The unspeakable gift

Front matter

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

THE

UNSPEAKABLE GIFT

Preface

The volume entitled The Theological Trilemma was pub lished in 1878, though written six or seven years earlier. This was followed, in 1881, by Platonism versus Christianity, and a few months after, by Bible Terminology , and, in 1882, by The Life Everlasting, a large volume of 800 pages, including the two smaller volumes of the previous year, together with a " Symposium," to which twenty representative men of various evangelical churches in this country and Europe kindly contributed brief papers.

My object in issuing another volume so soon on the same general subject is not that I may re-argue this question upon any new basis, — for why should this be clone when no one has yet answered the argument already offered, and no one can, as I am fully assured if he would deal honestly with the Word of God ? Certainly, the obvious letter of its testimony is most emphatically, and everywhere, that "The wages of sin is Death, and the gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord"; and it is only by putting a scholastic and unnatural meaning upon these crucial terms, "Life" and "Death," that the Scriptures can be made to seem to teach something contrary to what they actually declare. But in view of the very general and increasing interest in this question, and of the urgent calls for another edition of my first volume, now out of print, I have thought I might better meet the wants of inquirers by putting the

PREFACE.

argument, which is mainly Scriptural, into a more compact and popular form, in a smaller volume than by re-issuing the old volume, or any of the later ones. The Theological Trilemma was written fourteen years ago, while I was in a foreign country, under peculiar circumstances of isolation, and without ever having seen any American work or tract in advocacy of the doctrine of Eternal Life only through Christ by redemption, — indeed, most of the literature on this subject has made its appearance since that time, — and now, after having devoted all these subsequent years to the further stucfy of this question, and having read everything I could lay hold of that seemed worthy of attention, on all sides of it, and after much intercourse and correspondence with Christian scholars who have embraced this doctrine, my earlier views, though very generally confirmed, have taken a more definite and congruous form on this and other questions with which it is so intimately connected. The second work above mentioned is a simple monograph ; the third is devoted to the discussion of certain eschatological terms — neither of them dealing with the whole question — and as for the last volume, The Life Everlasting— the second edition of which is now nearly or quite exhausted — it is too large and too expensive for general popular circulation.

While the present volume may be considered as a new presentation of the old argument, it contains much that is new, and is substantially a new work, and takes a new title, yet it is proper to say— what will be obvious to those who are familiar with the other volumes— th&t I have not hesitated to avail myself of any matter in them that would serve my purpose in preparing this; and especially, as my argument is mainly Scriptural, I have freely employed the same textual

PREFACE.

citations, and many of the comments thereon ; but I have used nothing without re-writing and condensing it as much as possible.

The use of Scripture language and forms of expression has been so frequent throughout the volume that it has not seemed important to encumber its pages with references to book, chapter and verse, in these numerous incidental and indirect quotations, unless they have been made the subject of special comment or the foundation of an argument. These quotations have generally been made from the old standard version, excepting in special cases, when new light seems to have been thrown upon any passage by the revision, inasmuch as the old version still is, and will long be, the one with which Bible readers are the most familiar — for it is not so much to minute critical renderings that I would direct attention as to the plain, obvious sense of the text under an}' honest rendering.

The question under discussion is not one of hermeneutics and critical points, but of fair and honest dealing with the simple literal sense of the Word of God. It is not what possible meaning can be put into those numerous passages of Scripture that threaten Death as the end of sin. and promise Life — Life Eternal to all true believers in Christ ? how they can be so rendered as to bring them into agreement with any popular system of philosophy ? but, Do they mean what the plain, literal sense of the words import, or are they to be taken in some metaphorical, spiritualistic, ethical, unreal sense, quite different, and even contrary, to their ordinary sense ? This is a question which every inquirer must determine for himself, and, happily, one which the unlettered Christian disciple is quite as competent to determine as the scholastic theologian and learned dialectician, yea,

PREFACE.

