take for illustration the chicken. Take an egg from the nest subjected to incubation for a few days only. Break it into a clear glass; hold it up between yourself and the sun, and in its center you will see a little red spot with small lines radiating from it in every direction. Watch that center closely and you will perceive that it pulsates quite as regularly as your own hear. What is it? Well may you ask with wonder; but that is the primary process in the development of a "new creature" in order to a birth of the creature itself. That egg does not breath, never has breathed; no atmospheric air can reach is center, yet there is life there, a life germ, a life center; and in putting on its organism it begins precisely where every other life, whether animal, vegetable, or Christian, must begin with the heart; for "out of it are the issues of life." But the egg existed before the life in it existed there. True, it existed elsewhere, and had to be begotten there; and so with us, and the Christ-life in us. And there must be a heart work in it; hence, "believing with the heart unto righteousness" in absolutely a necessary pre-requisite of Christ-life in us. A head belief, simply, will not do; it is not enough; it will not reach the fountain of life; and it is from and in the deepest innermost and hidden recesses of our being that this new creative process must begin, if begun at all, and in its beginning Christ must plan the life-seed in us, through the eternal Sprit, by his truth, and it must then be watered by the dew of his grace, until in its progressive development it shall find its completion in putting on a glorified body in the morning of the resurrection, in perfect harmony with and in obedience to "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," which shall make us free from the law of sin and death, in full and everlasting redemption, where faith shall be lost in sight, and hope shall realize a full fruition. Christ, who has deposited this life-germ in us, will hold us responsible for a faithful discharge of our trust in the performance of our daily work, until that life-force in us is fully prepared to be thus arrayed in its heavenly raiment of immortal beauty and unfading glory, in his everlasting kingdom, when born of the Spirit.

Olena, Ohio

This electronic version is fully protected by U.S. Copyright Law, and I would ask that neither you nor your visitors make any copies of this article, without first obtaining the same permission which I received from the copyright holder shown in the Copyright Notice included with the article below.

WORLD'S CRISIS

December, 18, 1872

THE RANSOM- Part I

G.W. Stetson

Light shining in dark places -2Pe 1:19.

The key to the position. The gates opened. Re 21:25.

Walk while you have the light -Joh 12:35.

After all the preaching, writing, printing and disputing, by clergymen, theologians, doctors of divinity, and the laity, saints, and sinners, in relation to the penalty for sin, as fixed by the divine Lawgiver, and recorded in the Bible, the question is still open, and likely to remain so, unless we can obtain light more resplendent than that which emanates from philosophy, science, nature, or reason, to shine away the surrounding darkness. Fortunately for all who believe the record that God has given of his Son, the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, shineth, and is to shine more and more unto the perfect day.

"The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple." Ps 119:130. By this divine illumination, as a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path, let us endeavor to walk out of this thick darkness, into the brightness of that light of the knowledge of the glory of God, shining unto us from the face of Him who walketh in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, whose countenance is as the sun shining in its strength, full of grace and truth.

Theories are of no account here. Preconceived opinions must be given up. Prejudices must be kept out of the way. Creeds are for sects only. Theologies are for those who make them; superstitions for the ignorant and the bigot. The truth, and the truth only, can make us free, and if the Son make us free, we shall be "free indeed." Error enslaves us. Facts are what we want, and alone can settle this penal question, and Bible facts at that; nothing else can. "The secret things belong to God, the things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever;" and the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

The nature of man, the state of the dead, the penalty for sin, and the final doom of the impenitent ungodly, are all comprehended in and elucidated by the teachings of Jesus and his sufferings for the human race, through his work of redemption in their behalf, when "made a curse for us." Gal 3:13.

In order to know what is to be redeemed we must know first what was lost, what was forfeit. This should be authoritative and final. We therefore appeal to Jesus himself. In Lu 19:10 he says -"The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." In Lu 9:56 he says -"The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." Save what? That which was lost. What was lost? That which Christ came to save. What was that? Jesus says men's lives. In what sense? In the very same sense in which James and John proposed to destroy the lives of the Samaritans; and by turning to 2Ki 1:10-14, we find it was in a literal sense; and by this we also find from Jesus himself that life in Scripture means life, and death means death. Having found what was lost we learn what was forfeit; and having learned this, we know what must be paid as a ransom price, in satisfaction to the demands of the transgressed law, in order to redeem or save.

Life was forfeit, and life only can pay the price of ransom in order to redeem from death; and this is in perfect harmony with God's law of atonement, as given in Lev 17:10-11 -"I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, ... for the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it [the life] to you upon the altar, to make atonement for your souls" (or life). Lev 17:14 -"for it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof." Again, in Ex 21:23, we read- "Thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe." Such is the law of atonement, of redemption, and such is the price of ransom. Ge 3:17 -"Because thou hast harkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou east of it all the days of they life; ... in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

And such was the penalty for sin. Life was forfeit to the law. The body to the dust, the life to death, and the Spirit (or breath of life) to God who gave it. And this death, without redemption, would have been an eternal death. And this is just the penalty suffered, just the price demanded by the law, and just the sum paid by our blessed Lord, in order to redeem us from the penalty of the law.

