A Friendly Letter, by L. A. Davis

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 26, 1866

A Friendly Letter,

By L. A. Davis

On an Important and Popular Subject.

Dear Brother,—I am obliged to you for that present sent me by the hands of uncle M. Davis—the work entitled, "Mortal or Immortal"—for by it I am enabled to learn definitely the position taken by the Adventists in reference to the soul of man, as set forth by Mr. Smith in this pamphlet. I find the same advanced by R. F. Cottrell, in the Sabbath Recorder of Oct. 12th. I allude to the doctrine, that man has no soul, or that he is all soul, dead or alive. But this charge of no-soulism, they repel. (See pamphlet, page 19.) "Do we deny that man has a soul or spirit? Not at all; such an idea enters in no wise into our belief. And hence the imputation of no-soulism to our belief, is a burning disgrace to all who will thus condescend to expose their ignorance or malice!" Does the writer, in this passage, mean to frighten us from telling the truth about their teachings, by imputing "ignorance or malice?" If so, he is mistaken. If I do not show that, in the highest and best meaning of the term soul, they deny that man has any, then I will submit to the above imputation.

The word soul has fifteen definitions, or meanings. (See Webster's Unabridged.) The first is its highest and best; and is as follows, "The spiritual, rational, and immortal substance in man, which distinguishes him from the brutes; that part in man which enables him to think and reason, and which renders him a subject of moral government." But what is their teaching? (See pamphlet page 16.) "What was the living soul? The man, of course. The marble is taken from the quarry, and under the patient and ingenious toil of the sculptor, becomes a statue. What, then, is the statue? It is marble still. So the man, not the superadded and separate entity, is the living soul of our text. He was, then, a soul before his endowment of life, though the eye has not seen, the ear heard, the nerves felt, the lungs respired, or the heart throbbed." Here, then, we have the Advent idea of a soul, in their own words—a dead soul. But they admit, by imparting the breath of life, this "dead soul" becomes a "living soul." But what is their idea of that living soul? (See page 17.) "But the living soul, like the breath of life, proves too much by being too general in its application. Like the breath of life, this also is applied to the irrational brute, as well as upright man." Here, then, is the summit of their idea of the soul of man. This rises no higher than the seventh and eighth definition of soul, and leaves man just as soulless as the lion or hyena, the shark or crocodile.

Again, Mr. Cottrell, in Sabbath Recorder, Oct. 12th, says: "The gift or endowment of life was through the breath of the nostrils. The breath is sometimes called the soul; but breath and life are the leading definitions of spirit; breath or wind being its literal meaning." Thus, by confining their interpretations to the literal meaning of terms, they take the soul out of man, and place him on a level with the brute creation, and make it impossible for him to be a subject of moral government or of spiritual regeneration. For if man possesses not a spirit entity, which is capable of existing independent of his physical organism, or mere animal vitality, and which only makes him differ from and superior to the brute, then he cannot be a subject of moral government, and consequently can have no moral accountability, and is incapable of doing either good or evil, in a moral point of view. Who ever heard of a horse or an ox being a subject of moral law, or of their being morally accountable for their acts. The thing is impossible and preposterous; and the reason is obvious, because they have no soul or spirit entity, no moral sense; they are mere physical organisms, and possess no higher endowment than physical vitality. Are hyenas and sharks capable of regeneration? Can vultures and alligators be born again? The thought is absurd. But the Saviour said to Nicodemus, "Ye must be born again." But Nicodemus, like the Advents, could see nothing more in man than his physical being; hence he inquired, "How can a man enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born again?" Jesus answered, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." Again, in speaking of the wind, he says, "So is every one that is born of the spirit." This new birth must be effected in man's spirit entity; for there is no change effected in his physical nature by regeneration, for that remains the same until it returns to dust. And it cannot be at the resurrection, for our Saviour uses the present tense. And John says, "Every one that loveth is born of God," not shall be born of God. 1 John iv, 7. Again, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. Whosoever is born of God, overcometh the world." All this is spoken of as transpiring in believers while in this state of being, and must refer to some change as taking place in a spirit entity in believers, for it is nonsense to talk of spiritual changes or phenomena in beings or substances simply material, so long as they remain wholly such.

Christ and Stephen recognized a spirit entity in themselves, for Christ said, when dying, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." Stephen prayed, as he was entering the portals of death, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." But Advents say this "was simply his life, the vital essence communicated with his breath." (Sabbath Recorder, Oct. 12th, 1865.) What! the Saviour commit to God his Father, and Stephen pray his and our Saviour to take possession of, a few cubic inches of atmospheric air, or a dead life!—a dead vital essence! What an absurdity in the use of language! What a jingling of words of different meanings! O, shame, where is thy blush?

But Mr. Smith complains of a false issue, (page 19.) and says, "We do not deny that man has a soul or spirit?" But he denies its separate entity, and makes the whole phenomena of man's mental and affectional nature the result of material causes. "But we do claim that all vital and mental phenomena results from material causes," &c. "This view equally proves the souls of all animals immaterial, for they remember, fear, imagine, compare," &c. Here again is another effort to show that man has nothing of an immaterial soul or spirit nature, more than a brute. He ought, then, to shake hands with the tiger, and say, "Hail, brother; I have no superiority over thee, only as I possess a superior organism!"—which the tiger could soon demonstrate to be untrue, by devouring the man soul and body.