better able to determine correctly; for when one's mind has become sophisticated, and his processes of thought trained into any psychological or speculative system, he will be sure to read that system into the letter of God's TTord, and construe its doctrines in harmony with it. This was the very thought of our Lord when He exclaimed, " I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." This was the ground of Paul's frequent and earnest warning to the early disciples: " Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit and after the tradition of men." "I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

The manifest drift of the present age is towards a religion of science and philosophy, and away from the simple truths of the Gospel. Many well-meaning but sophisticated minds are being led away by the delusion that these truths must be brought within the scope of natural laws. They would bring the facts and doctrines which it reveals to the test of reason and science , as though the Christian religion were one of the many forms of a natural religion, only more scientific, purer and better. Here is the real source of the confusion and darkness and doubt of many who would become scientific and philosophical Christians— if Christians at all— forgetting that the first step in the knowledge of divine things is to become little children at the feet of the Master. The supreme truths of the Christian religion are revealed, not to our reason, but to our faith. They do not come within the sphere or scope of natural science, or human philosophy. Its great facts are altogether Divine and supernatural, and until this is apprehended and allowed, no real progress can

PREFACE.

be made in the right direction. They are above nature and cannot be explained by natural laws.

The creation of the world, in the beginning, was a supernatural act : and whatever speculations one may entertain as to the mode of this creation, to deny its supernatural character, as though it could be explained by natural laws, is to to be an atheist. The same is true of the creation of man. He is not the outcome of self -operating processes, but the special object of Divine creation, which no law of progressive development can explain.

Sin itself is in opposition to all law, and nature provides no antidote to the death to which it inevitably leads, nor any way of recovery from its ruin. If there be any remedy or recovery from its fatal poison, it must be supernaturally provided. It is just here that we find the radical difference between our holy religion and all the other systems of religion the world has ever seen. This is given from heaven. As for the others, they are, at best, but human devices, " broken cisterns that can hold no water."

The New Birth, the Resurrection from the dead, and the Life everlasting, are not the orderly steps in any natural progress, as, alas! too many in this scientific age are endeavoring to show. They are truths beyond the reach of scientific discovery. There is no law of nature that can explain, or prove, or disprove them. They are specially and divinely revealed to our faith, and are to be received because they are revealed, and as they are revealed, if at all.

It is with the earnest hope and prayer that I may be able to contribute something more, if it be only a little, to withstand the rationalizing drift and tendency of the times away from the simple Gospel of Christ, and to recall men to the faith once delivered to the saints on this question of Eternal

PREFACE.

Life, which occupies such a fundamental position in the Gospel system, that I have undertaken this new work.

I am truly thankful for the evidence I have that my past efforts in this direction have not been altogether vain. It is not indeed a pleasant thing to throw one's self across the track of any popular sentiment, to incur the sincere pity or the reproaches of beloved Christian brethren, by opposing a doctrine which they have been educated from childhood to regard as a part of the evangelical system ; to meet the contemptuous sneers of the learned leaders, or would-be leaders of orthodox doctrine, or the carping criticisms of theological dialecticians, or the dignified silence of wise conservatives who will listen to nothing that is not authorized by tradition, and the voice of the Church. Were I to consult my own personal comfort and convenience and reputation among men, I would willingly remain silent ; but when I consider the origin of this dogma of immortality apart from God and without a Divine Savior — how unscriptural it is ; what reproach it casts on the character of our Heavenly Father ; how it depreciates the work of Christ in our redemption, and obscures the luster of the Gospel, and hinders its progress ; what a fruitful source of error it is, and always must be; and what mischief it is working at the present day in encouraging skepticism and disbelief in the Bible, and in the God of the Bible, I cannot hesitate to protest against it in the name of Him to whom I must and will be loyal, come what may. But though I speak with the earnestness of conviction, I desire to speak the truth in love. I hope that no leaven of bitterness or uncharitable judgment towards those whose false doctrine I have felt constrained to oppose, will be found in the pages of this book. Indeed, when I remember how, under the same false training which they have had, I too

PREFACE.

was led away by this delusion, and how, for a quarter of a century, I preached and contended for this error, the falsity of which I now see by the grace of God, I have no heart or occasion for bitter words, Nor do I make any complaint of peculiar hardship undergone in this cause ; nor do I feel that I have suffered more for my faith in this Gospel doctrine, and for my persistent advocacy of it, than has been the lot, in all ages, of those who have opposed any popular religious error, and have stood for the simple doctrines of the Gospel.