Four fulfilled conditions are necessary to entitle to the right of redemption.

1. The birthright,

2. Nearness of kin,

3. The blessing,

4. Holding, or being in possession of, the ransom price.

All of these qualifications centered in Jesus of Nazareth:

1. "He was the only begotten of the Father." Joh 1:14, 18.

2. "The word was made flesh." Joh 1:14. "Made like unto his brethren." Heb 2:17. "In the likeness of sinful flesh." Ro 8:3. "For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which he is not ashamed to call them brethren." Heb 2:11.

3. The blessing was eternal life- "For there the Lord [Jehovah] commanded [bestowed] the blessing, even life for evermore." Ps 133:3. He was "The firstborn from the dead." Col 1:18; Ac 26:23. The first "made alive." 1Co 15:23. "Quickened by the Spirit." 1Pe 3:18. "After [by] the power of an endless life." Heb 7:16. "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Ro 6:23. And this eternal life "is in his Son." 1Jo 5:11. "And having received of the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this." Ac 2:33. "If we live in [by] the Spirit, let us also walk in [by] the Spirit." Gal 5:25. We cannot too highly prize this Holy Spirit; it is the power of eternal life, it is "the mighty power of God." Eph 1:13-14; 18-21.

4. The thing forfeited was a blood life. The redeeming price is its equivalent. "This is he [Jesus] who came ... not by water only, but by water, and blood." 1Jo 5:6. This blood life Jesus had, as the seed of Abraham, the son of David, the seed of the woman, the Son of man. The Adamic life was forfeited by sin (Ro 5:12), a life sold under sin; a life upon which the law had a claim, covering the entirety in its sum.

(To be concluded)

This electronic version is fully protected by U.S. Copyright Law, and I would ask that neither you nor your visitors make any copies of this article, without first obtaining the same permission which I received from the copyright holder shown in the Copyright Notice included with the article below.

WORLD'S CRISIS

December, 25, 1872

THE RANSOM PART II

G.W. Stetson

Light shining in a dark place -2Pe 1:19.

The key to the position. The gates opened-Re 21:25.

Walk while you have the light -Joh 12:35.

(Concluded)

The life offered in redemption as a ransom price must be, and was, one unforfeited by sin, one upon which the law had no claim. But all life, from Adam to Christ, was of the first kind, under forfeit by sin. Consequently a new blood life had to be generated, upon which the law had no claim through sin, and this was done when Jesus was begotten by the Holy Spirit, and this life that was in the blood, Jesus gave on the cross to death, in sacrifice for sin, in order to redeem our life from death. But the eternal life is a spirit life, and not a blood life, and as Jesus voluntarily gave up his blood life, he must be entitled to another life, or ever remain in death. This other life (the spirit eternal life) he got by purchase. He brought the birthright by obedience, or the right to a birth by the Spirit from the dead, which also gave to him the blessing of an eternal life. Ro 10:4-5.

But the price of ransom must not only be paid, it must remain with whomsoever or to whatsoever it is given in full satisfaction of the claim just created in the forfeiture. To recall or take back (take again) the ransom, is to reestablish the claim by law, of forfeiture, and the un-ransomed would remain unredeemed.

Illustration. A forfeits his watch. B holds it. The forfeiture is five dollars. C redeems it by paying the ransom price (five dollars) into B's hands, but leaves the watch also with B for the time being. One hour or more after the transaction C calls again on B and asks him if he has any objection to his (C's) taking back that five dollars, paid as ransom for A's watch. B says he has not if C desires it, and C takes it back, and then (subsequently) demands A's watch as his (C's) by right of redemption. Now who is so simple as to affirm that B in justice is under any obligation to "deliver up" A's watch to C under such circumstances, or to say that C has any claim of right by purchase or otherwise upon the watch?

And this principle of right, of equity, is just as true when applied to our redemption by Jesus of Nazareth as when applied to the watch. So that, if Jesus took again that same life in ransom, he has recalled the purchase price, and no one therefore is redeemed.

But suppose the forfeiture on A's watch is twenty dollars, and C only pays ten to B but does not recall the ten. In such case redemption of the watch would fail equally as in the former case, but from different cause, inadequacy or insufficiency of ransom price. But it is affirmed by theologians that the demand of God's law upon the inner as the penalty for sin, is eternal torment in misery. But if that be the curse or penalty of the law, then Christ must have paid that price in ransom (suffered eternal torment in misery) for our redemption, and if such be the penalty or forfeiture, and Christ has not paid that, then nobody is redeemed, and redemption fails by insufficiency of ransom price.