The fact is, the Adventists ought never to admit that man has a soul; but, to be consistent with their own teachings, they should say man is a soul, dead or alive. We hold that man is endowed with an immaterial soul, or spirit entity, that inherits no tendency to dissolution, and will live on through interminable ages, unless the same power that brought it into being, should strike it out; and no one, I presume, doubts the ability of the Deity to do so. He could, were it his pleasure, blot out the material universe, and depopulate the entire spirit world.

It is this soul, that is the highest and best meaning of the word, that they deny to man; and this is the true issue. The above charge is therefore shown to be true—that they deny to man a soul, in the highest meaning of the word.

That man has a soul, in this sense, is shown by Christ's teachings, (Matt. x, 28.) "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Here Christ teaches—

1st. That there are two forces, one of which was not a matter of fear to his people, as it could go no further than to kill the body. This doubtless refers to human powers; of these he affirms, "they kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." But if the soul is the animal life—the vital essence which men have in common with brutes—then it were easy for man to kill it. But, thank God, the Saviour has affirmed, they cannot kill the souls of his people. The other force referred to, was doubtless that of the Omnipotent Jehovah; and this teaching most clearly and definitely shows, that nothing short of Omnipotence can destroy the soul of man. But one fatal plunge of the assassin's dagger, according to Advent teaching, is sufficient to kill both soul and body. Oh, my friend, whose teaching will you believe—Christ's or Mr. Smith's and Mr. Cottrell's?

2d. Christ, in this passage, teaches that man is a compound of two entities, one of which he calls the body, the other the soul.

3d. That the soul will exist after the body is dead. Such are the teachings of Him who brought life and immortality to light; for this fact was obscured until He the great Teacher, brought it out, as in his teachings above.

Again, Christ gave occular demonstration, that the souls of the righteous live after their bodies are dead, by exhibiting Moses and Elias alive to Peter, James, and John, on the mount of transfiguration. This could not have been a ruse, for our Saviour would not condescend to practice deception on the credulity of his disciples; nor could these be the resurrected bodies of those saints, for Christ had not yet died, much less risen from the dead; and it is positively affirmed, that "Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead." Acts xxvi, 23. Nor could these disciples have been deceived in reference to the vision; for they heard them talk, and understood they were conversing about our Lord's decease.

Again, in the teaching of Christ at Bethany, speaking of the blessed state of believers, both in this life and that to come, he says, "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die." John xi, 25, 26. In the first affirmation, Christ assures Marths

of a resurrection from sin, to believers, as well as a resurrection of the body from the grave. In the second affirmation, he assures her that the conscious and happy state of believers shall never cease, not even at the dissolution of the body. Hence he said, 'He that liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die.' But according to the Advent doctrine, the believer's soul dies with his body; and the conclusion is inevitable, that he has no entity left; he is totally non-existent; he is a nonentity, and can never be resurrected; God can make another just like him; but the same can never be resuscitated, for there is nothing to resuscitate. Here is a conflict between teachers in reference to the destiny of believers, the one affirming that they shall never die, and the other, that he being mortal throughout will die, soul and body, in the most literal sense of the word.

But let us further attend to the teachings of the Great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. John x, 27, 28.—'But ye believe not, for ye are not of my sheep, as I said to you, 'My sheep bear my voice,' and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never die,' &c. In this passage, there are two particulars worthy our attention.

1st. What is the eternal life God gives to his people? Is it only the endless duration of the respiratory functions, and the vital essence which they possess in common with the brute? Or is it that spiritual life imparted to the believer, when he is born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, which transfers the man from a state of sin, pollution, moral death and suffering, to a state of holiness, joy, and peace, that shall never end? If it is the former, then it is a gift scarcely worth thanking God for, as it affords no assurance against a life of endless suffering. In this particular, I feel very much like Job, 'I would not live always.' But that the latter is the true sense of the word is evident. 1 Peter i, 24, 25.—'Being born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever,' &c. Read the whole passage. Here is life, eternal life, a life of endless blessedness, begun in the soul, the life the Good Shepherd gives to all his sheep, who know his voice, and follow him.

*'Tis not the whole of life to live, Nor all of death to die.*

This is that glory, honor, immortality, eternal life, that all they who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for. (Rom. ii, 7.)

The second particular in the passage is, when does this eternal life commence? Do the Adventists say at the resurrection of the body? So I understand them. But here they are at variance with Christ again, for he speaks in the present tense. To the Jews He said, 'Ye are not of my sheep;' and of his people he says, 'I give unto them eternal life.' If, then, it be true, as shown in the passage quoted above from Peter, that this eternal life is the result of being born of God, how utterly false and loathsome is the doctrine that the spirits of Christ's ransomed flock die with their bodies, or go into the tomb. L. A. DAVIS.

Jackson Center, O., Oct. 16, 1865.