Indeed, I am greatly encouraged by the kind words that have come to me from unknown correspondents in all parts of this country, and from across the water, and by the assurances that this truth for which I am contending has taken possession of so many Christian hearts and minds, and already numbers in the aggregate such a host of confessors, among whom are some of the foremost Biblical scholars and earnest workers in all branches of the Church, and a goodly number of our devoted missionaries among the heathen, and by the knowledge that I have been permitted to have some agency, however humble it may be, in securing this result.

If my dear Christian brethren who now look upon this doctrine of Eternal Life only through Christ as a dangerous heresy could, by any means, be induced to lay aside their traditional notions long enough to see how perfectly this doctrine agrees with all the plain declarations of Scripture, from first -to last; how it relieves the character of God of those fearful aspersions which a heathen philosophy casts upon it ; how it magnifies His holy law and makes it honorable ; how it exalts and glorifies the Son of God, our Savior, who redeemed us from death, and " brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel"; how it confirms and strengthens and beautifies every doctrine of the evangelical

PREFACE.

system, and throws a flood of light upon those that have been made obscure and hard to be received ; how it stops the mouths of infidels and scoffers, and takes away all their plausible objections to the Bible, and the God of the Bible, and, in short, what a relief it brings to the burdened hearts of sincere believers who are wrestling with irrepressible doubts, and trying to see the justice and goodness of God through the dark clouds that a false theodicy has thrown round Him; and who do love and trust Him, in spite of all their doubts, and would fain commend Him to others if they knew how to do it, — I am sure they would most joyfully accept of this truth themselves, and heartily thank me, as not a few have already done, for so persistently urging it upon their attention.

With this humble volume, my work is evidently almost, if not quite, finished. I am apprised by the infirmities of advancing age, and by the disabilities under which these pages have been written, that my course is fast drawing to its close. Would that my efforts in this cause had begun earlier, and had been more vigorously prosecuted ; would that this my last work were more worthy of the cause it advocates and of the Master to whom it is dedicated. But such as it is, I send it forth with the earnest prayer that He who knows how to employ weak and imperfect means for the accomplishment of His gracious purposes, and whose pleasure it is to set forth his precious treasures " in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us," maybe pleased to accept and abundantly bless this inadequate exhibit of His Unspeakable Gift, — the

Gift of " Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

j U p

N. W. corner of Broad and Pine Sts., Philadelphia, Pa., May, 1884.

Contents

PAGE

Introduction. By Rev. Edward White, minister of St. Paul's Chapel, London, Eng. . . . 17-22

Part The First

The Question of Human Immortality Considered in the Light of History, Reason and Philosophy,

Chapter I

In Limine — The Nature and Limitations of the Question.

The importance of understanding, at the outset, what the question to be discussed is, and is not. 1. It is not a question of fact as to our immortality or non-immortality ; but as to the source and the grounds of our hope of immortality. 2. Not as to the nature and destiny of the Soul of man; but of man himself. 3. Not primarily concerning Future punishment; but just the opposite, The Gift of Eternal Life. 4. Not of translations or versions; but of loyalty to the plain letter of God's Word. 5. Not in opposition to the Evangelical system ; but in support of it. . . . . . . 25-36

Chapter II

The Deathless Nature of Man — Origin and History of the Dogma.

A very ancient, very plausible, very popular doctrine. The Notions of the Ancients ; Socrates ; Plato ; the Hebrews; the Pharisees; What Christ Taught ; Paul; Peter; the Early Fathers; Entrance of Platonic Philosophy into the Church; Three Schools, that of the First Disciples, of Origen, of Augustine ; Decree of Leo X. 37-47

Note. The Three Theories of Immortality. . 48

CONTENTS,

CHAPTER III. PAGE Disastrous Influence of this False Dogma

The Fathers of the Reformation accomplished much, but not everything that needed to be done. The root of the Evil not extirpated. Consequences of the belief in universal immortality ; Darkness and distress of mind. Skepticism ; Sanctuary deserted ; Progress of the Gospel greatly hindered. The true Gospel doctrine credible ; not obnoxious to the reproach which the false dogma throws upon it. . . . . . 49-62

Note. From H. Constable's Duration and Nature, etc. 62-64

CHAPTER IY.