But "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us," and yet has not paid the price of eternal torment in misery, therefore eternal torment is not the penalty of the law for sin. But does not the same difficulty hold if we make the second (or eternal) death, in an absolute sense, the penalty for sin? Certainly not, for Jesus made an eternal satisfaction to the claim of the transgressed law, when he gave to death (his divinely begotten) blood life, eternally to remain there, in satisfaction of the law as a ransom price. He was made under (subject to) the law (Gal 4:4-5), the transgression of which was sin and brought death upon man; and as man he died in obedience to the law voluntarily. But his power to take it (his life) again, as the Son of God, was found, not in the righteousness which is of faith, but in that which resulted from his obedience to the same law, his Father's commandment (Ro 10:5), through which he acquired a perfected title to eternal life; and in receiving it he became the Son of God by birth of the Spirit when he through the Spirit was born from the dead. There is a truth here involved that cannot be made too plain. As the Son of man, as the Son of Mary, the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, Jesus has a life precisely like that of all other men, except in its begetting and its sinlessness. But as the Son of God he had an endless life. There never was a time, however, in which he possessed both kinds at once. From his birth by Mary to the time of his death, he had "the life that is in the blood," only. From the time of his resurrection from the dead, he had the spirit or eternal life only, and both belonged to him by right. But as his baptism, there was superadded to him the Holy Spirit, constituting him Emmanuel, or God with man, as in Ac 10:38; or "the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh." 1Ti 3:16; Joh 14:10-11.

This Spirit of God that raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead, and by its being thus given in jointure to him, as now constituting a part of himself (for "he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit, for there is but one Spirit"), is the same Holy Spirit that "came down from heaven" to quicken the seed of the woman, that the word of promise spoken in the beginning might be made flesh; and this Spirit of God that in the beginning moved upon the face of the waters, was the creative energy by which the worlds were made, and without which there was not anything made that was made. This is that which was with Noah in his preaching righteousness to the spirits shut up on prison while the ark was in preparation. It was with the church in the wilderness; was the glory that was with the Father before the world was; was the glory of God manifested to Martha in the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, and will quicken our mortal bodies as it did that of Jesus, when the time of the redemption of the purchased possession shall have fully come. This is that glory of the Lord that shall in fulfillment of his own oath yet fill all the earth. The super abundant and eternal weight of glory in reserve for us.

This superadded Spirit remained with and in him until he cried out on the cross, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" At this point Jesus was left alone as the Son of man, to die for man, to suffer the penalty of the law, to pay the forfeit, to lay down his life, and then a "soldier pierced his side with a spear, and forthwith there came out blood and water." He then made his soul an offering for sin, he poured out his soul unto death, he laid down his life, and he never took that same life again. That was sacrificed. That was the ransom. That was the price demanded by the law in full satisfaction for its transgression, as an equivalent for the life of the world, redeemed; and having been redeemed, the world in consequence of redemption is entitled to a resurrection from death. But if the Savior had retaken that sacrificed life, then he would have recalled the price paid in redemption, and the life of the world would have remained in forfeit -lost. He gave that life obtained in reservation of right to enter*, as the seed of the woman in man's behalf to death, in sacrifice for sin, and three days subsequently, the same Spirit of God given to him at his baptism, that left him on the cross, returned, and in raising him from the dead, gave him the purchased eternal life by which he still lives and will live forevermore.

* The reservation of right to enter (a life in ransom on man's behalf) was comprehended in the promise of God (as recorded in Ge 3:15) to the woman's seed.

Olena, Ohio

This electronic version is fully protected by U.S. Copyright Law, and I would ask that neither you nor your visitors make any copies of this article, without first obtaining the same permission which I received from the copyright holder shown in the Copyright Notice included with the article below.

Thanks for the info. Would you mind sharing some of these?

Was "Rainbow" an "adventist", "campbellite", or "?" magazine? Its editor?

Can you briefly summarize the subject(s) of Stetson's letter and article?

Rainbow, February 1, 1873, page 94

A Word From the West

Dear Dir,-- The glories of God's everlasting covenan, made between himself and "every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth" for perpetual generations, when he "placed the bow in the cloud," are reflected from the east to us of the west, by and through your excellent monthly. Amidst the deluge of wickedness overflowing the workd; amidst the gathering storm of
God's impending wrath that shall soon be poured down upon the ungodly from
the black and threatening cloud already above the horizon, and emitting occasional flashes of fierce ightnings, and angry mutterings, and low, but
dep murmurings of coming woe; there shine to us from the rainbow those beautiful colours of refracted and reflected heavenly light, which tell us of the "silver lining," and that there is golden light beyond the could, which shall bring a glorious peaceful morning when this dark and angry night of storm is over-past.

The light, instruction, and comfort derived from perusing the Rainbow induce
us to stretch our hands across the water to you, and constrained by the love of Jesus, bid you God-speed. We desire to strengthen and hold up your hands, and encourage you in your labour of love; and think, perhaps, we cannot do this more effectually than by increasing the circulation of the Rainbow in this country, which we propose to undertake. As yet, your monthly is but little known among us; but it only needs to be known to be hailed as the exponent of the views of a very large number in this country, who are looking, hoping, waiting, groaning for the incoming glories of the ages to come under the glorious reign of the King of kings and Lord of lords, when all the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations worship before him"

Yours in hope of eternal life,