The Teachings of Nature and Reason.

The Bible, the only source of positive knowledge on this question. Impossible for science or philosophy to give any reliable information concerning it. The folly of relying on human reason when we have a Divine Revelation on the very question. Some of the arguments for universal immortality from Nature and Reason examined, and their weakness shown. I. The Nature of the Soul. II. The capacities and capabilities of man. III. Human instincts and aspirations. IY. Analogy of Nature. 65-79

CHAPTER Y.

Natural and Rational Arguments (Continued).

Y. The General Belief of mankind. It is a mistake to suppose it favored the philosophers' doctrine of universal immortality, the reverse is true. YI. The goodness of God supposed to be impeached, if this be an error, by its general prevalence. But other errors have prevailed. YIL The supposed utility of this doctrine. It works mischief instead of good. .... 80-96

Note. From Tinling's Promise of Life. . . 97-101

CONTENTS.

PART THE SECOND. page

The Question of Human Immortality Considered in the Light of Kevelation.

CHAPTER VI.

LOGODiEDALY.

Do we really desire to know what the Scriptures teach. They are not like heathen Oracles. False Exegesis. New meanings imposed on the plain terms of Scripture. Biblical Lexicons. Examples Matt. 7 : 13, Rom. 5 : 12. Nephesh, psuche, zde, Metaphors. Various passages cited; protest against sophistical treatment of God's word. . . . . . . . 104-119

Note. Whately's Lecture on Life and death. . 120-122

CHAPTER VII.

The Creation of Man.

Historical verity of the Mosaic record. Man last created ; in the image of God; from the dust of the ground; breath of life; living soul, Milton cited. The name Adam, earth-made not spiritual and immortal at first. The Tree of Life. Theophilus, Calmet's dictionary. Dr. Hodge's Systematic Theology. . . 123-138

CHAPTER VIII.

The Genesis of Sin and Death.

The trial of the first pair. The temptation. The serpent, change in his nature. The Death threatened could not have been understood in the sense of a threefold death as now interpreted. Barnes cited. "In the day." Adam Clark. The curse fell upon the serpent, and on the ground, but not upon Adam and Eve as a Curse. Debarred the Tree of Life; Milton; Smith's Bible Diet. Irenaeus cited. Paradise restored. Trial of the race in Adam not a cause for regret, but for thanksgiving. The inferior before the superior ; death before life Eternal. First and Second Adam. . 139-154

Note. From Baker's Mystery of Creation and of Man. 155-158

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.

PAGE

Inferential Evidence.

L Animal, Sacrifices. EL Silence of Scripture. Animal Sacrifices instituted by God. immediately after the Fall. Significance of the Death of the Animal. Death of Christ actual. Lt Silence of Scripture. What traditional theology teaches. Not one hint of natural immortality in all the Bible. The Dogma not demonstrable. Pres. Dwight cited. The transference of aionios from zoe to psucke. What is asserted of the righteous as their peculiar portion, claimed for the wicked also. Simmons' Manuel, Texts cited. Bartlett's book cited and criticized. Dr. G. D. Boardman cited. The doctrine said to be " assumed n in the Bible. 159-174

The Law has a twofold application. True also of the words Death and Life; but in senses that are real and actual, not metaphysical. Numerous citations from the Old Testament with running comments. Numerous citations from the New Testament with comments, Dr. Bartlett cited. In consistency of the advocates of the popular dogma. . . . . . 175-193

Note. The New Congregational Creed. . . 193-194

CHAPTER XL The Life Given — The L'nspeakable Gift. The New Testament a New Revelation — revelation of a new life. Zoe life. Numerous citations from the New Testament, direct and indirect, with comments. . 195-213 Note. From Drummond's Natural Law, etc. . . 213-214

Two classes, two opposite destinies contrasted, numerous citations, direct and indirect, from the Old and New Testaments, with comments. Parallel between the First and Second Adam in 1 Cor. 15. The death that

CHAPTER X.

The Death Incurred.

CHAPTER XII.

Life Versus Death.

Christ suffered. The Bible means what it says. Note. From Hobb's Everlasting Life.

215-232

232-233

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIII. page

Texts and Arguments Commonly Used to Support the Traditional Domga.

Reason to complain of the methods of our antagonists. Life and Existence. Unauthorized assumptions. Veryfew texts available when fairly treated. Literal sense discarded. Examination of the principal texts. Daniel 12: 1, 2, Matt. 25: 46 234-251

CHAPTER XIV.

Texts and Arguments Commonly Used to Support the Traditional Dogma (Continued).

Mark 3: 28,29. Mark 9: 43-50. Luke 16: 19-31. The Prophetic parable of the rich man and Lazarus — foretelling the reversed condition of the Jews and Gentiles. 252-267

CHAPTER XV.

Texts and Arguments Commonly Used to Support the Traditional Dogma (Continued).

Rev. 14:11. Rev. 19: 3. Rev. 20: 9, 10, 20. The Beast, False Prophet and the Dragon. Barnes and Stuart cited. The general truth taught in the figures ought to be clear and evident. .... 268-282

CHAPTER XVI.

The Exodus of Sin and Death.

The Divine economy dualistic. Two revelations; Two worlds; Two Adams; Two progenitors ; Two births; Two covenants; Two classes; Two kingdoms; Two advents; Two Deaths; obscured and ignored by the popular philosophy. Good and Evil not always cotemporary. Different ideas of Christ. His purpos-e. His power. Divine truth not all revealed at one time. The First and Last contrasted. The Apocalypse — Celestial Paradise. ...... 283-306

Supplement. The Two Doctrines contrasted. . 307-311

Index of Scriptures. .... 343-341

Index of Authors. ..... 345-347

INTRODUCTION".

Dear Mr. Pettingell :

I feel greatly honored by your request that I should send you a few lines of sympathy in the way of preface to your new volume. The time will come, if the world lasts long enough, when you will be recompensed for your steadfastness in maintaining the truth on Life Eternal through the Divine Incarnation, by the gratitude of American Christians. At the present moment, they have somewhat discredited you for " heresy" ; but this is the name given to every divine verity, before it has received the imprimatur of the leaders of orthodoxy. There is not a doctrinal truth now dear to Protestants which has not been burned alive in this fire in the early days of its testimony. But out of the fire the Lord has delivered all the truths vindicated at the Reformation.

The truth for which, during so many years, we have labored together, will similarly triumph. This I firmly maintain, because our conclusions are founded upon the application of the orthodox principle of in-

18 INTRODUCTIOX.

terpretation to Holy Scripture. Protestants learn tlieir creed in every particular except one, by applying to the Scripture the common sense rule of taking the plain and obvious sense of the main current of Biblical expressions as the riding sense. The one exception is in all that relates to man's nature and destiny. From first to last, the Protestant Churches, imitating the Romish Church, have persisted in applying to Scripture, on this matter, a nonnatural or figurative law of exegesis. Man is thus declared by theology to be an immortal being, and then, all that the Bible says on the mode of his gaining Eternal Life, and on the punishment of those who reject God's redeeming mercy, is tortured into unnatural senses.

This perverseness cannot hold out long against steady protest and brotherly rebuke. Already a vast multitude of the ablest and most Christian minds are in full revolt against such perversion, and their numbers are increasing daily in all directions. In England, the revolt is strong enough to compel the toleration of the undersigned, in the open profession of the faith of life in Christ in the principal post of London Independency, for the past year,* a post of which I was not indeed worthy, but which has given

* Chairmanship of the London Association of Congregational Ministers, embracing nearly one hundred members. — J. H. P. ■

INTRODUCTION. 19

me an opportunity of proving that we are heartily one with our brethren, in all other matters pertaining to Evangelical Religion. Not a voice has been raised in opposition to this appointment, and it is idle to regard the circumstance in any other light than as evidence of the public sense of the fact, that this doctrine on Immortality has, at least, a prima facie case in interpretation, and ought no longer to be regarded as a " heresy" deserving of disgrace or excommunication.

The same may be said of the still more striking concession of the London Missionary Society in conferring on the same person the honor of moving the adoption of their Report, last May, at Exeter Hall, — again without a breath of opposition. I mention these facts to prove to the American Churches what is the state of public opinion here. It is making a decided movement towards open and avowed toleration of what some of us consider the central idea of Revelation — the center whence radiates all the great gospel doctrines of Justification, Sanctification, Redemption and Resurrection, the Deity and Atonement of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit, and lastly, the doctrine of Retribution.

Similarly in India, these ideas are widely extended among the most devoted missionaries. I have myself superintended a mission in Calcutta during

20 INTRODUCTION.

the last five years, carried forward by my friend the Rev. Wra. A. Hobbs, a man of indefatigable activity, a fine Bengalee scholar, and a Christian, whose selfdevotion has won the affection of the whole missionary body in Bengal. Not a word of " forbidding " him has reached our ears. Not a syllable of discouragement, such as we hear of as so frequently proceeding from your religious journals and eminent church authorities in disparagement of your orthodoxy.

I could fill pages of your book with the record of the many centers, where the doctrine of Life in Christ has rooted itself. In France and Switzerland, not a few of the very foremost Professors and Pastors in Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, Montaubon, Bale and Geneva are its devoted supporters. In Germany, Dr. Gess, of Breslau (the former of Dr. Godet's mind), has taught it openly to his students for nearly twenty years. Dr. Dorner speaks of it with respect in the recent fourth volume of his System of Christian Doctrine, In Italy it is making way daily. Everywhere, indeed, the sectarian Church-rulers excommunicate devoted laborers, like Cocorda of La Tour and Byse of Brussels, for teaching it. But everywhere it speeds. So is it in China and Japan.

In our own Universities, specially at Cambridge, the avowed adherents are among the foremost and most trusted authorities in these places : Professor

Introduction

Stokes, Professor Adams (the discoverer of Neptune), Canon Jamieson, the Head of Christ's College, and several others. Close at home, indeed, the Bankers and the Ladies are, in some cases, ruthless upholders of the notion of endless torments of the alreadymiserable London poor. The Bankers threaten to withdraw their subscriptions of hundreds of pounds from the Church Missionary Society, the London City Mission, and the Evangelization Society, if they tolerate agents holding our faith on immortality in Christ. The London City 31ission lately had to part with four of the best members of their Committee because so many hundred pounds were at stake ! Another member of the same banking firm in Lombard Street will not tolerate in the Baptist Mission any defection from the faith in endless misery for all the heathen. But spite of every opposition the truth spreads, and missionaries are found to give up their posts rather than continue to teach the millions of India and China the pernicious fables of Xavier and Loyola.

In one word, the truth is proving its character by the spiritual quality of the men who embrace it. Time-servers " decline to say what they think," or boldly affirm that Christianity has " left unsettled all the chief questions respecting the nature of man and the nature of God." But this last is impossible. If the Bible is written in metaphors throughout, what

INTRODUCTION.

is the value of such a Revelation ? And why do your learned American writers, so earnest in supporting the idea of endless torments, systematically avoid grappling with the positive argument for Life in Christ, as set forth by its principal defenders ? Let them, at least, give the indication of sincerity try answering in detail, if they think you err, the contents of your forthcoming publication.

Meantime, I steadfastly maintain, after forty years of study of the matter, that it is the notion of the infliction of a torment in body and soul that shall be absolutely endless, which alone gives a foot of standing ground to Ingersoll in America, or Bradlaugh in England. I believe more firmly than ever that it is a doctrine as contrary to every line of the Bible as it is contrary to every moral instinct of humanity.